B is for...

A is for...

New Sketches

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel

From her first millinery shop, opened in 1912, to the 1920s, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (August 19 1883-January 10 1971) rose to become one of the premier fashion designers in Paris, France and around the world. Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women's trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles. She became is synonymous with elegance and her brand thrives almost forty years after her death. Her versatile, semi-formal "little black dress" became a Chanel trademark and an enduring fashion standard not to mention the much-copied "Chanel suit.". A tireless worker and a risk taker, she changed fashion and the world.

“Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”-Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel

Oscar Wilde

Dear Oscar and the ever imposing Bosie.

New Portfolio follow up...

Some of you already know I have been creating a Visual Development Portfolio for a while and things have finally come together to start posting work. I have created a separate blog to view some of the work I have done and if you can believe it much of it has changed since I started posting back in November. As it stands now the majority of the work consists of development work I have created for two original stories I am in the process of writing. The bulk of the work posted at the moment is digital but the portfolio will include work in a variety of media if I ever get the chance to scan all I have done. I hope you all like it and of course all constructive comments are welcome.

Roy Disney 1930-2009

Sadly, Roy Disney passed away today of stomach cancer at the age of 79.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Roy and presenting him with an image I painted in honor of Walt's 100th Birthday. It was a thrill to meet him in his office on the Studio lot in the old animation building where the classic Disney films were produced (his office was his Uncle Walt's office incidentally, so another great thrill for me to say the least-the people that must have passed through there, WOW!). We discussed the stamp images I was working on for the USPS and he told me how much he liked my work and how beautiful he thought the stamps were going to be. Gracious and kind and all too eager to commemorate the day for us with a photo I have to say this is one of the greatest experiences I had working at The Walt Disney Co.

The folks in the picture with Roy and (a beardless) me are the account executive for the job (the lady in pink), the man who designed the pin in the bottom half of the frame (between said lady in pink and Roy-both of their names escape me) and Jared-who was not really there for the moment.

This is what happened....a Senior VP who I never met before and who had no idea of what we had done was called in at the last minute to present the framed lithograph to Roy because company brass thought it would be best to have a person in management give him our gift. She made believe she knew all of us (none of us had met her until 5 minutes before the presentation) and took credit for the entire project. I told Jared all about this and how silly I thought the whole thing was and he had a photoshop savvy colleague take her out of the image and replace her with himself. I don't think I even have a copy of the original image anymore- I like this one better anyway!

Godspeed Roy.

New Portfolio

Hey Ya'll...Thanks for continuing to check in.

I have been busy working hard on my new portfolio of Visual Development work so my posting has been limited. I will have a seperate blog specifically for that work, but here is a little preview.

Have a great holiday everybody!

JFK

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!"

Ella

New Observations

Bear

Grrrr.....

Tree

As the poet said, "only God can make a tree,"
probably because it's so hard to figure out
how to get the bark on.
- Woody Allen

Even More Sketches from Italy!

I do have some drawings that have no people in them for a change, I just have to scan them...

More Sketches from Italy

I have returned....

Sorry for the long lapse in posting. These are some sketches from my trip to Florence this past month. I have more that I will post soon once they are scanned.

BOOK!

A special limited edition book on the process of the Art of Disney Stamps was released recently and I will be signing copies of it tomorrow, April 16th at the New Yorker Hotel on 34th St and 8th Ave from 1-3 PM, I feel very honored to have been part of this process and the book is really beautiful.

Oscar

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
- Oscar Wilde

I am not sure I agree with Oscar completely on this one but it was fairly appropriate for this post. I used to struggle with the fact that I feel I have no definitive "style" but now I am OK with not feeling tied down to one particular way to work. I suppose I will spend the rest of my creative life figuring out which way to draw what is in my head.