New Dr Seuss' Animated Horton Hears a Who

Coming out in February is what looks to be a great animated rendition of Dr. Seuss' immortal classic children's book, Horton Hears a Who. Check out the latest trailer below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1tiufSK90g

It has the voice talents of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell (whoo hoo). I'm honestly not thrilled about Carrey being involved. Often it seems the characters he takes on contain too much of his wackniness and they become something different than the characters they should be. However, he did great in Lemony Snicket, so maybe we can hope for that side of his genius.

Homemade Ornaments

So, we have been taking it easy lately, moving from place to place and finally getting into an apartment in Tulsa. We will be staying here, except for when we are on trips, through June 2008. Once, we get a little more stabilized, I will be working on some more art projects, personal and ministry related.

This year, we decided to create our own ornaments for our christmas tree. Also, anyone that comes to our apartment is supposed to create something to hang on the tree. Here is my first one, which is a Santa made out of fun foam.

Building Background - All four

Okay, so here are all four buildings I created side by side. We plan on using these first as a background of our booth space at the National Missionary Convention. Each building will be on a banner that is 3 feet wide by 7 feet tall. Then for future presentations, for children, adults, classes, large groups, etc....; we can use any combination or number of these banners. Also, at our missions table, we can put one or two next to our other banner which is longways and sits behind a table. Hopefully, they will do more than just add color. They have many traits and characteristics of Italian architecture. They should, I used real buildings as my references. Hopefully, they will provide an Italian atmosphere as well as encourage questions. Tell me what you think!

Building Background #4

Whew. Building number four is done. And here it is.

Building Background #3

And then there was one. This is building three out of four that I am working on. I am very happy with how they are turning out. They are basically exactly what was in my head when I envisioned them, which is extremely rare. See if you can spot the pigeons.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

This bicycle is also from the building background banners that I am working on. I was so pleased with how this one turned out. It makes me want to ride it! Or better yet use it for an animated short.

Pigeon Toed

For the background banners I am working on, I made these pigeons. They are also inspired by a side project I am working on.

Building Background #2

And here is building number two for the backgrounds I am working on. Hopefully, I will finish buildings three and four in the next week.

Wimpy the Pizza Man

Wimpy from Popeye fame, has apparently moved to Ancona, Italy and set up a Pizzeria. You would have thought he would have stuck to burgers. Anyway, here is a pic. I'm not sure about copyright laws in Italy, but it seems there are many ripoffs of licensed characters all the time over here.

Speaking of Popeye, here is a photo of my Popeye collection. Too bad I don't have Wimpy!

Marco

Here is a sketch of a friend of ours, Marco.

Anthropomorphic sketches

Italian Girl Sketches

Here are a couple of sketches I did for the paper doll project I am working on.

Western Sketches

Here are a couple of western sketches I did.

John Curriculum - New Webspace

I just finished uploading the John curriculum for children that we created to a new home on the internet. It is found at http://crossersjohncurriculum.blogspot.com/. There are 23 full color story cards, as well as 23 color sheets to go with them. The stories are in Italian, so those will have to come later, but if you have a Bible you can create your own stories in the meantime. Let me know if you have any questions.

A Little Girl's Tea Party sketch

And here is the follow up to the Boy's Football Dream sketch, it is "A Little Girl's Tea Party".

Sketch From Dinner

I like going to those restaurants where they use paper for a tablecloth or placemat. Then I can doodle or sketch while I wait for my food. Here is one I did at an Irish restaurant, called Highlander, where we went for Heidi Rotert's birthday.

Paper Dolls - Italian Style

This is an idea I am working on for promoting our ministry in Italy. Not sure when I will work on it some more though....

Follow Up Idea to My Football Boy

Here is an idea I had today, as a follow up to the boy playing football with his stuffed animals pic that I posted earlier. I will work on it later.

Several Drawings from the Coffee House

Here are a few ink sketches I made at the Coffee House. People watch and it gives us something to talk about.

The Church is the Bride

A few weeks ago, we had a special celebration service and both of our Life Groups met together. Jason was speaking about the different things that come to mind when you hear "church" and he asked me to do a special art thing. Basically, while he was speaking I was to draw whatever came to my mind about the church. One of my favorite views, is that of the bride. So, I sought to do some sort of piece with that in mind. So here it is and a close-up of Jesus' face below.

In Honor of Football Season Starting

I was inspired by the upcoming football season, that starts this weekend. First, is my original sketch scanned, then the colored pencil version. I don't use colored pencil that often, but I always like it when I do.

Hairstyles: Women

One of the things that I have always had the most difficulty drawing is women's hairstyles. First of all, there are tons of them, and being a man, I am not privy to dressing my hair in any of their styles. So, when I found myself standing alone at the airport while we were taking our summer interns to fly out, I pulled out my trusty moleskin and started to sketch. The bad thing about getting up at 4:30 AM to go to the airport is that it is at 4:30 in the morning, enough said. The good thing is that the airport is packed and everyone is dressed nice, ready to go to wherever they are going. So, noticing all the different hairstyles, I thought it an ideal time to sketch some of what I was seeing. Here is the scanned page out of my moleskin.

New Information Cards

So, part of the new promotional stuff I have been working on is new info cards for our team. Here are is our card, front and back. This also serves as a template for the other members of the team. Check them out below...

Building Background - Original Idea Sketch

Here is the original sketch that I made as I was coming up with the idea for the building background.

Building Background

So, I am working on an idea I had for promotions. It would be used in places where I would have more than just one table for our mission display, or I could also use it behind me as we speak. Basically it is a vertical banner, or rather four vertical banners. Each one is to look like a different building. Buildings in Italy are often several stories, multi-colored and consisting of apartments and businesses. Many businesses will have the bottom storefront door and the rest of the building is composed of either apartments or offices. Here is my first building for a banner. I am posting the three final stages.



1) First is the final before texturing...

2) Second, texturing is added...

3) Finally, shading is added for the final look...

Italy Mosaic Finished

Here is the final, albeit lower resolution, Italy Mosaic. This is one half of our banner that goes behind our missions table. It is compromised of about 750 pictures, all taken of people, places or things in Verona. I added to my own photos, those taken by Rae Bubp, April Kilgore, Jason Casey and Charles Lawyer. Thanks for helping take pictures everyone!

New Prayer Cards

So, I have been working on lots of new graphics and promotional material for the new team and ministry. And here is the result of some of that work. New prayer cards for Angie and I. I also did new cards for the Blackburns and later I will tweak them for April and any new recruits that we happen to get.

Frank and Ollie DVD

Frank and Ollie

If you are looking for a good DVD of animation history, specifically Disney animation then here you are....Frank and Ollie. Just click on the link to the right to go to Amazon.com and buy yours today. It is a great dvd chock full of history, animation concepts and just good fun.

You can also go to their official website and check out videos of animation history and tips. You can find it here.

Photomosiac of Italy

So, I am working on a new banner for the Verona team. I started brainstorming about what to do. On the last banner I made for our Ancona team, I made a collage. It was huge and lots of work, but turned out great. It made for a great discussion starter at our mission table. Well, I thought maybe I could do something a little more ambitious this time with the collage. I could do one of those photomosaics, you know where 500 pictures make up one picture? So, I am planning on taking a 1000 or so shots of Verona and turning them into a picture of Italy with water all around. I have done some tests with a software program I downloaded called, Andreamosaic, and they look really good. Once I am done, I'll post it here too.

New Logo made for our new ministry

I finished a new logo for our new team this week. Here it is. I took advantage of the fact that it is in Northern Italy to use the arrow pointing up. I am possibly going to incorporate arrows into our website or newsletter. Not totally sure yet, just thinking.

Drawing of Marco Poeta

So at one of our latest Coffee Houses, we had a great guitarist come in and play. He had a very unique persona and was inspiritional to draw. So here is my sketch and a link to youtube, where we put some videos of Marco playing at our Coffee House.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marco+poeta+coffeehouse

Great Animation Site..

Here is a great animation short site that my father-in-law sent me today. Check it out... http://www.aniboom.com

Drawing Through The Alphabet

Every Monday, Angie and I go to a preschool and teach 5-7 five year olds English. During their art time, I draw things that start with the letter they are learning that day. When they are done, they can come over and watch me draw while the others finish their activity. At the end of the day, I usually have two to three drawings. Here are a couple that I have scanned or photographed.

Quotes - Either directly or indirectly referential to art

"Nothing contributes to so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye." - Mary Shelley
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"Fall down seven times, stand up eight." - old Japanese proverb
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"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." - Henry Ford
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"The most important part of what art does is search for, capture, and offer up to view the three verities: Goodness, Beauty, and Truth."
- Stephen Lawhead; p 43; "The Classics We've Read, The Difference They've Made"
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"The way I came to see it, the freedom of implicitly slogan goes something like this: Art, when conscientiously following the high quest, reveals more of God implicitly than it could any other way - even more than if it had set out to reveal God in the first place!

"There is a paradox of sorts at work here. How to explain it? Perhaps, it is like a painter who sets out to paint a portrait of God...So he begins to paint with great religious fervor and zeal.

"But he doesn't get very far before he discovers that since no one alive has even seen the face of the Almighty there are no suitable references - no photographs, no sketches, no graven images of any kind. How then does he paint a portrait of a subject who refuses to give a studio sitting? That is the question: How does one illustrate the invisible?

"It cannot be done. At least, it cannot be done explicitly. But an artist can achieve a satisfactory, even extraordinary, result with an implicit approach. That is, he does not paint God directly. Instead, the artist paints the Creator's reflected glory - paints the objects God has touched, the invisible trail, of his passing, the footprints he leaves behind."
- Stephen Lawhead; pp 44-45; "The Classics We've Read, The Difference They've Made"

Underwater Creatures

These unfinished drawings were for a website I was working on.

Germano Reale Duck

While at a team offsite meeting, I was inspired by the meeting center's adopted mascot.

Josh St. Nick

A sketch of my friend Josh as ol' St. Nick.

Early Fat Baby Sketches

Here are some of the first attempts at finding Fat Baby's drawing style.