Blog o' Ridge

Alright!! 2010 is well under way, and things are a’ movin’ and a’ shakin’!! Thank you to everyone who is still coming by to visit my little blog here!

As some of you may know, I’ve taken some time off from the studios to work on personal projects, and I plan on updating the blog much more often with new art, progress of my animated short film and other projects I’m working on, and just random cool stuff in general. I appreciate all of the support everyone has given me and the kind comments you’ve left on my various sites, and my goal is to keep this blog as the main hub for all the fun craziness that will be the next couple of years. WOOHOO!!

So, in the meantime, here’s a quick doodle for ya!

Here’s a clip of Wes Anderson accepting his Special Achievement award for “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” at the Nation Board of Review ceremony. It’s so cool that he got some of the team from the movie to turn him into a stop motion character, and make an acceptance speech that much more original and creative. And if you haven’t seen the movie, go out and buy it on DVD! It’s a well-crafted, very entertaining film.

My buddy Mike Roush made a super cool animated short called “The Hidden Life of the Burrowing Owl”, which has made the rounds and won several awards at film festivals all over the world. The full film is not online yet, BUT here’s a really informative interview he did for Spoiler Alert radio:

Interview

Go Mike!

Seasons Greetings to you!  May the new year be a productive and most awesome one for everybody!

Oh, and to get into the Holiday spirit, here’s a great rendition of “Let It Snow” from the 1950’s:

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by GrooveMusher

Thanks to everyone who helped out and came out to our 2nd annual charity event– it was a success!! Pictures will be posted soon on the official site, but in the meantime you can go and check out the auction of super cool art pieces. If anyone is interested, you still have till this coming Sunday (Dec. 13th) to bid on any of the pieces, and like last year all profits go to the Donor’s Choose charity.

Here’s my contribution to the auction, entitled “Say When, Frank.”

10 x 20

My, how time flies! I have some updates for you guys on some exciting things that are coming up….

First off, on Saturday December 5th, “The Those Guys” are holding their 2nd annual “Hey You Guys” Charity event at the Rialto Theatre, in Pasadena. There will be an art auction and a screening of everyone’s favorite “Ghostbusters”, with all profits of the evening going to Donors Choose to help out less fortunate children with their school materials and things. Check out our official site here!

Also, two things are happening this Sunday Nov. 15th. Firstly, at 8:30 pm on Fox is the first episode of The Cleveland Show I had the honor of directing, entitled “Ladies Night”.  Here are a couple of official promo screen caps of the episode:

The second thing happening is the official release of Dean Yeagle’s “Mandy” Sketch card series, spearheaded and available through 5finity productions. I was invited to do 56 original cards for the series, 3 of which I can show here:

I was able to hold on to 4 of the originals, which I might be selling sometime in the near future. I’ll keep you guys posted on that….

Also, just released last week is the entire box set of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season one on DVD! If you guys haven’t checked out the series on Cartoon Network yet, then this is the best way to do it! You can get it here on Amazon.

And last but not least, “G.I. Joe Resolute” is finally out on glorious DVD! I had the honor of working with the amazingly talented Joaquim Dos Santos and crew at Titmouse Inc., and am excited to see this finally out and available to the public! You can get it here on Amazon.

Alrighty, that’s it for now. I’ll be posting more art and random stuff soon, so please check back often! Thanks!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about how most of us everyday spend so many hours looking/zoning in front of a computer or television screen (like you’re doing right now!), and not really getting out and experiencing life and treating our senses to nature and more physical things. I feel like our brains can function more clearly when it’s being exposed to new aromas, fresh air, tactile textures, new people, unique forms in nature, etc. As an artist, that’s what we draw inspiration from, and thus create from what we know or have experienced. So why not live life more fully? See more things and get out of our bubbles to do something new?

For the last month or so I’ve been in pinup land, creating several different pinups for many cool projects that are coming up. The first is a series of Sketch cards for the 2009 Archie Trading Cards series that has just been released. Headed up by Steven Frank, this is the first time Archie comics has done an all original Artist Sketch Card series, and so I was SUPER excited to be a part of it! Here are the 24 cards I contributed:

Also, coming out this holiday season is the first ever Artist Sketch card series starring Dean Yeagle’s “Mandy and Skoots”! Featuring art from many talented artists including the master Dean himself, I had the honor of being invited to contribute 56 cards to the series! I’ll post more of those as I finish them in the next month or so….

Lastly, Craig Yoe (who just released a great book on the secret art of Superman creator Joe Shuster) asked me to contribute a pinup for a top secret book that will be released sometime this year, but unfortunately I can’t say much more until I get the go-ahead to let you know. So please stay tuned!!

Hey Everybody! Welcome to my new and improved blog!

I’m slowly but surely getting my website and blog connected and streamlined, so I can more easily keep you guys updated with what’s going on, and thus post more art and sketches on a regular basis. There are some very cool projects coming up that I’m very excited to share with y’all, so please check back regularly!

Thanks for coming by! More to come very soon….