SpongeBall RoundPants

I was drawing a ball as a prop design for Spongebob:

 

And that got me thinking about Spongebob - and if he was round what would he look like.  So I blew up the ball up to a larger size and drew this:

SpongeBall RoundPants

I'm working on Spongebob...!

I've been working on Spongebob since 2015...so not for that long.  I did a lot of freelance at first, and have transitioned into full time in March.

This is one of the first props I designed for the show.  It's fantastic to see something that I designed painted and composited into an episode of one of the most iconic and popular shows ever.

It starts as a simple drawing in a storyboard and then goes to a designer (in this case, me) and is designed and cleaned up in the style of the show.  Then it goes to paint (which used to be ink and paint, but they started making the designers clean up their own work a few years back on most shows), and all of it is sent overseas to be animated.


The second picture is because I was drawing Plankton, and thought how much he looked like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc...so I drew them together...

And finally, just because I happened to have it - here's a storyboard vs fully designed prop.  Look for it in episode 958!  Whichever one that is...you'll recognize it because of all the bulletin boards...

The Loud House - fan art

What are you doing in 15 minutes? Because Nickelodeon's The Loud House premieres today at 5pm! What about tomorrow at 5? What about Wednesday? Every day this week - new Loud House episodes at 5pm on Nickelodeon! Then stay tuned for brand new episodes of Spongebob (which I worked on!).

This is my version of Lincoln Loud. Drop everything and go watch it! ‪

Spongebob Toothpick

Ooh!  What could it be?

Okay - I guess I already gave away that it was a toothpick in my title.  But what is it up to?  Why is there a toothpick on the May 3rd episode of Spongebob Squarepants at 5:30 on Nickelodeon?  You should tune in to find out.  You'll see all sorts of props I designed on that episode (as it was the very first one I worked on as freelance for season 9 of Spongebob).

It's a hilarious episode.

By the way - the color was done by Teale Wang - she's an amazing color stylist at Nickelodeon...you won't find anyone better.

'Lil Gir

Gir was one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.  I was just ending my internship at Nickelodeon and there was this pale guy in a trench coat stalking the halls.  Turns out it was Jhonen Vasquez, an independent comic book artist who was in the process of creating Invader Zim.

If I had known that I was working in the same building as the people who created such an amazing show, I would have been stalking them for days!  But instead I gave him room and made with the shifty eyes.

In any case - the designs, the story, the jokes - everything is near perfect, and it's sad that Invader Zim only went 2 seasons.

I thought it would be fun to try and do a version of Gir as a Fairly Odd Parents character.  Here is my version.

Pig Goat Banana Cricket Freelance

I had the pleasure of working on the art for the San Diego Comic con poster for Pig Goat Banana Cricket.

Pig Goat is a new show on Nickelodeon, and it looks amazing, so you should check it out.  One of the creators, Dave Cooper, did the original drawing, and I did the digital inking/cleanup.  It's a very involved style with a lot of curves, hatching and thicks and thins.  It was a lot of fun trying to replicate his style in Adobe Illustrator.

Pig Goat Banana Cricket Comic Con Poster

I don't know how Dave Cooper does it, but I would go insane trying to draw this...I nearly did just doing the cleanup!

Fairly Odd Racers

The studio is doing a big Mario Kart 8 competition, and the finals are today.  I decided to predict the outcome.

With no bias whatsoever....

Fairly Odd Parents: Poof!

Fairly Odd Parents, a show I worked on since 2002 finally called it quits in early 2014.  What's nice about the brand is that it doesn't ever seem to stay in retirement for too long.  FOP is coming back for another season!  That makes....10 seasons?  Something like that.

During season 9 we had a crew contest to design a t-shirt for the crew.  Above is my design.  I didn't win - in the 9th season they were introducing a new character, and mine featured Poof who was introduced a couple of seasons previously...not to mention the winning design was better...

July Art Gallery at Nickelodeon

On July 10th I finally had my art gallery open at Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank. I interned there on Dora the Explorer (in it's first season) in 2000 and have been working there full time since 2002.

It's an incredible place to work...and one part of that is the art gallery they maintain in the main hallway. It's the hallway everyone walks through (from production, to artists, to celebrities. As I put my illustrations in the gallery Alfonso Ribeiro asked me for directions to the security desk to sign in) and I've always wanted to have a solo show there.

In 2007 I came back to Nickelodeon after a small hiatus (between the cancellation of Danny Phantom, the non pickup of Splattapus, and the renewal of Fairly Odd Parents, which had been originally shelved in 2005), one of the first things on my mind was to schedule a gallery. I figured in the few months between signing up for it, I'd have plenty of artwork to show off. They like to plan things very far in advance which meant the gallery was booked up through the end of 2008...and the first date available was July of 2009. It seemed like forever away, but at least it would give me plenty of time to work on my art.

the oldest piece in my gallery - from 2006 - it's a watercolor of a chinstrap penguin

Cut to April of this year - I've had the gallery on my mind on occasion, but I usually didn't think about it - and by April it was the furthest thing from my mind. Luckily for me, I happened to wake up one morning and it struck me like a revelation. Did I have a gallery still? I hadn't heard anything in all these long months, so I figured I'd better check into it.

The very last piece I did for the show (finished on Thursday morning)

What's nice is that I haven't been wasting my time. I had two different areas of interest that I wanted to explore - vinyl toys and children's books. I switched back and forth between ideas and when I checked with the person in charge of the gallery, I had over 35 pieces that I was confident I could use in the show. And since it was only April, I still had three long months to draw like mad.

The gallery right before they announce the opening

The next thing I knew it was June, and instead of drawing and painting (digitally) I had to turn my attentions to finding a color printer place and finding matts and frames for all the art. It's quite a daunting task to accomplish, so I'm glad I had my wife there to help me out. Some time in the next week I'll upload each illustration individually, and you'll see how much of a help she was (everything not in a black frame and black matt is her choice...I can do the art, but I'm terrible at being creative with frames).

Here's me in the gallery after having finished putting up all the titles and prices.

Here's the food spread (thai food and fruit)

The full gallery - wine on the right and thai food on the left

Zebra Berries for Mommy (cover) and other children's book art

A few of my early Adelia pieces

Igor Penguin and a couple of (older) penguin watercolors

Some of my early Penguin watercolors (from 2006-2007)

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Some of my square animal children's book (style) illustrations

Some of the newer Adelia pieces I've done (between late 2008 - early 2009)

It was a pretty great show. I spent half the time leading up to the show wanting it to be over and then in eager anticipation. On one hand I just wanted the art up but didn't want all the attention, but on the other hand I was looking forward to seeing people enjoy the work that I've spent the last two years producing. The thrill part of it won out and I had a good time.

Drawn by all the free food and the chance to hang out (as well as all the nice art, or so I was told) - there were a lot of people. The food was all gone before 6 (but there was alcohol until the very end...so they had the important stuff covered). It was a lot of fun and I was completely flattered by all the positivity and compliments.

One of the pieces that sold on Friday night.

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It was nice to see it all come together after all this time. I ended up with 52 paintings - between my watercolors and digital illustrations.