Here you’ll find an exploration on how to make a living, by being creative. This blog gives you a little bit of a window into the day in the life of a Simpsons artist, who’s doing his own art on the side. You’ll also get an insight into what goes on in an artist’s brain. As well, as how he tries to improve his skills and his way of life with his creativity.
He also draws things that will hopefully make you laugh, or at the very least, crack a smile.
I’m a Storyboard artist on The Simpsons TV show and The Simpsons Movie. I drew Simpsons comics, on the side, for Bongo Comics for 12 years as well. Author of The Art of Draw Fu: Beginners Level. I live in California with my wife, daughter and four sons who I love very much. I’m Roman Catholic and I was born in El Salvador.
The act I’ve been given for this week has some HEAVY rewrites. I told my director I’d try to be done by the end of the week, but it’s pretty bad. I’m not exactly sure I’ll be able to make it. We’ll see how it goes.
Wednesday night, I showed my director my rough fixes for my act. Usually it takes me about a day or two to rough them out. It almost took me three for this one. I spent about a three and a half hours going over the act with my director. It was a very creative and exhausting experience. By the time it was over, it seemed to me that I had more work to do than I did before we started. And that was AFTER I had worked three days on the roughs already. I think the act is better off for it. I just wish I had more time.
…and now for something totally different…
Further down in this post I’ll be writing about GATCHAMAN. As I looked for pictures to use, I stumbled on these fantastic Simpsonized versions of the characters, courtesy of the FELIX IP blog. Go over to his site and give this artist/art director some love.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Since I just wasn’t happy with what Rob’s design looked like (still), I tried doodling a version on the first piece of paper I had on hand. It so happened to be the last page of revision notes I had for the show I was working on a week ago. The notes are cryptic if read out of the context of the episode.
I liked the doodles and I used them as a model sheet:
I changed the model of Rob’s face from last week. I also added the raven on Rob’s shoulder:
I then began to clean up the drawings, and as usual, have lost something of the “life” from the roughs.
If you notice, the background is blue in some of the drawings. Why? Because that will be the color of the sky BEFORE the bad guys show up.
I’m going to give myself permission to mess around with these drawings a bit more. Especially the raven’s wings in the first shot. Still, they are just about ready to be colored.
Before I even began to do a clean up line, I experimented with timing out the scene, just to make sure it would work. I even thought of roughing out some “anticipation poses” and an “overshoot” pose but I’m not sure it’s what I want. It may plays just as clear without them. So far, it looks like it’s going to look good. Once I’m done cleaning up the last pose, I’ll begin coloring. Doing that will give me a guide as to how long it will REALLY take to finish my “Illustrated Film”. At that point I’ll make the decision whether or not to render out all the drawings or not.
BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES
If you’ve read my blog for while, you know I love playing board games. The problem is that I don’t have anyone around to play them with. Once in a blue moon I might get a game in, but it doesn’t happen very often and my games just sit there collecting dust. Occasionally I play with my kids but they’re 4 and 2 1/2 years old. It’s not quite the same thing.
Sometimes, the only alternative is to play a video game version of a board game. The thing is, most of my favorite games don’t HAVE video game versions…or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this “Geeklist” at Boardgame Geek:
Though DOMINION is not exactly one of my favorite games, it IS a game that I own that I haven’t gotten to the table almost at all and I’ve been dying to play it. This gives me a happy alternative. To download this game, CLICK HERE.
Then there’s a the homemade unofficial MAGIC: THE GATHERING video game. MAGIC is one of my favorite games (CLICK HERE for my review), so it’s nice to be able to play it whenever I’d like. This one turned out to be a pretty darn good homemade game.
And last but not least. The game that got me the most excited. One of my favorite games, (if not my all time favorite game) DREAMBLADE! (CLICK HERE for my review) So AWESOME! Now I can play DREAMBLADE whenever I want. Hurray!
Of course, none of these video games actually replaces playing the game against a human being around a table, but it at least makes you feel like you’re getting a little bit of board gaming done.
I recommend you look at the list to see if you can find a video game version of YOUR favorite board game.
WEBSITES/MOVIES
I forgot who linked to this on Twitter. My guess is that it was ShermCohen. In any case, I thought these storyboard where inspiring. I really want my “Illustrated film” to have this much energy and clarity. I thought I’d share the link below:
Last Friday I went on fellow CARTOONISTATed Seko’s IDIOT ENGINE podcast. It was a lot of fun and if you haven’t heard Ted‘s podcast, you’re really missing out.
Here’s the link to the podcast, if you’re interested:
It was Halloween earlier this week and, on Friday, the studio celebrated with it’s annual Halloween party. Lunch was provided and cash prizes where rewarded to the best costumes of the day as well as the best pumpkins. This is usually done with judges and a runway style display of the costumes. While the pumpkins get a table on the side for all to see. We had fun.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Do to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to do very much this week on my project. I did manage to fix the expression on the first pose so it’s not so crazed:
I think it looks better. I also tried fixing the second pose and I think it’s an improvement from the last one. Here’s the rough:
Notice how I tend to just search around for the drawing. I’m not the kind of artist that can just project the drawing from my head and just draw it on the paper.
Here’s the more cleaned up version:
I’m still not sure if it’s right though. I wasn’t happy with the hand and hot dog so I redrew it in red, but it still wasn’t right, so I moved it (it was on another layer) to a better position. Once I get it where it works best, I’ll combine the drawings together. Something I was making sure I did in the drawing above was to make the irises in the eyes look like they’re actually on the ball of the eyeballs. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just putting circles there but the they worked with the correct natural perceptive of the eyeball. It’s harder to do than you’d think.
Something I didn’t show was, when I looked at both drawings as a whole, I thought that the heads seemed too big so I shrank the heads a bit. I’m trying to make sure that these two drawings match the proportions of the last colored drawing. I’m still working out the design as I go. I just can’t seem to make him look just the way I want. Perhaps because I don’t have a clear picture in my head as to what it’s supposed to look like. My hope is to solve these issues as I go rather than make a model sheet. I might still need to make one. What I mostly think about when I draw these is, structure, silhouette, rhythm, and whether it all looks natural.
What bothers me most, is that it’s taking me a long time to draw each pose. If it’s taking me this long to draw FOUR poses, how long will it take to draw a multiple scenes with multiple pose?
FAMILY
Wednesday, I had to pick up the kids from daycare three hours after I dropped them off. Baby Ambrose wasn’t feeling too good. Not only that but Alesha had stayed home in order to take Elizabeth to the dentist, only to discover that the car’s breaks were messed up. She couldn’t drive the car and pick up the kids nor could she take Elizabeth for her appointment. I picked up the kids and drove them home, then I took the car to a mechanic down the street from our house in order to get the brakes fixed.
I was gone for three hours, which, I now have to make up. It was a long annoying day.
FAMILY
For Halloween this year, we did pretty much the same thing we did last year. The kids didn’t mind, they where looking forward to doing it all again. We went to local shopping area near the Claremont Colleges and went trick or treating with all the families there.
Elizabeth originally wanted to go as a kitty cat but she changed her mind when we went to the store and she saw a pretty mask there. We got it for her as well as a pretty dress and wings so she went as a pixie princess. Dante went as Superman again. He had grown into his costume this year, and besides, he’s really into Superman right now (we’ve been watching the Fleischer Superman cartoons lately). We didn’t “technically” dress the baby up, but we put him in a warm outfit he had that happened to make him look like a frog.
My parents, my brother and sister-in-law and their little boy Paolo, met up with us there and we all had a good time, talking and helping the kids trick or treat. When it was all over, we went to my parent’s house and spent a nice time there relaxing and talking while the kids played. It was a good day.
I own a copy of the original PS1 version of the game, a computer version of the game and a Gameboy version of the game. It’s one of my favorite games ever. Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered some one had made a “deck-building” card inspired by it.
What’s a “deck-building” card game?
A “deck-building” card game is a new genre of card game, which was created when the card game DOMINION got published in August of 2009.
A “deck-building” card game is a game where players start with a small personal deck of just seven to ten cards (depending on the game) from which you get a hand of cards. You then compete with other player to gather the best collection of cards into your deck from a community pool of cards located between the players (which usually has stacks of advantage giving cards). You do this using the cards from your hand, which you’ve drawn from you personal deck. The cards you’ve obtained from the community pool once in your deck, increases your chances of getting cards that will help gather even better cards to achieve whatever victory condition the game has put forth.
But Puzzle Strike HAS no cards.
Yeah but the mechanics of the game play is exactly the same as a “deck-building” card game. The chips in the game have the same function as cards except you take the chips out of a bag instead of shuffling the cards into a deck and drawing the top cards.
Here’s a video of what you get in the box:
Here’s a review of the Deluxe edition of the game plus an explanation of the how the game plays:
I personally think this game looks like a lot of fun. It’s too expensive though. Luckily they have a $10.00 version of the game you can download at the official site. You have to print out and cut out the cards yourself but it still plays like the chip version. I’ve printed out games before so I don’t think I’d mind doing it again. When I do, I’ll let you know. What do you think of this game? Does it sound interesting?
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
First week of working on show 13. I was assigned act 1 and 4.
This show’s writer’s were freelancers. According to my director Mark Kirkland, the writer’s union requires the show to bring in at least one outside script every season. Turns out, this script, is pretty darn good and very funny.
Speaking of Mark Kirkland, I was listening to the TOON IN! podcast last week and I heard an interview with him on the podcast.
I found it fascinating and I highly recommend you give it a listen.
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Alright, so it’s time to start adding poses for my “motion test”. I’m limiting the poses to five total (including the last pose, which I’ve already finished and colored). If I think I need to add an anticipation pose (antic) or an overshoot (ovs) I’ll put them in later. For now I’ll just want to draw clear, well drawn “key” poses.
Easier said than done.
For the first time since I started writing my process, I didn’t want to post up my drawings. I’m having sooo much trouble with these drawings. I’m not happy with them at all. Still, it’s part of the process. I need to show them even when I think I’ve failed or when my skills aren’t up to par.
Generally, when I begin posing out a scene, I draw the gestures of all the poses I’m going to use. I do this so I can check if my poses are going to work how I want them to, without having to go into the labor of making pretty drawings. This is what they looked like:
Looking at hot dog….
About to take a bite…
and sees something...
reaction shot from pull out (as will be seen further down below)…
Once I’m satisfied that I’ve got the poses that I want, I then begin to flesh out the drawings.
Okay, so I’m used to drawing bug eyed yellow people for a living. The style of the show is such, that I don’t really need to give them really naturalistic poses. When I’m confronted with characters that DO need to give natural poses to, it suddenly becomes really difficult. I can’t rely on the bad habits that I’ve picked up in my last 17 years.
So here’s me, trying really hard to make Rob look like he’s holding a hot dog very naturally:
As I drew the drawing above, I realized I hadn’t really worked out Rob’s model as much as I thought I had. Especially the hair from this point of view. Also, I wasn’t too sure about the nose, mouth and chin relationships. I drew the drawing below over the drawing above:
I still didn’t like the drawing, though I thought it was getting better. I took some time solve the hair problem and I drew the drawing below:
Better hair shape but I STILL didn’t like the drawing. It felt staged. He just didn’t look natural. Who holds a hot dog and admires it like that? It looked a bit weird. I thought perhaps it was just a matter of turning the head and shoulders:
But it was even worse when I did that. I didn’t even bother drawing a nice version, I could tell it wasn’t going to work right away.
I went online and Googled people holding hot dogs. I must admit, in the back of my mind, there was this thought that perhaps I should change the hot dog to a hamburger or a pizza, because the idea of a pretty boy in a tight shirt admiring a hot dog seemed to hint at something I didn’t intend. In the end I convinced myself not to. Mostly, because I personally love eating hot dogs and I just wanted it to be a hot dog. I also looked at it as a challenge to myself.
One of the things I looked for, were photos where guys held hot dogs without it being an ad.
I found that the ones that looked most natural to me, were the ones where guys held something else in their other hand, like a drink. Another thing was that they didn’t really hold the hot dog up high, but kept it at chest level. So I gave Rob a drink and lowered the hot dog:
It was better. So I cleaned it up a bit so I can see it better:
…and RUINED IT, by giving him a crazed expression. I’m going to need to go back to the drawing above and figure out a better expression than the one I gave him.
I got frustrated and decided I should just keep going with the other poses and come back to the first pose later. Here’s pose two:
As you can see from all my drawings here, I don’t have a light touch. I scribble a lot until I find what I need. I explore until I can visualize where I want to go and then do another pass to clarify the scribbles:
Once again, fail. I don’t think this reads the way I want. It’s too stiff. It needs to be redrawn in a different way.
I moved on to the next panel anyway:
Not sure about this one either. I’ll need to see what I do with the panel before it, in order to decide whether or not I should keep it. I cheated drawing it because all I did was cut and move the face and arms around from the pose before, instead of redrawing the pose.
I kept going and drew the last pose:
Not sure how it’s working so far. It seems off. Especially because of the slanted background. I may need to slant Rob a bit. Also, I think I need to move the camera down so Rob’s feet aren’t on the edge of the frame.
Overall, I’m just frustrated with the work. I need to work through it though. I know at some point, I’ll hit something I think is working and I’ll come out learning something.
VIDEO
This is an amazing animated short. Very inspiring. It’s a very interesting marriage of Japanese and western animation influences:
FAMILY
Big things are happening here with our family. At least big when it comes to milestones for two of our kids.
The first one is that Dante (2 1/2 years old) went pee pee in the pottie for the first time. This is big for us since it means less diapers to buy when he finally get pottie trained. He’s been doing good so far and we’re very proud of him.
The second is that baby Ambrose can now scoot himself around the house. We love it. He looks so funny doing it and he’s that much closer to being able to crawl. The best part about it is that now we can set him on the carpet and relax while he entertains himself playing with toys and chasing after his big brother and sister.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Not much to write about THIS week. I managed to finish up Act 1 of show 12 last Friday and this week I’ve been working on Act 3.
The big news for me was that my old board revisions partner has decided to go freelance and is no longer doing board revisions. This meant that another person took his place. A SIMPSONS veteran from a while back. Last week was his first week and he’s playing catch up on how everything works the same way I did when I first started. Wish him the best.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
I’ve been really trying to get the coloring of the drawing done. It’s pretty much there. I’ll need to add and clean up a few things but this is pretty much the way it will look:
Once I do the slight adjustments, I’m going to begin experimenting on the movement. I painted it all using Storyboard Pro. I’m not sure how much all the line work is going to slow down the program. I hope it’s not much, otherwise, this was all for nothing, or at the very least, will take me longer to do if I need to use another program. I hope I can do what I need to do.
What I did above was, take my old value study:
and used it as a guide for my colors. It helped a TON and I’m going to do it again with just about everything I do with color from now on. It took a lot of the guess work out of what I needed to do next and how I need to approach coloring it.
MOVIES
A lot has been said about how 2D, hand drawn animation, is dead. It is now obvious to me that the people who say that, haven’t watched THE SECRET OF KELLS.
THE SECRET OF KELLS is a movie the glorifies and thrives on it’s hand drawn, nature. Taking it’s art direction from illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages (specifically, The Book of Kells) THE SECRET OF KELLS bombards you with moving art like no movie has ever done.
I watched the movie awestruck at how beautiful it all was. I couldn’t believe it. I would have wept if it wasn’t for the fact that the story kept me my attention well enough so that it stopped me from doing so.
That brings me to the other thing that blew me away. The story wasn’t based on a fairytale (though it has a fairy in it) and wasn’t a musical. It wasn’t what most western animated mainstream movies tend to be about. Heck, it wasn’t even what most Anime tend to be about. This movie was about the very odd subject of monks writing an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels historically called, The Book of Kells. It’s also the story about an abbot who’s lost touch with what’s truly important, while he tries desperately to defend his community from the coming of the viking marauders. The main character of the story is a boy who’s caught in between the love and obedience he has for his uncle the abbot and his love for illuminating manuscripts.
I loved it. Especially since I love the middle ages. It’s the only non Catholic animated movie I’ve ever seen that treats religious life as a normal way of life and makes no judgments upon it.
I can’t say enough good things about this movie. If you haven’t watched this movie, you owe it to yourself to do so.
THE SECRET OF KELLS proves that 2D hand drawn animation isn’t dead. Why? Well, even though CG can do many wonderful things, there is no way that a CG film could capture the 2 dimensional artistry that THE SECRET OF KELLS has produced.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Wow. As of the time of this writing the Couch Gag written by artist Banksy, has just aired. It seemed to have made quite a stir. I thought I’d write about my experience working on that Couch Gag.
In July, I was put to work on show 6. The show was directed by veteran Director Bob Anderson (at the time, I cryptically wrote a little bit about it HERE and HERE under THE SIMPSONS NEWS. When I refer to the “guest writer” I’m talking about Banksy). Show 6 had gone through the Story Reel stage, which basically means that the writers and producers had seen a rough story reel version of the show and had made changes to the script. My job as a storyboard revisionist is to take those notes and make the changes necessary to the current storyboard to reflect said notes. This is what I expected to do when I went into Bob’s office that Monday. Instead, he told me he wasn’t giving me an Act to fix but rather, he was going to put me on the Couch Gag.
I raised my eye brows,
“Oh, okay.”
He smiled and gestured to a chair,
“Here, have a seat. You get to do something special.” I sat. “Do you know who Banksy is?”
“No.”
“Oh.” He blinked, “He’s this famous artist tagger guy. They made a documentary about him.” Bob proceeded to enlighten me on what he knew about Banksy and what he thought. I listened,
“Yeah I’ve heard there was a special Couch Gag they had gotten from a special artist.”
“Oh yeah? Who told you?”
“I don’t remember actually. Just came up in conversation.”
“Well, this is it. You get to storyboard it.”
“Okay”.
He took out sketches papers and notes, “These are yours. I’ve already made the notes so I’m going to go through them with you. These are the notes from Al, and this is the ‘script’. Which really isn’t a script but you’ll see.”
He handed me a bunch of papers and explained what they were. One group of papers where Banksy‘s “storyboards”. Which were actually drawings drawn on letter paper with little squares on the left with a drawing and a description on the right describing what the drawing on the left meant. This was “the script”. The other group of sheets were the same little squares but put into storyboard format. Only, they really weren’t working since the drawings where more story sketches than storyboards. Bob explained that it was my job to take Banksy‘s story sketches and make a functioning storyboard out of them. He had drawn in red Sharpy all over the rough “board” indicating what he thought the camera ought to be doing and making adjustments to the drawings. He explained to me what he wanted done, what shots where the same shots, where the cuts were, what details needed to be on them,…etc. He recomposed shots and gave me suggestions on what I needed to do to make some shots work.
He then showed me the “character designs” of the “Koreans” Banksy wanted. There was a note, from the producers, on one of the sheets that read, “Make sure Korean animators are not ethnically offensive. No Buck teeth, etc.” Ironically they all looked Chinese (straw hats and all).
During this meeting I turned to Bob confused,
“Okay, so this is a commentary about how messed up we treat Koreans but he makes them all look Chinese? How does that make sense? Is that part of the joke?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what they want.” Keep in mind that Bob is married to a Korean woman and he seemed a bit annoyed. Ironically, there was a description of a Mexican worker stuffing the Bart dolls; which I later drew as a Sombrero waring, big mustache toting, poncho using guy (I’m Hispanic and I though it was funny). The note from Fox was that it was too racist and they had me change him into a Korean. It made no sense to me because I drew a Mexican stereotype to represent a Mexican, but Banksy had drawn a Chinese stereotype to represent a Korean.
In the final version, the one that aired, all the Koreans looked Korean. I guess they had enough time to think about it and change their minds.
And then there was this conversation:
“So is the decapitated dolphin head dispensing tape, or is it licking the boxes shut like an envelope?”
“I think it should just come across the top of the box as if it had tape on it.”
“Does the tongue have tape?”
“Not sure yet. You can try making it lick the box as if it was an envelope and we’ll see what they say.”
“Okay.”
In the end, they didn’t like it. They had me change it.
And then this conversation happened:
“Yeah this scene where the kid’s arms melts in the toxic waste tank is out. It slows things down.” Bob stares a the sketch, “Why is he dipping cells in the toxic waste anyway? Is it bonding the paint to the cells?”
“I don’t think it matters, does it?”
After the two hours it took to explain what need to be done, I took the work to my office and stared blankly at my computer screen.
“Wow, this going to be a lot of work.” I rolled up my sleeves, read all the notes again. Looked at Banksy‘s story sketches and began trying to make it all make sense.
For two weeks I worked on the Couch Gag. I had to find ways to keep the spirit of Banksy‘s sketches while reinventing the shots. I looked at INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM for some inspiration. I added shadows and atmosphere to the boards in order to try to “sell” the final look of the thing. At one point, I had to reapply the shadows because the grays I had originally used where too dark to be reproduced in the copy machine. This set me back a bit.
Sometime during the process, my old office mate came in and asked me what I was doing. I told him and showed him the boards and sketches. He stared at them and stared at me and was just wide eyed,
“Are you serious?! They’re doing this?! No way,” staring at the sheets, “These are HIS drawings?”
“Yeah, and check these out,” I handed him Banksy’s designs of the Koreans,
“Wow, this is so messed up. Wow. Crazy. Can’t believe they’re doing this.”
I had fun drawing the panda getting beaten, and the unicorn I drew was pretty much used verbatim when they did its final design. Bob’s comment when he saw my unicorn was,
“That’s one sad looking unicorn.”
We sent the board to the head director of the studio who had notes I had to integrate. I was also pressured to hurry up so they could get the board sent to Banksy and Al Jean for their notes, which I also had to revise the board for. There were last minute notes and late nights just trying to get it done. I ended up doing two version of the final board. One for Fox and the other for the studio. The Fox one had less drawings in it so that the producers didn’t think the final version was going to be too slow. The longer version was so that it could be more easily shot and turned into a story reel, since it had more poses per panel.
At one point, I started this conversation with Bob,
“Man, they’re really making a big deal out of this Couch Gag. I mean, It’s just a Couch Gag right?”
“It’s important to them.”
“Yeah but, it’s not like anyone is going to pay attention to it. How will they know it was Banksy that wrote it. I mean people are just gonna look at it and think, ‘That was a weird Couch Gag,’ forget about it and just keep watching the show.”
Boy was I wrong.
There was a LOT of pressure on me those two weeks because I new the producers would be scrutinizing what I did. When it was finally done, I was relieved and proud.
A week or so later, someone coming near my office, asked me if I’d done the Banksy boards. I said I had. She then turned to the coworker behind her and told her I had done the boards. It seems the person that asked, was asking in the other person behalf. That coworker nodded and walked away without looking at me. At first I thought that coworker had wanted to know because they were cool. I took it as a compliment, but then I realized, she was Korean, and I had probably insulted her because I had drawn the Koreans looking Chinese.
I wish I could put up my boards and Banksy‘s drawings here on my site but I’m afraid of getting in trouble so I’ll play it safe. I’ll just link to the Couch Gag:
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Started to “model out” the drawings this week. I only got to work on the drawing on Sunday so I didn’t get much done. I only got two out the three Sorcerers started. I still have a bit more to do on them but it’s a start:
I think this is actually what I want. I like the way it look and I’m enjoying myself. I’ll see how much time it takes. If it isn’t too bad, I’ll color the whole cartoon this way. It’s not like I’m going to animate it so I can get away with a more rendered out look.
I’m using my tonal study as a guide and I’m very glad I have it. It’s taking away the guess work so I can concentrate on getting the look and the brushes right. Hopefully next week I’ll have more to write and show.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Monday we managed to finish revising show 11 and I was asked to board show 10’s Couch Gag. Once again, I’ve got a another crazy epic Couch Gag to do. It might as well be it’s own short film, it’s so long. This season is full of very long Couch Gags. Not sure why.
Tuesday I brought Dante to work with me. Our daycare was closed that day. Alesha took Elizabeth to work with her and baby Ambrose was taken care of by my brother-in-law.
Dante was a good boy overall. I had originally planed on dropping Dante off with my wife at noon, mostly because I thought he might be a handful. He behaved so well that I kept him and actually got work done too. I was very proud of him.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Now that I have the drawing up on the computer, vectorized and inked, I started trying out style tests.
My first test was an attempt at a thick outline around the art. I only got as far as the Sorcerers before I made up my mind that it was too much work and it didn’t look the way I wanted it too:
My next test was to add a black shadow to the drawing. To be honest, I think I did a lousy job inking the drawing. I put all the blacks in all the wrong spots. I should have blacked out the background instead of the characters. Still. As lousy as it turned out, I found it very difficult to get the same effects I usually get with an actual brush. I didn’t like the process much, so I decided I didn’t want to go in that direction anyway:
The test after that, was just to keep the lines I had and color the drawing.
At first, I was thinking I would use a self ink line, but then I didn’t want to re-ink the drawing all over again. I also realized that it would have been far more work than I really wanted to do.
I have very little experience with color and I had no idea where to begin. I started coloring the drawing like I would have normally done it, namely, color everything the color it is. The more I though about that though, the more I thought I needed to really think more holistic about it. I thought, instead of using all the colors I could, I should limit my pallet and think about how the drawing should feel rather than the what color the sky is normally and what color apes are normally.
I decided to make the dominant color green. Green was going to be the color of the Sorcerers. Why? Well it worked on Disney’s SLEEPING BEAUTY.
I thought green would work for a “strange magick” feel.
I’m planning to make red Rob’s “I’m angry. It’s time for payback” color and blues and yellow where going to be the calm normal colors. Since this particular drawing was dominated by the Sorcerers, I thought it should be green.
I started laying down the colors but I’m not done yet. This is what I have so far:
What do you think?
By the way, all this work was done using Storyboard Pro.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Last Sunday was the season premiere of the show’s 22nd season. It took place in Universal Studios. After the park closed, they closed off a small section of the park (the part with The Simpsons Ride on it) and we had our party there. There was a giant screen which played the show live when it aired and everyone gathered around to watch it. This particular show stared the actors from the show FLIGHT OF THE CONCORDS. Actor Bret McKenzie was there but I didn’t see him. I just saw a photo a friend of mine took with him.
Matt Groening and (show runner) Al Jean where there. Oddly enough, so was Sergio Aragones.
I went with my wife and daughter. It was the first time I’ve ever taken my daughter to a work related party. She had never seen an episode of THE SIMPSONS before that night. We went on the ride, which she just barely managed to be tall enough for and she had a blast. She got a picture taken with Marge Simpson, ate, and imitated Maggie Simpson all night long with a toy pacifier we got when we arrived.
I usually don’t have a ton of fun at these parties. I generally walk around, enjoy the atmosphere and go home but I have to say, I had fun this time. It was because my daughter was having such a good time that I had such a good time.
My sons Dante and baby Ambrose stayed with my parents. The baby stayed because he was too young, and Dante stayed with them because he wasn’t feeling very good. He had fun over at my parent’s house, so he didn’t really feel like he missed out on anything.
A few years ago, I blogged about my Simpson Ride Experience. Click the drawing below to read about it:
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
So using Storyboard Pro, I inked my drawing. It is now a piece of vector art. I separated the character’s into their own layers. The Sorcerer’s in one layer, the Apes on another, the Viper on it’s own, Rob and the raven on their own layer and finally the background on it’s own. This meant that a I had to “finish” some of the characters. Like the viper. Also, I had to draw the full background as well.
If you compare this drawing with other finished versions, you will see two differences: 1. is that the background is actually smaller and lower in the frame than in the other version. The reason for this was because a friend of mine looked at the other drawing and suggested I clear the background more in order to give the characters a better silhouette. It was good advice. If fact, if you look at the original thumbnails of the drawing, I had it lower. The reason it was up higher was because I was originally going to make it black, remember? That way Rob would be left white and he would stand out. Since I didn’t end up doing that, there really was no need to keep the background high, but the change would be easier at this stage than it was with the finished pencil.
The 2nd difference is that the aspect ratio of the drawing changed. There is now more room on the top and bottom of the frame. This meant I had to draw the rest of some of the monsters.
Now that I have the drawing digitized, I can start experimenting with camera moves, colors and different types of looks. That way, I can test out what I want the final cartoon to look like.
I played some boardgames with my kids this weekend. On Saturday, while everyone was napping, my daughter asked me to play a board game with her. Ironically, I didn’t want to play. I wanted to read a comic book, but I decided that it was as good a time as any to play a game with her. I thought she was old enough to learn to play QWIRKLE. Before that day, we used to use the QWIRKLE tiles to play MEMORY. This time I would teach her the rules of the actual game. So I did, and we played, and we had fun. She picked it up very well and I was very proud of her. I helped her out a bit but overall I let her make her own choices as to where to put the pieces. We’re definitely going to do it again soon.
A day later, my son Dante asked me if he could play a board game with me. He had woken up the day before to see Elizabeth and I finishing our game. Since his mommy and big sister had gone to Mass I thought it would be a fine time to play a game with him. I brought out the game CALLISTO. We played by the rules but we didn’t really play to win. At least I didn’t. We basically just put the TETRIS like tiles down until we used them all up, which led us to play again. It was a good game for Dante since he likes puzzles. We had fun playing together as well.
VIDEO
I came across a link to this video earlier this week. It’s darn amazing. I love everything about this little short. The character designs are amazing, the animation is fantastic, the personality of each character is really well acted. Great camera moves, fantastic timing and it’s all done in pantomime. The thing that gets me the most is the clarity of the story. It’s very simple but it’s clear and to the point. Very satisfying. I hope I could do something remotely close to this (in my own way) with my cartoon.
Didn’t really get off too easy with the work load these last two weeks. The episode I got put on a had a huge rewrite. The entire 4th act was completely rewritten. My friend Eric was put in charge of revising that act but it meant that I had to revise acts 1 through 3. The revisions weren’t easy and now I have to work overtime in order to get the work done on time.
That’s two shows in a row. I hope I don’t burn myself out.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Alright, I finished adding tones to my drawing. I didn’t follow the thumbnail sketch I was originally going to use. Originally I was going to make the background the darkest part of the drawing and have everything else be lighter.
When I did that, in the finished drawing, it had the exact opposite effect that I wanted, namely, it obscured everything in the drawing rather that let my characters pop out. I decided to go a different way:
I decided the lightest light of the drawing was going to be the background. The mid tone was going to be the mid ground and the darkest part was going to be the foreground. The only exception to this rule was that I colored Rob’s hair and pants darker than anything else in the picture, that way, he stood out the most.
This had an unfortunate effect. Because I didn’t want to upstage Rob’s hair and pants, I couldn’t darken the foreground elements as much as I would have liked. This meant that the darkest part of the mid ground almost matched the dark tones of the foreground elements. In the end, I ended up having to live with it.
I added the tone directly over the line art I had drawn on the tracing paper. I found adding tone to a drawing incredibly easy on the tracing paper. It also erased like magic. No matter how dark I drew, I could erase it completely. The one thing I found annoying was that it picked up pencil a little too well. It was difficult not to make something look dark even using an H pencil. I found it could match the darkness I got from using a 4B pencil. The tracing paper made it difficult to control the darkness of a pencil stroke. It also smudged like crazy.
I was glad that the line work was done with Prisma Color pencils since, when I needed to erase any of my tones, it wouldn’t erase the lines as well. I’m generally happy with the way it turned out. There are some things I could do better and I’ll fix them in the next step. The next step being, digitally inking and coloring it using STORYBOARD PRO. In general, I think I’ve succeeded in making a decent tonal study that I can use as a guide when I go to add color to this drawing.
ART
A word about using tone.
I wasn’t taught how to use tone properly until much later in my career. I went to a lot of figure drawing classes where we were taught many things. Yet, for some strange reason, when it came to using tone, it was never really broken down. I think it was assumed that you just kinda knew what to do, that you would figure it out on your own or that it just wasn’t important. My one teacher that was masterful at using it (Master artist, Steve Huston), never bothered to tell us how. Meanwhile all the other teachers I had, didn’t know how to do it very well. This usually caused everyone’s drawing to be well drafted but poorly shaded. The student’s tonal studies always looked amateurish and the edges just looked like a bunch of smudges on the page.
Then I went to another school of figure drawing that had a very painterly style of drawing. It used what was called the Reilly Method. THERE I learned how to use edges correctly. They went out of their way to break it down so that it could be done well.
Ever since then, I get annoyed when I see the smudge style tonal studies without the slightest idea that different edges exist. Especially when I see it used by animators who think they know and yet have never been taught.
So here’s what I learned in a nutshell. You might already know this but if you don’t, it will be very helpful:
As lines can be broken down into three types (straights, “C” curves, and “S” curves), tones can be broken down and simplified into four values and four edges.
I’m going to emphasize edges but I’ll quickly sum up the four simplified values:
White, light grey.
Dark grey, Black.
Light areas in a tonal study consist of White and Light grey. The darkest dark of a light area shouldn’t be darker than light grey. Shadow in a tonal study consist of Dark grey and Black. The lightest a light area should get in shadow is dark grey. As in all art, it’s not an absolute but it’s a really good rule of thumb if you want your drawings not to get muddy or poorly unified.
Okay, now about the four edges:
In same way as drawing straight lines and curve lines together creates good shape contrast, having contrasting edges creates a much more pleasing tonal design. The different edges are:
Hard,
Firm,
Soft and
Lost.
I asked my friend, teacher and coworker Paul Wee, if I could post a handout he once gave out in one of his figure drawing classes. It sums up just about everything I wanted to say in one easy to read page:
The offending edge that tend to pop up in many artist’s work who haven’t been exposed to these edges, is the soft edge. Soft edges tend to be used for EVERYTHING. I see it a lot in Photoshop drawings where only the airbrush tool is used to shade with. It makes for a very muddy looking drawing. Not everything you’re adding tone to is soft and round. Sometimes it’s a little firmer and sometimes shapes meet and come to abrupt ends which cause the edges to become very hard.
In my drawing above, I was trying really hard to make sure I was changing up my edges where appropriate. The figure drawing classes that I’ve taken and applied these edges in, helped me a lot in making those decisions.
Keep an eye out for the different edges and where they fall when drawing from life. It will give your tonal drawings a more designed look.
WEBSITE
If you want to see great tonal drawings, Paul Felix is one of the best examples. He was one of my teachers and I didn’t realize that someone had put an unofficial website with his work.
Last Friday was very hectic. I had to work overtime in order to get all the work I had done. Turns out, my board revision partner was out sick for a few days and wasn’t going to get his assignment done. I finished my assignment a day and a half early so I took on the last part of his. Namely, all of act 4. I didn’t realize I was going to have to do it all myself. I was hoping he would finish the first part of his assignment and we would be able share the workload but it didn’t turn out that way. He was still sick and it was really messing him up.
In the end he managed to finish what he had and took about four shots off my hands but I still had the rest to do myself. It was brutal but we managed to get the work done.
Meanwhile, starting this Monday, I got a new office mate. He’s one of the veteran board artists on the show whose been out working on other projects for a year or so. He’s going to be here for a month and then he’s going back into the wild. It’s fun to actually have someone to talk to on occasion.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
After all that time, I FINALLY finished the final lines on the drawing I was working on. This was drawn with, black Prismacolor pencil on tracing paper. It’s great because if I messed up, I was able to erase the Prismacolor:
If you compare the rough with the final, you will see that the “bad guys” are actually farther apart from Rob than in the rough. He definitely needed more breathing room. I finalized the background as well. I didn’t really go out of my way to measure every little thing like, placing the windows in the perfect places. The things are a little off but I just didn’t think they were important enough to spend the time on. The characters is where your eyes go anyway. I also cheated the perspective in a big way. If you pay very close attention to the bad guys on the right in the foreground, you will notice that the background lines are vertical to the way they’re standing, which is parallel to the picture frame. YET, it’s a dutch angle, in other words the drawing is tilted. Shouldn’t the vertical lines be slightly angled like they are in the center part of the background? The answer, is yes but I cheated the characters in the foreground, so in order to make the background look right, I cheated it. You probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t pointed it out. Often with perspective in backgrounds, it’s more important for it to look right, than to make it accurate. That said, it helps immensely to learn to do it the “right way” before you begin to cheat.
The next step is to add tone.
What do you think?
PODCASTS
I’ve discovered a few animation podcasts this week. It started with a Tweet from fellow artist Jose Gonzalez (a.k.a. Gonzalexx on Twitter). He pointed me to the:
Speaking of Animation podcast – A podcast that interviews some “mainstream” animation professionals working in the industry. It’s very cool.
I then went to iTunes, in order to subscribe to the podcast and discovered MORE animation podcast. The ones I discovered though, have unfortunately, podfaded. Still, the interviews they have are very good and very informative to listen too. The podcasts are:
The Animation Podcast – an interview podcast with MORE mainstream professional animator working in the industry. Last podcasts came out in 2008. and…
Toon In! – an interview podcast that interviews less mainstream animators. They work in the industry as well but not in the high profile stuff. Some TV guys, and European animators. Some do indie stuff. Things like that. It’s really interesting to hear this stuff. The anecdotes some of these guys tell, are awesome. This podcast also podfaded around 2008.
I highly recommend these show for anyone interested in animation
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Had the day off Monday for Memorial Day, and came into work on Tuesday. Stayed late to make up the time since I was going to stay home and take care of my kids Wednesday. Today I’m back at work. I plan to finish what I got assigned and I’m probably going to get more work. Staying late again today.
I’m very tired.
ART
(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)
Because of Memorial day, and because I had to spend Wednesday taking care of my kids, I didn’t really get much done on my drawing this week either. I DID get a little bit done though.
One of the “bigger” things I changed was the pose for the flying ape. I like this pose much more than the one I originally had. I then photocopied my drawing and shrunk it. The reason for this was so that I could have a smaller copy of the ape faces. The winged apes were “off model” their faces where too big. I erased the faces I had put on them and then re-drew their faces off of the shrunk copy I had made. I think they look much better. I also changed the “texture” of the viper’s body.
I took a long hard look at the drawing so far and began nitpicking the things I didn’t like. I wrote it all down on a sticky note as a “to do list” and pasted it on the drawing. I added the things I needed to finish to the list as well. Crossed out the ones I finished doing as I went:
The drawing was on my table at work and a co-worker came in to talk to me. He took a look at my drawing and began to make suggestions, unasked. It kinda took me aback a bit, but I listened. He said two things and asked me one question. First he told me that the viper fangs I had drawn were inaccurate, and it dawned on me that he was very right. It’s one of those things I just mindlessly overlooked. He made a note of it on a sticky note and put it on my drawing. He then suggested that I put the tail of the viper in the left corner of the drawing so that there wasn’t empty space there. It was a good suggestion. He made another note of it on a sticky note and put it on the drawing.
I made the adjustments he had suggested soon after. I’m not happy with the viper tail the way I drew it so I’m going to adjust it. Other than that I’m happier with how the drawing is turning out.
Taking critique is difficult, especially when you don’t ask for it. It’s beneficial if you learn to block that prideful side of you that immediately get’s insulted. It’s a skill that takes practice. In this job, your stuff is always getting critiqued. Sometimes it’s done well, and sometimes it’s done lousy. Whichever way you get it, you need to be able to leave your ego out of it and listen to what is being said objectively. In the case of my co-worker’s critique, I’m glad I listened. He offered suggestions and pointed out a blunder, I didn’t know I’d made. I think the drawing is better off for it.
As I said before, he also asked a question, namely, why I hadn’t drawn the running Winged Ape from 3/4 back view. I told him I’d intentionally did that in order to have more of his face show.
He kinda apologized for saying anything but I told him I was glad he did. Especially in this stage of the drawing when I can still make fixes.
Getting critiqued is a huge part of my job now. As a board artist it’s rare when I show my work to a director and it’s accepted as is. Sometime there are a few changes, sometimes half of what I do is changed and sometimes it’s completely thrown out an I have to change it all. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me when everything gets thrown out. Usually, the director comes up with better ideas which make so much more sense, that I end up not minding at all. I learn more putting my ego aside and I end up happier for it. It’s a skill I haven’t mastered yet. I think the more I do it, the better I’ll get. It’s part of my job now more than ever.
VIDEOS
I loved this little shorts. They’re fantastically animated, they’re simple ideas and they’re darn funny. They make me want to animate:
On Wednesday, when I stayed home to take care of the kids, I discovered to my dismay, I had to go to the supermarket. The baby didn’t have any baby food. I don’t like going to the store with all the kids. It’s a pain.
It didn’t help that it was cold and it seemed like it was about to rain. It took almost an hour just to get the kids ready to go. We made it to the store, bought what I needed to and made it back to the car, with some help of a supermarket employee. She took pity of my situation. I was a bit overwhelmed with the kids and the groceries.
After getting all the kids in, I sat down and started the car. On my windshield I saw a folded piece of paper with writing on it. It read:
“FOR YOU! GOD BLESS.”
The exclamation mark “dot” was shaped like a heart. I thought it was an ad but I took it off my windshield and put it in the car anyway. I looked around at the other cars but I noticed that no other cars had a piece of paper on their windshields. I shrugged and drove away.
As I drove back home, I thought about the piece of paper, “Maybe it’s a note from someone I’d helped out in that parking lot before. Maybe they recognized me and wanted to just say thank you.”
I got curious and when I came to a stoplight, I opened the paper. In it I found money. I was really surprised. I took it out and found that it was eight dollars. Very odd amount. It must have been something spontaneous. Whoever it was, must just grabbed what was in their pocket and put it there on my car. I wonder why? In any case, it was a very nice gesture. Thank you whoever you are. It’s appreciated. I could buy a lot of things at the dollar store for my family with this much money. Every little bit helps.
I pray God blesses her.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
446 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses,59 is rendered as Kyrios, “Lord”. From then on, “Lord” becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel’s God. the New Testament uses this full sense of the title “Lord” both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself.60
447 Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses his apostles.61 Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illnesses, demons, death and sin.
448 Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as “Lord”. This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.62 At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, “Lord” expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.63 In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: “My Lord and my God!” It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: “It is the Lord!”64
449 By attributing to Jesus the divine title “Lord”, the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus, because “he was in the form of God”,65 and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory.66
450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ’s lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not “the Lord”.67 “The Church. . . believes that the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in its Lord and Master.”68
451 Christian prayer is characterized by the title “Lord”, whether in the invitation to prayer (“The Lord be with you”), its conclusion (“through Christ our Lord”) or the exclamation full of trust and hope: Maranatha (“Our Lord, come!”) or Maranatha (“Come, Lord!”) – “Amen Come Lord Jesus!”69
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
![[G_Force_Team_by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg]](https://i0.wp.com/1.bp.blogspot.com/_JGgzOkYhIb0/SdZZbQFPcXI/AAAAAAAACv4/o9OcS2J232I/s1600/G_Force_Team_by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg)
![[G_Force__by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg]](https://i0.wp.com/4.bp.blogspot.com/_JGgzOkYhIb0/SdZZWy7s42I/AAAAAAAACvw/gXmMoSR6gm0/s1600/G_Force__by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg)
Luise,
That is a great illustration of the Podcast Expo. Sorry you did not make it to the Mass.
God bless,
Fr. Jay
Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
Sure, absolutely, go right ahead. Thanks for asking.
Hi Luise,
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
Hope to hear from you,
Den
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
So go right ahead Gina. Have fun.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
Hope that answers your question.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
Arianism was a Heresy that the Catholic Church fought against that deputed this belief around the years AD 250-336 which concluded in the Council of Nicea. For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm .
Hope that answers your question.
thank you. most people would out-right refuse to answer that question nowadays.
May the Lord bless you, Luis!
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
HA ha! Yeah, you have a great name too.
Wow! That’s a lot of Luisesesss in your family. Pretty cool. Love your site dude. I’ll link to you.
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Cool. Anytime.
i like simpsons, starting watch becouse my doughter like it
I write comment but strange dropdown
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
Lol been stalking you. You’re pretty good. Not bad for a dad of many. Very talented. Don’t know how you keep up. Chat soon on twitter
An overwhelming desire to keep sane helps.
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Yes, absolutely. I’d be happy to.
Great, thank you! Could you email me a contact for you, at the above email link, and I’ll send you more information (and I’m ordering your book now!).