Michigan Memories! (6-16-12)

Back in the nineties I worked at a Michigan television station WKBD TV (Channel 50) in the graphics department. It was a great experience for me working with a remarkable crew of talented artists.  I have only fond memories of that place.

Here are a couple of billboard illustrations for the Detroit Tigers that I did in conjunction with designer Butch Chambliss. We ended up winning a Bronze Broadcast Design Award (BDA) for the campaign.

Here's the third illustration that was used on a billboard. (I still have to scan the photo of the actual billboard.)

The Ricky Gervais Show season 4 status

Ricky Gervais' quote from HuffingtonPost :

"First the bad news...
So I don't think I'm going to do a fourth series of The Ricky Gervais Show.

39 episodes is more than I've ever done for any other project (Yes. I know that's pathetic but trust me.) and I don't want to push my luck.
I think the show has steadily grown in both quality and popularity and I'd love to go out on a high, so to speak. My worry is that as we've used up all the best material we'd have to record hours and hours of new stuff and it might ruin the naivety of the whole thing. Never say never though, like The Office. But certainly for now."

Here's a link to the rest of the article: LINK!

"Blofeldian Villain"

Character design for The Ricky Gervais Show.

"Arthur" character design for The Ricky Gervais Show

(You have to watch the episode to understand why he has no arms and legs.)

The Ricky Gervais Show: Episode "Law and Order"!

Here are some character designs I did for the episode:

The Storekeeper.

 

These designs are based on the actual Director, and Executive Producers of the show.

From left to right: Steve Patrick (Executive Producer), Lisa Ullmann (Executive Producer) and Dan Fraga (Director).

 

Here's a pic of animation imitating life! 

Brad Pitt on a magazine cover prop design.

  

The Wild Criminal.

A little bit of Michigan trivia!

In the early 90's I was working at an animation studio Rocket Productions and we were commissioned by Alan and Ray Whitfield Ford to redo their classic "Duke & Dawg" animated commercial. (Most Detroiters my age know that indelible song that Duke sings!)

Apparently the original animation was damaged beyond repair so they wanted to redo the whole spot with a new beginning of Duke talking and some antics by Dawg. They were emphatic about making the revised commercial look like the original. I animated and cleaned up the whole spot myself. It was done the old fashion way by using paper, cells, ink and paint. Subtle embellishments were made within the animation by tightening up the lip sync, having Duke's fingers playing the banjo and adding more inbetweens.

Revised version that I animated:


Original:

Little Britain

Original character design for The Ricky Gervais Show's "Teen Mom".  Subsequently, the design was modified.

Knight and Dragon!

 Character Designs for The Ricky Gervais Show.  I had lots of fun drawing the dragon.  It's such a wonderful experience to work on a show with so much creative freedom and a marvelous crew!

"Shorts Man!"

Character design for The Ricky Gervais Show.

Waiter

Character design for The Ricky Gervais Show.