Thursday, June 21, 2012

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Random Heads

Yes - two posts in one day. To try and make up for some of the recent strangeness. I've been scanning a lot of bits and pieces lately to add to my Facebook Fan Page, which I'm finally working on - so here are a few random heads and characters.











Saturday, June 2, 2012

Still Here



Well, it looks like I'm still here, for now anyway. I must have somehow misunderstood those ominous messages I received from Blogger. So I guess I will continue to broadcast from this station for as long as it lasts. Thanks so much for all your patience and support.

More soon.

Tally Ho !

Monday, May 7, 2012

I'm Moving - The Final Post for this Blog and a link to the new Blog !



Okay - I guess this is it for this blog. It will go off line, according to the e-mail I received from Google/Blogger, on May 31 of this year.

So from now on, you will be able to find me at my new bog here  http://larry-macdougall.blogspot.ca

I hope to see you there.

Cheers

Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Wood Carver's Cottage

I ran across this little place the other day while hiking through the Pine Woods on the far side of Gwelf. A very peaceful area to walk as you can well imagine. The hypnotic smell of nutmeg and apples was thick on the afternoon breeze - his wife must have been baking. What's interesting about the area around his cottage is all the little bits of carving you come upon. Ornate little designs carved into tree trunks and grotesque heads fashioned out of old stumps turn up in the most unlikely places. I would highly recommend this walk to anyone the next time you're in the area. I would however avoid the mushrooms in that part of the forest. They are, for the most part very hallucinogenic and will undoubtedly make your return trip an unexpected challenge.


Happy Travels.

More soon.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Designing Oliver Part Two - Fagin


 This is the second part of the little self imposed assignment I gave myself this past Easter Weekend to design some characters from the classic Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. Here I'm thinking about the arch villain of the story and the most evil character among a wide ranging group of nasty characters. Fagin is a paranoid, greedy, two faced, back stabbing fence and exploiter of children - just awful, but really fun to draw - so here are some variations on Fagin.








More soon.

Designing Oliver Part One - Bill Sikes

This was a little assignment I gave myself over this past long weekend. As I've stated before in previous posts, character design for animation is a field I am very much interested in, and having recently had the opportunity to do a little design work for a feature 3d film, I'm convinced that I want to do more of this kind of work. I thought I would start my Oliver Twist assignment with Bill Sikes. He is a brute, a pimp, a house breaker and a beater of women. He also has a dog named Bulls Eye - his only redeeming characteristic and the one aspect of his character that makes him less evil than Fagin.






I love this kind of work and could draw character variations all day long. However I have other things to get to so the fun had to stop here.

More soon.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Hall Of Giants - Troll Documentary.

I was recently contacted by Michael Falcone, a documentary film maker concerning his film The Hall of Giants. It's about the legendary Fremont Troll Sculpture in Seattle. He wanted to use my Troll Image in his film as an example of what trolls can, and of course "do" look like. I was happy to let him use my pic and took this old image back into Photoshop and spruced it up a little.

Here's a link to a trailer on Vimeo for his film. The password is Troll - http://vimeo.com/29587103
It looks like fun.


Travel safely and peace be with you.

Cheers.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A Bit of Life Drawing

I happened to be in a mall a few weeks back with a bit of time to kill so I treated myself to a wee bit of life drawing - the best practice ever. I set myself up in front of the Tim Horton's Coffee kiosk, where there was a long and continuous line for coffee and donuts - which explains why many of the figures are pointing the same way. Line ups are good for drawing because it forces people to remain relatively still for a few moments which gives us half chance at drawing them, but you still have to be fast. I could really use a bit more of this.



Once you get into the groove of drawing everybody starts to look like a character design. That's when it starts to get fun. Anyway - more soon.

Cheers and travel safely.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Back To ToonTown

I've just signed on to do visual development work for an animated feature film which is just going into production. This means I will be designing environments and characters for them. This also means that there is a very good chance that this blog is going to take on a rather animation/cartoon slant. Some of you may be thinking that it already has a cartoon slant and you're probably right, but it may become more pronounced in the future. I'm just giving you fair warning in case you find cartoons irritating - I know, but some people do.

As we all know, in production films are very hush, hush and this one is no exception. I won't be able to say anything about it or show the work I'm doing for it, but it is my intention to keep this blog going and let it be about  visual development  work and drawing for animated movies. I hope you will find this interesting, and hopefully we will both learn a few things along the way.

More soon.

Travel safely.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Goofy Sketchbook

Some recent sketchbook work. There is some Dickens motivation here as well as some other stuff.










Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Sherwood



Robin, Little John and Friar Tuck. Just for fun.

More soon.

Cheers

Thursday, February 2, 2012

More Troll Business


I want to take a moment and clarify a few of the facts concerning that recent troll business we've all heard about. I realize that many of you have been receiving inaccurate information concerning this unfortunate scenario and I would like to set the record straight. Misinformation in situations like this can only lead to further misunderstanding, name calling and muckraking.

Firstly and most importantly, there were no fatalities, nor were there any injuries. All sorts of things can go wrong during a storm and when trolls are involved the accidents can pile up quickly, but lets take a look at what really happened.

As we all know, the troll in question moved into the area last winter and by all accounts was very well behaved. He kept to himself and was very neat and tidy. The local residents, recognizing that a peaceful and in some cases even helpful creature was in their midst, welcomed him into the area with open arms. Some were even leaving food out for him. Everyone agreed that having a troll nearby kept wolves and unfriendly strangers away. Everybody was getting along fine until last spring on the night of the big storm. According to Emily and Rupert Sandstone, the owners at Easterbrook cottage who lost a stairwell and guest bedroom that night - "It wasn't his fault at all. He just got turned around in the storm, that's all. It was dark, rainy and windy, lightning too. He backed into our guest bedroom and knocked down a wall. He didn't mean to. Scared Penrose Cranston half to death but she walked away without a scratch. Startled her though which led to all that screaming and yelling. That's what set him off. He went crashing down the lane, over the bridge and fell into the creek. We haven't seen him since."


It's at this point that we need to pay attention to the facts. All of our eye witnesses agree. This was not an attack or an offensive gesture. Nobody was hurt. No one's compost heap was disturbed and all the out-houses are still in tact. There have been a lot of wild rumours flying around the area lately, but as far as we can tell, none of them are true.


All agree that this little community is not the same without him and he is missed. The Sandstones are already rebuilding their guest quarters and harbour no ill feelings. Everyone is anxious for things to get back to normal. Peace offerings of wool blankets and baked goods have been left out for him but so far remain untouched. With any luck he will soon be back, his protecting presence casting a warm and secure glow over this little area and everyone in it.

Wolves have been heard howling in the woods again and dark strangers have been recently observed on several local roads.

I hope this clears things up.

More soon. Peace be with you.