ORC I
"One does not simply walk into Mordor."

"Not with ten thousand men can you do this..."

"...it is folly."

CHADES CHALLENGE XXI: SWEATY ROBOTS

My entries for this week's Character Design (or Chades) Challenge, which was to draw perspiring automatons:

"You sure you should be in here, Lew?"

Help Waldroid find and destroy Waldo once and for all!

I thought it'd be fun to see one of Ashley Wood's creations hunt down Waldo, I know I used to sweat as a kid whenever I was hunched over one of those damned puzzles. If you designed any sweaty robots, let me know so I can post your design. Next week's drawing challenge is an entirely new game:

CHOOSE YOUR OWN (DRAWING) ADVENTURE

The challenge is based on the votes of this week's polls: "Once there was a...", "Who...", and "So they could...". This week, there was a tie between: "Once there was a baby-stealing goblin who chased rabbits the size of asteroids so they could shoot an award-winning documentary," and, "Once there was a baby-stealing goblin who sailed the seven seas so they could shoot an award-winning documentary." So feel free to illustrate either (or both) stories.

Since this is a tall order to fill, I'll give you guys a couple weeks to work on it. Post your documentary-shooting, rabbit-chasing/sea-sailing, baby-stealing goblins by Friday, August 28. Sketch greatly!

I also thought it'd be fun to include a little interview with each of the drawing challenges, to offer insight into each artist's work method. The first conversation is with an old pal of mine from school: Laika storyman, fellow CalArts alumnus, and all-around highflyer, Vi-Dieu Nguyen.

Interview with a Genius I: Vi-Dieu Nguyen


me: hey-o
Vi-Dieu: yo
me: mind if I interview you?
Vi-Dieu: do it
me: I'm going to post an interview on each Chades Challenge
Vi-Dieu: ok
me: starting with you mon frere
Vi-Dieu: great
I'll try to be controversial
me: awesome
How do you balance cartooniness and realism in your work?
Vi-Dieu: I try get a certain "feeling" with my drawings. so if it feels too much like hanna barbera then I'll try to add more classical influences
me: nice
What is your favorite thing about drawing?
Vi-Dieu: getting lost in it. flo
ever heard of that term? flo?
me: nope
Vi-Dieu: it's when you get in that groove
me: that's what I figured
Vi-Dieu: like being addicted to the act of creating
me: Do you think about style or how other artists might approach this subject as you design?
Vi-Dieu: both. other artists do certain things so well, but again, I have to be "me," so ... actually, if I think of other artists, I like to use the lesser known ones to reintroduce the old to modern times
or 'hidden artists'
me: I'll let you keep your resources a secret
Vi-Dieu: haha
no, you don't have to. I advertise them all the time
me: How much does composition play into a gag? Do you rework drawings for better clarity or workout the thumbnail first?
Vi-Dieu: sometimes. sometimes the first drawing comes out nicest. but if I want to convey something clearly, then yeah, I'll rework it. but sometimes it's just about having fun
me: How do you decide when a drawing is finished?
Vi-Dieu: when I can't figure out what else to do with it, it's finished. or if I get tired of it
me: haha sounds like my approach
Vi-Dieu: yep
me: okay, last question
What makes a good drawing?
Vi-Dieu: I want to say something really generic, but for me, a drawing can be wonky and stiff and still be a good drawing...I love prints...so a drawing that has something interesting about it. if a drawing is interesting to me, I think it's a good drawing..like if it fits with things I find interesting at the time
me: I'll make sure to do more drawings of cosmonauts.
Vi-Dieu: haha
me: Thanks man, good answers!
Vi-Dieu: well, for example I'm getting into audobon. if you look him up, you'll "ah, of course Vi would like that"
your welcome
that was fun
I will return the favor someday
me: I'll make sure to be crass.

HUMBLE PIE

Louis Gonzales instructed our gesture class today. He started the session off with, "All that I ask today is that you focus on angles. Forget about anatomy, forget about fingers and toes, I know you can draw em. What I want is the angles, the main idea of the pose. And proportion would be the second thing."

"You've got thirty seconds to nail the pose."

"Draw each pose twice. Try something different the second time around. Push the idea further or explore a new approach."

"I'm sorry if you came here hoping to make a pretty drawing. That's not what we're doing, today."
"Simplify."

Every time I started getting caught up in anatomy, Louis would pause and sketch a far more pushed, clear, interesting version of the pose next to my drawing. It was a healthy slice of humble pie.

A QUARRY
Part Six of The Jurassic Journals

The last two days of the dig, Pete reassigned us from the gruelingly fruitless F Quarry to the bountiful A Quarry. My first assignment was cleaning up a bit of camarasaurus vertebra recently unearthed by the bobcat tractor.

The Faileontologists' response to being reassigned to A Quarry:

One day, after returning to the mess hall after a long day of digging, we came upon a crowd gathered around Matt Seney (the dude facing camera, in front of the van).

He had found a baby rattlesnake and was handling it with a hook in one hand while smoking a cigarette in the other. Matt used to work at a local theme park called Reptile Gardens. He informed us that, while baby rattlers are dangerous, it is a myth that they inject more venom than an adult. They inject a higher percentage of their venom, but because they have smaller venom reserves to begin with, a high percentage of their venom is about as much as a small percent of the adults'.

Matt also caught a scorpion. He showed us how the dromopods glow in the dark under a black light. Matt was quickly becoming my hero. Later, while a group of us were playing paleo-poker in the mess hall, we heard Matt utter, "Oops." We turned around to find him holding an empty cup and squinting at the gravel on the ground. We played the rest of the hand standing on our benches.

Every bench, table, outhouse, and shower stall was covered in graffiti. Here's my contribution.

Zack, Brandon, UK students Holly and Amar, and I decided to take a break from the dig and head into Hulett, Wyoming for some R'n'R. Our first stop was a local dive called the Ponderosa Bar. We played Thriller on the juke box in Michael Jackson's honor, and were amused to see two of the older local gals doing the zombie dance at the bar.

Zack and I tought the brits how to play Purple Rain, the greatest game since Telephone Pictionary.

We decided to visit Devil's Tower at night in hopes of spotting a spacecraft. We brought some Wild Blue, a blueberry-flavored beer and local favorite. After your first sip of Wild Blue, you smile and exclaim, "Tastes like a muffin!" By the end of the bottle, you're frowning and staring at the remaining dregs of beer as you mutter, "Tastes like a muffin." Honestly, when's the last time you felt the urge to dunk your blueberry muffin in beer? Despite the other-worldly flavor of our booze, there were no extra-terrestrials to be found. Still, it was an awesome experience, I could almost hear the John Williams.

Back to business! I make my most important discovery on the dig: a small theropod toe bone! Since theropods (being carnivores) are rarer than herbivores, and a toe-bone indicating the possibility of a body close-at-hand, Pete said this find earned me "the right to come back next year."

And Greg finds a ginormous camarasaurus toe claw, which makes him an instant legend. Pete says Greg definitely earned the right to come back next year as well. A Quarry rocks.

"Don't mess with me, man. I'm a scientist."

Tune in next week for the stunning conclusion of The Jurassic Journals:
Everything Prehistoric
OR
The Storm

ART BY COMMITTEE
and THE CHADES CHALLENGE

Above is my contribution (yeah, I had a little help from M.C. Escher) to one of my favorite blog games, James Gurney's Art By Committee. James challenges his readers to illustrate random excerpts from old sci-fi manuscripts. If you're into fun drawing challenges, you should check it out!

If you have some weird aversion to sci-fi texts, you can always contribute to my weekly drawing game, the Chades Challenge. Next week's challenge is

SWEATY ROBOTS

Everyone is welcome to participate and design their own perspiring automaton; just post a sketch on your blog and leave me a comment with your blog address. I'll post the oodles of doodles here on the Translation each Friday, along with the subject of the next challenge, so make sure to check back to see what everyone has done.

Thanks to everyone who contributed this week to Chades Challenge XX: Cheshire Cats. Here are the twisted tricksters for your viewing pleasure:

Everett "Jabberwocky" Downing

Stephan "The Caterpillar" Bugaj

Nes "Alice" beth

Vi-Dieu "Bill the Lizard" Nguyen

Emma "The White Queen" Coats

Austin "The Mad Hatter" Madison

BRINGIN' REXY BACK

According to Science Daily, scientists have confirmed the remains of biochemical material (proteins) in dinosaur fossils. T. rex fossils, no less! This organic material has survived for sixty-eight million years; I think this is proof that God wants us to bring the dinosaurs back. I am so excited by this news, I was inspired to write a haiku.

Rain-slicked poncho blue
Primordial forest green
Stain on pants yellow

Speaking of inspirational new stuff, there's some awesome new music out there by Weird Al and Regina Spektor. Weird Al's new song, CNR, is a JibJab exclusive, though it's already on YouTube. I was shown the CNR video by my buddy Raph, who is an exact doppleganger of the ill-fated fellow at the video's 1:42 mark. Raph's adopted, so he may just have an identical twin out there!

JibJab's Alan Cook:


Pixar's Raphael Suter:

Uncanny, eh? Kudos to my friends and fellow CalArts alumni Amanda and Justin, and everyone else at JibJab for keeping up the inspiring work!

The other song I was inspired by is Regina Spektor's new single, Laughing With. I'm one of those people who would check both the box for God and evolution in my "What do you believe?" poll. So I'm greatly inspired by anything God-or dino-related.

Laughing With begs the question, why do people only laugh at God when they don't need to depend on Him? It's one of the more profound songs I've heard in a great while, so I thought I'd share it with you all (regardless of which boxes you select in my poll).

F QUARRY
Part Five of The Jurassic Journals

"Grant's like me...he's a digger."

The Waugh dig is a collection of quarries working their way into the Morrison formation, hunting the titans of the Jurassic Era. These quarries are labeled A-K, and carefully plotted on a map as each site is developed. Pictured above are the Pixar paleontologists (from left): Chuck Waite, Brandon Hyman, Greg Dykstra, Zack Keller, and me. We were assigned to F Quarry, where we were supervized by seventeen year-old veteran dino hunter Kyle Lindsey. Below, Kyle (left) helps Zack uncover a new find.

While Greg got straight to work, Kyle taught us rookies how to 1) know a fossil when we saw one, and 2) carefully excavate said fossil from the surrounding rock matrix using exactoblades, brushes, and paleo-bond (a sort of superglue used to repair fractured fossils). Below are (from left to right): BHI staffer Matt Seney, Greg Dykstra, Kyle Linsdey, Chuck Waite, BHI staffer Sam (I forget his last name), Oguchi Shota, and (on the ground in front), me and Brandon Hyman.

After hours of toil with no bones to show for our efforts, we began to come up with new F-names for our quarry (Fruitless-, Frustrating-, and just plain Fucked Quarry were among the favorites).

We were also lovingly christened as "Faileontologists" by the other diggers, particularly those in A Quarry, who were unearthing all the good stuff. I'm pretty sure the A stood for Astounding-, Awesome-, Amazing-, and Allosaur-Teeth-Everywhere Quarry. Here Pete Larson is uncovering another Admirable A-Quarry find. His daughter, Ella, doesn't seem as impressed as we are.

This gorgeous allosaurus tooth is an example of the fine specimens A Quarry would be uncovering on an hourly basis.

Meanwhile, over at F(ractured fossil) Quarry, we were brushing as carefully as possible around this brittle, oxidized fractured camarasaur bone. Note the bottle to the left; that's paleo-bond, which we kept pouring onto our constantly-breaking bones. On several occassions, Sam even told us not to use the adhesive, that it was worth more (at $10 a bottle) than the specimens we were laboring to recover.

Here I am staring longingly at A Quarry as UK students Holly and Amar dig away.

Greg mentioned that it was the first time at the Waugh dig that he hadn't been assigned to A Quarry, but he dug dutifully with the rest of us faileontologists and shared in our small victories, like Chuck's croc tooth.

The croc tooth was our first flag-able find; diggers flag areas where complete bones are found so that they can be carefully mapped and excavated. Here we are, striking the Iwo Jima pose in honor of our first flag.

And, once again, A Quarry for contrast.

Here's another of F Quarry's small victories, Zack's hypsilophodontid claw.

Zack and I immediately start digging where the hypsolophodontid claw was found. Twelve hours of digging later (I kid you not), after having found absolutely nothing else, we cut our losses, abandon the site, and return to our original dig positions.

At the end of every day, though, we'd be all smiles as we trekked back to the camp site. Covered in dirt, sweat, blisters, and sunburns, but laughing about the endeavors of the day and our small successes. Here we are after the first day when we were too tired to hike and took the truck back.

But don't worry, the Faileontologists had a chance to get even with the A-Diggers every night when we sat down for paleo-poker. Instead of chips, we used belemnites (squid fossils) that we found in the gravel around the mess hall. I came away each week with pockets full of belemnites, feeling quite vindicated.

Next Journal: the faileontologists graduate to A Quarry. Will we find our fortune and glory or remain as empty-handed as before? Stay tuned to the Jurassic Journals to find out!

SUPERMAN vs ZOD (colored)

Colored version of an earlier post. I've been inspired by the blogs of James Gurney and Shiyoon Kim to work more on color and lighting.

The photo-background is a total cheat, but the image was just too perfect to pass up. The swirling mass of dark cloud invading the warm sunset was a nice echo of the drawing. Maybe I'll do a third version of this drawing when I actually learn how to draw clouds!

I picture Superman outweighing Zod by quite a bit, but Zod's got the military training and willingness to kill, so he'd probably dish out a few cans of whoopass on ol' Blue. Like Yoda says, "Size matters not."