CHADES CHALLENGE XXXVIII:
BITTER CEREAL

I usually procrastinate on the Chades (Character Design) Challenge, but this time the idea is kind of season-specific, so I'm posting a week early. I came up with a few Count Chocula ideas, so I'll be posting one-a-day till Halloween!

Part I: Oh Snap!

While we're on the subject, I should issue a warning: there is a new breed of jack-o-lantern on the loose. A cannibalistic race who preys upon weaker gourdes. This is the most terrifying vegetable since Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Silence of the Yams! Beware....bewaaaarrrreeee....

6 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE XXXVII:
TUMULTUOUS GARGOYLES

You can only take so much CRAP from a pigeon.

If you have any gargoyle designs, let me know and I'll post them below. If not, you can always join me in two Fridays (November 12th) for

CHADES CHALLENGE XXXVIII: BITTER CEREAL

Zane "Stonecold" Yarbrough

Zane also came up with some great Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde designs from my mini-Chades Challenge last week.

9 days...

Rex Appeal

Thanks to by friend, Mike Sundy, for taking this pic of my zoetrope at the Oakland Airport.

"We clocked the T. rex at 32 mph."
-John Hammond

11 days...

Pencil to Pixel

If you're travelling out of Oakland Airport, make sure to stop by the Pencil to Pixel exhibit, where I've got a zoetrope installation along with Pete Docter, Angus MacLane, Cat Hicks, Don Crum, and Kevin O'hara. The exhibit is in Terminals 1 and 2, and will be up from now till February 11, 2011. Mine's the zoetrope with the dinosaur (not a Pixar character, unfortunately).


The exhibition coincides with the Pixar exhibit at the Oakland Museum. In fact, before you head out of Oakland, make sure to stop by the museum first.

12 days...

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This guy (or is it these guys?) are the original Incredible Hulk. I'm surprised there isn't a more literal film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic. Personally, I'd love to see someone as lovable as Fred Astaire, Dick Van Dyke, or Jack Lemmon (the basis of these sketches) as the good doctor.

This would be a great film for motion capture, as you could slightly alter the actor's physiognomy to get more monstrous proportions. My Hyde still has a bit of Astaire, Van Dyke, and Lemmon, but also a definite nod to Willem Dafoe and the late, great Marty Feldman. Who would you cast as Jekyll and Hyde?

Addendum 10.22.10
Zane Yarbrough has contributed some fantastically fiendish Jekylls and Hydes:




16 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE XXXVI:
FIERCE BARFLIES


"And another thing--that Twilight chick wouldn't know a REAL vampire if it bit her in the arse!"

You think alcoholics are bad? Wait till you see a nosferatu on a blood-bender. Not a pretty picture. If you have a fierce barfly of your own, let me know and I'll post the belligerent drunkard below.

Zane "Booze Hound" Yarbrough

If you missed out on this week's challenge, you can join us on Friday the 22nd for Chades Challenge XXXVII: TUMULTUOUS GARGOYLES!

23 days...

My Girlfriend is Famous

Well, she has a published blurb on her law firm's website, and I'm pretty proud of her. For all your real estate law needs, go Miller Morton Caillat & Nevis.

24 days...

TALES FROM LONDON
Chapter VI: The Globe

No trip to London is complete without a trip to The Globe Theatre for a bit of Shakespeare. The bard treated my friends and I to a madcap rendition of The Merry Wives of Windsor (little known fact: madcap is one of 3,000 words and phrases coined by ol' Shakes).

TALES FROM LONDON
Chapter V: The Bones

An Allosaur, playing a game of freeze-tag with a nearby Iguanodon skeleton at the London Natural History Museum. Next to Shakespeare at the Globe (which I'll share tomorrow), this was my favorite stop of the trip.

Elevated catwalks gave us an interesting perspective, looking down on the skeletons.

The one thing that bugged me was some of the messed up dino anatomy. The shoulder bones (corocoids, specifically, for you real dino nerds out there) were spaced too far apart in everything from the theropods to ceratopsians.

That's almost forgiveable, though. We're always revising our opinions about dino anatomy. The one really blatant error was displayed at kid's-eye-view on a video screen. An animated walk-cycle portrayed a Diplodocus walking like two blokes in a horse costume. One glance at any modern quadruped would have shown them that the front two appendages are still arms, even if they're walked on, and bend backward, like an elbow, not forward like a knee.

C'mon, England, this sort of sloppy thinking is why we had to save you guys in the war.

TALES FROM LONDON
Chapter IV: The Tube

Drawings from the London Underground. Subway underground, not mafia underground, unfortunately.

Tomorrow: drawings from the Natural History Museum, and how the Brits have dinos all wrong.