Hi everyone, here’s an article about our Google Doodler team that was featured on Cnet over Labor Day weekend.
Jennifer Hom working on the “Buckyball” doodle.
And here’s a look at another doodle featured in the article.
©2010 Google, Inc.
Some mobile snapshots from a Saturday outing on my road bike.
I’ll do my best to figure out a mobile sketch set-up for upcoming trips! Here’s a map of the route I took for anyone interested in doing the ride (by bike or car).
This is a music video my brother created for an Italian band called, The Disappearing One. The video features three different worlds, each one rendered by an artist. Those artists include myself, Sumbody, and President Wishnack. Apparently, I need a better artist’s moniker. At any rate, my brother has outdone himself once again. The song and images complement each other perfectly, like pairing the right cheese with the right wine without one overpowering the other. I hope you watch and enjoy!
Wide Pitches from David Dutton on Vimeo.
In other news, Alex and I will be taking off on a short trip to Korea tomorrow. I’m excited to see my parents after nearly two years of being apart, as well as seeing Korea again for the first time in over twenty years. I wonder if the Soju is better there, the way a Guinness is in Ireland. Apparently, I’ve got libations on my mind today. It must be this deadline I’m working on! See you guys soon.
Hope you guys will enjoy my brother Dave’s latest video on the making of a Swoop comic. Once again, he makes me look like a natural… although he did insist on showing me white something out. When you guys are done here, be sure to check out his website. www.Duttonfilms.com Thanks, and enjoy!
(((())))
I’m really enjoying my brother’s latest music video, and not just because my brother made it. It’s really, really, cool. It’s loaded with the coolness. I have to admit, the tune is pretty catchy as well… Also, the video has some of my artwork in the background (some of the framed pieces). Here’s a still. Tell me if you recognize any of the portraits. There’s a couple famous figures there:
And here’s the video. Watch it, share it, heart it.
Love is Like War “Enzyme Dynamite” from David Dutton on Vimeo.
You’ve probably seen these posted on my webcomic, but just in case you haven’t, my brother Dave shot and edited a couple videos featuring my stuff.
This first one is me working on a page of the comic, throughout the various stages - roughs, pencils, inking, and some digital coloring. It is beautifully filmed, and as I’ve quipped before, uncannily makes me look like I know what I’m doing.
One Swoop Fell - Never the Task at Hand from David Dutton on Vimeo.
The second one is an animation made up entirely of stuff from my sketchbooks over the past four years. Very fun to watch. It also features the music of my other brother, Henry. I believe this is the first time all three of us have worked on a creative project together… at least since our childhood days, doing activity books and parody-style magazines (that were actually pretty funny, even now).
Cartoon Characters from David Dutton on Vimeo.
Another background test for my story. Was able to traditionally paint this and some other backgrounds rather quickly — faster than it would be for me to paint digitally — but the scans came out terribly. I’m picking up way too much paper texture, and when I blast it out in the levels adjustment I eliminate all the subtle lighter values as well. So I end up having to do a lot of Photoshop retouching on top of the digital finishes I already have to do… not an efficient way to work!
I might use a tripod and camera next time.
Hey everybody, I’ve been gearing up to write a full length graphic novel and thought it’d be fun to show some of the early sketches. Obviously, I can’t give away the story or the really fun visual stuff, but these should at least give you an idea of what kind of story it might be and who the main characters are.
The Three Main Characters.
Color Sample. Going for a 2D animated feature look, with cell characters on top of rendered backgrounds.
Sample background. Still playing with approaches. It needs to be fast since I’ll be doing so many of them, but also look relatively finished (without overpowering the story or characters).
I’m very excited about the story since it combines a lot of ideas I’ve been toying around with for a couple years but didn’t have the know-how on putting it all together. I’ll try to update the progress whenever possible!
I found out that today is National Tooth Fairy Day. Actually, there’s some debate on whether it falls on August 22nd, or February28th, the latter being my birthday… which is problematic. You see, my brother has a birthday right next to Christmas, and I’ve witnessed firsthand how close proximity between birthdays and holidays result in less gifts…. that is, one gift for two occasions. So I must confess that I’m not about to start sharing my special day, especially when it might result in teeth as gifts. So for my sake, Tooth Fairy Day falls on today.
Here’s a sketch I did a little earlier in the year. Happy Tooth Fairy Day folks.
I couldn’t ask for a better first-time experience being behind a booth at a comic convention. Admittedly, I was nervous of the fact that I was going to be in the Flight booth, signing books for a very well known series, situated next door to super-giants like Marvel and DC. And it was going to be at the largest comic convention in the world, the San Diego Comic-Con. Adding to the pressure (unintentionally, I’m sure) was Kazu Kibuishi, a personal hero of mine, handing me a Flight 6 book to sign and saying,”You’re about to sign your first book”, while he and Kean Soo, another cartoonist/writer I admire, stood next to me and watched.
Some 300 books or so later, I think I finally began to feel comfortable, and I can safely say I’ve walked away from the experience with some great new friends, both behind and in front of the booth.
I’m very thankful for the opportunity Kazu and everyone else involved in Flight gave me by allowing me to be a part of the series. It’s been an exciting journey getting to this point. I’ve been doing an online comic for a year now, which initially began as a way for me to teach myself sequential imagery. It was a personal goal to reach a level where I’d be invited to contribute to Flight, perhaps two or three years from now. Much to my surprise, I was invited after the sixth or seventh page of my comic. I know in my heart that I put a lot of hard work into getting here, but I also know there are plenty of far more talented folks out there who have been doing this way longer than I have. So you won’t find me settling into any kind of comfort zone. I owe it to them and myself to do even better in the next volume. I can almost hear Capt. Miller played by Tom Hanks, saying to Private Ryan, played by me in this case,”Earn this.” Not that an epic WWII battle should be used to illustrate doing comics in any way, shape, or form… but hopefully you get the idea.
My head sticking out of some heroes: Scott C., Jeff Smith, Scott McCloud, along with Kazu and Amy Kibuishi, Kean Soo, Johane Matte, and Rodolph Guenoden.
You can see more pictures from my Con experience over at my Flickr page.
I had an overwhelmingly positive experience from my art show last year at Berkeley Ironworks, so I’m doing it again this July. This time I’ll be showing poster length prints from my comic, One Swoop Fell, along with a few illustrations from the Journal. If you happen to be around in the Bay Area, come on by!
Berkeley Ironworks
800 Potter St
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 981-9900
And just a friendly reminder, just a little over 2 weeks left to send in your coloring contest entry. Don’t be like me — get it done early!
Hey everyone. Sorry I’ve fallen off the face of the planet the past few weeks. I haven’t forgotten about the coloring contest. In fact, I want to announce some changes.
I’ve been keeping busy, but I’m hoping to get back to work on the next journal entry in the near future. Sorry to keep you waiting on that. Here’s a couple other sketches in the meantime.
The Exploring Ecosystems! coloring book came out not too long ago, and as I “slyly” hinted before, I thought it’d be fun to have a coloring contest for kids. Well, here it is! The prizes? Original black and white artwork from the book. They’ll be hand stamped and signed too. So if you haven’t already, you better pick up a copy along with a box of crayons as soon as you can, and get colorin’!
Ahem…. and while I’m suggesting picking things up, I should casually mention that throughout the month of May, I’m offering free shipping within the U.S. for prints out of my Etsy shop.
Some of you may remember when I used to meet up with a bunch of other artists early in the morning for pre-workday painting sessions. We even had a gallery show last year. Then we all got lazy really busy and it sort of died out…
Well, it’s a new season and the weather has been gorgeous (aside from the 20 degree spike in heat… that was a bit much), so we’re at it again.
The new Early Birds seem a bit shy so they haven’t posted yet, but there’s a few pieces up now, including Bill Cone’s pastel, which is definitely worth a visit. Come take a look (and leave a comment to encourage more posting)!
