Cartoons and Caricatures

All dumb but one...

2010-05-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't done any caricatures in a long time. So last week I was watching the 2008 Republican debates at the Regan Library on the You Tubes and drew these caricatures of the candidates. For the most part none of these guys offered any good ideas, same BS the Republicans (or any politician for that matter) spout out every time their lips are moving. The guy on the top right was completely out of place though, he was full of great ideas, principles and convictions. Not only that he thought the war in Iraq was a bad idea, how very un-republican of him...

EARTHWARD-HO! FRIDAY!

2008-08-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

There are TOO MANY exciting things to talk about this Friday!!!

First up, there's a BRAND NEW Earthward-Ho strip today! I'm super proud of this one and it's the first of many that are in a brand new format. CHECK IT OUT NOW!

Secondly, I did a interview for Fulle Circle Productions that you can read here: http://www.fullecirclestuff.blogspot.com/
I'm spillin' the beans so you can see what it's REALLY like to work for cartoon big shots like John K., Dave Wasson, Jorge Gutierrez, Gabe Swarr, and Dave Thomas!

Third, Discover the Secrets of Making a Dumm Comic in 5 or so Dumm steps...

For this step by step I'm using the very first panel of this weeks Earthward-Ho! You will notice there is no dialog, don't worry, I didn't forget it, just go to Dumm Comics to look at the words (and complete strip)

The first pass is the thumbnail stage and it's super rough. I'm just trying to figure out where all the characters are going to be as well as where to put the word balloons and how large they need to be to fit the dialog. The main reason these are drawn so rough is because I may go through 3 or 4 version until I'm happy with the basic layout and don't want to get bogged down in details.

The second pass is basically just a tied down version of the thumbnail step. At this point I'm thinking more about the poses and especially (this is my favorite part) the expressions.

The third step is probably the most labor intensive. I take the roughs and scan 'em into the computer. From there I import them into Flash and ink them using the brush tool all the while making tiny corrections to the placement and size of the character, word balloons and backgrounds.

Once it's all inked I type in the font (jivetalk) and color the strip (still in Flash)

Finally, when I'm happy with everything I save it out of Flash as a jpeg and import it into Photoshop to add textures and shading.

All done. See how easy it is??? Be sure to check out Dumm Comics to view the strip in it's entirety!

And Finally, be sure to check out the brand new weekend guest spots starting tomorrow at www.dummcomics.com

Earthward-Ho! things and stuff...

2008-07-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Got back from Comic-Con early this week and I'm still trying to recover from sensory overload. While I was there I got to meet up with a bunch of my pals from Dumm Comics and share some libations. Also we all handed out postcards to promote the site and I just thought I'd share mine here.

Oh, and here are a few ruffs from this weeks Earthward-Ho! Go check it out!

Dumm Contest!!!

2008-07-19T13:14:00.001-07:00

T-minus "PLOP" and counting! Only 2 more days until PLOP WEEK is in FULL EFFECT! Rumors abound regarding this mind-blowingly mysterious event! All we can do to appease this RABID DEMAND for further PLOP INFORMATION is to kick off a FABULOUS PLOP CONTEST!

Go to the forums. Clearly explain your theory regarding the eternal question: "WHAT IS PLOP?"

You don't have to guess the right answer, but our favorite theory, right or wrong, will win a FREE DUMM COMICS T-SHIRT! (see below).

The adventure begins here: http://www.dummcomics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76

Dumm Comics Banner!

2008-05-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

New Earthward-Ho! Dumm Comics Banner...

Dumm Comics Dot Com!!!

2008-05-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to announce a brand new adventure I'm partaking in! It's a website that features daily comic strips by some of my good friends and myself. Each of us gets a day of the week to share our strip with all the fine folks on the internet. Here's the breakdown...

Monday is Gabe Swarr's Big Pants Mouse
Tuesday is Sean Szeles' Through the Port-Hole
Wednesday is Katie Rice and Luke Cormican's Skadi
Thursday is Ricky Garduno's 1930 Nightmare Theatre
and Friday is Earthward-Ho! by me.

Not to be left out is the amazing Matt Gadbois who has done a great job at building our website.

You can check it out right now by going to
www.dummcomics.com

This here is Sam, he's the main character of the strip. Sam is obsessed with all things outer space. When he's not being abducted by aliens he's looking through his telescope searching for them.

This is a typical "eyball headed alien" that can be seen in this weeks strip...

And finally here is a glimpse at an alien which will be making an appearance in upcoming strips...

El Tigre!

2007-05-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have the best job in the World, or at least that's what most of my co-workers tell me. When I get scenes like this to layout it's hard to disagree with them. This particular scene is from the episode "The Mother of all Tigres" storyboarded by the amazing Eddie Trigueros. The cartoon is called El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and it's produced and created by my super talented pals Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua. It airs Saturday mornings(check you local listings)on Nickelodeon.

Dailymotion blogged video
Elosoblog
Video sent by fredosmond

A random variety of sprinklings....

2007-02-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

A far too flattering caricature of Cartoon Brews very own Amid Amidi. This was done during our tenure on Ren and Stimpy APC.
Caricature of the character 'Dwight' from the American version of the tv show 'The Office'
Random Head Oddity #4

horton cont....

2007-02-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

All of these drawings for the Horton test were done on my tablet pc in either painter or sketchbook pro....

Horton....

2007-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

A while back I was offered a storyboard test from the fine folks at Bluesky in New York for their upcoming Horton feature. The project sounded very cool, here's a character I really liked from not only the Seuss books but also the Jones and Clampett cartoons. Unfortunately the timing wasn't right. I was (and am still currently) working at a job I really like, so I had to respectfully decline. So they came back to me and suggested they could work around my schedule and that I could possibly be brought on doing freelance from home and would I please reconsider. I said that I would think it over. Finally I agreed that if my schedule permited I would at least take the test. Unfortunately, things at work got pretty crazy, in a busy, good kinda way and I was not able to complete the test. I did however do a bunch of little thumbnails and rough sketches for the test and thought I'd share some of those drawings here.

Virgins...

2006-10-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of sketches for my paintings in the upcoming Virgin Show.

Art Show!!!

2006-10-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

My first time showing! Hope to see you there!

one more

2006-06-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

one more

Honeymoon's over!

2006-06-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

So I know the honeymoon has been over for awhile and I haven't posted anything but their is a realllly good reason...I've been dedicating my free time to making a short cartoon. Unfortunately this doesn't leave much time for 'blogging'. Anyway, here are a few random sketches and etc from my new project, hope you like em'. In the meantime, their wont be anything new for a while but when I finish the first sequence I will definitely post it.

Thug in a Fedora.....

2006-03-19T23:52:00.000-08:00

So there won't be any new posts for a while as I'm getting married this weekend and will be away on hooneymoon directly following. In the mean time please enjoy this thuggish picture of my new Fedora (and big fat melon right underneath it.) Bye.

Head Oddities...

2006-02-27T23:48:00.000-08:00

No Comment.

New Sketchbook...

2006-02-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

I usually don't like to draw in sketchbooks...it's too intimidating but when a union rep came by cube the other day and gave me a free Animation Guild Sketchbook I couldn't let all that paper go to waste. Besides, some poor cow even gave its' hide for the cover. So now I have a stack of dead trees covered by a dead animal and bound in spiral wire that I feel obligated to put to good use...enjoy.

NEW BLOGS!!!

2006-02-17T02:02:00.000-08:00

Added a bunch of new Blogs in the Links section, please check 'em out!

GOOD, BAD, UGLY...

2006-02-17T01:12:00.000-08:00

My pal Sean Szeles inspired me with the studies he posted on his blog from the movie "Once Upon A Time In The West" I chose to study from the only Sergio Leone movie I own on DVD.."The Good The Bad And The Ugly" When I intially started to draw from this film I planned on just doing caricatures of all the great faces in the movie. I quickly discovered that the actors were already pretty much caricatures themselves which actually made it more not less difficult for me to exaggerate their features. So besides the great faces the things I admire most about this film are the contrasts between cuts: 'Extreme wide shot directly to extreme close up' and the compositions: 'Background and foreground elements leading your eye to the subject' and 'framing the subject'. I tried to capture some of these techniques in my studies while still slightly caricaturing the actors faces. It's pretty tough going so far, but hopefully by the time I get to the end of the film the studies will improve. If anyone has any suggestions please don't hesitate to share.

Thanks-
Fred

CARTOONS!!!

2006-02-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

Heya all, thought I'd share some drawings from the morgue. These are for a pitch I was putting together to take around and try to sell to some cartoon type networks. It's another one of those things that get shelved due to actual paying work and family life and what not. Looks like I may have a chance to develop it further as I'll have some time off between gigs during the month of May.

CARTOONS...and caricatures...

2006-02-10T00:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I seem to be over my caricature kick for the time being. Thought I'd share some more cartoony type drawings. The first four are studies I did from Milton Steins Supermouse comic. I think they're from a Jim Tyer issue? The artwork in those comics is so amazing and these studies don't do them justice. Everything is so solid, round and organic with appealing shapes, expressions, and all around excellent drafstmanship. Great source of education in those comics. The last pic is an animation drawing for a cartoon I've been developing for Cartoon Retro called Rufus and Horny. Pretty slow going on that project but I have a ton of stuff stockpiled and will hopefully have some of it posted on Shanes site in the not too distant future.

NEW POST!

2005-11-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have no excuses. All of these caricatures are done with one of those carpenter pencils with the wide lead. Didn't really help my drawing any but it's fun to shake things up a bit. Any guesses on who these celebs are?

Second Attempt at Paiting...Sorta...

2005-09-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

Well I finally broke down and bought one of them fancy wacom tablet thing-a-ma-jigs. You know the ones...paperless paper powered by Voodoo and Black Magic, modern cousin to the Ouija Board. It came with a stripped down version of Corel Painter (also some form of Dark Magic) and I started screwin' around with it...Please click to enlarge so as that you can see how the devlish machine was able to suck the soul out of actual paint to create an almost life like reproduction.

Farewell Maggie Crew...

2005-09-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the bigshots at Disney decided not to pick up "The Buzz On Maggie" for another season. It really is too bad because they had one of the best crews I've ever had the opportunity to work with. Here are just some of the great talents that won't be reunited....

Aaron...one of the best flash animators I've ever seen..

Kyle... Amazing Background Artist...

Dave...one of the best Directors I've ever had the opportunity to work for

Gabe...genius cartoonist...

Katrien... Amazing Background Artist...

Farewell Maggie Crew...

2005-09-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

More amazing Maggie crew members....

Katie...Great Character Designer/Board artist and one of the best 'Girl artists' in the world

Ricky....Super Funny Board Aritst

Sean...Awesome Flash Animator

Pong...another awesome fash animator...

Jorge... Great character Designer and amazing story teller

Farewell Maggie Crew...

2005-09-14T00:20:00.000-07:00

More amazing Maggie crew members....

Luke... amazing board artist and all around great cartoonist

Tim...The absolute best producer I've ever worked for

Roman...genius background artist

Pam...Flash wrangler extrodinaire

There are a lot more super talented people I never got around to drawing or can't find the caricature I did of them so please forgive...

THE AMAZING JIM SMITH!!!

2005-09-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

These are caricatures from the sketchbook "Deadly Are The Naked" by the amazing JIM SMITH. For those who aren't familiar with Jims work, he is one of the most amazing draftsman working in animation today and probably of all time. He's one of the only people I know who can make a drawing so solid it makes you feel like you can reach into the paper and grab hold of it. On top of Jims amazing drawing ability he's a hell of a guitarist and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Jim gave me my first paid animation job, cleaning up his storyboard drawings, a position for which I was highly underqualified but was paid for none the less. If you're interested in seeing more of Jims work you can visit his website at www.jimsmithcartoons.com (also in the links section) I also highly recommend purchasing his sketchbooks "Lonely Are The Naked" and his latest "Deadly Are The Naked" go to his site for more info.

A few new celebs...

2005-08-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Heya all, haven't had much time for caricatures lately but I thought I'd post a few I was able to squeeze in. Any guesses???

Ladies Night....

2005-08-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Women are more difficult to draw/caricature than men. This is fact. Proven by science. Without a doubt. Which is why I have so much respect for people like Katie Rice and Shane Glines. They are a few of my favorite 'girl artists' working today. The truth is that they are actually much more than 'girl artists' that just happens to be one of their specialties. I think one of the tricks to drawing well is the mastery of the female form, once you have that beautiful, subtle thing down everything else must just be childs play. Unfortunately, I wouldn't know, my girl drawings are sorely lacking but every once in a while I get inspired by seeing a Glines, or a Rice or even a Moore or a Blair girl and think...gee that doesn't look so hard, think I'll give that a try. And inevitably I fail to achieve the kind of subtle, beautiful appeal that's inherent in each of these artists drawings. So...in the meantime, here are some practices of celebrity female caricature, any guesses?

Three more guesses

2005-08-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

So I did three more caricatures to share tonight. The first one I struggled with for about an hour and a half and is like the 50th version. I don't think I achieved a very good likeness at all. After finishing it though, I left the drawing board for about a half hour, came back and did these next two in about 10 minutes each and achieved a better likeness(I think). Why does it work that way sometimes?? Seems like the more work and effort you put into a drawing should result in a better payout, but a lot of time that's not the case. Who has the answer?? And who can guess who these hot celebrity heads belong too???

Celebrity Hour...

2005-08-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

It's pretty intimidating to post celebrity caricatures after John K. He has a way of making other peoples art look tame and poorly drawn. Thought I'd give it a shot anyway and see if anyone can guess who these famous celebs are and if you're so inclined, leave some critiques.

Evening at the Bowl...

2005-08-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday night for me was one of those times when you're actually glad to live in LA. My wife-to-be and I went on our annual trip to the Hollywood Bowl where we were fortunate enough to listen to the amazing song stylings of Tony Bennett. Mr. Bennett may be getting up there in age but his lungs can still pack a wallop! Of course my fiancee and I weren't around when his music was popular, but then again neither was he. Tony sang the standards by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald but he did so during the 50's and 60's when Rock and Roll was king. Despite bucking the trends in modern music he was able to sustain a very successful career for decades. I only wish that these caricatures could do Mr. Bennett the justice that he deserves...

Hollywood by John...2

2005-08-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

Katie posted some John K caricatures over at her site www.funnycute.blogspot.com She also divulged some truly priceless information gleaned from our caricature theory night with Mr. Kricfalusi, information that I pleaded with her not to share so as that we could hog it all for ourselves. Being the kind person she is however, she not only shared the drawings and info but conned me into doing the same. Now I'm not nearly as eloquent in my writings as Ms Katie so I'll just post the drawings and let them speak for themselves. I will share one little tip though....Star magazine. Enjoy...

First Time Painter...

2005-08-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

After admiring some of the Sam Berman caricature paintings at www.cartoonretro.com I got the painting bug. So this afternoon my friends Katie and Luke were kind enough to escort me to the art store and help me pick out some paints. Never having painted before I found the process both relaxing and frustrating. Relaxing in that I didn't have to worry about producing something under a deadline and frustrating in that I have no idea what I'm doing and can't seem to get what I have in my head down on the paper. Thought I'd post what I did anyway and hopefully get some feed back. One of the things I really like about some of the Berman paintings is the tonal contrast, something that this painting is sorely lacking. Hopefully the next one will be better and the hundred bucks I dropped on painting supplies won't be a total waste...

New Web Logs!!!

2005-08-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

My pals Tony Mora and Sean Szeles (aka stick) have both started their own very interesting and unique web logs. I've known Tony for about 6 years now and he and I have worked together on projects ranging from He Hog the Atomic Pig and Weekend Pussy Hunt to Polly Pocket and The Buzz on Maggie. Tonys site www.sobaditsgood.blogspot.com focuses on the unique murals you see on the sides of many Mexican butcher shops (carnicerias) and markets in the Los Angeles area. Seans web log "Face it" www.seanszeles.blogspot.com features many of his charming napkin doodles, sketches, studies and 'idears' about cartoons and the like. Check 'em out!!!

Where's Walto...

2005-07-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

A few more attempts though I still don't think I've nailed it yet...

1+2=Disney?

2005-07-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

While I thought the last drawing I did of Walt was kinda funny, I wasn't pleased with the lack of likeness. So I made a drawing where all I did was go for likness(bottom), then sort of crossed the two for hopefully a still funny drawing thats recognizable(top). Nick and Luke offered some great advice for caricaturing Walt that I'll try to incorporate in my next attempt. Lemme know what you think.

My Boss...

2005-07-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

I bought a pretty cool book yesterday at the Disney Studio Store called Disney Treasures. There are quite a few photos of Walt Disney and I couldn't help doing a caricature. I'm not sure if I pushed the features beyond recognition or not far enough but this was my favorite of about five that I did.

unkown....

2005-07-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

My buddy and co-worker Luke Cormican was nice enough to send me some really cool caricatures from the covers of TV weekly. I'd really like to know who the artist is but can't make out the signatures on the bottom right. Can anyone with info on this artist please let me know?

Peter Jackson...

2005-07-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings movies and can hardly wait for King Kong. So it is with the utmost respect that I present these caricatures...

More Jorge

2005-07-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

If you've never had the opportunity to witness a John K. caricature this will be a special treat. In the top left you'll notice the always handsome Super Macho Jorge R. G. and a little farther to the right you can see that he's accompanied by Paris Hilton....I hope Sandra (his wife) doesn't fine out! John's caricatures are not only funny to look at but have such a great use of contrast, shapes and line.
Thanks to Jorge for sending it to me and Katie for getting it to me.

Evolution of a Caricature...or...Constipated Smile

2005-07-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

Alot of times when I'm drawing a caricature it goes through several passes. It usually starts off either very realistic or looking nothing like the person I'm trying to draw. So I redraw it over and over, each time trying to exaggerate certain proportions and or attempting to get a certain expression. Today I had the opportunity to go through this process with fellow cartoonist Katie Rice (check out her blog 'funny cute' in the links section) She did a drawing (in this case it was of me) then I went over her drawing and we passed it back and forth like this several times. It's a great way to draw because the other artist will usually spot things you don't see and vice versa. In this case it was Katie who has a super keen eye and a great sense of observation. So here are the results, starting with Katies drawing...

Then my drawing...

Then Katie's

Mine....

..and one more by me...

Booby Prize....

2005-07-19T00:37:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the 'George' theme and by request of Super-Macho for a 'lesser-known' director, who can name this extremely funny and super talented director for the booby prize (a pair of nickels I found under the couch)?

Contest

2005-07-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

It's not too intimidating to post caricatures of people most don't know...who's to say 'that doesn't look like so and so' if there's no reference. So I thought I'd post some more familiar faces and see if people can guess who they are, make sort of a contest out of it. If it goes well hopefully there will be more contests. One prize I'd like to offer at some point is a free one month trial membership to www.CartoonRetro.com where you can see illustrations from some real caricature artists. People like Roy Nelson, William Auerbach-Levy, and a slew of others.

SO the contest is...

If you guess both caricatures correctly and are the first to post I'll send you 12 dollars annddddd....86 cents, the exact amount of money I have on my person right now.

It's a win win for me...nobody guesses right, I'm a lousy caricature artist but get to keep my $12.86...somebody guesses correctly and I've done at least an adequate job and may have a future with this 'art thing' after all.

Best of Luck...

Katie Rice

2005-07-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

Katie Rice has a brand new blog that puts mine to shame. Katie is one of my favorite cartoonists of all time and I'm hoping she'll let me post some of her caricatures as a 'Featured Artist' on 'Cartoons and Caricatures'. Katies blog is called Funny Cute, there's a link to it on the side bar.

Ricky

2005-07-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a caricature from a couple months back of the extremely talented board artist Ricky Garduno. Ricky was my 'cube neighbour' during our tenure on Disneys The BuzzDotMaggle and is currently storyboard spervisor on Warner Bros. Coconut Fred. Ricky will repair your eyeglasses with his patended 'Garduno Safety Pin for a Screw Method' for a modest fee and a foot massage.

Pong

2005-07-14T01:18:00.001-07:00

Here's a caricature of fellow Disney employee Pong. He 's one of many crack animators on the hit new Disney TV show "The Buzz on Maggie" Pong is the only person I know who can swear politiely.

Fred and Sean

2005-07-14T00:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent caricature I did of myself and fellow cartoonist Sean Szeles. Sean's a devout vegan while I enjoy meat and meat-byproducts. I think our diets are reflected well in our forms...lump and stick.

Please click to enlarge.