Here's a character design from a previously referenced un-produced feature project. I like figuring out color schemes for characters and trying to get the costume to play well with the character. This was loosely washed onto a rough pencil sketch on Bristol Board.

Here is one of the first tasks I was given at Pixar about 9 years ago. George Lucas was accepting what I believe was an AFI award and Pixar wanted to congratulate him on the back cover of the printed program book. The mandate was to mix George's and Pixar's worlds, and as the cloaked Buzz and Woody Jedi idea was going nowhere, and my favorite Lucas movie is American Graffiti, I pitched this "cruisin" concept.

Here's a second take on the robot character and true to form, I'm often more partial to the first impulse. Though I don't mind this painting and I'm happy with the colors and shapes, I prefer the guy in the last post. This one has more of a C3PO vibe and feels a bit more predictable as the put-upon service-bot in my opinion.

Here is a character design for an animated feature pitch. I found a stack of designs from this project and will post them over the next few days. I tried to be aware of the very broad volumes for this guy and as robots go he's one of my favorite that I've done.

Miraculously, I've managed to keep posting here fairly regularly for about two and a half years. I still have loads of material to post as long as people continue to show up and look at it.

Years ago I used to buy odd tchotchkes from Seattle's Archie McPhee & Company catalog. In those pre-website days you would actually submit a printed form in a stamped, hand-delivered envelope accompanied by something called a personal check which was a voucher of sorts for funds to be transfered from your bank in exchange for goods. It was all very quaint.

Here's a big oil painting of the Edison Family done long ago for a reissued edition of Lucasfilm Games' Maniac Mansion. The back of the box has a photo of an eerie haunted house-type hallway. Originally I was commissioned to do a tiny painting to be hung in a constructed scale model hallway,... until someone realized it would cost more to create a scale hallway than it would to make a full-sized one. At that point the commission was revised to ask for a full size portrait. I thought of it as a Disney Haunted Mansion style piece and painted it in a weekend in oils with a few fairly large brushes.

Here's a caricature of Dick Swan. Dick had a great comic store in the south San Francisco Bay Area for many years and he shares my love of 60's toys especially Nutty Mads and Weird Ohs models. He still sells rare comic books on ebay. I can't remember the occasion that prompted this drawing but was fun to depict The Big Guy as one of those great old "fink' type toys.

Here's a tattoo design I did for a friend I used to work with. Although a bunch of my images or characters have been made into tattoos I think this was the first time I set out to design a tattoo. I like how simple it is and how the ends hook back on themselves but it doesn't quite look like most tattoos I've seen which is possibly why it was never confirmed to skin.

Here's a comp I did for Telltale's Sam & Max Season 2. We didn't choose it but I thought without the text it might make a fun print to do in the near future. As far as hyper-over-stated detail it seems to show some potential that hasn't nearly been tapped in this sketch.

I don't do too many pin-up type gals. This one has been seen before. She is the better half of the pair of gangland villains from the un-produced game design "Sam & Max Plunge Through Space." This image started as a super rough pencil sketch. I pulled it together with acrylic washes and was pretty happy that it retains a lot of the roughness that can sometimes get worked away too much in this kind of painting.

Here is my contribution to a local art show that kicked off the infamous Petaluma Butter and Eggs Day weekend which itself is a celebration of debauchery and unleashed id in a David Lynchean vision of quaint parade floats and cute babies in fluffy chickie costumes. The Petaluma River cuts through the western downtown area and the art show at the Heebee Jeebee Boomerang Gallery is called the River Monster Project.

Here, of course, is the comp for the final LeChuck's Revenge painting. Looks like I hadn't yet thought of the idea of the dead bird plume and what is Elaine doing there besides looking like a man? It appears I reversed the values of the clouds and sky for additional eeriness and tried punching up the phoney baloney lighting on the figures. All in all a handy exercise I guess.

Here's another unused cover idea for Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge. It's the second of three. I sold the first on ebay a month or so ago and I still owe you a photo of the unique item I bought with some of the cash. This painting is also one of the images that appear in my INTERVIEW at Alternative Magazine Online.

Gouache 7X10

--Starchie

Somebody stop me if I'm repeating. I hunted around and did not find this one in the archives so here we go. Anytime I'm asked about favorite classic arcade games I first think of Sinistar. There was a tiny arcade across from my art school in the 80's where I would play Battlezone, Joust and especially Sinistar. The idea of a skull-shaped, ravenous doomsday machine just speaks to me for some reason. This was my submission for the first I Am 8-Bit gallery show several years ago. Sinistar's catch phrase was "I Hunger" so I decided to depict him as a demanding baby.

Acrylic 6X12

--Starchie

Here is a location in the town of Toybox; your very own Starchie Spudnoggen's For Sale and Trade establishment. This was done for a story about a scarecrow named Fishbone who's found by Ernie and Suda in an irrigation ditch after his butter cracker eyes have been eaten by birds. Selflessly deciding to help him replace his lost eyes, they find their way here.

Acrylic and prismacolor 9X11

--Starchie

It's a proven fact that everyone loves to draw Hellboy. This was done years ago, and I don't know if Mike Mignola ever actually drew Hellboy with such hugely broad shoulders or if that's just how I got it into my head when I painted this. I would paint it very differently now but there was still enough that I liked about it to post it. Here's a slightly recent-er Hellboy painting I did (still with the enormous shoulders, hmmm). Guess I should try him again sometime.

Acrylic 10 X 12

--Starchie

Suda's design came from a doll I built in high school. I had a contest with one of my friends to each try and create the most horrible doll. Her hands and head are clay, the body cloth and the dress was found in a thrift store bin. Her eyelashes are made from an old paintbrush.

My friend's doll wore a pink dress and looked like a toddler who someone had deflated. He kept her in his closet so he wouldn't accidentally see her at night. He wins for horror but over time Suda has cute-ened up. She's extremely difficult to capture but I know it when I see it.

Suda doll: Red clay, acrylic, fabric 16" high. "Family Portrait" Acrylic 6"X9"

--Starchie

Last weekend Joe Ranft, the legendary Pixar story man would have turned 50. If you don't know about Joe, Google him and you will be enlightened. I did this painting of Joe after having worked with him for years on the Cars story crew. It was based on a photo that I had taken of him on a research trip on Route 66. I was fortunate to be able to give him the painting before he passed away in the Summer of 2005. He hired me at Pixar almost 9 years ago and I still think about him every day. Miss you Joe!

Acrylic 8 1/2X11

--Starchie