GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY

                         Never crush another person's dreams no matter how absurd they

                         may sound to you, on the contrary give them your blessing. It is

                        not our place in this world to decide if someone will succeed or fail,

                         they will prove it out themselves one way or other and you will be

                                                          spared looking like a fool. 

 Way back in college I had a professor tell me that maybe I should think about picking a different career besides an artist. Fortunately, being the kind of person that I am (not one to shy away from confrontation) plus at 27 years old I had a much different perspective as a  student. I immediately laid into him for making such a proclamation. I worked really hard to get to college and made enormous sacrifices as well and I'd be damned if I let some frustrated professor shut me down before I had the opportunity to prove my self out. If I was a little younger say 17 or 18 just coming out of high school, probably feeling a little insecure about my abilities as an artist and/or if I had  some unseen self-esteem issues his statement would have been enough to precipitate me quitting school. It was a very ugly confrontation to say the least but in the end it was resolved and eventually that professor and I became friends. Still, I vowed that day that I would never tell anyone that they didn't have the ability or talent to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, he would not be the last person I would deal with in my life that doubted my abilities and not  just in art but in many aspects of my life. 

On the other hand, I have also been blessed with quite a few people that have not prejudged me and have given me the opportunity to prove myself. They have had a great impact in my life and I think of them as my friends so I believe they deserved to be mentioned here: Miss Murrel, Dan Cormany, Bob Walker, Brenda Chapman, Kevin Lima, Penny Cox and Sandy Rabens. It is not an easy thing to trust and believe in another person specifically if their failure reflects negatively upon you. It's even harder if you add production deadlines to the equation. Now, I would be re-missed if I didn't mention my family and friends which were behind me but I'm sure I've overlooked someone so forgive me if I have forgotten you, you know if you are one of the people who believed in me. All of you have gain a life long respect and dedication from me and you are of exceptional character. 

I truly believe that any individual has the ability to achieve their goals given the opportunity to succeed and if they work hard enough. Dedication to what you believe in is a long and hard path, no doubt but, a steadfast loyalty to doing what it takes (hard work, courage and sacrifice) to get to your goals will separate you from those who dream but never achieve. 

Lastly, never give in to the nay Sayers, the dream crushers. the doubters. Most of them are either afraid of you, jealous of you or have some other ulterior motive behind their negativity to keep you down. It's easier for them to make someone else fail versus succeeding themselves. 

"GOVERNOR FLANDERS"

 Here are sketches of  Governor Flanders the cat 

and Eden vis a vis constant requests from my

students for character designs of the two main

characters from a script I wrote. I use three sequences

from my story as assignments for them to board.

This one includes a story sketch from the pages.

"KETCHA"

Sometimes a certain character on a film just resonates

with you.  I didn't get to board a sequence that encompassed

the character Ketcha while working on "TEMBO" but it

  didn't stop me from doing a but load of drawings and

sketches of him anyways (he is fun to draw). "TEMBO"

was going to be the first full length feature animated film

released by Digital Domain. It was being Directed by

Aaro Blaise and Chuck Williams. Unfortunately, the

studio closed before it could be completed.

This is not a new drawing of Ketcha but I'm trying

out a new technique and this drawing was a good

candidate to experiment on.

MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS

 These mixed character sketch pages have a little

of everything, to include Gov. Flanders, Raj, Tembo,

Boss Baby and even a Tembo and Ketcha panel.

"BRAVE"

These are  reboots of  Mom drawings from "BRAVE".

They are reworked old drawing with the new technique

being applied to each to see how it translates.

  

 

These three have never been posted as far as I can remember.

"MULAN"

 

This is a small workbook sketch

about two inches in length from

the Avalanche sequence.

 MORE MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS

To include Toby the dog, Bullet the horse

and a new character named Chance from

a TV show I'm trying to develop called

"JUST BY CHANCE".

"GRACIE"

Gracie is the main character from a childrens

book that me and my wife worked on. It didn't

turn out as well as I would have liked to but

I can say that I learned a lot from working on it.

 

 MORE MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS

These drawings are of a character named
Demitri. He is a character from a script I'm
working on called "SINCLAIR"

Well, that's it for this batch but I have another

80 to 85 drawings, illustrations, thumbnails and

sketches coming right be hind it to share with you.

Keep an eye out for my next post.