Update:

My friend Shiyoon Kim had one of his drawings posted by John K. on his blog here:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/12/appeal-2-big-eyes.html

I think that's pretty cool. I'm glad to see John using Shiyoon's work as an example of appeal. Shiyoon has amazed me since we started as freshman at CalArts together.

I hadn't looked at John K's site for a while, even though I enjoy reading what he has to say and seeing all the cool artwork he posts, so I started reading through the past entries that I had missed. I saw that John had posted a youtube clip called "Ratatouille - Character Profiles - Target Bonus Disc" in a past entry to basically criticize the characters in the movie, and he's definitely entilted to his opinion.

But watching the clip when it came to the Ego character profile I was surprised to see there were some of my drawings from the sequence I story boarded in the movie. My story boards are shown right at the beginning of the Ego character profile where he is talking with his assistant. The profile starts at 6:26 on the clip. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAroxSedM3A&eur



I had no idea there was a target bonus disc, but if you would like to see some more behind the scenes art on the movie, it looks like it's a DVD that's really worth buying. I'm assuming they sell it only at Target.

I also really have to thank Mark Andrews for his help and guidance as the head of story on this film. First of all, for allowing me to do this sequence, and then helping me to see it through.

Still Alive...

Work has been taking up quite a bit of my time recently. I've been having to burn the proverbial midnight oil quite a few nights over the past couple months. So unfortunately I don't have much to post in the way of artwork this month.

I can't go to Japan this year, which is a bummer. I have really enjoyed spending the past couple of New Years there and picking up all those lucky amulets, called Omamori, for the coming years at the Shinto shrines. The luck from those amulets has served me pretty well.

Here is the Shrine I went to last year. When I was thinking about moving back to Southern California after my car accident in 2007, I picked up a "job" amulet from here. I was hoping to get some luck finding a new gig closer to home in L.A. and it worked out!


Speaking of the new job...
This year I have to stick around L.A. for the holidays, just in case some work needs to be done. We are on a pretty tight schedule. I don't think I'll mind it too much though. Working with Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois on this project I'm on has been a fun experience so far. Our head of story, Alessandro Carloni, has been cool to work with as well. Congratulations to him on his Annie Nomination.

My office mate and fellow story crew member, Dave Derrick, has also been great to be around, and he has really helped me learn the ropes at the new studio. We went to school together at CalArts. He was in my class, so it's been nice to be around an old classmate and friend every day. Dave just recently published his own art book called African Diaries. It's filled with Dave's beautiful drawings and has some really insightful writing about his experiences in Africa. I highly recommend picking up a copy.

I don't know if I'll get to post anything else before the New Year, so Happy Holidays to everyone and have a great New Year!

To close out, here are some photos of the things I will miss about going to Japan this year, besides those lucky amulets.

1. Riding bikes through Takatsu-ku.



2. The Christmas decorations in Odaiba.



3. Street/Festival Food. I think these are Okonomiyaki...



4. Sleeping on the train after a long day of shopping....



5. ...and finally Tina, she is a good dog.