Drawings that Fit

Back in October I made these drawings for a comedy short film by Mike Olson titled, “Superpowers!”The film is about a caped crusader called Darko The Night Watchman, and his archenemies, Smiley, set in a 60’s style Adam West (Batman) world. These characters get stuck in an elevator together at a point when their careers are on the way down. The drawings I made are the comic book versions of the characters during their prime years. I designed these characters with Mike before the script and casting was completed.When Katie and I visited the set during the shoot we had a very surreal experience. While my eyes were still adjusting to the darkness of the studio a tall figure in a cap walked up to greet me, I don’t believe I returned the greeting very well because I was in shock. It was Darko in full garb! Now, just to clear things I have done a little costume design work in the past mainly for stage productions, but this was very different. Not only was this guy dressed in a fantastic Darko costume, but it was exactly like my drawing! I thought that the costume designer was just going to use my drawings as a base to work from but never did I expect the costumes to turn out just like them! Matt Biedel, the actor who played Darko, was a very nice guy and he did a great job with his performance.The man who built these wonderful costumes was Randal Sumabat, another nice guy. He comes from San Diego and worked on these outfits during his own free time within a very limited schedule! Randal, in a very giddy way, showed me his work on the Smiley costume, and again I was floored!Matt Gaydos, also a nice guy, played Smiley and pulled off an equally great performance!I am credited as the Concept Designer for this film and I still have more work to do. Currently Mike and I are designing the opening credits of the film which will feature more comic book drawings of the characters. I’ll be sure to tell you guys more about that later!
- Josh

WWW (Part 2)

The Wicked Witch of the West (WWW) rules the land of the Winkies from her castle. To protect her stronghold and maintain control over the Winkies the WWW has armies of bees, crows, wolves, Winkie soldiers/slaves, and winged monkeys.The WWW does not carry a broomstick; instead she bares an umbrella which gives a hint of her fear of water. When Dorothy splashes the WWW she does not melt away into steam as much as she turns into a pile of mush! The book illustrates this with the description of brown sugar melting. Since she is so vulnerable to water I came up with an idea of her skin being cracked and brittle like dry soil.I also came up with idea that she has cast some kind of spell on her body to make her immortal. This spell, however, is also a curse because even though she is still alive her body is decaying and falling apart. Kind of like the curse in the black comedy film Death Becomes Her. I created an example of this by drawing her left hand.The WWW possesses a Magical Eye that she can use to see across great distances. I came up with the following idea of what it could look like.The Eye pivots and its midsection can extend like a telescope. I also thought it would be interesting if the WWW stole a green emerald from the Emerald City to use as a type of magical lenses for her Eye.The WWW also possesses the Golden Cap which is a magical hat that allows it's wearer to give three commands to the Winged Monkeys. "Twice already the Wicked Witch had used the charm of the Cap. Once was when she had made the Winkies her slaves, and set herself to rule over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped her do this. The second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West. The Winged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this." The WWW uses the Cap to control the Monkeys for a third and final time in kidnapping Dorothy and her friends. Later Dorothy would use the Cap herself to carry the team back to the Emerald City.I came up with this image of what the Golden Cap could look like. Since it seemed like an ancient device, I gave it an Aztec influence since the Winged Monkeys come across as an old warrior race in the book. The only thing missing in this design is a ring of diamonds and rubies. I'll try to figure out how to make that work later.

I don’t believe that the WWW is really a witch at all, kind of like how The Wizard was not really a wizard. A Witch in the Land of Oz seems to be a being that naturally possesses magical abilities. I believe that the WWW was just a normal Winkie that envied and desired the magical powers of real Witches. Since she didn’t have magical powers of her own she had to obtain or make magic items that could make her powerful, such as her Magical Eye and the Golden Cap. With the building of her magic abilities she became power hungry and eventually took over the land of the Winkies.

BTW: If you would like to read the chapter in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that features the WWW just click here.

More to come!

Puppetmasterpeice

Almost a year ago I was browsing through the Documentary section of a DVD store when something caught my eye, mainly because it did not belong in that section. The title and appearance of this DVD case got me really intrigued. Before I even read the description on the back I already new that I wanted to see this movie.Strings has got to be one of the most well made original film I’ve seen in a long time. It’s so refreshing to discover something that isn’t the same old recycled crap. The story plays out like an ancient Greek tale about two feuding tribes. An old warrior king dies leaving his son a message to end the endless carnage between their people and another powerful sect. But an evil advisor, envious of the throne, steals the message before it gets to the prince and lies to him, saying that the king was killed by their enemy. So the young brave prince goes on a false journey of revenge only to be taken down a path he was not expecting filled with danger, punishment, and forgiveness.Strings is a film that takes place in a world of marionettes. This is not a film that has marionettes pretending to be human characters, the puppets know what they are. This is a race of people whose life force comes from the “strings” that descend from the heavens. They carve their young out of wood and connect the strings that the mother grows to the child, giving it life. Death is caused by the severing or destruction of the “head string.”Not only does this film show how life is given to these marionettes but it explores the functioning of the world in which they exist. For example, when a city is under siege, instead of using a set of doors to block the city gate, a large bar is raised over the entrance creating a barrier that blocks the strings of the outsiders, preventing them from entering the city. What impressed me even more is not only did this film explore this unique world and race but it did so in a manner that did not slow down the story. That does not happen often.

So if you want to see a film that is very different from anything you’ve seen before, checkout Strings. It’s Kenfield approved!

WWW (Part 1)

Frank L. Baum’s Land of Oz books have been a wonderful part of our American culture. What I find so special about the Oz books is that Baum has created for the USA what C.S. Lewis did for England in his land of Narnia. Like Lucy and her siblings leaving rural England in magical ways Dorothy and others have left rural North America (such as Kansas.) Oz is the magical land that Americans can claim as their own! Generations have embraced and explored them over the years in many ways.

Whenever someone mentions the Wicked Witch of the West (WWW) an image that comes to our minds is that of a lean, green woman dressed in black with a pointy hat and a nose to match. Top this off with an evil cackle while soaring through the sky on a broom stick. This design originated in the MGM film based on the first Oz book and it has been imitated ever since in other books, films, and now a wonderful musical (Wicked!). However, no one seems to think of the original WWW from the words of Baum’s description or W. W. Denslow's illustrations. She’s very different from the pop culture image in more ways than one, and she is wicked through and through, not a misunderstood victim of circumstance. Not to mention she is a very small part of the book.Anyway, I thought that I would take this opportunity to show you how I explore and design a character and my example will be the WWW.This is the basic form of the character that I am going to use as the platform for the rest of my work.

I will continue to present a series of posts covering my design exploration of this OZ character.

Texas Love Found In The Philippines

My dear and life long friend Randall Knutson is getting married! I know that some of the people who read our blog know Randall which is why I'm sharing this exciting news! Randall and I have been friends since we were in second grade in Duncanville (South Dallas) Texas. Later we would find each other again in Manila, Philippines and attend the same school through junior high. We found each other again in Duncaville and graduated from high school in the same school system that we were in durring second grade. Throughout these years our friendship has grown stronger.

I am so excited and happy that Randall is getting hitched! But I'm even more exited that he is marrying an amazing woman, Ryanna. The journey of their relationship is even more exiting than the journey of our friendship. Read their story here and find out why!

The wedding will be in Dallas, Texas on May 26.

CONGRATULATIONS RANDALL AND RYANNA!

North Pole Workshop (a themed environment)

For a little while now I have been designing an idea for a small, indoor themed environment/experience of Santa’s Workshop. It’s basically like a very small theme park with attractions and other themed activities. Imagine taking an area of Disneyland (Frontier Land, Toontown, Fantasyland, etc.) and making it a small, separate theme park. I have a few sketches of the main entrance to the Workshop and I hope to draw more soon.

The entrance area will be outside as opposed to the rest of the Workshop which is indoors. Towering in front is a landmark formation of the North Pole. I wanted this pole to appear at first to be man (or elf) made but when you get close you get the impression that is a natural creation that appears to be growing up from the earth and bursting through the ice.

Just past the Pole is this small building that contains a “secret” entrance into Santa’s Workshop which is suggested to be hidden underground. I thought it would be fun to somehow make this building appear magically from the snow when the visitors approach it. This one room building is what I call a “Crowd Divider.” It breaks up the visitors into smaller groups for a more controlled and smoother entrance into the attraction. A good example of a Crowd Divider is the stretching elevator room in Disney’s Haunted Mansion. These kinds of rooms also help to set the tone in order to prepare the visitors for what they are about to experience, rather like an Overture for a theatrical production. This room contains every image possible of Christmas in our culture. For example the building itself is deigned to resemble a Christmas Tree.

In the center of this round room is this globe showing the complicated flight path of Santa. It is designed to look like it was carved out of wood.








Above this globe is this dome ceiling that wraps around the base of the tower’s vault. In this dome are suggested silhouettes of iconic structures from around the world.








A long pole that hangs from the center of the tower reaches down to a spot just above the globe. Attached at the base of the pole is the “North Pole” sign that points at the top of the globe. Also attached by a rod to the pole at the spot just below the dome is a small model of Santa’s sleigh. The sleigh rotates around in a circle (this is due to the pole that is slowly spinning) suggesting Santa’s flight around the world. I’m still in the midst of drawing the rest of the elements of this richly detailed room. Whatever I don’t finished designing this Christmas I will continue developing during every Christmas to come, as is my tradition.
There are much more exciting things to come!
Preview: This room will become completely animated and a whole sequence of events will occur around the audience leading to the secret entrance.

Why We Missed Church on Sunday (Part 4 of 4)

I stopped the car and motioned to Josh to come listen to the scraping. Puzzled, he took a look at the front driver’s side tire where the noise was the loudest and then just started laughing. Fearing the worst, as usual, I said, “Oh great, what now?” He looked up and with a slight chuckle, he said, “Darling, you ran over a cone!” When I had pulled into the gas station earlier, in my distress, with limited visibility, I must have inadvertently taken out one of the safety cones near the driveway of the gas station. Just as we were regaining our composure, two mysterious gentlemen in an unmarked pick-up truck showed up and said, “Hey, you already fixed the tire?” Realizing that this must have been who “Joe’s Towing” sent to help us out, we apologized for beating them to the punch and explained our new dilemma. They managed to un-wedge the giant piece of orange rubber from under the Corolla and we all went about our merry ways. All I could think on the way home at 2:00 a.m. was that this was “one for the blog.”

Why We Missed Church on Sunday (Part 3 of 4)

After obtaining the necessary phone number, I got a hold of Josh who had been sick for the past four days with a hacking cough (which is why he wasn’t with me in the first place). Thankfully he had not yet taken his nighttime cough syrup so he was okay to drive. I sat in the Corolla with the doors locked and memorized Josh’s cell phone number while I waited for him to come rescue me. When he arrived, we were optimistic about changing the tire ourselves with the help of the instructions he had printed from the internet. We managed to get all of the crap out of the trunk and uncover the spare along with the necessary tire changing tools. Everything was going fine until we got to the part where you are supposed to unscrew the lug nuts. Josh tried and tried to get them off but, possibly due to his weakened state, they wouldn’t budge. We decided to take advantage of the free 24-hour roadside assistance that our car insurance offers and resigned ourselves to wait for the estimated thirty minutes it would take for someone to come help us change the tire. After about twenty minutes, and having seen a guy, possibly under the influence of some mind-altering substance, urinate on the air/water machine, we were getting impatient so Josh started wrestling with the lug nuts again. Since I was wearing real shoes and he wasn’t, he asked me to stand on the lug nut loosening tool (whatever it’s called) so that the leverage would be enough to loosen the lugs. It turns out that 135 pounds (yes that’s my real weight) was just the right amount. We also speculated in our most intelligent “sciencey” sounding voices that the metal must have cooled and contracted since our last attempts so even if we had tried this method before, it may not have worked. We got the tire swapped out with no other problems and called the insurance people back to cancel the roadside assistance that had not yet arrived. We decided to cautiously depart the gas station and head home. I agreed to drive the Corolla very carefully since there was basically a plastic tire on the car now. As I started to pull out of the driveway, I could hear some kind of scraping sound. My first thought was that we had done something wrong and now the car was probably ruined but then I realized the scraping was coming from the front of the car so my next thought was that the engine was probably about to explode because I had put too much stress on it by driving who knows how long on three regular tires and just the rim of the rear driver’s side tire… To be continued…

Nuts About YouTube!

My Nutcracker teaser trailer is now on YouTube! This may make the video more accessable.

Check it out!!

Why We Missed Church on Sunday (Part 2 of 4)

It was still raining when I pulled into the am/pm Arco station on Rosecrans and Carmenita in Norwalk. I did happen to have my phone charger with me so I had decided to march into the convenience store and demand an electrical outlet where I could plug my phone in and get Josh’s phone number. That’s almost how it went. I parked the Corolla next to the air/water machine, foolishly thinking that maybe one of my tires was just a little soft and all I would need was a blast of air in one of them. As I got out of the car all hopes of that were dashed when I looked at the rear driver’s side tire- or what was left of it. The tire was completely shredded. It reminded me of the tire that the T-Rex chewed off the truck in Jurassic Park. I have to admit I was a little relieved that nothing more traumatic (or expensive) had happened. As far as I could tell, the rear axle was still in place, I hadn’t been dragging the muffler, and there were no zombies in the trunk (this happens more often than most people would like to admit). I knew where the spare was and I knew I could probably figure out how to put it on the car but it was raining and I didn’t want to get my “man skirt” dirty so I gathered my dead cell phone, the charger, and a pen and entered the mini-mart. There were about four people ahead of me buying beer and/or gasoline so I patiently waited my turn, returning the perplexed looks of the other convenience store patrons with a sheepish grin. Finally, I approached the counter. I don’t think the gas station attendant was prepared for my request because she just stared at me blankly as I told my sad story without any pauses, the way I talk when I’m a little bit nervous, “Hi-I-have-a-flat-tire-do-you-think-I-could-plug-in-my-cell-phone-somewhere-just-long-enough-to-get-my-husband’s-phone-number-and-call-him-from-the-pay-phone-to-come-and-rescue-me?” It took her a moment to process what I had just said but then she pointed toward the “Coffee Station” on the other end of the store and I thanked her profusely and headed straight for the outlet… To be continued…

The Claus

I’ve loved the whole concept of Santa ever since I was a child. I never really believed in the existence of this mythical person but that never stopped me from enjoying and creatively exploring the whole idea of who Santa is and what he does. Being the picky child that I was with my imagination I pretty much defined to myself who Santa is, where he comes from, what he looks like, how he works, where he works, etc. Yeah, I was a weird kid and I guess I still am. I won’t go into all the detail that I created in my life but I have some fun examples of what I feel explains how I see things.
Since I’m a movie fanatic a particular film mostly defined for me who Mr. Claus is. It’s a fun and corny 1985 film called Santa Claus: The Movie, Starring Dudely Moore and John Lithgow (3^rd Rock). This is an odd film because it is basically divided into two movies. The fist half is about the genesis of Santa and the second half is an odd ball 80’s adventure with two annoying children. Whenever I watch this movie I only watch the first half because the second half is just not worth it. This film creatively presents how Santa came to be and it has wonderful Swiss inspired Production Design (i.e. Santa’s Workshop and his slay).

As for the way Claus looks, aside from the classic Coca-Cola Santa by Haddon Sundblom, I’ve always looked towards the paintings of Dean Morrissey.As you can see I'm an old fashion kind of guy.

Why We Missed Church on Sunday (Part 1 of 4)

Before I left the company of my fellow Scottish band members in Santa Monica around 11:00 p.m. on Saturday I had pulled out my cell phone to call Josh and let him know I was on my way home only to discover that the battery was dead (again). Oh well, I thought, I’ll just go straight home and hopefully get there before anything could possibly go wrong- after all, people lived for centuries without the crutch of electronic devices to get them out of trouble. So I was on my way home, it was dark, it was pouring down rain, and I was wearing a kilt, complete with the knee-high socks and spats over my shoes. Everything was going fine until I started hearing a strange noise coming from the rear of the Corolla. I immediately panicked. This car has made lots of funny sounds and they have all been expensive to fix. I had a quick and terrifying flashback of the time Josh and I managed to fry the car’s original engine because apparently it needed three gallons of oil every twenty miles to keep it from throwing a rod (don’t worry, I don’t really know what that means either- that’s just what the guy said it sounded like when we started the car again). This sound was different though, and it wasn’t coming from the front- which I thought was probably a good sign because even I know that most of the things that make the car go are located under the hood not in the back of the car. Still, there was something wrong and I didn’t even know exactly where I was- somewhere on the 5 Freeway I think. I knew I probably wasn’t going to make it all the way home so I decided to get as far as I could and find a well-lit gas station with a pay phone. This plan did have one flaw though, I didn’t have anyone’s phone number memorized or written down. Not one, I couldn’t think of a single way to get a hold of one single person, especially someone I could call in the middle of the night. The only numbers I had were trapped inside my dead cell phone… To be continued….

A Perfectionist's Predicament

Okay, so, Josh has been bugging me to write something for this blog and, to be honest, I’ve had lots of “bloggable” moments as of late I just tend to save them as stories to tell people in person- that way they get better every time I tell them. I have trouble with the concept of a blog because I am such a perfectionist when it comes to things that other people will be reading. It’s fine when I say it and it sounds ridiculous but once it’s committed to print, that’s a different story. I place unrealistic expectations on myself, expecting to be an amazing writer that everyone will love even though it’s just a blog for crying out loud! Of course it’s not going to be perfect. I guess there’s just that silly little fear in the back of my mind that someday I’ll be trying to get a job as a writer for “Newyorker” magazine and someone will unearth old blog entries that I haphazardly wrote, thinking no one would mind a few spelling or grammar errors- I would be ruined! I feel the same way about emails and even notes I write in greeting cards. Yeah, so pretty much I’ve got some issues to work through. If you could all bear with me, maybe I can just ease into this whole world of journal entries for public viewing. Oh, and don't worry, I'm not planning on ever working for "Newyorker" magazine- "Mad" magazine maybe, but not "Newyorker."

Teaser Trailer Premier

Click the image below to view the trailer.

(or click here)

If you want to have a high resolution version of the trailer just email me at joshuak@mail.com

Coming Soon

For the past year I have been working very slowly on a Christmas themed project. It is an animatic which is basically a storyboard that is put on film and edited with music and sound effects, an animated storyboard. This animatic is a fake teaser trailer for a film that does not exist (at least not yet). These are the rough sketches that I made over a year ago, which I have now finished painting in Photoshop. It has taken me a year to paint all of this because it was the very first piece I'd made using my tablet; I had to figure out how to paint this as I was making it. It is also something that I have been working on inch by inch whenever I have had time between other projects.

The animatic trailer is finally completed thanks to my dear friend Michael Olson, who spent 6 hours straight editing it with me over his shoulder. He created exactly what I envisioned and MORE! I love this man!

As soon as I figure out how I plan to premier the teaser trailer on this blog. If you can't wait till then and you want to see the video now just let me know (joshuak@mail.com) and I'll send a high quality version to you.

GOBBLE! GOBBLE!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ruffles my scales.

It never seems to fail, every time I get some fun new idea somebody else beats me to the punch. Katie and my close friends have heard this song many times before.
This is nothing big but just recently I finished reading the fantasy novel Eragon by Christopher Paolini. It blows me away that he wrote that just after finishing high school at age 15! Anyway, while reading it I came up with an idea for a dragon based on the character Saphira the main dragon in the book.
What if a dragon was more like a bird then a reptile? What I mean is its scales would look and behave more like feathers. The scales would be longer while sticking out and they would ruffle and move like the way a bird does when it puffs up. It could also have extra long scales on it's head that it could move up and down like a Cockatoo. Instead of bat like wings with stretched skin, it has very long scales that look and act like feathers on an eagle's wings. I did this rough doodle at work on the back of my daily tear off calendar of what it could look like.

I'm not naive enough to think that I'm the first and only person to create this concept but it was fresh and original to me!
Well, just last night I finally allowed myself to watch the theatrical trailer for Eragon, I wanted to wait until I had finished the book before I saw anything. Something caught my eye in watching it and I couldn't believe it. There was a dragon that I'm sure was Saphira and on its wings were none other than scales that looked like feathers! I should be getting use to this by now and besides, why should I be the only one who comes up with ideas like this? On the bright side this means my ideas are generally good and work well in entertainment.
I'm really not that upset about this very small concept, but I thought that it was good example what seems to happen to a lot of my ideas.

-Josh

Drawing Barenaked Ladies!

Josh here, I have some exciting news!

I have recently drawn storyboards for the latest Barenaked Ladies music video and now it's ready to be viewed!! The video is of the song Wind It Up from latest BNL album Barenaked Ladies Are Me. The video was put together by Winch and Pulley the same production team that did The Submarines music video (see last post). Thank you Josh and Jeff for this great opportunity!

Below are my the storyboards:

If you are ready to see the actual video:

If you want to see a slightly higher resolution version go to Yahoo! Music and click on the title of the video (Wind It Up) in the music video section.

Kenfield Trivia: When watching the video keep yours eyes open for a cameo. I'll give you a hint, look for the long haired beauty that pushes the past the Rockness Monster (the professional Asian air guitarist with big hair) at the end of the video.

Music Video

Over a month ago I made storyboards for an independent music video for The Submarines. Well, it's all done and ready for viewing! You can watch it currently on Editor Jeff Bartsch's website. The video was produced by Jeff Edwards and directed by Josh Forbes, founders of Winch & Pulley.

If you want to see the storyboards that I made: