Digital Snapshot

A little more of the same--only this time I took the picture with a digital camera.
I'm probably imagining there was something more sinister in the trunk than there really was.

More True Stories from the Holden Home

And I still don't know where he picked that word up.

Snapshot

I saw this scene out of the corner of my eye on my bike ride to work this morning; it was in my field of vision for approximately 3 or 4 seconds, which made for an interesting challenge.
Usually when I get the idea to do a memory sketch (when I see something cool and don't have a sketchbook handy), I take a moment to observe my subject intently for as long as I can, so as to try and pick up specific details that I'll be able to recall when I sit down to draw it. With this drawing, having 3 seconds of peripheral information means that probably a lot of what wound up on the page is stuff I made up. I mean, for all we know it could have been a lady drinking a latte shooing a squirrel that I saw. But that's the fun of doing this kind of drawing, I suppose.
Give it a shot sometime! Next time you find yourself thinking, 'that would be cool to draw,' stop looking and start making things up, just for a change.

Sketches

I know The Sartorialist is no secret but, man, is it a cool drawing tool. Sometimes to warm up at work, I search the archives and draw interesting people in their costumes. In other desktop sketching news, a friend tipped me off to this awesome gesture drawing site with all kinds of options.

Humpty Dumpty

The other night at the dinner table Sawyer was playing with his broccoli, teetering it on the edge of his plate while singing 'Humpty Dumpty' to himself. I know he's seen at least a dozen poorly animated flash versions of it on YouTube, and he's read different versions in a handful of Nursery Rhyme books we have. He knows Humpty is an egg--we all know that--so what made it okay in his mind that Humpty could be a piece of broccoli?

I scoured the text.
I couldn't find the word 'egg' anywhere.

So, cool. Humpty Dumpty is a sprig of broccoli in Sawyer's version. Yeah. Why not?
It was just a toddler having some fun at the dinner table, but it turned into a cool lesson in creative thought for me. By changing the central premise of Humpty Dumpty, a two year old effectively rewrote the nursery rhyme on a whim--and it became instantly more interesting to me. Now that he's a sprig of broccoli, Humpty's story can go in a million new directions--all different from the premise we're familiar with.

Anyway, it was a cue to me not to let ANYTHING get in the way of the creative process--all ideas are okay, just let them come and sort them later.

So, what are your thoughts on creative process? I wanna know.

Fighting in the Street 2: Pig in the City

Not being a wicked hard-core gamer, I have little reverence for the awesomeness of Street Fighter. Most of what I remember of the game was discreetly observed from behind the pages of the game manual (where all the character art was), while my brother and his friends would play the game. Hence, this goofiness.

Comics! (Click to enlarge.)

It's like some kind of illness--I don't know how much longer Street Fighter will plague me, but until it stops, you may or may not see more of this sort of thing.

(PS, thanks to Jed, for the M. Bison prompt!)

In Memoriam

Today, much to my dismay, our little group was broken up. Matt Braly and Javier Recio Gracia have been my office mates for the last three months, and today we were all moved to separate offices on campus. This comic is a memorial of a real life event that happened a few weeks ago...only replace "timebomb" with "recently laundered underwear."

True story.

Don't Fight in the Street, Children

It isn't good for your health.

Power Girl

She has powers.

Idle Sketching

Now and again I find myself with a little free time. I've recently discovered a drawing program called Colors on the Nintendo DS that's pretty handy. It's nice because its capabilities are limited and the screen is tiny--which prevents me from overdoing anything or trying to get too fancy. Plus it's got this neato playback function that tells you everything that's wrong with how you make drawings.
Here are a handful of my initial explorations.









A quick shout-out to the dudes that made Colors and the drawing playback possible.

Surprise!

Children are wonderful.
More and other work to come soon.

(click image to enlarge. please.)

Kickin' it

Most days I get home from work around 6:30. Near our house is a field--and around that time of day it's usually occupied by shouting middle aged Armenian men chasing a polka-dot ball into a net. Today there was a girl on the field, and she kicked the ball into a dude's face.
This seemed noteworthy to me, even though the ball did not leave a polka-dot pattern on the recipient's face, as it would have in a more ideal world.

After watching a few rounds of chase-a-ball, my son, Sawyer, and I like to have a little pick-up match in our yard before dinner. It helps us prime our appetites for pancakes.

The end.

Characters

It has been many moons since a real post--for this I apologize. Our family has been very busy fighting a life or death battle (more on this later).
In big news, we've made a major life change, moving from our home in Utah to California. I get to draw cartoons all day at work and we're a heck of a lot closer to the beach, so it's basically a win-win.
Below are some characters from recent sketch adventures. It's always fun to go to new places and see new faces. Hopefully we'll finish moving in soon, so I can get back to a regular posting schedule.

Dudes from church. Yes, that guy's name is seriously Ziff.
To me, nothing says "super powers" more than an onomatopoetic name.

My pal and coworker, one Matthew Braly.

Other partners in crime: John Sanford (our fearless leader)
and Javier Recio Gracia

A dude I spied at a recent Ray Harryhausen exhibit.
Just the sort of guy you might expect to find frequenting a
Ray Harryhausen exhibit.

Some dudette I saw cruising the hallways at work;
her origin remains largely a mystery.

Twice as Nice

I know posting this twice doesn't really count as a real post, but the quality on VIMEO is so much nicer. So, for your viewing pleasure...

BYU Center for Animation Presents Anthony Holden's Mashed from Anthony Holden on Vimeo.

"Mashed" in Its Entirety

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. That's for a good reason--our family is very busy right now, expecting our second child and trying our best to orchestrate a move to California as painlessly as possible. Really sorry I haven't posted anything in a long while--even more sorry that I haven't had much time to draw for fun while taking care of all this grown-up stuff.

I promised some time ago that I would get around to posting my cartoon movie, "Mashed," and today is that day. Without further ado, I present to you the fruits of my BYU education.

I hope you love it. If you do, spread the word, because I would love for many people to be able to enjoy it. Thanks so much!!

Also of note: somebody else produced a student animated short this year called "Mashed." From what I understand, it was a student from RIT. Sorry, other kid, for stealing the title to your short film. Luckily the twain shall never be confused, because while yours is a sophisticated animated short, no doubt, mine is a stupid cartoon movie.

Just Like a Car, You're Pleasing to Behold

I'll call you Jaguar if I may be so bold...

You may remember I've got a soft spot for vintage cars. But kind of in the same way that Marc Bolan does. As it turns out, as much as the flamboyant front man of T Rex loved to sing about and collect cars, he apparently never learned to drive--and as much as I like to draw old cars, I actually know next to nothing about them other than what they look like on the outside.


At any rate, right down the block from us is a little shop called Ace and Jerry's Auto Glass where there are really cool cars parked out front, pretty frequently. This one happens to be for sale, if anyone's interested in a Buick Roadmaster of undetermined year (which is to say I don't know--I'm sure the seller would have a better idea). With any luck, people will keep parking their cool-looking cars out front, giving me something to draw when I go on walks to the market to pick up cough drops and such.

Also, incidentally...

Pretty Cool

Many congratulations to my friend and co-conspirator, Richard Williams, who won a Student Emmy for "Best Composition" for the music he wrote and arranged for Mashed (with the help of Stephen Nelson).
A short article on the event can be found on BYU's page, here.

I know I haven't posted much on the film yet, so here are some stills:


And a short trailer of sorts:

Inspire Days at Disney Animation Studios

Some fellow BYU students and I had the opportunity last week to attend the Inspire Days event at Walt Disney Animation Studios. We got to tour the studios, sit in on panels and lectures, and have one-on-one portfolio reviews. Below, some sketches to document the trip:


Pictured above: some dudes at Disney (and some dudes not)...
(Clockwise from top left) Bruce Smith, superstar Disney Animator; Maurice Sendak, not currently at Disney; Bill Perkins, Designer; Paul Briggs, afraid of physical exhertion; Steve Hickner, looking like Gilbert Gottfried; Bill Caparella, clearly a distant cousin of Vincent Price; and Brigham Taylor with his doppelganger.


Spaceman doodles, cowboy doodles, girls with guns doodles.


We stayed at the Marriott hotel across from the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank; I took the opportunity to draw things that I don't usually get to see living in Utah...like espresso makers.

Assorted Animal Characters

(handily labeled individually, for ease of perusal)




Recently, it was brought to my attention that while there are many different kinds of human characters in my portfolio, there is a blatant paucity of characters of the animal variety. By means of remedy, I post here the findings of last weekend. I spent most of Saturday doing sketch-research on various animals, and a number of hours today hashing out some rough designs from what I learned.
I sure had fun learning all sorts of new things about animals, too. (Did you know that over 86% of dogs have four legs, and use all of them to walk, or even run? Funny, when you think that most humans get by pretty okay on only half as many legs.) Suffice it to say, this has been an eye-opening weekend; and I plan on doing some more of this informal study of animals...at a safe distance, across from a computer monitor.

Portfolio

Character Animation Demo Reel 2010 from Anthony Holden on Vimeo.

I've jumped on the bandwagon and created a PORTFOLIO BLOG where, amongst other things, you'll be able to see all the stuff that I've been posting here, only in a slightly more professional context. Also, here's my animation demo reel. I spend most of my time doing boards and character designs, but I sure love the heck out of animating.