Snow Tubing Dec 2010

I had some fun this holiday season with my son. I took him to see the Polar Express in Williams AZ. That was in the evening. During the day we both went tubing. We had both done it for the first time last year and were eager to "Bring on the speed" as my son would say. When Julian finally crashed, after a long day, I proceeded to bring to pen an idea I had. Father and son sharing fun times.


Here was another version of just Taz tubing. Not sure which of the two variations I like better so I kept both.

Oh Canada

At the Macaroni Grill again. Let the crayons do their magic.

Love..Again

This is one of my favorite pieces. One of the first I posted on my blog. I do not want it to be lost in the shuffle.

Almost Christmas

I am getting into the Christmas spirit. I whipped out a quick doodle while on Thanksgiving break.

Hey Shamu

I took my son to Sea World over the holiday. During the Shamu show I was thinking at what age I would take my son down to the Splash Zone. I have never been so it would be cool to experience it together. I thought it would be cool to make a sign or shirt with a target to get his attention.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick doodle while I was waiting for the feeding frenzy.

Moving??? '10

This is an image of Taz I did back after moving on from Electronic Arts in Los Angeles. The way things are going Taz might have to move again so it reminded me to look for this image.

Captain Taz Sparrow '09

I love all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I especially like the Jack Sparrow character. Johnny Deep nailed this part. And those movies inspired this.

Another Macaroni Grill Masterpiece '07

Here is a Taz picture I started at the restaurant. I took the photo before we left. I used that to come up with the rest of the piece that you see here.

Tour De Phoenix '07

I was trying some new athletic events in Arizona. I heard about this cycling race that was 74 miles through some of AZ most beautiful landscape. I was amazed at what beauty was hidden in this desert.

Mischievous

Sometimes this is how I feel.... Mischievous. This is the way I think I would look as Taz with that Mood. Better watch out you have no idea what I could be up to.

My Son '06

Here are some more shots I worked on that were inspired by having my son. Each shots shows a more extreme side of what I was feeling at the time. Sometimes happiness beyond explanation and other times.... how is this possible from such a cute little man.

Happy New Year Dec '08

Oh man I totally forgot about this one. This one was not done in my notebook. Just on a free piece of paper. Man I so have to take this one to the finished level. This could turn out to be a very nice piece.

Why Taz?

Why the fascination with the Tasmanian Devil? I get asked that all the time. I guess you could say it started when I was a kid but did not realize it until I graduated from college. As a kid I had always been into the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes. I loved all the cartoons. Some characters were obviously more popular than others like Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. These characters seemed to be on television ALL the time. On rare occasions there appeared a crazy character named Taz. I think it was in part that the cartoons with the Tasmanian Devil were scarce that I felt it was like a treat every time one of his episodes came on. In college I started watching "Tiny Toons" which was like a baby version of the Looney Tunes and had Dizzy Devil as the new Tasmanian Devil. I watched the updated Looney Tunes now known as Tiny Toons. This reminded me of my favorite character Taz. When I got out of college, in 1991, I started collecting Taz pins and Taz PVC figures primarily. Then I also began to collect a limited amount of Animation Cels and higher end figures from the Warner Brothers Store. It was a sad day when they chose to close all the WB Stores. Moment of silence please..;(. I love my collection of Taz. I currently have over ** pins, ** PVC Figures, ** Animation Cels, and ** Statues. My pride and joy is my one of a kind Taz Sculpture of Taz as a weight lifter. I think that statue represents me. So now you can see where my love for Taz started and where it has taken me. I took that love to drawing. I have created quite a few sketches and some final pieces as I learned to free draw this crazy character. That love with continue to be my passion when I have more time when I am retired. So for now I take the small amount of time I have in my busy life to continue my passion. As always thanks for listening.

How do I feel today? Mar '10

I am feeling a bit confined and limited to my choices as far as moving on to another job after my Rainbow Studios layoff.

Hawaiian Chill'n '06

Here is another Taz I doodled on the beach. Got the idea of what I wanted. I then reorganized the shot at home as well as adding the upper body.

Doodles Feb '10

Found myself with a little bit of time before picking up my son. Just seeing my little man always makes me smile. So this is what I came up with.

Happy Birthday '09

We took our son Julian to Disneyland for three days of fun for his 3rd birthday. After a long day in the Happiest Place on Earth we settled in. While my son and his mom slepted I listened to music and drew this. You can see Taz and Baby Taz enjoying a super huge birthday cake.

Christmas Reef '05

Here is the sweet Christmas Reef i would love to build out some day. Either model it out as a craft project or in 3D. Lights and all. Came up with this design while enjoying the holiday season in 2005

Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts

I love Disneyland. A few rides I like more than others. One of which is The Haunted House.

The First

This is the first Taz I drew without any Taz reference. Just trying to do it all by memory. Not too bad. Obviously had some notes on things to change for the final. :)

Polar Express

I saw the movie Polar Express with Julian and he loved it. Turns out they had a Polar Express themed train ride leaving from Williams Arizona. So I had to take the little man there. The highlight was when Santa boarded the train and gave every child the special bell just like in the movie. Here is how I saw it.

"Its a Boy!" June '06

This is probably the single most important thing that has impacted my life in my 40 years..... The birth of my son Julian. Words can not even begin to describe my experience. Love my little man more than all my love for everything else combined to the infinity power. Well you get the idea. Here is what that inspired.

Aloha '06

I love going to Hawaii. Love the tropical weather since I love being in the water. Well one day I was relaxing by the pool and was looking at a magazine to get some ideas of what I might do on this trip. Well I saw this Hawaiian dancer on the cover and thought I would do that same with Taz. Although I wanted it to be more dramatic so he will end up being a fire dancer. You see the copy of the magazine and the small post it I used to get my idea across on site. The drawing I did some time later at home. Still finishing it up.

Wow it is HOT!

Arizona is a beautiful place. Weather is perfect for being outdoors for most of the year. But when the summer comes and you have not experienced it before...WOW. If you have a pool you are good. I actually like it now but that heat is what inspired this page.

What's on My Mind 2/14/2010

Well since I have been out of work now close to two weeks, after a layoff, I think you can tell what is eating up my processing time. Made me remember how I was feeling when I got laid off in LA. But at the point I scored my new job I felt like this. I hope to feel this again really soon. And/or feel like this one.....

Love Macaroni Grill

Not only do they have great food but you can draw on the table. You can not beat that. Here are some of the images I have created in the past while I dined. There are two issues that almost caused these pictures not to exist. One, my ex always saying do you really have to draw? Hmmm well I drew when we met so I think you just answered your question. And two, the waitresses always saying wow that is awesome do you mind if I keep it? Ah well I would not have spend all this time drawing Taz and beginning to shade it to leave it. So my answers were YES and No (Translated from HELL NO) I have some images to share. Enjoy.


The morning was spent at the zoo. So i guess I still had that on my mind.






I guess I, aka Taz, was starving on this visit.






Had just checked out the butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens and had a nice little butterfly land on me. Cool.





Back in the day maybe season 2 or three.... Survior taz with immunity Idol. Now there is no head since I ran out of paper. Will finish this at some point.

Buddies

My very good buddy from college is huge into Mickey Mouse. Not to mention his name is Mickey. Well that was his character and mine is Taz. Still very close with him and his family. So it inspired me to do this quick sketch. I hope to make a large art piece out of it and present it to my buddy for a birthday in the near future.

The idea is that it is Mickey's gloved hand and Taz's hand

Burning Up

In my spare time I enjoy fitness. My second hobby along with Taz and being creative. So not many people know I am a spin instructor. I have been for a long time and hope to continue. I also use to teach a boot camp class in SD but neither LA nor AZ seemed to be tough enough to handle a class of the level I taught it so dropped teaching that out here. Well long story short I did Taz riding a spin bike.

How I Work

I thought I would give some insight on my thinking as I am working on Taz images. Again I like to do pieces that combine Taz and what is going on in my life. My pieces are works in progress. Lots of hands on and reworking till I get just the right look. I start off with an idea. I might have a few so what I do is write a small description of what I am thinking in my notebook. I follow that up with a quick, I mean very quick, chicken scratching. This little doodle gives me an idea of position of Taz. Trust me no one else would be able to understand what they are seeing but to me it is all the info I need to put this thought away for as long as it takes to get back into it. Then I slowly work to flush out some of the areas that standout. Usually it is the face and the expression that take the longest. Working in pencil I draw, erase, draw and so on till I get what I like. I then move around to other areas I feel inspired to knock out. When I have a part that is perfect I go ahead and pen it in. This helps me be able to continue to work the other areas and no worries about messing up what I have and like. Sometimes I create a body part of Taz that I really like but it is the wrong size. Well I just make a photocopy of it and enlarge it. On occasion I just tape it in place and move on. I have to remember to take a picture of this "Frankenstein" work in progress. Interesting to see. Eventually I have the entire piece in pen and am ready to take it to the next level.

Well there you have it. My work flow.

First Drawing

I am quite sure this was my first drawing I did of Taz. This was shortly after getting out of college. Some friends and I were working on a company doing video games. It was called Presto Studios. When we knocked out the first game, "The Journeyman Project" I was inspired to draw this. My skills were pretty rough drawing Taz. But we all start off that way. In time you will see what 19 years or so has done for my work.

Collecting Taz

Yes I do love Taz. And I have been collecting him since I was back in college. So like 1990ish. Here is a shot of my Office/Taz room in my first house in San Diego.

Waiting to be discovered

The reason I call this blog "Hey Warner Brothers" is because I think a dream job would be working for Warner Brothers drawing Taz. Now I use to live in Los Angles and after the huge lay offs at Electronic Arts LA I looked into a job there. But according to the descriptions of what they were looking for and experience I did not have it. So I was not able to get them my work. I draw Taz for fun and love it. I have 3 notebooks full of drawings of Taz. I would love to share them with WB some day. Anyone have any connections send them my site. :)

Good Taz?

This one an image that was inspired by the first time I took my soon to see Santa. Somewhere between amazed and scared. On the "Lap of Judgement" to see if one is worthy of gifts. Too funny. I have the basic info in for Taz. Still want to get in there and match the lighting and texture of the original image I found. So the Santa image in not mine nor am I taking credit for it. In time I would like to replace that image with my work.

This was a fun piece. I took the idea of someone in one of those little picture booths that snaps photos. And more often than not the person doing it does silly faces. Well this one I did for my 32nd birthday. Felt like I was not getting much love and that it was like any other day. So in the first shot not very happy. Then I started seeing the love and as Taz how does he show love.... with a big old sloppy kiss. And then I was all happy in the last shot and able to enjoy the party.

Thoughts

I love the Tazmanian Devil. I have for a very long time. And I love to do art projects that incorporate him. Mostly right now I like doing drawings. Drawings of Taz in scenes or poses that relate to what is going on in my life. You will see that when reading the posts where I describe what was going on in my head when I did a particlar piece. Did I ever mention that I think Macaroni Grill rocks because I can have a great meal and work on an idea for my next piece. :)

Love

Here is the first piece that i took all the way through from concept, to drawing to finished render. Turned out pretty nice I think.