Hi Everybody!!

Just wanted to touch base, (its been a while I'm aware). Currently I am back home visiting in Connecticut for the holidays and needless to say I've been away from my fancy, cartoon-making computer. As soon as I return I will be posting new work so please be on the lookout! Thanks for visiting and have a safe, Happy New Year!!

more sketchbook doodles

Another sketchbook spread with recurring characters.

Here be a doodle dump. Having fun with line in the process.

Just wanted to say hey to all you guys! Haven't been posting in a few days, been busy with some really exciting stuff! I'll be updating asap so be on the look out!

typical sketchbook pages(s)

Just a little work in progress.

Digital doodle.

Every once in a while, I doodle something that is weird and a bit out there (if you could only see my sketch books). I did this today while inking a different character, no rough blue lines. Just winged it. And I liked it so much and didn't want to delete it so I put it on its own thing and appropriately titled it.

I have no clue what animal it is or supposed to be. As you can see, I was going in a few different directions. There is sort of a "Spumco" look to the font coloring (with apologies to John Kricfalusi...whose work I admire greatly, for the record). Who knows. Maybe a future logo for a production company?......

....most likely not. In fact, definitely not.

Quick doodle while listening to the Django Unchained soundtrack. Funny how such an innocent and cute drawing was conceived while listening to a James Brown and 2Pac mash-up.

So here's like a beaver and junk. Trying to create characters with few lines as possible. I find simplicity in cartoon character design to be one of the most difficult but exciting challenges.

New stuff folks...sort of influenced by a popular animated rodent. The name escapes me...

What you actually can't see is a beaver looking character cropped out on the far left. The mouse was just a version on him that I wanted to play around with. More to come!

pig

Final, new, and revisited pig! Dig it.

I had drawn this face,(minus the hat), a while back and added to it today. This is one of those instances where I just totally wing it. Originally, in the blue, I had this guy running with his arms back and making a "whooo-ing" noise. I'm still trying to figure out how it ended up looking like this. Attempting to keep pushing gesture, scale, and line quality. Stay tuned.

A while back I posted a colored version of this guy. He wasn't outlined, just filled in with different colored outlines around his eyes, spots, etc. I liked his design and wanted to throw an outline on him. I also tried getting getting my line quality more or less consistent. Probably going to throw some new color on him at some point!

Bear at a bus station.

Just a doodle of an angry woman pointing at a hairless dog. You know...typical everyday occurrences.

Doodle before work today. Might end up changing the hair color...not sure.

I did this doodle today and whilst doing it, I noticed that it resembled the inking/drawing style of the talented Mike Peters from "Mother Goose and Grimm." I've always loved his cartoons growing up and have considered him an artistic influence. In any event, here's a weird monster dude in homage to Mr. Peters.

Also, this is for my little sister Madison, who requested a drawing. So here it is Madison! And look! Your name is on the internet! YOU'RE FAMOUS!

Incoming doodle....

Did this today before work. Had no idea what to do with the background. I hate white backgrounds too. They conflict with the character and they don't feel grounded. Tried a few tings but wasn't feeling it. I'll come back to it maybe.

I added some color to the characters. Nothing final, however. And yes, the bear is meant to look like a "smokey the bear" knock-off. That may or may not be what I was going for....

Thinking that the fox might wear UGG boots. Not sure on that one though...

 A sneak peak on a little something I'm working on. Just doodles at this point

Decided to have a bit of fun with this and take it in a different direction. Kind of want to do a walk cycle with him now...

Made a quick doodle of Robin Hood today. Thinking about going back to it and making a background, adding color, etc. Although it looks simple, it took quite a long time to draw. Attempting a "UPA"-esque style with a simplified, fun look. More to come!

Doodling at work the other day!

Here's a fun little animation I just finished up. I had a blast with this one and was happy to make something real cartoony and snappy!

Here's the next page. I didn't have a large enough scanner to give you the full effect but you can pretty much figure it out.

Here's a typical page in my sketchbook. I'm constantly doodling and often times, I find myself re-drawing the same character over and over again. I find it to be great practice. Plus, I never know when a new character is going to be created!

More importantly, I just love doodling. It's kinda my thing.

I've been drawing this weird dog-like character for a while now. Not too sure where he came from. All I know is that he's too much fun to draw and appears in almost every sketchbook/notebook I have! I finished him up today and had a little fun in Photoshop with the background. Lots of experimenting and messing around with different imported textures and brush styles.

Sneak peak on a late-night doodle! Definitely finishing this guy up!

Doodling polar bears for my thesis film. There's a few here that I'm getting a kick out of...I'll keep developing a few of these guys.

doodlin

Been a while since I've doodled. Made this today instead of researching for thesis.

close up

close up of the works

it hangs

So here's my art work hanging at The Gallery Espresso! It's pretty sweet I must say. They're hanging above a fire place in a section with all these huge comfy chairs. The reception is the 19th. Looking forward to it!

penguins!

New art work guys!!!

Here's a new illustration I finished today. I'm real excited about it! This piece, along with two others, will be hanging for the entire month of July at The Gallery Espresso in Savannah GA. Pretty sweet.

I big thanks goes out to my buddy Stephan. He helped me with a few photoshop tricks and really punched this piece up a bit more. Notice the reflection of the penguins at the bottom, as if they're standing on ice. He also suggested adding a drop shadow behind the penguins. I love how it turned out because they look like an animation cell painted on celluloid.

Here's hoping I can make a few bucks off it!

Here's a layout that I made the other day. Its for an illustration that will be hung at The Gallery Espresso coffee shop in Savannah, GA. I'll be having three works hanging which I'm pretty excited about!

The style is totally inspired from layout artist Maurice Noble, the genius responsible for hundreds of Looney Tunes backgrounds. I used a chalk-like brush to add a bit of texture here and there. It will look much better once the characters are added. I'll be posting the piece soon!

Doodling penguins

So here's a WIP (or a work-in-progress) of some characters I'm working on. I had posted the roughs a few posts down and now I'm adding ink and color. The gray squares are there to cancel out that stark white background. I find it difficult to add color with just a white background, so usually I'll slap some shape with a muted neutral color behind what I'm working on. For me, it helps to see the color in some sort of "context."

I'm pretty happy with how they are starting to look. Not too sure about the girl's hair color though. There's something familiar with it (her?), in my opinion, and I feel like the hair color is what's doing it. We'll see. As of now nothings finalized.

Hi everybody! (to said a la "Dr. Nick" from The Simpsons)

I just wanted to announce that I have recently made a Linkedin account. Check it out at:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=265698699&trk=tab_pro

Feel free to spread the good word and such, I'm currently looking for an internship this fall...*cough* shameless self-promoting *cough, hack*

Thanks much and stay tuned!

Here are some character designs I've been doodling lately. Two are based off of some co-workers of mine. One of them is the penguin. I'll let you ponder over the other...

Hey All!

I just wanted to let you all know that, no, I haven't forgotten about my blog. I've ended a crazy/stressful spring quarter and am currently enjoying my summer break till summer quarter starts up. I will be posted soon though, I'm working on something at the moment right now.

Be on the lookout!!

Hey All!

Here's a still from my vampire cartoon I'm currently working on. Limited animation meets adult content. Gotta love it!

Will be posting the video soon! Finishing up finals at school right now...its only 5am at the moment. No biggie....

Big day for posting. Making up for lost time I suppose...

Anyway, I wanted to share this layout I did for my vampire short I'm working on. I have to say layouts aren't really my strong suit. I feel as though the colors work here and some of the texturing/coloring, however I feel as though everything looks kind of flat. Like, here's a couch, here's a lamp. Filling space rather than composed properly. I think the couch and lamp are the issue. Perhaps moving them over slightly to the left, shrinking them down some to feel as though there's space in the room....

I just know for the shot I need and for the characters it works. We'll see. Definitely rambling. Haven't slept yet too. That's not helping.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

love ya

Hey there everyone!

I just wanted to announce that I currently have a NEW website up. I must point out, however, that it is STILL IN PROGRESS. I need to make a few calls to get the name switched over to my original domain name. Until then please take a look at my work in progress of a site.

http://zakshapiroart.wix.com/zak-shapiro

Again, this site is still under construction! More to come asap!!!

Found this start of a doodle I did for my thesis film. One section of my film features a horse sitting at a bar and a drunken guy slides over asking him "why the long face?" I mean, what else would he be asking a horse sitting at a bar? Are you my ride?......*cough* I'm going to stop now.

business card idea for front.......going to redo a few things but wanted to show you all a sneak peak!!

ATTENTION ALL!!!!!

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that my WEBSITE is, and has been currently, DOWN.
I am currently in the process of re-designing it and in due time, it will be up and running very SOON! Be on the look-out!!!


My apologies for any inconvenience but I promise it'll be worth the wait :)

Hey All!

Here's a quick rough layout sketch I'm considering for my short I'm currently working on. Nothing is set in stone for now. I always enjoy this process and enjoy showing you what I like to call a "behind the scenes" look as to how I work towards the final result. More to come!

Hey everyone!

So remember a while back when I was talking about my film First Bite? The collaborative film I directed here at SCAD featuring a vampire and a cute little dog? You may have to go back to older posts to refresh your memory.

In any event, I wanted to announce that the short is up and running on Viemo and can be seen by all! Just go to vimeo and search for me, zak shapiro, and it should direct you to my page. I only have First Bite up for now and my profile picture is a clowns head. Take a look!

Here's the final color for one of the vampires in the short I'm making. I basically took the green and the blue from the ones below and found a happy medium between both colors. It definitely works much better.

Other vampire soon to come!

Here are a few color studies of the vampire I'm using in a short dialogue piece that I will be eventually animating in Toom Boom Harmony. The end one's body is working well, but I think that the skin tone is too green. Think it needs a color between that and the blue in the first one. More to come in good time.

Here it is!!! My 100th POST!!!! I never thought I'd have a blog, let alone make 100 blog posts on it!! I got to say that it feels really awesome. I also have to THANK all of YOU GUYS and GALS that follow and stop by. I've said it once I'll say it again, I appreciate the support greatly and it means so much to me! Truly, I thank you.

Here's something I whipped up today. A doodle, if you will. The depths of my maturity never cease to amaze me.

The size is no accident. I just wanted to play with space and composition.

Hey there folks! Here's a screen cap of a current project I will be working on this Spring Quarter here at SCAD. I am currently teaching myself ToonBoom Storyboard Pro and Harmony. Above is the storyboard pro software. I must say I do like it, however its difficult to make a switch to a new software especially when you're used to another. What I do like is that its a vector based line and has similar capabilities as Flash. It also allows you to write in text from scripts you have have written, which in this case I have, and it feels very professional. Two more things to tack on the ol' resume I suppose!

I'm going to be posting a lot of this production as I go along. Be on the lookout!!