The Return of Dr. Johnston (+Alex and Halsev Converse)

I like this character.  I really do.
So I went ahead and drew a bunch of sketches of it:

Click to enlarge

Dr. Johnston needed some expression.

Alex and Halsev's expressions are more in context in this comic:

Happy Summer!

Chicken in the Bread Pan, Pickin' Out Dough! (plus pandas)

I realized that raccoons and violins don't fit too well together.  In fact, the only logical animal to play the fiddle would be none other than the Tasmanian devil.

Hopefully, at least a few people will get the joke; my binturong design is among my best-sellers, so this little devil may have a chance.
In case you haven't figured it out, here is the origin of this silliness:

And here's the design on a T-shirt:

Yup.

In other news, I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 yesterday.  Pixar cannot beat Dreamworks this year; the plot was a bit cliche, but good, the art was incredible, and (holy pistachios!) fight scenes everywhere!  But even with the copious amount of legendary-fighting-ness and general Jack Black-ness, there was a decent amount of character development.  And the Jack Black-ness had been significantly reduced.  I like Jack Black, but this is an animated action movie, not Tropic Thunder.
Granted, the fight scenes lacked the epicness of the original, which had two insanely awesome brawls, (Tai Lung's prison escape and the bridge fight) but the new villian, Lord Shen, is among my favorite characters.

Just look at his design:


From About.com

Now, imagine that doing kung fu, with its whippy tail and all.  For a few moments at a time, you can't help but forget he's pure evil and a half, and just think, "pretty burdie!"
Then he stabs a rabbit or something and you remember that the peacock is the bad guy.

Frankly, I can't believe Dreamworks is still in the shadow of Pixar.  In terms of graphics and animation, Pixar's Wall-E or Finding Nemo may be the best 3D animated movies ever created, but in general, it doesn't compare to the art in Dreamworks' recent movies.  Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon easily have some of the prettiest animated sequences I've seen, and the storylines are relatively great.  HTYD even manages to avoid the typical Disney ending, a trap that Pixar almost always falls into.

Seriously; it's not just kids watching animated movies.  Give us something that ends on a melancholy note, or maybe something bittersweet.  Heck, give us something incredibly sad.  Shane Acker's 9 (Focus Features) has been the only 3D computer-animated feature film I've seen with a remotely sad ending, but the story wasn't fantastic.  Studio Ghibli has some great art and great storylines, not all of which end on a completely happy note, but it's all 2D animation, so it's not quite relevant to what I'm talking about.

If you should take anything out of that long digression of a ramble, it's that Kung Fu Panda 2 is a great film, 8/10 stars!

See it twice, once for the story, once to see all the purdy-purdiness of it all.

What's more, school's out!  Cheers!

Happy summer!

New cheetah design! + summer, speakers, and bookity-books

Yay!  My school-related workload has been reduced to the point that I can do stuff again!  Stuff like, say, design Cuddly Critters, play with my guinea pig, go to the zoo, and volunteer at the prairie.  It's awesome.

I'll have to read two novels over the summer, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has far fewer pages than last year's combination of Welcome to the Monkey House and Fast Food Nation.  Last summer, my school began a school-wide summer reading program that requires all students to read the same book.  The book of choice was A Long Way Gone, which is sad, uplifting, and purposeful, but frankly, most students (including myself) couldn't get into it.  This summer, we're all reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which should be more interesting, considering that the author is Neil Gaiman.

And really, who doesn't like Neil Gaiman?

But aside from the reading, I should have a fair amount of time to be rather productive.  I plan to make a few plushies, reread the Dirk Gently books, watch The Joy of Painting on Mondays and Wednesdays and Wyland's show is on Mondays and Thursdays, and not go to summer school, among other things.

But the school year isn't over yet.  I still have to make a bottle rocket and mousetrap car before the break arrives.

On a very different note, Zazzle has some new products!  This video should give you a hint as to what it is:

If you haven't figured it out yet (hopefully, you have) they're Doodle speakers!
These speakers have been getting pretty good reviews.  At least, Zazzle sellers say they're pretty good.

Here are a few of my speakers:

All of the Cuddly Critter designs are also on speakers!

The speakers are available in my Zazzle store.

Happy summer!

Happy Towel Day!

Successful trip to the zoo

Last weekend, I went to the Brookfield Zoo for the first time this year and came back with nearly 600 photos.  Better yet, a fair number of those photos came out quite snazzy!  Here are a few:



It was terribly cold despite the warm-to-hot weather of both the week before and the week after, and the harsh wind and constant rain didn't help much at all.  However, having just taken four AP tests and having been kept away from zoos due to massive quantities of homework, nothing was going to stop me from seeing the African wild dog pups!  They were born in November of 2010 and I really wanted to see them while they were still puppies.

So I did!

The rather dismal weather actually became a plus; a lot of the animals were more active than usual, especially the big cats and wolves.  Even the sloth bear, who probably has yet to walk around her entire enclosure, was up and about.  It was an excellent day for zoo-going, paired with the excellent thought of AP classes being effectively over.

In celebration, let's have a video, shall we?



Cheers!

Easter's Coming Up!

Hazel's holiday photos have returned!
This time, she's posing as a Playboy bunny the Easter bunny!

To get an Easter Piggy card, you can either go to Redbubble or Zazzle.

Here's a preview of one of the Zazzle cards:

A horizontally oriented version is also available on Zazzle; Redbubble only has a horizontal card, but has posters and other prints of this image you'll never want or need.

Happy Easter!

Dr. Johnston

Meet M1320, better known as “Dr. Johnston.”


Dr. Johnston is a genderless, genetically engineered, humanoid rodent. Its less intellectual counterparts are usually assigned to jobs as assistants, help, and in the military, but Dr. Johnston has proven itself a noteworthy competitor in the scientific fields.
Dr. Johnston has written several books, including Humanity: the Perspective of a Non-Human and GM, GE, and the Next Generation, and has won several awards and honors in its field.
—
Now that formalities are out of the way...

M1320 is one of the most revered and absolutely hated GE rodents of its fictional universe. At the moment, it appears to be correcting someone, perhaps Minister-General Halsev, on technicalities. Those two clash quite often.
It’s still a concept. So far, Dr. Johnston doesn’t have pants; it’s genderless, so that’s okay, right?


Here are some sketchies:


Dr. Johnston sketches and concepts; ignore the creepy thing in the top left 0_o

 

Halsev's clothing concepts with the anatomy gradually falling apart

 

Halsev and a GE rodent (Alex, perhaps) discussing politics, which is odd because Halsev hates the GE rodents.  Plus, the style looks inconsistent.  I shall have to work on that...


Are the GE rodents uncanny valley enough, or should I step up the creepiness?