Mayor Jones' Place Scooby Doo Mystrey Incorporated

This post is dedicated to Mayor Jones, Fred's "not real" dad. The first two are from City Hall in episode 2, the Ghost Truck show and the rest are of Mayor Jones' home from episode 25 toward the end of season 1. Designs by Chris Tsirgiotis and Bill Flores.

More Scooby Doo Mystery Inc Background Art "Shrieking Madness"

Hi Scooby fans! This was one of my favorite shows to paint BGs on. A haunted mansion is classic Scooby. Although on this series we had many other strange places to visit. I still think there's nothing better than the haunted mansion. Check out the whole show. It's called Shrieking Madness with Harlan Ellison. My fave from season one!

DC Nation: Thunder and Lightning short bg art

I painted these backgrounds for Lynell Forestall who created this short Thunder and Lightning for DC Nation. Lynell and I go way back. We worked on Johnny Bravo together. I'm proud that he got this short and I think it's good. I hope it turns into something for him. Here is a clip of him in an interview talking about it along with Lauren Faust.

See. I have been telling you. The best Scooby Doo EVER! HA!

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tag/scooby-doo-mystery-incorporated

Check out the article at Cartoon Brew. I have been telling you all that this is the best Scooby Doo series ever. Now I am starting to see some other believers out there. Jerry Beck is now a fan. Thanks Jerry for the article! 

Sword of the Atom background art

 These were some backgrounds I painted for the Sword of the Atom shorts in the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network. I was Art Directing on Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated so I had to do these at night usually in one evening except for the Arena which took two. I had to use a lot of lighting cheats in order to get them done fast. Everything done at WB has to be done on the cheap, fast and dirty. I would get the layouts for these and they would say they need them like the next day. I like quality so I would hurt myself working until 2AM to make these look good. In my opinion they look ok. I really only like the green grass one at the top and the dungeon at the bottom.

70s Pattern Experiment

This was just an experiment with patterns I wanted to try using in a portrait. It's nice when it's subtly seen in the flesh tones I think.

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated background art

Hi all, These are a few backgrounds I painted from season one on Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated (SDMI). This was from the Vincent Van Ghoul episode if that wasn't obvious with the posters on the walls. Here's an update on the air date for Season 2, for those of you who are curious. Starting July 30th Cartoon Network decided to air 15 episodes of SDMI Season 2 in 15 days. So every day for roughly 2 weeks you will be able to watch almost half of Season 2. I hope you have nothing better to do. I can't wait to see how that scheduling will work out for the show. It seems weird but might turn out to be brilliant!?

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated Color Styling

   Sticking to the same theme of drawing the artists I work with, here's Brian Smith. Those of you who know him might like this. Those of you who don't, let me tell you, he has saved my butt on Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. He is a very fast, talented and meticulous color stylist that I hope will be on my next project after we are finished here. This IS by far the most ambitious show I've worked on in the area of color styling. Every room change or location change and even situation change we have to change up the color and lighting on the characters and models. One of the things that can cost a production a lot of money in creative retakes is having to fix color models over seas. We haven't been lucky but fortunate to be under the retake budget on all the the shows so far on second season thanks to Brian. Aside from work, Brian is a real character. He does a lot of funny poses and expressions that have been imprinted on my brain that I have turned into drawings. I'm a little afraid to post them here cause I don't want to piss him off. I might need him on my next job. I wish I could post more of his work but will have to wait until SDMI second season airs starting in May. Here are some examples that won't give away any new story plots and you can see just on Scooby and Shaggy how much we have shifted the lighting and color. This was in one episode. Be sure to tune in to the second season. You won't want to miss it. Thanks for viewing.

Bill Wray Lunch

 

Lunch with Bill Wray. Sorry, William Wray as he now likes to be called. I like to draw the artists I work with. I have been a fan of Bill's work for at least 15 years. Now we are working together and have become friends. He was moving his head around a lot and smiling a lot more than I depict him here. He doesn't normally look so stern. It's hard to catch the fleeting smiles so I avoid drawing them. I sometimes don't ask people to stay still while I draw them. I want to see if I can get them without them posing. I think I got him. If you don't know him check out his blog here: http://williamwray.blogspot.com/

"My Gym Partner's a Monkey" background art

This was a cool show for me to work on. I loved working at Cartoon Network back then. There was such good talent on this show, it's amazing it wasn't more of a success. At least for me I couldn't  stand the main character and was happy whenever he got the crap beaten out of him. I remember Nate Cash was particularly good at doing that in his storyboards. Thanks Nate. Besides hating the main character, Art Directing is hard work. I always get suckered into doing it because they know how power hungry I am. Seriously though it's always the art and the designs of the show that make it worth while for me. These were fun and a joy to work on. Thanks to Dan Krall, Justin Thompson, Fred Gardner and Jim Worthy. The character designs were fun too thanks to Dexter Smith, Tim Cahill and Philippe Tilikete.

Scooby Doo: Legend of the Phantosaur Title Sequence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKQApITQ8TA
Hi All! I know this is kinda old  by now but I just found this looking through my stuff. These are keys I did for a title sequence for Scooby Doo: Legend of the Phantosaur. I designed and painted these keys. Dexter Smith, a long time colleague of mine did the designs for the main characters and the animals in the taxidermy room which are really cool. I really liked the song. It sticks in your head and you can't get rid of it. Then you have to listen to the soundtrack of Annie to get it out of your mind but then you are stuck with tomorrow, tomorrow I love you tomorrow.....for the rest of the day. Then you have to go back and watch this clip again. Scooby doo doobody Scooby doo doo. Maybe you shouldn't watch the clip.

Drawing Lauren

I have made it a commitment to do art everyday that is not related to my daily job. This makes me happy and helps me to be more balanced as an artist. This is my daughter Lauren as she does her homework in front of my drawing station. Thanks for viewing!

Fond memories of Montana

This is another painting I did while living in Montana. All my paintings were painted from life and in one sitting. I think that they have a fresher look that way. Any time I would go back in and rework a painting I did from life it would always wreck the feeling I once had. Now that I work so much in the animation world I see painting as a way to keep me fresh and enjoying art. It brings me back to why I became an artist in the first place and helps me forget about all the stuff that goes on in the big studios.

Painting on the Spot

I used to do a lot of outdoor painting in oil before I got into digital painting. It's hard to do. A lot of really good digital painters can't do it. I took a couple of years off from working in animation and moved to Montana and painted all the time. It took me about a year to get good at it. I wanted to be a full time painter but the bills out paced the sales so I went back to work in animation. I still paint. I did this one one weekend not too long ago. I did it over at the Brand Library in Glendale. Green is a color that can be hard to control, I usually use it sparingly but this looks ok on this little one I think.

Snow Baby Buddha

We went skiing last weekend and I got a little into a snowman making project. It was fun. We lit it up with solar garden lights at night and it looked like the entrance to a monastery with the Baby Buddha out front.