HAPPY HOLIDAYS & All the Best in 2011!

So another year has passed and I am officially the worst blogger ever. Hope to post more art and thoughts in 2012. Just too damn busy and most of the art I do is owned by a big old company.

I promise this blog will be more than just silly holiday cards by me.

Have a great holiday Everyone!

~Sam

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

(Copyright 2010 Sam Levine)

This was a fun Holiday Card to create. I usually go for something simpler, but I had this idea in mind since last year. Never have enough time to get everything perfect, but I'm happy with the composition and the character designs. Let me know what you think :)

2010 has been so amazing and crazy crazy busy for me. Hoped to post more art and thoughts on this blog this year, but just never got around to it. Hopefully more stuff next year!

Happy Holidays to you and yours! All the best for an amazing 2011!!

~Sam

YELLOWSTONE/ GRAND TETON TRIP

(Copyright 2010 Sam Levine)

Just got back last night from an amazing trip with my extended family to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming. We moved around a lot and had lots of kids to wrangle, so not much time to sketch. But I took a short time to do some watercolor sketches in my moleskine book that my lovely wife decorated for me for father's day (pictured here).

Saw lots of wildlife; buffalo, both kinds of bear, pronghorn, bald eagles, osprey and other cool little critters. The geysers were amazing. My one geyser painting here (Mammoth Springs) doesn't do them justice. I had my five year old on my knee while painting - that explains the lack of structure to the foreground boardwalk -- or a convenient excuse ;-) Maybe sometime soon I'll have more time to try and capture their amazingness.

Standing in front of Grand Prismatic Spring is a life changing experience. Highly recommended.

JURY DOODLES

(Copyright 2010 Sam Levine)

Just finished a civil trial last week. My fourth case. The first three were criminal. This one was so much more civil.

As always, I doodled throughout making lots of caricatures. They all feel like portraits to me, so I'll work them into digital "paintings" and post them here for fun. Not including any names to protect the innocent :)

Will try and post more as I finish them. If I have time....

Once on this Island...

(Copyright 2010 Sam Levine)

Got hooked on this show with the final episode of the first season. Here's my 8-bit tribute to some members of the cast.

3 Piggies

Dug this up on youtube. I did the rough character designs (based on original film designs by Joe Moshier). I wrote and storyboarded the majority of the piece, which was included as a DVD extra. I actually storyboarded two shorts, one of which was really crazy, but only one was produced.

Like the feature, it was directed by Will Finn and John Sanford. Art Directed by Dave Cutler and edited by the great Jessica Ambinder Rojas. I really enjoyed the creative freedom and the random chaotic comedy of the piece. I doubt many know this exists. Thanks Youtube.

Robot & Monster BFF

Happy to announce that the animated series pilot I directed in 2009 was just picked up by Nickelodeon and will be a tv show! Created by Dave Pressler, Josh Sternin and Jeff Ventimilia it will be a crazy awesome and seriously funny show for children of all ages and even old and boring adults. Yippee!!!

The characters were designed and sculpted created by Dave Pressler.

http://davepresslersculpting.blogspot.com/

I collaborated with Dave to translate the designs to the screen, directing a CG Test to establish the look and feel. The Nick CG team is amazing. The show will be CG and have a different look TBA, but Dave's amazing painted resin style is driving it. Did I mention that these characters and this show are awesome and funny?! They are! It will air on Nickelodeon in the Fall of 2011. Watch it!!!

February 9, 1964

(Copyright 2010 Sam Levine)

Missed Seeing this live by a little less than a decade.

These four guys created my favorite music, period.

More updates to follow the lads through the years, coming soon...

Who Watches The Watchmen? I Do.

(Copyright 2009 Sam Levine)

It's been a while. Been very busy finishing up a great pilot for Nickelodeon among too many other things. Glad to have a chance to push pixels again...

Just got the Ultimate cut of Watchmen on Blu Ray. Inititally I was going to do a version of the original graphic novel lineup and then do the movie version for comparison. But then I realized what a kickass job Zach Snyder and his team did adapting and perfecting the original colors to the screen. Such an amazing palate. John Higgins' use of secondary colors in the comic really grounded the screen adaption as an off center version of a superhero reality. Purple and yellow baby.

Really love this movie, though it's far from perfect. I'm not sure that geeks of the world realize how good they got it.

The extended cut is a bit much. The inclusion of the Black Freighter anime is interesting, ranging from passable to intrusive to really jarring. They may call it an ultimate cut, but it's far less successful than the theatrical version. I guess I have to watch the extended cut (without The Black Freighter) to see if that's any good. I appreciate the added detail of deleted live action scenes, but I'm opposed to filmmakers releasing multiple cuts. I believe there should be one version of a movie, period. Hear that Peter Jackson?!

Regarding the animation of TBF, I don't get the stylistic choice. It's trying very hard to be Frank Miller/300-esque, but not succeeding. I found Dave Gibbons' original style so evocative and grim and it would have fit so well with Zach's movie. (see the Watchmen Motion Comics) Why didn't they just do it in that style? What's there is not very strong and certainly feels out of place with the richly realized live-action film it's supposed to integrate with. It's interesting to watch, but it doesn't really work as part of the Watchmen movie.

What is this???

(Copyright 2009 Sam Levine)

Nobody Dies in the Cartoon...

(click image to enlarge)

There were way too many characters in the original cartoon series to keep track of. These are the 20 that made an impression on me.

I don't have high hopes for the new movie but will check it out, hoping they've captured at least some of the fun the original show had. And I hope whenever a Cobra plane blows up, each badguy parachutes to safety. Well... Actually, I don't hope that.

(Copyright 2009 Sam Levine)

Fresh From the LA Underground... If you can find them...

(Copyright 2009 Sam Levine)

Blake Snyder 1957-2009