[01] COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Zombie Walk of Fame

One more day until Halloween! I'll be getting my devil on soon and have a special post for you tomorrow if I survive the party Saturday night with all the creeps, goblins, and weirdos I know (which quite frankly makes me scared to death of the holiday.) If you're just joining in, we've been counting down for the past two weeks to Halloween 2010 with sketches and in-progress drawings from my upcoming Zombie Walk of Fame series. I'm taking stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and zombifying them for your amusement.

May I present to you a preview of one of the crown jewels of this collection of illustrations, Winnie the Pooh. This cuddly Pooh bear was created by A. A. Milne in the 1920's. Disney eventually turned the character into their own little empire of animation and licensing. The cartoon has become a world-wide phenomenon and Milne's books have been translated into many different languages (weird factoid: the Latin version is the only Latin-language book to ever be on the New York Times Best Seller list). The stories of this series are literally drawn from real life based on Milne's son Christopher Robin and his toy Pooh bear named Winnie. Pooh was given his signature red shirt in color in the 30's and by the 1940's the stuffed Pooh bear was a popular and widely marketed children's toy. My Pooh is stuffed all right... he has an uncontrollable appetite for brains and I think his eyes got bigger than his belly so to speak.

Winnie the Pooh Zombie sketch and line work (finished this evening)

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Mickey Brand Halo

Early last year, I was contacted online by Toby HK, a designer and liaison for the Hong Kong division of Disney about a project entitled Mickey Brand Halo. A few dozen artists were chosen to paint custom 12 inch tall vinyl Mickey Mouse toys to be showcased in Hong Kong at Times Square and auctioned off for charity. Other artists and designers came together for the event with paintings, sculptures, and utilitarian works to commemorate Mickey and his iconic image. Although I couldn't make it to the opening, Toby was kind enough to send out pics of the event.



My Mickey sported my own pop-surrealist style! On the back-side shot posted here, you can see I gave a window into his brain and what's on it! I never got a good pic of the insides of his hands due to the angle (which also was very difficult to paint!). In his left hand is a U.S. penny and in his right hand a pellet of green rat bait... which might also explain the look on his face and the foam at the mouth! I'm glad to say he made it around the world to me and back and now takes happy residence there. It was loads of fun taking part in a project for a company like Disney and hope there are similar opportunities in the future!

Here is a great article on the exhibit from Toys 'R' Evil...