Heat Miser/Snow Miser

 I've noticed that I have a bunch of fun sketches on my facebook that I've never posted here. And maybe that's because I try to post mainly polished-up art on this blog, as opposed to rough unfinished stuff. But sometimes that rough unfinished stuff is just fun, and doesn't need to be polished up, right? And I think this is one of those exceptions.

 The Rankin-Bass stop-motion"animagic" holiday shorts are among my most favorite things in the entire known universe. And those guys (Paul Coker, I'm looking at you!) were amazing character designers. They have so much life and personality and they're so engaging, and I think that's a big part of why people love those mini-movies so much. I think this was Christmas 2014 that I sketched up two of my favorite characters, Heat Miser and Snow Miser. Honestly though, who doesn't love them? Here they are in a screen grab from "The Year Without a Santa Claus":

And here is my take on the big hams:

 Like just about every rough sketch that I do, I'm hoping to do a more cleaned-up version of these, maybe for next Christmas. Until then, I hope you enjoy!

Zootopia: Nick Wilde

Went to see Zootopia and was blown away with how good it is, on so many levels. But the character designs are what really stood out to me. Cory Loftis really killed it! Disney has always been the best at designing compelling, anthropomorphic characters. My favorite has always been Robin Hood. But Zootopia takes the aesthetic of movies like Robin Hood and pushes it so far above the bar. Nick Wilde is such a great character. I love his expressions, his body language, and how it all works perfectly with Jason Bateman's voice acting. Plus, I have a thing for foxes, especially cartoon foxes. So I had to sketch him up. And then I colored him using some new photoshop brushes. I'm pretty happy with how he came out and I hope I captured some of his cool, laid back spirit. What do you think?