Possum Press

I’m working on a short Possum film that I’m hoping to fully animate.  This one will take time, I know, I know… but as long as it keeps progressing it’ll get done eventually.  I’m pretty stubborn, so we’ll see what happens. Here are some random board panels I’ve been working on.  The whole short will be about 3 or 4 minutes long as of now, and I’ve probably boarded out a little over half of it.

I’ve done a lot of sketches of The Possum doing strange, random things over the last 7 years, for people who have bought Possum comics.  Here’s another one.

It’s that time of year again…….

I may be able to make that happen soon, sweetie.

Love, Dad.

I recently participated in an art show featuring artists from the Toronto animation scene titled All Dahl’d Up.  The show was organized by Tammy Semen, and was displayed at the Gladstone Hotel here in Toronto.  The theme of the art show was Roald Dahl, so I did a fox…  you know… because of the Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Here it is:

 And here’s a few process pictures for you ‘behind the scenes types':

 (there’s some bonus Copy Cat roughs up there in the photo too!…  my desk is a mess!)

I used brush and ink and coloured it with gauche on illustration board.  I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t sell so I can put it in my living room…  I may even try some more paintings of this type, as it was kind of fun to do.

Artists in the show were:

Alysia Avey
Alexandra Kavalova
Andrew Wolf
Bill Speers
Blair Kitchen
Caroline Hung
Dharmali Patel
Hilary Leung
Ian Westoby
Jason Groh
Jason Thompson
Jim Bryson
Joey So
Kathryn Durst
Kyu-Bum Lee
Mike Csunyoscka
Mike Helmer
Nick Hehn
Nikolas Ilic
Noam Sussman
Perry Osuna
Sam Bradley
Sarah Mercey
Shawn Colbeck
Tara Donovan
Rachel Chalk
Rory Madge

…

The kids are getting old enough to be put to work!

My daughter Avery (just turned 10) colouring while I have a coffee.

(No seriously…  My son (7) and daughter (10) coloured a good chunk of this for me)  I knew they’d pay off.

For those of you who look at this blog to see updates on how the latest issue of The Possum is coming along, I thought I better give you a little something and assure you that I haven’t given up on issue #6.

With that said, I have taken a little bit of a detour from The Possum as of late to try to finish a couple other projects that have been kicking around in my head for some time.  I’ve been plugging away on a children’s book, which I’ve been posting some of the pages as they’ve been getting completed….. (some of the pages, not all of them)

I’ve also been trying to finish a short animated piece based off of a children’s book that my wife has been working on.  I’m using it as an excuse to learn how to use Toonboom and it could also be something I might try to develop further into something more some day.  This is where I’m at with it at the moment:

alphabuddies March 30 work in progress from Possum Press on Vimeo.

Also, I’ve been chomping at the bit to start making a Possum animated short and I’ve finally started to do some very rough storyboards. The plan is to make it look something like this… or maybe this….  (This one may take a while to finish, but you know what?….. I’m a stubborn man).

There’s a lot of different ideas rattling around inside of my head but I’ll just keep working away at them all and hopefully I won’t go crazy.

P.S.  I didn’t even mention Captain Smith and Broccoli Boy and all the other Possum stories that I have yet to get to (24 hour comic inspirations, Spy Guy team ups, merchandise….)  How is it possible that people get bored?

Here’s some more pages from the book I’m working on:

I think a lot of you know that I’ve been having problems with my liver for the last 11 years, but more specifically the last couple of years, and a little over 3 months ago I received a liver transplant.  It’s a long story, but a very good friend of mine donated almost 75% of his liver to me last October (and I’m eternally grateful to him!!), but because of some complications the transplant had to be redone in November, using a liver from a deceased donor (who I have never met, but am also eternally grateful to!!!……  God is watching over me and taking care of me).   Three weeks after my first transplant I went into the hospital with trouble breathing.  It turned out that the main artery that supplies blood to the liver had clotted up and my new liver was dying, which caused the main bile duct to deteriorate and bile was leaking into my abdomen (hence the trouble breathing).  I was immediately checked into the hospital and had my abdomen drained.  3 days later, I was being wheeled into the operating room for my second transplant in 3 weeks.

By the grace of God, everything went really well with the second transplant, and 3 months later I’m back playing hockey and wrestling with my kids.  I’m feeling better now than I have in YEARS and I’m enjoying not being yellow anymore!  It was a hard couple of months, but so many positive things happened during that time that I feel fortunate to have gone through it all (which sounds strange, but it’s true)….  although I’d be more than happy to never do it again.

Here’s a few more coloured pages from the children’s book I’m working on….  Only 21 more pages to colour…

I’m just sayin’…..

Copy Cat – page 1

Here’s a few pages of the children’s book I’m working on, all coloured up.  None of these pages are final colours yet, as I’m still trying to figure out how I want them to look (or rather how to get them to look like I see them in my head…)  I find colouring very challenging to do, as it’s never been one of my strong points.  I’ve spent the majority of my career animating and only worrying about the rough drawing stage, as most of what I’ve done gets passed on to someone else, who cleans it up and colours it.  One of the nice things about doing your own work is that you get to focus on everything.  One of the not so nice things about doing your own work is that you realize how little you actually know, and how many areas you suck at.  Hopefully after making a few books, I’ll start to figure things out.

Copy Cat – page 8

Copy Cat – page 13

Copy Cat – page 25

Copy Cat – page 26

O.K….   Back to painting….

Here’s a few more roughs for the children’s book I’m working on, called Copy Cat.  I have 36 pages roughed out, so now I’m in the process of trying to figure out the actual layout of the pages and put in the text.  From there I need to transfer each drawing onto illustration board so I can ink them, then scan them into the computer for colouring.  I’m hoping to start playing with colours on a few of these drawings this week.

A little while ago, my kids were talking about making comic books and different characters that they were going to make, when my son, Jacob, said he was going to make a character called “Copy Cat”.  I’m sure this is nothing like what he was thinking of (I hope not, so I don’t have to pay him royalties!), but I immediately had an idea for a children’s book.  Recently I had a fairly large operation that has kept me out of commission for the last 5 weeks, but I’m feeling better every day and have had the urge to start drawing again.  Comics require a bit more planning and organization than I’m capable of right now, but something like a children’s book allows a bit more freedom to just draw.

Here’s some rough drawings:

The story is about a cat named Copy, who copies all of the other animals and never thinks for himself, until one day he starts copying some animals that aren’t that nice.  The bully animals pick on other kids, with Copy following, but it just doesn’t feel right.  Eventually Copy puts his foot down and stops his copying, and does what’s right.

This isn’t the first children’s book that I’ve started, but it’s the first one that I’m excited to do.  Stay tuned for more updates as things progress.

3colours from Possum Press on Vimeo.

This is a short piece of animation that I animated for my church. It’s based on a strategy of explaining the gospel using 3 colours (black for sin, red for the blood of Christ, and white for our salvation). The concept was first introduced by Charles Spurgeon in the 1800s as he created “The Wordless Book” which consisted of a book with 3 pages (black, red and white). You can find out more about it at www.3colours.ca

Pages 1 through 20 are roughed out, and I’m currently inking page #3.  It’s been slow going with this comic, due to a hectic year, but I’m getting back in the groove and I’m hoping I can keep going with my momentum.  I’m still more excited than ever to get what’s in my head onto paper, concerning the larger story arc in this series.  I’m not happy with how long it’s taking me to get an issue finished lately, but given the circumstances of life, I’m doing the best I can.  Thanks to everyone who waits patiently for the next issue to come out.