Friday, January 23, 2015

NEW PODCAST!!

super stoked and proud to announce my new podcast is available in the iTunes store! just search for The Animation Network (or my name) in the podcasts section! please share, share, SHARE it and most importantly, please give it a high rating on iTunes if you like it. (a pleasant comment would go a long way as well!) w00!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

come say hi!


in case you're free that weekend! i'll be posted up in Artist Alley at table 2202!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

FINALLY!!

Skratchy is LIVE on YouTube! yeah, you remember, 'member? like over a year ago that animated short that i had started working on? then i had to take a break from because i was working on a new show here at Disney that took LOTS of time. alas! Skratchy McPoochberry's PizzaTime FunHouse is ready for viewing! check it out!



we hope you like it! and if you do, please SHARE SHARE SHARE the junk out of it, and be sure to LIKE it on YouTube! also, check out our other blog Sketch & Sniff Cartoons for more happenings with the short and what's coming up next for us!

thanks, everyone!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

hey, everyone! this Saturday i'll be at an art show in Anaheim! come join for the opening reception, meet some rad artists, eat some free stuff, and buy some video game-themed art! i'll have two pieces in the show, but there will be tons of artists with tons of disciplines! here's the flyer!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

post-WonderCon 2014 post

hey guys!

thanks so much for all of your support. so many of you showed up to my table at WonderCon in Anaheim this year, which was my first year hosting a booth. the response was overwhelming and truly flattering. typically, i don't have time for things like that because the time commitment is far greater than i can allow for (drawing 50-60 hrs every week for work), but since many of you asked for it, i'm certainly glad i made the push! in that same regard, since there was a large demand for prints to be available online, i will try my hardest to have an online store up and running by the end of the week! i'll be sure to announce when that happens. in any case, for those of you who were not able to make it out, i wanted to at least post my goods here so that you can see what i had available. a few of these you may recognize from the past (like the black & white Batman, Super Mario 1up sticker, Bravest Warriors print, and Stitch in a Wolverine costume), but a couple were brand new specifically for this convention (like my brand new Dragonball Z series and Link from Zelda at Bikini Bottom). take a look, lemme know what you think, and share, share, share!

**NOTE: there is something wrong with my posting today that is making the colors come out strange. these colors are off compared to BOTH of my screen calibrations and the actual prints. i'll try to get this fixed as soon as possible!**



Monday, April 14, 2014

WonderCon 2014


hey, guys! don't forget this weekend is WonderCon in Anaheim. it's literally across the street from Disneyland! be sure to swing by and say hi, as i'll be holding down my own table this year in Artist Alley for my first time, solo. i'd love to meet you and hear about the exciting things going on in your life. also, i'll have some cool pieces for sale, including new artwork that i haven't posted yet! need more info? here ya go: http://www.comic-con.org/wca!

if you're able to make it out, swing by table #AA082! i'm even fulfilling commission orders. HOORAY!!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

sketches to post

so! i got a few minutes to do... i dunno what with, so i decided i should post a few of my droorings that i've managed to squeak out here and there over the last few weeks in between work and shorts and getting ready for WonderCon. below are a few quick pieces i did for the Sketch Dailies twitter account this month. they were fun warmups to do, so hopefully i can squeeze in a few more here and there. i think the prompts are pretty obvious, but i'll type them above each drawing:

honey badger:


Ursula:


Sherlock Holmes:



thanks for swinging by!

Friday, January 17, 2014

STICKER GIVE AWAY!!

ok so ever since i was a kid, Friday has been my favorite day of the week. today's been one of those exciting Fridays! i'm stoked that i finished my work early, i have a fun weekend planned with my beautiful wife, and to top it off, we have a 3-day weekend because of a great man who dared to think outside the box. AND SO! to celebrate the weekend, i'm going to do a little give away: 1 free Mario sticker to a random new follower for every 10 followers on BOTH Twitter and Instagram (both @optik2010) from now through Monday! just follow me and tweet/post "i want one!" to me for your chance to win! and, as always, thanks for digging what i do :0)

<3,
k.w

Thursday, January 16, 2014

#TBT

my contribution to Throwback Thursday: Milli Vanilli doodle!

Monday, January 13, 2014

testing my new mic!!

hey guys! mega stoked to share my new mic with you all. i threw something together that i hope you'll find interesting! give it a listen:

Thursday, November 14, 2013

portfolio stuff (pt.1?)

so earlier today i tweeted something about aspiring artists breaking into the industry having difficulty preparing a competitive portfolio. seems like it struck a chord with some, and they asked me to elaborate on my thoughts about this. i'll try to keep it short, because i could go on about this for awhile. in this post, i'll elaborate on just my thought process behind the specific tweet from today: it's no surprise that students are confused as to what their portfolios should look like coming out of school trying to break into the biz. keep in mind, by no means are my words gospel. i'm just reporting what i've seen work time and time again, what hasn't, and what i know from my time in the industry and my friendships with the people looking through portfolios.

i'll get everyone on the same page first by backing up just a bit. see, many of you have reached out to me because you know some of my history and know that i have lots to offer by way of giving a portfolio review or feedback of some sort. at lot of times, i hear questions like, "if a potential employer looked at my site, what would make them pass on it?" or "how do I keep their attention?" or "basically what would I need to have to be able to apply?" and after some investigation, i've found that the reason for these questions is because the sources to what they've been hearing is all over the place. half the time it's from a super seasoned veteran who's been in the industry as long (or longer) than the aspiring artist has been alive. this causes problems because they're so far removed from what it takes to get a job at the most competitive of edges today. essentially, their careers speak for themselves, which is fine, but what about a kid who's fresh-faced, right outta art school? the portfolio methods or hierarchy ladders don't apply the way they did pre-1996. then the other half of the time, these aspiring artists try to latch onto what they gather from following more current industry players. the problem here is that they spend too much time imitating the frosting without getting the ingredients to bake the cake -- so that they can bake one -- THEN frost it.

to clarify:
scenario A)- you come out of school with your best graded project in every class all crammed into one portfolio with some life drawings at the end of it. in essence, it's a mess to a recruiter, but you're hopeful to get an "entry level" gig (mainly due to your love of drawing) as a prop cleanup artist or whatever so that you can work your way up to a full-fledged character designer.

scenario B)- you end up with a portfolio that looks like a sloppy, diluted version of artwork from your favorite artists, and you try to pass off your lacking knowledge of anatomy, color theory, or imagination as "your style".

now of course there are tons of half-steps in this rainbow of possible types of portfolios. these just happen to be the ones i see THE MOST. and i'm not talking about the good ones i see from time to time, which definitely happens, but this post isn't about those portfolios. so then someone reading this might wonder, "well what ARE the answers to those previous questions??" unfortunately, it's hard to nail down in one answer because each discipline has slight differences. maybe i can resolve more about this in a followup post. but i can tell you this: very seldom does any recruiter look for a jack-of-all-trades; so one common denominator here is that if you have a hodgepodge of artwork in your portfolio, it will be very hard to land a gig at a major animation studio these days. the key is to specialize in something. shit, you can specialize in MULTIPLE things, as long as you separate them into multiple portfolios. at the very least, have multiple pages on your site to categorize.

sounds like a lot of work? it isn't. at least not for those who really want to be here. there are plenty of empty cubes on my floor waiting to be filled by the people who want it badly enough and are willing to put in the time and effort to nail the first hurdle -- the portfolio review.

Monday, November 4, 2013

writing a cover letter for an internship?

Many of you have found me online or have been sent my way by someone who knows me to try to offer some guidance for breaking into the animation industry. This includes snagging an internship. Recently, a student who is in this very position has been sent my way by one of her professors who I just worked with on a show. She sent me her portfolio, cover letter, resume and asked for any help at all. I love people like this because these are the ones who will go far. Anyway, here are a few little tidbits I gave her already just based on her cover letter. Some of you could use this as well, but not all will use the advice..

The first thing is, make sure to do your research. Don't start out this very important letter as "dear recruiter". That's not his/her name. Find out who the recruiter is, and address the letter properly. This will get you much further in your pursuit and put you ahead of other people who didn't care to take the time for something so simple, but very powerful. Think about it: if you had to choose a few people to hire for your business out of HUNDREDS of applications, which would you throw out right away? Probably the ones who seem to not care very much.

Also, sort of on the same note, do your research and find out what the internship is all about. For example, a union studio is much different than a non-union studio. Interning at Titmouse will be a much different experience than interning at Nickelodeon. Do you know anything about Nickelodeon's internship? Have you looked it up online? Don't applying for something that doesn't exist — meaning if the internships is for production positions ONLY, do not apply for artistic positions! Your application will end up in the trash faster than it took you to write your cover letter. (**Side note: this is an excellent way of being transparent in your laziness. It will be painfully obvious you wrote one letter for multiple studios and just changed the studio name on each letter.)

The good news is, these two suggestions that I mentioned go together because probably all of this info is on one page of a website. AND, if you wanna be really stellar at networking, you could even email the recruiter to ask more questions. That will REALLY show you care and that you put time and effort into something you really want. This will put you far ahead of many people competing for the same position. When you go to apply, there is a better chance of being recognized or remembered, which will improve your chances for success.

The last suggestion is to add a little bit to your letter so it feels more specific to the studio in which you are applying. You want to make them feel like you want that internship more than anything. Don't simply say that though. No one likes brown-nosing. The way to do it, though, is to make your letter feel like you're writing it to THEM, rather than "Dreamworks" could be taken out and substituted with any other studio name. Maybe it's not a huge deal, but I know that when they look through hundreds of applications, they'd rather choose you, who Disney (or whatever studio), specifically means something to you rather than being "just another internship".

Hope this helps!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

inktober sketch sale!



thanks to everyone who's been following my inktober chronicles! i really appreciate all the "likes", "favorites", retweets, and comments on the various webbernet forums! so, because of all the love, i've decided to sell away these sketches for the low, low next-to-dirt-cheap price of only ten bucks a piece! that's right.. no tax OR shipping fees! yes -- FREE SHIPPING! so if you liked any doodles i did of characters including SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse, TMNT, Looney Tunes, Adventure Time, Ducktales, Nightmare Before Christmas and tons of your other childhood favorites, just click the link above that says inktober store! and you'll be well on your way to owning your own hand-drawn, inked, one-of-a-kind piece of art!

do it for the children!!!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Tex Avery model sheets!

so today's tidbits are from one of my animation heroes -- Tex Avery! soak it up! here are some model sheets used on this very episode below!



Friday, September 6, 2013

Skratchy is live!

a little while back i made it known that i was working on a new idea for a short series of webisodes. i put lots of time in the beginning (with my partner Noel Cox and a handful of other talented folk) and got all the planning and designing worked out. however, when it came time for the animation, life got a bit "cray". i started a new job at Disney, my new nephew was born, and day by day i'm inching my way closer to my wedding (1 month from today!)! so naturally, the animating has been happening, but very slowly. however, so many people had expressed interest in it earlier on and still continue to ask about it, that i thought i could at least post the animatic to the first short! that way, people can get a taste of it again until i can get the rest of it animated. plus, it'd be nice to hear what a few more people think of it.

you can take a look at it here!


don't forget to pass it aaaaall around like mono! also, if you like it, you can join me in thanking these people for all their help in the process so far:
~Noel Cox
~Byron Dockins
~Sean Gantka
~Ashley Stoddard
~Kevin Garcia
~Deirdre Brenner
~Mike Orlando
~Chase Wimberly
You guys are great and we'll get it all finished soon!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

happy birthday!

hey, guys!

so here's something a little different! i'm taking the time to post some ANIMATION! can you believe it? i've never posted any animation in my life, BUT this is a special case.

as some of you know, yesterday was my birthday. not only that, i shared it with some pretty cool people! one of these people is the great Marlo Meekins who is currently dominating the social networking scene with hilarious feeds through her Twitter and Vine account (@MarloMeekins). anyway, so here's a short film i through together just in time for our birthdays! if you feel so inclined, take a look below!



thanks!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Candy Mario!

hey guys!

so here's a quick one i did for my pals over at A Sitting Duck (a studio in the UK who's videos you may have seen on YouTube)! one of their biggest characters is a mega cute dino called Candy the Magic Dinosaur! since they're all about animation and video games at A Sitting Duck, i did a fun mash-up for them! a generous blend of Candy (as Yoshi) and Mario from Super Mario World (on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System)! what do you think??

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

back in effect mode!

wuddup, y'allz?!

as some of you know, i've been crazy busy lately putting together tons of awesome stuff for your retinas! so i thought this would be a great opportunity to bring back the ol' Sketch & Sniff project studio! so far, i've only got one thing up and running under this umbrella, and that is my new weekly comic blog over at LOLraplyrics.tumbler.com. i'm sure you're imaginations are already putting together what it's about, but in case you need help, GO CHECK IT OUT. be sure to laugh and share as much as possible in hopes to brighten someone's day. (just be sure to tell them some of it is #NSFW..)

anyway, so with all the cool things going on, i've put together this fresh look for the S&S logo! hope ya dig it!

Friday, February 8, 2013

say "hey" to Skratchy!

hey, gang!

so here it is. this is the thing i've been talking about on Twitter for the last couple weeks! it's my new short series that i'm going to be posting on YouTube called Skratchy McPhoochBerry's PizzaTime FunHouse!



hopefully you're intrigued enough to know what the show is about, so here it is: it's about a lovable and excitable dog-puppet who's a bit "rough around the edges" and is the star/ringleader of a pizza place for children of all ages! it's the ultimate dinner theater and arcade that any (sane) parent probably (wouldn't) bring their children!!

here's a look at your gracious host, Skratchy McPoochberry:


think you can handle the hot loads of cheesy fun all in your face?? then get ready because Skratchy will be opening the doors to his restaurant this Spring!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Bravest Warriors (Danny) prints for sale!!

**amended 01.24.13**

well, by now you've probably seen or heard something about Bravest Warriors on YouTube. this is especially true if you're fans of Pendleton Ward's other show, Adventure Time. but now i'd like to share this little number with you once again as a commemoration of a super fun episode i storyboarded called "Dan Before Time" (check it out here) that just aired today! if you're a fan, take a look below and see if any of these pieces tickles your fancy. since there is a very limited number, be sure to buy yours quickly and share the link with your friends! perhaps if these go quickly enough, i'll have to do another one of other characters :0)

below are two versions of the print that i'm selling. it's a slightly amped up version of the "Pen Ward look" that people have come to know. i really wanted to do something special and fun for this, and to make it even more so, i was fortunate to borrow the righteous coloring skills of Alex Deligiannis:

Black & White (8x10)- $15.00

Color (8x10)- $25.00

now here's the thing: i'm selling only 20 prints of each. both versions will be numbered (#1-20 for b/w, #1-20 for color) and signed (by both Alex and myself for the colored version).

ready to claim yours?? then click the "Buy Now" button below to securely pay through Paypal! "Get down to biz, my ninja!"

choose which variant you prefer!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Scooby sketches

one night on Twitter, i asked the people what i should draw. it's always fun to hear what people think would look cool drawn in your "style". so i got a suggestion to draw the Scooby Doo gang, and i did just that. though, instead of drawing one large picture, i decided to break it up into a nightly themed drawing challenge. it was fun to draw these guys since i never have. here's what i came up with and posted on Instagram as my reditions of the characters. thanks for the great response over the last week or so!

Scooby Doo

Shaggy

Daphne

Fred

Velma

thanks for checkin' them out! hope you like 'em!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Chris & Beth

here's another Bravest Warriors drawing i threw down today just to give myself something interesting to draw. again, i decided to draw these characters with a bit of an off-model take. i'm thinking i may color this one because it looks pretty fun.

since the show isn't out yet, some of you may not know the characters very well. hopefully though, you can tell through this drawing that Chris has a thing for his "friend" Beth.

Friday, July 27, 2012

1980s Villains week!

So like last week, I decided to generate a theme for my daily sketches. I find it keeps me focused and responsible to keep posting fresh drawings that are unrelated to work stuff. However, unlike last week, I decided to save the daily posts here until Friday to share. Although, I did post them everyday on Instagram and Twitter (both @optik2010). Here's what I've got for ya:

Monday
Gargamel from The Smurfs

Tuesday
Mumm-Ra from Thundarcats

Wednesday
Magica De Spell from Ducktales

Thursdaybr> Skeletor from He-Man

Friday
King Koopa from Super Mario Bros.