| A Look Back at 2006 2006 has been a great year! Here's the lowdown: ------------------------
In April, a French album collecting the first five issues of ZED was published by Les Editions Kymera. The translation was done by Eric Bufkens who did a great job. It was nice to be able to have my French Canadian mom read ZED for the first time. I would have liked to release another issue of ZED in 2006 but did not find the time to do so. Still, I managed to complete over half of ZED #8 before the year's end. ------------------------
Flight 3, which contained the third chapter of The Saga of Rex, was published in June (by Ramdom House) to commercial and critical acclaim. Check out a preview of chapter 3 here. I also completed the next 32-page chapter which will be featured in Flight 4, due out in 2007. Check out a preview of chapter 4 here. In the summer, I was able to pitch the entire story to Flight editor Kazu Kibuishi and got thumbs up from him. That meant a lot to me. To say that I'm enthused about this project would be an understatement. I'm so happy to be involved with the Flight project. The whole crew is so talented and nice. If it weren't for Flight, "The Saga of Rex" might have never materialized. ------------------------ On the exhibition side, I participated in 6 group shows at various venues including Gallery Nucleus, Gallery 1988, Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham and the Calgary Comic Expo. I always enjoy doing a few art shows a year as it gives me a good opportunity to experiment with concepts and techniques.
------------------------ Here's a recap of the animation projects I worked on in 2006
------------------------ In September and October, I worked full time on Opus: The Last Christmas movie. I really felt a burst of inspiration on that project and created some of my strongest and most polished FX designs yet. Applying my Photoshop skills to the max, I created nearly 100 pre-production paintings. I was sad that the film was put on hold due to scripts revisions. Hopefully, production will resume sometime next year and I can continue what I started. ------------------------ In the Fall, I was invited by Brad Bird to create some animation for his upcoming movie. I started on that at the beginning of November. I gotta say, Brad has a way to get me excited about animation like no other director - and I love the latitude he gives me. This is a dream project for me. I get to design my animation segment, animate it, paint it and composite it! I'm so happy I've got my new Animo licensed software to do that. There's no way I could do this project without it. Animo rules!!! I look forward to continue working with Brad in 2007. ------------------------
Working on Xeko for Matter Group has been an amazing learning experience where I've been able to refine my Photoshop skills a great deal. Previous to Xeko, I had never done realistic illustrations. I had to learn to do so, at a high level, in a very short time. It's been very hard work but rewarding at the same time. Click here to view some of the artwork I created for Xeko. ------------------------ 2006 saw the release of two more Insanely Twisted Rabbit sculptures from our partner Sideshow: The Evil Grin Rabbit and the Scorpion Rabbit.
Sideshow is a wonderful company to work with. Their attention to detail, their commitment to quality and their generosity has made our association with them a true joy. ------------------------ Other interesting projects included a 3D cover illustration for Nickelodeon Magazine's The Comic Book; the editorial page illustration for Norway's Nemi Magazine, a Troglodyte pinup for the upcoming comic Troglo #1, and a Honey B doll for the upcoming Hong Kong Toy Fare. ------------------------ Add projects in the works that I can't discuss yet, a whole bunch of conventions, trade shows and lectures, and you've got a really busy year filled with fun and excitement. In 2007, I look forward to continue my work in publishing, animation, art, and "God knows what" in my pursuit of creativity. Being an artist who can make a living at his craft is a true blessing that I never take for granted. A Look Back at 2005 |
I
began work on 
In
2006,
I made some big strides in my 160-page graphic novel 
Last
summer, after attending a wonderful musical session at the Vancouver
International Jazz Festival and meeting with Rainbow
Robert, the event's organizer, I finally got the wheels
in motion on the abstract animated short I've been
itching to
do for years. Working at night and on weekends, I was able to create
a short teaser to be used for a grant proposal for the 2008 festival.
If everything goes as planned, I will start animating the short
titled
The
beginning of 2006 saw the completion of my work on the 
