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I have LOVED comics my entire life. I still do. To me there is something magical about telling a story with pictures!
The magic comes from the transitions. When we go from one panel to the next.
Transitions in real life are just as interesting. As you will soon read.
I left art school in 1992 and was all ready begin a career in comics.
I was scared away by the over saturated, variant cover, chromium card, gimmicky sea of rip-offs where mediocrity and flashiness were celebrated, and hailed as genius.
Now, I’m going to pick on Mcfarlane, but that’s OK.
He’s a big boy, I’m sure he’ll be fine in his castle where he laughs at me from atop a big pile of money.
spiderman #1 by Mcfarlane
Notice how the vanishing point on the webbing is Spider-man’s spider sack. Why?
Showing originality and unending imagination! Wow!
Here Spewn, oh I’m sorry. Spawn looks like he’s trying to push a battleship anchor chain out of his bowels. Or like my 3 year old nephew Aiden says. “Spawn poops chains.” Glittery chains I added.
The overdrawn badly crap even made it’s way into sculpture!
Look!
not just awful. Gawd Awful!
He is easily amused boy! He wears a trenchcoat every day but lives in Phoenix.
“WOW look at all the detail!”
Kent Melton. Now those are sculptures!
Wow get a load of these! The poses! The expressions! The quality!
Mcfarlane’s work was really all over the place. Absolutely no planning went into his layouts or pages. I can prove it. Look here!
He is easily amused by bad OVERdrawing!
What is Spawn doing on page one? Hovering menacingly 11 inches off of the ground battling his own cape? Obviously Mr. Baseball wanted to show Spawn hovering above the band Poison as they menaced a girl atop a pile of rubble in an alley. Obviously he choked. But look at the DETAIL!!!
Why did so many of his pages have panel’s like the last two on the top row of page two? What i s that? Half an eye? Twice? He didn’ t leave enough room to draw a complete eye people.
Okay and the guy going through a window. Take a good look. According to the first page they are outside. In an alley. The guy is being thrown through a window outside from the outside? OR is he being thrown into a room? WTF? And here’s a classic Mcfarlane CHOKE! Look at the detail in the broken glass! It matters not that glass does not shatter in this way, look at that golden brown thing coming through the glass along with punk #1. Cloth of some sort? Curtain? Nope it’s a brown useless blob supposed to indicate force but really was so that the crappy broken glass doesn’t interfere with the line work on the character. A little planning could have solved it. NO thanks, Mr. Baseball took the easy and ugly way out.
What do people mean ” Detail?” From what I gather arbitrary pen scratches that serve no purpose much less define a form equals “detail.” I can stare at this inadvertent optical illusion panel from Rob Liefeld’s Judgment Day for hours. Just who is standing in front of who? Hmm?
I for one saw the emperor had no clothes. “It’s a cookbook!” I screamed to no avail. Comics had become pointlessly dark and all of my beloved childhood heroes became gritty blood thirsty psychopaths or got killed and replaced by gritty blood thirsty psychopaths. I couldn’t argue with Spawn’s numbers.
No critique of comics would be complete without reaming Liefeld right? It’s like shooting Skrulls in a barrel! So I let Che have a go at it in the podcast.
The following images are visual aids for Che’s bit.
The Talking Che Guevara T-shirt takes a few jabs at Liefeld.
What are those stupid steel fins for? To impale your head?!!
And finally The worst drawing I have ever seen.
What’s up with the hooters CAP?
No wonder Marvel Blew his brains out.
TICE NITS CAPTAIN AMERICA!
Meanwhile Disney had recently put out Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.
The Beast by my Mentor Glen Keane.
Without hesitation, I went into animation and was immediately hired by Disney at 22. For reasons of taste as well as safety, it was mandatory that artists wear vests back then. Instead of action figure collections on our monitors we wore vests.
Here's an old Photograph of me and the gang at Disney back in 1995!
My eight year stint at Disney consumed my youth and almost cost me my marriage. Then in 2002 some suit in a boardroom decided that suits could get a bigger bonus if American Hand Drawn Animation was done in India. Rather than move to Calcutta, or give up drawing for digital animation, I went into TV animation and did storyboards and character designs for a bunch of different places.
There it was again another transition. I was beginning to see the pattern. I remember reading the scripts at these places and thinking how terrible they were. Written by people with no imagination . I started writing the story of an ex-thief ‘s transition into the world of international espionage. It sat on my shelf, every once in a while I added something new or changed another thing but for the next seven years it was always in the back of my mind.
In 2006 I wrote directed and produced my own short at Nickelodeon called Hero Heights.
An animated homage to comic books. Since then the animation jobs have been harder to come by and the projects have gotten lamer and lamer. So once again I have been transitioning this time into many different areas. Comics, Fine Art, Writing and Development, Web Design, and Podcasting. I have designed and built my own website studioraul.com as well as my own blog manvsart.com and I produce the weekly podcast Man Vs. Art about art, animation and comics. Also in this time I have developed almost a dozen properties for animation, comics, videogames and web. All modular in terms of medium. All super kick ass in terms of kick ass factor.
Finally in 2009 the crappy economy gave me time to finally do my book. This comic is a result of all those years of slaving in animation only to be rewarded by a kick in the balls from the studios and betrayed by a lazy, greedy, halfwit of an assistant. Here in my own independently published comic book no one is telling me what to write or draw. Also there is no danger of some other knucklehead like my greedy, halfwit of an assistant destroying my work. I alone decide everything. That way if anything goes wrong I have only myself to blame.
Codename Sparrow is about a guy at the top of his game who through no fault of his own has it taken away. Rather than rot in prison he accepts an offer to be a covert operative for a private “Good Guy” agency. The first story HOT ICE is about Eddie’s Cat Burglar days. In order for you to really know him I feel it will be necessary to do some stories set in that time. The second story “ The Name of the Game” is about his early days in the agency more specifically it’s about how he got his cool Codename. A time when he was transitioning from being a thief to being a covert operative. As an artist and especially writer I found this time to be very juicy.
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So, first off an announcement!
RAUL AGUIRRE Jr. ART SHOW!!
On Saturday October 1oth 2009 Geeks Comics in beautiful uptown Whittier California will be hosting “NIGHT OF THE SPARROW” a solo Art Show and book signing for little ol’ me! That’s right, I will be celebrating the release of my self published action adventure romance and espionage comic book “CODENAME: SPARROW” I’ll be there signing the book and showcasing a gallery of fine drawings and paintings based on the characters in “CODENAME: SPARROW!” There will be prints for sale as well as original work! So c’mon down and say hi!
Check out the promotional piece I made for the event.
Welcome to part two of Man Vs. Art Episode 007!
You are all in for a treat! Submitted for your enjoyment and animation education is my first Interview on Man Vs. Art! The first of many I hope. I’ve been on the other side of the mic plenty of times before, this marks the beginning of my foray into interviewmanship. Hey I think I invented a word! I feel like Don King.
Who the @#?!! is Jim Lujan?
He is a friend, colleague, and all around nut job! Jim Lujan who was instrumental in getting me to start this blog and Podcast. In fact he demanded it! He is a very funny fellow with quite a few loose screws in that head, which makes him the perfect candidate for a career in Cartooning!
I met Jim thanks to networking Maestro Javier Hernandez the creator of El Muerto, Man Swamp and Demolition Dove! Javier asked me to join his Artist Collective the San Gabriel Valley Cartoonistas. A secret society bent on world domination through the use of Cartoons, Comics and Animation. We make public appearances and perform live art all over town with the support of the Nuvein Foundation for Literature and the Arts.
They are a A small non-profit organization in El Monte California that is committed to connecting communities to the arts. Nuvein Foundation’s mission is to raise funds for scholarships for students pursuing a career in the arts and to support those already in the arts. Nuvein is also committed to showcasing the arts through community arts presentations, live performances, and educational programs.
And now I’m involved with them! God Help us all!
Here is one of Jim’s many films, it’s his latest Called John Henry Unicorn.
If you want more Jim try these links!
Jim’s youtube channel is worth a look. Set your ass to “Laughed off!”
Jim Lujan and Raul Aguirre jr.
Self inflicted portraits by Jim, a shot of Jim taunting school children because they can’t drive, a cartoon I made lampooning Luca Brazzi in the Godfather when I was inducted into the Cartoonistas. That’s a tall and elegant Javier Hernandez as the Don, and looking like Sonny is Jim.
Here are a few of the things we mentioned in the interview.
Ralph Bakshi’s
Coolworld 1992
Wizards 1977
Lord of the Rings
A Touch of Evil opening shot.
Darn Good Flick!
Get your stinkin' paws off me you damn dirty Gringo.
Absolutely Brilliant! Orson Welles as a crooked fat cop and Charlton Heston plays a MEXICAN!!! CARAMBA!
It was fun doing and putting together the interview and I hope youfolks enjoy it!
Have an Artful Day!
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OK boys and girls, this post promises to be a doozy.
A wee bit of news.
recently my wife Hortencia and I attended the Hispanic Outreach Taskforce’s fifth annual Art and Music scholarship benefit at the beautiful Whittier Hills estate of Dr. Richard and Mrs. Rebecca Zapanta. Yolanda Garcia the owner of the Casita Del Pueblo Gallery in Whittier asked me if I could donate a painting to the silent auction she was coordinating at the event.
By the way, the setup was sweet! There was a live band playing Latin Jazz, complimentary wine donated by Francis Ford Copolla, and lots of ART!
It was a really cool event, except for the frigging’ heat! As everyone knows Los Angeles was completely on fire again and boy in the early afternoon It was so hot, the beads of sweat rolling down my back had beads of sweat rolling down their backs! I did manage to do some sketches in my Moleskin and met a few really cool folks, and lots of ART!
sketchbook pages from my day at the Zapanta Estate.
Sketch #3 from my day at the Zapanta Estate
Sketch # 4 from my day at the Zapanta Estate.
I want to thank Yolanda for putting together such an awesome benefit! And big thanks Dr. Richard and Mrs. Rebbecca Zapanta for letting a bunch of artists run around their property!
Moving Right Along:What does A fat lady, a DVD, King Taco, Modelo Beer, and Glen Keane have in common?
Today I’m going to share something really cool that happened to me when I was at Walt Disney Feature Animation. I was reminded of this while waiting in line at the local Sam’s club this afternoon.
Which is a story in and of itself as you shall soon read.
There I was getting the essentials, you know? Root beer, smokes, a set of radial tires, ninety nine pairs of socks, a five gallon jar of mustard for me, and tin of shortbread cookies for my wife. In front of me stood what can best be described as a sea manatee in flip flops. A really really really fat lady. The kind of person that is easier to jump over than to go around. during a fire. Her cart was jammed full of fatty processed crap food. Loaves of cheese, 3 foot salamis, a twenty four pack of hams. Not slices of hams. Hams! Twenty four whole hams! Plus a tower of beef patties, half of the pastry aisle, and like five cases of diet soda to wash it all down. She had two little kids with her. I am using little to describe their ages okay? These kids were not little in any way. They were diligently following in mom’s hoof prints. Chunks off the old block.
Jabba the Mom started loading her stuff onto the conveyor belt. Then she reached behind the forty five can ravioli fun case and the 2 pack of fire extinguisher sized whipped cream bottles and pulled out a DVD copy of Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet. I dunno probably to feed it to the kids on the ride home.
Then the clerk some greasy emo kid with a nose piercing tattoos and haircut that screamed,”My Dad didn’t kick my ass enough!”
said,”Oh wow man Treasure planet that is like so old! I was a kid when came out! I remember hearing that they like crossed drawings with computers and stuff. ”
The Fat lady in a voice that somehow sounded like whale song said,
“Really I thought all cartoons were done on computers and stuff since Disney made “Shrek.”
I almost flipped out. There were sooooo many things wrong with this conversation I couldn’t keep count.
But what was I going to do? Be the total douche and be all,
” Excuse me fine citizens I couldn’t help but over hear you. I am Animation Man! A super powered being from the second dimension. My duty is to travel the universe at 24 frames per second creating awareness of animation and correcting misconceptions! Even the ones that the studios purposely create! Yes my young greasy lad, Treasure Planet and more specifically Long John Silver was a hybrid character composed of a complex layering of Traditional hand drawn animation and state of the art CGI. Take it from me kid I was there. What’s more I was instrumental in the creation of that character in more ways than one. Also seven years is not that long and what do you mean was a kid? You are still are a kid. And you my good sea manatee, Shrek was made by Dreamworks not Disney Yes I know it had all the Disney Characters in it, but that’s because the makers of that movie were all bitter Ex-Disney people who wanted to stick it to the mouse. In the end like all Dreamworks movies it made a couple of guys a ton of money. None of them artists. And left the public feeling confused and insulted.”
So rather than look like a douche, I put on my Ipod, got a Zeppelin fix, and proceeded with my consumerism.
Some of the talented folk I worked with on Treasure Planet.
When I got home i got all to thinking about Treasure Planet and all the great folks I got to work with. Eric Daniels who supervised the CG animation of Long John Silver was so mellow and cool. Big time Groo The Wanderer fan like me. When I showed him the test I was doing at the time he went bananas and convinced me to show it to Sergio Aragones. That’s a whole other story though.
SERGIO PABLOS THE MAD SPANIARD!
Then there was Sergio Pablos The Supervising Animator on Dr. Doppler the dog man. In my honest opinion that chain smoking Spaniard is the Baddest ass Traditional Animator of my generation. The amount of care and precision that he would put into his animation was beyond reproach. Beautifully drawn, appealing and full of character.
T.Dan Hofstedt the most talented and nicest viking I ever met.
T.Dan Hofstedt, This is a cool dude. Imagine a big mustached viking in a Hawaiian shirt!
He looked like a Viking but was all laid back like a Hawaiian. In fact that’s where T. Dan was from! Plus he does Vocals and plays both slack-key and lead guitar in a Hawaiian Jazz band called Oahu! How rad is that Bruh?! There were many others, far too many to mention here, but I’ll say this, they were ALL wonderful people with gobs of talent and skill I feel very fortunate to have been there.
See?! A hoola viking!
Check out his Facebook Pic! Friggin’ Awesome!
What a Talent! Give it up for T'Dan everyone!
There were many others , far too many to mention here, but I’ll say this, they were ALL wonderful people with gobs of talent and skill. We worked many long hours together and for the most part spent more time with each other than with our families.
Long Ago,in a time when animation was hand-drawn as well as heartfelt.
I remember fondly. Yes I believe it was spring 2002. Back when I was working on Treasure Planet with my mentor Glen Keane. Glen and I had to work over the weekend and finish this massive Long John Silver scene where Silver and Jim Hawkins meet for the first time and quickly try sizing each other up. Silver is trying to do a few things. He wants to show off to the kid by putting on some bad ass cooking skills. But at the same time a warning about how dangerous that cybernetic arm can be as well as how masterfully he controls it. Very subtle but effective display of power.
Glen and Treasure Planet Directors John Musker and Ron Clemments gave were cool enough to give me the props in the scene to handle on my own! The veggies, eggs, and space shrimp were animated by yours truly! It may not seem like much, but to me it was my first time “animating” not following up on a production scene. To a young punk who didn’t go to CalArts this was epic. Despite the poker face and professionalism I displayed, I practically wet my pants when they told me I could do it!
Glen needed to key out the last few feet and I needed to finish the keys, draw the breakdowns and inbetweens, not to mention have it shot and ready for the directors Ron Clemments and John Musker first thing Monday morning. I stayed until 3 am that Friday night before just to have enough work set up for me to come in and spend Saturday and Sunday tying it down.
A first pass animation rough key by Glen Keane. Check out the note Glen LEft me. Now that's trust folks!
This is a rough of a key pose that I did on the scene for Glen
When I came in on Saturday I brought Glen some King Taco carne asada tacos and a six pack of Modelo beer. He never had the pleasure of Los Angeles’ best tacos and was really grateful! Plus the three cervezas really hit the spot! It was nice to sit for minute and relax with my old Jefe!
Modelo Especial The official Beer of Man Vs. Art!
Carne Asada Tacos from King Taco. With Modelo beer is the offical meal of Man Vs. Art.
We went back to work and a few hours later Glen was ready to leave. He told me how important it was for me to finish on time and knew I wouldn’t fail.
Come Monday morning that scene was inbetweened, exposed, and shot ready for the Directors to approve it.
When you have a guy like Glen Keane as your mentor and boss, you don’t let him down. And I never did!
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Okay kids, here is a quick demo of myself drawing a pin-up girl using Autodesk Sketchbook pro and a wacom tablet. I lost my voice in a Mariachi singing competition so there’s no narration but you’ll be able to follow it I’m sure.
Pretty Girl by Raul aguirre Jr.
Remember when drawing pretty girls less lines and graceful curves are key. This will be the first in a series that I hope you enjoy!
Until next time!
Have an Artful day!
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Hello everybody!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, and I’d like to share the highlights with you all.
Inside Studio Raul
I was recently interviewed by Ben McCain and Richard Mcmanus for a feature on Time Warner Cable’s channel 101 CNN. They came over spent the afternoon in my studio and asked me all sorts of great questions. They also took time to talk to my wife and my biggest fans the Salgado Brothers! The 21st century’s answer to the “Sweathogs” I’ve never had that many people in my studio and let me tell you it was quite fun and exciting to say the least. I was a little nervous but Ben is really intuitive and right away put me at ease with some rely insightful questions about my work.
Here is the video Richard edited and put on youtube in case you don’t catch it on Time Warner CAble.
Also I screened some of my animation in The Edge Of L.A. Comic-Con Animation Fest at the Claremont Packing house 532 W. 1st street Claremeont CA 91711. My friend and fellow artist Jim Lujan put it together with Chris Peterson who runs the Packing House. They did a great job.
Jim Lujan and Graciala Rodriguez listen as Raul Aguirre Jr. extols the virtues of the lap band.
We had a full house of people hungry to see new animation and boy did they get it!
This little girl was brutally honest.
Hortencia and Raul Aguirre at the Edge of LA animation Festival
Jim is a great and SUPER talented guy who cranks out cartoons faster than a Korean Sweatshop! His cartoons a brilliantly crude and really take on life. Looking at Jim Lujan’s cartoons is like looking at the world through a cracked lens. They speak volumes about the insecurity and weakness we all have. How we give such importance to ourselves that we are blind to real world around us. Delusion yes that’s what it is. Disney Animation has been known as “The Illusion of Life.” Well Jim Lujan Animation is “The Delusion of Life.” sometimes dark, but always funny. Jim has caricatured Life in Los Angeles by exagerrating things others miss! This is unique solid cliche free stuff people and I highly recommend you check Jim’s youtube channel out and prepare to laugh your ass off!
Prolific animator Jim Lujan and catatonic animator Raul Aguirre Jr.
Graciela Rodriguez a fellow Cartoonista and friend showed some incredibly clever and hilarious cartoons! She has a very unique style and her pacing was spot on! Crazy Granny she don’t like nothing is FRIGGIN’ funny! You can see some of her animation here. and here is her official website.
Russ and Claudia our friends from La Habra that we had to go to Europe to meet showed up!
Russ and Claudia
My little sis Lily and her man Joe Stoughton crashed the party and enjoyed the show! It was such a good time! Thanks everybody for being so cool and supportive.
Raul, sister Lily and herman Mighty Joe Stoughton!
But most of all I want to thank my wonderful wife Hortencia who gets me the hook-ups. I’m very fortunate to have such a beautiful and supportive wife who is willing to do the bulk of the leg work and networking that is necessary for me to display my work. I don’t even worry when Hortencia is on the case. Besides being beautiful, she’s smart , creative, and gets things done. Thanks to her help I get to maximize my time creating! Did I mention how beautiful she is?
Today I wanted to talk about how artists should handle interruptions and other annoyances when working. Internet, cell phones, TV, the crappy death metal band next door, Jehovah ‘s witnesses, and jealous talking T-shirts are all things that can throw you off when you are trying to create your latest masterpiece. The distractions are everywhere and its a wonder we ever get anything done. I happen to be a pretty mellow and zen guy who takes stuff in stride when things go cuckoo. (Yeah Right!)
Check out the situation I just went through.
While I was recording the podcast for this episode my assistant the talking Che Guevara T- shirt snapped.
He has been acting really weird lately. Weirder than usual. I think the cheese finally fell off of his cracker.
Enjoy the drama!
