This spring I was delighted to travel east to speak and visit at RISD and lead one of my stop-motion workshops at the Society of Illustrators.

Molly Walsh is the student who spearheaded my visit to RISD, she is a student with excellent drive that will lead her to amazing places.

RISD holds a dear spot in my heart, as I spent a semester there in 1995 as part of the Mobility Program where students in a network of private art schools can attend another school for a semester to take classes that their home school doesn’t offer. If you are a student you should inquire about it, it is/was a vastly untapped resource.

Anyways, I went to RISD to study scientific illustration, I spent practically all semester in the nature lab and spent my nights in the basement of some building at Brown Unv. drawing cadavers that the med students studied during the day.

I also was fortunate to take a watercolor class with the amazing Thomas Sqouros who sadly passed away in 2012.

After a semester I discovered that scientific illustration wasn’t exactly the right fit for me and I credit  Jean Blackburn for sitting down with me and telling me that I had a drive that needed to explore other realms of illustration and image making.

So needless to say I was delighted to visit with the classes of Jean Blackburn, Judy Sue Goodwin-Sturges, Ellen Weinstein, and my good friend Chris Buzelli.

I explored the Nature Lab all over again

and enjoyed a coffee at Carr House with SooJin Buzelli and Sota.

I then took the train to NYC and visited with the fine folks at Schwartz & Wade to talk about PR for the upcoming book The Beginner’s Guide to Running Away From Home.

I was able to pick up a copy of the April 22, 2013 issue of The New Yorker at a stand on Broadway to see my series of spots in it. Just a little thing, but was a pretty cool experience for this farm boy.

That evening I had a chance to sit down and chat with Sam Weber as part of his audio side project Your Dreams My Nightmares. I enjoy listening to his interviews (although I wasn’t able to listen past 10 minutes of my own). If you are not familiar with the podcasts, you should check them out. My interview is here.

this was my view overlooking Roosevelt Island

Next on the agenda was the main event at the Society of Illustrators. 4 hours of slap dash full throttle stop motion animation.

It was a packed house with 22 participants. Everyone was randomly paired with a partner, each pair was assigned a puppet and a prop or two. I gave a 30 minute demo and then set them loose. I am always amazed at how everyone just jumps in and goes at it.

Its a very small stage and folks have to practically work on top of one another and it soon becomes a large collaboration with several puppets and animators working simultaneously and taking every imaginable risk with the animation. 

I absolutely love this shot with all the hands on stage.

We did have a rogue pair that took to setting up their own scene complete with handmade iphone tripods. It almost appears to be a stereo-optic animation in the making.

All in all, they ended up with roughly 20 seconds of motion. Not too shabby for 4 hours:

and here is the result of the iphone breakout session. Credit to Wonil Suh:

Thanks to Molly and her cohorts at RISD and a very special thanks to Anelle, Johnny, Kate and Katie for allowing me to take over the Society of Illustrators for an afternoon.

Merry Christmas.

Over Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to lead another stop-motion animation workshop.

This time it was for the Design Family Reunion aka the INSTEAD Conference. It is a conference unlike any other that i have participated in. A slowed down pace and conversation galore. Never have i had such an opportunity to sit back and take in conversation with new and old friends. No masses of people herding in and out of ballrooms and no powerpoint presentations.

Matthew Porter  spearheaded this event and he says ” We modeled the gathering  on family reunions and wedding weekends sans the pyschotic uncle or the perverted old grandfather. But we were inspired by other out of the box gatherings including Design Farm, Design Ranch, Into the Woods and Design Camp at AIGA chapters across the nation. We hope to call another gathering in two years in Washington Stat or outside Santa Fe.”

Here is the short animation put together by about 16 folks in 6 hours.

to see a plethora of photos from the Reunion go here on flicker.

my transportation for the weekend (the bike that is)

The set was supposed to be set up outside but due to heavy drizzle during the workshop we had to make due with what we had. (wouldnt have had it any other way) this still is from a test i did the day before. loved the light from the overcast day.

Rebecca Bedrossian of Communication Arts, and Adam Brodsley of Volume Inc and Wendy Quesinberry of Quesinberry & Associates.

Doug Grimmett of Primal Screen working the Cyclist.

Jacqueline McCarthy of Vivitiv on the left. Burt Durand on camera and Brian Stauffer aka rigging.

Special thanks to Mark Kaufman also of Vivitiv for helping facilitate the workshop prior to and during the conference.

the mass of negatives from the polaroid land camera workshop by Woody Welch and Sean Carnegie of El Chavez

Me and Debra Naeve of Monterey Bay Aquarium trying to figure out a land camera before we cycle around the area for the elusive ‘perfect’ shot.

my humble attempt at a lino cut from the print workshop with Mr. Patience himself Francois X Pavy.

Hats of to Mr. Porter for a delightful gathering and for raising the bar on this crazy notion of getting to know folks face to face.

The largest east coast showing of my work is currently on display at The Art Institute of Boston through Dec. 18th.

the last time i visited Boston was for the 2008 HOW design conference, and i have to admit that i am growing quite fond of Boston.

i was asked to give a talk about my creative process and my career path on the opening night of the show, and this lovely group of folks were kind enough to sit through 60 minutes of my talking and 220+ slides.

a HUGE thanks to AIB for being such a welcoming institution. I immediately felt right at home.

i apparently am inept at using a camera outside of the studio, but fortunately the school has a nice set of photos of the show and my visit on their illustration and animation blog.

here are a few pages from my sketchbook during my brief trip to Boston.

i was not sure what i was in for as i traveled into Hunt, TX for the 2011 AIGA Austin Design Ranch…

i was charged with leading one of the many amazing workshops that packed the 3 day conference.

This isn’t one of those conferences: No slide presentations, no lectures—just small groups (20 or less) gathering up close and personal with workshop leaders. It’s about putting down your mouse, getting your hands dirty and reviving your creative spirit.

my workshop allowed participants to try their hands at stop-motion animation. it is geared at showing the basic/ bare bones technique behind stop-motion. no after effects, no fancy editing, just move a little bit, click, move a little bit, click, repeat, repeat, repeat…..

there are no storylines or storyboards to follow, each group of 20 is broken into 8 groups 2-3 participants then each mini group is assigned to an object and it is up to them to figure out how to animate their object simultaniously with other groups in the workshop. each following workshop had to start off from where the previous workshop had ended, this allowed all three workshops to create an exquisite corpse type of animation.

this 1 minute film is a compilation of all three workshops totaling about 6-7 man hours of animation.

what an amazing conference! if you ever have a chance to attend, do it! if you are ever asked to lead a workshop there, do it!

here are some shots from the workshops and the ranch:

here is a shot of the me with the wonderfully crazy Kelly Stevens and the goat that Kelly won in a fierce silent auction bout on the final night of the conference.

for an official round up of the conference check out Matthew Porter’s musings at Against the Grain

this weekend i am honored to be attending the AIGA Austin Design Ranch.

from the site: Design Ranch is an intimate, three-day, hands-on, workshop-driven design retreat in a rustic setting on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
This isn’t one of those conferences: No slide presentations, no lectures—just small groups (20 or less) gathering up close and personal with workshop leaders. It’s about putting down your mouse, getting your hands dirty and reviving your creative spirit.

i am happy to announce that i am leading a workshop as well. my workshop entitled: Move a Little Bit, Click, Move a Little Bit, Click, Move a Little Bit, Click, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat… is on bare-bones-basic stop-motion animation.

my magic box has arrived in TX and i hope folks enjoy getting their hands into some animation.

here is a little teaser i made for the attendees.

here is a little stop motion piece i did based on a character from an Angie’s List magazine cover from last year.

the topic was Lawless Locksmiths and i saw this guy as a perfect opportunity to experiment with some lo-tech smoke and mirrors. using cut paper for the gun blasts and steel wool for the smoke along with the live theater fx of using red fabric for blood. along with a little  inspiration from Johnny Cash’s ‘Don’t take your guns to town’

last friday i spoke to design, illustration and animation students at Ball State and afterwards i gave a quick 45 minute stop-motion demo to a group of animation students.

here is the 3 second 75 frame animation made during the demo.

the demo addressed common issues and questions in basic stop motion, from measuring movements, shooting on 1′s or 2′s, frame rates, basic wire armatures, what to animate and what not to animate, acting out a movement, etc.

here is a close up of the meat, which was an object of curiosity during the demo. its made from play-dough ‘the red meat’ and plastalina which made up ‘the white fat’

thanks to design professor Fred Bower for inviting me and providing the above photos of ‘my better side’ and animation professor Andy Beane.

the hot point at ICON6 earlier this month in Pasadena, CA was the topic of motion in illustration as the next great thing or not. i wont get into pointing fingers or saying what is right or wrong but i do think the way the topic got people stirred up and talking can only lead to good things. it stemmed from the idea that magazines specifically WIRED magazine is spearheading the way on how magazines can potentially  utilize new devices and programs to allow readers to have a direct interaction with the editorial content by having graphics that can be multi-dimensional and by having illustrations that move. the hot point was that illustrators are illustrators not animators, that the power of a single image that can bring the reader into the text is a skill that shouldn’t be watered down by simply making something move for the sake of eye candy. the high point was that the content should remain the focus. if the content calls for something to move, then by all means move it, the software needed to do that is now becoming more accessible… the point that i see from all of this is that we as illustrators should continue to push our mediums and allow things to grow and expand and with open minds we will continue to ride the flow of up and downs and still continue to move forward in our careers.

with that said i wanted to post an illustration i did last fall and include a little animation that i did as an experiment in seeing how an illustration of mine could potentially come to life. admittedly this animation is not much more than eye candy, i don’t think it adds to the concept of the illustration, but i does allow the viewer to see that the characters are moving along and doing there best to spread the message of their brands which we are all trying to do these days.

the project was the cover for the October 2009 issue of Deliver magazine. the topic was on how direct mail can work in tandem with other methods of marketing.

here are the three roughs submitted for the piece.

here is the clipping from an old history of war book that i have had on my worktable for several years that was the inspiration behind the trumpet mobile contraption.

here is a preliminary shot with the sketch overlayed to check for composition and fit into the layout.

the final shot

and the final cover, thanks to Grayson Cardinell for a fun project.

here is the animation test to see how movement could potential enhance the visual concept. there is no audio in this test, and being that it focuses on trumpets that is an aspect that could take this experiment to the next level of interaction. if you can imagine Devotchka’s Basso Profundo playing over the animation.

It’s only been about 5 years since this many of my pieces have been on display in one place. Jason Franz of Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati Ohio has worked closely with me selecting a body of work from my illustration and personal work for an exhibit called Seeing Red (Nose).

Along with sculptures and framed prints of the work there will be my personal sketch books on hand and animations showing, some Red Nose classics like ForkBoy and The Red Thread Project along with never before seen test scenes of Scout and the new super silent short Bandit Blood.

here is the release form the gallery:

Manifest digs deep, exploring the fringes of visual arts which include design and illustration (not just philosophical conceptualism and nihilism). Adding to its history of such exhibits begun with Transportation Design, the Drawthrough Collection by Scott Roberston, and Funny Men which included works by noted illustrators Ryan Ostrander and Gabriel Utasi, Manifest invites Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio back to Cincinnati for a full spectrum experience of his intense and highly unique illustrative process. Seeing Red (Nose) will feature a start to finish range of works by Sickels that lead to his stunning photographic images. Like artists such as Sandy Skoglund or the Brothers Quay, Sickels employs a painstaking process of crafting every element within each image as an object, then combining and manipulating them, then lighting and ultimately photographing. Manifest’s exhibit will include original sketchbooks, hand-crafted sculptural models, finished photographic illustrations, and stop-motion animation featuring the compelling characters in haunting moving dramas.

the opening is July 9th 2010 6-9 pm the show runs July 9 – Aug 6th 2010

Manifest Gallery 2727 Woodburn Avenue Cincinnati Ohio 45206