Christopher J. Purdin Illustration/Animation

Superman/Krypto and Wonder Woman/Wonder Girl

2012-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here's some more superheroes from Gus's growing collection for coloring - Superman & Krypto and Wonder Woman & Wonder Girl (both Krypto and Wonder Girl are major presences in the aforementioned Tiny Titans books)!

Drawing Superheroes - Aquaman/AquaLad

2012-01-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

I've gotten Gus into comics lately through Tiny Titans (by Art Baltazar & Franco) and a few others, and he's really taken to drawing his favorite superhero characters. I've started drawing them with him (Aqualad being a member of the Titans, both Teen and Tiny). He's been using some of my drawings for coloring, but here's one I did recently that hasn't been crayoned over yet - I may give a shot of coloring it myself if I can find some time. I'll try to post some of these superhero drawings occasionally if you're interested in seeing them!

Christmas Card - 2011

2012-01-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

I always have grand ambitions of getting it together, illustrating and printing up a bunch of holiday cards and sending them out. The problem is that ambition usually strikes around December 15th. I printed about 10 or so of these and then it was just too late. So for everybody I didn't get one to - here you go and I hope you had a great holiday!

PS I was a little worried that Gus was going to be scared that the tree was going to eat all his presents. It only wound up eating a few.

Scarlett Johansson Gets Mad At Me For OxFam PSA

2011-12-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a PSA I worked on for OxFam - I animated Scarlett Johansson (so yes, she's putting me down throughout the whole ad) with a bit of help from Eric Kilkenny (he also animated those great chickens and some other BG characters). She was animated in the new version of ToonBoom Harmony using their cool deforming tools. The spot was directed by Gesine Kratzner and additional animation/compositing was done by Erich Richter. It was all based off ilustrations by Jessica Hische. If you've got a few extra bucks by somebody a goat for Christmas at www.oxfamgifts.com

Green Lantern Animation Test

2011-12-04T23:31:00.001-08:00

This is a test I did to learn some aspects of ToonBoom Harmony - it was hand drawn digitally and all effects were created in Harmony too. Why Green Lantern? My 4 year old digs him and so do I! Did this way before I heard there was going to be an animated series, so I kinda wish that they had gone 2D (though it does look pretty cool)!

PS Blow it up to fullscreen - it's not terribly visible in this small preview window.

After Effects animation for Laura Veirs "July Flame" album cover

2011-11-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

This is an After Effects test I did while preparing to work on the Wildwood trailer. It's for one of my favorite records of 2010, July Flame by Laura Veirs and uses artwork by Carson Ellis. She's also the illustrator for Wildwood. I knew next to nothing about After Effects before working on this, so please don't judge too harshly!

Book Trailer Animation I did for Colin Meloy/Carson Ellis book, "Wildwood"

2011-08-15T00:09:00.001-07:00

So a few months back at my day job, we were asked to do a book trailer for the upcoming YA novel "Wildwood", written by Colin Meloy (of Portland locals, The Decemberists) and illustrated by Carson Ellis (of amazing illustration). We got a small team together and figured a way to bring Carson's still images to life using Adobe After Effects. I got to do all the character animation (and even things like the cradle rocking and leaves growing), Jenny Kincade was the art director and Photoshop artist, Karl Richter handled compositing, Michael Corrigan was the editor and Aaron Sorenson directed the whole thing. It was a great deal of fun and I took to After Effects pretty well, I was just amazed by the things you could do with it and I only scratched the surface. Since this job, I've done quite a bit more AFX including a freelance job animating an entire e-book (of someone else's illustration) that I hope I can announce here soon. Hope you dig it, there's a lot to look at - I'm particularly proud of the deer!

Chicxulub at the Northwest Animation Festival

2011-05-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

I've got the word that Chicxulub will be seen on the big screen! For anybody in Portland, you can see it at 5th Avenue Cinemas on the night of June 3rd (sometime between 7 and 10 PM) as part of the NW Animation Festival. I'm pretty excited to see it on any screen bigger than my monitor, but to see it in a movie theater has me pretty thrilled. I'm looking forward to seeing the other films there too, I've seen a few them online over the last year, and I feel like I'm in amazing company.

Fleet Foxes Illustration Finished

2011-05-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of Tuesday's release of the new Fleet Foxes record, "Helplessness Blues", here's my take on the crew. It's all hair and wood up here in the northwest, the true elements of great music! You can check out my rough sketch in a previous post here. Let me know if you like it (or not) and what you think of the album if you hear it (I'm hoping to pick it up at 2nd Ave. Records on the way home tomorrow!)

Chicxulub on Cold Hard Flash!

2011-04-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

My short, Chicxulub, was posted on Cold Hard Flash (a popular blog that focuses on digital character animation, particularly of the 2d variety)! That was pretty exciting for me, it totally made my day that more people will see this thing that I spent so much time working on. Thanks to Aaron Simpson - if we ever meet in person, the drinks are on me!

Chicxulub - My First Short Film!

2011-04-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Chicxulub from Christopher Purdin on Vimeo.

This is the story of an annoyed dromaeosaur who should learn to take it easy...because life is short!
I created this as a downtime project at my day job to help learn how to use Toon Boom software, which I did but nearly everything I did here was done completely the wrong way - I guess that's just how I learn. Enjoy!

Chicxulub Sceenshots

2011-04-15T22:01:00.001-07:00

So I just submitted my first short film ("Chicxulub", more on why it's called that to come another day) to my first festival! It's an exciting day and I thought I'd share my excitement. Here's a few screenshots of the action, I'll be getting the whole film (all 1 minute of it!) online sometime next week and will post it here.

Grumpy Gus Reviewed!

2011-03-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

Grumpy Gus was reviewed by Portland Moms Like Me (which, I guess they do!) a little while back - pretty exciting! Here's the link:

http://portland.momslikeme.com/members/JournalActions.aspx?g=152764&m=15918312&p=102

Fleet Foxes Illustration

2011-02-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hey there friends! So a few years ago I did a series of illustrations based on my favorite records of the year, the last of which was supposed to be for the Fleet Foxes debut. I did the drawing but never got around to completing it. The band announced their new record (to be released in May) recently and I thought I might dust this off (in all it's beardly glory) and get it done in anticipation of the release. Here's the rough drawing, hopefully there will be a finished version in a few weeks.

PS Still wanting to show the dinosaur-themed animated short I did but I need permission from work before I can put it out there, hopefully that will be forthcoming soon as well!

Grumpy Gus - The Book!

2010-09-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

Grumpy Gus is online! Go here to download a low-res pdf of the book. I've got a few different ideas for other ways to present it but this is the easiest way to get it out there for now. Hope you like it!

Dinosaur Designs for Animated Short

2010-09-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

In my downtime at work (thanks recession!) I've been working on an animated short about a feathered dinosaur chasing a mosquito. Here are some early designs I did forever ago - they've slightly changed since but thought I'd share. Hope to have the whole thing done soon and then, depending what they say at the office, will post it here.

Grumpy Gus for Illustration Friday - "Immovable"

2010-08-29T20:49:00.001-07:00

Thought this suited this week's theme on Illustration Friday. Gus is definitely an "immovable" force when he wants to be!

Grumpy Gus - The Cover

2010-07-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover, with special help from Gus himself on the background watercolors. Please let me know what you think, especially you graphic designers out there. I'll be saying this from now until forever, but thanks to Emily for being such a great art director - she's the best pair of fresh eyes I could hope for. I'll let you know soon when I get the whole book together - stay tuned!

Grumpy Gus - Page 16 THE END!

2010-07-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

Finally! I still have quite a bit of editing left to do, but here's the last page of the book. I'll be posting up the cover soon as well. I've got some ideas for how to compile this and get it on the web - I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on the topic, as well as the usual technical and artistic criticism (that is invaluable to me - you guys are my art directors). Gus is a never-ending font of inspiration for this (both the grumpy pages and the sweet pages!) that I could do this forever - thanks bud!

Grumpy Gus - Page 14 & 15

2010-06-01T22:24:00.001-07:00

One more page left, hopefully that will follow soon and I can focus on putting the final "book" together (however that ends up happening). Just love this kid so much, even if he is fond of kicking my shins lately.

Grumpy Gus - Page 12 & 13

2010-05-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

It's happy time! We're in the home stretch now, two more postings to finish the pages, then the cover, and then the all-important revisions. Please keep the comments coming, I'm starting to try to gather and organize them to refer to when I go back in. I'm also starting to think about how best to present this when it's all done...

Sleepy Gus Sketch

2010-04-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a little break from "Grumpy Gus" with a sketch done while the real Gus fell asleep on the floor one afternoon. Hope to be back with pages 12/13 by Monday.

Grumpy Gus - Page 10 & 11

2010-04-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

Look, Gus is smiling - it does happen! More smiles to come, promise. Little inside info: the couch texture is actually a closeup photo of our couch. I usually don't like to be that on the nose, but I thought it was funny. I'm using a new font based on a friend's recommendation - look okay?

Grumpy Gus Page 8-9 Halfway!

2010-03-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

This is a little more than halfway, and for those that don't like seeing Gus so upset all the time, the next page is when things start to turn around (for the better)! Gus is (over)due for a haircut again and working on this page has helped me put it off even longer.

Grumpy Gus - Page 6 & 7

2010-02-26T00:06:00.000-08:00

Almost halfway there (it's 16 pages long)! Here's pages 6 & 7:Here's a few early stages of the process, 1) pencil sketch (decided to add the chickens later) and 2) raw textures:

Grumpy Gus - Page 1 Revision

2010-02-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Just so you know, I'm serious about taking criticism! Here's some revisions I made based on comments from my friend Elli. Changed the parent's shirt colors, colors of the door and room behind the door. Also added an actual Gus drawing "taped" to the door - would like to incorporate Gus artwork throughout. Let me know what you think!

Grumpy Gus - Page 4 & 5

2010-02-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

Most of these pages were originally drawn last summer/early fall, which is why you'll see our dog that's no longer with us in a few pages. Unfortunately, potty training is still very much with us!

Grumpy Gus - Page 2 & 3

2010-02-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Here's the first splash page, most the rest of the book will be like this (the splashes and Gus's attitude!).

Grumpy Gus Page1 Drawing

2010-02-06T23:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a look into the process, this is the original pencil drawing of page 1 before crazy straw textures got involved. If anybody's interested, I'll try to show more stages of some of these. Should be posting up page 2 & 3 (splash page!) on Monday.

ChrisP joins the fray!

2010-01-30T23:52:00.000-08:00

I'm in! This will be a place to share my latest artistic projects and link to other artists that inspire me. My initial reason for starting this blog is as a place to put forth a children's book I'm working on, mostly to teach myself about the process. The book is based on our experiences raising a grumpy toddler named Gus (tentatively titled "Grumpy Gus"). I'm hoping for this to be an open critique forum so my wife, Emily, doesn't always have to be my go-to critic (she has particularly great color instincts!), so please chime in. Also, this will keep me accountable - I will endeavor to post a page or 2 every week. Here's a look at the "in-progress" first page!