Shop Open!

Guess who has his Etsy store open finally? Yes, and in time for the holidays even. Thanks to everyone for encouraging (aka demanding) it. :)

Please STOP ON BY.


I've got a few prints and one original there now and will do my best to keep adding stuff, so keep your ears peeled.

Also, if any of you other sellers want to be Etsy friends, please let me know.

I Like Robots

Hope you've all gotten over your candy comas. If you have any leftovers, please feel free to share since I didn't get any treats this year.

Here's a tiny painting I did yesterday to keep my brushes from getting rusty.

2" x 3.5" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Coincidence?

Either this is a big coincidence, or Joe Ledbetter liked my recent toucan painting enough to copy it.

Mine from my solo show in September.

His from this week in Paris.

New Sheriff in Town

Sorry for not posting in awhile, blog friends... here's one of the reasons.

Tyrus Jin Brodahl
Born Oct 8th
8 lbs 4 oz





Making a person is a relatively simple affair... keeping up with them and their needs, a different story entirely.

Show Recap

The opening last week was a blast! A big thank you to everyone who came out. I had a great time chatting and chatting and chatting and forgetting to take pictures. Here are a few shots from the upstairs part of the gallery. I forgot to take one of the crowd area downstairs... oops! I'll try to get one and post it.








Here are the pieces I didn't previously post to the blog.

Ocean Spray - 16" x 20" cel vinyl acrylic on aquabord

Follow MY Nose - 11" x 4" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol

The Ancient - 8" x 12" cel vinyl acrylic on illustration board

Main Mane - 10" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on aquabord

Just For You - 10" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on aquabord

Ren & Stimpy BG Caps for John

Here are some DVD screencaps from Ren & Stimpy. The handy work of Bill Wray, Scott Wills and others.

Copyright Spumco and Nickelodeon.

EDIT:
Color corrected and added a few more.

Final 3

Three little cards that squeaked into the show. Available at the purchase site HERE. If last year's solo show was any indicator, these may go quickly.

Whooo's There? - 2" x 3.5" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Very Quick Chat - 2" x 3.5" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Visitors - 2" x 3.5" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Perhaps I'll see some of you this Thursday!

Unnatural Selection Preview

Hi folks!

The preview is now live... so if you want to have a crack at any of the art or just want to peek, please proceed.

Unnatural Selection PREVIEW

Legally Blind - 6" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on cradled panel

Eyvind Earle Book

After nearly a year of waiting for it to be in stock, I just received a copy of the most amazing book I've ever owned. It's the monolithic The Complete Christmas Card Art of Eyvind Earle. This book is nearly 20lbs of absolutely magnificent artwork, beautifully reproduced... 833 images of Earle's Christmas cards. I actually started getting chills about 3/4 of the way through it.

I got it for a steal on Amazon.ca. The conversion rate is decent right now for us Yanks and at $167 CDN it's a bargain compared to it's $250 USD original price. So if you don't mind waiting, it's definitely worth your while.

UPDATE: Looks like it's no longer available, folks. Congrats to the people who were able to order the last few at this price. If you're still interested in purchasing the book, you can get it here at full price.

Still not convinced? Check these photos I snapped.

Quail Run

Another one for the solo show next month. Paying homage to the great Charley Harper. Can you guess what tool I used to paint the clouds?

Falling Behind - 12" x 5" cel vinyl on illustration board.

The title not only describes the image, but also my current status!

Mysterious Swamp

It was around 4am and I couldn't sleep when this image popped into my mind. So of course, I ran downstairs and splashed it onto paper. Not sure exactly what's going on here, but apparently there's something eerie happening in the water on the left.

6" x 4" gouache on watercolor paper.

Ribbit?

For the record, I'm jealous of all you lucky folks who got to attend San Diego Comic Con. Hope you had fun! One of these years I'll make it back.

New one for my solo show opening September 10th at Bluebottle in Seattle. You'd come if you knew what was good for ya.


"Slip of the Tongue" - 9" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper.

Long Gator

A new one for my upcoming solo show in September. Keep your ears peeled and your eye to the ground for more tidbits.

What's On My Mind? - 16" x 3" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Lunar Boy Show and Shipwreck

Had a great time at the Creature Feature opening on Saturday. Astoria is a fun little place. The gallery was warm, welcoming and modern and there was lots of foot traffic. Here are a few photos.






Andrea and Matthew Porter relaxing.

With the missus and friends.

I also got to do a watercolor and gouache plein air sketch of the Peter Iredale shipwreck off the Oregon coast at Fort Stevens. Something I'd like to do more often.

Creature Feature

The Creature Feature online preview is now up at Lunar Boy!

Click to see Matthew Porter's work and pricing

Click to see my work and pricing

Here are my pieces:

Real Chicken of the Sea - 9" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol

Longest Horn - 5" x 11" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Slight Disadvantage - 12" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Three Heads Are Better - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol

Unihorn at Choco Mountain - 5" x 7" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Raging Mountaintop - 6" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Cycloptical Exam - 8" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Fiery Escape - 8" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Mermaid Service - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

If you like free drinks and art and happen to be near Astoria this Saturday, please stop in and say how-do. Matthew and I will be there with our ladies.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13th from 5 - 9pm
Lunar Boy Gallery
1133 Commercial Street
Astoria OR 97103
866.395.1566
info@lunarboygallery.com

Ape on the Moon

Alex over at Ape on the Moon did a nice little feature on me. If you check it out, I'm sure all your wildest dreams will come true.*




*Wildest dreams not guaranteed to come true.

Upcoming 2-Man Show

Here's one of the pieces I did for my upcoming 2-man show with Matt Porter at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria, OR. Show opens Saturday evening, June 13th. More details to come.

A more finished version of the little card I painted awhile back.

Three-Headed Mutant Bird - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on heavyweight bristol paper.

Blogs of Note

Here are a couple blogs you should be aware of:

DigiPen instructor and former Disney background painter (Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, etc) Peter Moehrle is blogging.



Art Director and background painter (Foster's and more) Carol Wyatt is posting her beautiful paintings.

Same stuff, new package

Finally, I've finished overhauling my website. Time was of the essence, so there may be a few kinks to iron out, but at least it's up!


drakebrodahl.com

P.S. My Etsy store will be launching after I get some packing supplies... I'll let you know when.

Magilla Gorilla

Here's my other piece for the upcoming G1988 SF show, that opens one week from today. A tribute to the great Mel Crawford and his masterpiece HB book. It's big so you can see the details. Magilla Gorilla character is copyright Hanna Barbera, of course.

12" x 18" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper.

P.S. Special thanks to the talented Mr. Steve Lambe for his helpful layout advice!

G1988 Group Show - Beyond the Page

Guess what? My painting made it onto the flyer for the upcoming G1988 SF group show "Beyond the Page: re-illustrating our favorite children's books".



Since the cat's out of the bag, here's the whole painting. I'll have another in the show, but you'll have to wait...

On The Way To Grandmother's House - 10" x 10" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol.

The show runs May 1st - 23rd.
Opening reception is Friday, May 1st from 7 - 10pm. I'll be there with a slew of talented folks, so come by and say howdy!

Latest from Scott Wills

For those of you who have been wondering what Scott's been up to lately, wonder no more!

Besides wrapping up art direction on Monsters vs Aliens, Scott teamed up with Genndy recently to produce a short for CN called 'Maruined'. Scott painted all the final backgrounds himself over an incredibly short span of time... around 50 in about 2 months (on top of his full-time job)! It's uncertain if Maruined will ever air on TV, but Scott sent over a few of his BGs and as you can see, they are absolutely spectacular. Looking at them again, I'm still having difficulty comprehending the brilliant artistry. To say the least, they are like nothing I've seen before. How often can that be said these days?

Before you ask, they were painted mostly by hand (except for the characters and a few digital elements for animation purposes, I believe). Images are Copyright © Cartoon Network.

Doodle Me

A few seconds after watching Kali drawing over at Sketch Theatre I was inspired to do a quick, sloppy caricature of myself.

Looney Tunes exhibit at MOHAI

For those of you living in (or visiting) the Pacific NW, the Seattle Museum of History and Industry is hosting a fantastic exhibit of original Warner Bros Looney Tunes artwork. I can't show you, because the museum unfortunately doesn't allow photography, but believe me, there is some incredible work on display. In addition to beautiful original storyboards from old Porky Pig episodes and others, there are a slew of original layouts, cels and to top it all off, several lovely original background paintings by the likes of Warner greats Phil DeGuard, Dick Thomas and Paul Julian. Paul Julian's were especially amazing. The highlight of the show for me, are some breathtaking concept paintings by Maurice Noble from the #1 ranked cartoon of all time, "What's Opera, Doc?" The man was a super-talent amongst the super-talented.

The weekend before last, my wife and I attended the exhibit and corresponding events... animation workshops, demos, tours, and even facepainting for the kiddies. Most notable were the animation demos by talented former Looney Tunes background artist, Bob Abrams who lives in the area. He showed how to animate some simple Daffy Duck head turns and even better, produced his portfolio for us to look at, all while telling stories from his career and answering questions. In his portfolio were several lovely examples of his background paintings, a storyboard and some of his fine art paintings. He also produced from the portfolio case, an original Maurice Noble final background layout. A stunning triple-pan from a well-known Wlle E. Coyote episode. He said they used to just give them away because they were considered mere byproducts of the trade at the time. Little did they realize the value these original pieces of production art would hold. Bob said if he had known, he'd have grabbed a lot more!

Bob was kind enough to chat with me one-on-one for a bit and allow a photo. It was a pleasure to meet him and get to watch the considerable skill honed (and still sharp) through his time at Disney and Warner Bros studios.

My nieces also showed up for some of the fun.

The exhibit is up through May 17th, so do yourself a favor and go see it.


On a related note, some of the talented artists from Portland's Grass Hut gallery were recently commissioned to do some Looney Tunes art for Warner Bros. One such artist was the talented Martin Ontiveros, who knocked out some fabulous paintings of classic Looney Tunes characters in his inimitable style and with his usual unmatched precision. They're up on his Flickr page, so check them out! Like the rest of his paintings, you won't believe the quality of these suckers.

Three of Martin's paintings.

Color Roughs

Can't leave you guys hangin' anymore. Here are some rough color studies for an upcoming piece. Going with something close to the first.

Both are about 4" x 4" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol paper.