Hey You There! Donkey Wonky Do!

An Interview with Illustrator and Graphic Designer Vince Chui

Part 1 of 2 (link to Part 2)
Click any image to gigantify

I first came across Vince Chui’s work owing to his participation in the consortium of cool characterizationizers known as the Sketch Motel Illustrators, whose inputs I follow fanatically via Facebook. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are LOTS of talented artists in this group, including one of my all-time favorites in the guise of Charlene Chua. But somehow, as I began to dig deeper into Vince’s work, well, I literally began hearing voices.

No, nothing morbid like ‘I hear dead people’ or anything that would make you say ‘keep the women and children away from that fellow’ – nor as many of you suspect did it have anything to do with prescription medication. It’s hard to explain; but the voices were the same that I used to hear the better part of three – yikes, now going on four – decades ago. You know, those same ‘you cannot resist me’ voices that I HAD to listen to, despite my mom’s threats of grounding me to my room until I was, quote, ‘retired and in a wheelchair!’ You know, the kind of voices that would say: ‘aw, the heck with homework, let’s grab our skateboards and head to the park’. The same voices that would speak to me every Saturday morning about how they would love to get truly marooned in the ‘Land of the Lost’ or get to see the gods up close as they conducted an amazing cosmic smack-down, which I would referee mind you. And of course, the same voices that even to this day say: ANYTHING to do with robots is automatically cool.

And so it was with this accompanying inner dialogue that I began my research into Vince’s work. It was a fascinating look into what includes not only a range of freelance and amazingly detailed pieces from his offers as a professional graphic artist, but also a wide selection from the worlds of moviedom and video games. I mean, is this like the ultimate pre-/post-pubescent boy’s dream or what? Hang on, let me put on my old AC/DC tee-shirt (barely threads by now), their Greatest Hits CD and we’ll continue. Ah, there... and so, even though it is much more difficult to type while I slam my head back and forth, it is with great pleasure to bring you the very cool art of Vince Chui!

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Hi Vince, welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Ha ha, right off the bat, the first question is probably the hardest one for me to answer!

Well, I’ve always thought of myself as a little bit quirky and a bit goofy. That’s probably a really general statement, but who doesn’t have a little bit of that in themselves? Hm, this is a tough question. It’s just usually I find that asking someone who knows another person best can give a better representation of how that person is and what they’re like. Same with me!

So after saying that, I think there’s GOT to be a better person out there that can answer that question much more accurately than I could. (Phew, dodged that, didn’t I!!)

I absolutely love the name that you use on-line, but I am curious: why did you pick the moniker ‘kidchuckle’?
That’s also a funny story! It’s a name that I’ve used for ages and it’s kind of stuck with me.

It originated way back when I signed up for all the different social networks, some of which required an alias when you joined. The ‘kid’ part is easy: that comes from me just being a big kid at heart, and ‘chuckle’ is just part of my personality. I’m a bit of a joker: if I’m not laughing, I’m trying to make someone else laugh.

Even back in college, some of my classmates used to call me ‘Chuck’ for short, instead of Kidchuckle. Although when I stop and think about it now, it really hasn’t aged that well with me in terms of how I am today. I mean, it’s true most of the time, except when it comes to work ... and then I’m a classic worry-wart. But it still retains some of the spirit that is me (and it’s a bit easier to remember how to spell than other options, too!).

Why we’re on the topic of kids, what made you decide to become a graphic artist / designer / illustrator? How did you get to the point where you are today in terms of expertise, education and more?
I think as far as back as I can remember, I’ve always been fond of drawing. That plus the fact that my imagination was fuelled at an early age by cartoons and comics. Even as a kid, my cousins had shelves full of comics that I would look through even before I could read.

In terms of my ‘formal’ education, I went to the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD for short) for Illustration. Then I did a post-graduate at Sheridan College for computer animation. Soon after that I went to work in the video game industry.

I started interning at Pseudo Interactive and then got a full-time position mostly doing the texturing for 3D models and some concept art on the side. It was a small company so it allowed me to bounce around and experience a lot with the different tasks they had me doing. As the company grew, I was allowed to focus more on concept art.

It was a really good 6-year run for me. Sadly though, after the economy turned for the worse, the company folded. After that I decided to go freelance and just allowed myself to explore and try out different things in the world of illustration.

Your career seems to have focused in large part on illustration, concept artwork, and character design. What are the differences in these ‘fields’ for you, both from ultimately ‘putting ideas on paper’ and also from a creative perspective?
From a creative standpoint, I think that particularly for concept art, there’s a few more concerns to keep in mind in terms of spatial relationships and even scale. For example, with video games, you may have to work closely with level designers to get it all right and to make sure everything all fits together.

I guess to put it in more perspective: as a concept artist you tend to be working as part of a team, that is, with other visual artists and other collaborators. After you finish a piece of art, you have to ensure that when you hand it off, there’s enough information there for another artist to work with it. The person ‘following’ you has to be able to elaborate from that visual on where to go with it; for example, if you’re giving it to a 3D modeller or texture artist, they have to be able to run with it right away. The images and work you work on have to evolve as much as the ideas and the story of a game do.

On the other hand, with character design, I find there are very few restrictions. In this case, most clients usually have a rough idea of what they want. Still, they usually want you to just enjoy it and search for something yourself to add to their own original ideas. I mean, they may have some general restrictions, like if they want you to avoid being too ‘cartoony’ or even too realistic, or if they want you to keep it somewhere in the middle of these extremes. But most of them are open to new ideas.

The main concerns in this area arise after you’ve completed that part. It’s at this point that you then have to figure out the scale in terms of a particular character’s relationship with the world around them and, of course, other characters. In addition, you really have to be able to make a character express a feeling through body language or color proportions.

Comparing all that to illustration itself, well, my experience is that you tend to be more focused on delivering a message or feeling with illustration – but in the shortest time possible. This is another important factor: namely, just the basic amount of time that is ‘allotted’ to you to create things. The turnaround times for illustration can be quite demanding, even if you only are focusing on a few illustrations. This compares to the work with video games, where you typically have a bit more time to let ideas and the overall visualization germinate. But then again, you usually have to deal with a greater volume of work as well.

Despite all the differences, I enjoy the varied aspects of each of these areas. It’s challenging ... and the experiences I’ve had have been quite unique to their own world.

I was watching recently one of my favorite illustrated videos, namely the ‘Hellboy Animated’ DVD (not shown here mind you). In the extras section, there were some interesting questions posed for the artist that worked on these, Sean ‘Cheeks’ Galloway, who was charged with bringing Mike Mignola’s fantastic character into the new ‘non-graphic novel’ format.

Besides just finding his style amazing, they discussed that originally ‘Cheeks’ was hired as a lead character designer, which involved turn-arounds (360° views of heads, bodies, etc.), coloration under different lighting and more. But eventually they found that his skills were more geared towards working on the project as the lead conceptual artist.

Now after that somewhat long introduction, what I want to ask is: In your own experience, where have you found yourself working most, that is more character or conceptual work? Do you have a preference for one approach or the other in that regard? Also, do you think there’s that much difference between the two, or is it even project dependent?
Okay, first of all I want to say that I think both Cheeks’ and Mignola’s work is AWESOME. I just had to get out of the way before I answered your other questions!

Now coming back to your question: I think that most of my projects I’ve been involved with were made up of equal amounts of concept backgrounds and character work. I can’t say there’s been too many projects I’ve worked on that were strictly character based. Although I do enjoy characters a lot more, again I think character design tends to be strongest when you present them within an environment in which they can appear to be ‘at home’.

It’s just that emotional content, body language, structure and story are all so integral to the process of character design. It’s what ultimately makes the characters come alive. There’s a lot to be said about perceived personality, that is, what we’re assuming from sight alone. I think it’s in our nature to pick up these things consciously or subconsciously.

A subtle example would be if a man points with his glasses in his hand while he talks. You can get make assumption how his eyesight is (you can tell his eyesight isn’t too poor and only needs to wear it occasionally). Another example would be choosing to have the last button on someone’s shirt unbuttoned: this can speak volumes about a character in the right context (is it unbuttoned at a formal event, or at the beach? Does this give us a hint if that character is ‘proper’ or more of an easy-going type or even rule breaker?). Is your character slouched, or do they hold their back straight? Hands stiff at their sides, or do they look more relaxed, you know, maybe with their hands in the pockets? So all aspects of the design come into play here.

For environment concepts, you almost want to express things differently. Yes you still have structure, spacing, scale and story attached with the environment. You can also have emotional content, too, but that’s almost artificially applied to it. Environment is an inanimate object, but I think as people we want to attach emotions to it as well.

With that in mind as well, what kind of work have you done for movies? For example, I’ve ‘survived’ both ‘The Love Guru’ and ‘Land of the Lost’. Now, if I can manage to somehow bear to watch those DVD’s again, where will I see your work and/or influences on display?
‘Survived’! Ha ha ha!!

For ‘The Love Guru’: well, I didn’t really work that much on the film itself, though I thoroughly enjoyed the experience working on set. I think I only worked on that project for 2 weeks. I was there working primarily for the make-up department, helping them with Photoshop mock-ups.

However, I did get to hang out in the art department with my friend Sanford Kong who worked on the big bulk of the concept pieces during the time I was there. There were only a few moments where I had some down time from my main tasks, but even then I got to do some small things for the art department. So I wound up able to do that mock storefront of the Cinnabon store front.

On another note, I sheepishly met Jessica Alba for a very brief moment. End of story.

For ‘Land of the Lost’, I worked on the illustration for the end credits (note that you can also find input from the director on the project, Jeremy Dimmock, at this link). There were a lot of people involved from Direction, the Producers and the animators from the main part of the film.

We had to work on the credits based of the script plus only a few of the images from the film ... and that was it! To be honest, I still haven’t gotten around to watching the movie.

(ZN: thank the gods, we still have a chance to save his immortal soul!!)

Continued in Part 2!

Hey You There! Donkey Wonky Do!

An Interview with Illustrator and Graphic Designer Vince Chui

Part 2 of 2 (link to Part 1)
Click any image to biggenize

Vince, I’m curious: when you get an assignment then for a movie or let’s say even a video game for example with SEGA, how is the process set up? Do you continue to work from home in a ‘freelance’ mode or do you move to a different city and set up with the local ‘think tank’?
It’s sort of a mixed bag. With the project you mention, I was working full-time with Pseudo Interactive and Sega was the publisher on one of the projects. So I worked in a office with my other PI co-workers on this project. Sometimes I participated in meetings directly with the Sega people, but this was rare. Most of the information I got to work with came through my art lead and friend Ted Kim.

Like I said though, that gig came to an end. Since then, I’ve done mostly freelance assignments where I’ve been able to work mainly from home. Sure, it’s nice to get out now and then in order to interact with other creative people, you know, work as part of a team with your peers. There’s a certain vibe I find in that kind of environment that can just energize the whole atmosphere. But it’s also nice to be in a familiar environment and get settled down to work, especially those long projects.

Sometimes it really is a marathon – where even working from home you almost need to know how to pace yourself with the heavy workload.

How does an illustrator wide up getting a ‘gig’ with a movie or video game production? Are you out there really pushing your work to Hollywood or is there some kind of local representative you have or how does it happen exactly?
I can’t say I’ve been all that active in terms of really pushing my stuff out there. I’m just very lucky that I have talented friends who have given recommendations that bring me into projects and introduce me to the right people.

I also think being able to be flexible helps as well. I’ve come full circle in terms of doing things to get this point, that is, trying out and dabbling in all kinds of different stuff in the big world of Illustration. But I do believe equal parts networking and hard work go hand-in-hand ... and if you have that, then opportunities will eventually come your way.

As I mentioned earlier, you’re a member of one of my own favorite illustrator collectives, namely ‘Sketch Motel Illustrators’. How important is being hooked up with a group like this to you and how close are you to your fellow compatriots that use this site? Do you ever find yourself, for example, ‘stuck’ in terms of a piece or some kind of detail and call up one of these other talented artists for suggestions or even direct help?
Yeah, I’m actually one of the newer members on Sketch Motel. But it’s definitely great exposure and also an honor to be included with talented peers. Also there’s a great pool of knowledge in that group. You mentioned Charlene Chui, who I know pretty well. I met her through the Street Fighter tribute book. I saw her Chunli entry and we started talking and we’ve been friends ever since.

On the other hand, I met Huan Tran through Ultimate Frisbee (he throws a mean Frisbee, and his team had just beaten our team!!). In fact, I had no idea Huan was an illustrator at the time, but I got to know him better through Charlene.

And oh yes, being ‘stuck’ on a piece is one of the most frustrating things you can have. So having a small army of extremely talented friends who can help get you out of that ditch is awesome. They help in so many ways, be it with fresh ideas, or recommendations on composition, you name it. You need that outside opinion at times, especially if you’ve been staring at something too long.

I also enjoy that you include videos of some of your sketching and production of different pieces. Why have you decided to share what I consider to be an almost ‘intimate’ side of your work and show people so much of your creative process in terms of tutorials and detailed sketch work? (ZN: click here to access Vince’s step-by-step creation of the brutish looking fellow shown below)
Hmm... well, I’ve never considered my process as all that intimate or even very secretive. At first, when I started making the videos, I was doing it more for my own personal growth, like an exercise. I figure if I recorded myself drawing, I could streamline my process and be more comfortable under time constraints.

Over time, I had some people ask me for more details, so I tried to set up some more in-depth tutorials. But I’ve only recorded one with a voice-over, mostly because I’m not an audio engineer and thought it was kind of frustrating. I would like to do more, but I’m finding that recording the process and also doing the voice part makes it much more time-consuming than creating the image. Or at least it feels like it to me. Still, I would like to do more in the future, so we’ll see.

But I guess to sum up as to why I do it: it’s basically just a nice feeling when you’re around other creative people who like to share their ideas and processes and are just as passionate about what they do as you are. That’s the kind of community that inspires me. So I like to give back to others with this same kind of vibe that influences me so much.

Some of the aspects that I find myself really liking about your work include both the amazing background detail you provide (for example, with the robot boy at the street corner), the interesting ‘angles’ you use vs. straight on shots (again using same picture as an example), and also the texture you include, one of my favorite being the Fire Giant from your D&D set. What I wanted to ask then were really two main questions in these regards:

1) When you start a piece, do you already have a pretty good idea about all these factors in your mind, including the detail, texture and view angle – or does all this develop and form as the piece develops and forms?

2) And also, how do you know when it’s time to ‘stop’ adding on such features, and maintain your story without losing focus? I guess another way of saying this would be: how do you keep your illustrations still ‘simple’ enough not to distract the viewer?
Sometimes I do have a little bit of a rough idea. I’ll take it then into the drafting stage, you know as a rough set-up, and map it out to get all the essential items on paper. After that, I’ll try rearranging stuff, or changing perspective or other aspects. In a way, to me it’s kind of like rearranging a toy play-set just to get everything right and ready to go.

In terms of textures, I usually think of these pretty close to the end of painting, after I get all my tones laid out. Actually, lately after I get a drawing done, I think more about lighting than anything else. I’ve been looking at a lot of photography lately, and it’s really inspired me to try more illustration using unusual lighting and its effects. It gets me excited when I can push an illustration in that way!

Actually, in terms of when I ‘decide’ that something is done, well it’s more sometimes the deadlines I face saying its finished than me saying I’m done. But it’s actually a part of the process that I’m still figuring out. Eventually I would like to try to push the focus/unfocused details a little further, to create depth of field like photographers do. But again, there are the time restrictions to respect.

For now, I try to finish as much as I can earlier then my deadlines. This way I’ll have some time to get away from a piece and then be able to come back to it and look at it again with fresh eyes. I don’t always have the luxury to do that; but if possible, I like that little bit of breathing space to break it down and see if I need more attention in certain areas.

When you work on more ‘private’ pieces vs. say working on a project for one of the earlier mentioned outlets or even someone like the University of Tennessee, how does the creative process usually work? Do such people including like Knorr Foods or even Kodiak Boots come in and say ‘do this and this’ or do they still rely on your own creative input for suggestions?
Those pieces for University of Tennessee and also Knorr were heavily directed by Jeremy Dimmock. I would say that these abstracts were already more detailed than any I had ever worked on in the past in terms of the art ‘style’. In these cases, I kind of just sat back a little in terms of the concept stages.

This is pretty true of any project I get. I usually try to wait until I can get stuff on paper and try to get my head wrapped into the original concept before I try to make any suggestions. I think in those cases, the roughs and thumbnails were really essential in order to work out how it might be rendered and fleshed out for the final pieces. And I think more or less it’s at this point when I start throwing out some of my own input.

If such clients do give you a lot of freedom, how many proposals would you typically bring to the table for discussion? You show for example a lot of different ‘character’ sketches on your web-site, and I’m just curious how this ultimately is presented to the customer for approval, fine-tuning or additional work?
I find that with characters, the client tends to be more involved after the initial roughs. Yes, they give you room to play and see what you can bring to the table, and then they give you their own input. This is compared to more environmental concepts where they’re typically a lot more easier going, unless its game play related. In my experience, the rough stages of character work seem to be the most important parts, as opposed to environmental concepts where the focus is more on the final colored pieces.

A lot of the process including the re-working that is needed to reach what the customer wants is determined by budget, time and ultimately the desired style. Again, I usually like to have a good idea what a client is aiming for well before I start. And then I make a rough estimate on what I think will be required in terms of the approximate number of hours - or inversely, look to limit my time to fit their budget.

Also the amount of details/style can be a big factor, that is, on how many iterations I can do in the required amount of time. I find the more complicated and realistic a piece needs to be, the more time I need to work on designing. If the designs are let’s say a bit more ‘cartoony’, then the time needed to churn out a character is much less. But on the flip side, if there’s more room to play with in terms of looks and styles you can try out, this can also affect the time it takes especially if you get too many ideas.

But usually I gauge a time for myself in terms of the customer’s budget and their deadline. I usually do a breakdown of 3 iterations. The initial one is where I just try out everything and anything even if I think it’s silly (sometimes I find doing even the wackiest designs pays off). I’ll try to narrow it down if it looks too similar in look, silhouette, whatever. By the second iteration, I’ll address the designs based on feedback, and then alter, mix or create new designs (that I haven’t tried yet). Then either by the second or third batch, there will be a design that gets picked out or at least one that’s pretty close to what we’ll end up with. And then I’ll flesh it out in color once everything else is finalized.

Your illustrations run a very wide range of different ‘topics’ (there should be a better word for that, but I'm having trouble concentrating with these darn voices) including weapons, robots (my own favorite, which I thought I’d mention again if it wasn’t clear to anyone yet!!), angry gods, monsters, sexy but dangerous women, video game characters, kids illustrations, high-tech mechanics, airport snack shops and so many dozens more. But for you, if you just have a few hours to do whatever you wanted to, what do you enjoy drawing most?
Oh that’s a tough one. If I had to narrow it down, it’s got to be people and robots, and even then in no particular order. In regards to people, I especially love drawing faces and noses (that sounds weird doesn’t it?). I prefer to create a facial expression and then have the body accent the face.

But aside from people, robots hit a soft spot for me. I guess it comes from my childhood (I’m guessing you’re the same way too, based on your question). I’m really fanatical about what kind of robot styles I like, too. I tend to favor more of the old school robot aesthetics i.e. Mazinger, Getter Robo G or Transformers (classic Generation 1). I also really like some of the more modern Asimo, Quiro. I really like it when robots kind of show off a personality through their designs vs. a more utilitarian design.

What area have you not worked in at all or would like to work more in?
Oh definitely TOYS! I’ve dipped my hands in a little bit of initial design work, but that’s about it. I would love to do more of that.

Toys were such a big part of my childhood. Now I find that it’s pretty cool when you can see something that was rendered in 2D turned tangible. You can enjoy a design with more than your eyes: you can then touch it, feel the texture, even sometimes have sound. I guess maybe my childhood isn’t quite over after all!

Finally, what is something about Vince Chui that would make the rest of us – kids or even just those of us who are kids at heart – chuckle?
I believe that you should at least say either ‘bupkiss’, ‘will-nilly’, or ‘donkey wonky do’ to a stranger once a week.

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Vince Chui is an exceptionally talented young illustrator currently based in the Great White North (that’s Canada for all you Global Warming protesters out there). In his own words, he ‘draws stuff’ ... and what great stuff it is! His work includes an eclectic mix of illustration, concept art, story boards and much more. Vince has worked in worked in video games, advertising and the movie business (yes, that is, if you count ‘The Love Guru’ and ‘Land of the Lost’).

His client list ranges from Electronic Arts, Sega, Knorr Foods, Atomic Orange, Blazing Lizard Inc. and the Oxford University press, just to name a few. He has been featured in various publications including ‘Alberto Ruiz : Eye Candy Vol. 2’ and the ‘Udon Street Fighter Tribute book’.

Vince invites you to swing by and say hello on his blog, YouTube, dailymotion or even follow him on twitter (Editor’s Note: none of these inputs are an endorsement of not going out occasionally into the ‘real’ world and meeting people face-to-face). You can also follow him via the Sketch Motel or check out the new ‘kidchuckle’ store at zazzle.com, so freshly opened it still has that new car smell!! And don’t forget to head to the bookstores in September to pick up your copy of ‘Sir Seth Thistlethwaite and the Soothsayer’s Shoes’ by Richard Thake (geez, try saying all that three times fast!!!), which includes not only cover art by Vince but also the interior pieces!! It’ll have you sthpinning in your thseathts for thsure!!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to try and break my arm (again) by trying out the old skateboard! Aloha!!

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All pictures, videos and other media are used with written permission of Vince Chui also referred to as ‘kidchuckle’, or are available in the public domain (noting copyright and other restrictions, accordingly). No further reproduction or duplication is permitted without contacting the artist directly.

Some pictures have been modified slightly or combined only for the purpose of space limitations.

Time To See Who Wears The Pants In This Blog!

Fresh Ziggy #2: Intro to new blog offers, June 06, 2009
click on any image to enlarge it to original size

Buenos días damas y caballeros y el hombre que ellos llaman el pato muerto!

First and foremost, welcome to Drawing Day 2009. According to their web-site, Drawing Day is a world-wide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything they’re doing (which I guess includes also heart surgeons?) and draw for the sake of art. They hope to somehow create 1 million drawings on-line during this time. What the heck they’re going to do with them, well, I dunno.

But if you want to send one of yours to me, I’ll include them in this handy ‘newsletter’ and perhaps even give you credit as well. Seriously, just a doodle will do...

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Secondly, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but quite frankly I just have to say
TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

Yes, I am still suffering from the maniacal giddiness that comes with having a major publication get suckered into publishing a minor piece of work of mine. Just click here and feast your eyes on illustration number 76 (it’s the one that does NOT look professional in any way shape or form... so it’s unique, too, which is nice!).

I did indeed on a lark (noting the lark wasn’t injured and could later fly away under his own power) submit my previous ‘Li’l Obama’ drawing – which as indicated in Fresh Ziggy Issue #1, is based on the ‘Hello Kitty’ (or Little Kitty or Miss Kitty or whatever the heck its called) series of brain-washing Japanese products. But they (the NYT) totally balked at using the old nom de plume (literally: the name of my feather) and instead used my – gasp – real name! Oh great, now I have to go into hiding again until I can ditch the Secret Service. Phooey...

But I am published now in the NY Times as an artiste no less. I’m thinking limousines, beautiful women, celebrities, etc. will all ... well, will all be the kinds of things I only see from a distance owing to quite a few outstanding restraining orders. Moving on then...

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I also wanted to share a funny moment that happened in the Nixon family kitchen the other day. As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of the work of micronaut extraordinaire Martin Oeggerli and really enjoyed reporting previously about his amazing works featuring carefully colored SEM photographs of seeds, insect eyes, killer viruses and even the tiny brains of anyone who follows Liverpool soccer...

But as fate would have it, I looked down and saw this apparently mirror image set against the May picture from Martin’s 2009 calendar (which all of you bought anyway, so I don’t have to oversell it). Seems my wife had bought the latest in cleaning wipers, namely a polyester microfiber wipey-thingie-glove. A cool moment (guess you had to be there at 6 a.m. prior to coffee like I was), even though as an ex-fibers guy I had to laugh, since way back in the day, everyone was convinced that PES micro-fiber was going to be THE next thing. Yes it was going to replace cotton, silk, sexy PVC-based clothing, you name it. And yet now, we use it to get the cobwebs out of the corners...

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Speaking of folks who have had experience painting their own interpretations of microscopic images of cells and other teeny tiny things, thanks again for all your comments about the Ross Bleckner – sorry, the UN AMBASSADOR Ross Bleckner article from last time.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do, what Ross is doing is really inspiring and without joking, continues to move me in terms of the people he’s trying to reach and their need to help end or express what they feel with their daily suffering. It’s nice to see a good news story every now and then, and both the art and personal work of this gentleman is well worth your time.

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And now yet another of our patented strange transitions here at ZN HQ: speaking of situations where the UN is called in to keep the peace and protect the innocent, many of you have ‘enjoyed’ a round of golf or two in your lives – as I did in a life a long time ago in a galaxy devoid of wives and children. I put ‘enjoyed’ in quotations because I am always reminded of my college roommate who absolutely ADORED golf – even spending his tuition money one semester to work on his game – but who yet continually cursed every shot, threw his clubs in the water and usually barely played past the 5th hole because he was doing in his own mind so poorly. Me, I just went to drink beer and hang out away from my graduate studies professor.

But this month friends, we have not only a treat dealing with golf, but an interview with THE pre-eminent golf pants designer the world over (I kid you not). It is indeed my pleasure to introduce the graphic stylings and rock-n-roll musings of:

Design Neither Tasteless Nor For Turkeys

An interview with graphic and golf accessory designer Scott ‘Woody’ Woodworth

Now granted some of you might need a sea-sickness pill when you start perusing the selection of fashions from Woody’s entrepreneurial venture, Loudmouth Golf. But do have a bit of fun with all this, because a lot of fun is what these guys are all about. And if you’re like me (admit it, you are), you’ll marvel at how many fun turns and twists on which life has taken this really nice fellow.

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And now as we usually do when we say, ‘And now in conclusion...’, we come to this week’s changing blog header description: although probably a bit more ‘picked at’ than I think I should have done, I’ve been wanting for some weeks to do a few robot drawings and test them out. In the interest then of Drawing Day 2009, I do include here a few scanned sketches, noting one of them I thought looked like, well, a ‘thingie’ (you know, a guy’s, you know, THINGIE... c’mon folks, work with me here!) even though my wife said it was the coolest one.

Still I couldn’t bring myself to use that one, so I went with the fellow you see here and ultimately had a blast mixing and matching different metallic textures to fill him out.

On top of that, I wanted to also somehow incorporate ‘metro’ maps (London Underground, Paris Metro, Tokyo whatever it is called, etc.) in a drawing. And as I always imagine that these great labyrinths under so many cool cities are somehow run by primarily benevolent yet all-seeing robotic beings, I thought it’d be cool to combine the two somehow. And thar’ ya go!

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Okay folks, that’ll do it for these week’s fresh edition of ‘Fresh Ziggy’! Keep those cards and letters coming!

Besties (vs. beasties, which our kids have WELL covered, trust me...)
Ziggy

'Mind The Gap' by Ziggy Nixon, 2009