So what kind of little girl is naturally gifted at fighting with chainsaws...

Having been hand picked by destiny to tell the story of little Margaret (champion chainsaw fighter) I'm at the roughest stage for me in the development process: character design.

This one really won't do at all. The dress is too old fashioned and the hair won't work for important parts of the story but a few things are starting to take shape. Like all cool girls I've ever known, she'll be rockin' a pair of Chucks. I also like the idea of her having an Evil Dead lunch box. Hmm...possibly Dino Riders. Gotta play that one by ear.

I really do hope I capture this level of excitement and wildness in the final design though. I've already cast Henri as the father so making the designs match up is gonna be bit of wackiness too but also a lot of fun.

I'll go into the story later. It's actually a really sweet father and daughter story. Kind of like Father and Daughter....but with chainsaws, nonsensical humor and less brilliant. No, all kidding aside there is a good amount of heart and heartwarminess to this tale. Actually, for the first time in a long time I'm more excited about the interaction of the characters than the overall gag. In fact, if this whole chainsaw thing starts feeling too violent I've got a backup plan in place. Can you say Big Wheels!!! We'll see how it feels in a few days.

But yeah, the characters and who they are is what's really driving me to put the hours in on this thing. Being able to make people connect with characters and feel life's experiences through them is what makes a story worth telling. It's how you create something that actually sticks with people; something folks will remember for more than 20 minutes after seeing it. If you're not interested in that I hear they have some openings over at Family Guy.

I think I just had the best idea ever!!!

Now I just gotta remember what a chainsaw really looks like and we can get this short on the road...after I figure that one out I'm pretty sure this is gonna be the single greatest accomplishment of my life.

Quick Sketch - Professor Awful...

He's just awful.

So you take a tiny little sketch and then ya blow it up...

I heard Scott Morse does it! I call them the odd couple...

All this screwing around in Photoshop is doing is making me realize how much I need to get back to traditional media. The weekend is coming up...

Oh and a cute lil' '59 Alpha Romeo...

Henri needs to get into shape...for the drinkin' contest!

I have a feeling he's gonna do juuuuuuust fine. Look at how he's sucking in his gut while running in the nude. Clearly, he is all that is man!! On a side note, my mother demanded today that I draw some Tigers. So look for that coming up soon. Hope all you cool kids did the right thing and called your mommas today.

Oh, special bonus! The first little doodle I ever did of Henri. This was back before I had any idea that his name was Henri, that he was in fact French or that I'd be drawing him constantly. He began as just a little notion of a character who loved games and puzzles and always found a reason to be pretty darn pleased with himself.

Ian Yonika...

So we all love those post-it notes sketches in the work place, right? But what do ya do when you don't have any handy but you really really need to caricature one of your dear co-workers. That's right loose leaf notebook paper!!

This is Ian Yonika, one of the super talented animators I work with and another Ringling grad. He's the first guy I go to when I need crits and just a huge inspiration every time I look over and see what he's makin' dance on the screen. Ian used to worry a lot about the world's problems and that's kinda what I was goin' for here. Nowadays, he is much more laid back and care free. Which makes me happy.

While we're at it, I can also vouch for this man's Dodgeball skills.

Henri takes a dip in the pool...

First time ever using Sketchbook Pro...and so far I really, really dig it. Hopefully there is a quick way to pull out layers generated in Sketchbook and throw them into Photoshop.

I didn't know Henri smoked. Or that he liked swimming. At least he was modest enough to wear a speedo.