Before the 81st Annual Academy Awards, Animation Art Conservation sat down with Ralph Eggleston to talk about the design of Wall-E, Pixar’s latest feature film. There are some really great insights into Eggleston’s process and has some great concept artwork as well. (click here for the article)

“As any of the great production designers would tell you, “Start from the character and then everything else will follow;” and it’s so true.”

Ribera Study — The Phliosopher, originally uploaded by dondecastro.

I was taking classes with a local artist every saturday for a couple of months, and this is my study of Ribera’s the Philospher

Jan 13 — Figure Drawing Workshop, originally uploaded by dondecastro.

My second session of the new year. Here’s to hoping there is more to come

I enjoyed a screening of Bolt last Friday at Blue Sky. The movie was amazing. If I had my pick of the best animated feature of the year it would be this one, or I could be happy if Kung Fu Panda won. Both movies were cohesive in story and character design and told clear and entertaining stories. Sorry, Horton and Wall-E but you were no match for the “superbark” and “kung fu grip.” The scope of Bolt was greater than either of the two prior animated features from Disney and the effects work rivaled any summer action blockbuster. Even the stereoscopic aspect of the movie shows promise as more and more animated movies will be released in “3D.” The action took place deeper in the screen except for a couple of actions that jumped out at you from the screen.

IF you haven’t seen this movie I strongly suggest seeing it. I am always a sucker for movies with a kid and his dog but it has some really great performances in it. Dogs that act like dogs, cats that act like cats… It reminded me of the amazing animations that Disney was once known for (Lady and the Tramp, Jungle Book). I hope this is a strong indication of the direction JL and the other new creatives are taking Disney Animation. Congrats! (I hope this movie gets some legs and helps encourage this kind of film making from Disney. A sad opening weekend with $27 million)

This was a Challenge a couple of months ago, and just hadn’t had a chance to post it until now. I think it was a draw…

Blue Sky Studio has been hemorrhaging a lot of talented artists and coordinators. Aside from losing 4 riggers in our department we also lost our department’s coordinator. Here’s a drawing I made of her for our whole department to sign as a going away card.

The latest topic for the Blue Sky Challenge is to design signs for recycling and turning off the lights when you leave a room. Here’s my entry:

We’ve had some really great guests over the past couple months at Blue Sky Studios including Ken Duncan, Sergio Pablo, Mike Kunkel, Brian Henson and Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.

Brian Henson explained the history of Jim Henson Company, the evolution of muppets to digital puppetry and gave a wonderful demo of a hand puppet/muppet. (It’s a character from their Puppet Up Live performance company in Los Angeles)

Seth Green and Matthew Senreich screened a early preview of their new Star Wars Robot Chicken 2 that comes out on dvd soon. They both talked about how they got started and their woes with production companies. They have a pretty serious studio in LA from what it sounds like and was surprising that it’s not just a couple guys playing with old toys.

(from left to right: Jeff Brodsky (Rigger), Seth Green, Mark Edwards (Rigger), Matthew Senreich, and Jeff Gabor (Animator).

After some time of neglect I thought I should get back into the swing of things and post drawings again. Here is the new usThree blog!