"West In Pieces"

"West In Pieces" was the last episode (#606) of The Powerpuff Girls. I had the GREAT opportunity to design all of the backgrounds for the finale to a terrific series. This episode was very different from any prior, because it takes place in the Old West and the characters are all reimagined for the 1860s period. I really enjoyed redesigning all of the iconic locations with a western influence. I worked with the great storyboard artist, Chris Reccardi and background painter, Chris Rozak to design the look which I describe as a "Western Little Golden Book". This episode aired as a Season 6 (Episode 7) cartoon on July 30, 2004 as a rare 2 part... most episodes were :11 min each. 

 

I had a little extra time to take the background designs to a new level of refinement that I really didn't have time to attempt before. I laid out most of the backgrounds to the character poses in Chris Reccardi's board and I took time to render almost every drawing!

Everything in the city of Townsville is made out of wood planks and riveted steel. I really pushed the look of the clouds to resemble the embroidered motif on western shirts. 

  

 

"Townsville" Main St. Design

  

  

Reimagining of Prof. Newtonium's House

  

  

 

 

  

... In 2005, I received the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for Background Design". It was a great year for Cartoon Network as we swept the Emmys that year. 

More "Powerpuff"

These are a few background designs for "The Powerpuff Girls" series at Cartoon Network. These designs were done for the third season (I think) in 2000. 

One of the designs is for Professor Newtonium's dorm room in college. I based this drawing on my "dorm room experiences" at CalArts.

"The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" (Part 1)

In 2004, I was hired at Cartoon Network to work on a new series in development, "Juniper Lee". This was a great opportunity for me to reunite with some old animation friends, Alan Bodner (Warner Bros Classics, Iron Giant), Frank Squilacci (Big Guy and Rusty), Steve Lewis (Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, WB Classics) to create the look of a new series from a blank page. To that date, the shows I had worked on at Cartoon Network were all well established visually (Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack)... so I was anxious to try something new. 

I had a few interesting design issues to address with "Juniper Lee": first, the show took place in San Francisco, a challenging location to draw for tv with its elegant architecture and rolling hills. Second, the show starred characters of Chinese origin... I wanted to make sure this interesting aspect of design was NOT overlooked. Third, the main characters were "witches"... this was the most exciting and inspired part of the design challenge. I took these three ingredients (San Francisco Victorian architecture, Chinese design motifs and witchcraft) and tried to serve each visually. I  really grew to like the design direction the show was going in. I had the rare chance on this show to really explore a few locations in complete detail. By the second season, I had won an Emmy for Background Design on "Juniper Lee" (the only one in the series). 

You can see a big influence of my prior work in these designs. Warner Bros classic cartoons (Maurice Noble), Dan Krall's art direction on "Powerpuff" and my own affection for bold shape and strong silhouettes were a big inspiration for me. This is a small cross section of the background designs and visual development for the series...