Carl Showalter

Carl Showalter, originally uploaded by paul.covello.

"Blood has been shed, Jerry."

Here's Carl Showalter, the "kinda funny looking" in a "general kinda way" crook from the classic crime film, Fargo.

Steve Buscemi regularly appears in the Coens' films, but I think everyone can agree that this is his greatest performance. I love how he slowly goes crazier after every screw up, and consequently gets repeatedly tortured in a variety of ways throughout the film. I tried to show this frustrated violent side in the image, but at the same time really tried to make him look scrawny and funny too.

H.I. McDunnough

H.I. McDunnough, originally uploaded by paul.covello.

"What, are you kiddin'? We got us a family here!"

I love the Coen Brothers' films, most to the point of obsession, and they are probably my all-time favourite directors. So I've started a project where I'll try to draw every single character from their films. By that I mean not only the main cast members, but every person who appears on screen! (or maybe just those featured prominently or with speaking parts...)

Now I'm not sure how often I'll add to this collection and it's a daunting task I've set for myself, but I really hope to build my caricature, digital colouring and inking skills along the way.

First up is one of my favourite characters: H.I. McDunnough played by Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona. Part of why I love this film is because it's a bit like a live action cartoon. So to match this I tried to give H.I. a wiry, elastic quality when I was drawing him and wanted to keep his design as simple as I could. I also love Nic Cage's expressions of anxiety when he's corralling the babies in the film, so I tried to reproduce that as well.

The Literates: Issue #2

Finally here! Check out (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Latte) the second issue of The Literates right here. It took a lot of time to complete (especially the colouring which I spent way too much time fussing over) but I'm really happy with the finished printed copies.

The issue has already got some great attention, as it was blogged about by special guest star James Rollins.

For more about The Literates, check out the facebook or twitter pages.

The Book of Negroes Trailer

Haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy and here's why:



This was really the biggest video project I have been involved with. All the images are from the new illustrated edition of the novel, with some animated in Apple Motion, and a voice actress provided the narration.

Who's Who

Another very short video I did for The Curse of the Labrador Duck. It's based on the awesome Hinterland Who's Who series from the 60's and 70's that would air on the CBC, and I tried to make it as close as possible. I shot all the footage at the conservation area by my house and yes, the prize mentioned in the video is for real.

We Know What You're Thinking

Check out this video for We Know What You're Thinking"I've been working on for the past few weeks. I created it mostly with Apple Motion after drawing everything in Photoshop.



And here's some cool videos that obviously inspired me in hindsight:





The art style is inspired by the work of the great Saul Bass. Check out this awesome site for more examples of his film title works and click here for more info on Bass.



Last but not least, for the text in the video I used the fantastic font HITCHCOCK designed by Matt Terich.

And here is the first episode of the ongoing Hunchback Assignment videos.



I'm working on another very cool book video that I hope to be done soon. It kinda looks like this.

Haven't posted in a while but here's a new video I edited. Recently I went to film students reviewing advance reading copies of a new adventure novel called The Hunchback Assignments. This is a sort of trailer for a series featuring the class reactions that will be available online later this month.

Spread the Strain Commercial

A month ago I posted a picture from a short zombie sequence that I filmed with two of my friends. A more PG version of this commercial will run in the pre-show in Cineplex theatres across Canada around June/July, but you can watch the PG-13 youtube version right now!



And here is the link to the contest mentioned in the video that you can click on: http://spreadthestrain.ca/

What's your Perennial?

Cool new video I edited for the launch of harperperennial.ca where Lewis DeSoto discusses a bunch of the covers of foreign editions of his novel, A Blade of Grass. I'm pretty proud of the intro piece with the olive bomb that I made with Apple Motion. Looking at it now it reminds me of a Saul Bass title sequence or the music video for Money City Maniacs.

Dario & John of the Dead

Today I filmed a short zombie sequence with my friends John and Dario that will hopefully be used in a commercial I'm creating for work. I think I got a little too excited by the prospect of fake blood. I took a couple of photos once we were done, I'd love to get this one blown up to poster size...Dario is the next Bruce Campbell?

Why the Leafs Suck

I really, really, like this video. Making all of the physical violence look at least semi-real and layering the cool sound effects on top of it (the last punch has a bow and arrow sound on it) was too much fun. Lots of credit should be given to all my coworkers who are ready to give great performances as soon as the camera's rolling.

And since it's cool to watch here's some extra punching footage:

Literates in Quill & Quire

The Literates, the comic book series I draw for HarperCollins (first issue available here), got some coverage today in the Quill & Quire (Canada’s magazine of book news and reviews). The article, entitled "HarperCollins's superheroic marketing effort," is available here, but since it's membership only, I'll quote a little bit of the review:

In an effort to boost handselling of its own titles, HarperCollins Canada has come up with an unusual way of getting the attention of booksellers. Recently, the company sent retailers across the country about 4,000 copies of a promotional comic book it created, called The Literates...The eight-page pamphlet has the look and feel of a real comic, and it comes in a protective plastic sleeve with cardboard backing, just like at a real comic book store.

I have to admit, reading that The Literates has "the look and feel of a real comic" in Quill & Quire is pretty exciting for me.

I did a couple of videos for Colin Ellard's forthcoming book Where Am I? that were shot around Toronto. The first has been upload uploaded, and as you can see we're at the Yonge & Dundas SCRAMBLE ZONE!



More of these to come!

INFINITE MONKEY COMICS

Recently, my friend John and I came up with the idea of INFINITE MONKEY COMICS, a fun little way to create random comics based on images from Flickr and text from Twitter. Using a search term you input, INFINITE MONKEY COMICS will generate a 3 panel comic just for you!

Anyway the site was sort of launched at the Truth and Beauty Bombs forum here last night at 8:02 pm.

Insanely, it has already been blogged on the super awesome Heidi MacDonald's blog at Publisher's Weekly: The Beat! I am blown away that news gets around that quickly!

Not only that but we're also on the Poor Mojo Newswire AND Considering Comics!

Holy Cripes on Toast!!!

Please Digg it (if you use Digg or y'know if you want to sign up for an account for us...)

So what are you waiting for? Check out the site, create some comics and follow us on Twitter!!!

Coming to a Theatre Near You...Sort Of

The next time you patron a Cineplex movie theatre, be on the lookout for this:



I created this commercial recently for the Canadian campaign of UK author Cathy Kelly using Adobe Flash and Final Cut Pro. I'm not sure which particular movies this will be shown before but here it is, my first work on the big screen!

The Literates Have Arrived!

Not sure why this took me so long to post about but I now have a published comic book out there in the world!

The Literates issue #1 was printed last week and arrived in my office the day before my birthday! It's been at least 2 months of solid drawing, inking and colouring (and revising, lots and lots of revising...) but it is finally done and I am extremely pleased with how everything turned out. Issues are currently being shipped to bookstores across Canada but if you do not work in a bookstore, I started a tumblr blog where you can get more info and read the entire issue.

Please check it out here.
Also check out the official site here.

That's all for now! On to issue #2!

Pancake Tuesday

Decided to try out some Photoshop brushes and practice my inking skills while celebrating one of my favourite pre-Lenten breakfast-food-related observances. The lumberjack is influenced by the kind of classic cartoony drawings by one of my favorite artists, John Kricfalusi.

Friday the 13th vs Valentine's Day

I thought of this image this morning while sending my friend a Jason Voorhees facebook gift. It was too good of an idea to pass up, I think it only happens every six or so years.

If you like fiction titles arranged in sports-related tournament situations check out HCC March Madness, where 64 of HarperCollinsCanada's titles are arranged into 4 brackets and go head to head against each other with only one emerging as 2009 champ. You can make your picks and vote for your favourite titles, then follow along for the next 6 weeks until the 2009 champion emerges.

I shot and edited this fun sportscast video for the homepage and will continue to make one to update viewers each week. I really like that I was able to use those cool fireball effects. Please check it out and let me know what you think!