This is cool, my first ever design to hit a printed magazine!

Gawrsh Mickey!

From this article about how Disney is redeveloping Mickey Mouse to become more (pauses to swallow own vomit) relevant:

The effort to re-engineer Mickey is still in its early stages, but it involves the top creative and marketing minds in the company, all the way up to Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.

Ooooh good.  As long as the top creative and marketing minds are involved. And here I was worried about a cold, soulless, business manoeuvre.

Reminds me of this.

Completed Tiger & Bear strip

The strip.  To be honest with you, I don’t much like the joke I was given, but poor workman, poor tools etc.

I need to think of a witty sign off line when I can’t think of how to end blog posts.

Tiger & Bear

Tiger & Bear are these two characters over here that have a profile built around exploring and lampooning expats and our place in Korean society.  I’m part of a project that sees a bunch of artists reimagine the characters as part of a Peanuts-style gag strip, with the gag being provided by someone else.  I’ve already written and submitted a gag for someone else to do the artwork for, and I’m working on the gag I’ve been given.

Here’s a work in progress on my take of the two characters, who I’ve revisualised as people wearing animal suits, which I’ve just realised could be made into some statement about how expats wear the clothes of their host culture but can never be of the host culture, but in fact I just thought it was funny to have two people dressed as animals..

As part of my job I’ve been reading (and rereading and rereading) dozens of kids’ books, some of which are great and a lot are mediocre.  But no doubt this influence is responsible for the ultra sharp outlines with the paintery texture, which seem pretty childlike.

Mon dieu

I’m self-critiquing even in my dreams.

Last night I dreamt that I was a captain onboard a ship that had just captured Napoleon (clearly my dreams are as accurate as a Hollywood movie).  As he was delivering his argh-I’ve-just-been-captured monologue, a sub-conscious voice of God came into the dream saying, “That’s a terrible French accent, Clayton.”

I was able to rally at least when Napoleon tried to escape overboard but got caught upside down by his bootstraps on the ship’s railing (this is all true) and I as the captain was able to deliver the killer deadpan line, “Sacre bleu.”

It was great.  All the crew laughed.

I’m going back to sleep.

Drunk Ewoks run amok on The Today Show

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33549454#33549454

It starts around the 2 min mark.

Advice #007: Why are all the guys I know such dicks?

More for Gloss.co.nz

Hi Clayton!

Over the years I have seen a pattern in male behaviour from both male friends, male family members and male partners of some of my girlfriends that each time I come across, it annoys the sh*t out of me! My question is this: What is it about having an extremely attractive girlfriend/partner/wife that turns men into arrogant ‘I can have any woman I want’ knobs in public?The acting up I have witnessed at times is mind boggling to the point where certain males sometimes will refuse to be seen standing or sitting next to his lovely bewildered partner in public when it is clearly obvious that 70% of the entire male population present in the social situation at the time would cut off his left one for the chance or certainly wouldn’t treat a lady like this?

Photos: Last minute Thai stuff

I’ve just been sent some more stuff from Thailand from someone I travelled with, which are the last 20 photos here.

Starting with this one:

Advice #006: How do I make my man more romantic?

After a lengthy absence, The Man is back on gloss.co.nz answering all your womanly needs:

How can I inspire my man to become more romantic? I might not be the most romantic partner in the world, but I do often suggest romantic dinners for TWO, long walks along the beach, or buy him little presents now and again. But, he’s the kind of guy who invites his friends to the dinner, thinks a walk along the beach is a warm-up and prelude to him buggering off all day for a surf at the beach and thinks taking out the garbage should suffice as an expression of love.
I’m getting envious of my girlfriends who get wooed with flowers and jewellery or spontaneous dinners in places that require a little more dressing up than McD’s drive through.

Coffee and Stuffing

I went to a cafe today where they put stuffed animals in some of the seats.

It was enough to make my day.