Fast storyboards for Draft

Sometimes the deadlines on storyboards are SO ridiculous that you have no time at all. Here are some fast, almost cartoon-like pencil sketches for Burger King. There was quite a few of them, if I remember correctly, and I drew them about 3 x 4" and delivered them over the internet.






Tough going, but the client was happy, and the frames got the ideas across.

Gallery ad in Art in America magazine

My gallery, the Craig Smith Gallery of Harbert, Michigan is running a full page ad, featuring me, in the May issue of Art in America. I've been working on a new series of acrylic paintings based on computer sketches and experiments which he is exhibiting in the gallery in Harbert and in Oak Park, Illinois. With the summer weather approaching there will be more tourists and summer residents in the area and a great deal of gallery activity. The Harbor Country area where I live is a summer playground for many Chicago residents who have summer homes here. It's a fun area with many nice restaurants and galleries.


Above is the full page Art in America magazine ad featuring NUDE ON THE BEACH.


COY NUDE is the last painting that I finished in this series so far, more to come. This painting is hanging in Craig's Oak Park, Illinois gallery.


Here's the front of a promotion mailer that I designed for Craig. It's advertising his upcoming May 15th exhibit in Oak Park.


A poster for an upcoming June opening in the Harbert gallery. Lot's of activity in the works.

Continuing the Hal Riney storyboards

These are the rest of the frames from the previous Hal Riney post. They were all fairly detailed as these board were going to be presented to their client for approval. When doing sketches for my frame underlays I don't usually don't add any tones, this was done here so the frames would have more detail and read better.












It was a fun assignment, and of course, done under rush conditions. If you don't work well under extreme pressure this is NOT the field for you.

Campbell Ewald loses the Chevrolet account !

Last Friday I was shocked to learn that Chevrolet was leaving it's agency for 91 years and going to Publicis Worldwide, something I would have never believed would happen. However in this business things do change and can in very dramatic ways as in this case.
I only worked at Campbell Ewald for about four years, but it was a major highlight in my advertising career. At first I was the head Art Director on Chevrolet Sales Promotion, then Art Director on Chevrolet magazine advertising, and finally I was part of a two man group called PLUS ONE with Fenton Ludtke, a writer. We were a team in direct competition with the regular Chevrolet Group, it was a great learning experience and fun. After a year of PLUS ONE I decided to leave the ad agency business to work as an illustrator and graphic designer freelancer.
It is a very sad moment indeed.

Black and white storyboard sketches

This storyboard assignment was for one of my New York clients, Hal Riney, they wanted 24 frames in black and white sketch form, which to be presented to their client. I don't have the originals, but I believe that they were done in the 5 x 7" size. Often, if my clients had a very tight deadline they would request black and white line or tone sketches which could be rendered faster than full color work.













On my next post I will show the remaining frames. It's unusual to receive a single storyboard assignment with this many frames, usually a board is 8 or 10 frames.

Storyboards for FCB New York

A series of storyboards done for Art Director Doug Veith at FCB New York. These were rendered using markers and done in the 5 x 7" size and are pretty typical of my fast, overnight work.




This is a fresh, clean style that works very well for most storyboard assignments. When doing animatics much more detail is usually required. Below is an Art Director's sketch for an ad comp which was part of a series done for FCB/NY.


My finished comp rendering which was done in the 8 x 10" size and also rendered using markers.

Another series of storyboard frames done in my typical "overnight" style.









These were done in the 4 x 5" size using markers. Sometimes I would have to send pencil sketches to the AD for approval before rendering the final frames. I don't recall the ad agency or the Art Director on this job, but it was done for one of my New York clients.

More storyboards for a medical client

Another series of storyboard frames that was part of the group from the previous post. These were also rendered in the large 8 x 10 size. When doing large frames like these it's best to take reference photos if time allows, which was not the case here.












As I mentioned in the previous post, these large frames were probably shot as an animatic without moving parts. In an animatic the frames are shot on film and can be presented on a TV screen which gives the client a better idea of how the final version will appear. Usually animatics have many moving parts and are quite complex to produce. Normally I would be given at least a full week to produce an animatic. If I remember correctly, these frames had to be finished in a couple of days.

Storyboards for a medical client

Many storyboard assignments can be downright boring as this example is. Not only did I have a tough deadline, the ad agency wanted these frames rendered in a large 8 x 10" size. I'm not sure why, this was possibly an animatic without moving parts. I didn't have the time or I would have normally taken reference photos of the people for frames of this size, which would have helped a great deal.




On this frame they were going to add some white type so they wanted the area darkened quite a bit.










The time restrictions didn't allow me to add too much detail to the frames, you can see that they are rendered quickly and are quite rough.

Storyboards for Volvo

Here are some color copies that I found of a storyboard I produced for Volvo. They were 4 x 5" frames rendered with markers. I don't recall the Art Director or the ad agency, but this was an assignment done sometime in the early 1990's while I was living in New York City.









I liked the Art Director's concept on this board and enjoyed rendering the frames.

The last of the Subaru boards

Here is another Subaru storyboard which was done in the early 1990's. I don't have many examples of work done before the year 2000 as the originals were delivered to the client. In this case I was able to make color copies for my sample book before I took them to the ad agency.




After 2000 I delivered everything over the internet and was able to keep the original renderings, but it looks like I will soon be running out of storyboard material to post. There may be more examples packed away in my garage, I'll have to take a look.