Dean Yeagle Minotaur

Hey Folks,

Got a treat. The Amazing Dean Yeagle, drew up a couple of images of a potential Minotaur. It's not final,but Dean has allowed me to share them with you so here they are. Feel Free to leave comments.

GURIHIRU -NEW FROM JAPAN

So it's not every day that I discover a new blog. Now some of you may already be familiar with this guy -but boy was I surprised. Usually we see folks here in North America, trying to draw anime style. Well, here's a dude from Japan - who draws inspiration from North American animators.
check out his blog and see for yourself http://gurihiru21.blog11.fc2.com/

WANTED : MASCOT DESIGNS

Hi All,

Still working on the store. Hopefully the lease will be signed soon and I can announce that its all official. In the mean time, I am trying to come up with a mascot. A character that can appear on t-shirts, the store sign, business cards and possibly a full body costume (like the kind they have at wonderland or disney world)

Some suggestions included a dragon or a minataur, however, it can be anything -that fits with animation, illustration or anime. It should be fun, appealing and not overly complicated.

Please email me your design ideas. I will post them here on the blog. If your design is chosen, you will get a $150 store credit towards the goodies of your choice. Plus I will love you forever and sing your praises every time the subject of the mascot is brought up.

Email your designs to: inthelab@hotmail.com

Cheers,
Dan

A STORE! A STORE!

First the good news: We finally found a store. Our goal is to be open by June 1st, but depending on how things go, we may be open as early as May 15th. As you could imagine, starting up a store will take some work. I will be taking pictures of the place as we go through the process of transforming it and hopefully post that here. Expect that to start happening in early May.

More Good News: We will be launching a website you can shop from June 1st as well. Nothing is up yet, but we have a programmer working on it right now. We will announce the web address closer to the date.

Not So Good News: I can't reveal the new store location just yet. Sorry. What I can say is that it will be in Toronto. The exact address, hours of operation, etc.. will be revealed here on this blog no later than May 10th.

Cheers,
Dan.

BUYING YOUR BOOKS

WANTED: Used Art, Illustration,Animation, Art Instruction, Life Drawing, Design and Fashion books.

If you want quick cash, for some of your old books, talk to us. If we need the books, we'll make you a fair offer. Keep in mind, we're in business to make a profit.

What we want are books in good condition, that are filled with great art, illustrations etc..

So if you got too many books, or some old books that dont do it for you anymore, email us with a list. our email: inthelab@hotmail.com

We just picked up a collection of books last week -including 1 copy each of: Art of Lion King, Art of Hercules, Art of Hunchback, Art of Tarzan, Art of Toy Story, Art of Bugs Life, and several other hard to find books. Check us out at our next sale, for a chance to grab one of these. (again, we just have 1 copy each of these). The guy who sold us these made more money than if he took it to a traditional used book store, and we got some cool books that people have been asking for.

OH - before i forget. We just got in a huge Brand Spankin New selection of the coolest French books ever. Including several mouth watering sketch version, sketchbooks and terrific BD's.

TOP 10 ARTBOOKS ANIMATORS SHOULD OWN

I have been racking my brain trying to settle on just 10 books, that in my opinion are a must for any animator. When we started the animation book business 5 years ago, there wasnt a lot of choice. Today there is so much great stuff -its hard to choose, but choose i did. After reading the list, you may disagree with me, and if you do, feel free to leave a comment.

No TOP 10 list is without controversy. I tried to pick the books that i personally love to go back to, looking at them over and over again. Of course, i own hundreds of books and i dont recommend anyone should stop at just 10. Most of the books i listed are still available, as i tried to stay away from rare or hard to get stuff.

First off let me clarify, that for the purpose of this list i am looking at artbooks/sketchbooks -not so much how to books. For example, no animator should be without Richard William's Survival Guide to Animation -but as artbooks go, its not the best.

Starting the list was easy, but then i realized that i liked several books by the same artist. For that reason, the TOP TEN list is broken down more by Artist, then by book. For Example Norman Rockwell is known as a master illustrator- but his ability to charicature and invoke action and emotion into his paintings make his books a must on any animator's list.

Note: There are plenty of other books not on the list, that could easily have been added, except that i limited the list to 10. To simplify the list, i didnt include any japanese artbooks of which there are plenty of awesome ones (Anything by Miyazaki, Koji Morimoto's Orange, Range Murata,Hyung Tae Kim's Oxide 2,Terada Katsuya's Zenbu or Tatsuyuki Tanaka's Cannabis Works are just a handfull that pop into mind).

TOP 10 (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):

1. Claire Wendling - Drawers 2.0 & Iguana Bay
2. Norman Rockwell - Pick any book
3. Stephen Silver - Art of Silver, Sketches 1,2
4. Ben Caldwll -3 sketchbooks, Action Cartooning,Fanasy Cartooning
5. Carlos Meglia - Canari, Superman infite city
6. Barbucci - Skydoll,Monster Allergy
7. Cartoon Modern - 1950s animation
8. Dean Yeagle - 4 sketchbooks
9. Art of Star Wars Episode I,II,II - awesome location and costume designs
10. Michel Gagne - Insanely Twisted Rabbits

So what do you think - is there any you would remove? Any you would add? Let me know what you think.

JOHN NEVAREZ IS IN THE HOUSE

THEY'RE HERE! The two awol John Nevarez sketchbooks have made it back from the world of the missing pakcages and into my grubby hands. ha ha ha. Well, actually i got a call that they came in. I wont have my paws on them until tonight. Seriously though, if you haven't yet seen John's sketchbooks, do yourself a favour and take a peak. As I've mentioned before, John is super talented and the sketchbooks are a real treat. Not expensive either.

ALSO I AM TRYING TO PUT TOGETHER A LIST OF THE TOP TEN SKETCHBOOKS that an animator should own. Not sure if i should have a seperate list for finished illustration books (eg. ashely woods Grande Finale,etc..) or just have one list that combines the best from everything. If you got any opinions as to what books should be on there, let me know. Oh -and if you have your own top ten list, feel free to respond with that.