PINK HOBO HOSTS "The Art of Yo Gabba Gabba" Show

The show is on July 11th 2009 at the Pink Hobo gallery in Minneapolis Minnesota . The Pink Hobo Gallery is attached to the wonderful Puny animation studio. They also produced shorts for the "Yo Gabba Gabba" and had the swell idea to exhibit art work created for the show in their gallery.

Below is some of the art work that I have submitted to the exhibit. They are from the two "Yo Gabba Gabba" shorts I worked on: "Forest Pan" & "Princess and the Dragon". If you would like to watch the shorts, please visit the animation section of my website MEGAN BRAIN.COM.

Cool new find-Bert Simons

I just found this cool artist who creates paper sculptures with the help of his computer.
Click here to see his process.

Yuki in Snake Pit-work in progress

This piece did not make it in the Yuki book, but it will be in the Gallery Nucleus show July 3rd 2009.

LOTUS

This is the piece I made for the Yuki 7 book. Lotus is the Italian double agent in Yuki 7 film "Roman Rendezvous". She is hiding the the secret missile plans in the lining of her coat.

I took my design lead for Lotus from one of Kevin's Yuki posters. I loved her white hair and mod fashion. For this piece I braided some strips of paper for her pony tail, used red photo gel for her glasses, and shiny black paper to give her coat that vinyl feel.
I really wanted to make more pieces for the book, but I had a rough month. I am going to work on having more pieces for the show in July.

Fleet Street Scandal's next book release!

Fleet Street Scandal is going to release a new book this summer called "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7". The book features the amazing art of Kevin Dart. He invited the following artist to contribute to the book:

Bill Presing
Bob Logan
Brigette Barrager
Chris Turnham
Daniel Arriaga
Don Shank
Elizabeth Ito
Horia Dociu
Josh Parpan
Justin Parpan
Megan Brain -me!
Ted Mathot

The book is going to be launched with a coinciding show at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra California on July 3rd 2009!

MY 2009 BLICK SCHOOL CATALOG COVER

Every year the Blick art supply company comes up with a theme for their annual art supply catalogs. My luck the 2009 theme is paper! I was asked to submit some concepts for the cover, and one of the three I submitted was picked. I came up with the concept of an open box spilling out art supplies because it happened to me one day when I was rushing to a class.
It was thrilling opportunity and very fun project to create. Unintentionally the girl turned out looking like my friend Anna Chambers who happens to be a very cute art chick.
Click here If you are interested in ordering a catalog from them.

YO GABBA GABBA "PRINCESS & DRAGON"

These are some of the paper puppets I made for a Yo Gabba Gabba short that aired recently on Nick Jr. "The Princess and the Dragon" was the story time segment within the "Dress Up" episode. It was written by Matt Fackrell, animated by Chris Staples, storyboarded and art directed by me.

Princess Model Sheet
She was designed to resemble the Matt's cute little daughter Mia.




This is the dragon prior to his blue/green paint job.

VIEW ANIMATION ON MY UPDATED WEBSITE!

Click here to view the improved MeganBrain.com!

I recently had my multi talented friend/ web master Ariana make improvements to my website. Now, when you go to my Animation section, you can click and watch the animated projects I've worked on (no more going through youtube). The Madagascar 2 End Credits take 3 min to load so please have patience.
She also made some neat improvements to my "About" and "Contact" pages. A "STORE" section is coming soon. I will be selling original art, and possibly prints too.

More Madagascar puppets

This paper Mort version was created based off of a development design from artist Phillipe Tilikette.

This is the version that made it onto the screen because it resembled the CG version of the character.

This shark was based off of designs created by artist Pete Oswald.

Madagascar 2 End Credits

I recently worked with Duck Studios on the end credits of Dreamworks Madagascar 2! It was an incredible opportunity and fun challenge. Here are some of the paper puppets I made.

Alex the Lion: Profile look ended up in the movie. The front view shown on the right was a trial.

Some rough drawings and explorations of Alex's head design.

Gloria head studies: The ones on top are the final heads, and the bottom row are experiments influenced by African mask art.

Monkeys: Still frame from the credits. The animators did such a cool job lighting this section.

They had to share the body...I only had time to make one.


The lead character designer for the Madagascar films is Craig Kellman! He is one of my all time favorite artist, and an extremely funny man. It was a joy to make paper puppets based off of his designs.

Here is a list of credits of the people who on the project:

Preproduction
Jamie Caliri:Director & storyboard
Dan Ridgers:Line Producer
Alex Juhasz:Storyboard & background art
Pablo Grande:Prop design/fabrication & background art
Todd Hemker:Animation Director

Animators:
Yorico Murakami
Scott Kravitz
Jinna Kim
Hsinping Pan
Hsin-I Tseng
Blake Robertson
Evan James
Jan Chen

THANK YOU Tom McGrath,Eric Darnell, Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin, & Shannon Jeffries for the freedom you allowed us, and supporting the paper animation look!

Braced boy

This is a little project I did for my brother-in-law Dr. Stewart White who is an Orthodontist in Santa Barbara. I did a teen girl with braces a year ago. This is her male counterpart.

Development work from commercial

United Airlines Commercial for summer Olympics

The commercial I worked on this spring has aired and it looks beautiful!!!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION OF THE COMMERCIAL

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A LOW RESOLUTION VERSION OF THE COMMERCIAL ON YOU TUBE

Here are some stills from the commercial.


This is the director Jamie Caliri and a crew friend Peter working on the construction of the airport scene in the opening shot.

This was a traditional stop motion spot that received a little help from the program After Effects in post. We made movable paper puppets and constructed sets made to scale for the puppets. The commercial was shot using the stop motion program DRAGON. Jamie and his brother Dyami created this program together.

This commercial was produced by DUCK STUDIOS in Los Angeles. For a full list of credits and some more behind the scenes pictures please visit Jamie Caliri.com.

Sun

This sun is eventually going to animate.
(Please excuse the ugly background that is my cutting mat)

Another dog inspired piece

I have some images from current projects that I want to post, but can’t yet. The United commercial is going to air in August so I’ll put up some work from that once it's hit the TV screen.

So until then...here is another piece inspired by my dogs.

This is a picture I took of them having their 5th nap of the day. I loved how symmetrical their bodies were, and then how tangled their arms and legs are.

I took the leg and arm chaos away in this piece. I think I will make another one and tackle the arms and legs differently.

Ben Balistreri's "SEAWEED A Cure For Mildew" is now available!!!!

Ben is a friend and an EXTREMELY talented artist. Not only does he have a very beautiful and distinctive character design style, but he is also a wonderful colorist, inker, and storyteller. While working full time jobs at studios, he has been working on this labor of love after hours for the past 6 years. To read more about the book and to place an order please visit saltysugar.com

Medieval Paper Princess

Gingerbread House of TERROR

This was a little paper gingerbread house I created for one of the music videos in an episode of "Class of 3000" on Cartoon Network.  It was for a Hansel and Gretel story line.

more Dogs

The inspiration:


This was my Valentines Day gift to my husband. I made cut outs of our beloved dogs Humphery (a Patch Beagle) and Janie (a Fox Terrier mix).

I'm Shortie

This is my friend Peter's chiwawa mix Shortie. This dog is a character and so is his owner. I like characters so I made him this little statuette in honor of his "old man like" dog.




His little leg has a hinge in it so he can scratch himself when ever he feels the urge.

Queen Eliza-BEE-th

Samurai Beetle from "Band Of Bugs" show

The "Band of Bugs" show opening on Saturday was great! I believe 500 people showed up to check it out. Thank you for coming out to the show and supporting us. The show will be up till March 3rd. Lou, Don, Amanda, Michele, Alex, Chris, and myself have some pieces that are still available to be purchased on the Gallery Nucleus website.


THE INSPIRATION:
I was looking at Rhino Beetles on the internet and got a Samurai book for Christmas. Put them together and what do you have --Samurai Beetles. I plan on making more because this was really fun to make.

"The spider and the ladybug" for bug show

"Egyptian Scarab" for bug show

via Wikipedia: "The scarab was linked to Khepri ("he who has come into being"), the god of the rising sun. The ancients believed that the dung beetle was only male in gender, and reproduced by depositing semen into a dung ball. The supposed self-creation of the beetle resembles that of Khepri, who creates himself out of nothing. Moreover, the dung ball rolled by a dung beetle resembles the sun."

...interesting

African Mask Butterfly

"African Mask Bugs" for upcoming art show

These are my African Mask bugs that I've made for the upcoming art show at Gallery Nucleus Feb.9th. One is based off of a ladybug and the other one is based off of a picture of a real insect I found on the internet. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down what kind bug it was. It looked cool so I made it.


Here it is out in nature.

"THE BUG SHOW" FEBRUARY 9TH AT GALLERY NUCLEUS!

This is LOU RAMANO'S piece that we used for the show flyer


Local Californian Wasp: 5 1/2 X 5 1/2


This is one of my pieces that is in "The Bug Show" at Gallery Nucleus on February 9th at 7pm. Other artists in the show include:
Lou Romano
Anna Chambers
Chris Rabilwongse
Don Shank
Amanda Visell
Michelle Valigura
Alex Kirwan


For more information, please click on the Gallery Nucleus link listed under "Gallery links".

Rodeo Kids

A logo for an elementry school fund raiser.

Our Wedding Cake

Here is a picture of our wedding cake that I mentioned a few post back. I made all the butterflies from paper and poked them into the cake with wire. Unfortunately, I had a window of 10 minutes to place them on the cake at the baker's home the day before the wedding. It was pretty stressful and they almost didn't make it on there. I'm so glad I did it, and the end product is ALMOST what I envisioned it to be. It's always more grandiose in the mind.

CHOWDER!!! Watch it!

CHOWDER is a new show on Cartoon Network and it premiers TONIGHT November 2nd at 7:30. It is wonderful, funny, unique, has beautiful art direction and awesome music! If you don't catch it tonight, Tivo it or check the schedule on www.cartoonnetwork.com.

I'm getting hitched

I decided that planning a wedding is not enough work so I gave myself art projects just for the event. One of them is this flower girl basket. I'm also making my cake topper. I'll post that picture if it turns out the way I want it to.

Kunoichi - female Ninja

She just assassinated her target and is returning her weapon to her hair where it will be disguised as a hair ornament.



I read about the Kunoichi and it inspired me to create this piece for the Ninja Show at Gallery Nucleus.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Yo Gabba Gabba is a brand new children’s program that will be airing on Nick Jr. and Noggin in August. You can watch a sample of the show on you tube or visit their site at http://www.yogabbagabba.com. I'm really excited about this show and very honored that I got the opportunity to be apart of their first season!

Some bugs

This is a piece I did for the "Power in Numbers" show coming up this weekend at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra.
The show runs from May 19 - May 28, 2007

150 artists were requested to create pieces that fit within a 5X7 dimension. All work will be priced at $50 or $100. They will be donating 20% of the profits to charity. The charity affiliated with this years Power In Numbers will be Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization to help with the fight against breast cancer. Please visit their sight (linked in the right margin) for more information.

Marie Antoinette

Stills from Paper Cutout Video for Class of 3000

Last month I collaborated with the talented Mr. Chris Staples and Joe Horn to create a paper cutout music video for the Cartoon Network series Class of 3000! André Benjamin wrote the song, Joe boarded the video, I created the puppets and Chris animated, filmed, and edited the video. This music video is imbedded in the episode called "Prank Yankers" which aired on Friday February 23rd.

"Mekka-lekka hi mekka hiney ho!"

Jambi from Pee Wee's Playhouse! This was done for the "After These Messages Show" that is up at the Gallery Nucleus till March 6.

The Water Queen

This is a piece I created for the Nucleus Gallery Show "After These Messages". The piece was inspired by the Rankin Bass movie "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause". My paper lady is based off of the "Water Queen Immortal" puppet from that movie.

Hypothetical record cover

This was one of my pieces for “The Cover Art” show at the Nucleus gallery. I thought it would be fun to do an old Indian dude playing a sitar as a cover image for an East Indian music album.

White Elephant Show (3 1/2in X 3in)

This is the piece I created and donated to the WHITE ELEPHANT show
being presented by ISM quarterly.

Red Fox

This little fox is a work in progress. I do this sometimes. I'll make one part of the sculpture and put it aside until I get an idea for the environment to put it in. I'm leaning towards a forest. I'd better start cutting some trees.