"The Robot Barn" - digital, 2002

There was a period in 2002 where I'd just paint up layouts for animation scenes off the top of my head whenever I had a spare minute. This one is "The Robot Barn," a hypothetical story in which a farmer tries to build a mech in his barn without any of the neighbors finding out.

For "The Trojan Horse," I took a quick shot at trying to make the horse look as friendly as possible, while cramming in lots of compositional hints about the deadly menace hidden inside. Someday I want to go back and do a design study of the best way to covert a Greek trireme into a giant wooden horse.

Living in Los Angeles, it's not hard to imagine the city rotting into a state of crumbling decay like a sandwich left out too long.

I don't know what the rest of you think of when you see those ugly Los Angelean puffball palm trees, but to me they look less "tropical paradise" and more "rampant mold spores."