Anthony Zierhut Storyboard Artist, Animatic Artist, Pre-vis Artist, Sketch Blog
Last Saturday I donated my 1995 Ford Escort to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. We scheduled a pick up and just before the appointed time I figured I’d take the opportunity to sketch my old mechanical companion one last time. I did the line work rapidly, as I had only about ten minutes before the appointed time; but the driver was late, so I spent more time on the watercolor than usual. Fourteen years and 100,000 miles! It stranded me once or twice, but was a good car overall.
Just a quick one – it’s a trick drawing / painting while standing up. Behind them is a mirror and you can see me reflected in it drawing this 
I went to water our community garden plot over the weekend and captured some moments there.
I saw these carefully pruned trees in a commercial area of Pasadena the other day, and thought they were funny enough to sketch. After a while I kind of got upset, thinking, “Who does this to a tree?” My first thought was of someone so uncomfortable with Nature’s random beauty that they had to square it off. Then it occurred to me that these are probably not trees at all, in fact they’re more than likely shrubs that grew up to tree-size, and they were probably always squared off, so why stop? It’s actually very funny, intentionally or not. I’d like to think it’s intentional.
Continuing with the theme of cars… This was a moment before going on a recent road trip – getting new tires, alignment and rotation.
This was at a body shop, waiting for an appraisal. I looked over at the Benz on the other side of a glass door, waiting to be picked up or worked on. The custom license plate was an animation term, so I figured it was an animator’s car. Kind of funny.
Cars in the parking lot across from my favorite barber shop…
This was a quick fountain pen sketch made while we were at a Ford dealer, working out the details of buying a new car. I later went back and added some digital color, since I didn’t have time to use the watercolors.
I just now realize that all these sketches were done while waiting for someone or something. Drawing does make the time go by faster. Most of the time I’m disappointed when I have to stop sketching to actually conclude my business. Ha.
Since the studio has provided it for me, I’ve been drawing storyboards on a Cintiq for the last 11 months now. The question frequently comes up between fellow artists, “What do you do with the keyboard?” I have mine stashed in the desk drawer just below it, ready to use or slide away.
After I drew this, it occurred to me that I drew my work area about the same time last year. As much as I have gotten used to this wonderful digital drawing tool, I did the sketch of it on paper
I like drawing on this thing so much, I got their smaller Cintiq for my home office (try to ignore the mess on my drawing table).
