Rejected Baby Names: Santa Francis

So it is Christmas Eve. There is still time to get all of your last minute gift shopping finished (or started) but Christmas isn't about that. I'd like to wish everyone the Happiest of Holidays, filled with friends, family and much joy.

Happy Holidays everyone. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.

Rejected Baby Names: Mrs. Santa Francis

It is a shame that Mrs. Claus doesn't have a definitive first name and that she is only known as "Mrs." Although according to santaclaus.com "Mrs. Claus' full name is Jessica Mary Clause, her

mother picked her middle name after the mother of Jesus."

But Jessica Mary Claus Francis doesn't roll off the tongue any better.

Rejected Baby Names: Frosty Francis

I'm a little late in this week's boy rejected baby name. We had our office Christmas party at work on Thursday where I made a 25 plus pound Turducken (yummy!). I'm also in the final push to get the house ready for our new arrival, while trying to finish animation on our current episode of Raspberry Jazzberry Jam in order to have some proper time off over the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, they are almost here. This weeks boys name is based on the popular holiday character, Frosty "The Snowman" Francis. I've always loved this time of year and I'm looking forward to experiencing the joy of the Christmas holidays anew through the eyes or our new addition. It should be fun.

Rejected Baby Names: Goldilocks Francis

I think that I can be assured that this kid won't be a blond. Messy eater yes. Blond no.

Rejected Baby Names: Flaco Francis

I've been following a webcomic, Sheldon by Dave Kellett, for sometime now. Very funny stuff. One of the characters is a little lizard called Flaco who only says "Squee". As a baby name, Flaco Francis just does't roll off the tongue, that and my wife would never go for it. Here is a link to the webcomic if you want to check it out.

Rejected Baby Names: Leia Francis

I really liked Star Wars growing up. At one time you might get away with sneaking in a Star Wars name somewhere, but that was before the death of a franchise. Plus if you name a kid Leia, at some point in their life, someone will ask them to wear a metal bikini and that really can't be fun.

Rejected Baby Names: Jack & Jill Francis

I know siblings always fight and thats normal. I also can attest to the kind of damage that a sister can inflict and still get away with. I've never really believed that Jack "fell down".

DIY update

I'll be posting a double rejected baby name illustration on Thursday for those of you who are keeping track. Meanwhile, here is a progress update of our little DIY project. Above are a few snaps from the last ultrasound session. The First pic is of the baby's head in profile. The second is the baby's forehead with their foot pressed into it. The last pic is from an earlier ultrasound in September of the baby's nose and mouth.

Tis the season...

So what's this.

A while ago I did some work for a company for Christmas themed gift bags. I designed and illustrated a bunch of gift bags and two sets of four got picked up. One set has Santa and his reindeer flying over villages and towns and such. The other is a set of Santa Claus bags.

My wife told me that she saw the Santa gift bags on a rack at a local Lawton's Drug store. Sure enough there they were, three of the four Santa bags. As far as I can tell, Lawton's Drugs are carrying the bags throughout their stores which I think is pretty cool.

Rejected Baby Names: Dave Francis

David is a good name and I know many quality people named David... but how many Davids do you know that become Dave, then at some point someone calls them "Super Dave". Next thing you know Dave is sitting in an old wheelbarrow, being pushed by an older kid, over a jump made of old wooden shipping palettes in the back yard into some sort of debris field.

I remember doing the above when I was a kid and I think I would like to try and discourage this type of behaviour as I would like to spend as little time as necessary taking my kids to the hospital.

Rejected Baby Names: Florence Francis

I've never been a fan of names that can be shortened. With that in mind we can remove Florence "Flo" Francis from our baby name list. It could make them easy prey throughout their school careers and especially if we have more children. Later in life, once the second child has kids, Florence would always be known as aunt "Flo".

Rejected Baby Names: Stanley Francis

Here we have your typical teen. Sullen, disinterested, and with a name like Stanley Francis, probably a bully magnet. Kids could turn his name into "Stan Francisco" which could become "Sisco" then "Sis" and then finally "Sissy" and bullies love to pick on "sissies".

Rejected Baby Names: Rapunzel Francis

I had this image in my head but it looks more like a cousin "IT" than a little girl. But who says that Rapunzel has to have well kept hair.

Rejected Baby Names: Tiberius Francis

I like the name Tiberius but I can see where it could pose problems for a child.

Rejected Baby Names: Xylophone Francis

Xylophone Francis. This Tuesday's Rejected Baby Name is brought to you from the year 1974 and the letter X. We still have a few months to go before our baby arrives so if you have any name suggestions, leave them in the comments section or email via my profile page. Thanks for visiting.

Rejected Baby Names: Hansel and Gretel Francis

This week I've decided to combine the Rejected Baby Name Illustrations as the name,Hansel and Gretel, are almost always heard together. I know what I was like as a kid I was an unholy terror to any and all adults, whenever I had access to even the smallest amount of sugar. This is something that I am hoping to avoid with my own children. Of course I know that my parents have long ago cursed me to have children as hyperactive as I was, so I'll just have to cross my fingers and wait and see what happens.

Rejected Baby Names: Clark Francis

This is a bad idea for the simple fact that eventually the kid would think that he could fly. Cut to young Clark jumping from sheds, fences, trees, stairwells and anything else that he could climb onto. It just involves too many hospital visits.

Rejected Baby Names: Princess Francis

I've always felt that anyone who raised their child to be a princess has done the child and the world a great disservice.

Most "Princesses" I've met have always demanded to be treated as royalty. When they were in fact only a royal pain in the ...

Rejected Baby Names: Hazmat Francis

I think that this sort of thing can happen with any child but lets hope that it can be avoided. And just incase you're wondering, no, that isn't chocolate pudding that he is playing with...

Rejected Baby Names: Paris Francis

Such a bad idea for so many reasons.

Rejected Baby Names: Flavour Flav Francis

So here is the first Rejected Baby Name for a boy. Not much else to say about this one. Any thoughts?

Rejected Baby Names: Keithina

So here is the first illustration for my rejected baby names. I'll be posting two new illustrations every week until our baby is born sometime towards the end of January. I'll be illustrating girl names on Tuesdays and boy names on Thursdays. If you have any name suggestions feel free to drop them in the comments section or e-mail me via my profile page.
Thanks for visiting.

New Personal Project Revealed

Taaa-Daaaa! On my August 14th post I said that I was working on a "personal project which will require some input from the public that will result in more regular blog updates." I should point out that "I" am not really the one doing the work but it is my wife who is doing the heaving lifting.

So for those of you out there who may not know, my wife and I are expecting our first child. Cute kid eh? Every baby needs a name and this is were the public comes into the picture.

I'm looking for baby names. Good, bad or just plain odd, it doesn't matter. Any names that might work for us we will put aside for consideration. Names that don't work for us, and are rejected, will be illustrated and posted on the blog. I'll post an illustration of a rejected baby name twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) through to the birth of the little one in late January (or whenever the kid decides to show up).

We don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl so all names are fair game and the baby will have the last name of Francis. I already have a few rejected name ideas in mind and I'll post the first picture sometime tomorrow.

So, if you have any names that you would like to share please feel free to place them in the comment section of the blog or drop me an email which you can find on my profile page.

Thanks for visiting and check back soon.

Paton

National Film Board Project

So exciting news! I've just finished work on a NFB short entitled "Little Thunder". Little Thunder is inspired by the Mi'kmaq legend, "The Stone Canoe" and is a 2 minute short that will air on APTN in February as part of a program to coincide with the 2010 winter Olympics.

I worked as Animator and Assistant Director on the film and I am very pleased with how the film turned out. The artwork for the Little Thunder is derived from the paintings of Alan Syliboy, a Mi'kmaq artist from Millbrook, Nova Scotia. Alan will be holding an exhibit of some of his work this weekend in Truro with the world premiere of Little Thunder taking place at the shows opening. If you are in the area this weekend I invite you to stop by and check it out.

For more information on the film and the exhibition click on the image above and for directions click here.

Update:

The opening was great. We had about 150 people in attendance. The screening room had about 75 seats to so we ended up screening the film a few times. The film is now screening as part of Alan's exhibit which will be on display until October 31, 2009. If you are in Truro over the next month be sure to stop in a check it out.

Hello good people of the blog-o-sphere.

For those of you who have been visiting, thank you for your patience. It has been a busy summer and I haven't added any new artwork for sometime.

What have I been doing? Well along with mowing the lawn, family commitments, mowing the lawn, regular summer activities, and mowing the lawn, I've been busy over the last little while finishing up a short I've been working on for the National Film Board of Canada. I have also started working on a personal project which will require some input from the public that will result in more regular blog updates. There will be more on that in the weeks to come but for now thanks for stopping by and I'll have more fun for you soon.

Wonder Woman

A little post of a little lady.

Robin

... and here is the ying to Batman's yang.

Batman

A little warm up for fun.

Happy Mom Day

No matter what kind of monsters we are, we are all loved by our mothers. Thanks for everything mom. I know I wasn't an easy kid to raise but I turned out all right... aside from the twitch that is.

Wolverine

Happy Wolverine Day.

the modern world

My dad is turning 55 today. During his time on this earth he has seen some amazing things. They put a man on the moon. You can carry your phone in your shirt pocket. Your entire record collection can be stored in a match book size device. Thanks to modern pharmaceuticals, the old aren't quite so old anymore. I guess it's true that everything old is new again. Happy Birthday Wayne.

Blind dates are fun

Mr. Perfect here is for my friend Caroline who has had some... interesting experiences with the entire dating thing. Happy Cakeday Caroline.

Happy Earth Day?

Dear Mother Earth,
Um, thanks for everything.

Your loving kids,
the humans

P.S.
Sorry about that global warming thing.

Monster Warm Up

Here is a little fella I did as a warm up this morning. It was fun to do and I think I'll do a few more of these monster types.

Kristen on the loose

It is my niece's 11th birthday today.  She is a great kid with a real strong personality.  It'll be interesting to see what kind of person she will grow into.  Here is one interpretation of what it may look like once she is let loose on the world.  Happy Birthday little one.

Hoppy Egg Day

Happy Easter all.  Here is our little bunny busy making Easter eggs.  It looks like he is brewing up another one as we speak.  

Who wants Girl Guide cookies?

It is April and it is time once again for those scrumptious Girl Guide cookies. Not those awful thin mints but the good chocolate and vanilla cookies with the frosting inside. One of my sister-in-law's neighbor's kids is selling the cookies this year and I explained to some of my friends that I have the GGC connection if they wanted any. They wanted to see me as a Girl Guide so here we go... sorry about this folks.

This little piggy...

Another warm up.  Fun for's fun sake.

Playing with color

Here is a quick sketch I did today as part of a batch of warm up drawings. I thought that I'd play with the colors a little bit.

Hulk Grey vs Green

Here is a little warm up sketch I did of the Hulk. I've just finished reading Planet Hulk. Fun read.

Hulk at the beach

Hulk like beach! Hulk like quiet! HULK HATE PUNY BIRD!!!!

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Happy St. Paddy's folks.  I haven't posted in awhile as I've been working with a new project that has kept me pretty busy.   There will be more posts coming.  Thanks for checking in and have a safe holiday.  

Krista's Kat

Here is a little birthday card type picture I made for a friend of mine. 

Digital Sketch: Man on the Street

Today I was downtown at a cafe trying my hand at sketching in the digital world when this man walked by. He had a great look about him and I only had a moment to commit his image to memory before he passed out of view. Just after I finished sketching him he passed by again and I was able to check my work. It was a fun exercise that I'll be doing a lot more of.

The love you get...

It was a busy weekend so this is getting posted after the fact. Some people hate this little fella and all the trouble he brings. How boring would life be without a little love in your life. If you know someone who could use some love give them a big hug the next time you see them. A little love can go a long way.

Groundhog Day

Shadow? Shadow!?! I'm not afraid of any stinking shadow!

Hitchhiking Bear

Who could drive past this cute little fella?  With gas prices the way they are, hitchhiking is an economic and eco-friendly way to travel.  

Bigfoot's Big Date

Why can't people just leave celebrities alone?  

Razzberry Jazzberry Jam

This is some animation that I did while working on a show called Razzberry Jazzberry Jam.  A very fun show that teaches kids about music.  Check it out on CBC, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00AM, Saturdays 6:00 and 9:00 AM, and Sundays at 7:00 AM.  

Chinese New Year! Go Ox!

Happy Chinese New Year! Year of the Ox here we come. More postings coming in the next few days.