Rik Maki is definitely a master character designer. He can really do it all- from a realistic portraiture style to really funny looking cartoony characters, animated animals to the scariest evil villains. It’s so impressive to flip through this book of just pencil “sketches” he did in 5-15 minutes each on placemats, newspaper scraps and paper napkins at cafes. Can you imagine just relaxing at a diner waiting for your coffee making sketches like these? Or being the waitress who finds them. Rik has worked over 27 years in the professional animation world- mostly for Disney. He was the character designer for films like Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life. So often I forget the work that goes into animations- they just seem like magic. It’s nice to see sketches like these to remind us how ideas start. This book is self-published- Rik Maki and Tina Price are co-owners of Digital or Not. The book is a 100 page spiral bound and full of over 200 sketches. Digital or Not also published two other similar books of his sketches- Scribblin’ on Scrap and Scribblin’ A-Z. I have shown a couple of photos from those too. These books are sure to inspire you to start doodling away- available right here. Thanks Rik and Tina!

From Scribblin’ A-Z

From Scribblin’ On Scrap

© Julia Rothman 2007