Lettie Connell Schubert

I attended my first Puppeteers of America National Festival in 1993. The week-long event was held in San Francisco, and although I could only attend for a few days, the experience left an indelible impression on me. One of the many people who made the festival something to remember was Lettie Connell Schubert.



I didn't know it at the time, but Lettie was one of the most influential and involved members of the puppeteer community. She signed me and my brother Sean up as festival exhibit monitors and made suggestions about which shows and workshops to attend to maximize our festival experience.

As I think about all the wonderful opportunities I've had in my puppetry career, I attribute many of them to the things I learned at that festival. Lettie passed away on March 21, but I will never forget her enthusiasm and support.

To learn more about Lettie Schubert, please click here.

I'll post the nest installment of my interview with Ed Eyth on Monday.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 8

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Do you ever get stuck on a design?

EE: There hasn't been a project yet where I didn't feel stuck to some degree, but that's because I have this compulsion to overdo it, wanting to explore a hundred options before narrowing it down to a final concept.

I see character design as being like a creative casting call to fill a role. The more candidates you can review during the initial cattle call, the more likely you are to stumble on the ideal one, or maybe even someone whose appearance deviates from the original requirements in a way that adds even more to the role. Sort of like American Idol for character design. I have boxes and boxes of unfortunate character rejects who didn't make it beyond the first pencil round.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 7

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: When designing characters for a show like The Hoobs or Animal Jam, how many drawings do you produce a day?

EE: That depends on the day. In the beginning of a project, the initial concept work, I can do as many as 50 rough thumbnail sketches that describe various ideas in a day.

That may sound like a lot, but keep in mind they're often tiny doodles and require refinement for presentation. Developing the keepers from those thumbnails takes more time, and I may only work up five or 10 of those more-rendered drawings in a day.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 6

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Was it challenging to create characters that reflected your personal style that were also consistent with the classic Muppet look?

EE: Muppets do have a distinctive look, and at the same time there is such a wide range of characters within the Muppet style. So it was pretty easy to assimilate enough of those consistent visual features while improvising and making a little ego investment.

But I have to say, I have so much respect for Jim and the Muppets that with any design assignment my ongoing motivation was to maintain Jim's spirit and the essence of the Muppet style while trying to encourage the evolution of relevant, appealing new characters.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 5

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Which Muppets Tonight characters did you design?

EE: Johnny Fiama and Spamela Hamderson. But I was so excited about the prospect of designing an actual Muppet character that I'd stay after hours and just keep making up characters. A lion, an alligator, a baby, a security guard -- it was addictive and I just couldn't stop.



I wouldn't just sketch random designs, I'd create personalities and characteristics for each one. The lion was a Richard Burton-like "master thespian" who was quite full of himself, the alligator was an attorney (get it? A-litigator?), the baby was this super-genius know-it-all, and on and on. None of them ever developed beyond a sketch and my lofty expectations.

Sketch Of The Week

This is a design for Rivet the Dog, from our new puppet show B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog. Rivet was originally called Doug the Pug, but that was changed when we made his owner an inventor.

I'll post the nest installment of my interview with Ed Eyth on Monday.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 4

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: What makes a character design strong or interesting?

EE: Obviously a great performance is what really conveys the soul of a character and gives it interest or appeal, but from a purely visual standpoint? After years of observing and designing characters, I haven't been able to develop a real scientific formula or predictable method to explain that.

Two vital elements seem to be personality and visual style. The elusive element of personality can't really be quantified, but I know it when I see it. It's when a design evokes an emotional response, or at least something of interest to the viewer.

If I look at a character and think "That's odd" or "That's interesting," or if I snicker or react in some way, that gets me intrigued. That's when I know a character is successful visually in some way. There are characters that convey a strong sense of who they are just by the way they look, but I'm at a loss to rationally explain how that works.

That's a challenging question, a bit like "What makes a great work of art?"

Ed Eyth Interview Part 3

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Do you have a favorite drawing implement?

EE: That would be a No. 2B graphite pencil. I was educated as an industrial designer, and as such I became comfortable and fluent with markers. I still default to markers when I need to render products or more hard-edged designs.

When I started working at Henson, I found myself gravitating to pencil more and more, since graphite far surpassed markers in its ability to convey organic forms, complex curves and softer materials (fur, felt, fleece, fabric, etc).

Ed Eyth Interview Part 2

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Describe your design process.

EE: I go through pretty much the same process no matter what the design assignment is. Simply put, it's three phases: ideation, development and final design.

I begin by defining what's required for the project, then doing an initial series of ideation sketches to suggest possible solutions. This is my favorite part of the process, since it's when the real creativity can happen. It's the big "what if?" phase, and to me that's the essence of design -- asking and answering the question "what if?"

What if the character were thin? What if he were fat? What if he had a huge head? What if he had tiny feet to contrast? If you really open yourself to considering options, you can make the most of the design challenge and explore a vast range of possibilities. That's what makes a great designer: divergent thinking and effective visual communication -- how effectively you consider and answer the "what if" question, and how well you communicate your answers.



I usually do rough thumbnail sketches to quickly capture a gesture or the essence of something in my head. One sketch can generate a whole series of variations, and often the process becomes self-perpetuating -- visual improvisation. Those sketches are then edited down to eliminate any substandard or impractical ideas. The keepers are refined for presentation.



Usually one or more ideas will emerge as the best solutions, and those will move into a development phase where they're clarified and scrutinized to make sure they conform to all the constraints: budget, fabrication methods, color options, performance requirements, etc. This is where the process becomes more convergent as you narrow down details and refine the design to a level where it can be finalized, functional, fabricated and, most importantly, performable.



The final phase is usually where a color rendering is completed, along with turnaround drawings that show the front, back and side views. If that last phase is done effectively, it simplifies the process of transforming a 2D drawing into a 3D character or puppet.

Ed Eyth Interview Part 1

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Whose work has influenced you the most?

EE: It would be difficult to narrow that down to one person. There are so many individuals who have had an impact on some level. But the first person who comes to mind is Jim Henson.

I could write for days about his influence on me and how his work continues to resonate in our culture, even today, but it wouldn't be anything that hasn't already been said. His work affected me as an artist, and his character affected me even more as a person.

Me Day

Happy St. Me Day!

Edward R. Meow

The shape of an animal puppet's ears and nose helps determine what kind of animal it is. This puppet, which I modified for tonight's episode of The Office, started as a nondescript character with a muzzle, tuft of hair and eyes. I made him into a cat by adding triangle ears and a triangle nose.

Had I added small round ears and a bulbous nose, I could have turned him into a mouse. Or, if had I added small diamond-shaped ears and antlers, he could have been a moose. Long ears and a small triangle nose would have made him a rabbit. The possibilities are endless.

Check out The Office tonight on NBC to see Kevin Carlson bring this puppet to life.

Human Animals

This is a drawing of Prairie Dog Pete and The Magic Buffalo from our puppet show of the same name. Although both characters are animals, Prairie Dog Pete behaves like a human, while the buffalo behaves like an animal. In a show with an all-animal cast, the clearest way to distinguish the "human" from the animal characters is with clothing.

Triangle Bird

Try designing a puppet character that is made entirely of circles, squares or triangles. Each shape will pose different challenges: What will the eyes look like on a character that is made up of triangles? By limiting yourself to one shape, you'll end up with a unique design that you may not have drawn otherwise.

Creating Variations

When designing a puppet for someone else, it can be challenging to come up with enough variations. Once you draw a character you like, lightly trace it several times on another sheet of paper. Use the light copies as a starting point to create different versions of the original sketch. Try changing the size of the eyes or the shape of the nose and experimenting with colors and textures. If you don't come up with a character you like, just retrace your original sketch and start the process over.

Here's a concept drawing I did of Boots for our new puppet show Rex and Boots Super Sleuths. The image on the left is my original sketch. The final drawing was done with illustration marker and color pencil.

Sketch Of The Week

I drew this dog for fun.

Screen Novelties

Screen Novelties is a small animation studio located in Southern California that is, its website says, "dedicated to the production of clever stop-motion puppet films." The studio's short Graveyard Jamboree With Mysterious Mose combines stop-motion animation with live-action puppets and animated silhouettes. Screen Novelties' puppets have a wonderful retro feel, exemplified by this Witchdoctor character. To watch the studio's reel, click here.

Mary Blair

Mary Blair (1911 – 1978) was a talented artist, illustrator, designer and color stylist. A prolific freelance artist, she also worked at the Walt Disney Animation Studio on several feature films, including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Her childlike design aesthetic and vibrant color palette are featured in the beloved Disneyland attraction It's A Small World . Her work still inspires and influences artists and illustrators today.

Ugly Doll

Inspiration for interesting puppet designs can be found everywhere: the natural world, book illustrations or toys on the shelf. I particularly like the look of the Ugly Doll stuffed animals and vinyl figures. Their designs are very simple -- a basic shape with eyes, arms and legs -- yet they convey a strong sense of character. As an exercise, take one of your puppet designs and break it down to its most basic shapes. You may find that by simplifying your design you develop a more dynamic-looking character.

Michael K. Frith

Michael K. Frith is a talented illustrator and designer who has had a long and varied career working with such creative and influential people as Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson. He was Executive Vice President and Creative Director of Jim Henson Productions and worked on a wide range of productions, including The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock. Here is a small sample of his illustrations and character designs.

Sketch Of The Week

Here's a concept drawing I did of Boots for our new puppet show Rex and Boots Super Sleuths. The image on the left is my original sketch. The final drawing was done with illustration marker and color pencil.

Pen And Ink

Once you've cleaned up your rough sketch, you may wish to refine your lines even further. Use a pen or marker to trace your cleaned-up work on another sheet of paper. You may find that the rougher versions of your drawing illustrate your ideas better. That's why it's best not to draw directly on your original.

Clean Up

After you draw a rough design that you like, clean it up by tracing it on a new sheet of paper. It may be helpful to use tracing paper or a light table. While you clean up the drawing, feel free to make adjustments to the design, trace the lines you like and ignore the ones you don't.