Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrf Card

Send your fellow buccaneers this cool Halloween card available at the Swazzle Store!

B.A.R.K. On Stage!

Don’t miss B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 1 pm at the NoHo Arts Center. Tickets are $10.

Eccentric inventor Mr. Johnson leaves his pets Ratchet the Cat and Rivet the Dog home on a rainy day. The house is turned upside down when Rivet discovers B.A.R.K., an unpredictable robot dog. Rivet's new robotic companion turns out to be trouble, ruining Ratchet's champion yarn ball and threatening to destroy the house. Can Ratchet and Rivet set things right before Mr. Johnson comes home?

Bad B.A.R.K. II

This Bad B.A.R.K. puppet design is a little closer to the final look. His head is round, his eyes are separated, and his hands are no longer claws. I made many more changes before I arrived at a final design, including removing the neck to make Bad B.A.R.K. more imposing -- like a bodybuilder who’s all muscle and no movement.

Don’t miss B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 1 pm at the NoHo Arts Center. Tickets are $10.

Bad B.A.R.K.

This is one of my preliminary Bad B.A.R.K. puppet designs. Bad B.A.R.K. is a bigger, meaner, more destructive version of B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog. This design has a neat science fiction look, but the claws, visor-style eyes and bucket-shaped head were too much of a departure from the original puppet. Bad B.A.R.K. had to be similar enough to Good B.A.R.K. that the audience would believe a transformation had taken place, rather than assuming the giant puppet was a new character.

Don’t miss B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog at the NoHo Arts Center on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 1 pm.

Mini Mock-Up

Before translating a design into a puppet, it may be helpful to create a mini mock-up first. The mini mock-up allows you or the puppet builder to see the character in three dimensions before building begins. It can also be used to create patterns simply by scaling up the pieces from the small version. I built this tiny version of Bad B.A.R.K. before building the puppet.

B.A.R.K. Body

Here are some early B.A.R.K. concepts. I thought it would be interesting if B.A.R.K. was a full-body puppet, but it seemed too complicated to pull off in a two-person show.

B.A.R.K. Cast

Here is the first drawing I did of the cast for B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog. I originally imagined that B.A.R.K. would be delivered to the house instead of being a creation of the offstage inventor Mr. Johnson.

Bad B.A.R.K.

Here is a design I did of Bad B.A.R.K. for our new show B.A.R.K. the Robot Dog. The design is a cross between a 1950s sci-fi robot and Robocop.

B.A.R.K. Color Variations

Here are some color variations I did for B.A.RK. The Robot Dog. We ended up going with a combination of 1 and 2. I'll let you guess what inspired the color styling of 6....

If you guessed an X Wing, then you are absolutely right!