Thursday, May 1, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Prof. Vormit

UPDATE:
It worked out that this sketch fits perfectly with Illustration Friday's word of the week: REVENGE. So I digitally colored the original sketch and submitted this to the I.F. website.

Illustration Friday: 
Every Friday a word is given on the website, 
IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.


Digitally colored and added a dark background, helps emphasize the glow of the fizzy drink test tube

THOUGHT PROCESS:
Well, immediately, I thought of this character, and how I could use this sketch to emphasize "evil" . . . even though this character would actually be the kindest person on the planet, having just invent a great tasting and healthy fizzle drink for children.


The first version of this image: Digitally colored in Photoshop using various water color and texture brushes
Image felt too flat  . . . needed more depth and darkness

This sketch was inspired by a character concept I thought about for a story.
The idea is simple - create a character who appears to be vile, corrupt and evil -- but make him really be the kindest, most generous and caring person possible. I could see many uses for such a character, mostly for the humor, but also as a children's book character who can teach life lessons about prejudging others.


Original Pencil Sketch: Prof. Vormit excited about creating his great tasting health drink for children
The first thing that came to mind was the image of an evil scientist. It's such a strong stereo type, especially in cartoons. I gave him a hideous beastly face, with a bell-shaped figure and of course the mandatory evil looking goggle glasses. To counter his evil persona: He's always smiling, has lollipops in his lab coat pocket (gives them out to everyone he meets) and he's created the best tasting fizzle water soft drink that's healthy for children.

Once I finished the sketch, his name came to me instantly.
Prof. Vormit 
(a combination of varmint and vomit. I dropped the second T in his name, it just looks better.)

He's such a nice guy . . . really. . . 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Monsters and Bunnies: First Steps

So for some time now, I've been sketching monsters with bunnies. There something about it that seems interesting to me.  Maybe it seeing the combination of the two "species" together -- how any monster seems to be cuter when in the presence of bunnies. (Go on try it, take the worst monster/killer/evil being and surround it with bunnies. Even if it's covered with blood - the bunnies make it cuter.)
"First Steps" • Part of a 6 image series of monsters with bunnies
This image was inked and colored using RagePro 4
Now, I'm not trying to create grime images, my cartooning style doesn't work like that. Plus, I believe there is a New Mom/Teen/College market for this style of images -- so of course I'm trying to make the monsters very cute even without the bunnies. 
Add those bunnies and the image just ups the cuteness level. 

Original pencils sketch of the baby dinosaur/monster
I plan to make a series of images/prints to sell. It'll take time for me to figure out pricing, material and how to best package. (I may want to soften the artwork and eliminate the black holding line too.)

I'll try to keep this projects's progress up to date here on the blog.


UPDATE:Illustration Friday: Every Friday a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.This week's word: Vanity

Revamped version of "First Step" to "Vanitisaurus" for Illustration Friday's word "Vanity"
For this week's Illustration Friday, I made a variation of the image to work with the word: Vanity.



Thursday, April 24, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Space Mook (Updated)

This is two versions of a marker sketch of a character I call Space Mook. He's like a cross between an ape and a bear -- sporting a fancy mullet and rocket pack (which is really a guided missile.) He's one of many bounty hunters from my old sci-fi story called "Krem"

Marker sketch of Space Mook: A galactic bounty hunter, from my sci-ci story KREM
Krem was a huge story I worked on over many years. It started when I woke up from a very bad fever and found the Krem character next to my bed. Looking at the drawing, I started to imagine his back story, (which grew and grew over the years.)

Adding a simple background behind the character 

I hope to find more of Krem's supporting characters in my archive boxes of artwork and show them here in the future.

Original pencil sketch of Space Mook


UPDATE:
Forgot I did this, here's the very first rough sketch of Space Mook. So of the shoulder patch logo sketches are included. He he seems mostly ape-like. I do like the retro glass helmet, think I should add that back. 
Funny seeing this now, I feel I want his character to look more like this -- than what I developed over time.
I will revamp him again and in digital coloring (not markers) next time.


The very first rough sketch of Space Mook

Monday, April 21, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Sword Fightin'

Been a long time since I posted something here. Work is getting stressful and I'm having a very hard time getting the work done lately. It's probably a combination of burn out and simply doing seasonal concepts over and over again. The market is still in recession, and no one is risking on ordering anything remotely new or different. This makes it hard to do postings here, since my creativity for this type of work usually comes from less stressful times. But enough with my belly aching . . . 

The revamp version of  an old pencil sketch I call "Sword Fighin'!"
This is a revamped version of a very old sketch I did of Timmons, L.B. and Hairy. Back when I worked in New York City, I would often sketch my characters while commuting on the train to/from work. It was a nice way to practice fleshing out and fine tuning my characters.

The original sketch with all it's gritty and fading pencil lines

I hope to one day compile all of the trial and error it took to create Lumpy Bumpy to what he looks like today. (FYI: He's the big alien dinosaur laying down in the background.) L.B. is totally different from then when he was first conceptualized many, many years ago.

I also hope to start posting more images here on the blog again.
I can probably handle posting pencil sketches, but coloring images is too time consuming at this point. Hopefully things will slow down in the upcoming months and most posts here will be back on track.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Bunny

Been extremely busy these past two weeks with work. Gearing up now to start designing for Easter. I drew this bunny a few weeks ago, trying to make a simple generic rabbit. 
Inked version of generic bunny sketch
Then, I made the mistake of re-drawing on a sketch pad with markers without testing the paper first. I saw the ink was starting to spread, but thought I could control it. Then the ink kept spreading . . . and spreading . . . until I wound up with this.

Muddy version of a failed attempt to use markers on paper that absorbs ink like a napkin
Arrrggghhh!
So, I went back to coloring this bunny digitally instead. Can''t go wrong with good old digital color. (Actually, I take that back -- you can go wrong with digital, especially if you lose power.)

Simple and clean digital coloring -- ala Photoshop


Friday, March 7, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Lil' Lumpy

I've been trying to get my office organized and in doing so - I keep finding old sketches long forgotten. Most are not worth remembering. Many are just scribbles or half drawn characters. But a few are worth bringing back to revamp or update. This image is one of those scribbles that I feel needs more attention.


Lil' Lumpy drawn with digital inking and color pencil crosshatching using ArtRage Pro 4.0.6

Lumpy is one of my oldest children's book characters from a story over 15 years ago. The story's characters were fleshed out over years of redrawing and tweaking. Today, Lumpy looks totally different then what I had originally created so many years ago. I think what happens is subconscious editing, where the focus on what works is emphasized; while eliminating or changing the parts of a character that don't work.

Lumpy's story is part of a 10 book series I plotted out years ago.
I always felt that the story's characters would do very well with the children's book market. But for me to create the series, I would need a good publishing house to support it. I always felt I needed to do other stories first before bringing this character up to the plate . . .


The original rough pencil sketch of Lil' Lumpy recently found among a stack of papers

At least, that was my thinking for last decade and a half. Now publishing has changed drastically. Publishing a book is now the "easy" part - it's the marketing that will exhaust a new writer.

I've not found the answer to getting noticed yet. It's still a mystery why some succeed -- while others fumble. Perhaps it's all about who you know. Or it's just luck. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing if I can finally discover the answer.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Illustration Friday: SPACE

Illustration Friday: Every Friday a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.
This week's word: SPACE

SPOILER ALERT: The big climatic ending to my first children's book: Bobby's Biggest Bubble
Thought Process:
A no-brainer this week.

Space makes me think of the space scene I drew for the climatic ending of my first children's book: Bobby's Biggest Bubble. Of all the terrific comments and kind emails I have received about the book -- this 2-page spread was usually the fan favorite, especially for boys.


I like to think it's the coloring that made this page "pop" . . .
Knowing the amount of pink bubblegum coloring the pages would have, I boosted the night sky's blues and even made the meteor a brighter blue to counter the pink; balancing the warm coloring on the left with the cool coloring on the right. 


This page was the greatest challenge I had when making the book. It was the part of the story I worried about the most. Even though this 2-page spread was near the end of the book, other then the cover, it was the first page I completed with full color.
Once I had this part of the story behind me, the rest of the book fell into place.


You can see more about this comic strip at this link here and more recently here.

Home of the Brave: Knock Knock

Back in the early 90's, a good friend of our family started a health newspaper which was circulated all over the state at health spas and gyms. She approached me looking for a comic strip to fill their entertainment section. I mentioned I had already had a comic strip printed in a nationwide fanzine for over two years . . . she could reprint those strips at no cost. She was very interested, but questioned if it was related to health or sports in anyway. It wasn't . . . 
An example of Home of the Brave as it appeared in "The Spa Times"
So I revamped the comic strip; changed the story so that Ollie wanted to be a Super Health Officer instead of a Super Crime Fighter. But I still used many of the old images, sketches and jokes, adjusting them to work better with a general health theme. The strip became more polished looking and I got away from using too much black in every panel. 

To see other posts about this comic strip, click the keyword "Comic Strip" below in the labels sections.

Daily Quick Sketch: Rex-9

This was a test sketch, where I'm trying to develop more robotic features.

The inspiration for this character would have to be based on Alan Moore's Halo Jones series, which ran in England's "2000 AD" comic and was illustrated by Ian Gibson. In the story, there is a K-9 robot companion to Halo named, Toby. Somewhere down the line, this friendly robot dog turns out to be a derange murdering killing machine.


A gritty digital coloring of the Rex-9 pencil sketch

While I have no intentions to use this robot dog as a killer in a story, the character Toby kept popping in my mind and influenced the final look. The difference here is that Rex-9 is not really a trusting looking robot . . . I would never trust this puppy bot the way Toby was trusted in the Halo Jones story.


Pencil sketch of robot dog, Rex-9

I need to focus more on actually constructing the parts of a robot. Those who draw robots well, show the working anatomy of robotics in a way that is easily understood. While I'm sure this image can be recognized as a robot dog -- I still have a way to go with developing better robotic features and components.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Home of the Brave: Vigilance strip found

This weekend, my office is getting a much needed cleaning. Since we have outgrown our home, it is nearly impossible to organize where to place items. So I have my work, sketches and documents everywhere. It's time to purge! But that's not easy since I don't want to throw out anything "valuable" without checking first. 

The strip shown below is a good example that I need to check everything before I throw stuff away.I was ready to toss out a box filled with of old work paycheck stubs, documents and other various paperwork, but decided to go through it -- just in case. Good thing too, for this was one of my earliest comic strips from "Home of the Brave."
Some very old artwork of my comic strip "Home of the Brave" that was lost . . . but now found.

Not sure what number strip this was in the series; the pencil markings of the strip # and date on the back are completely worn off. But based on my memory of the story, this should be somewhere around the 10th, 11th or 12th strip made for the "Home of the Brave" series.

You can see more about this comic strip at this link here.


Interesting side-note:
At the time of this strip, the late 80's, the word "Super Hero" was legally owned by DC and Marvel comics. Here's a quote from Wiki:
"While the word "superhero" itself dates to at least 1917, the term "Super Heroes" is a typography-independent 'descriptive' USA trademark which is co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Characters, Inc."
I believe this is still true and active today. I also find it troubling that both companies can do this, claiming ownership to a popular phrase that neither companies created.
Yet, because they made the most popular super heroes, they are given TM ownership of the term "Super Heroes".

Because of this, I had to change my family of dysfunctional "super heroes" into "crime fighting heroes". The words crime-fighting and crime-fighter were frequently used in my strip . . . reluctantly. 

Friday, February 21, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Hellboy (Update)

Very busy week, so there wasn't much time for sketching. I squeezed in this Hellboy pencil sketch before heading to bed. I did this character as a part of the Google+ grouping CBC Artists' Alley - where the theme of the week was the BPRD group (of which Hellboy is a member.)

UPDATE: Added colored version see below

Digitally under color of the pencil line sketch of Hellboy 

Original pencil sketch of Hellboy, 2b pencil on Sketchbook paper 


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Illustration Friday: TWISTED

Illustration Friday: Every Friday a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.
This week's word: TWISTED

Extra background with a photo of the game Twister was added for Illustration Friday

Thought Process:
This was a busy week. I squeezed in this last day submission for Illustration Friday (which started last Friday.) The word Twisted instantly made me think of an Octopus and it's twisting tentacles. 
I also thought of Chubby Checker with his famous Twisting songs. I could have the octopus dancing the twist, but that is a very dated reference that not many younger generations would relate to. So I drew a cartoon of an Octopus with his twisted tentacles. But it didn't seem to be enough.

Colored version of the Octopus drawn on marker paper using alcohol markers and black tip marker

So, I thought of the popular game, Twister. I could add some humor by placing the octopus on a Twister map. I originally thought to add a pink squid playing against the octopus -- really get their tentacles tangled . . . but that would've taken more time to complete than I had to spare.

The original pencil sketch of the octopus

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Camel-Horse

Since I was a child, I always enjoyed drawing animals. I would even make my own comics with anthropomorphic superheroes, often starring my pets as the key stars.  But now, I still enjoy drawing wacky creatures the most.
They're more fun to draw. They can be surreal, bizarre or whimsical; and drawing them can really lets one's imagination go wild.
One thing I have always enjoyed is combining different animals to re-create a new look. By combining traits of a camel with a horse, I came up with this sketch. 
A color pencil sketch of a Camel-Horse, coming traits of the two species into one
I don't feel this is a great character -- it needs work. It lacks a personality; its too simplistic and dull . But with a few tweaks this creature could develop into a good supporting character for a story. (Say . . . as a desert mount for some crazy or exotic sand trader.) I will revisit this character, build on its design, but for now I will just let this character sit in the image archives. After some time passes, I'll look at this character with new eyes and hopefully see some new potential to better this design into something more.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Batman Valentine

This little quick sketch goes out to my lovely wife, Carla. We're going on our 5th year together. One of the things we share is the dislike of Valentine's Day . . . it's far too commercial and often annoying to celebrate.
Little personally made Valentine toon for my sweetie . . . Luv ya, Babe!

That said, my wife did send me a old Valentine card via Facebook. It was a vintage Batgirl with artwork that looked to be around circa 1970 when we were just kids.
So in retaliation, I drew this pudgy Batman circa the Batman Show of the late 60's . . . right back atcha, Boopie!

UPDATE: 
Placed the image on a transparent background and tweeked the line tone and saturation a bit in Photoshop.
The original color pencil sketch

Monday, February 10, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Shark Waiter

This is an image I sketched during a weekend cruise.
This was a thank you sketch for our table's waiter, Plamen.




The image was signed by each of my friends, just before I handed the sketch to our waiter, Plamen.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Carl of the Walking Dead


Today quick sketch was a small tribute to the comic and TV show Walking Dead. This was a part of this week Fan Art Friday at Google+ CBC Artists' Alley.

Quick colored version of the sketch of The Walking Dead's Carl Grimes

Carl is my favorite character of both series. I feel the story is written from Carl's point of view, even though the lead character is his father, Rick. At some point, I think Rick will need to die - leaving Carl to be the future leader.


The original pencil sketch for G+'s comic Book Community Artists' Alley

To me, Carl is the only character that would devastate me if he died in the story. And that's a scary thing . . . because Robert Kirkman would be "that" writer who would do that. (KIRKMANNNNNnnnnnnn!!!)

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Spider-Man Swinging 2

Warming up for a day of drawing, I came up with a Spider-man doodle. So I quickly scanned it into ArtRage Pro 4.1 and inked and colored the image. I wanted the coloring to be very bold and stand out, so the color saturation was increased.


I don't really have time to read comics as much as I used to. I don't enjoy many of them anymore . . . maybe it's the style or how the stories have lost character. Maybe I'm just getting older and I don't relate to what the younger readers enjoy.

Not saying everything's bad. I do find the independent titles are far more enjoyable now and consistent then Marvel and DC. To list a few: Saga, Invincible, Bravest Warriors and any related to BPRD.

DC Comics has totally lost my interest since the reboot of their comics with the New 52; I don't recognize the characters anymore . . . only a handful of title (Batman mostly) have kept the quality of writing good stories. Continuity is no longer found. I can't tell what did or didn't happen in the past anymore. The best creators are being fired or they're quitting DC.
Superman now dating Wonder Woman?
The new Lobo is strangely . . . normal and boring . . . what?

And at Marvel, I find I can't keep up with whatever the main event is anymore; they over saturate the market with too many titles. The only Marvel books I'm really enjoying are "Daredevil", "Hawkeye", "Thunderbolts", "Wolverine and the X-men" and the point to drawing this doodle . . . anything with Superior Spider-man.

Original pencil sketch of Spidey (with pupils)
I read many people were highly upset about Doc Oct taking over the body and mind of Spider-man. And while it's a far fetched concept to handle, I think the stories have been highly entertaining and clever. Taking a villain, giving him a fresh start and exploring how this all effects Peter Parker's world has been a fun read.

As expected, this will end soon and Peter will be back, but I'm glad it happened and it should be seen as a great creative arc in the history of Spider-man (and Doc Oct.) Hats off to Dan Slott for writing such a great twist . . . making Spider-man fun to read again.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Capt. "Squint"

Today's daily sketch is a pencil sketch from one of my sketch books. The character's full name is Captain Phineas "Squint" Falconi, expert pilot and engineer. 

I don't have any real plans to use this character yet. He was something in the back of my mind and I had time over the holidays to put him down in the sketchbook. I've always liked the idea of bird-like people who can't fly . . . so they use crazy contraptions. 

Pencil sketch of one of my many bird people . . . who can't fly with an aircraft.
If I ever do use him, I'll definitely dress him up more like a WWI pilot with full garb instead of this simple tee and jeans. I imagine when he talks, he would sound like Clint Eastwood (hence the nickname "Squint" and his squinty eyes.)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Pro Art Sketchbooks Review

Few words on sketchbooks.

I have several sketchbooks of different sizes and brands available around the house, but there is only one brand I find I'm most comfortable with -- I find 
Pro Art sketchbooks are the best. Here are my key reasons:

#1) The spiral binder: this allows you to sketch the entire page without having to deal with the pinch (or gutter) of a normal binder. It allows the sketchbook to lay flat without having to constantly hold the book open. 
This also allows better scanning since you can lay the page flat on the scanner bed.
Examples of several sketchbooks I randomly use at random times - I only draw on the right side pages of the sketchbooks because I have a heavy hand, (which causes too many pencil line indentations for me to draw on the reverse left sides.)
#2) Perforated Pages: This allows any drawing to be taken out of the sketchbook with a clean edge. This is great for book fairs, book readings or anywhere I may need to draw something to give/sell to someone.
Pro Art sketchbooks come in several sizes and also in normal book binding form, but the spiral binding works best for me and the way I work
#3.) Price. These are very affordable compared to other brands. I get mine from any Michael's Arts + Crafts store. Recently Michael's had a big sale on these sketch books. Prices were from $3 for the 4" by 8" to $7 for 11" by 14", each with 80 sheets.
The paper is also acid free. I stocked up on about $40 worth of sketchbooks, but even without the sale, the prices are usually very reasonable year round.
The Pro Art brand logo on the bottom back of the sketchbooks
#4.) Paper Quality. The paper is an above average quality which handles mixed media very well (Like pencil, ink and charcoals. Note: Markers will bleed through the page, so be aware and add spare sheets between your pages when working with markers.) I find the paper is very durable, enough to easily erase over the same area several times if needed.

Daily Quick Sketch: Grandpa Tuko, the old elephant

Today's daily sketch is a pencil drawing taken from one of my sketchbooks.

Not long ago, I was playing around with a story in my head about large animals. I need to establish a few family members for the story and this was the first image I "saw" in my head. 
(Sidenote: I'm probably years away from ever doing this story, I've about 6 other stories I NEED to do first.)

This was the first sketch attempt of this character. Hopefully during the next few years, I'll go back and re-imagine him again and again -- keeping the features I like and making changes for those I don't like, until I feel his character is exactly what I need for the story.

I know I added too much details for this character to work for a children's book, but it's far better to add more now and edit later. You never know when the slightest of details may inspire a totally new look or feature. 

First original pencil sketch of Tuko, the grandfather elephant of one of my stories.
I feel it's vital to capture as many imaginary thoughts and images you may think of; put them down on paper . . . then give them time. Time helps develop ideas, allows discovery and usually improves the final results exponentially.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Polar Bear

Today's quick sketch was inspired by the snow storm happening outside. I always enjoy drawing polar bears.  It just seems that you can get more character with a polar bear than any other type of bear.

Polar Bear drawing digitally colored and outlined with crayon/charcoal effects
I always like to exaggerate the neck length of a polar bear. The bulky body is fun to draw too, the bulkier the better it seems. In this particular character design, I really like the flattop head/snout and the small eyes that simply rest on top of the head.

Scan of the original pencil sketch from my sketch book

Monday, January 20, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Sneakersaurus

Today's quick sketch is another dinosaur. Like always, the purpose of these quick sketches is to explore making new looks and styles.

For this image, I focused more on the head and face -- keeping the eyes and brows above the head. The blocky teeth create a goofy expression, making the character less gruesome.

Just for fun, I gave him a tippy-toe pose to make it look like he's sneaking around quietly. 
Original sketch done with a Staedtler blue pencil on marker paper

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Illustration Friday: BEGINNING

Illustration Friday: Every Friday a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word all during the week.
This week's word: BEGINNING

BEGINNING sketch made using pencil and color/toned using Photoshop

Thought Process:
This took awhile. Nothing came to mind at first. Looking at the other submissions to the word, I saw many images related to Spring, babies and seeds. I didn't want to go that route. But still, I couldn't think of what to do. 

So I thought, "Okay . . . how should I begin doing this image for the word BEGININNG?" And there was the answer . . . begin with the first pencil stroke.

I'm still a cartoonist first, so I didn't want to draw a realistic hand. I thought I'd try to do it in the style of Robert Crumb, using lots of cross-hatching and shaky lines. Once I finished the line work, I thought of toning the entire image with a sepia look using Photoshop.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Daily Quick Sketch: Belly Bottom Shark

Today's daily quick sketch is of a evil shark character I call, Belly Bottom.
I've a story in which this character may play a small part as the villain, (but that story will be a long time coming since I want to do about 5 other stories first.) 


Applying several filters: Adding blotches and crosshatching for more dramatic effect

Even though I have no immediate need for this character, it is always best to get the character down on paper and safely saved on file for future reference. Otherwise, the character would probably just fade away from memory.


This sketch was done in pencil, scanned into Photoshop as the top "Multiply" layer. The next layer down is the color layer, where I used a texture brush to add gritty shading to the pencil lines. The bottom layer is the background, which was made by greatly increasing the texture brush's size and simply adding darker blue tones while moving towards the lower right of the image. The entire background was done in about 3 minutes.
I wanted to exaggerate the shark features and give it an eerie look. This was simply done by using dark colors and giving him soulless, empty white eyes. I feel the mouth is unique enough with an under-bite; but it still needs some work. I'm also thinking of making him look more war torn and roughed up, as if he was in several battles.  (But that might be too much for a children's book character.)
Original pencil sketch scan of Belly Bottom

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Production Designs: Plush Toy Concept Sketches

I found a disk containing many of the sketch designs I did while working for Nanco.
Most of these are well over 10 years old. Our New Jersey Amusement Plush Division of Nanco was the leader of Amusement Plush; those are the stuffed toys you see in all sizes; from crane machines to the gigantic "how-are-we-ever-going-to-get-this-into-the-car?!" sizes. 


Warner Bros. Marvin the Martain designed as a Knight.
The challenge is to create a new look, while respecting the character and the brand

My job at Nanco was Creative Director, which meant creating designs, getting approvals from licensors, overseeing production overseas and acting as Art Director. Every sketch you see had to be approved by the licensor first, then go to the China factories for samples, usually in 3 to 9 different plush toy sizes. Then every size had to be approved, changed and re-sampled. So you can imagine the amount of work when we had 30-40 licenses, each with an average of 4-6 characters and each of those being done in 3 to 9 sizes. That's a lot of plush . . . 

Kermit the Frog as a pirate. This was one of about 6 Muppet Pirate designs.
It's important to also consider the character's persona. Since Kermit is the leader of the Muppets,
it makes sense to make him a Pirate Captain and dress him as one.

Nanco had many licenses such as: Sesame Street, Jim Henson's Muppets, Warner Brothers, CareBears, Nickelodeon, Dreamworks, M+M's, My Little Pony, Simpsons, Family Guy . . . many, many more. First, for each licensed character, we had to create an original, fully approved, "master" plush pattern. Then each following year, we would create themes to freshen-up and dress-up the approved characters. Doing this helped sales since we were introducing new items to appear in the amusement parks each year. We had themes like Pirates, Circus, Birthday, Medieval, Beachwear and even Holiday themes like Christmas, Easter and Halloween.  

Vector color version concept design, Doing the sketch as a vector design allows quick color changes if needed.

These are concept sketches. The concept sketches for plush toys were almost like doing fashion designs, only instead of fancy clothing, we were dressing the characters in cartoon theme related clothing. I would add notes and color call-outs to help the plush designers understand anything the pencil lines could
 not easily convey.

Original design Smiley Spider.
This was done as a follow-up to the very successful Smiley crab design I did the previous year;
but this design was too bulky and expensive to produce.

Occasionally, I would create original characters, (usually with a beach theme since some of our biggest buyers were from boardwalk amusement areas like the Jersey Shore.)  This character is one example that was a nice design, but it was just too costly to make.
One of the many things I learned as a plush designer is that a round ball-like head is more expensive to make because:
#1.) a ball takes a lot of stuffing to fill.
• More filling = more weight = more shipping cost.
#2.) Rounded shapes take up more room in a shipping carton -- adding a lot of wasted empty space. (Think of all the empty gaps of space between balls when they are stacked up.)
• Takes up more space = less items ship in a given carton = very expensive to sell.  


The underbelly of the Smiley Spider design. I felt I needed to show this angle of the toy so that the plush designers I Shanghai could see how I was imagining the character and it's ligaments.

In the future, I'll show more concept designs and licensor approval follow-ups (which I call side-by-sides)