Daily Quick Sketch: Happy Baby New Year 2017

Whoa, it's been some time since I posted here. I still have the last week of Inktober 2016 images to post here. (Now where did I put those images? . . . )

Anyway, one of my popular images for this time of year are the Baby New Year images. So this year, I thought I revise the image to fit the times . . .

Yep, gonna be one of those years . . .

The Original Pencil Sketch

Inktober 2016: Tired (#25 of 31)

I have to confess; this is based on an image I initially drew over 3 years ago. My workload is super heavy today, and I don't have the time to create a fully thought out cartoon. I originally did this design digitally for IllustrationFriday for the word "WORN"; now it's for the Inktober Day #25 word-of-the-day "TIRED". Everything works out because I always wanted to recreate this image in ink.

Revamped version of my Darth Vader image using a brush pen and markers [for Inktober Day25 Tired]

You can see the original image and a video at this link: here. 

Inktober 2016: Dozen (#24 of 31)

WOW! Only one more week to go with Inktober 2016!!! So fast . . .
Today's Inktober word is DOZEN. I didn't want to do a sketch with 12 things draw over and over again. So I thought of the old riddle, "When is a dozen not a dozen?" -- aka Baker's Dozen.

Day24's Inktober image for the word Dozen - using a pen brush and Copic gray marker

I'll admit, this cartoon is vague and probably will annoy some people --- but the idea of a cross-eyed baker with a roundabout way of creating 13 to a dozen just made me smile.

This is also why my annoying fly character was thrown in for an added little hint at the joke. The fly character is my version of the famous old-timey sports/editorial cartoonists' small doodles that used to deliver a sidenote or added humor to the cartoon.  In my case, the character is the fly-on-the-wall who usually has a snarky comment on what's happening in the picture.

The original pencil sketch

Inktober 2016: Slow (#23 of 31)

For some reason, I immediately thought of my previous Inktober image for Day11's TRANSPORT when I saw the word for Day23 was SLOW. My thought was to have Elmer the Elf suffer again. This time Elmer has to transport back from the location, he was going to on Day11. (Apparently, there is a return policy on fairy dust.)

A callback cartoon that has Elmer the Elf having another bad day (drawn with brush pen and markers.)

For those wanting to see Elmer's prior cartoon, click here: TRANSPORT

The original pencil sketch for the word SLOW.

Inktober 2016: Little (#22 of 31)

For Inktober's Day22 the word was LITTLE.

Most of the other sketch submissions I have seen on the Internet had a small character next to a larger character. Instead, I wanted to make a cartoon in which the character's size was apparent and (hopefully) humorously ironic.

I always liked the idea that if there was life on another planet, the size proportions of that alien world would be totally different than ours. This also brought back memories of my childhood imagination that there were little creatures battling in my bowl of cereal. (Yeah, I was a weird kid.) 

Brush pen and marker sketch for Inktober day22: LITTLE
(Unfortunately, a marker ran out of ink and I had to fix the image's background digitally.)

Inktober 2016: Big (#21 of 31)

For Day21 of Inktober, the word is Big.

With "BIG", I wanted to do something more obscure than a typical popular giant. Having done a Keebler Elf cartoon recently, I recalled the Jolly Green Giant commercials of my youth. At first I thought of doing a cartoon of Santa suing the Jolly Green Giant for the phrase "Ho ho ho!" (actually part of the commercial jingle.)

Ink and Marker image for Inktober 2016's Day21 Big

But after looking up reference images for the giant, I noticed that his leaf tunic was extremely short -- shorter than most skirts you'd see on a fashion runway! This made me laugh at the idea of this towering figure standing over the town folk (and Little Sprout) -- what a disturbing view that must have been.

Original pencil sketch

Inktober 2016: Squeeze (#20 of 31)

This one's showing my age. Day20 for Inktober and the word is SQUEEZE.

My generation grew up on Looney Tunes cartoons, by far the funniest and best quality cartoons on television at that time. Today, I have no idea if children watch any of these classic cartoons anymore, especially when most of them have been edited, censored or banned.

Inktober Day20 "Squeeze", using a Tombow brush pen and Copic markers

"Squeeze" reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon characters as a kid, Hugo the Abominable Snowman. Hugo was only in a few cartoons, but he was such a great goofy character; (basically a tribute to the novel "Of Mice and Men.) Anyone who remembers Hugo, remembers his phrases . . . that's what inspired this cartoon.

Original pencil sketch of "Squeeze"

Inktober 2016: Flight (#19 of 31)

Ever notice how Hollywood usually portrays an angel as a neatly dressed, well-mannered, good looking and nearly perfect person with wings? Hollywood, cartoons and historical painters have really helped to distort what real angels are from the bible.

Angels in the bible are not good humans who get their wings when they arrive at heaven's gate. Angels are powerful spiritual beings who do the bidding of God. When angels show up, it's usually not a good time at all.

So I was thinking . . . for the people who believe they get wings when they go to heaven - what would they really look like? Basically, they would still look and be themselves, right? And if that said person loved smoking and drinking beer . . . well he/she would get to do that while in heaven too, right? (Otherwise, it just wouldn't be heaven.)

Realistic angel inked and shaded using a black brush pen and Copic gray markers

Inktober 2016: Escape (#18 of 31)

I decided to do a simple fan art image for today's Inktober Day18: Escape.

The word "Escape" makes me think of action scenes, like the TV Batman escaping a trap or Houdini freeing himself from a straight jacket. But I wanted to do something different. I thought of characters that others try to stay away from and LSP (aka Lumpy Space Princess) from Adventure Time seemed like the ideal choice.

Fan art image of one of my favorite cartoon shows, Adventure Time, for Inktober's word of the day, Escape.

Throw in a Sadie Hawkins Day and the cartoon is complete. For those not familiar with LSP or Sadie Hawkins Day . . . google it!

A scan of the original pencil sketch for this image

 (Does anyone even celebrate Sadie Hawkins Day anymore? Colleges maybe???)

Inktober 2016: Battle (#17 of 31)

For Day 17 of Inktober, the word was BATTLE. Immediately I thought of doing a Trump vs. Clinton cartoon, but decided against getting too political. I then thought of doing something either video game related or medieval. As I was sketching, I started drawing a running raptor. I gave him a helmet and started to gear him up for combat. Eventually, I drew laser tag equipment and thought of giving the raptor the best/worst day of his life kinda joke.

Rupert the raptor, kicking butt -- moments before his demise . . . 

Just the Inking with no shading/tone
NOTE: I gave the image a horizontal stretch to create more speed and action.

Original pencil sketch for Inktober Day 17's  BATTLE

Inktober 2016: Wet (#16 of 31)

For Inktober Day16. the word is Wet.

I thought about characters that hated water -- the Wicked Witch of the West!
I remember the first time I saw the witch melting, it was an unforgettable horrific image that haunted me as a child. Sure, It was cool and I was happy the witch was defeated . . . but what a way to go!

Inked and toned Wizard of Oz related cartoon for Inktober 2016 Day 16: "Wet"

It seemed that the Wicked Witch of the West already knew liquid was dangerous to her health. What tipped her off? How did she learn this information? That inspired this cartoon.

Positioning the puppy was a bit of a challenge. The dog had to be positioned and posed to look like it was going to the bathroom . . . but in a tasteful way (if that's possible.)

The original rough pencil sketches used to make this inked cartoon

I also liked the idea that there were MANY more witches in OZ all based on compass locations. Oz fans know Glinda is from the south, Locasta is of the north and of course, Dorothy's house landed on the Wicked Witch of the East. But what if there were more witches, like from the NW, SE, and NNW? I decided to pick SSW since it was a nod to the popular music festival in Austin (aka SXSW.) 

Inktober 2016: Relax (#15 of 31)

For this Inktober image, the word "Relax" made me think of one of my favorite memes on the Internet. Just to note: I am not taking create for the original concept, I'm simply doing a sketch inspired by that image.

This image was rough sketch directly using a Kuretake black brush pen (no toning or pencil sketch this time.)

Here is the original meme image from the Internet that inspired the cartoon above:

Inktober 2016: Tree (#14 of 31)

 . . . catching up on posting for Inktober. This one's for the word TREE on Day 14.

Thinking of trees, I came with several jokes, but couldn't see a good way to execute a cartoon.
For example, I wanted to do a cartoon where a tree is falling in the woods, a setup for the saying, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" In the cartoon, the tree would be screaming for help while all other trees are pointing and laughing. Pretty hard to properly set that joke up . . . So instead . . .

Inktober image #14 for the word TREE

I thought of the old Keebler tree. Growing up there seem to be a new Keebler cartoon commercial every few weeks and the commercials were everywhere. As a child, I always thought the tree was way too small to actually house a factory of baking elves.

What better joke to make than a lame reason why did the elves picked that specific tree?
It was easy to think of a very low brow and immature answer.

Original pencil sketch of Inktober Day 14 TREE

Inktober 2016: Scared (#13 of 31)

This one is for the word Scared, Inktober Day 13 word of the day. I always enjoyed having large creatures get frightened by little innocent animals. (One example is here.)

Day 13's "Scared" Inktober image; penciled, inked and shaded using Copic markers

You might notice that the inked line is shakier. The lines also greatly fluctuant from thin to thick. This is because the brush pen I'm using is very soft and  it bristles bend at the slightest pressure. This creates a completely different look when compared to a using a stiffer brush pen.

Showing the inked line without shading

Inking is also much quicker for me when using a soft brush pen because there's less restriction. I'm not trying to make the lines perfect, especially for the rough texture of the alligator.

The original pencil sketch

Inktober 2016: Worried (#12 of 31)

Day12 for Inktober and the word of the day is Worried.

The first character that can to mind was the orange M&M character, who is always worried and scared. I began to think of reasons why was this character would be so paranoid.
Murder seemed the most ridiculous . . .

The murderous orange M&M drawn with pencil, inked with a brush pen and toned with Copic markers

It was easy to think why he caused a murder. Since there currently is no purple M&M character, it made sense that Purple was bumped off. I made sure to look up the year that crunchy M&Ms were introduced to the markets just to give it some trivial value.

The original pencil sketch for Inktober Day 12 - Worried

Inktober 2016: Transport (#11 of 31)

Have to catch up on posting the Inktober sketches to the blog, but it's very time-consuming posting to all the social media sites. This cartoon uses one of my favorite characters I have created for a children book concept called, Fwog. It's a funny spin on the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Ugly Duckling, which in my version may be a little too dark for a children's book. Bwahaha!

Day 11 for Inktober - Word of the Day is Transport

You may also want to see the follow-up cartoon to this image that was made several days later for the Inktober keyword: SLOW

Original pencil sketch of Elmer the Elf

Inktober 2016: Jump (#10 of 31)

For the 10th day of Inktober, the word of the day is Jump.

Inked and toned using Copic markers

Inktober 2016: Broken (#09 of 31)

Today's Inktober word of the day is BROKEN.

Cartoon image for Inktober 2016

NOTE: Watching the second debate tonight and wondering what has happened to this country. So thinking of the word BROKEN, made me think of how our government is broken. But I don't want to get political on this blog and decided to post this cartoon instead . . .

Inktober 2016: Rock (#08 of 31)

For the 8th day of Inktober, the word of the day is Rock. That reminded me of my rock people characters . . . And my favorite is King Mudsok.

Blue pencil and inked character design of King Mudsok, the beloved leader of the Molten People.

Mudsok is one of the many characters I have been developing for a humorous story that takes place underground. His name is King Mudsok. Not sure where I got the name, but it popped into my head as soon as I finished drawing him. He is the king of the Molten People, a tribe that is at war with the Mucklugs, (a tribe of underground plant people.)

I see his character as being one who intimidates those who meet him. His voice is deep and rough, and his size is pretty impressive. He speaks with a loud, aggressive tone that vibrates the surrounding area. But underneath all that tough persona lies a very passionate, loving and caring soul. He really is a softie -- made of stone.

King Mudsok is a part of one of my many children's book stories for my "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster" series. I'll try to find the Mucklug leader, Zoobi-Dang and post it when I can.

Illustration Friday: ICE (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: ICE

Wrap design made for inflatable swimming pool

Originally posted 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

This is a very busy week for me, so I had to pull from the archives.

This was a design I made recently for an inflatable swimming pool wrap (the image repeats several times around the pool.) I made this thinking how fun it would be seeing playful polar bears and penguins swimming around icebergs during a hot summer's day.

I kept the image very blue and cool, limiting warm colors to just a few highlighted small areas. The composite for this was very important to balance out the polar bears and penguins so that they seemed to mingle all together and not just hang within their own species. Hopefully, when looking at this image, kids get a friendly, fun and cool feeling.

The artwork is vector based so that the image could be enlarged, reduced or re-arranged to be used for other items like beach balls, beach umbrellas, swimmies and life preservers.

RE: Illustration Friday
If you would like to join in on the fun, head over to Illustration Friday. It's totally free, no need to login or sign up for anything. You can view all the submissions from this week (and past archives of previous words.) Have a sketch to show? Send your own artwork up for others to see.

UPDATE:
Below is an image of the finished product. The repeat turned out great. I like how the clouds cast shadows on the inner lining of the pool. This image was taken outside of the factory near Shanghai, China.

The one thing that bothers me is that the tube around the polar bear's waist should be red. I feel the yellow tube competes with the sun in the sky, but at least it's a warm color against all the cool coloring below. Don't know why that change was made.

Image of the finished product using a repeat pattern of the design above.

Inktober 2016: Lost (#07 of 31)

Today's word of the day for Inktober 2016: Lost.
This word brings me back to one of my very first cartoons.

During my college years, I was the college newspaper cartoonist doing weekly drawings. One year, I won the national Columbia University Golden Circle Award for Best Cartoon from a Collegiate Newspaper. This inspired me to try going professional. I drew up about 3 dozen cartoons to submit to the New Yorker, Playboy, Reader's Digest and several other popular magazines. All were rejected. With good reason . . .

Rehashing an old cartoon I did while in college.

After all the rejections, I changed my focus and started doing a comic strip called Home of the Brave, which ran monthly in a fanzine for 2.5 years and then was reprinted/rehashed for a Spa/Health magazine for about a year. This old lady became one of the regulars in that strip (years later, she was also used in my first children's book Bobby's Biggest Bubble.)

Original pencil sketch

I'm going to search for the original old cartoon and post it (even though doing so will bother me tremendously -- looking at how I used to draw! Bleh! ) If I find the image, I'll update this post.

Inktober 2016: Hidden (#06 of 31)

Today's 6th Inktober 2016 image is based on the word: HIDDEN.

Not much to explain on this one. Just keeping the jokes gross, dark and uncomfortable . . . (because those are the drawings that are getting the most attention! Go figure.)

Alien Hide N' Seek professional Mr. Glorp playing with the Elf on the Shelf (he's hiding, kinda.)

I will admit I do have a bit of hatred for the Elf on the Shelf. He just seems to be the most obnoxious and shady elf in the world. Glad I put him in his place with this cartoon . . . 

Original pencil sketch of Mr. Glorp (sans the elf . . . )

Inktober 2016: Sad (#05 of 31)

Okay, I'm already going dark in the very first week of Inktober. Nothing wrong with a little dark humor, right? (I have to admit, I found myself giggling a few times while doing this image.)

Here's my Inktober image for Oct 5th. The prompt word for this day was "SAD."
I thought of all the saddest characters out there -- Pooh's friend Eeyore easily made the top of my list.

Oct 5th's Inktober image for the word "Sad", made using a pencil, brush pen, and Copic gray markers

Now I don't ever remember seeing Eeyore happy or smiling. That was the first part of this image, making Eeyore super happy. Once I sketched out what he'd look like . . . I started to think of what could possibly make him so happy. That's when everything turned dark.

I first focused on this key element of the drawing -- I found only one reference image of a happy Eeyore

Recalling my youth watching cartoons of Pooh, I've always disliked Rabbit. Face it, he was a jerk most of the time. A snoop, a bully, a control freak and just too darn excitable. So it was easy to make him be the fall guy for this joke. 

The rest of the image was roughed in around the Eeyore character, with the tragedy emphasized in the foreground

I needed to really make his death be totally abnormal with the environment of the characters. I went all Donny Darko and decided to drop a jet engine on poor old Rabbit. Wanting to not over offend people, I toned down the violence and kept it on a comical cartoony level. (No blood, guts, or gore.  I made sure to hide Rabbit's face to help soften his tragic death.)

Inktober 2016: Hunger (#04/31)

Today's Inktober word on the prompt list: Hunger.
Immediately zombies come to mind. Generally, that's is their entire life . . . eating, walking and looking for more to eat.

There are so many unanswered questions about zombies and eating:
1.) Do zombies ever get "full"?  2.) Do zombies only prefer "fresh" food?  3.) Why don't they eat each other?  4.) Do zombies poop?**

Image #4 "Hunger " for Inktober 2016, made with a mechanical pencil, Kuretake brush pen and Copic gray markers

This drawing touches on one of the things I always wondered as a kid; would a zombie ever eat itself?  If it did, that would be such a great efficient ecological system . . . am I right? I mean, if zombies can do that -- it'd make them have the smallest carbon footprint in the world!

Original pencil sketch of the self-sustaining zombie named Earl

(**Anyone have answers to these questions, let me know!)

Inktober 2016: Collect (#03/31)

Today's Inktober word on the prompt list: Collect.


SpongeBob SquarePants immediately came to mind with his impulsive hobby of jelly-fishing. I remember an episode where a giant jellyfish started to attach SpongeBob, to stop him from collecting little Jellyfish. I thought I'd take from that event and exaggerate the size of the bigger Jellyfish (and add more monstrous features like the teeth.)

Sketched, inked and highlighted this SpongeBob image on Toned Tan paper

I used to draw SpongeBob many times during my former job as a Creative Director in the Amusement business. It's been about 12 years since I drew this character. Back then I would design new outfits and concepts for new plush SpongeBob toys.

No sketch for this image since it was penciled and inked on the same sheet of paper.

Inktober 2016: Noisy (#02)

Today's Inktober word is "noisy", I started thinking of characters that were loud. The first character I thought of was Godzilla, but I already did Godzilla last year. So, thinking Sci-Fi, Chewbacca came to mind with his loud growl. I thought of this little joke where Chewbacca would amplify his voice.

Inktober 2016: Oct 2nd NOISY -- inked with Tombow brush pen and shaded with Copic markers

What actually took me some time was trying to make the megaphone look like something from the Deathstar. I thought, "What would Darth Vader use as a megaphone?". (I know, Vader wouldn't use a megaphone, he'd just used the force with some Jedi mind cast instead.)

Original pencil sketch of Chewbacca with a megaphone

Starting Inktober 2016: Fast (#01)

For the last few years, October has been the month for creating daily inked drawings thanks to Jake Parker's Inktober. Artists from all over the world partake in this creative event by simply drawing and posting their work online with the hashtag #Inktober (or more precisely #Inktober2016.) You can find out more at Jake's site here: http://www.inktober.com/

Last year, I did drawing based on childhood memories and concepts. This year, I'm going to follow Jake's Prompt List, which is a listing of random words for each day of the month. Oct. 1st's word of the day: FAST.

Inktober 2016: Oct 1st FAST -- inked with Tombow brush pen and shaded with Copic markers 

Just like last year, I'm doing dinosaur images right out the gate. I'll admit, dinosaurs are fun to draw and those images seem to get the most attention (along with dog and superhero sketches.) Since it's the Halloween season, I'll be doing many monsters, creatures, and science fiction related images.

The original digital pencil sketch of Oct 1st FAST 

Now technically, it's just supposed to be the inking with no wording . . . but I like adding humorous captions to the images. So this year I'll submit wordless images to my Twitter account and post the captioned images here on the blog and Facebook.

Original pencil rough of the concept.

Not happy with the character sketch, I scanned the image and started to change the character's features, details and positioning in Photoshop.