Concept Design: Furry Pet Costumes 2016

So here are a few pet costumes I designed for PetSmart Halloween 2016. PetSmart was looking for furry creature costumes. That made me think of doing something similar to the way that Muppet-like monsters are made.

Original concept designs submitted for creating a trio of furry pet costumes for PetSmart Halloween 2016

This is an excellent example of how a product is actually created from design. Above you see my original concept art. It gives enough detail and specifics to create the items our client, PetSmart, is looking for. But as you will see below, the details are altered to reach the price point that the customer wants. So small details are eliminated, colors are modified, and the final product is usually a simplified version of the concept art.

Many designers I have worked with in the past, would take such changes personally because they'd get too personal with their work. That not the right frame of mind in this business. Your job as a designer is to bring forth ideas to help improve business and sales. If your design is too expensive to produce, at least you can provide the manufacturer enough details to work with - so that a final product can be created for the right price. It's far better to over design with more details to allow the manufacturing department to figure out how the item can be produced, shipped and sold.

I noticed these costumes weren't selling in many local PetSmart stores. These items looked great with these dog images, but PetSmart decided not to put these photos on the costumes' hangtags. Overall, these costumes looked like furry balls on hangers, which were hard to figure out how they'd look on dogs. It's a shame that they had these photos made for posters in front of the store, but decided to save a minuscule amount of money by not printing the hangtags with these same pictures. It would have been far more efficient and cost effective to do the hangtags with photos and simply drop the cost of the promotional posters in the storefront windows. 

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: 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: 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: Weapon

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: Weapon

For this week's submission, I simply took from an old image I did of my character Hairy. The page had Hairy getting ready to battle a monster in the closet, using the best toy weapons he could find.

Hairy loaded and ready for battle. Image taken from one of my oldest picture book stories.

Below is the original full image from which this image was taken from. This page is  #14 from the story, "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster" back in the early 90's.

Original full colored dummy book page from "Timmons and the Lumpy Bumpy Monster"

Daily Quick Sketch: Roller Bot

Playing around with an old Wacom stylus that I connected to my backup computer, I quickly rough sketched this robotic character. I used the default pencil setting in Photoshop, which has a nice feel to it - makes it feel it a real pencil on the stylus.

Robot character created on an old Cintiq 1200W using Photoshop

Daily Quick Sketch: Octopus Character (for another children's book concept)

It's been awhile since I posted on the blog. I'm in a bit of a low creative mode lately due to work and general stress. Yet, another concept for a children's book idea came to me recently during the night. I woke up and created this character sketch to get that concept down on paper.
(Too many other ideas have floated away when I didn't do the same . . . )

ADDED: Just added a quick color version of the sketch above.

Digitally colored using PhotoShop

Inked Octopus character for a children's book idea set in an underwater setting

The first thing I thought was, "I need an octopus character." I've drawn many octopus characters over the years, often created with a typical look and style. So I thought I'd change my usual technique and think outside the box.

Original pencil sketch design of my Octopus character for my newest children's book story

I thought adding a long neck/torso would make the octopus look unique enough. I also envision him walking on four arms and using the remaining limbs as arms. Like all characters I create, this one will be redrawn, adjusted and hopefully improved to have a unique character look.

Watercolor + Pen variation

Daily Quick Sketch: My dog . . .

He's a quick sketch I based on my little dog, Brady. She's an Australian Cattle Dog, which is simply a ball of hyper energy wrapped in fur. She's an attention sponge that loves pampering. She also seems immune to pain, will oppose any size dog and is fearless on most grounds (except thunder and fireworks.) When she wants your attention, her ear-splitting yelps make one wonder, who's the master and who's the pet . . .

This little image was created shortly after Brady was in an angry and demanding mood 

Here's the little girl in a silent moment.