Character Design: Red Dragon

I have been struggling to create this character for some time. I needed a funny yet threatening Dragon for a picture book manuscript. I believe I finally found it in this character over the holiday weekend.

Color comp of the character

I borrowed from my own sketch from a couple of months ago, where I created an illustration of a dragon, knight, and mouse reading in a dungeon: Fantasy Reading Scene (for SCBWI). I took many features from that image's dragon that I liked, then exaggerated them to create a slightly more fierce appearance.

Inked with a very soft brush pen

Original pencil sketch

Cap'n Manchot: supporting character of Pirate Dreams

Cap'n Manchot is another support character for my picture book story Pirate Dreams. The story is getting bigger and bigger so I may have to change it into a chapter book.

The original artwork was created in pencil, white pen, and Copic gray markers on Strathmore Toned Tan paper.

Pirate Dreams is greatly inspired by my childhood favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth written by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. I have always felt that The Phantom Tollbooth was a boy's alternative to The Wizard of Oz. From the very beginning of that story, I was hooked, putting myself in Milo's shoes, being cast into a strange world with incredibly weird characters.

Digital touch up of Cap'n Manchot; line textured, repositioned, desaturated and text added.

Pirate Dreams is also a voyage of discovery, filled with odd characters in a whimsical pirate world setting. With each rewrite, the story keeps changing and growing.  The cast gets bigger and bigger as new ideas pop up. In a way, I'm in Milo's shoes again, discovering a whole new world.

Pencil Sketch the character Felix from "Whazzit?"

I've written many picture book manuscripts over the years. Sometimes I'll write a story and I "see" the characters. Other times, I haven't a clue, or I'm not satisfied with a character or story; sometimes this goes on for years. When that happens, I put the story away and let it sit for some time.

But every once in a while, with no reason at all, a character "pops" clearly in my head and have to get it down on paper or it is soon forgotten. For example, after years of failing to envision Charli's baby brother, I doodled, and Felix appeared on my sheet of paper. (Even odder, was that I had struggled with a similar baby sister character for another story, and suddenly she was also created two days after Felix. It's like I had a sudden muse of toddler characters pour out of my head.)

It seems Felix has fallen asleep again while standing - a pencil sketch touched up in Photoshop

Felix is an essential character for my mystical wintry picture book, "Whazzit?" (In fact, It's Felix who uses the title phrase "Whazzit" in the story.) I'm testing and rounding this character out, using a more pencil-sketch style and planning to do a character sheet to flesh out the role further.

Related link: I posted an ink sketch of Felix's older sister, Charli, some time ago. For her character, I used an ink brush, so she is drawn in a cleaner black line style than seen here. I think I'll try the pencil sketch style with her character next. Then, I'll sketch . . . Whazzit.

Giant Ham/Cheese Sandwich vs. Battle Ballerina!

This image was initially done sometime around Sept 2018.
I'm only getting around to posting it here on the blog today . . . 

My sister-in-law called me on the phone while playing Giant Sandwich VS Princess Ballerina with my (then) 3-year-old niece, (who I assumed was the Princess Ballerina.) From what I could hear over the phone, my niece was using a "flying fist punch" to devastate the evil "Giant Sammich," (which was later described as ham and swiss on white with flimsy leaves of lettuce.)

After that call, I imagined what that fight looked like and put it down on paper.

Final color image, which I toned to an overall warmer pink-purple hue

The first color version

The original pencil sketch

The inked image with text; adding details to the foreground, mid, and background.

Grayscale version - testing out the tone values of the image

Happy Batman Valentine!

Throwback Thursday:
A Valentine sketch I did for my wife several years ago. They say a picture paints a thousand words. Nuff said.

Valentine for my cutie-patootie of a wife! (That's right, I said that publicly!)

Arrrggghhh! It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Inking Moon-Boy

A video of inking a new character in real time I call Moon-Boy. This is a new character I'm developing for an original picture book story. Several people requested seeing actual inking without speeding up the video, so here you go. Hopefully, this is not too long. (I believe most people prefer 1-minute or less when it comes to watching illustrating videos.)

NOTE: Sometimes the video here won't play in the blog, (typical Google issues with Blogger.) You can always click the YouTube logo in the lower right corner of the video to open a direct link to the YouTube page.

I'm using a Huion light tablet to help ink over the original pencil sketch. Doing this help preserve the original drawing and helps to prevent significant errors and accidents (like spilling ink.) The pen is the Pilot Futayaku Double-Sided Brush Pen. I like this pen because it has a fine point on one end and a medium tip on the other. (I switch the tips about 1:10 into the video.)

Slingblade Banjo Pig! 🐖

This image was inspired by a blog by two of my favorite online illustrators, Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis. Their blog is called: Dueling Banjo Pigs! Check it out. Anyone can join in on the fun! 🐖

Grumpy ol' Slingblade pig -- uhh' hmmmm.

See the other banjo pig I sent years ago here.

Happy Chinese New Year! 2019: The Year of the Pig!

I created this image based on my New Year Baby image from last month. This one goes out to all my friends and co-workers on the other side of the world. Happy Chinese New Year! 🎉🐖 

Lady Bug: Gnat Skiing

Ever wonder what ladybugs do during their winter vacation?

Quick ink and watercolor warmup from this morning.

Inking Alien Bully (and little Meep-Moop)

A poor little Meep-Moop is being picked on by one of those alien-bully Skarggs.
Someone should do something about this . . .

These aliens were developed for the sequel to my picture book, Bobby's Biggest Bubble.
The sequel answers what happened to that meteor, as Bobby's deals with 1,000,000 pounds of Jolly Belly Jelly. Here's to hoping I'll get to reprint the original book with a real publisher and finally get to tell the entire trilogy written so long ago.

Inked with a Pilot brush pen on Canson marker paper

The original pencil sketch rough

A new year! ACK!

This image pretty much explains all the feelings I have now that the holiday break is over, and a new year has begun.

Christmas Card 2018

This will probably only make sense to people who buy toilet paper. If you don't get the joke, go out and buy toilet paper soon.

Christmas Card concept for 2018

Ruth Vader Ginsburg

Some time ago my sister-in-law, Steph, asked me to do this image. She never mentioned why, but I had fun creating it. So now I'm sharin' . . .

Pencil sketched, then inked with a Pentel brush pen and colored
with Copic markers (on Canson marker paper.)

Inktober 2018 - Day31 Slice

Inktober 2018 - Day31 Slice
Well, time to say goodbye to Inktober. It's been fun, at times exhausting, and seeing others' line work has been truly inspiring. Thanks to all kind comments, emails, and likes; it really does mean a lot to me. Until next October . . . keep inking!

This image was inked with a Pilot brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper,
using a Signo white pen for highlights.

Inktober 2018 - Day29 Double

Inktober 2018 - Day29 Double
As the image states, to this day, I still get the creeps from this scene in the Shining. In my college years, I was utterly blown away by Stanley Kubrick's work. I started collecting all DVDs of his movies, watching them over and over again. The man could truly capture a mood and is in my opinion, the most celebrated director of placement, framing, and composition.

He did take many liberties and altered Steven King's original story, but he definitely created something unique, horrific, and timeless.

Brush pen inked with digital coloring

Inktober 2018 - Day27 Thunder

Inktober 2018 - Day27 Thunder
Every once in a while, I really enjoy inking on toned tan paper. Something about that neutral tone that makes the black lines and white highlights pop. Mitch has inspired me to write the first draft for his own picture book story.

Inked with a brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper;
using a Signo white pen for highlights, and adding some shading tones with cool grey Copic markers

Inktober 2018 - Day 25 Prickly

Inktober 2018 - Day 25 Prickly
I'm starting to think Todd's not going to survive Inktober.

Inktober 2018 - Day24 Chop

Inktober 2018 - Day24 Chop
Initially, I was going to use this character (Arnie Geddon) for all the Inktober images. But life and work have priorities, (especially when having to start planning product development for 2019 Halloween products this week.)

I've had this image for a while and waited for this day to post it. I thought this would be a good concept for a morbidly cute alphabet picture book -- but it would be a tough sell. But . . . I could see it as a novelty picture book for adults and possibly offer it up as a Kickstarter project to fund the printing.

This image was inked with a Pilot brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper; using a Signo white pen for highlights.

The original artwork scan without digital text and enhancing contrast

See the original sketch of this character here.

Inktober 2018 - Day23 Muddy

Inktober 2018 - Day23 Muddy

Pen brush inked and then digitally colored

Inktober 2018 - Day 21 Drain

Inktober 2018 - Day 21 Drain
Todd! Only a little more than a week to go!

Poor Todd was inked with a brush pen and then digitally colored in Photoshop