Daily Quick Sketch: Zookeeper Earl and The Burpy Bear

UPDATE: Color version

Updated the post with a color version of the image below

These characters are a part of a silly little poem/story I have about a burping bear in a city zoo. The story needs to be longer and several other characters will need to be developed. That'll take time which I never seem to have anymore.

Zookeeper Earl and Burpy Bear inked with a pen brush and gray toned with markers

I tried to alter my usual style a little here, especially with Earl who is very inspired by The Far Side cartoonist, Gary Larson. I think the Burpy Bear needs some work. He needs to be more comical and likable (and the big tooth just isn't doing it for me.)

The inked version of Burpy Bear

Inked version of Zookeeper Earl

Daily Quick Sketch: Stealing Honey Bear

This sketch was created some time ago (~ spring 2015) with a group of children at a local library supplying these three subjects: Name an animal. An article of clothing. An action.

They gave me a BEAR wearing a HAT and he's STEALING HONEY. (Pretty sure "hat" was picked after "bear" because of the very popular Jon Klassen picture book at that time: "This is Not My Hat". If you don't know what that means -- look it up!) 

The revised version of the first sketch below after being revised -- more of a stealing action

I'm showing these now because it has been awhile since I drew images with a group of children. I usually try to get the children involved in helping me decide what to draw as I explain a little about the thought process of creating something new. Originally I finished with the image below, but then the child who gave me "stealing honey" insisted the bear was just holding honey -- so I quickly made changes and made him running -- that seemed to make everyone happy.  (That kid's probably going to be an art director or critic one day.)

The original pencil sketch of a BEAR wearing a HAT and STEALING HONEY

Daily Quick Sketch: Teddy Bear

Just trying to get back into submitting stuff to the blog. This sketch was a simple teddy bear image I was doodling with a brush pen. No pencil sketching, just directly drawing on a pad with a brush pen.

Teddy Bear sketched with pen brush and colored with Copic Markers

Bosco & Bruno

Found this in my archive backup drive, circa 2003. This is a good example to always jot your ideas down on paper, even if you don't use that idea for years.

These were two character design sketches of a bear (Bruno) and squirrel (Bosco) I intended to use to make an online web animation. I say "intended" because it would take months of work for me to make an 8-minute quality cartoon by myself. I never found that time. It's still one of my favorite concepts, which is a small tale about a Bronx Zoo bear who thinks he's a squirrel living in NYC's Central Park and his manipulative squirrel friend who uses the bear to his advantage. (I always imagined the squirrel's voice being played by Joe Pesci.)

But instead of simply letting this concept float away, I created this character set to hopefully one day go back and do something with it. I still have the entire cartoon story in my head. (I also have a written first draft of the animation, just in case my memory starts slippin'.)

Sadly, I didn't always take the time to draw or write down the inspirations when I was younger. So many ideas just tend to float away, never to return. Not saying they are all great ideas, but you never know how a small idea many eventually turn into a more significant concept. So, Tip o' the Day for you future artisans out there, when you do get bouts of inspiration, crazy dreams or an "idea-burp" in yer head . . . Write/draw them down.
You won't regret doing so . . .

Here's a link to a small animation loop I created using the squirrel character Bosco: LINK