Illustration Friday: Shadow!

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: Shadow

A promotional image for the short online cartoon: Slojo, Ex-Clown

Thought Process: Shadow This made me think immediately of a little cartoon I tried to animate in 2000 called, "Slojo: Ex-Clown". It was to be a small online cartoon about a sad sack individual who used to be a circus clown. The twist (or gimmick) was that Slojo was always unlucky and suffered the consequences usually in a chain of events. In this case, all he is doing is standing around . . . and he's about to suffer for doing so.

I was just beginning to learn animation and thought doing a solo project like this would allow me to practice and hone my skills. The animation was very crude and rough, almost is a stop motion style. Fortunately that year, I was hired to animate and design websites. Unfortunately, I no longer had the time to finish this project.

Background story: This image is strange to me when I see it.
While I did make an animated intro for the cartoon, plotted and story boarded an entire 3 minute episode -- I do not remember ever doing this image. Yes, It is my work, my style and character . . . I just don't remember planning, sketching or working on this particular image.

This was not the first time that has happened to me. When I was younger, I would sometimes wake up with completed sketches of characters that I didn't recall creating. There were also times when I would dream up complete stories. I would try to write those dream stories down as soon as possible, for it seemed like the stories started to fade away as I woke up.

The subconscious mind is a strange, confusing and wonderful thing.

I will try to post the original Slojo animated intro soon on the blog . . .

Illustration Friday: Creature II

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: CREATURE

I usually never submit two images to the IF website, but I couldn't help also send this "monsta" from over a year ago. This creature was made by playing around with the fur brush in SketchBook Pro -- so it's really just a doodle.

This creature was made on June 9th, 2012, which was before I created my eBook character, Bladimir Blarfarg around Dec. 2012. Though I can't prove it, I think subconsciously this little guy was the inspiration to creating Bladimir.

Close-up cropped image of the the original doodle sketch "Fuzzy Monsta"

There's are definite signs of Bladimir here; the horns, blue fur, wide mouth, stocky body with small arms and legs. But you have to admit, he's got too much of a creepy factor to be used for a children's story. Kids probably would still like this creature -- but to properly market a book for success - you need to appeal to the parents, since they are the paying buyers. You also need a universal appeal and lil' Fuzzy here just wouldn't work on that level. So ol' Fuzzy Monsta here was never considered for the eBook. (Sorry dude)

You can see the complete original full body doodle of Fuzzy Monsta here:

http://arrrggghhhink.blogspot.com/2012/06/fuzzy-monsta-its-great-when-you-get.html

Illustration Friday: Creature

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: CREATURE

As previously mentioned, I've been swamped with work lately, so I haven't been submitting illustrations to the website Illustration Friday for weeks now.
Fortunately, this week's word is easy for me to submit past works.

Bladimir, the Blogdunsta from the upcoming eBook "Bladimir Blarfarg and the Worm Wire Glasses".

Thought Process:
Not much thought process to this submission, my first thought to the word CREATURE is obviously going to be the creature I've been working on for the past year. I simply submitted one of my illustrations from my eBook, Bladimir Blarfarg and the Worm Wire Glasses".

(Sidenote: Noticed that the font I picked has a "y" that looks like a "g" - I'm constantly seeing "Tiny Legs" in the lower right corner read as "Ting Legs". Even though that does bother me, I like this font's style since it goes so well with the mood and character of the story.)

Illustration Friday: Together

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: Together

Thinking Process: I had no idea what to do with this week's word. I was very stumped. But then I thought of the word and one of my favorite childhood songs came to mind, the Beatles' song "All Together Now". 

That made me think of the album the song appeared on, Yellow Submarine, and how influential the cartoon was when I was a child. The cartoon not only had fantastic music, but was the first true mind-blowing creative visuals I ever seen in a cartoon.
And let's face it, it had everything a child could ask for: The Beatles, really creepy bad guys, a Sea of Monsters and a hole in Ringo's pocket.

So thinking of the cartoon and the song, I thought of the two opposing characters being together: Blue Meanie and Jeremy Hillary Boob (aka Nowhere Man).

Addendum: Just added a video of making this image on YouTube, watch below or you can go to the YouTube page and a larger better quality version of the video. Click here: TOGETHER VIDEO

Illustration Friday: Totem

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: Totem

Though Process:
Totems make me think of stacked creatures, usually with a canister-shaped body. I didn't want to do the typical tiki head look. Instead I thought of something else that was stackable . . . marshmallows.

So once I pictured the marshmallows stacked, I figured they were running. But what were they running from? Only thing I could think of that would make marshmallows run, was an angered chocolate bar and graham cracker - with sticks.

Makes sense . . . right?

Illustration Friday: Hidden

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: Hidden


Thinking Process: Not much time to spend on this, so I did a quick pencil sketch for this week. Thinking of something "hidden", made me think of cats -- the way they hide and get ready to pounce on anything that comes by. I thought it would be funny to have the cat hide under a rug, which holds the entire shape of the cat, making it very obvious that the cat thinks it's hidden -- but it's not. Adding a simple mouse just standing there, staring at the cat added the little touch of humor I wanted.

Illustration Friday: LUSH

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: Lush

Though Process:
My first thought was the work LUSH my immediate thought was a thriving vegetated area. Then I thought of the word as an adjective: luxurious, abundance and thriving. But there was nothing humorous.

But when I look at the word as a noun as a heavy drinker, a drunkard;
I thought of an old cartoon I did year ago. This was originally a card that simply said "Hep-fee Burphday!" inside.

[ Sidenote: Looking at the many other drunken/alcohol images on Illustration Friday site - I guess I wasn't the only one thinking of using the NOUN version of the word this week! ]

Illustration Friday: Fresh

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: Fresh

My submitted drawing for Illustration Friday's word of the week: Fresh.

Thought Process: The idea came immediately to me because I already did a sketch many years ago by request of my brother for his web design company, Chopping Block.

He called me asking for a character design, a cool nerdy grocer. I did several goofy cartoon sketches and sent they to him.  My style tends to be very cartoony, It wasn't the type of look he wanted. But I had a good time drawing the images and kept them all these years.

So the concept here is that the grocer is getting "Fresh" with the "Fresh" Produce. There is also something very funny to me about the phrase "cute tomato". It reminds my of those old B+W movies, especially East Side Comedy's Bowery Boys where it seemed like every girl in those movies were referred to as a "cute tomata". 

The original rough pencil sketch

Illustration Friday: Hybrid

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: Hybrid

This was a vacation week for my wife and me, so I pulled an old image from the archive for this week's word.

This is one of my favorite supporting characters to an old story I wrote many years ago. It's a story I plan to tell one day in a children's book, but it won't be for at least a few years from now.

One of my "hybrid" characters, Babbit. (He's a Bat + Rabbit)

Illustration Friday: Protest

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: Protest

Protesting the protestin' . . . a single frame image of a little animation for this week's Illustration Friday

Thought Process:

This week's word was easy because I already have a character who lives to protest. This was a cartoon concept I had long ago about two animals in New York's Central Park. I don't want to give anymore information than that - since it's still something I may do one day.

But this particular character is a very sly and manipulating power-crazy squirrel. (I always pictured his voice to be similar to Joe Pesci.)

UPDATE 3: Added a Play Again button to the animation.  So now it automatically plays once, stops and waits for you to click the button to play again.

Illustration Friday: WORN Darth Vader

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: WORN

Remember: Even Darth Vader had a few bad days . . . 

Thought Process:

The first thing I thought with the word WORN, was someone tired . . . exhausted. That made me think of characters you never really see portrayed that way. Darth Vader came to mind. The thought of Darth Vader looking fatigued, slumped shouldered, dragging his light sabre on the ground (while it's still on) seemed like a good image to do.

For this image, I wanted to stay very loose and sketchy.
It took about 20 minutes to finish.

The original pencil sketch

Arrrggghhh! It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Illustration Friday SWEET

A video showing my technique sketching, using ArtRage Studio Pro 4.0.2 . This image was created for the website, IllustrationFriday.com, where artists and illustrators submit artwork based upon the site's word of the week. The word for this image was SWEET.

Illustration Friday: Sweet

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: SWEET

THOUGHT PROCESS:
Thinking of the word SWEET, I immediately thought of candy.
That made me think of popular characters related to candy. Willy Wonka, M&M's and the cartoon Adventure Time came to mind, but I wanted a contradiction to the word SWEET. Something sweet that wasn't being sweet.

This instantly made me think of the classic ending of the original Ghost Busters movie with the fantastic character: Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

The sweet and lovable Stay Puft Marshmallow Man tapping the city into oblivion.

I originally thought of an image of Stay Puft fighting the Michelin Man (the famous tire company mascot) since they both looked very similar in size and shape. I was going to do a Godzilla-like side-by-side fight overshadowing a city . . . but while it might have been a good image - it didn't focus enough on the word SWEET.

Going back to the concept "sweet not being sweet", I instead decided to focus on just Stay Puft tap dancing like Shirley Temple -- and in doing so -- destroying the city behind him.

The original pencil sketch of the IF: SWEET concept

FOCUS:

I wanted to originally have a dramatic image looking up under the belly of Stay Puft, from the point of view of people being demolished below. But it was hard to convey that Stay Puft was being "sweet" and tap dancing from that angle. He would just look too menacing. So instead, I did a spotlight focus with Stay Puft tap dancing with his telephone pole "cane". Doing this makes a "sweeter" and cuter persona -- and eliminated seeing people being trampled on (which would be too dark for some people and make the cartoon less "funny".)

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.

Illustration Friday: Future

It's Illustration Friday -- which means it's time to play creative word association! Each week a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word. My added challenge is to try to do something humorous. I find this is not only fun - but just a great exercise for creating and experimenting with painting programs.

This week's word: FUTURE

I didn't have much time this week since my workload is very heavy making pet clothing designs/sayings/patterns for PetSmart -- but I still wanted to submit an image for the site. So I did a digital sketch in pencil. No coloring, inking, etc.

Cartoon pencil sketch based on Rodin's The Thinker

THOUGHT PROCESS:

For me, the first thing that comes to mind about the future is a robot. When I think of robots, I often wonder if I'll see the day a robot or computer will have it's own thoughts (or develop an original thought/concept based on existing patterns of design.) We are getting closer and closer to actual artificial intelligence, and while the true concept of that may never be achieved, we know we already use A.I.-like programming to solve and explore possibilities never previously thought of before. 

So a robot thinking made me think of Rodin's timeless classic statue, The Thinker. I found a reference image and began drawing a robot sitting is that familiar pose.

Image of Rodin's Thinker used for reference

FOCUS & TWIST:
So what would a robot be thinking of? I tried to convey that the computer the robot was sitting on wasn't working and the robot was trying to figure out "why?" By making his eyes look down and away from the computer's plug, we get the sense he may never come up with a solution -- that the solution is so apparently close.

The typed message is a spin on the old catch phrase, but I thought it'd be fun to change the phrase "under our noses" to "under our olfactory sensory nodules."

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.

Illustration Friday (on Wednesday): Farewell

You may notice it's not Friday. 

This past Illustration Friday I was too busy getting ready being the Best Man for my brother's wedding. (And yes, it was a wonderful weekend at the Physick House in Philadelphia.)

The word for this week is: FAREWELL. This word was a big challenge, especially since I want to do only humorous/fun images -- and this word was directly associated with sadness.

Illustration Friday's submission for the word FAREWELL done in digital color pencil

THOUGHT PROCESS: My first thought was to create an image of a small character waving goodbye to a large character walking away. The farewell ending music from my childhood TV show "The Incredible Hulk" started to come to mind. That classic image of Bruce ("David") Banner walking away from yet another location. But doing an image of Hulk sulking away didn't seem funny -- and I couldn't think of an appropriate small character to be waving goodbye. 

Quick pen doodle of my "mental" concept for FAREWELL

So I thought what type of goodbye would seem funny?
A goodbye that was sarcastic.

That's when I thought of a parent saying goodbye to their child leaving home, (but deep down the parent is extremely happy to see the child go) -- aka leaving the nest.

That's when I first envisioned the image of a Momma bird "encouraging" her young to leave the nest. Originally, I did a quick sketch with two chicks being booted, but somehow the idea of several being "kicked" at once seemed more cruel then just the one.

FOCUS: I also thought the idea of giving zombie-like, dead pan eyes would make the bird characters funnier. The eyes make it seem like the Momma bird is just going through the motions - staring at you, the viewer, as if to say "I'm doing this because this is what nature intended me to do." There is also a humorous disconnect of the Momma not looking at the chick as it plummets. (But don't worry, the chick flies away safely . . . honest!)

DRAWING PROCESS: For this image - I used digital color pencils on very rough textured papered surface. When finishing, I used a very thin eraser across the image's outlines to make them break up and seem more scratchy.

(UPDATE)
I had played around with this style of the image, with more solid ink lines and a moss paint brush canopy of "leaves" on top of the image. I didn't care for the solid lines for this image - and the 3D Moss brush clashes with the 2D line work. The "leaves" are also too strong and take away from the focus of the image.
I thought I'd post it here just to show the difference.

Earlier pen ink style lines with 3D moss brush for leaves

Arrrggghhh! It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Illustration Friday TRAIN

A video showing my technique sketching, ArtRage Studio Pro 4.0.2 was used for creating this image. This was an image created for the website, Illustration Friday, where artists and illustrators submit artwork based upon the site's word of the week. The word for this image was TRAIN.

Illustration Friday: Train

It's Illustration Friday -- which means it's time to play creative word association! Each week a word is given on the website, IllustrationFriday.com. Artists and illustrators then submit an image that represents that word. My added challenge is to try to do something humorous. I find this is not only fun - but just a great exercise for creating and experimenting with painting programs. 

This week's image for Illustration Friday: TRAIN

The purpose of blogging this is to try and explain the thought process behind creating this image. I like to time myself so that the creative process is instant . . . no lingering on how the image will be made -- just jump right into it. The total time for this took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Thought Process: The word given was TRAIN. So my first thought was: Do I go with just drawing a train - OR - Do I create the action of someone training something. Then I thought, "why not do both?" Someone training a train. But who? A conductor would be the most obvious choice. So that made it really easy. There is only one cartoon conductor that I can think of, Conjunction Junction, from ABC's School House Rock! I quickly looked online for reference to this popular 70's character and started sketching right away. Drawing CJ was easy . . .

An old childhood favorite: School House Rock's Conjunction Junction image used for reference

. . . but the train was a little bit of a challenge. It needed to be detailed enough to be recognized as a train -- but not too detailed as to make it too busy to see it was "sitting" up like a dog being trained.  The final small detail I added was making the "doggie" treat be a piece of coal.

Image Flow:  This one was simple. Have two "characters" interacting + facing each other. The focus would be the little bit of coal in CJ's hand, which is dead center in the image. Some motion lines were added around the little train to show it was struggling a little to stay in place. 

Original pencil sketch scanned into ArtRage Studio Pro

If you would like to join in on the fun, head over to the 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.

NOTE: See the video of this sketch being made.  It's available on YouTube

Illustration Friday: Wild!

Every Friday is Illustration Friday where many illustrators and artists submit their images based on the word of the week. The word this week is: WILD!

I always want to submit work that focuses on character design and humor. I also try to experiment with new styles and looks using different brushes or techniques... experimenting is fun.

The final image after adjusting the composition. the color value and tweaking the background

Thought Process: For the word "Wild", I thought of the jungle, which then through word association - made me think of a lion. I could have just made a wild-looking lion and be done with it, but I wanted to add humor to the image. So, I thought of making the "King of the Jungle" with a lion terrified of bunnies.

Illustration Friday: WILD week

Visual Targets: Throwing the lion in a tree added to the scared effect and emotion I wanted.  I need his fear appearing over-the-top and exaggerated for it to be comical. For the bunnies, I made them as plain,  simple and timid as possible... this is where "less is more" pays off. Keeping them all white too hopes to convey that these bunnies are angelic, pure and innocent.

Original pencil sketch of a scared lion

Image Flow: When someone first sees this image, the warm-colored lion should be the focus. As we follow his eyes to the left, it leads us to see the "un-scary" trio of bunnies. The blank unemotional stares of the bunnies back at the lion adds to the comical effect.

If you would like to join in on the fun, head over to the Illustration Friday. It's free to join in on the fun, no need to login or sign up for anything. There 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.

Illustration Friday: Urban

It's Illustration Friday!
Every week, the website Illustration Friday posts a word and invites everyone to submit their illustrations for all to see. 

The word this week is URBAN. Since I've been pulling many all-nighters this week. I'm going into my archives for this week's image.

This image is from a children's book I was working on long ago, but never published. I was experimenting with altering images from NYC as the background. The character, Lil' Mouse, was painted digitally and shaded on top of the abstract images of the city. I did about 8 pages of the story before moving on to another project. (One of the reasons for dropping the project was the concern of owner's rights to the original NYC photos I used and manipulated.)

Cover to a children's book concept using abstract photos of NYC merged with digital characters and type.
The background used here was an image of NYC's Time Square.

Want to see more images of what others are doing with the word?
Have an image you want to show everyone else? Then go here: Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday: Egg!

This week's topic at Illustration Friday is EGG.

Below is the image I submitted to http://illustrationfriday.com.
It's a fun site and I find it to be a great way to exercise creative thinking and honing up my drawing skills. I highly suggest all to join (or at least take a look at the other great submissions made by all the fantastic artists there.)