Character Development: Charli

Creating a character is tricky . . . sometimes. When I doodle, a character might emerge that seems to have more appeal than other sketches . . . and that could inspire a story for said character. But it sometimes goes the other way around, where the story is created first -- then the characters have to be fleshed out. I find this to be the most difficult process because I'm searching for the right fit. Never satisfied until the correct character is created. I've some stories with "missing" characters . . . some being decades old. This character in particular simply appeared as I doodled one night.

I've written my wintry story of Whazzit about 2-3 years ago. It's been re-written over a dozen times and I'm close to what I feel is the final manuscript. In the story, the sister is a tween and is her baby brother is slightly older than a toddler. My main problem with her character's look was that I wanted a smart and mature yet playful girl, full of curiosity and wonder -- but everything I drew seemed silly, too old and goofy looking. Nothing seemed to fit the character I needed.

I find when I'm cornered with no idea where to go . . . the best solution is to walk away and let the project sit. There always something else to do. I didn't think of the story for several months and then in a moment of reflection, I started to doodle the image seen above. Half way through sketching, I knew this was the sister character, Charli, for my picture book story.

It can't be explained, but there are simply times when things all seems to fit.

Daily Quick Sketch: Skull-Belly

This image was highly influenced by the animated TV show Adventure Time. I've been a fan of the show since it first started 7 years ago. There's something about the stories, characters and style of the show's design that seems to really work. Its so original, yet it borrows so much from all genres. While it may have an overall cute and friendly appearance . . . the show is very deep on a dark and philosophical level.

Skull-Belly is a character I created that was highly influenced by the animated TV show, Adventure Time

While watching a recent episode of Adventure Time, I thought of this yeti-like creature.
Creating his name was simple, since his chest+stomach area looks like a skull. He's a very dangerous creature, but Skull-Belly turns docile when holding a red helium balloon. So every day, someone is in charge of exchanging a fresh new helium balloon in order to have the creature remain peaceful. Of course, one day the helium runs out . . . that's when Adventure Time begins!

1-Minute Doodle: I'm Batman

While testing out an ink setting in Photoshop for my Cintiq tablet, I did this quick doodle. Usually, I just delete these doodles, but this one I thought was a keeper.

Quick doodle in Photoshop that took about a minute to create

UPDATE: #INKtober 2015 No.22: Batman vs Baseball

UPDATE:
I colored this image over the weekend to test out the website RedBubble. RedBubble is a company that prints customized t-shirts, pillows, mugs, etc. It allows you to easily use your own images, even sell your own work and setup is very easy.

I've ordered two t-shirts to test the quality of their product. The cost was around $50, which for two customized t-shirts is a fairly good price.

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Originally Posted on Oct 23rd, 2015
For #22 of the INKtober drawings, I couldn't help but go back to Batman.

Intober #22: Inked with brush pen and digitally toned in Photoshop

The original pencil sketch

The inked image sans type and gray tones.

Daily Sketches: Sweet Tooth Reaper and Post Inktober Comments

Well, I wasn't able to complete the entire month of Inktober. This is the most stressful and demanding time of the year in my line of work. I actually worked several 18+ hour days to reach deadlines. It's mentally and physically exhausting, especially when considering that the same similar holiday designs are needed over and over each year.

In times of a better economy, designers can experiment more, take risks and do ideas never seen before. But it's the opposite in our current poor economy. Retail store buyers want the same price and quality products as their previous years - while the manufacturers face inflation to materials, labor, safety regulations and shipping costs. As a designer, I must help create sensible high-quality designed items that don't cost more to create.

Anyway, my job took over all of my spare time and pretty much burnt me out. I have many doodles and sketches that could have worked for Inktober, but for legal reasons I can not share those on the blog. But there are a few loose images that were not used for my job. I will throw a few of these sketches up on the blog as I get the time; like the one seen below. Many of these are related to Halloween given that it was around that time when they were created.

This image was created using pencils and Copic markers with light highlight Gelly Roll pen

#INKtober 2015 No.21: Iron Baby

For this drawing, #21 for INKtober, I wanted to experiment with a few new brush pens I bought on Amazon. I've been seeing other artists' using different pens and I wanted to try a few and compare them to what I've been using. 

The image below was a pencil doodle of a baby Iron Man. I inked over the pencils using a Tombow N15 brush pen and then colored with a Tombow N60. Note: The pens have two ends, one end is the brush tip and the other end is a normal fine point marker tip.

INKtober image #21: Pencilled and then inked using TomBow N15 and N60 brush pens

For most of these INKtober images, I have been using a Faber Castell SB brush pen.
The ink in that pen is solid black, good coverage, ink dries instantly and the brush nib is very flexible.

The Tombow N15 I used for this image had several issues. The ink was not a solid black as with the Faber-Castell SB. The ink didn't dry quickly, smeared and when used with a second marker the black line blended into the lighter gray marker. These pens also create bands and lines when coloring, typically seen with most water-based markers. The Tombow brush pens are definitely not the quality level of Copic markers for coloring.

The lower two pen brushes were used to create the Iron Baby image seen above

The only plus to the Tombow pens is that the brush nib is very long, extremely flexible and durable. It can definitely take more pressure, allowing more control for thin to thick lines. It seems like the tips of these pens are made of a strong poly-fibre and will hold it's point much longer than the Faber Castell SB. I really like the line control with these pens, but the ink needs a lot of improvement.

Comparing the two brush pen nibs

#INKtober 2015 No.19: Batman Bat'room

For the 19th image of INKtober, I decided to do a day-in-the-life cartoon of Batman.
I believe some of the best cartoons about Batman have been the ones from the perspective of Batman doing everyday common things. And who doesn't like a little bathroom humor too?

Inktober #19: Drawn with a pen brush and colored with Photoshop

I had a little problem figuring out the composition for this cartoon. Most of this image was done in parts, so that I could move them around in Photoshop until I found the right layout that worked.

Inked version sans the type and color

It might seem simple, but much had to be considered.  The toilet needed to be seen enough to instantly know it was a toilet, all of the text had to flow a certain ways and I toned down the wackiness of Batman so that he was more simple and easily identified.

The original pencil sketch of Batman sitting on the throne

Originally I was going to add pupils to his eyes so that his eyes would direct the flow of reading the cartoon. But leaving the eyes blank seemed funnier since it creates a more brooding expression. Brooding on the toilet = more funny.