Sunday, September 22, 2013

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


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

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?

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

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.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

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! ]

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

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


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Library Book Reading: South River Public Library

Getting ready for the reading at South River Library.

Attached is the promotional flyer. Please help spread the word . . . 

South River Public Library is located: 
55 Appleby Avenue
South River, NJ 08882
Contact: Dawn Bladzinski 732-254-2488 registration@southriverlibrary.org


Saturday, August 3, 2013

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)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The sequel: Bobby's Ginormous Jelly

Already getting a little overwhelmed that its already past mid-summer and I need to get the sequel finished in the next few weeks. I'll have a few days of vacation to focus on getting the work done.
Being to promo the new sequel book due this fall.
Hope to have it all done in time to have something to show for library book readings like the one in South River, NJ on Aug 12th and especially for the Collingswood Book Festival in NJ this Oct. 5th.
I'll be sure to post more info here as thing move along.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Product Design: Robot Basket

Few people asked me what I do for a living.
I'm a Creative Director under my own company name (Arrrggghhh Ink LLC) and I work exclusively for a company in China. I help design and create fabricated textile products, which is a fancy way to say I design toys, costumes, pet and novelty items.

I can not usually show my work online, because many items are exclusively made for major retail stores like Target, PetSmart and Wal-Mart. We would not be a leading company today if we didn't secure our designs from the general public (and our competitors.)


Attached is a design I did several years ago. It was a robot design for an Easter Basket. Usually I sketch out and color a design. I then add bits of detail information to help explain the look and materials for the prototype designers in China. The team in China are usually so talented, that there is rarely a time I need to do turn-arounds or sketch from another point of view for them to design a prototype.

A Robot Easter Basket design that was too costly to make

This particular design came out very well as a  prototype, but unfortunately the design's cost caused it to be too expensive to make for the retail market. This is the part that many people do not realize about designing products: Not only does the product need to look and fell good, but you are limited to what you can design because of pricing.
This becomes even more of a challenge in a bad economy.

The original concept design including text directions on the design.

In a bad economy, retail prices tend to stay the same or go lower. But the cost of labor, material goods and shipping do not stay the same. So what most retailers do during bad times? They find cheaper alternative/substitute solutions -- without giving up too much quality to the product.

Personally, when I design, I think of things I would have enjoyed as a child. I still want to see this being sold in retail stores one day. Maybe if/when the economy gets better . . .

Monday, July 8, 2013

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.