Concept Design: Furry Pet Costumes 2016

So here are a few pet costumes I designed for PetSmart Halloween 2016. PetSmart was looking for furry creature costumes. That made me think of doing something similar to the way that Muppet-like monsters are made.

Original concept designs submitted for creating a trio of furry pet costumes for PetSmart Halloween 2016

This is an excellent example of how a product is actually created from design. Above you see my original concept art. It gives enough detail and specifics to create the items our client, PetSmart, is looking for. But as you will see below, the details are altered to reach the price point that the customer wants. So small details are eliminated, colors are modified, and the final product is usually a simplified version of the concept art.

Many designers I have worked with in the past, would take such changes personally because they'd get too personal with their work. That not the right frame of mind in this business. Your job as a designer is to bring forth ideas to help improve business and sales. If your design is too expensive to produce, at least you can provide the manufacturer enough details to work with - so that a final product can be created for the right price. It's far better to over design with more details to allow the manufacturing department to figure out how the item can be produced, shipped and sold.

I noticed these costumes weren't selling in many local PetSmart stores. These items looked great with these dog images, but PetSmart decided not to put these photos on the costumes' hangtags. Overall, these costumes looked like furry balls on hangers, which were hard to figure out how they'd look on dogs. It's a shame that they had these photos made for posters in front of the store, but decided to save a minuscule amount of money by not printing the hangtags with these same pictures. It would have been far more efficient and cost effective to do the hangtags with photos and simply drop the cost of the promotional posters in the storefront windows. 

Daily Sketch Challenge: Mr Freeze

Those familiar with this blog know I often do daily sketches for sites like Illustration Friday or events like Inktober and Goblin Week. On DeviantArt.com, there is a group of artists that draw 30-minute images based on the topics of the day. The purpose is just to exercise the creative muscles and share images for amusement.

I'm not going to do an image every day, but I will try to get involved to help hone my drawing skills. Jumping into something new and different every once in awhile can help break the normal repetitive cycle of artwork I do for a living.

Daily Sketch Challange: Mr. Freeze (42 min.)

Above is my first DSChallenge sketch for Tuesday, Jan 3rd, 2017. The Topic was Batman's foe, Mr. Freeze. One thing interesting about this character is that he appeared in the Batman comics as Mr. Zero in 1959. He was later named Mr. Freeze on the campy Batman TV show in 1966. It wasn't until over 30 years later that Freeze became immortalized as a true member of Batman's Rogues Gallery with Paul Dini's tale "Heart of Ice" from Batman: The Animated Series.

The original pencil sketch for Mr. Freeze

Daily Quick Sketch: Happy Baby New Year 2017

Whoa, it's been some time since I posted here. I still have the last week of Inktober 2016 images to post here. (Now where did I put those images? . . . )

Anyway, one of my popular images for this time of year are the Baby New Year images. So this year, I thought I revise the image to fit the times . . .

Yep, gonna be one of those years . . .

The Original Pencil Sketch

Inktober 2016: Tired (#25 of 31)

I have to confess; this is based on an image I initially drew over 3 years ago. My workload is super heavy today, and I don't have the time to create a fully thought out cartoon. I originally did this design digitally for IllustrationFriday for the word "WORN"; now it's for the Inktober Day #25 word-of-the-day "TIRED". Everything works out because I always wanted to recreate this image in ink.

Revamped version of my Darth Vader image using a brush pen and markers [for Inktober Day25 Tired]

You can see the original image and a video at this link: here. 

Inktober 2016: Dozen (#24 of 31)

WOW! Only one more week to go with Inktober 2016!!! So fast . . .
Today's Inktober word is DOZEN. I didn't want to do a sketch with 12 things draw over and over again. So I thought of the old riddle, "When is a dozen not a dozen?" -- aka Baker's Dozen.

Day24's Inktober image for the word Dozen - using a pen brush and Copic gray marker

I'll admit, this cartoon is vague and probably will annoy some people --- but the idea of a cross-eyed baker with a roundabout way of creating 13 to a dozen just made me smile.

This is also why my annoying fly character was thrown in for an added little hint at the joke. The fly character is my version of the famous old-timey sports/editorial cartoonists' small doodles that used to deliver a sidenote or added humor to the cartoon.  In my case, the character is the fly-on-the-wall who usually has a snarky comment on what's happening in the picture.

The original pencil sketch

Inktober 2016: Slow (#23 of 31)

For some reason, I immediately thought of my previous Inktober image for Day11's TRANSPORT when I saw the word for Day23 was SLOW. My thought was to have Elmer the Elf suffer again. This time Elmer has to transport back from the location, he was going to on Day11. (Apparently, there is a return policy on fairy dust.)

A callback cartoon that has Elmer the Elf having another bad day (drawn with brush pen and markers.)

For those wanting to see Elmer's prior cartoon, click here: TRANSPORT

The original pencil sketch for the word SLOW.

Inktober 2016: Little (#22 of 31)

For Inktober's Day22 the word was LITTLE.

Most of the other sketch submissions I have seen on the Internet had a small character next to a larger character. Instead, I wanted to make a cartoon in which the character's size was apparent and (hopefully) humorously ironic.

I always liked the idea that if there was life on another planet, the size proportions of that alien world would be totally different than ours. This also brought back memories of my childhood imagination that there were little creatures battling in my bowl of cereal. (Yeah, I was a weird kid.) 

Brush pen and marker sketch for Inktober day22: LITTLE
(Unfortunately, a marker ran out of ink and I had to fix the image's background digitally.)

Inktober 2016: Big (#21 of 31)

For Day21 of Inktober, the word is Big.

With "BIG", I wanted to do something more obscure than a typical popular giant. Having done a Keebler Elf cartoon recently, I recalled the Jolly Green Giant commercials of my youth. At first I thought of doing a cartoon of Santa suing the Jolly Green Giant for the phrase "Ho ho ho!" (actually part of the commercial jingle.)

Ink and Marker image for Inktober 2016's Day21 Big

But after looking up reference images for the giant, I noticed that his leaf tunic was extremely short -- shorter than most skirts you'd see on a fashion runway! This made me laugh at the idea of this towering figure standing over the town folk (and Little Sprout) -- what a disturbing view that must have been.

Original pencil sketch

Inktober 2016: Squeeze (#20 of 31)

This one's showing my age. Day20 for Inktober and the word is SQUEEZE.

My generation grew up on Looney Tunes cartoons, by far the funniest and best quality cartoons on television at that time. Today, I have no idea if children watch any of these classic cartoons anymore, especially when most of them have been edited, censored or banned.

Inktober Day20 "Squeeze", using a Tombow brush pen and Copic markers

"Squeeze" reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon characters as a kid, Hugo the Abominable Snowman. Hugo was only in a few cartoons, but he was such a great goofy character; (basically a tribute to the novel "Of Mice and Men.) Anyone who remembers Hugo, remembers his phrases . . . that's what inspired this cartoon.

Original pencil sketch of "Squeeze"

Inktober 2016: Flight (#19 of 31)

Ever notice how Hollywood usually portrays an angel as a neatly dressed, well-mannered, good looking and nearly perfect person with wings? Hollywood, cartoons and historical painters have really helped to distort what real angels are from the bible.

Angels in the bible are not good humans who get their wings when they arrive at heaven's gate. Angels are powerful spiritual beings who do the bidding of God. When angels show up, it's usually not a good time at all.

So I was thinking . . . for the people who believe they get wings when they go to heaven - what would they really look like? Basically, they would still look and be themselves, right? And if that said person loved smoking and drinking beer . . . well he/she would get to do that while in heaven too, right? (Otherwise, it just wouldn't be heaven.)

Realistic angel inked and shaded using a black brush pen and Copic gray markers