Toon Challenge: Not Exactly.

This is what was supposed to be my entry for this month's Toon Challenge over on Facebook.Unfortunately, I misread what the challenge was, and did a simple Halloween picture of a bunch of classic monsters. The challenge however, is actually supposed to be a character in a funny Halloween costume. Oh well, back to the ol' drawing board.

Rugby Playas

Here's a fun project I did recently. The client wanted four rugby players with similar poses. Each was to be a stereotype of four specific groups of people.A Tongan

A Safari Explorer

A French man,
and a Samoan.

Critters leaking out of my brain...

These are just a few of the billions and billions of things inhabiting my brain. I have to draw them in order to release them and make room for more. I could draw stuff like this all day!

Biff and Bubba

I"m not sure who's who.

Test monsters

I've always loved painting, especially watercolor painting. My retail caricatures are all colored with watercolors. I do a bit of a different technique with those however, I use the paint to fill in the areas between the lines that I've already drawn in marker, like a coloring book.

I have tons of ideas for new paintings and I want to play around with watercolor techniques I haven't done in a while. The paintings I have in mind require a softer, more textural feel, while still being cartoony. I decided to experiment with a few little monsters.

I sketched them out lightly in pencil first and then colored them in with the watercolors. I then went over the top of them here and there with markers just to accent them. I like the result, and I think it's going to look great for what I have in mind...

Blog Button Caricatures: Group Shot

I thought it would be cool to see all of the caricatures that I've done for the Blog Buttons so far in one picture.

What a motley crew!

Jett's Swim Class.

For the past few months, Jett's been going to swim class. To say it's been a challenge would be an understatement.

Toon Challenge: Retired Superhero- Final

Here's the Retired Superhero from Facebook's Toon Challenge in color.He's not supposed to be any Super Hero in particular, but the color scheme of his outfit suggests he may be a Green Bay Packers fan.

Toon Challenge: Retired Superhero-Inks

Here's the retired Super hero from yesterday, this time it's the inked version. Color coming soon!

Toon Challenge: Retired Superhero-Sketch

Over on Facebook, the Toon Challenge this month is "Retired Superhero." Here's my entry so far.

Final inks coming soon...

Toon Challenge: Punk Rock Chick- In Color

Here's my "Punk Rock Chick" for this month's Toon Challenge in color.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Toon Challenge: Punk Rock Chick

No news so far regarding the result of the Threadless Muppet Design Challenge.

In the meantime, I'm just finishing up my entry for this month's Toon Challenge competition over on Facebook. The challenge is Punk Rock Chick. Here's the line art:
I'm just finishing up the submission in color, which I'll be posting soon. Stay Tooned!

Muppets World of Friendship: Final ink

After I did my initial sketch for The Threadless Muppets Design Challenge it was time to tighten up the pencils so I could start inking. I looked at what I had so far:I liked the placement of the characters for the most part. I decided to have Kermit be faced toward the viewer with a more positive expression on his face. I knew I wanted to include Lips, and I moved him from under Thog to over by the band where he belongs. I figured I should include Bean Bunny so I stuck him next to Thog and added Beauregard. I wanted to put Walter, the new character from the upcoming Muppets movie in the piece, so I placed him next to the Jim Henson puppet. Manah Manah and the Snowths are my son Alex's favorites, so I put them above Thog on the right-hand side.

I used the Muppet Show DVDs, the Muppet Movies, a few books and the wonderful Palisades Toys line of Muppets figures as references. This is the final inked piece.


After I inked the drawing, I scanned it, vectorized it and colored it digitally. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out.
I decided to make a key so you can reference the characters by name (in case you're not sure who's who):

Now that I've outlined how I made the piece, for the next few days I'll be sharing with you why the Muppets and specifically Jim Henson are so significant to me. I'm going all the way back to the beginning of my life. You'll see why they're such an influence to my artwork, and what lies ahead.

There are only a few days left to vote for my artwork at The Threadless Muppets Design Challenge. Go ahead, give me the top score of 5. That's FIVE folks!

Muppets World of Friendship: Sketch

I had a lot of different ideas for the Threadless Muppets Design Challenge. I really wanted an image that portrayed a large number of characters. Everyone has a favorite Muppet and would want them on their shirt, so I needed to represent as many Muppet characters as possible. I pictured a big bunch of Muppets squeezed together in a big ball, like a planet.

I thought of the statues I've seen of the mythological titan Atlas, who held up the world on his mighty shoulders. I wondered what it would be like if I drew Kermit holding up a big ball of Muppets like Atlas holding up the world. I started sketching madly.

I worked completely from memory. I wanted to keep with the "classic" Muppets from the Jim Henson era with the exception of Pepe. I knew there were certain characters I absolutely HAD to put in there because of their popularity and ability to be recognized. Next I put in characters that may not be known by name by the average person, but are still very distinctive as an important member of the Muppet troupe. Finally, I put in a few of my personal, yet more obscure favorites.

This is the rough sketch I did before I began to research and tighten the final pencil drawing. You can see the differences in the final piece, where I added more characters and where I made changes and revisions.
I'll be posting more of the design process as Muppets week continues.

If you haven't voted for my design yet, please go to the Threadless Muppets Design Challenge .
Remember, the ranking goes from 1-5, with 5 being the highest so be sure to give me a 5.

The Threadless Muppets Design Challenge.

Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store. Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. Threadless has teamed up with the Muppets to create the "Muppets T-Shirt Design Challenge".

According to their website,

"The Muppets have gone from television personalities, to hit musicians, to big-time movie stars, and they’ve never let the limelight spoil their friendship. No matter what kind of trouble this zany group stumbles into, they always pull together to make it through. After more than 30 years of delivering smiles and laughter to the world, Kermit the Frog is still leading the way, Miss Piggy is still close by his side (some may say too close) and as glamorous as ever, Animal still loves his drums and the ladies, Fozzie Bear still dreams of being the world’s greatest stand-up comic bear, Gonzo is still performing his death-defying stunts, and The Electric Mayhem Band’s funky soul tracks have been serving as the soundtrack through it all. And now, the Muppets are getting ready to head back to the big screen this November in their brand-new feature film, The Muppets. Use the Muppets in your design to celebrate friendship, and you could win fame and riches fit for a frog!"

The winning design will receive:
$2500 cash
$250 Threadless gift certificate
The winning t-shirt signed by The Muppets and framed together with a signed photo of the Muppets.
Disney Traditions will provide a $250 set of collectible statues designed by Jim Shore. Statues include Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Waldorf & Statler, Animal, and Fozzie Bear.
An autographed copy of the upcoming album “MUPPETS: The Green Album”.

I have always been a HUGE fan of the Muppets. In fact, I became an artist because of Jim Henson and his creations. So I couldn't pass up the chance to enter my artwork in the competition.I call it "World of Friendship". This is my concept:

"The world of The Muppets is crazy and chaotic, with such strong and contrasting personalities that it would seem it could never be contained. Only a frog like Kermit could reign in, encourage, lift up and support this world in the truest meaning of friendship. This hand-drawn picture depicts over forty of the most famous and beloved Muppets (with some personal favorites thrown in for fun)."

Needless to say, I HAVE to win. But I can't do it without your help! Please go to:

http://disney.threadless.com/themuppets/submission/1473

Vote for my entry, and please give me a 5. You have 7 more days to vote before the competition is over, but I am obsessively checking my standings on a near-constant basis, so for my own personal well-being, please vote before it's too late.

I have declared this week "MUPPETS WEEK", so every day I will be posting about the creation of this piece and explaining the impact of the Muppets and Jim Henson on my life. I'll have some other Muppet art to show, and even share my Muppets collection with you. It's going to be Muppetational!

Project M

Got a fun little side project I'm working on, but it's success is going to involve some help from each and every one of YOU.

Details coming very soon!

Character designs: Kids

Here are a few more designs I did for the project previously mentioned. These are the first three I did for the client. I'm trying to track down all of the stages of development for the characters, but I'll post their final forms in the meantime.

Here is Charlie, Ria and Vivek.

Character Design "Teddy"

Here's a design for another character I did for an animation company before it folded. This one only made it to the initial designs. It's for Teddy, described as follows:
"Twelve year-old Teddy wears glasses. Teddy’s bookish, thoughtful, and he loves plants. He spends hours in the family garden, crossbreeding them to create new species. Teddy is a magnet for animals."

KaYAK design.

This is a semi-recent design I did for a kayak/bass fishing client. He wanted bright colors and a white kayak.
I could draw fun stuff like this all day.

Character Design: "Reese"

A few days ago, I posted about "Emma", a character design I did for an animation project. I designed several other characters as well for that same project. This one was described by the client as, "Whiny, old-man REESE, the pompous owner of a battery factory"
Once again, I provided the client with an array of designs, giving them many options to choose from.The client chose the man in the top middle. Next, I did various facial expressions of the character.

Finally, I provided the color scheme for the character as well as a turnaround.