Class FINAL

Here they are, all of the characters, including Gary, in their final incarnations. You can see, the client eventually went witht he Asian Gary I preferred. I really loved doing this project, as it is the kind of cartoon illustration I want to do more of. Even thought the Gary design, in particular, was a bear, going back and forth a bit, the client turned out to be a real pleasure to work with. I can't wait to see what they do with these little guys!

Big Group

Besides the Class thing, and tons of events I've drawn at lately, this has been my big time consumer lately. Yes, there are 26 (!) people in this one. About half of the faces were drawn digitally, the rest drawn traditionally and scanned in. Of course, it was all colored digitally,a nd will be emailed out to the client.

Now I gotta start on the 68 people group......

Class 6

Believe it or not...the client LOVED my "throwaway" idea of making Gary Asian! Go figure! He even decided to change the character's name to Ming, to reflect the new look! I was against this name change, however, as it reminded me of Ming the Merciless, from Flash Gordon. But, hey, it's not my character...it's the client's, right? Regardless, I still refer to him as Gary, just 'cuz I like it better. Anyway, the one drawback to this "Asian Gary", the client felt, was the eyes I'd given him. OR lack thereof. He thought it might come across as racist. So, he ordered a sketch of Gary with pupils showing. I also changed his nose a bit, to reflect his Asian look. I really liked version seven, with the small eyes, but waited to hear what the client thought....

Class 5

I finally finished this project for the client, and all turned out well. However, there's a lot I haven't told you about the design process, still, since I've been so busy with everything lately. Let's try to catch you up over the next few days or so on Gary. The next stage in character design for Gary was that the client asked to see him now without glasses. Remember, the original request was that he be overweight, with glasses and braces, dressed very nerdy. JUST like Carl from Jimmy Neutron, remember (see earlier Class posts). Now, he's skinny, no braces, and no glasses. By this point I was so confused as to what my client wanted (remember, though, he is a very nice guy and has been paying a small fee for each of these revisions), and was really upset that now Gary was truly looking like Alfalfa. I'd went from a Carl ripoff to an Alfalfa rip off. On a whim, I just said to heck with it and threw in another, unasked for sketch that went in yet ANOTHER totally different direction....I decided to let him see what Gary might look like if he were Asian....

TO BE CONTINUED......