New Live Gig pics

I've been working a lot of gigs lately, so here's some pics from them that I liked. Sorry about the weird colors...my light on my easel casts a yellow tint to everything, and then I have to try to color correct it all in photoshop when I download from the camera. I don't draw on blue or gray paper or anything...but I DO shade in with gray markers. Interesting, as I post these, I notice they're in three distinctly different styles, yet were all done the same week. The guy sitting, and the coffee guy were from the same gig, even. I tend to do that...switching styles rapidly, depending on the face. It's something my buddy, Joe Bluhm, and I used to do when we worked gigs together back in the good old days..whatever style we thought we could best "capture" the person in, that's the style we used. Really kept us on our toes, so we didn't fall into "generics"....

Old Man Winter

Yeah, yeah, I know most of the US would LOVE to have 51 degrees and sunshine in the afternoon right now, but to us Floridians, it's FREAKIN' COLD!!!! So, in honor of that, I went and found this piece I did for a client back in December. Wanted to post it then, but was too slammed at the time (that's also why there were few if any updates here for a few months!). Anyway, here's "Old MAn Winter".....

Lunartics!

Once upon a time, my wife and I, and good buddy Ted Tucker, self published a comic book named "Lunar Donut". We learned a lot on that book, and were doing pretty well with it, getting fairly well known in the small press comics industry. As "known" as you could back then, in that industry, anyway. Life and the caricature business got too busy to continue publishing it, though. My how to draw Caricatures book is published through the Lunar Donut Press imprint so it's not really dead, after all, I guess. We might even resurrect the comics someday again, you never know.

Anyway, while Barbie and I were going through photo albums last night, we found this old publicity shot for Lunar Donut, that we used to run in the inside cover of the issues. This was about eleven years ago, to my reckoning. We thought you all might want to see it:

Stripes Guy

Another one from a recent live event. This guy was a lot of fun to draw and talk with. He got drawn by all three artists at the event, I believe. We call that being a "collector".

I like drawing stripes and patterns. Now, I personally, don't wear HORIZONTAL stripes.....

Brady's 1st Gig

Well, we all knew it was going to happen. Just HOW SOON we didn't know! The other night at my 40th birthday get together, we mentioned to my eight year old daughter Brady how, since there were no other kids, she coudl set up and draw caricatures if she wanted...even put out a tip jar! Her eyes got big as saucers, and she ran over to the easel we had set up. She didnt' stop for hours! Here's a shot of her at work.

Oh yeah...the tips? She made $70!!!!

Let's Toon!

Yeah, I changed the name of my blog. So?

I figured I'd try this one out for awhile....

That's an artist for ya, always changin' stuff, never satisfied...

Earring guy LIVE

So, now that the Bday is over, it's time to get back to some artwork. This was from a live gig a month or two ago. Another in my newer, "non-balloon head" style.

Yum...

German Chocolate Birthday cake rocks.....

40!

Well, it's my birthday today, the big 4-0. Yikes. Birthdays usually never phase me, but this one seems momentous, for some reason. I know it shouldn't, it's just a number. "You're only as old as you feel", yada yada yada....I know that. Plus, to be honest, I feel better than I have in years. So, it's all good.

Still SOUNDS pretty old, though.

I may be getting older, but I refuse to get OLD! I am a very blessed man with a beautiful wife I love more than ever, and two sweet, beautiful daughters.

This weekend my lovely bride threw me a party here at the house with a few friends over for poker, pool, and a little karaoke. It was a great time. Here's a pic of us being serenaded by Jeremy and Shalisa James, close friends and famous acapella singers (ToxicAudio.com....check em out!).

Live Work

Here's a guy I drew awhile back on a live gig. I am enjoying doing these "proportional" sketches. Well, obviously they're not REALLY proportional. But, what I mean is, these are more animation "character design" type caricatures, rather than the classic quick sketch "balloon heads". These are more inspired by the work of many character designers I like, especially my buddy, Steve Silver. I'm having fun with them...

Working Out

It's funny. Ya know, drawing my Funny Faces autobio strips for the NCN's Exagerrated Features magazine (and a comic book compilation one day, I promise!), I have to draw myself a lot. Without even realizing it, I tend to draw myself in whatever shape I am in at the time. In some of the older strips, I drew myself more "normally" proportioned, even with an occassional "bump around the middle", and a slightly rounder face. These days, I noticed, I am drawing myself a bit more buff. It's a subconscious thing, really. I am just drawing myself how I see myself in the mirror, I guess. I mean, sure, I draw myself a little better looking than I really am....what artist doesn't? But, overall, my "comic self" does reflect the changes in my real self, if somewhat idealized and exagerrated. The point is, yes, I have been getting back into shape. THAT'S why the drawings of me in the strips are changing. In the photos above, you can even see the changes. The one on the left, with my beautiful wife, Barbie, is fairly recent. Sorry for the "pucker face". It was late, and the karaoke bar was smoky. In the one on the right, though, I am the round faced, happy guy in the Santa hat. Yeah, changed a bit, huh?

Anyway, I thought I'd talk a bit about working out, my experiences. Maybe it'll help someone else out there....


I used to work out... a LOT. 2 hours in the morning before classes, and then 1-2 hours at night after classes, while in college. My original goal in life (don't laugh), was to be Mr. Olympia. But I always liked all of the older, more "natural" bodybuilders like Steve Reeves. When my workout partner starting taking 'roids (he went on and became a competitive bodybuilder), he and I parted ways. No "russian roulette" with my body for me, thanks. So, I started doing lighter weights, got smaller, and went into modeling for awhile. Hated it (but at least I met my wife through it), and it really messed up all of those years of working out. Seriously.I was too big to model, at first. I had to go from a size 48 jacket down to a 38. I gain muscle size pretty easily (least I did back then), so I felt like if I even walked into a gym, I got bigger! So, I got out of the gym, and started walking/moderate running, and STARVING myself. That worked, and I got the size I needed to be. But I HATED walking. Hated starving even more.

Once I started doing caricatures, I made enough money to not have to starve, and was sitting on my butt all day drawing, like all of us. So, over the years, I saw my muscle mass atrophy more and more, and my waist size slowly creep up. Did get back into shape about ten years ago, through walking again, so I could model a bit again (thought maybe I'd like it more this time). That didn't last long. I like to draw WAY more than I like to stand in front of a stupid camera and suck in my cheeks and gut.

A few years later, through the NCN, I met Tom Richmond (of MAD magazine fame). Little did I know at the time that he would become one of my closest friends. After a year or two of knowing Tom, he told me how he'd started working out again. That's good, I thought, but I don't need to do that. I still considered myself to be in above average shape. Soon, though, I was impressed by his transformation. He got REALLY buff. Okay, I thought, well, I'll do that someday.Then we went on vacation to Hawaii with Tom and Anna. NO WAY was I taking my shirt off on the beach next to him. I still retained some of my chest and arms from the old days, but I lost any semblance of abs long ago! I started the Atkins diet when we got home! It worked pretty well, but I found it hard to stay on. Pretty soon, I gained back most of what I lost.

Here's a funny story for you- after Hawaii, on a family trip to visit the Richmonds up in Minnesota, Tom took me to his gym one morning, to work out with him. After being a gym rat for so long when I was younger, I know my way around a gym, so I wasn't TOO intimidated. UNTIL Tom wanted me to "spot" him on the bench press. Now, if memory serves correctly, Tom decided to "up" his max this day. Somewhere above 300 lbs. I was a bit concerned with spotting that much, since it had been many, many years since I had "spotted" anyone or benched that much myself. But I figured maybe I'd be okay. I was most worried about throwing my back out if I had to "help" him at all. Surely he wouldn't ask me to spot him if he didn't think I could do it, though. And he certainly looked like HE could bench it. WELL....it didn't turn out that way. That barbell went down like a locomotive! STRAIGHT down! On Tom's face! I felt SOOO bad! Blood was shooting from his lip. We had a tough time explaining that to the wives when we got back. It was honestly probably a little too heavy for him (at the time..that was a couple of years ago), but man, did I feel like a wimp!

Then, lo and behold, a couple of years passed, and I got a notice in the mail about my 20 year high school reunion. I HAD to get into shape now. In my late 30s, with the 40s looming, I figured this might be my last chance. At that time I wore size 36 pants. And, to be honest, there wasn't a lot of extra room. Size 38 didn't seem far away. About six months before the reunion, I went back into the gym. And I went back on Atkins. It worked pretty well, but was hard to keep up. I wanted to be lazy, as I had been for years!
Just when I was starting to waver, getting less motivated, I went to the San Diego ComicCon...with Tom Richmond. Inspired again after seeing him and talking to him that weekend, I hit the gym hard when I got back home. And I continued. Right up to this day. The reunion went great, and I was in tmy best shape in years. I didoverdo it in the gym a bit later and hurt my back for a few months, and that set me back, but it's healed up now (after months in rehab and chiropractor offices). I had two personal trainers after that (both wer lousy, in their own ways), to get me motivated to keep on. Eventually I realized I didn't need a trainer though....I am, for the first time since college, addicted to the gym. I give myself plenty of rest between workouts (you "recharge to get large"), but I eagerly look forward to every workout.


I enjoy being in better shape now. My goals now are a bit more realistic than being Mr. Olympia! I want to be in good shape and energetic as I grow older (I turn 40 on February 5th), and be able to catch not only my kids ( an 8 year old and a 6 month old), but also THEIR kids one day. I think I finally woke up, and reversed the downward spiral. Just in time. I am stronger, more energetic, than I've been in years. I can walk up the stairs in my home without getting winded, work in the yard without hurting my back, and lift and move stuff (like boxes of paper for our retail locations) like I haven't been able to in a decade. Plus, I even see the benefits when I am sitting down drawing. My posture is better, making my back hurt less, and my shoulders don't bother me as much. I'm still working on seeing some abs again (one day, maybe), but my clothes sizes have changed dramatically. I've really only lost about twenty pounds since that Hawaii trip four or five years ago, but in gaining muscle and losing fat, I've went from an XL shirt down to a medium, and "no extra room" size 36 pants down to size 31. I still need to work on my diet, getting it more healthy (I love pizza,burgers and wine), but I am doing it, making the changes slowly. Like someone else here said, you can't diet, per se. You have to make it a lifestyle change. That's what I'm after. Long term changes, long term benefits. I didn't get out of shape overnight, and I'm not getting into shape overnight.

Listen, if you want to get back into shape, you can do it. Just eat sensibly (not Atkins, I learned....South Beach is a lot "saner"), and get out and MOVE.
Most people who know me know I LIVE TO READ. Reading, gaining knowledge, is my passion. I got a great book a few months back that is probably the sanest, easiest to follow adivce on working out and dieting that I've ever read. I reccommend it for anyone interested in getting into shape. Whether it's just losing fat, or gaining muscle, or both. Most everything Tom has said in his previous posts here is in this book: "Men's Body Sculpting" by Nick Evans. I'm working out from it myself!

Hope all of my rambling helps someone.

PS...I don't wanna sound mushy, but I don't know if I would've done any of this without Tom's inspiration, and advice. Thanks, buddy.

Everything you ever need to learn about Cartooning

It's all here, in this book. Seriously. Hank Ketcham was a genius.

RED!!!

Cool, just updated my Blog template capabilities. Chose this really obnoxious red. Don't worry, I'll probably tire of it soon, so you eyeballs won't hurt for long....

Tragic!

A good friend of mine (Michael Duron-check his stuff out on my links to the right) is doing a comic book soon and asked me to do a pinup of his characters for him so he could put it in the book. Here it is...I had a lot of fun doing it. Now I just hope everything goes well so he can get it out in time for the Megacon in Orlando next month!

Merry Christmas!

Today's my favorite day of the year. Spending time with family, and celebrating the birth of my Lord, Jesus Christ...wow, I love Christmas! Here's to you and yours...may God Bless you all!

Yeti

Yes, the rumors I true. When my good buddy and MAD illustrator Tom Richmond was in town two weeks ago, I did, indeed, get talked into riding "Everest". Hated it. But I always hate rides like that. However, the Yeti on the ride ( the silhouetted one in the beginning, not the end one, cause I was closing my eyes, screaming like a little girl, and rededicating my life to God by then), was GREAT! So, in honor of my having ridden Everest for the first and last time, this week's challenge over at my CC Blog is the Yeti! I've already contributed a few of them, but this one is my fave. Looks a bit like Illustraotr again, but I was playing with vectors in Photoshop this time. Could've spent more time to "finish" this one, but felt like drawing it quickly this time around. MAybe I'll finish later.

Trick or Treat!

On the blog for my caricature concession company (my "real job"), Caricature Connection, we've started a weekly challenge for all of the artists. So far, unfortunately, there's not a lot of participation. I'm hoping that changes. I am going to occasionally post some of my challenge entries over here as well, to share them with you guys. I hope you like them. This first one is from this week's challenge, Trick or Treat. I've been reading Amid Amidi's amazing book, CARTOON MODERN, and was inspired by it to do something very design oriented. I thought it might be fun to show you the stages I went through here for this piece. In my continuing quest to be able to be "paperless", I drew this all digitally, on the Wacom. The first sketch (the one on the bottom) was in Photoshop, then I colored it. Then, to try another style, I colored over my lines (this is the middle one). I liked it, but it still looked rough to me. So, I imported it into Illustrator as a template, and traced over it with MANY, MANY layers. I think about thirty of them! It was a lot of work this way (surely there's an easier method?), but I really kind of like the final piece.

McDrawing 1

One of the highlights for me of the recent NCN con was the seminar by my good friend Steve Silver, character designer of TV's Kim Possible (and other shows). He talked a lot about keeping a sketchbook, drawing from life, yet cartooning it. I'd already been doing that to a degree, inspired by talks with him, both at the cons and privately, over the years. Since the con, though, I've been sketching like crazy. I don't eat out as much as I used to, since I've been working out the past few months, but I do eat out more than most people, I'd guess (it's more quiet and peaceful than eating at home, with a two month old here). So, whenever I'm out, I've been taking in my sketchbook. And it's been helping.

You know, I've been working a lot at gigs as usual, and stay very busy with freelance still, but I ALWAYS make time to practice and to study my craft. I recommend it to all artists. Ted and I talk about this a lot. We don't just draw while we're on the job. We eat it, sleep it, etc. I, and Ted in turn, learned this from people like Silver and Tom Richmond, both of whom are insanely talented and very successful in their fields. Also from Joe Bluhm, who is also insanely talented and whose crazy success is coming...he's still young. I feel privileged to have people like them who are my inspirations, whom I can also call friends. Swimmers swim. Weightlifters lift weights. Runners run. Accountants..uh..count. You get the picture. Drawers, I mean..ARTISTS, draw.

Okay, enough soapbox. You get what I'm saying. Anyway...here's a recent drawing from a fine dining establishment I frequent that I like to call McDonald's.....

Savage!!!

I always loved all the pulp hereoes as a kid...Tarzan, The Shadow, and DOC SAVAGE, the MAN OF BRONZE! Here's a sketch from one of my sketchbooks last year that I colored in Photoshop tonight, just playing around.

Mighty 1

Another character, from a story I've been tinkering with for, oh, about TWENTY years.....Maybe he and his story will see the light of day one of these decades...
Yeah, I know, a little bit darker style than I usually do. It's fun to change gears every once in awhile. These are all just bascially quick sketches, with some grays added in Photoshop. They're rough like sketches, but I kinda dig 'em that way.
I think the rough, dark, scratchy style kinda makes sense for the story. Yes, there's even a cyclops in it. Man, I wish I had time to do this story justice....

Running Super

One of my funny superheroes I've been playing around with developing for a few years now....
Just a quickie sketchbook sketch with some Photoshop color thrown on. About all I have time for right now. There's some cool lines and "Flow" here in his body, I think.

Hulk

I love drawin' superheroes...

Brady Shake

I drew this one of Brady at "Five Guys' Burgers and Fries" yesterday .She's drinking a Huge milkshake. That's a supercool "Omnitrix" bracelet from the supercool cartoon "Ben 10" that she's wearing. We were on our way to a local comic book show (where we saw Thomas! He and Barry and Jenni were displaying all their incredible looking books and showing off the amazing product they're producing through their printing biz), when we grabbed a bite to eat together here. Oh yeah, she's got her Batman Tshirt on too, but it's not quite visible. Yeah, she's definitely my kid....the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. A true comic geek already. Just a whole HECKUVA lot cuter than me. (thank God she takes after her Mommy). Anyway, I kinda liked how it turned out, so I thought I'd share. Just a rough sketch....

Funny Faces Comic

Anybody who knows me knows that comic books have always been my first love. When I was a kid, I dreamed of drawing Batman, Superman, all the big guns for Marvel and DC. As I got older, though, I decided I really only wanted to do my own characters. My good friend Ted Tucker and I even used to self publish our own book, Lunar Donut, many years ago so we could do that kind of thing. The book was doing pretty well, for a small press title, until real life set in, and we went back to our "day jobs" of drawing caricatures. But I'm still the biggest comic fan you're likely to meet.

For the past few years I've been very involved in the National Caricaturist Network, and have written and drawn an autobiographical strip (another love of mine) for their magazine, Exaggerated Features. the strip is entitled "Funny Faces". Sound familiar? After a few years of this, I have enough pages in the can that I'm thinking of printing up a comic of all my strips so far.
Here is a very loose mock up of a cover idea. Input appreciated. I'm about 85% sure I'm going to do this soon. Just a little concerned of being stuck with more boxes of comics in my garage...Lunar Donuts have been in there for years.....

Brady Number Fun

My daughter, Brady, did this sketch today, and I thought I'd share. She tells me it's of a line of people waiting at a movie theater concession stand. There's a lot going on here, and it takes a minute to look at, to appreciate it all. What impressed me was that there were people of varying heights, varying races, and varying clothing and hairstyles. Plus, there's some really good hands here. Not to mention that there's background! There's a checkered floor, a counter with a cash register on it, a movie marquee with times on it above their heads, and way in the back (perspective!), there's an arcade with a driving game in it. Good grief! I don't do backgrounds NOW half of the time. And she's not even EIGHT yet!
Keep reading, though, because this gets weirder.

David Cowles, a friend and huge inspiration of mine(www.davidcowles.net), was in town with his daughter a few weeks ago to see Disney. We had dinner with them one night, and Brady bonded with them over a game of "number fun", drawing on the "To Go" bag as we waited for our check. What you do is someone draws a number, and gives it to the next person, who has to figure out how to make it into a drawing. I was surprised that Brady was holding her own with them. At the end of the meal, David promised Brady to send her some "Numbers Homework" in the mail. True to his word, a few days later, a small sketchbook arrived in the mail, each page with a different number on it. Some were easy, but some were pretty hard...like the number "seventeen"...SPELLED out. I was impressed again with Brady's creativity, and she did about half of the book in one sitting (she'll finish it soon, David, and we'll send you some of the drawings!). SO....I decided to give her a project of my own. We have a "Summer Fun Sketchbook" that we're keeping this year, and I gave her some "Number Fun" pages to do in it. This drawing of the crowd at a movie concession? It started out as the number "Fourteen". See here for yourself:

Here it is again, superimposed over the final image:
I was impressed with the drawing itself, for the reasons I pointed out, but now I was speechless. I have no idea how she came up with all of this. Wow

More Travel!

Here's one from the latest batch of the TravelSlut drawings. She's put this character I designed on business cards, stamps, all kinds of stuff now. And the websit's soon to follow. It's cool when a great client really likes your work and runs with it, using it like this.

Super!

I LOVED this movie! Is it perfect? No. Is Routh as good as Reeve in the part? No. However, all in all, this is a really good film. Not as good as I would like, but much better than I had hoped for. I really thought they were gonna butcher it. But Bryan Singer has created a great film, and a fitting homage to the first two Superman movies from the 70s. Please, if you haven't see this film yet, go see it NOW! And if you have, go see it AGAIN! We can't let something like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 beat it at the box office.

Bride

Same client as the Silhouette Girl above. This one of a bride. I am experimenting with the colored lines technique. Kinda like it. Everything's so girly and pink about these drawings. But that's okay...I'm secure in my heterosexuality. And, oh yeah, I DO realize this one looks like the "Teacher" character from the educational products company, with just slightly different proportions. Well, she recently got married, is all! Now the kids will have to call her by her new name.

Ah, I figured they were different clients, different markets, so I decided to use my default pretty blonde girl again. Actually, if you've ever seen my wife, this looks like a cartoon version of her alot, ao that must be where that "template" comes from in my head.

Silhouette Girl

Just wanted to see if this thing still worked! Been awhile since I posted. This is a simple job I've been working on, some spot illos for a repeat client. She had a clip art of this kind of thing, a girl walking her dog, (the bottome one, with the pink around it) and wanted me to redesign it, with my own flair. Mine is the larger one, with the cell phone. Yes, I know it's"Barbie-esque". That fits in with the client's corporate image.

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......

McD's

Tonight, I remembered to take my sketchbook with me when I ate out. Finally! Brady (my daughter...you know that) and I walked in, and there were three obnoxious teen boys ordering in front of us, at McDonald's. I still don't understand why, exactly, but one of them had a guitar with him. Goofing around, he was just wildly strumming on the thing, making up nonsensical lyrics...while I was trying to order our food. Grrr. I did say something to him, since I couldn't hear myself think over his "playing", and he did apologize and tone it down. But, the entire time we were there, he and his three friends passed the guitar around and "played". I guess they were just being silly...I looked, and there were no teen girls they were trying to impress. Maybe they were high, come to think of it. Anyway, weird scene. I drew one of them, shown here, very quickly in my sketchbook, and when I got home just now threw some Photoshop color on it.

I'll try to remember my sketchbook more...

Brady's Blog

For any of you who know me, my daughter, Brady, is the apple of my eye. She was born with lots of orthopedic issues, most of which she has overcome (thanks to lots of doctor's visits, surgeries, and mostly prayer). For that reason, she's never been able to run around and play as much as "normal" (hate that word) kids. But, man, can she draw. She's got a real cartoonist's eye, talent, and sense of humor. She says she's gonna take over the family business one day and draw caricatures like Daddy. So, fairly regularly, she and I do training exercises together. I have set up a new Blog for just her artwork. Check it out sometime.
bradyparham.blogspot.com

This is her drawing of National Caricaturist Network luminary and good friend, Joe Bluhm.

From recent Gigs

Here's a pic from a recent gig I did.

Digital Painting

The latest results of me playing around with my wacom and practicing painting digitally. Not finished, but coming along....

Man, I look mean here....I'm really not mean, I'm just drawn that way!

TravelSlut

Okay, let's take a quick break from the Class project. No more kid drawings today...only slut drawings. Yep, TravelSlut. That's this lady's business name. She wears enormous wigs like this, and she wanted a cartoon of herself done in this persona, to use on cards, website, etc. This client, despite her unusual business name, was a lot of fun to work with...no fuss, and loved the drawings I gave her. I need more clients like that! I like that I'm getting more and more of this kind of stuff, more pure cartooning and character design work. I'm gonna have to do a MAJOR revamp of my personal website soon to reflect this.

Class 4

First, before the "skinny Gary", the client wanted to see a 3/4 view of "Fat Gary", so here's that one. I think it turned out pretty well. Not sure why Gary is such a sticking point with these guys, but oh well! Beside him, you'll see my "Skinny Gary". Or, as I prefer to think of him, "Gastric Bypass Surgery Gary".

Or Alfalfa from "The Little Rascals". Whichever one you like.

Class 3

So, when they got the "African American Gary", they decided that although they liked the race change for SOMEONE in their cast of characters, they didn't like it for Gary. They then emphasized how they REALLY liked the original version they sent. Which was, of course, Carl from Jimmy Neutron. They explained how he was perfect, from the funny hair, to the big glasses, to the freckles, etc. So, basically, they still want Carl. So, my dilemma became "How do I give them Carl WITHOUT giving them Carl?" After playing around for awhile, I sent through these sketches. The first is basically Carl, but with Alfalfa from "The Little Rascals"s, hair. On the second one, I tried to change it up just a bit, and pushed the shapes more, making him more graphically strong. On the third one I did that even more, but really went far away from Carl. All in all, the second one was my favorite. It was the client's as well.

Until he showed his wife. Now, they want to see a skinny version of "Gary/Carl".

See, isn't character design fun?

Class2

So, I was thinking, how can I make this character look like Carl, but NOT make him look like Carl?
I got to looking at their character breakdowns, and realized that all the characters were white. Wait a minute....that's not realistic, I thought. So, I made the character, Gary, black. I thought he turned out quite well, actually.


To be continued....

Class 1

So, I've been doing some character design for an educational company lately. They're really cool, and seem to really dig my stuff. I'm coming up with a teacher and four kids for them. I hate when clients contact me who have NO idea what they're looking for. However, these guys may have had too good of an idea. Anyone recofnize the image above? Yes, it's Carl from "Jimmy Neutron". Well, they wanted one fo their characters to look like him. Okay, THAT's a problem, I thought....

To be continued next post....

Batsam

This is of a friend of mine from the NCN. Just felt like doing a quicksketch of her while I warmed up today. Kinda like the punk rock girl thing.