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.

Don Blake's alias

Don't know why, but this guy came out of my pen while I was procrastinating from working lately.
Funny thing is, I don't even like Thor. But he was fun to draw. Yeah, I know I didn't draw his hammer. Hammers aren't as fun to draw as people.

SUCK

I learned so much about drawing funny from illustrator Terry Colon's site. Go visit it and learn : http://www.suck.com/daily/97/11/07/
Don't let the title throw you. "SUCK" rocks. He's right on with everything he says. Plaid really is funny.

Feelin' Biblical

On break at work yesterday, I sketched this one. Threw some color on it today with Photoshop, and thought I'd share. Was feelin' kinda bad because I had to miss church to do the gig, so I guess that's why this drawing of the most famous giant of all, Goliath, came out of my hand. Also drew a David with his slingshot that I haven't colored yet. I'll try to get around to it soon, and post it as well.

Digital...Finally

Woo Hoo! Finally! I've been coloring digitally for a few years now, but I've always just taken my drawings and scanned them in to do so. I hate doing it that way, though, because it takes so much time to scan them in. Over the past few months, since I got my larger Wacom, I've started to do things here and there like touching up some of my lines, directly on the tablet. Plus, I've been doing a bit of sketching on the Wacom whenever I could (free, sketchtime is basically nonexistent with my schedule as it is these days, though).

Anyone who reads my blog will see that my first love is comic books and cartoon illustration, but many of you may not know that my "day job" is drawing caricatures. I own and operate caricature concessions where I have trained the artists, but I myself also go out and draw at parties/conventions about five nights each week, and I also get a lot of "studio commissions" from different companies and individuals to do caricatures for gifts, etc. Sometimes I get to do some fun ones that are a bit artistic, but mostly people just want a safe, cartoony drawing. I'm happy to oblige.

Anyway, last week, a big project came in that needed thirty separate caricatures, and they wanted them colored digitally and emailed to them. Well, I figured now was the time to force myself to "take the plunge". What you see here is my first ever, COMPLETELY DIGITAL, from start to finish, drawing for a client. No paper at all. Still working on getting my lines as smooth as my "paper work", but it's coming along, I think....

Agreda!

No artist should live in a vacuum. I scour the internet everyday for artistic inspiration. Every now and then, I'm going to reccommend other artists on this blog. This guy, Jose Ageda, is one of my favorites. His stuff rocks. If you haven't checked out his site yet, you have to! His colors, his cartooning, everything is just so perfect.

http://homepage.mac.com/agreda/iblog/

Brush Pens

Hey, one of the many cool things about Japan was the multitude of brush pens available. I came back with probably fifteen different kinds, for a total of probably 100 pens. I can't wait to try them all! This pic is of one of them. I found the pic on Google.