GO, GO, POWER RANGERS! More sketch art...

Here's some more Power Ranger sketches for the main three Rangers that I'm mostly drawing. The Red, Yellow and Blue Rangers are the main Rangers for the Jungle Fury show and they're pretty cool in their design so I'm glad I have a chance to work on this material than the previous incarnations of the Power Rangers where I though the costumes were less than interesting. These sketches, as the other PR art I've posted here thus far, are what I submit and wait for approvals from Disney before I do the final art. These poses will be in the Jungle Fury style guide when finished and also the poses will be used in the second storybook I'm doing as well, so I'm doing as many poses as I can to keep the look fresh without reusing art over and over and it's nice having enough cool action poses and static poses of them just standing heroically to do more with for a layout.

As an aside, that's one of the things I hated about the Bratz work I did in 2004 was that the poses and character art were so limited in the beginning that they were reusing and flipping the art to get the maximum use out of every piece of art and it got really boring seeing the same exact art used all the time. Luckily they got new art for the Bratz during the second year of licensing but the first year was brutal. I wonder what the Bratz fans thought though...

ED, EDD N EDDY are back again!

Here are three more sketches of the boys I did. All on cheap copy paper and inked with a Pitt Brush Marker. I'll add some colored Eds stuff this coming week.

Yikes! What a busy week of work it is! Plus, I'm working this weekend. I'll be done the Power Rangers layouts today and then I got to do the layout for DCM's editorial, and still have to color my Alfie cartoon for it. I'm the busiest now that I've been in a while. Next week, I start the Scooby gig for overseas and get to the design of a logo for an appliance/home center. I got offered two new jobs yesterday that I had to turn down simply because I'm too jammed up.

Even More ED, EDD N EDDY!

I'm sitting here waiting for some files to download from an FTP so I thought I'd post some more Eds' art while I wait. Here are some portrait style Ed, Edd n Eddy sketches I drew. Enjoy! I'll throw up some color Eds stuff soon...

More ED, EDD N EDDY! The boys are back!

Here's more Ed, Edd n Eddy for ya! The boys were all drawn on cheap copy paper and inked with a Pitt Brush Marker. The inking style for the Eds might look like a sloppy, fast, loose style that is easy to create, when in fact, it is harder to do than one might think. It took me quite a few tries to get it down and these sketches are kinda how I warm up before I ink something officially for it. I have pencils sketches I have predrawn and before I ink, say a comic book story with the Eds, I ink four or five of these prelim sketches to get my hand, and more importantly, my head into the Eds' style. From that I can then burn right through the job. As always, you can click on them to get a bigger view! Enjoy!

THE BATMAN!

Here's four Batman sketches based on the current cartoon series, The Batman, and I did these just for fun. I followed the old Wally Wood art theory of "When in doubt, black it out" so I kept him draped in his cape so I wouldn't have to draw his body. It's a quick cheat though there is still the matter of getting his face and broad shoulders on model. I'll do some more DC heroes in full poses soon. This first one I inked fast and like the Smurfette one I posted on Wednesday, I dropped some quick color on it in Photoshop to make it pop a bit. The second was drawn with a number two pencil and the last two were drawn with a charcoal pencil and ink. Enjoy!

It's a SMURFY day! - in Full Color!

Here's a 25-minute warm up sketch of Smurfette that I drew this morning and I was going to post it just as a black and white piece, but I decided after lunch to color it in Photoshop and drop some flat color on it real quick just to make it pop. Luckily I was able to tweak the scan so that the sketch lines underneath the inks didn't show. Enjoy!

New Neely News...or a busy week of creating art!

In other news here, it's a busy, busy week! I got a lot going on which I have to get cracking on:

1) The second Power Rangers Jungle Fury storybook, which I've got 4 spreads left to draw and layout, to be finished up so that it can go out for approvals and then I can start doing the final art and the coloring part.

2) A Scooby-Doo project for Sweden! I'll write more about this soon!

3) A photo print for buddy voice actor Scott Innes and all the animated characters he voices. I have to take Scott's photo and draw all the characters he's done and place them all around him. I've drawn 20 of the main characters that are the most popular that Scott has voiced. Now I have to scan them and lay them out in some way to make it work as a design. Then when approved as a rough, I'll do the final character art.

4) A radio station mascot character, which I created and I'll share soon, cover sketch for a promotional coloring book.

5) A logo/letterhead/envelope graphic design for an appliance/home center in Delaware, which I have to go see on Wednesday to take some photos which may be incorporated into the final design.

6) A new Alfie comic strip and the layout of editorial for the new issue of DCM which is going to press on Sunday at 5pm!

Yikes! That's a lot! But always better to have more than a little! Back to the drawing board!

Jimmy Neutron!

Here's a sketch of Jimmy Neutron I did a ways back for a sample to pitch in terms of maybe getting work drawing Jimmy. Sketched in purple colored pencil on art pad paper.

BLUE'S CLUES!

Here's some pieces from my original Blue's Clues audition for Nick I did years ago. These were done after the first guy who starred with Blue left the show and they had his replacement come on to take over. I think his name was Joe, but I can't remember now. The show did take a hit ratings wise with the new guy since everyone loved the original more. At any rate these sketches were pencilled out in purple colored pencil on cheap art pad paper and then approved by Nick after one round of changes I had to do for them. They then get scanned into the computer and started in Adobe Illustrator where everything is built and then it gets pasted into Adobe Photoshop where the individual textures are then dropped into the characters.

It's hard work but if you know the software it can be done rather quickly. I built up great speed working in Adobe Illustrator when I was deep into work for Strawberry Shortcake. The main reason that a lot of work has gone digital is that you lose the individual characteristics of an artist when he inks or creates a piece by hand. Corporations who have brands like Disney, Nick, and the WB need all the art to look like one person did it, when in reality 30 artists may have worked on it. The computer end of it all keeps the consistency which is very important in maintaining the style of a licensed property.

Working on the Blue's Clues stuff, I still have my "How To" book, which teaches the artist how to label their layers and generally how to create the characters in the computer. It makes it easier to change things when every artist labels his files and has all his layers set up like everyone else.

I got my eye on you...

Here's an eyeball for fun where I created the black spikey part of the Iris in Adobe Illustrator and then pasted the paths into Adobe Photoshop and did the rest with gradients.

American Dental Association art job ...Remember to floss!

In honor of myself finally going back to the dentist after a long stretch without going, I'm posting some art I did mid-last year for the American Dental Association, which was used for a brochure or two about proper brushing and flossing of your teeth. These were drawn in pencil, then scanned, and then painted in Photoshop over the pencil art. Came out looking really good. It was a quick, fast money gig I get from Odyssey Design Group whom I do work for on the side when they need it. Fun to do and different from the normal stuff. I'll draw anything. It was a paint by number though once I settled on the color palette. I'd did all the toothbrushes first, then the lips, then the teeth, and so on till they were all done and then added some highlights to the lips and tongues. These were done big and they would get reduced down to about 2" or smaller. I did them big since I figured that they may use them for other stuff so I wanted the quality to be there in case they needed them bigger.

I bet some of you are surprised to see this kind of art come from me, some know I do all kinds of stuff, so you haven't seen anything yet...keep checking in! And for those who care, I didn't have any cavities...just a little tartar build up from the years of not going. I will be going every six months from now on just to stay on track with their care! Booyah!

RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY!

Here are some Raggedy Ann and Andy sketches! I drew them for my mother as a gift for Mother's Day. She's a big collector of Raggedy Ann and Andy and has easily over a thousand dolls in her collection from some of the smallest ones ever made to the biggest. Not counting the storybooks and other merchandise they have made over the years that she has as well. These are timeless characters created by Johnny Gruelle, which are still popular today! They get new fans every year and every little girls remembers when she received her first doll. There's a big girls market out there for artists to tap as well.

POKEMON! My first cartoon license!

I had done work on back on Pokemon back in 1999. It was my first real cartoon license though I had drawn Star Wars and the Green Hornet material in the early and mid 90's, but they were drawn more realistically since the licensed required it. I did an audition test for Pokemon in early spring and got approved, and from that got a good amount of work that year drawing Ash and company and the 150 Pokemon characters (there was only 150 at the time and the following years it went up to 300 characters!).

It was fast and fun work overall. The characters were relatively easy to draw in a timely manner, so much so that if I had a week deadline starting say on a Monday morning, I'd be done it all on by Wednesday morning, which in turn got me more work to pump out. They always stick with reliable artists who can do the job fast and with little or no corrections. This was also a time when I was adament about getting my name on as much stuff as an artist as I could. You need that credit line as a commercial artist to then move ahead and get other work. It certainly helps. I didn't get my name on everything but any books that came out I always got an art credit line in the first printings of the stuff. Second or third printing are sometimes hit or miss.

In September of 1999, I was asked to do an audition test for Scooby-Doo. I was approved in mid-October, and started working on Scooby on November 21 and the rest is history...it will be nine full years of Scooby this November 21st! Zoinks! Scooby's been good to me!

During this time in '99, I was also working at the Franklin Mint in the art department doing conceptual design for statues, sculptures, knives, figures, etc and I remember doing my Pokemon audition during my lunch hour there in my cubicle. I also did my Scooby audition there as well. At the time they didn't give me any real reference for Scooby, or Pokemon either for that matter. I must have had the right sensibilities or something that allowed me to get it really close to what they wanted because they hired me. I beat out quite a few artists to get Scooby. Soon after I was approved, then I would get tons of reference, which I've accumulated over the years. It was great at the time to have these opportunities because the Mint was having money and corporate control issues and they were laying off people left and right. I sensed a change in the place and left before I probably would have been laid off and went back to work in my home studio and worked right through the next two years on Pokemon and Scooby. I was offered even more Pokemon work in 2000 but declined because I was so deep in Scooby work with three big Scooby projects going at one time! 2000 remains my most favorite year of my life creatively and financially. It was Scooby all day, all night!

At any rate, here's some Pokemon sketches from 1999/2000 that I did for stuff. They're just more prelims. I even drew on crappy copy paper or cheap kids sketchpads back then too! The last Pokemon thing I drew was a 60-page "How To Draw Pokemon" book, which never did get published as they pulled it and I got my kill fee for it. I still have the approved rough version of it.

Pokemon died out as a fad in 2000/2001 and the kids had moved onto Digimon. I guess they sensed it too at a corporate level...but look at it now! It's 2008 and Pokemon is back and the kids love it again! I see how much interest there still is for it when I go to speak at schools and do my 'speak and sketch' demos. Enjoy!

ED, EDD N EDDY are stopping by! Hide the Jawbreakers!

Here's Ed, Edd n Eddy! These are some prelim sketches I did of the boys for various things. I drew them with various media as I sometimes sketch with whatever's just lying around. I've drawn the boys for quite some time now and still do art for their comic book adventures. It's a fun license and they have grown on me over the years. The show seems to be hit or miss with most people, they either love it or hate it since there is a juvenile feel to the whole show that sometimes turns people off to it.

I really LOVE the color palette for the show and how it has some really great pastel color choices used throughout the show, which are light in tone and not overbearing. Also, another unique thing is the deliberate use of a 'boiling line' that is used in the animation of all the characters to make them all seem in constant motion. A 'boiling line' is the movement of lines or fluctuating color, which is sometimes a deliberate style for a show (as it is with the Eds), but more often it's due to inaccurate inbetweens or an uneven application of color. I have to say that it gives it an overall unique look which has certainly set the show apart from all the other shows on Cartoon Network or Nick for that matter. I'll post some color ones soon!

More GRIM ADVENTURES!

Here's three more sketches from the sketchbook for Grim Adventures!

Scott's Interviews on COMIC GEEK SPEAK!

Here are the links to where you can download my interviews that Comic Geek Speak had done of me. They are the greatest podcast for all things geeky and nice guys to boot. I've been to both their 200th and 300th episode show events in Reading, Pa and will be at the latest event this September! You can find their website at http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/ and load up your iPod.

Episode 140 (May 25th, 2006)
Strawberry Shortcake? Don't worry the Peculiar Purple Pie Man is nowhere to be found. In this episode we talk with comic artist Scott Neely and discuss his journey from comic books to the world of cartoons. (It's an hour and a half interview)

http://comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-181.php

Convention Survival Guide (September 5th, 2006)
(1:03:52 into the show) Scott Neely talks with us about having product, walking the floor and sketch requests. (It's a short interview around ten minutes or so on comic conventions)

http://comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-232.php

Episode 298 (September 19th, 2007)
Jamie D. and Senor Pantalones talk with Scooby Doo artist Scott Neely. (It's another long interview with the guys)

http://comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-426.php

The Forum about the Episode 298:
http://www.thecomicforums.com/forum2//index.php?showtopic=117987

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NORMA JEAN!

Marilyn Monroe's birthday was June 1st so this is a belated Happy Birthday. She would have been 87 this year. Happy Birthday, Norma Jean...This is a pen and ink wash drawing I did in the late 90's in one of her iconic poses. I still have the original art for it and never sold it cause I liked the way it came out. Enjoy!