Some Props...

Here's some props I did for Bratz back in 2004. A lot of the work was almost like doing an animated cel with the character art being on a separate layer from the background so you could create different layouts. Above is a full background plate and the prop was a set of lockers that was for a high school hallway. I did everything separately and so you could take the lockers off and just have the hallway. Then I could add a clock or some other high school themed prop I would then create to redress it. I've done a lot of my professional work in this nature to get more out of a background. I normally don't want to spend a lot of time working on a background only to just use it once and then move on. In some cases, you can reuse them, or just use the perspective of the background and build something new.

Here's the original rough I did of the lockers. I originally did only three and then added two more to make it more of a wall of lockers. When I did the original color file of the locker art, I kept the original three lockers on one layer and the added two on another. I also left it open to go back in and change the colors at some point if I wanted or needed to. Also, all this work was done in Photoshop with the pen tool. Not sure why I didn't do it in Illustrator at the time but nowadays I probably would build it there and then add the color enhancements in Photoshop. Now once I settled on the look I wanted, I save the file in layers and then flatten the locker art and drag it over to the main background file where I compile all the different elements into one final piece. All my Strawberry Shortcake art was done this was since the character art alone could be around 20-25 layers in Illustrator, and that was just one character!

This I thought I would add as a little extra to this post. I had to create a soda can for the lunch room tables in the high school cafeteria backgrounds. I also created brown paper lunch bags, chairs, lunch trays, etc to make the lunch room seemed "lived in". I was and am quite proud of my little soda can. I had this done in about 15 minutes or so and then just copied and pasted a bunch to add throughout the scene. This is fairly big though as they were maybe a 1/4-inch to a 1/2-inch in the final piece. But again, it's a prop that is built and I could reuse again.

Professor Pericles Sketch!

This week I did 3 art comps and a variant for the possible DVD cover to Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated - Season 2 and thought I'd post a separate element that I made as a variant to one of the designs I did, and it was for Professor Pericles who is a villian in the series! It may not be used in the end though. For those who don't know the process, you do several art comps based upon notes of how they want the DVD cover to look (or what story angle they want to pursue) and you do some roughs. When submitted they may like one a lot and then they'll add revisions to them, or possible they may not like any of them or the direction since they changed their minds, and you then do a round 2 (or 3, or more) of sketches till you arrive at a final rough that everyone likes. Once that's approved by all parties, you then do the final tight rough which is put "on model" and everything is locked down. Then it goes to the final color art stage after a light color theory preliminary is submitted so they can see how you imagine the color theory going for the final art.

And I'll be working on Tom and Jerry's DVD cover this weekend as well, which is a round 3, since I now have the new title logo to work with and new art direction.

Starting 2012 With Scooby-Doo!

Actually, I finished my last P 'n F jobs on Friday, December 30th around 3pm and went into my email to let Disney know that they were done (even though most corporate people were off this week) and saw a new email from the agency in LA with a new job!

So now I'm doing the DVD cover art for Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated - Season 2! So I'll be doing the first round of concept sketches this week! The second season doesn't start airing episodes till May this year, but they are starting early to get this work done and in the can so I'm guessing this will come out next fall. So I'm excited. So excited, I forgot to email Disney that the P 'n F work was done! Ha! So we start yet another year drawing Scooby and the Gang! If my math is correct, I guess this is my 12th year straight now!

Also, as an aside, DC Comics is using one of my Scooby comic covers for the first Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? trade paperback collection coming out this winter! It collects comic issues 1-6! I'll post it when it comes out. I did one story as well that should be in it.

Slaving Away... Or "Sorry! I Was Really Busy This Past Fall!"

Well, it's been so long I almost forgot how to post through Blogger! I know some may have given me up for dead or onto some other social platform since I've not posted since August! I've never had that much of a lapse go by without posting, but the work was flying off the drawing board just as fast as new gigs landed on top of it! Any contractor (or freelance person) can tell you that it's feast or famine when you are a freelancer so you tend to take a lot of jobs as you don't know when the slow times will hit. There's always a natural ebb and flow to things but this past fall from September on till December 29th was jammed! I've been very fortunate since there are a lot of talented folks who are struggling to get anything right now.

I've had the joy of being in Phineas and Ferb's backyard for most of it all and the work has been so constant that I've had to turn down some work since I can't draw three big P 'n F jobs at once. I can usually make it work but some deadlines were the same exact date and hence there would be an issue, so I'm back to trying to figure out how to clone myself.

As I say, most of the fall was spent with Phineas and Ferb, creating inators, and Agent P battling Doof in his lab, but I did do other cool side jobs as well!

1) A Scooby-Doo DVD cover for a repackaged collection coming out in 2012. I'll let you know when it's close to release and what it's called.

2) The new Tom & Jerry movie DVD cover (which we are in the 3rd round of sketches and waiting on them to decide what the actual title of the film will be since the design will be affected by the size and look of any title logo.) This one is Tom & Jerry meet Robin Hood (working off the classic 1938 'Flynn' Style) and is following on the heels of Tom & Jerry and The Wizard of Oz which is in stores now. The Wizard of Oz one is really well done and a lot of fun mixing the two IPs together.

3) Madagascar 3 licensing work, which is still being drawn, redrawn, re-redrawn and then finalized and should be done by February sometime.

4) A housing development sketch for Odyssey Design. Got photos of a building development being rebuild and refurbished and had to do artistic color art for a sales brochure that will show off what the property will look like when it's done. It's a mess still right now so you do art that will help sell it based upon the final look.

5) Odds and Ends - Did some original sketches, commissions, and other small job commercial work here and there and sold all the original Scooby art for the Mystery Incorporated book I did this time last year! (Thanks, Jim!)

As I say it's been hectic but all the work has been done on time and on schedule. From November into December I was working on P 'n F and had to get two jobs done by the 12th and then the 19th of the month. I did and thought I'd have off till January but then got another P 'n F job offer on the 20th that would have had me working through and on Christmas for a due date of the 28th. I've worked the last two Christmases so I turned it down only to get an email 30 minutes later with three small P 'n F jobs due on January 2nd! So I took them! Hahaha! Hard to turn down work, but these were rather simple and didn't add any stress to the holiday season. But I tell you all that to show how busy it has been. Luckily I did mostly all my Christmas shopping and had it wrapped the night before Halloween. I know you are laughing at that but I do shop early and get it done while I have disposible cash and that way I have no holiday debt ever to pay off during the winter.

Let's see, what else, I've had no social life and my birthday in late November was rather low key this year with a nice meal. But I'm hoping to change all that this year as 2012 has now begun... with another cool job! Read the next post for more!

As a New Year's resolution, I will be posting reguarly, though some stuff I can't post till they get closer to coming out, but I will be posting new art and sketches.