TOM & JERRY: ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MOUSE - DVD Cover Design (Final Round)

This is my favorite of the last round of sketches I did for the DVD cover design for "Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood & His Merry Mouse" in 2011! 

I now had the final logo branding for it (in color!) and had to do some redesigning to make it fit as it took up less space on either side of it. Changing from the soft, round bull's eye target to the hard-edged shape of a shield works quite well.  

The top portion of the art with Tom & Jerry was nailed down in the previous version, but we simplified the top area by taking out the other characters and just going with the background of the castle. It works better as your eye isn't fighting over what to look at first. Again, I had each piece on a separate layer so adjustments could be easily made.

The lower part was the biggest change and I only kept my Sherwood Forest background plate I drew. Robin Hood and the Sheriff were now added dueling it out and became another focal point as they were placed center stage on the lower portion. To balance it out, some of the better known supporting characters were added. I think they work better than having generic "Merry Men."

The above final cover is the one I liked the most, but I submitted some variants too that played with the sizes of Robin Hood and the Sheriff. Once I submitted them, it was the last I heard of the art as it went through the approval process.

THE FINAL VERSION 

The poses of Robin Hood and the Sheriff were changed after it left my drawing board. Everything else basically stayed the same with a minor tweak here or there.

Robin Hood basically stayed the same but they added more "squash and stretch" to both characters. The Sheriff was a bigger change and I'm not sure why they went with a side profile view unless it was merely done to make it look like he was facing Robin Hood directly? The problem is his body pose. He still has one hand on his sword and his left hand is off to the side in the air, but it's now partially blocked from view. It would have worked better if he had both hands on his sword as if he were struggling a bit in battle.

This is why the front 3/4 view is mostly used because it's the most appealing. When I did it you got a clear view of the Sheriff and he was facing Robin. I drew them more like they were just starting to duel. The final version looks like they were fighting each other for a bit. They may have given it to someone who was working on the movie as they had a better context of what was going on in terms of story. I was going by the basic themes of what I knew of Robin Hood (basically the 1938 Errol Flynn film masterpiece).

I could have redone both figures to make them more animated, but possibly time or budget got in the way and they handed it off internally to finish. I was just part of the pipeline on this one. I don't know how close they were to a final deadline or release date because I never saw the thing again until I saw it in a store. 

Hope you liked how it came out and the inside look at the process!

 

TOM & JERRY: ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MOUSE - DVD Cover Design (2nd Round)

This is my favorite of the next round of sketches I did for the DVD cover design for "Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood & His Merry Mouse" in 2011! 

This was the first logo we got and while the title itself was locked, the look of the logo would change. As you can see the design and size of the logo defines a lot of the layout and how you have to work around it. 

The top portion of the art was nailed down by this point, and I like it a lot! The bottom portion has the Sheriff and the King escaping with the gold as Robin Hood's Merry Men are hidden in the forest to stop them. The issue? There's no Robin Hood! The result was a new reworking of the art, and Robin Hood would show up in the next (and final) round with the final, final logo.

As busy as the cover is, there are aspects I really like about it. We would simplify it in the end.

TOM & JERRY: ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MOUSE - DVD Cover Design (1st Round)

I worked on the DVD cover design for Tom & Jerry Meet Robin Hood. At the time in 2011, they didn't have a title, nor logo, locked down yet so this is what it was called. They just wanted to get going on ideas and you would do several rounds of sketches before things would (hopefully) fall into place. 

This is the FIRST sketch I did for it, and while it doesn't work with the final title logo they went with, it does capture the feel of the film! Just sketched with pencil on cheap paper. I still like it a lot! It's fun. 

Yes, Jerry should be turned more to face Tom as he is aiming a bow and arrow at him. For clarity, we sometimes have to cheat the pose to work as a visual. 

Yes, the tree trunk that Jerry is standing on is not to proper scale. Again, I didn't think this would be the image used but it gets the feel of things as a starting point. This was the most important thing at the time as they really didn't know what approach to take and they were open to ideas.

I did two initial sketches at the time. Then, soon after, I finally got a working logo! Not the final logo design mind you, but the title was now locked as Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse. We were off and moving... sort of, it's a process.

 

SCOOBY-DOO DVD cover art repurposed for JustWatch.com in Brazil

Recently, I saw that the DVD cover art I did for Scooby-Doo's 13 Spooky Tales Around The World was repurposed after all these years and is now being used as stock art on JustWatch's streaming news in Brazil. They're using it to advertise Season 3 of the original Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo cartoons!

Never let a good piece of art go to waste! It's why these corporations love having a huge backlog of material to pull from. 

For newer followers, you can see my original post I did way back on May 22, 2012! Check it out here! 13 Spooky Tales Around The World

It's the same art, but eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Fred, Daphne, and Velma were removed to focus on just Scooby and Shaggy. As much love that fans have for the other three, it all comes down to Scooby and Shaggy. Hence, why a lot of my Scooby art focuses on these two characters. It comes down to clarity of the image and how busy a final composition can be by adding too much. 

Every aspect of the art for the DVD cover was done on separate layers, so it would be easy to take out the three members of Mystery Inc. with a simple click to three.

It's odd that they left the other stuff on there though... Was there a UFO, Aztec/Mayan temple and stone warrior, etc in Season 3 of the Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo? Maybe I'm reading too much into it. The art is small on the JustWatch site, so I'm guessing it was just used to plug a hole with a visual image. 

You can check it out on the JustWatch site, Click here!

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Season 3  

 

SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED - DVD Cover Designs

Here are the concept sketches I did for the second season DVDs of Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated. Officially it was Season 2, Part 1 which would have had the first 13 episodes of that second season. Two of these designs were picked and locked in and put on final model. One was to be for the domestic release of the DVD and one was for the International DVD release. Since the series ended up being a failure and now as Cartoon Network spends the next few days burning off the final episodes of the second and final season episodes, I'd thought I'd post what I did since in the end "the Suits" at WB decided not to use them anyway and did an entirely different concept late in the game and only did one piece of art instead of two. They probably figured why spend more time and money on something that they didn't think was bringing in the numbers. I was, in fact, told that the Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated Season 1 - Volume 1, which had the first 4 episodes of the series, was the WORST selling DVD in Scooby's history. So bad in fact, they recalled them and ripped out the disc and then inserted them as a freebie when you bought the Direct-to-DVD Scooby movie "Music of the Vampire". I forget when these were drawn exactly but I think it was around this time last year when my father was at the end of his life. I was given really loose concept ideas to follow and these are what I came up with. Some of these I really liked. I added the logos and some gray tone to help with separation so that the suits would know what they were looking at since most of the time they couldn't find their asses in the dark with both hands and a flashlight.

The first cover concept above was the first one I did. It also would wind up being my favorite though it does seem like typical Scooby-Doo situation and doesn't stand out as much in terms of being new and fresh. I think we tend to rely on the cliche when we do things as they are what people are expecting. If you go too far outside the box, the audience doesn't follow. Shaggy and Scooby are always the focus and should be the focal point. I added the dramatic lighting on it to help sell the concept and I think it works really well.

This second concept has the Gang in the Mystery Machine driving at high speed and maybe ready to crash. In the background you see the legs of Hot Dog Water as she was bouncing around in the back. Certain elements were to be shown such as the map and outside the window were to be two scenarios. One was the Crystal Cove sign being broken and flying in pieces to give the idea that the van and blasted through it. It didn't work as well so I did a second version with Professor Pericles flying outside carrying one of the pieces that they gang was looking for. Hence Shaggy holding the map to tie it together. There is no sense of speed to it though as that would be done later with some blur. I had it worked out in my mind as to how I would do it but you don't want to spend too much time on these concepts as they could be canned later on.

The third concept I didn't like, as to my mind, it had issues with spacing. I think there is too much negative space around Shaggy and Scooby and they should be a bit bigger but the layout of the cover in terms of being a portrait-sized image limits you sometimes so you have to place things on a forced perspective and layering things so that they come at you. Hence why the second concept works since the action is there and facing you. This one seems a little boring to me from this angle though if I turned it (and I did, in fact, try to) to another angle some other aspect would get lost or wouldn't be correctly viewed or understood. The giant chicken foot didn't work coming straight at the viewer and I also lost Freddie, Velma, and Daphne as they got pushed further back or were taken off completely. I followed the original concept and it looks ok here, but somehow the sense of action isn't working for me. Sometimes these are difficult puzzles to figure out so that each element that must be shown is there.

The fourth concept I partially liked. I think something about the viewpoint of the shot maybe doesn't translate for me. All we see are two arms looming forward from the Big Baby Clown. Maybe more of him was needed like a leg or maybe framing him so that we got more of a side view, but I was following the original concept so it is what it is. The donut shop setting and gag of Fred and Shaggy eating donuts works very well while the place burns. This would have been a pretty colorful piece in the end. It was chosen as the International cover, though abandoned in the end.

This fifth concept was done as the original art direction dictated. The problem is one that you can see for yourself. It focuses more on Shaggy than Scooby, and Scooby is the star of the thing so he should be the one holding onto the giant hammer in this semi-forced perspective. Otherwise though the concept works for me fine and I liked the drama of it. It was hard to figure out the spacial concerns of it and how it all fit together but it worked well.

So I then was instructed to do a sixth one with Scooby as the focus and it works fine as well. This was to be the Domestic cover and was locked in and put on final model. Then... sometime over the next several weeks I didn't hear anything and you sure don't get any answers till you complain and press people on what the status is of the thing is, and that was when I found out that WB decided at the last minute to try another concept with the Gang underwater and they went with that. It was taken from the design studio I did these for and done internally at WB. So go figure... I was paid for it all, but it's Hollywood and we know how they work, though I think a lot changed when they realized that they didn't have much faith in the series as a whole. Hence all the hiatus points and weird time slots over the 52 episodes. Hell, Cartoon Network still has over half a second season left of The Looney Tunes Show to air and that's on hiatus as well again. You just lose momentum and the viewers move on at a certain point. I've heard numberous stories over the years from inside Cartoon Network and wonder why they even bother showing original, new cartoons when half of the corporate structure there doesn't like cartoons to begin with. Sheesh...

Scooby-Doo "13 Spooky Tales Around The World" DVD Is Now Out!

Last week on the 15th of May, a new Scooby-Doo DVD came out called "13 Spooky Tales Around The World". I forgot about it coming out since my father has died and I came across it today and decided to post the roughs of it for you process junkies. For this cover the agency had the basic concept for what they wanted and they gave me a super rough drawing that looked like a child had drawn it. It was just enough to show what they were looking for so my job was to go straight from that to putting it "on model". There would be no rough stage art to then get approved, which honestly I would have prefered. Normally what you do is series of concept sketches and then you do revisions till everyone is happy. These drawings can be slightly off model as you are trying to nail the look of the cover as a whole and how all the elements come together. Once that stage is approved, you then go in and lock it down and put it on model. Also during the on model stage, all the elements have to be separated so they can removed elements or shift something at the last moment if they want to. If it's all one flat piece of art, you can't do that. Once the final key art is on model, you do a color theory piece to make sure everyone is on board with your choice of colors and then the final art is done and then approved.

Anyway, below are the original two "on model" drawings I did. As you may notice, or may not at first, Shaggy is in a different pose. In this first version he's stepping over the hill as he chases after Scooby instead of bounding over it in a full run pose. This was how the original concept art was conceived but they do allow the artist to fix things and add their own take to make it even better. So this version shows the original way it was to be...

And this version below was my version of Shaggy in a full running pose. They loved this one more (as well as I did) and so my new Shaggy made it to the final art. Sometimes you never know how things will play out so it helps to have other options if you have the time to do them.

Since the concept art was so loose, I was forced to do everything separately anyway since I didn't know how it would all fit together in the end. Scooby himself was in an extreme pose running right towards us and he dictated how the rest of it was going to have to fit together. I didn't know how he would affect all the other elements such as the placement of the Gang, landmarks, spaceship, water, etc. So the first thing I had to draw was Scooby, as he is the star, but also because it was key to make him work just by himself. My job also was to, in my mind, make a Scooby pose that was worthy of Iwao Takamoto (Scooby's visual creator) and one that he himself would have liked. That was a lot of pressure so I had to think about bad tangents and positive/negative space all working in tandem together and how he'd look in just a silhouette. It was like doing a piece of Scooby-Doo style guide art which can be hard to get right. I drew on Scooby on 8.5 x 11 cheap copy paper and inked him with a PITT Brush Marker and some Micron Pens.

After Scooby was done I did was the ground and river, and then did the other elements like the White House and Aztec Temple/Aztec God since they all had certain places they had to be on the cover. Once they were all drawn out, I started on the rest of the Gang and Shaggy was the first character I did since he was the closest to Scooby in the running line of characters. Even as I was doing the thumbnails for him I knew I wanted to change his pose. I didn't know if him coming over the hill would have worked as well on the final as it did on the loose concept art, so I did two versions on him on the same piece of paper. I did my version of him first and then did their version. Once again drawn on 8.5 x 11 copy paper.

Next up was the Gang and since they were going to be around a half-inch in size on the final art, I had to do them much bigger to make sure I could get into the detail of them accurately. All three characters were done on one 8.5 x 11 copy paper. I also had to draw them all running and in slightly different poses to keep them interesting. If I drew them all running in the same pose with the same leg and arm coming forward it would have stuck out as boring since each character runs in their own way.

Here's the Aztec God. I had do to him separate from the temple just case he had to be moved over a mouse click or two.

Then when it was all drawn out, I then scanned it all in and spent several hours piecing it together like Colorforms on a background plate and seeing how all the elements worked in tandem with another. If one element had to be redrawn it was easy to do since they were a separate layer and could be deleted and substituted for a better drawing. When I added my version of Shaggy to the layout I then had to slightly adjust the other members of the Gang as well. So it takes some time to get right. Luckily I didn't have to do any other drawings for this cover and it was approved and good to go to the final art stage. It's easier to color the art as well when it's all separated onto single layers. When I submitted the final design, I thought for sure WB would have had some kind of revision/s but they didn't! Usually with higher end things they can nitpick elements like Scooby's nose being a hair too big or his tail being a hair longer than it should be. This is one of the rare times that I got everything right the first time out with no changes! I guess all the years I've drawn him helped a lot. Ha! Hope you enjoyed reading about this work process!

For those who'd like to purchase the DVD set on Amazon, here's the link!

Scooby-Doo "13 Spooky Tales Around The World" DVD