HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOOBY-DOO!

On September 13, 1969, which was 57 years ago today, Scooby-Doo Where Are You? premiered on Saturday morning with the first episode titled "What a Night for a Knight"... and a legend was born! ZOINKS!

 

Greetings From Jellystone Park!

 Please do not feed the bears! Keep an eye on your picnic basket!

 Yogi Bear Pencil sketch with an HB lead on cheap copy paper!

Don't be afraid! Have some Courage!

 

Courage the Cowardly Dog sketch drawn with pencil on cheap copy paper and then inked with a Pitt Brush Marker, scanned and then colored quick in Photoshop! 

 

POWERPUFF GIRLS - Construction Sheets & Model Sheets!

 It's AMAZING how much the Powerpuff Girls construction sheets matched the FUN and CHARM of the original show!

Below are some of the standard model sheets for the original show! These are the "locked in" model sheets that are used to help the artists maintain consistency. These are part of the "Main Models" section of the model sheets and are usually in their own section labelled as "Group Poses" as they feature more than one character.

All of these pages and more are usually given to anyone, including me, who may be working on the license in some fashion. 

A lot of these final model sheets also make their way to the official style guide where they may be redone to make final print-ready files that will be used for consumer products like t-shirts, posters, cups, toy packaging, books, etc, etc! 

 

POWERPUFF GIRLS - Adobe Illustrator vs Clip Paint Studio Pro

 

Here's my art I did of Bubbles using the sketch provided in the PPG style guide. I did it first in Adobe as that's where I'm most familiar, and its what they required you to do it in. Back in the early 2000s, there were no other programs available outside of Adobe, except for maybe Corel Draw. 

Instead of following the How-To exactly I deviated from it in spots as it was geared to doing a final color version. Doing the kind of work I've done I knew I would need to have a separate line art version as well. So I focused on doing that as a colored version is fairly quick and easy to create. 

First thing I noted as I was doing this is that this instructional How-To was made for designers who may not be artists who can actually draw. They originally gave you a CD with the pre-made files for the ellipses for the head, arms, mouths, and Bubble's ponytail (as you can see on one of the sheets below). It felt a bit like Colorforms and how you could mix and match parts to make a quick Powerpuff Girl. I'm assuming all the vector art in the style guide was all layered anyway so if you had to switch out an arm or mouth expression, you could do it fairly easy. 

I followed the steps and started working under the template (as they suggested) and not above it. That was a change for me as I always work over my roughs. But I tried it their way. I played with the opacity of the rough sketch to get it where I wanted it (around 30%).  

I made the two ellipses as they suggested for the head, though I wondered why they worked this way. 

The next thing that was weird was that they told you to keep the two ellipses exactly at their specs and to adjust and resize the pencil rough sketch to fit the ellipses. I then realized why they wanted it done that way because when you did the rest of the body, the thicknesses of the stroke lines would all match up to what they should be as per the guide. Basically, once you had that done you could enlarge the figure up and use some math to keep the stroke line thicknesses consistent when you did future stuff.

I laughed to myself as I was doing this as my first Powerpuff Girls work, in fact, my audition pieces were all done by hand with my green templates and French curves! Even artist Phil Moy, who did the Powerpuff Girls comic book for DC Comics at the time, did the original art all by hand as well. Mostly so he had the original art to sell later on. Great minds think alike! Mostly, I'd like to think there was a higher level of skill we applied to it.

I inked Bubbles in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool and saved it as both an .ai file and as a .eps file, and the I opened it in Adobe Photoshop to color it. Yes, I could have colored it in Illustrator if I had to (as it's simple flat colors) but I prefer using Photoshop to drop some quick color in as this exercise was more to see if you could do a line art version and have it be on spec. It's from my working cross-platform on many projects. I love a simple color palette and the PPG characters certainly had that!

Once I was finished, I wondered if you could do it in the newer software that wasn't around originally. I decided to take the same rough sketch of Bubbles and do it all over again in Clip Paint Studio Pro as a lot of artists use that now. Clip Studio has come a long way from its Manga Studio origins and more artists have shifted to it over the years. I wondered if the quality and technical ease would be the same and so I loaded the sketch template into Clip Paint to give it a shot.

I created a new Bubbles using the figure rulers and figure tools (mostly the Continuous Curve with Cubic Bezier). Yes, I could have probably done it using the Bezier tool as well. Once it was finished, I then colored it in Clip Paint as well to keep it all together. One layer for the line art and one for the color.

Overall, I think they are really close. The only slight difference you can see is on her ponytail. It's a bit sharper in Illustrator and was easier to do (possibly because I know the program so well), so I would toss the edge to Adobe Illustrator in that respect.

I had toyed with the idea of trying it a third time using Krita. I started to play with the ellipses and stopped as there is a lot of Krita that I don't know how to use yet. How many of these programs can you know and keep in your head??? Seriously!

Hope you like my effort on these! I posted my scanned How-To pages here for you to try if you want! 

 

POWERPUFF GIRLS - A peek inside the original style guide

I have binders and binders of model sheets and style guides that I need for my work. My total number of binders for Scooby-Doo is around 6 or 7 of them. I started with just one and it slowly grew over the early years. I would make a separate binder for the movie-related projects I did like Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders and Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!

These pages below are a peek of the original Powerpuff Girls style guide that I have and the style guide itself is what they give to companies to use when creating new consumer products. It's mostly for designers who may not have art skills to actually draw the stuff and they can use the artwork provided in the guide to do their work. There is a CD disc that comes with this and contains all the art including characters, icon, logos, design elements, etc.

This is from 2000 (or so) and they physically mailed me beautifully printed copies to use as reference. I took the sheets and slipped them in plastic sleeves to protect them and put then put them in a binder. Normally, I will keep licenses separate, or in this case, combine them into one big binder so that all the Cartoon Network stuff is together as I worked on many. Nowadays, they do digital downloads, but back in the day, they would mail you printouts and/or give you a copy of the CD with everything on it. I don't have the disc for the Powerpuff Girls though.

When I first was contacted about doing the Powerpuff Girls (in early 2000) I didn't know what it was. At the time I didn't have Cartoon Network on my cable service so they kindly sent me all this and a VHS videotape with a lot of episodes on them to watch so I could get the feel of it. The first two pages of my guide also has show information and an episode guide. Warner Bros always gave you plenty to make sure you were in the loop.

You will normally also get the model sheets, construction sheets, turnarounds, etc as well. Sometimes not. There are times when I've just received the final style guide as that is what they want you to match in terms of look and color. Things can change or evolve if you just worked with just the animation model sheets, and a style guide basically locks everything down.  

The next two pages show the step-by-step tutorial for drawing them in Adobe Illustrator. More on this tomorrow.

This page is the turnaround for Blossom and some action poses that designers can use for products.

The most important information that I needed, and why they sent me this, was to use the exact colors when doing the final artwork. Every license has a specific palette of colors, and Warner Brothers (Cartoon Network) has always had the best print accurate colors. I'm looking at you, Disney...

There was more to this guide and the next pages were of the bad guys and their color schemes, but I wanted to just give you a peek!

What's next? I will post the How-To here and my results from doing the provided sketch of Bubbles using their step-by-step!  

 

ZOINKS! Scooby Vs. Dinosaur!

This piece was part of an adaptation of a What's New, Scooby-Doo  episode that I was worked on. I liked it and decided to color it and make it look like a design that would go on black t-shirt. The original line art was done on paper, then scanned and colored in Photoshop. I still like the energy and action of it!

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!

 

POWERPUFF GIRLS To The Rescue!

 

SCOOBY-DOO Stickers On A Hot, Sticky Summer Day!

I thought I'd post some Scooby stickers to go with the hot & sticky heat that is broiling the East Coast today!

SCOOBY-DOO AND THE CYBER CHASE: Giant 5' Long Coloring Page Mini Mock-Up From 2000!

A small treasure from 2000 in my archive! 

I worked on a LARGE 8-page pull-out coloring banner/poster that unfolded and stretched 5 FEET! It was a tie-in for the Scooby-Doo And The Cyber Chase animated film which came out in 2001. This was done all by hand and I did a mini mock-up to get the scale and layout down. It was much easier working smaller! Each character was separate and I cut and pasted/Scotch taped it all together to get a sense if it would work. We've come a LONG way! 

I didn't have my first Photoshop class (using PS 6.0) until Spring of 2001, so this was kicking it real OLD SCHOOL on my end. Once it was approved, I must have upscaled it on a copy machine at Staples, then light-boxed it and inked the final art on 3 or 4 separate pieces on good art paper. Someone at Golden Books took the final art and scanned it and then stitched it together digitally for the designer. I'm trying to recall as it was 25 years ago! We were still using Quark as a layout program.

One side was a giant coloring page with all the monsters (pictured above) and the other side was a single, GIANT maze that ran from end to end with different styles of mazes and graphics to recreate parts of the film. One of the MOST CREATIVE and FUN things I've ever worked on. They don't even do this kind of cool stuff today! 

UPDATE! I found an extra copy of the book in my archives where I had taken the staples out to free up the banner, so my other "Gem Mint 10" copies will stay as is. It came with a stickers insert page like the Alien Invaders book I did.

Been a LONG time since I looked at the final version! I took some pics of the printed version with my original rough mock-up so you can get an idea of the scale I was working at in planning it out. 

 

 

Looking at the maze side of the banner (which I didn't take any pics of), I can see two scenarios I drew but didn't happen in the actual film as we were working with the early version of things and I'm guessing it was too late to fix things. 

 

One had the Gang on a pirate ship with the threat of a giant shark, and the next scenario was Daphne and Velma as princesses who were trapped in a castle. That's all I can gather from looking at it. I don't think the film had those but it's been a long time since I've seen it. It was approved by WB so I'm guessing they had no issues with it and we needed to get it done. 

 

Looking back on it all, I can certainly see some tweaks and changes I would make if I had to do it again. This was before I learned how to do certain aspects digitally and I would tighten up the design, but overall I'm still happy with it! 

 

 

 

  

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 AND THE ALIEN INVADERS: My 1999 Approvals/Notes for a Sticker Insert Page!

From my work archives, I found one for the process junkies out there! 

From 1999, my original approvals/notes sheet for a stickers page insert for a Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders project! Makes me smile and feel old at the same time... This was a small part of a fourth Scooby assignment I took as I was working on three other Scooby projects simultaneously. It's still one of my favorite projects I've ever worked on!

What you see on the sheet were parts taken from the interiors I was doing. They were the pencil roughs that were done before I made any corrections from a couple newer model sheets that I was getting. The animated film had a slightly different art style from the Classic '69 Look. It took me a bit to figure it out as I was still learning the nuances and detail of the '69 Look.

Where it says to "Please revise - use interior art" for the final images, it simply means the art is fine (unless otherwise noted) and to just use the actual final art that was used for the interiors. As with any project, we were trying to keep several aspects going at once to hit the deadlines on time. 

Kinda cool to see all the old handwritten notes on it. It has a big piece of tracing paper that covered it as well to protect it when they sent it. You can see it rolled at the top on the first pic. 

They also physically mailed this to me as well in a large FedEx box with other stuff. All work was done this way at that time. Nowadays, they would just have scanned it (or worked off a digital copy) and emailed it. FedEx was sure making money back then!

SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED unused art!

Daphne from the Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated TV series. Did these early on to get a lock on the way the characters were drawn for the series at the time. I did single shots of all the Gang. All penciled rough on cheap paper. Then scanned, saved as an .eps file in Photoshop, then opened in Illustrator and inked with the pen tool using the scan as a guide (I normally turn the opacity down to 50% for my guides as I worked over stuff). When done and I'm happy with it, I saved the file as an .ai or .eps (I can't remember exactly) and opened back up in Photoshop and colored. Background plate is a full plate behind her. 

Multi-platformed art for all art I did for this series licensing. This was pre-Manga Studio at the time so Adobe was the only game in town.

Unused cover art for Scholastic book I did. I still like it though! It would have had issues working as a cover though in terms of logo placement. It's a pen and ink rough on cheap paper. If they wanted the final art for it I would have scanned and inked it in Adobe Illustrator at the time so that it matched the line art for the style guide. It would have then been opened in Photoshop and colored just like the one above. 

I still have this sketch and... yes, my stuff is super clean and tight.