POWER RANGERS: JUNGLE FURY - sketches approved!

Got an email today that I was looking forward to getting! The sketch art I drew (and posted some of here) for Power Rangers: Jungle Fury was finally approved by Disney today!! It took three weeks to go through the process since there was a lot of pieces but there were more people who had to approve it than normal. In an exciting moment, ALL of the art was approved with NO changes needed! Kind of an amazing thing considering how many pieces were drawn. I was happy with that (as was Disney) since now I can move onto doing the final artwork without having to redraw some aspects of it and getting it approved again. I'll be plugging away to the final art for the next few weeks.

HELLO KITTY! A commissioned sketch request!

In an effort to draw anything and everything when called upon, I got a request to do a sketch of HELLO KITTY. Some of you may be laughing out there, but commissions are a strange thing. This is the first time I've drawn this character. This art was done by hand naturally since the as you can see by the pencil sketch lines and I did it in about 20-25 minutes. All of the HELLO KITTY art you see in the shopping malls is actually produced in Adobe Illustrator so that they can blow it up to a skyscraper if need be. Plus, you can get perfect line quality all around the character that you just can't do by hand. The same type of stylized character as the Powerpuff Girls.

Scooby-Doo #133 Cover Art! Welcome To The Jungle!

Here's the new cover I did for DC Comics for Scooby-Doo #133 this week. Finished it early Friday after tweaking the color a hair or two and loaded it up to them via the FTP. I'm really, really happy with the design of how it came out. The triangle of danger (Mayan Mummy, Snake and Gator) frames Shaggy and Scooby and draws the eye right to them since they are the focus. The angle of the sinking temple and the log the guys are on gives it movement even though they are still. It was a rush job and as usual with rush jobs I seem to do better work because I don't overthink the thing and keep going back into it and keep screwing with it. Sometimes the first thing one does is the best thing. Below this text I've attached the cover again with the logos and UPC symbol I use as a guide when I draw. I also came up with two word balloons and the title text as well to help sell the idea to the editor since there were no thumbnails again in the creation of this piece. The text could change as well on the final printed version. The final printed comic will be out in June!

DC Comics also loaded me up with a ton of work! I got two Scooby-Doo scripts FedEx'ed to me Thursday night and then I got 4 Ed, Edd n Eddy scripts to draw today from another editor! Apparently I'm the only artist for the Eds now so I got the motherload! Yowza!!! They all have loose deadlines as well! I couldn't believe it! I'll have to fit them in between the final Power Rangers art that I'm still waiting on Disney to give me the final approvals for. Always good to be busy!! Enjoy! And as always, you can click the image to see the bigger version.

My DCCC "Rising Star" Alumni Award!

As with the last post, these are photos I finally downloaded off my camera of the award that I won back in late September last year. It was from Delaware County Community College, a local community college that I went to back in 2001-2002 when I had to learn the digital end to doing the art that I do now. I went to the college for one year and learned Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Quark. I guess I was nominated for this alumni award since I've done a lot art wise in the field and my teachers whom I still talk to nominated me to get it. It was a nice night out with my parents and friends at a local casino when I officially received the award. There were five 'Rising Star' awards given out that night at the banquet. As my mother had said as we were leaving that night, "Some people go to college for four years and get no awards, you go for one year and..."

I took two pics of the award and a third one with the flash on so you can see the etched lettering on it. My friend Joe said that it looked like a crystal that should have been in the Fortress of Solitude! Haha! It is a nice award to put on the mantle. I have two now! This one and a fine art award I won from the Franklin Mint back in 2000 or so. Also I've put two press clippings that were done. One in a local press paper and one from the college's newsletter.

My Scooby poster art prints!

Here are the photos of two framed Scooby-Doo prints that my artist friend Scott Cohn printed out for me on his super big printer from my art files. He printed these out at 13" x 19" and they looked so GREAT that I got my friend Joe to get them custom framed for me for a Christmas gift this past year since he didn't know what to get me for Christmas. It took me a while to download the pics off my camera of them hanging on the wall, but I thought I'd share. They are 16" x 22" sized posters with the mattes and frames! I don't really hang too much of my own art around but these looked too cool not to.

POWER RANGERS: JUNGLE FURY...the rough sketches!

Here's some of the rough sketches for the huge new job I'm working on for Disney's POWER RANGERS: JUNGLE FURY line. These are all for future style guide art, which will be used on all kinds of products. There was nothing in terms of real reference to work with since it's still kind of new, but Disney has been easy to work with on this since they aren't being over-controlling on the tweaking of the art. There is a lot of leeway they are allowing. There are about 83 pieces in all that I'm doing. I finished all the rough sketches on Friday morning and they have left for official approvals right now. Took about 2 weeks to do them all. I know there are Power Rangers fans out there who will know the stuff better than I do so my labelling of the sketches I know is way off in most cases. As when I worked on Handy Manny for Disney, it was the same case of just drawing the job and not knowing the relationships or dynamics of the characters or story elements...or even their names for that matter! Just draw it and get it done on deadline. Still, it's been a fun gig even though I'm not looking forward to doing the final inked art since it will take longer to do it. This is the more creative part of it. Should all be wrapped up by the end of March.

My FREE COMIC BOOK DAY appearance on May 5th!

Here is the ad from Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark, Delaware for the annual FREE COMIC BOOK DAY event that is held every year on May 5th! I've been there the last 4 or so years and it's always a biggest and best FCBD event held anywhere! Over 1,000 people showed up last year and lots of kids and parents who love comics! My artist friends and I will be there doing free sketches all day for anyone who shows up and can wait in line for a sketch. The lines get long so you'll want to get there early! It should be a great event as usual so if you're in the area, come on over!

Here's a copy of the first flyer CBH made for the info...like the other art here, click the image to make it bigger!

Scooby-Doo #132 Cover Art! Monster Ant Invasion!

Here is the final cover art for Scooby-Doo #132, which will be out in May! Another cover that had to be done quick. Finished it and loaded it up to DC's FTP on Monday! I like the color scheme and the action of it. It took me a while to figure out what shades of green to use. The monster ant was based on the old horror movie called THEM! I like doing throwbacks if I can get them in! I do believe it will also have a word balloon above Shaggy's head that has Shaggy yelling, "Zoinks! Every man, dog and sandwich for himself!" Enjoy!

Scooby-Doo #131 "Earth Day" Cover!

Here is the final cover art for Scooby-Doo #131. It will be out in comic stores in April. The first time on a Scooby cover that only silhouettes were used and not the actual drawn characters. I was going for a more artistic look and a more serious one for Earth Day. The monster was added to keep it as Scooby-Doo as possible. I was really happy with the way it came out! Most covers have a lot of happy accidents that are mixed into their creation! This was also a rush job that was actual done before the comic story that I posted for issue #130. I got the job on December 23rd. I did the thumbnails on Christmas Day and did the actual final art on the 26th. It was due on the 28th at DC so it was a fast job!

Scooby-Doo #130 Comic Story Art!

Here is the final art for an 8-page Scooby comic story I drew for Scooby-Doo #130! Enjoy! I LOVE the opening splash page! I hope all the word balloons don't kill the art when they get dropped on in production! This story was drawn in early January a day or so right after the New Year's Day. I had extra time in my schedule so I really loaded up each panel with a lot of detail! Enjoy!

Scooby-Doo #127 - The Christmas Cover

Here a Scooby-Doo cover I did for the December issue of Scooby-Doo. Issue #127 to be exact. It was done on a fast schedule but it got done. It was a mix of art done by hand and then the digital part was created in Adobe Illustrator and finished in Photoshop. The actual printed cover came out a tad darker than I would have liked but comic printing isn't the highest of quality printing that's done in today's world.

I also found out from DC Comics that the art was used for the cover of Comic Shop News' Christmas Guide! First time EVER that Scooby has been on the cover!

Here are the prelim thumbnails I did to work out the final design that was approved.

Disney's Handy Manny!

Here's a small batch of Handy Manny art I did last October for Disney's Handy Manny. You'll be seeing it around in a month or two now as more HM products are released. All the art was done in Adobe Illustrator and there were a total of 63 pieces that had to be done in a month. Last October was the busiest month of 2007 for me and I also did a Scooby-Doo project and an Ed, Edd n Eddy project as well. Plus I taught a class for "Drawing For Animation" at the Delaware College of Art & Design and I had my monthly commitment to do editing and layout for Delaware County Magazine. Yikes! But amidst the stress and lack of time it all got done on time! Enjoy some of the Manny stuff....