Why Corporations Love the Art of Repurposing

Since I mentioned "repurposing" in my last post, I'd thought I'd talk about it as I recently (and accidentally) found a NEW instance of it being done with my work!

They took my Scooby-Doo from the 2012 DVD release 13 Spooky Tales Around The World and put him on the 2022 Blu-Ray release of the Classic '69-'70 Series! See below!

When I designed the art, everything was on separate layers (I mean everything: Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, Velma, Fred, Aztec God, Mayan Temple, Alien Ship, Bermuda Triangle dotted line, etc, etc). You did this so that anything could be adjusted easily for different formats. You also see this being done currently with book covers and their audiobook releases.

It's like a digital version of Colorforms (if you are old enough to know what they were!) where you have a background plate and can places the elements anywhere you like to form a new image. 

As Scooby was on a separate layer, they pulled him from the original digital file and then moved his one eyeball so that he would be looking at the viewer. Easy Peasy, and done in under a minute!  

So they used my Scooby, and then found the rest of the Gang from other files and used them (Shaggy's jaw is off though, and the coloring work on Daphne, Velma, and Fred is slightly different), so it makes me think that all the members of the Gang were pulled from early DVD covers. The background plate art of the haunted house has been used many times for many different things! The first time it was used was for a DVD cover (could be wrong) and then it got absorbed into the official style guide for Scooby. The little ghost above the logo could be an element pulled from the "design elements" section of the Scooby style guide as well.

Every four-five years they re-release the original animated TV series again and they needed a new cover to freshen it up. In an effort to save money, they give the designer access to the archived files and they pull various aspects from various sources to create a new image. They probably had this new release ready to go in maybe a couple weeks (with all the approvals and sign-offs needed) and it cost them nothing beyond the designer's time, which was probably a day's work.

Repurposing is a staple of the marketplace and it can help a corporation save some money during lean times! Warner Bros already paid for the art and they own it, so why not reuse it again! Makes perfect sense, but it does hurt us artists in the end as they don't get us to do new work. Not that corporations care, it's all about the bottom line.

Repurposing of OLD art only hurts me in my effort to make NEW money. I'm not complaining, but this is one of the main issues why getting new work can be really slow. 

I myself repurpose some of my older work! You just saw an example of it with my "Frankenferb" post last month! It was an old piece of line art from 2010 that I colored a month ago and freshened it up to make a new, cool design! My new Winnie the Pooh tribute piece was created using aspects of my original Pooh art I did back in 2006. That worked out great as it tied together my professional time with Pooh with his 100th Anniversary!

While I keep my own archive of all my art, my Scooby stuff is sitting somewhere at WB waiting to see the light of a new day in the marketplace. The same with my Disney stuff! There's a LOT of art that I did that I would love to see released again! While there's no new money from it, I can use the new release of it to promote myself and try to get new work from it. New releases of my older stuff keeps my name out there. As the kids say "my content is fresh, baby!" 

Repurposing. While corporation may love it, and it has its benefits, we creatives tend to dread it.

 

Doing some work in the world of DR. SEUSS!

Sorry for a recent lack of posting, but I've been busy doing some work for the world of Dr. Seuss!

It also becomes a new addition to my roster of IP's that I've done work for! 

The job was to be much bigger originally (as I was hoping), but they decided last minute to save some money by repurposing older art from their archive. Repurposing! My old nemesis has returned! 

No Cat in the Hat, nor the Grinch, but I did work with Horton the elephant among other Seuss stuff! I have no idea when it will see the light of day either. Guessing in the Spring? Who knows. I kind of gave up trying to find out as some stuff I've done is taking much longer than it should to come out these past couple years. I'm looking at you, Phineas & Ferb!

Also, This work has been all drawn digitally using Clip Studio Paint & Photoshop as the tweaks and changes just made it easier to deal with.

 

Might be time for ANOTHER printing for SCOOBY-DOO'S GREATEST ADVENTURES!

ZOINKS! DC Comics might want to do a new printing for Scooby-Doo's Greatest Adventures! 

Not only because I'm in it (shameless plug), but it's also sold out again! Considering they aren't doing anything new with Scooby, it might be a good bet to go back to press!

First edition was in 2019 (for the 50th), second edition was in Oct '24, and I see it's unavailable again at the booksellers. For a secondary market, even eBay's prices are high, though not like Amazon.

Did some work on a DISNEY VILLAINS project this month!

Did some work on a Disney Villains project this month! 

First time I ever worked on something related to Sleeping Beauty. 

It was Maleficent and her raven Diablo. 

Honestly, I had to do a search as she looked familiar to me, but I didn't know the official names so I just referred to her as the "bad queen and her bird."

I had to do it all digitally (Clip Studio Paint / Photoshop) as they wanted it all separated as well, and it made life easier as I had to do several tweaks to make it work. Then a week later, I was asked to do another piece, which was also required it to be all separated by layers.

These days, more licensing art has you keeping things separated so you have the character (most important), background, effects, etc all separated for adjusting or separate usage on other things. They like it that was so they can repurpose stuff later on and just pull aspects of stuff from the files. 

They also don't pay you more for doing the extra work, but I see more places requesting it.

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As a side note, I also saw that McDonald's was having a Disney Villains Happy Meal (Boo Buckets) promo as well this month as I went through the drive-thru. It has nothing to do with my project, but I guess it's something Disney wants to promote more. Let's hear it for the Villains! Woo!

 

FRANKENFERB!

The character line art for this was originally a piece of spot illustration that I did for P&F way, way, way back in 2010 for a Phineas & Ferb activity book. I go back pretty far with these characters and is why I get labeled these days as being a "legacy" artist.

The original art was drawn on paper, scanned and sent to the designer at the time. I still have the physical artwork for all the P&F stuff I did at that time sitting. I was recently going through my archives and found him again.

Since Halloween is this month, I colored the archived scan this afternoon as a goof. But then I kept playing around with it... and played around with it some more... and came to the conclusion that this would make a GREAT t-shirt for kids!

 

Happy 100th Birthday, Winnie The Pooh! Your first book was published today in 1926!

On October 14, 1926, the very first Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne (which was simply titled Winnie-the-Pooh) was published by Methuen & Co. in England and E. P. Dutton in the United States! It was the first of two collections of short stories to be published and it became a true classic!

Coincidentally, in October 2006 (exactly 20 years ago this month!), I had just come off finishing up licensing art for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and moved right over to working on art for My Friends Tigger & Pooh which was also on TV at the time! I repurposed some of the art I did to make this celebration piece! 

While the original A. A. Milne version of Pooh looks quite different, I think most people automatically think of the Disney version when you mention Winnie the Pooh.

I'm happy to have worked professionally on such an iconic character who is celebrating his 100th Birthday all this year! Those original stories are still great!

Long live Winnie and his friends who inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood!

 

VOTE FOR DOOF!

I drew this one-pager gag for Phineas and Ferb many years ago and it's AMAZING how timely it still is as the U.S. mid-term elections are coming up in November! Proof that some things don't change!

P&F Story Editor/Writer Scott Peterson nailed it on this one with his usual grace and wit!

PORTFOLIO 101: A Wizard Magazine article I tore out and saved from 1999!

Found these torn out pages while I was going through art books this weekend wondering what to keep or sell on ebay. This is from Wizard Magazine's 2000 issue (Dec 1999) about making a portfolio! Still a lot of good stuff here! 

I scanned it yesterday to share for posterity as I'm a cool guy.

I broke the two pages into single sheets to make them readable. Click on them to open the images and then right-click each to "open image in a new tab." That should make them big enough to read and save!

 

Philadelphia Comicfest '93! Where it all started...

It was exactly 33 years ago today (and this weekend) that I went to Comicfest '93 with my portfolio in hand! 

From October 8-11, I attended all four days and worked that show hard to network and get my name and work out there. I had been readying for the convention all that spring/summer, doing new work, organizing my portfolio, and getting samples packages ready to hand out. 

It was a different time and place. There was no internet back then, young people. You had to have manila envelopes with copies ("Xerox" copies as we referred to them back then) of all your best samples (each sample in the envelope had my name, address, and phone number on the back of them) and a business card. You also wrote your name on the outside of the envelope for identification. I think mine was "Scott Neely Art Samples" or something close to it. You had to make it easy for people to pull out and go through. I had made up 25 envelopes which I carried in a backpack. I forget what black and white/color copies cost back then but it was an expense you could at least write off on your taxes. These days it would be a helluva lot easier as we live in a digital world, but you still had to go out and sell yourself.

This was my "seize the day" (or weekend as it was) opportunity as one of the biggest comic conventions was in my own backyard, so to speak. I don't remember anything as big taking place in Philadelphia. It was held at the old Philadelphia Civic Center, which was massive, and they would later tear it down and build the new Philadelphia Convention Center in a better location. Even all the Philly Wizard World shows that took place at the new convention center didn't seem to be as big as this one was. 

It was 1993, Comics were booming and I wanted in.

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When I saw that John Romita was attending the show, I wondered if he would be doing any portfolio reviews. I didn't know, so I called the Marvel offices and asked for him. He picked up and said "Hi, this is John." 

I couldn't believe I was actually doing this. I was young and hungry. 

I introduced myself and apologized for stealing a moment of his time and asked him if he would be, in fact, at the convention and if he would be looking at portfolios. He said he would be and he told me to stop by and he would look at my stuff. Wow! Sometimes it can be that easy. I was a fan, and valued his opinion highly, as he is the greatest Spider-Man artist of all time. 

I met him and his son (John Jr) as both were sitting at a table together (the Romitas had always sat at a table together). I had to wait for two other hopefuls to talk to him but listened to what he was telling them. Then it was my turn, I introduced myself to him and he remembered me. He gave me good criticism and I told him to not sugar-coat anything. He went through my sequential page copies and then laid tracing paper over them (which I brought in case I needed some) and drew over my drawings and showed me how to make the layouts more dynamic and how to better frame my shots. I took it all in. He was very generous with his time and was the true gentleman that the industry knew him to be. I'm glad he saw my stuff. Some of the things he told me took root in my brain and I use them to this day.

I also met a guy named Richard "Rick" Taylor who worked for DC Comics. He was at their booth and looking through portfolios. He liked my stuff and told me to come back around noon that day. I showed back up and he took me aside so we could get some peace and quiet to talk. The industry was at its highest level at that point in time and the noise and excitement of the convention made you have to talk a little louder to people so they could hear you. We sat near the far wall of the convention where people were resting (it was like sitting outside a "mosh pit") and he spent 45 minutes with me going over my stuff. Another amazing time! Although I wouldn't do work for DC until years later, I valued what he said and he gave me good criticism to fix areas of my storytelling and what they were looking for in artists. Not much has changed in that respect. 

By Sunday, I was exhausted and had a sore throat from talking so much. They were long, full days... and when I got back home each night, I didn't talk at all in an effort to save my voice. 

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When all was said and done, I walked away with 4 gigs.

The first gig was received and accepted at the show. The contract would be mailed to me. 

The second gig would arrive around two weeks later in the form of a phone call! 

The other two gigs would show up before the end of the year.

When I list my "official" start date doing art as a career, it all started with this convention! It was a good time... for a little while, at least. Why you may ask? What could possibly have happened?

Unfortunately, this was the year before the entire industry imploded and started to crumble and fall apart... (In some respects, it's kind of like the chaos in the world of entertainment right now. But let's keep it positive).

 

Cartoon Network's "Cartoon Cartoons" was the LAST, great "Golden Age" of modern cartoons!

I thought I'd post some sketches as I was just talking to someone about how all those great cartoons that aired on Cartoon Network from 1997-2004 was the last, great "Golden Age" of modern cartoons! "Cartoon Cartoons" was a true high point in late-90s animation that spawned a wide range of unique artistic styles and slick, fun writing! Friday nights never had it so good! 

Some sketches I did as warm-ups or for fun! All lightly penciled, then inked on cheap copy paper.

Courage, The Cowardly Dog

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

Ed, Edd n Eddy 

 

Working with proper designers is key!

When I worked with Capstone I worked with some fantastic designers who would give me all the proper information to do great work. I would always ask for a cover template so that I would know exactly how much space I had to work within. This is important for both covers and interior art!

Although cover elements would be tweaked, everything artistically dropped exactly where I wanted it. I always ask for these templates as you never know how much information they may want to place on a cover, and the main rule for adding any logos or other design elements is that they should look like they were meant to be there as part of the artwork. 

The cover is the most important selling point of the final product.

Also, when I did my rough cover art I added more art to the sides just in case I needed to move, enlarge, reduce the image a smidge in the layout file.

When I worked on some comic covers for DC, I made my own templates so that things would land where I wanted them too. Here's one I did for Cartoon Cartoons #27. I placed a tracing of the series logo and the banner outline that ran across the top into my template. I also added in the UPC box and where the dead areas of the covers could have some blurbs to them. The UPC box could run on either side of the cover, but you have to plan to leave the areas open. You don't want any important information being covered up accidentally.

 

Happy Batman Day!

I recreated the Batman TV show "end credits" art with the Adobe Illustrator pen tool waaaaaay back on August 3, 2011. 

I thought it would be an awesome wallpaper for the computer, and I was right and it's still in my rotation! I framed it in black so all my desktop icons go around it without covering it up. I cropped it for this blog post.

I had to work off a screengrab I made from a pirated DVD (that was sold at all the conventions as an official release of the classic Batman TV series would still be years away) and the pic reference I used was only 315 x 234!!! Holy bad pixels, Batman! Unbelievable. I still have the reference guide pic and checked it to be sure I was reading it right. Talk about the dark ages of low res...

I love this classic artwork. It makes me smile. 

 

Agent P sketch in Sketchbook Pro

I did a sketch for fun of Agent P (aka Perry the Platypus) in Sketchbook Pro. 

I was just playing around with the program, but it turned out looking cool so I added the color to finish it and make it pop! Then made a GIF file of the layers to show the basic process that you've seen a million times on my blog. 

 

Ferb sketch in ArtRage

Had a Ferb-tastic quiet lunch today with Ferb! He's a man of few words. 

Drawn in ArtRage and all freehand. Would have been a hell of a lot easier if I could remember how to use the program's rulers or stencils though to save some time in spots, but you can't have everything. Still came out looking fine though.