I was cleaning my office today and I found a bunch of sketches that threw into a trash pile on the floor. Then I remembered that I said I would post all (or at least most,) of my sketches to the Rabbit. Well, I wasn’t about to scan them all “cause I gots things ta do!” So I decide to take pictures of the trash pile. It’s better that way. Really.
Oh and here’s a Manga kid.
This is a self portrait from this morning. Having to get up at 5am to drive my kid to Hockey practice takes a toll. Technically this is, in reality, another zombie sketch. They are one in the same really. I think most of my drawing have some hint of me in them. Notice the striking jaw line and muscular physique. That’s all me.
His hair and clothes might be a little neat for a zombie but I figure since no ones actually seen a zombie, its entirely possible that they are both image conscious Hollister fans as well as brain eaters.
I’m not sure what I want the Plaid Zombie.com mascot to look like so I am just going to experiment for a while. I don’t really have a style of my own worth pursuing so I will probably just keep trying different styles until I find one I like.
On a side note. This is one the of the first sketches in really long time that I’ve done in red. I usually work in blue colored pencil but, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and her sketches were all done in red. I thought since hers stuff looked better than mine a color change couldn’t hurt right? So there it is in red. Turns out her work is still better than mine. Who’d have thought! I was thinkin’ I was really on to something with that color stuff.
Rejection is a very valuable lesson to learn if you are an artist. You have to remember most of the time you are being paid to bring someone else vision to life not yours. You have to learn to separate yourself from your work so you don’t take it personally. One of my mentors once told me “it’s the things you work the hardest on and the things you like the most that are the first to go when it comes time for review.” He was totally right! You think you understand that until the first time it actually happens to you. Keep in mind if you want to last in this field you can’t become bitter or difficult about it. You have to take the job for what it is, be creative where you can, and keep a good attitude. You’ll get to make some calls for sure but if you want creative control of everything you work on you’re dreaming. If you can be creative within the constrains of the job you will be better for it.
Below is the concept art I started from. I needed to make it a vector piece in order to animate it and make it scalable to 2 inches tall and even smaller in some cases. It needed to be simplified in order to animate it of course so I thought I’d see if I could stylize it to make in more fun to animate.
This was the original concept by Brian Backus.
Below is the design I came up with based on the concept art I was given. Certainly, it was a big departure from the original but it was cute, modern, fun, and simple. I thought it would be great for the 5 to 8 year olds we were designing for. This guy was a cartoon! He looks like he could be flattened in one scene and stretched way out in the next.
This is the style I wanted to use.
It was rejected. (Immediately I might add.) It was to much of a departure to handle. It was a hard pill to swallow because I really liked the design. (Still do.) I got caught up in making it and around me everyone really liked it. So by the time it was reviewed by the creator of the original I thought for sure he would like it. WRONG! He didn’t and he had every right to hate it. I’m sure from his perspective he really liked his design and everyone around him really liked it. It made me realize I was there to bring his stuff to life not create my own. So I designed the one below.
This is what we settled on. Still cute and not too complex. I just thought that he looked less like a fun cartoon and more like the type you see in the reserved cartoons of the 80's.
Here are a bunch of real world animals I created. Most of them were rejected and had to be redone for various reasons. As I said before, rejection is a very valuable lesson to learn if you are an artist. The faster you learn it the better you will be at being creative with what you have to work with.
Polar Bear. This one made it.
This cobra was rejected for looking too Disney.
I think this one was turned down too. Not sure though.
the Anaconda. Rejected because of the pose.
An Emperor penguin. Rejected for looking mildly depressed.
Orangutans are hard to draw. They tend to look like other apes. Didn't make it I don't thing.
The mighty Ostrich! I think this made it too.
The Platypus is also difficult for me because they're weird. It was rejected for lack of form and fingers. It was a hard balance between simplifying it to look good at 2 inches tall and having detail.
I don't like this one. I made it right after I was told the cobra was too Disney looking so I was really focused on going the other way with it. It lacks personality. But it was accepted.
These are some of my favorites. Most were easy to think up and create.
A Space Ship. This one is the first drawing I did after deciding to purposly make things mis-shapen to add interest.
This is a Baobab tree. If you haven't seen one you sould look them up cause they're awesome!
The Castle. I like this one because it was made to be 2 inches tall and it looked better than I thought it would that size.
Its a cactus is all but I liket that it looks very cartoon like.
I like this one because I got paid to draw poop. Who else can say that? Although, this is not my only drawing that looks like crap.
A Mushroom.
