The Flannel RabbitDerek's Art Blog

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.