Character Design....

It seems that I have missed bloggin' the last couple of days. I have been trying very hard not to miss a day, but things happen and being really busy doesn't help matters either!

I was asked by a client the other day to draw up some sketches of a character he was creating for a novel/comic book.

He gave me the run down of the story line which was about a retired sheriff ( back in the old west ) who is found by some outlaws that he helped put behind bars years earlier. To make a long story short... they find the sheriff, put him in an old wishing well to die. He doesn't die, but instead figures out a way to climb out. After being left for dead, and nothing left to lose he goes after all the outlaws to seek his revenge.

Here are my sketches that I whipped up. Typically, most artist draw their character profile in a front, side, and back view. I tend to draw the front view, a head shot, and a action shot. This helps give the writer/employer a good idea of what the character might look like and help spark so more imagination!

Bad Axe Lock-in.....Results

The last time I posted, I talked about the Bad Axe Lock-in. As I figured, this Las Vegas themed party....WAS AWESOME!!!! All the kids who got caricatures done where great. They made me feel at home right away asking me if I need any to eat or drink or how they could help.

At first, I thought to myself, I might not be that busy. Then when the 10:30 mark hit, I had all kinds of kids wanting me to draw them.  I had so many that a sign-up sheet was started, and by the time 10:45 hit I had 38 kids on the list. Just to give you and example of how shocking this was, if you take the 38 kids and times that by 3 minutes a face....equals 114 minutes, or just about 2 hrs of drawing!

I was so popular that the kids requested that I stay a little longer, so I gave in and stayed an extra hour. I can tell you this, I was there for 5 hours and I never once moved from my chair due to how busy I was, but it was worth it!

Hopefully, there is another lock-in next year, cuz I am so there! 

Lock-In Gig Tonite....

People who know me, know my business in the summertime is caricatures first, illustration second. Tonite is another caricature gig for me at the Bad Axe High School- Lock-in. This should be a great time as the theme of the lock-in is Las Vegas, which is a place I am very familiar with!

I always love events that are close to home. It gives me a chance to talk with people in the community and help me land other caricature gigs. The one thing that I am not looking forward to tonite is the time frame of when I will draw caricatures. It just happens to be from 10:30 pm until 2:30 am ( Ahhhhhh! ).

Hopefully, if I'm not to busy ( probably will be though! ) I will get a chance to take some pictures and post them later tonite, or tomorrow for sure!

And The Custom Avatar Winner Is.....

The winner of the first finish the sentence game is.....
Sarah Dow! I thought that it was very unique that out of all the possibilites in the world, Sarah wanted to grow to be a penguin.....how unique!

Here is how the final four went in order.
1. Sarah Dow
2. James Gagnon
3. Jani Verga
4. Merry Mankin

A Finished Product!

I blogged earlier about who to draw for caricature samples, and my approach to it. At the bottom of that blog I left a little message that I was going to post a finished Cee Lo caricature...and here it is.

I inked the drawing and scanned it into Adobe Photoshop CS5. I then proceeded to color the illustration working out where the shadows are, and the general light source. This is what I came up with.....enjoy!

From Sketch To Finished Product...How Do You Know Who To Draw?

People often ask me (when I am drawing caricatures at a festivals or events) how do I know what people to draw for caricature samples?

We'll it isn't the easiest question to answer, but here is how I do it. The first thing I do is watch television. Your probably thinking...huh, I watch television to figure out what the popular shows are, and who everyone is talking about. Also, I look for long running programs like Survivor, The Office, or even The Apprentice. ( These shows have established followers that help make my caricatures more recognizable ) In some cases, I make caricatures of people of  new shows ( Cee Lo, on the right, and the new show he is on called The Voice ) Next, I turn to good ol' Yahoo and Google search engines. The search engines usually have a feature called " What's Trending " If I find a combination of a popular show on tv that has an actor or actress trending, then that is an individual I tend to draw. It sounds simple enough... I know, but the secret to get people really attracted to my samples is to make a 50/50 mixture of popular and scandalous people. This helps to stir up conversation as everyone almost always has an opinion about an actor or actress!

Here is who I identify as simply popular... People like Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, and Harrison Ford are people I consider popular. You hear about them in the news, but its always positive comments. Then you have the Scandalous! People I consider to be scandalous are individuals like Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Pamela Anderson! These individuals seem to be caught in some kind of sex scheme, or money issues that help make for interesting topic to discuss...you get the point.

*Look for a finished Cee Lo caricature in the next blog!

Work Overload....Can You Handle The Pressure?

Every job in the world has its ups and downs, or atleast I believe they do! Being a freelance artist is no different. I spend a lot of time doing the small things that make the difference in whether or not I get repeat business from my employers.

For example, I finished a cartoon logo for a women the other day, and the finished design was to be delivered in a simple jpeg file format. She contacted me the next day and stated that she couldn't get the white off of the image to use on her business card.  (Now keep in mind I have already been paid for the job) but in hopes that she will send me more business I changed her file from a jpeg to a png with no questions asked.

You might be wondering to yourself, why I'm telling you this. The reason is simple! The only way to be sucessful in the business world is to do the little things that keep you seperated from all the other businesses out there. Fact is, there are hundreds of freelance artist just like me, but since I do the little things...and do them well, people trust me more than the next guy.

In the end, when your being pounded by employers left and right about their designs...keep your focus! In the freelance artist world its first come, first serve. I know that you want to get started on that big job that might pay you a couple grand, but finish the little hundred dollar job you started first. It will pay off in the end.

Boston Rob Wins Survivor......

I'm probably one of the biggest Survivor fans in the world. I've seen every season and have to admit that I couldn't stand Boston Rob the first season he played. Well wouldn't you know it, I found myself rootin' him on this season. He was still his snake-in-grass self, but I will give him props since he had complete control of the game.

In my eyes, he's the best player to ever play Survivor. Sure you can make the argument that Russel Hantz is, but Rob has this way of making you believe he'll take you to end and crush you when he gets the chance. Russel just seems to bully his way through the game and claims to be the best. I'll argue this case with anyone....

For now, all I have to say is....YOU GO ROB! spend the million dollars, you truly deserve it! 

I'm On Fire.....

The life of a freelance artist isn't always what it's cracked up to be. There are moments and times when work is hard to find, or it's so abundant that its like a storm...when it rains, it poors!

As of right now I'm in the storm phase of freelancing. As lady luck would have it I'm in the middle of two projects as we speak. I can't show samples of the projects just yet, not until there completed and I have permission from my employers. You can bet, if they give me permission to use the image I'll post them on the blog in no time.

Busy, Busy.....

Besides the fact that I do a lot of illustration work, I also find time to create t-shirt designs for customers as well. I get really busy in the beginning of January as everybody is in a hurry to get the lastest ideas out for the world to see.

Here is a sample page that I send to employers when a t-shirt job comes available. Typically, I charge around $45 dollars for a full color design like you see on the left.

If you look closely the bottom green t-shirt artwork is from a design I blogged about just a couple of days ago! I was going to send it to the James family to let them see what it would look like, but I never got around to sending it!

Friday the 13th....Muh Ha Ha

It seems funny to me that a certain movie made back in the 1980's....Um, you guessed it.... Friday the 13th has helped make this already freaky date in history, infamous in our culture.

I mean come on...does anyone really believe that a little boy drowns in a lake, magically becomes full grown, and kills innocent teenagers wearing a hockey mask and a machete....I think not!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a big horror fan ( mostly zombie flicks ) and Friday the 13th is certainly a cult classic. Who will ever forget the surprise ending in the first one, everybody was like "Whoa, the killer was the mom". The only thing that ruined this classic was the next movie, which introduce the new killer as a super natural phenom we all know today as Jason Voorhees.

So in honor of today's date, I thought I'd poke a little fun at Mr. Voorhee's and the legacy that this character has left behind. I mean, the last I heard the Friday the 13th series is well into double digits as far as sequels goes. I think the last one was called Jason In Space, but with how many movies they have already made I'm probably wrong!

Sometimes They Come Back!

The five gentlemen in the picture are an example of why good communication is key to becoming a sucessful freelance artist. I was contacted by the James family ( Wayne James-far right ) via email to create a caricature/logo for their band called A Touch of Class.

At first, there was band member issues as they shuffled around to get the right individuals and the right sound. Then I had my own technical problems and I couldn't complete the project. Months later the James family contacted me again. They asked if I would give it another go as they had the line-up they were looking for.

The second time around was awesome! I used the pencil sketches from the previous attempt and created the image you see above. The communication between us was great, as Wayne explained what he was looking for and I made artistic suggestions to help improve the design. As a general rule I ask all my clients if they could send me a picture of the final image. Most clients don't as they're busy trying to make their ideas come to life.

So what did we learn? Communication is key to sucessful freelancing, and persistance pays off.....The proof of that is the picture above!

A simple tutorial on how to make unique eyes...

I made this tutorial a long time ago and figured it was time that I shared it with others. This is just one method you can use to make cartoon eyes, but there are probably endless possibilities. Hopefully, more tutorials that I made will be coming soon. In case any one is wondering I used adobe photoshop cs3 to create the eye. Just follow the instructions and see what you come up with! Don't forget to send me pic of your cartoon.

Happy Mothers Day

This is for all of the mothers out in the world, Happy Mothers Day! I know that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mom creating me.....So this sketch is for you mom!

Messin' around!

It seems like forever since I took the time to create a story board type cartoon. So I thought today would be a great day to let the imagination run wild and see what it comes up with. I ended up with a space adventure and convinced myself it would be a great theme for the cartoon. I imagined some world explorer landing on a distant planet, eaten and then digested. The great thing about cartoons is that almost anything can happen in them! See ya next time.....  

KISS Band Tribute!

As if it has to be said, I'm a huge 80's Rock fan! I love all the greats Poison, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Queen, and even Guns 'n Roses! As awesome as all of these bands are, there is really just one band that stands out, literally screaming for attention, when it comes to drawing caricatures, and this band would be none other than the legendary KISS!!!

Gene Simmons, aka the "Demon" has rocked the bass guitar and vocals since 1973. Kudos to Gene for sticking it out this long and offering up decades of awesome rock!

Paul Stanley, aka the "Star Child" is another original KISS Band member, contributing  rhythm guitar and vocals since 1973.

The "Catman", Eric Singer is currently the KISS Band drumer, percussionist, and vocalist on and off again since 1991.

Tommy Thayer, the current "Spaceman" of KISS joined the group in 2002, offering up a screaming lead guitar and vocals.

Osama vs. Waldo.....

With all of the talk about Osama Bin Laden's death flying around, I decide it was time that I put my own two cents in.

The joke was thought up by my friend Dan. Obviously I did the art work....

A Formula For Sucess!

Hello friends,

Mickey Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Simpsons, or any other cartoon in print, on television, or in the movies are the incredibly successful brain children of those cartoonists who had to start at the beginning and learn to draw like the rest of us. Have you ever wondered if there is some kind of formula that cartoonist use to create their cartoons?  Well, the answer to that question is “yes”; there is a formula, per se, that one must follow in order to become a successful cartoonist. The formula my friends is simple; study, study, draw, draw, study, and then draw some more. Talent and imagination are big parts of becoming successful in cartooning, but that talent and creativity will most likely never blossom into something amazing unless you learn the basics of cartooning, then study the techniques used by the “great ones” and then draw your ass off. A huge part of my growth as an artist can be attributed my massive collection of “How-to-draw” books and videos. As part of my weekly blog routine, I’d like to share the details of some of the better books that I’ve come to treasure in my collection by providing all of you with a review. There are some awesome books out there that are worth every penny, and some that are not worth the paper they are printed on, so why waste your money on them if I already have? If you have a certain book you’d like reviewed, drop me a note, chances are, I’ve already got it here. Stay tuned!