More Simplicity


Another page of stripped down cartooning. I was concentrating on doing simple character designs in order to animate them in Flash. Back in 1999 Nizzibet had been contacted by someone she knew who was working with an internet startup company. The company wanted to create a number of short flash cartoon series to be posted on the web. The plan was to generate a fanbase for each series inexpensively via the web and then sell/license the series to movie & television production companies. Nizzibet’s friend asked her (and therefore me and the rest of the Labor of Love studio) to pitch some series ideas to the company. The proposals didn’t have to come with illustrations attached – we weren’t going to be doing the animation – but I have a hard time writing for a visual medium without giving myself something visual to work with so I did sketches for each series as part of our idea generating process.

I don’t remember which (if any) series these sketches might have been for. It’s obviously one that I haven’t thought about in more than 8 years.

Simplicity


These sketches were done to see how simplified I could work. I have a tendency to add a lot of detail to my work. It seems more like a compulsion than a stylistic choice. I often have to decide ahead of time the limits of detail that I’ll put into a piece otherwise I can noodle it to death.

First Page


Second day of the new year and the first page from an old sketchbook. I’m pretty sure this book was finished in 1999. The lumpy thing at the bottom of the page is a sketch of one of Jeremy’s Germboys from the story Jeremy Loader Never Could Pick Up After Himself. I wrote the story back in 1992 or ’93 and it saw print in Asylum #3. Pia Guerra penciled it and I inked it.

In 1999 I was considering redoing the story with my own illustrations. Nothing wrong with Pia’s work (it was excellent), I just wanted to have a version of the story that was all me. I never got further than the sketching stage.

Getting to Carnegie Hall


One of the things I wish I had more time for is practice. I have a 40+ hour a week job. All my art gets done in the time that’s available around the job, chores, socializing and sleep. If I want to learn a new skill or practice one that I’m not using in a current assignment I have to find the time for it.

Currently I’m working on illustrating two books for Chaosium. The first – Basic Roleplaying is done in Photoshop enhanced pencilwork. For the next – Terrors From Beyond, I want the illustrations to have more contrast than I get with just pencils. So I’m putting ink on the places where I want solid blacks. Today’s piece was done earlier this week to see if what I was picturing in my head would work out as well on paper.

Stepping Lightly


This was to be an illustration for the Mandate of Heaven RPG. There’s a scene in one of Jet Li’s movies (Fist of Legen, I think) in which one of his martial arts battles amps up to the point where he and his opponent are walking on the heads of the crowd while fighting. That seemed like a handy skill to have, especially in modern crowded cities. This illustration features a character escaping his pursuers by running atop the masses.

This is also the last page scanned from my 2003 sketchbook. Tomorrow I’ll start show more recent work. Work that actually evolved into finished projects 🙂

Sketchisketch


I usually don’t scan pages that have this big a ratio of unfinished to finished sketches on them but I think that young lady is so full of life that it would be a shame not to share her with the world. The troll next to her is pretty cute too.