Been a while

So, it's been a while since i got to visit Melvin. However, today while at work i sketched him in a new way and I really like it.. It's a bit more square and a shorter body and longer legs. It changes his proportions a bit and I like it.. He's here with his fishing pole and no where to go..

I also created an animate Giff of Melvin hand-gliding because my son asked for a bed time story about Melvin hand-gliding ... I told the story and the next morning i created this..


While I am thinking about it here is another image I created based on another story that focuses on two scarecrows and a raven. This is a nice story and could be very cool if I can ever get it written.

Aug 1st 2010

I am still working on the text portion of the book. I managed to create a couple more images. As I write things are changing a little so some images I created earlier may not be used and others, I am finding, are needed.
I think I may cut down on the images i need and have it be a little more text based. I am not sure how it will all come out.
My biggest illustration issue right now is how detailed do I want my images to be. Part of me wants to try to have them rendered well and another part of me likes the scratchy, rough, minimalistic version. Sometimes I think that you get more energy in the scratchy, fast sketches than you do in the final polished renders. I find that you can lose the spirit of the drawing when it is over worked.
I like the idea of creating an impression of a scene and letting the viewer fill in the details with their own imagination. It allows the story to be more personal and individualized by the reader. If you put in every detail than then story can be too concrete.

Melvin in the garden:


GardenBot in Garden for the first time:

Rough draft Done!!

I am happy to say that i have completed a pretty solid rough draft today and it's all taking shape. I am going to go into some hard core revision work to get it as good as i can then have it edited by people I trust. In the mean time I have some more images to produce and I hope to have it all put together by the end of August if not sooner..

Melvin surprised me as he did some unscripted actions while I was writing. I know it sounds crazy but when you write the characters actually become alive and they do things and you just record it as fast as you can. Sometimes they do stuff you do not keep but other times they do stuff that is worth keeping and can make the story better..
It sounds weird I know.. but it's true.

7/10/2010

It's been a while since I have been able to post. However, I have been working on concepts and trying to keep at it.
Lately I have been trying to tackle some hard compositions that require more planning and thought. I have come to some pretty good solutions but they still need some tweaks.
I am posting many of the concepts I have come up with and will explain them.

The hardest portion of my story to depict is an area of the woods where the animals get banished to. It is basically like Skid Row. I had initially envisioned it as a vast place full of animals, bugs and basically any things that entered the garden and got thrown out. I researched battle fields of the Civil War and used that for inspiration. However I did not like the overall feeling of this.
I also wanted this scene to be a change of perspective for Melvin and also the reader. So the image needed to change the view point literally for both participants in the story.
These first concepts are of the battle field point of view. Obviously I would need many more "wounded" characters but i only added the key ones..

This first idea puts Melvin face to face with the outcast animals, however, none of them are wounded or injured so even though I initially liked this Idea I felt it was not useful to my story.


This image is more of a wide shot of the battlefield and shows wounded animals. I determined this was impersonal and also was more from a neutral point of view not the wounded soldiers point of view or Melvin's POV. So it was not useful either.



This image I was pleased with because it changed the POV to the animals and made Melvin enter into their world. I liked it so much I inked and rendered it but after wards I was not happy with the final result so I "trashed" it as well..However, the composition is more what I am looking for over all. What made it more successful is I huddled the injured around a single tree to make it more intimate. I dropped Melvin into the scene from a distance to minimize him and bring him into their world. In this shot he is disrupting their world and let's him see a side of life he had not seen before.




Building on the last composition I redrew it and focused on the expressions of the wounded animals. I wanted them to be aware of Melvin's intrusion into their world. I want it to be funny but also serious in nature.. I have not rendered it yet.




Injured Animals
The Garden Bot does not have any patience for pests in the garden. Anything that enters into the garden is quickly thrown out.. Here are some concepts I have for injured animals. I have the line drawing and the rendered drawing side by side:




Melvin Enters the Garden
Here is a concept of Melvin entering the garden after it has been guarded by the garden Bot.


Intruder Alert!
Garden Bot does not like intruders....


Melvin Go Home!!


Random Picture of Melvin holding the Garden Bot like a newborn baby.
Some times images just happen and this one turned out kid of special.

6/28/2010 I finally found It!!

Earliest Concept Art:
Today I found the folder that contained my earliest concepts for my book. These images were drawn several years ago and contain the earliest ideas I had for the story. I had packed the folder away when I moved and could not find it. I am happy to have it back as it contained my storyboards for the entire story. Now I can move forward on some more drawings.


Establishing shot: These images are of Melvin working on the farm. It shows his home in the woods and Melvin at work.










My earliest image of Melvin's response to the Infomercial. It's interesting to see how close I came to this in my final image as i had not seen this for a long time.




Robot concept art: My earliest concept for the Robot in my story looked like this:
I called him the GardenBot or the GB 5000. But that does not exactly roll off the tongue..
Now that i see this again I kind of like him better than the I*Bot.


Melvin peers out the window at the GardenBot hard at work. Notice another concept design for robot as reflected in the window..

6/24/20010

Yikes,
It's been four days since my last post and i have not been able to draw at all.
This week should be better..

6/22/2010

Today I worked on Melvin making the call to buy the I*Bot.


I also worked on the delivery of the I*Bot.
Melvin is looking out the window first thing in the morning to see this crate waiting for him.

6/20/2010

Concepts I worked on today for the I*Bot:

6.19.2010 Concepts of the day

Today was a good day. I came up with some pretty good ideas for Melvin. These are my concept art ideas to get the composition laid out or at least a pretty good idea of where i want the camera and the objects in the scene.


Trouble in the garden: the following ideas are to depict the kind of issues Melvin will be having in the garden. Critters of all sorts will be causing trouble and Melvin is dealing with them best he can.









These concepts depict a defeated Melvin returning to his house and looking back at his garden with sadness for he had just worked all day and his garden is still a mess and all seems lost.







This image depicts Melvin calling to buy the I*Bot after seeing the infomercial.



These images depict the way the I*Bot will be delivered:



I have made some changes to my robot: I am going to call it an I*Bot to keep current with the times. I simplified it's design a bit as well. When it is inactive it will sit like an "I" in the garden..

Late night Infomercial

This is the first image that i have completed, or at least is almost completed.
It's for the late night scene when Melvin is watching TV and comes across an infomercial that changes his life.

The Beginning

I have been wanting to write and illustrate a book using my Melvin character for many years now. Today i am setting a challenge for myself to complete the art work in three weeks. I will officially begin counting the days on Monday June 21st 2010. Three weeks from then, July 12, 2010 i want to have all the art work done.