I want to rework my Melvin images using colored pencil, India ink on craft paper. here is a test of what I am going for.

Melvin and the Big Fish Fry Snapping turtle concepts

Snapping Turtle Development


























































Possible side kick character

New Story: Melvin and the Big Fish Fry

I am currently working on my next book idea: the working title is A Melvin Story: Melvin and the Big Fish Fry. In this story Melvin encounters some bully snapping turtles and one big bully boss fish.
Design Elements: First the big fish design: Currently, I have no specific fish species in mind. It needs to be just "a bully fish" with no real tie to a specific breed of fish.However, with that said, I lean towards a catfish or barracuda, or a shark like style. But it may end up being something completely different. It will be the "look" more than anything. I want a good form more than a "type" of fish.  I don't want arguments over what kind of fish it is.. just that we all agree, "it's a fish"..All of these drawings were done today at the kitchen table. I was trying to get a feel for some thing. It runs the gamut of Jabber Jaw shark to catfish, Nemo's Angler fish to the bully Tex Avery Fish with hook in lip like a cigar.

Snapping Turtle designs:
The turtles are definitely snappers. I started out just drawing my idea of a turtle but they all ended up looking like a bird or Gonzo the Great. So I got out my trusty field guides. Turns out turtle skulls are more cylindrical and the snappers are more triangular. Snapper eyes are much smaller than a box turtle or a mud turtle, mostly because they like murky waters and do not rely on eye sight to hunt. The soft shell turtle is a very odd looking creature and that type of turtle would not have the appeal I am looking for. My snappers have to be likable even though they are trouble. After a few tries I started to get a look I was happy with. Next I got to work on the shells and legs and feet. This is not bad for a days work.

Week of Feb 19-25, 2012

I have been working specifically on the manuscript for the last two weeks. I am happy with the progress. I needed to lay out the entire story in better detail to determine the number of important images that I need to create.
Over the week end I was able to create several images that i am very happy with. I feel they are some of my best work yet. The house is still a work in progress.

2/18/2012: Work in Progress: This will be the establishing shot for Melvin's house.

2/17/2012: This is a rework of Late at night with Melvin and the T.V.

2/17/2012: This image is a rework of the Bot's first strike against unsuspecting butterfly.

Background test

This image is my original sketch of the establishing shot.

This is my first attempt to create a Digital background of the establishing shot for my Melvin story. (Click image for closer look.)

This is a quick sketch of Melvin where I am testing out more flexibility in his body. I want his whole body to be apart of his motions. This is an attempt to create a flow of his body posture with his body movement. In this image he is looking off camera to the left creating a strong flow through his body.(Click image for closer look.)

This image is of tree concepts. The one with a check mark beside it is one I think I will develop further. I like the flat termination point of the branches from the trunk and the square shapes for the canopy.(Click image for closer look.)

This image is for concept of Melvin's house. I want the house to be of irregular shape contrasting his more organic form. I want the shapes to be geometric and blocky and completely unrealistic but still capture the essence of a basic house.(Click image for closer look.)

Melvin test Digital 100% version

The image below is my first attempt to create a 100% digital version of Melvin. This is a test to learn a basic work flow and create a color palette for this book. My Style is based on my fondness to the old Pink Panther cartoons and their wonderful use of minimalistic techniques. I want to give just the right amount of information to help support the story and not over saturate the viewer with details. I want the reader to create the world with only a little help from me. The Artist
Tom O'Loughlin is responsible for the backgrounds of many pink Panther cartoons and it is in this style I wish to carry on this tradition in my stories. Click the image to get a closer look.

The image below is a variety of screen captures from the Pink Panther cartoons. In my selection I tried to find backgrounds that would be similar to my story elements and future ones. For example, pine trees and deciduous trees , a house, and the basic flora ground cover and the rendering of cityscapes. In addition, Like the way the rocks were handled as well as the jungle type environment.Click the image to get a closer look.

This study has helped me, but trying to find a way to incorporate stylistic elements without copying is challenging. In the end, I need my work to have an essence of these ideas without loosing my own individual style in the process. The point is not to copy but add to my own skills with these new ideas thus creating, within me, a new seamless, composite style of my own.

My biggest goal is to create a workflow that is efficient for me. So that means every image must:

• Provide the viewer with just the right amount of information. I really want minimalistic elements but what I keep doing is overkill, or just flat out uninspired, copying. I have to be brave to follow my own heart and be myself and not be someone else.


• Be possible to create in a reasonable amount of time. ( i.e. I would like to be able to finish one entire drawing in a day)


• It can not be riddled with technological difficulties: This does not mean I do not learn new techniques, but it does mean that the drawing does not suffer from loss of the initial impetus. Regardless of the media, the drawing must tell the story first. If it does not do so, it is unsuccessful no matter how "cool" it may look.

Study of Artists and Style

Regardless of how much I learn about 3D computer animation, I always finds myself falling back on the same artistic stylings that give comfort and make me feel happy. These styles, to me, keep the art work flowing with an energy you do not have with highly refined work.
These artists are not in any particular order.

• Moe Willems:I love his style and looseness and his simple but well written stories. he was also a PBS Sesame Street writer and animator.




• Quentin Blake: Illustrator of Roald Dahl books.
  



• Charles Schultz




• Dr. Seuss




• Betsy Lewin: Illustrator for Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that type by Doreen Cronin.
  

Update

Spring 2012: Completing my Melvin book is now incorporated into my curriculum for earning my Masters Degree in Art Education. I will be working with my Professor, Kevin Reeder, at University of Illinois and complete the book as part of my Art Education degree.
I am very excited about this as it helps me accomplish two goals at once.
I will be making additions to my illustrations and getting the story smoothed out. By May 2012 I should have it complete..

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: