Year of the Ox update

Hey guys. So "Year of the Ox", the next installment in the "Tales from the Chinese Zodiac" series is in the thick of production and since I have zero time for any kind of personal work, I figured I'd post up some stuff from the process.... the temporary color lineup... which may or may not change during production, and a few of my rough thumbnails from the interior pages. Nothing to spectacular or anything, but something to post up just the same. Hope ya like 'em.

On a side note, I want to appologize to everyone who's stopped by recently and left a comment... I really appreciate all the encouraging words and I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to your posts... I know it sounds cliche to say that I've been super busy, but it's true. So I just want to say thanks so much for coming by. Take care and be blessed everybody!

More Scribbles

Hey Guys. So nothing new here... just more character roughs. Hopefuly I'll have finished color stuff to post up soon, but we'll see. Until then take care, be blessed, and thanks for stopping by!

YOO Lineup

Hey Guys. Hope everyone is doing well out in Bloggerland. So here's the next step in the book development process for me anyway... a rough lineup of all the characters that will potentially be in the book on one page or another. I'm not sure what other illustrators do or don't do, but I find that working out a rough idea for each character gives me a bit more confidence going into the thumbnailing stage. I didn't get around to working out colors for these guys, but hopefully it'll be enough to give me a solid place to jump from.... we'll see I guess. Hope you like 'em okay and as always thanks for stopping by. Later taters.

New Year

Hey Guys. Hope all is well with everyone out in blogger land. It's been a good while since I last posted... life has been crazy busy for the past few months or so. I know that sounds a bit extreme, but it's true. But anywho,now that promotional stuff for "Year of the Rat" is wrapping up, it's time to start development for the next installment in the "Tales from the Chinese Zodiac" series, "The Year of the Ox". The new book is about an ox named Olivia and her best buddy Mei. More developement stuff soon to come! Take care and thanks for stoppin' by! Later taters....

First post of 2008?

Hey Guys. Well it's hard to believe it, but 2007 has apparently come and gone.... CRAZY! I don't know about you, but it sure did seem to fly by. So I'm officially back in Birmingham working from my little studio at the house and it's working out great so far.... being together with my wife and kids again is fantastic! It's amazing how much more I appreciate them now having been gone for a while. But anyway... I'm not sure if any of my Tigre buddies have a chance to stop by this silly blog of mine, but if you do... man I really miss you guys! Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

So here's something to get the new year started off. Nothing new to any of you guys that stop by from time to time, but at least it's something. Hope you like 'em okay. Take care everyone and as always, thanks so much to all you folks out there who take the time to stop by. Your comments are always mucho appreciated. Be blessed and have a great new year everyone!

"The Year of the Rat" has arrived!!!!

And early enough to pick up a copy before the first of the year. If you might be interested in picking up a copy of your very own you can visit the links below to check it out for yourself. I'll be posting up some of the interior pages soon to give ya a sneak peak of what's inside, but until then hopefully this will do. As always thanks for stopping by guys. Later taters-

http://www.immedium.com/products/yearofrat.html

http://www.amazon.com/Year-Rat-Tales-Chinese-Zodiac/dp/1597020117/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198860481&sr=1-3

More Freelance

Some finals from the rough in the last post.... nothing too great, but I figured I'd poste 'em anyway.

FREELANCE!!!!

Heya Guys. So here's some recent freelance I've been workin' on. Nothing too special or anything, but I figured I'd post it up for those of you who still find time to stop by this increasingly unactive blog of mine. And on that note, thanks to everyone who does come by and leave an encouraging word... your thoughts and comments are mucho appreciated. Hope ya like this round of stuff. Be blesed guys-

Tigre Cancelled !!?

Just in case you haven't heard yet, El Tigre has officially been cancelled. At the end of the day, the show just wasn't getting the ratings that the network expected, but in our defense it's extremely difficult to establish any kind of following if your show isn't on the air. But what are ya gonna do... I suppose that's just how it goes sometimes. Unfortunately even the best of things must come to an end.

The Evolution of Ralph

Heya Guys. Well it's hard to believe it, but it's nearly that time of year again. The next book in the Chinese Zodiac series entitled "The Year of the Rat" is due to hit book stores sometime in December for the Christmas season, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to put a few small images from it up here for ya to look at. Now at this point I'm not really sure about putting up pages from the interior, but I figured the cover (which I believe is up on Immedium's website), the splash page, and a few spot illustrations wouldn't hurt... so here goes. Hope they turned out okay.


So this is what we settled on for the cover... nothing special, but hopefully it's up to snuff.


The interior splash page... foreshadowing a very minute detail of the story. Nothing fantastic or anything, but I wanted to get at least one image in the book of Ralph eating cheese... you know at his ease doing what all rats would do best.


These were some of the very first comps done of Ralph... at this point the idea was to combine graphic characters with traditional looking chinese brush painted bgs. So that's why these guys are dressed like they are... that idea of dressing the characters was one of few initial concepts that managed to make it's way into the final book. Looking back at these now, they really don't offer much in terms of character exploration... most of the shapes are extremely similar, but at least they got the ball rolling :)


This is the first sketch that I did of Ralph that actually felt good to me... not saying it's great or anything, but it was the first time in the project where I thought "Hmmm... maybe this guy could carry a story..." and the revamp progressed from here....


... to here which is some of the very last character stuff done for the book. Ralph actually changed a bit throught the final rendering of the interior as well, so little discrepencies in treatment surface from page to page... but on the whole this is the fella that the book is all about. Hope ya like him okay.

As always, thanks for stopping by guys! Later taters!

300

Hey Gang. Well I know it's been a really long time since my last post and I'm really sorry. Things have just been super crazy lately... a lot of changes happening at one time. Anywho I do have some exciting news... Today is my first day at Nickelodeon... HOORAYY!!! I was fortunate enough to get a character design position on El Tigre a few months back and needless to say, I'm one big melting pot of emotions at the moment... excited, nervous, gassy... you name it and I'm probably feeling it right about now. I'm truly humbled to be working with such a super talented crew and I can't wait to get started!!! I know it's gonna be a blast!

So while I'm getting a better feel for L.A. I've been staying with my best bud Steve Lambe and his wife Sue. They've been awesome and I can't say how much my family and I appreciate all they're doing for me. Thanks guys!!! Since things have been pretty hot here lately, we decided to stay in and watch a movie the other night and "300" was what we settled on... and man... what a spectacular movie!!! Definitely not one to sit down and watch with the entire family, but it really was a great film.

Anywho this piece was inspired by the movie and the challenge for me was to work thru the entire thing without referencing the film, or anything else... you know base it entirely off what I remembered from the experience. Not sure how successful it is, but it definitely was super fun to cut loose and work on something just because for a change. Hope you guys like it.

El Tigre Bg's

Hey Guys. Well I know it's been a long time since my last post, so if anyone still comes by to see if the spider webs and dust have gotten any thicker, well here's something new for ya. I know a while back I said that I was extremely privilaged to be doing some full time freelancin' for Nickelodeon's El Tigre. Well two weeks ago some of the bg work I've done aired on the show!! It was really exciting to see, so I figured I'd post up some of 'em for you to have a look at. All the design goodness (rough layout, color keys, boards, etc.) was done by Roman Laney and the other super talented members of the bg department in L.A. I just cleaned 'em up. If ya want to see the final bgs, you'll have to catch them on a re-run of the show, but trust me it'll be worth a second look.... the stuff they do with my clean ups is absolutely amazing!!! Thanks for lettimg me be a small part of the team guys.

Hope you guys like 'em.

More kiddies... big surprise huh!?..

Hey Guys. Well here's the usual kid roughs that I'm extremely fortunate to do for Lifeway. Nothing to shout about really, but I figured I'd post 'em up just the same. I'm gonna try a little different rendering techinique this go around and will post up the results soon-ish. If anybody interested swing back by next week to see how they turn out. Thanks to all you guys who still stop by... your support and positive feedback really mean alot. Take care everyone!

ROUGH YOR boards ...

Hey Guys. So things are pretty frantic out my way at the moment and I was really struggling trying to find something to post up to keep the bloggin' fresh. Because time is pretty much non-existent anymore I thought I'd put up the rough boards for the book I'm working on "Year of the Rat". I know they're super rough, but for some reason I've always thought it was neat to see the whole book together... you know see how the pages are flowing to get a feel for how the book will read. At this stage too it's really easy to start picking out things that need to be changed (hence the blue notes you'll see) and making corrections where necessary. I know you can't read the text very well, but I'm not sure that the publisher has that nailed down yet and didn't know if they'd be cool with me putting up the working copy. One way or the other I hope ya find it moderately interesting.

I also wanted to say thanks to the folks who've stopped by and commented on the last few posts. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to your questions individually... just been busy. I'll do my very best to do better with that from here on out. Take care everybody and, as always, thanks for stoppin' by.

Rusty as a blunt nail

Hey Guys. Here's a few roughs from today to keep the 'ol blog updated. Nothing new here really, just kids and teachers doing activities during suday school classes. Working through the characters this go around was a 'lil tougher than usual... been awhile since I've done much character design and I think it shows... but things started feeling a little more natural towards the end, so hopefully there won't be quite as much paper tearing and forhead slapping with the next batch. Hope ya like 'em.

El Tigre is definitely.....SUPER MACHO!!!

Hey Gang. Well I've been waiting until El Tigre premeired to let the cat out of the bag....no pun intended:). For a little over a month I've been working on El Tigre here in my lil' office across the country. I was approached about doing some background work for the show a while back, did a test, and, amazingly enough, was picked up to help out on the show!!! WOOHOO!!!!... Now I'm by no means very good with backgrounds, but working on the show has been an unbelievable experience that I hope continues going for a good while to come. Roman Laney, the art directory on the show, is an AMAZING layout artist and designer and I am super privilaged to be able to work on his bgs. The show itself is chalked full of, in my opinion, some of the best talent in the industry and I'm humbled to be a small part of such an illustrious crew. If you didn't catch the premier of the show this morning, check it out tonight at 6 and 6:30 on Nickelodeon.... I promise you won't be disappointed!

p.s.- This is a quick image of Manny that I did up myself (not so good...tear) ... so for the super appealing character stuff watch the show and check out some of the expressions and poses that the characters hit... my hat's off to my bud-of-buds Steve Lambe, Gabe Swarr, Chris Battle, and the rest of the character guys... your work is truly AWESOME!!! Thanks for showing us how it's done fellas!

Hey... Who you callin' a RAT?!!

So here is what I came up with for the cover comp for the new book. Nothing spectacular by any means, but hopefully it will work until we get through the book itself. At this point the style is still in development and I think it definitley shows in the comp. Hopefully we'll sort those decisions out before rendering ont he book begins....


Well here it is gang, my first attempt at the characters I'll be working with for the next 6-7 months or so. I'm fairly happy with the line up so far, but things tend to change a good bit once you get into production... Rough cover comp soon to follow..... thanks for stopping by guys.

Ahh... Patty we had some good times...

Hey Everybody! It's that time of year again!! The Year of the Pig, the second story in the "Tales from the Chinese Zodiac" series, released for sale this past January.... and to help promote lil Patty's story, I'll be doing some book signings/readings in the Chicagoland area on the weekend of Feb. 18th. The first will be Saturday Feb 17th at the College of DuPage from 12:00-4:00 p.m. and the second will be at The Magic Tree Book Store on Feb 18th from 1:00-2:30ish. To anyone who might be interested in swinging by, I'd love to meet you and if your interested in picking up a copy of YOP, there will be a limited number of copies there to purchase. For anyone who is unable to stop by, doesn't like big bear hugs, or is afraid that my head looks like a giant acorn.... you can pick up a copy of both "The Year of the Pig" and "The Year of the Dog" at amazon.com or feel free to stop by Immedium's website (www.immedium.com) and check out all the cool stuff there as well. So below are a few pages from the book so you can get a feel for it along with a tidbit of develpment for the next book in the series... hope you like 'em. Later taters....






So I don't personaly know any rats named Ralph, but I'm soon to be working with one.... I'm frantically searching for this lil fella and I think I've got him widdled down to one of these three guys..... I'm leaning towards the "Ralph" in the upper right corner, but that's just me... more to come soon.

New Year - Old Blog

Wha... actual pencil drawings... man now that's old school!

Hey Guys. Merry belated Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well it's been forever and a day since I've updated this blog and I apologize to all of you who were kind enough to stop by despite the lack of posts. A while back I decided that this blog would be a way for me to explore things that I liked to do, but because work has been so hectic lately, I haven't had the time or energy to devote to personal projects hence the lack of posts. I know the "I'm tired and I don't have time to do anything new" excuse is lame, but, in this case, it's unfortunately true. So until work things slow down a bit (not any time soon I hope), I'm gonna have to pull back on my " I'm only posting personal work" declaration, and go back to posting work I've done for clients. Hope that's cool with the one or two folks who might still stop by. So to get things kicked off, I thought I'd post some rejected stuff I did for the guys over at GamaGo. These are always a ton of fun to do... but unfortunately not always what they're looking for. Take care everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

Double Dash!

I'm not sure why, but I've always been drawn to Super Mario games. From the first time I played Super Mario Bros.3, to my wife and I's addiction to Mario Tennis, on to Mario Golf and later Super Mario Strikers... the list just goes on and on. I dunno the games are always so much FUN... not too complicated (well obviously if a guy like me can follow along)... and just challenging enough. Well to make a long story short, I picked up Double Dash not too long ago and absolutely loved the game! I play it whenever I get stuck on a piece or just need a second to step away and come back with a fresh eye. If you own a game cube, I highly recommend giving this title a try. It really is a perfect fit for those easliy confused, gaming confounded big kids out there who are too darn stubborn to grow up.... wha... I'm alone on this one.... 'sigh'... okay.. okay... it's the perfect fit for this easily confused, gaming confounded big kid. Anyway, this piece is a result of all the hours of getting my slow butt kicked by Wario, Bowser, Peach, and the rest....Hope it turned out okay.

Parry Otter...

Hey Guys... First of all, thanks so much eveyrone for all your kind words and well wishes regarding our daughter. She is such a wonderful baby, and we really are blessed to have her in our lives. I know there's a bunch of blogs out there and as always, I appreciate you all taking the time to stop by mine and say hey... so again, thankyou so much..

Second... man it's really been a while... having a new baby around the house/studio tends to take up a lot of your time, so I've been busy doing Daddy things mostly and squeezing in work here and there. Anywho.. this is a piece that I did for the great guys over at DrawerGeeks....unfortunately I didn't finish in time to make the big post on their site, but I figured I could still post it here for fun anyway... Hope you like it...

Thanks again for stoppin by everybody!

So Blessed!

Hey Guys. Well I know it's been a while, but things have been kinda busy. I know in my last post I said I was only going to post personal projects from now on, and I figured it doesn't get more personal than this! This past Wed., my wife gave birth to our first daughter, and third child, Emma Riley Alcorn! She was 8lbs 19 1/2 inches long upon deliver and has been an absolute joy for the short time we've had her. Once we get her nights and days all sorted out we'll be in great shape! Until then, Daddy is going to have to get used to the idea of late nights for a while.... but I can honestly say that I couldn't think of another way I'd rather spend them. And better yet she's gonna be my newly appointed studio buddy for a while, so hopefully she'll help me push my work in the right direction...... two heads are always better than one right?!.....I love bein' a dad!

One last work postity

Hey guys. Well I've been thinking about this whole blog thing and I've decided not to post anymore work related stuff... Because I work freelance, sometimes it difficult to stop working on a project... It's so easy to get caught up in all the details and making things just so and before you know it, your putting in 13 hrs on something that realistically should've only taken five. As artists, I think we always want to grow and mature in our craft, pushing the bouneries and getting outside of our comfort zones and sometimes that can be difficult to do when your not calling all the shots. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely fortunate and very blessed to be able to do what I do everyday... but with that being said, I'm going to try and set aside a bit more time to do my own thing and hopefully(if turns out okay) that'll be the stuff that I post here. I'm not promising anything, but it's time to take that step and see where it leads...

So here's one last work post... I'm sure everybody's getting tired of seeing these black and white images, but hopefully we can all see a bit more diversity here in the future. Hope you guys like 'em anyway. Three cheers for continued blessings, pushing bounderies, and artistic growth! Hip hip... horray! Hip hip... horray... hippp... well you get the idea..

Oh so Curious..

Hey Guys. Here's a piece I finished up for my nephew's 1st birthday. He loves Curious George and really liked the movie, so my sista-n-law wanted me to shoot for that style. I really liked the feel of the books, so I thought it would be neat to try and combine the two... In the end, I think it turned out a bit indecisive, but it was still fun to try something a little different... no harsh angles, more rounded shapes, etc... Hope ya it.

Not so Fantastic, but definitely 4

Hey Guys. Well here is my last minute, "man I really need to get my keister in gear!", attempt at the Fantastic 4 for the great fellas over at DrawerGeeks. I've never really done that much super hero stuff, so I apologize to any of you die hard Fantastic 4 fans who look at this line up and say "What the heck happened here?!" Hope they're up to snuff....

The big, the tall, and the milk chocolatey!

Hey Guys. Here's a few rejected concepts that I did for a friend of mine Paul Conrad. The basic idea is that King Kong is chasing the lil M&M's guys through NYC. I'm not sure how much I can say about the project, but lets just say that if your ever in Times Square you might just run across some of Paul's great work and maybe some of my silly doodles... Hope you guys like 'em.

NDA's

Well I finally finished up the last page of YOP yesterday and in celebration of getting my behind in gear and getting the art out the door, I figured I'd post it. Noting special, just the title page, but it's a tiny taste of what the book will look like. Hope ya like it.



Well most of the work that I'm doing now, I can't show because of NDA's... so here's a little tidbit from the children's book (The Year of the Pig)I'm finishing up. I can't show any of the pages yet, but with each new book, I have to design characters for the zodiac images that will appear in the calendar at the end of the book. Because the style of each book is a bit different than the last, these head shots need to be updated to fit within that style. I'll post some of the final page illo.s when the book releases. Hope you guys like 'em.

FREELANCE!

Hey guys. Here is a piece I just finished up for a project I'm currently working thru. Nothin to fancy, just spots really, but I figured I'd post 'em just the same. Hope you guys like 'em.

Character Design Interview

Hey Guys. I just wanted to take a minute to thank Randall Sly for the opprotunity to do an interview for the character design blog. Doing the interview was nothing short of both an honor and a privilege, and I'm truly humbled to be amoungst such an amazing group of artists. If anyone is interested in reading a few pages of my rambling, the inteview is up for your viewing pleasure. If nothing else swing by and check out all the other folks there. If you haven't been already, I promise it'll be more than worth time. Stop by the character design blog here: www.characterdesign.blogspot.com .Thanks again Randall!

Gettin' rusty.

Hey guys. Thanks for all the kind words concerning the sketch. I've been meaning to post the final for a while now, but I've been pretty busy with work. I tried going with now holding lines on this one thinking it would go faster, but man was I wrong. It turned out to be just as difficult trying to make everything work together properly. I'm still not sure it was entirely succesfull, but I figured I'd post it up anyway. Take care everybody and thanks for stopping by.



Hey guys. Here's a recent sketch from some freelance I'm working my way through. For this particular project, my client likes more "realistic" designs, something with a little more dimension, so I had to opt. for a style that's pushed a bit less. And man what a struggle that was, as you can tell by the sketch. I'm definitely a little rusty, but hopefully the final will come out okay. Hope you guys like it.

Something a bit Ghastly

Hey Guys. Here is a piece I finished up recently for a great guy named Norman Cabrera and his awesome band called "The Ghastly Ones", a surf rock/horror group from Van Nuys! These guys are just amazing, but don't take it from me.... check 'em out for yourself here: www.ghastlyones.com. The best news is they have a new album coming out sometime really soon, so make sure to pick up a copy! I know I will. Thanks Norman!

T. P. anybody?

Hey guys. Here's some recent freelance work. I'm cruchin' thru the remainder of the project, so more soon to come.



And the last couple.... (insert sigh of relief)... and now for some shut eye..

Something for my girls

Hey Guys. This is a card I made my wife for mother's day this year, and although the poem isn't the greatest she is truly a blessing in my life. If our daughter is anything like her, I'll truly be the luckiest guy on the face of the earth. My wife seemed to like it, and I hope you guys do too. Happy late mother's day to all you moms out there!

One kid, two kids, three kids, four....

Hey Guys. These are a couple of sketches from a project I'm workin' on at the moment. Finals soon to follow. Hope you like 'em.

Nascarasaurus Rex

Hey guys... So my son is really into dinosaurs.... I mean REALLY into dinosaurs, and for whatever reason NASCAR is another big hit, so I did this during my warmup time for him today... if nothing else he got a big kick out of it, so I figured I'd post it because I could. Hope you guys like it.

One last post for Chi-town!

Hey everybody... So my family and I are finally going to make the move back to Birmingham,Al. tomorrow... it's been a long time in the works, but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait... ohhh and my wife and I just found that we are going to have a healthy baby girl in Sept., so we're obviously super excited about that. The boys won't rule the roost anymore! So amoungst all of this stuff I've been trying to stay caught up on assignments... and here is the latest piece I finished, and my last piece for Chicago... one chapter closes and another one begins. Bye bye Chicago and hello B'ham!

Dead Beats!

Hey everybody. Here's a piece I just finished up for the Cereal Killer's coffee table book. Definitely a little different than most of the projects I do, but wow what a ton of fun! A big thanks to Doktor Viktor Von Kreep : http://www.1313midnitekreepshow.com/ for lettin' me take a stab at it.

This particular piece started out a little rougher than most for me. But refining the drawing was a little more fun this time. Here's the first rough... emphasis on rough.. :)

Then I went back, refined the drawing until I was moderately pleased with it and comped the whole shabang in photoshop....

So what was all this melarchy inspired by? Well I looked thru a ton of reference material and came across a bunch of really great art. Only problem was that pretty much everything had been done already.... and right about the time I was ready to throw in the towel, I came across this great piece.... and thought "what fun characters... obscure, but fun just the same. I gotta do something with this."

So I guess that's about it.... If you get a chance, check out a few of the other great pieces that'll be in the book at these great blogs.....
Steve Lambe: www.lambey.blogspot.com
Bob Rissetto: www.bobrissetto.blogspot.com
Paul Watling: www.paulyblogg.blogspot.com
Ridd Sorensen: www.dabeehive.blogspot.com

A lil' "Funny" Business.

Hey Guys.... here's a piece I finished up today for the great guys at Funnypages Productions! I just wanted to say thanks to Tom and Rob for giving me a shot! This project was a ton of fun to work on and I was really fortunate to be able to work with such talented guys. If you haven't seen 'em yet, stop by :www.tombancroft.blogspot.com/ and www.robsquirrely.blogspot.com or www.funnypagesprod.com and check out their work first hand..... I promise you won't be disappointed. Thanks again guys!

The Struggle for Something a Bit Different

Hey Everybody. So here's a piece that's a bit different than most I've posted. Like alot of other artists now-a-days, I tend to gravitate to a more graphic approach to character design. Unfortunately my clients and I dont' always see eye to eye on this, but that's okay.... it happens right? The other thing that made this piece pretty tough was the format.... taller and narrow.... makes composing a bunch of different elements that much more difficult. The red sketches at the bottom were my first rejected attempt at this group of "construction kids" and the second roughs are the ones they settled on. Anyway.... hope you guys like it.

Oompa Loompa Postity Poo

Hey Everybody. Thanks for stopping by and for all the kind words regarding my last post. If this books anything like the last, I'm sure it'll be quite the adventure. :) So here's something new that my good buddy Steve Lambe and I are starting up on a bi-weekly/monthly basis (schedule permitting of course). Basically we're both taking a stab at the same character(s), working up some designs, and seeing what we come up with. This rounds assignment was based off of some really awesome re-designs Steve recently did of Willy Wonka. He mentioned he was going to work up some Oompas, so Willy wouldn't feel so lonely, and suggested I give it a try too. And these guys are what I came up with. I'm not sure what Steve's worked up so far, but I know they're gonna be fantastic as always. Hope you guys like 'em.

By Golly, It can't be the Year of the Pig already!?

Hey Everybody. First let me say thanks so