monotonae

Vector Goes the Spoils

2012-01-31T00:56:00.000-05:00

There are several artist who take advantage of vector art’ssharp edge, flat color, geometry favoring basic rendering technique to echo asort of razor-cut paper or screen print look. With this piece, that was myintention, and as such, it’s not all that successful, because, it turns out, Ifavor describing form and depth over graphic shapes and silhouettes.

MegaCon 2012 notice.

Vector character art

composed in Photoshop.

I did too ink the art by hand on the Bristol board on whichI drew the ruff in red pencil, which more or less served me as my tight drawing(see previous posting), but the intended goal was to finish it in this graphicstyle.

Catchme at the Monster Enterprises booth, Indy Press Both #3.

MegaCon 2012

2012-01-27T02:43:00.000-05:00

Stop by the Monster Enterprises booth,

Independent Press booth #3

Gary A.

2012-01-24T23:48:00.000-05:00

WhenGary and I worked in the same department, his duties, I guess, were somethingakin to production assistant.

Mostly I remember he converted videos for quickand easy consumption and reference and helped archive projects.

2004, birthday

in the style of “Mighty Mouse”.

* * ** -

2005, birthday

in the style of “Mary Worth.”

* * ** -

Maids to Order

2012-01-24T23:44:00.004-05:00

Tuff-Girl.

Commissioned convention drawing

color pencil and India Ink on paper.

2011.

Tuff-Girl.

Commissioned convention drawing

color pencil and India Ink on paper.

2011.

Lift with the Legs

2012-01-16T16:31:00.001-05:00

From the start, hitting comic conventions with just one issue of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl” just seemed to me a foolish notion. Tee-shirts with printed logos is one of things I chose to fill out my booth space. The potential down side is the bulk of storing, shipping or transporting multiple designs in multiple sizes.

I’ll introduce a kid’s size tee-shirt at MegaCon this year. For production purposes, I decided to ink it digitally as vector art. I took me a lot longer than I expected. I drew the pose four times, and spent a total of about two days on ink and color. It comes down to this, after it’s printed you can’t change anything about it, so you ask yourself, “will I be happy with this for the next five years?’ Curiously, I was happy with the first drawing of Wichita.

This is the full-color art. The tee-shirts will be red with black and white printing.

Supergirl & Black Cat

2012-01-16T16:13:00.000-05:00

“Supergirl”, c. 2005

Scarlet red pencil, black India Ink and marker on comic book backing board.

“Black Cat”, c. 1979

Light bue pencil, black India Ink and marker on comic book backing board.

Practice sketches.
Digital color versions: [Supergirl], [Black Cat]

SUPERGIRL © DC Comics. BLACK CAT © Marvel.

It’s Sweater Time

2012-01-11T18:00:00.003-05:00

Cartoon Network’s 2011 holiday poster.
Designer: Petrika Janssen
Headline and copy: Clint Carruth
Illustrators: Bryan Mon and Dan Thompson
Painter: Tyson McAdoo

posted on Frederator, Jan 6, 2012: http://adventuretimeart.frederator.com/post/15403690531/its-sweater-time-cartoon-networks-2011-holiday#noteslist

I try to be vigilant about following my company’s many rules about social networking which is why so many of the samples of what I do for Cartoon Network is old and mostly of the sketchy conceptual art.

In this case, Fred Seibert, owner of Frederator Studios (maker of the fine animated comedy, “Adventure Time with Finn and Jake”), recently posted this (see above). Primarily a large billboard on the side of one of Tuner Networks’ buildings facing 10th street in Atlanta, it was also printed as a limited run poster.

I contributed layout, composition and a mass of candy people mostly obscured by Princess Bubblegum. Dan drew the main characters, and Tyson finished the whole thing as a digital painting.

I’ll give credit for the Courier & Ives inspired concept to Petrika (with a little incentive from our marketing group). Clint did the words, because all our billboards need words.

I made Clint smile with my headline suggestion, “Ooo Holy Night.”

Spider Woman

2012-01-11T00:20:00.000-05:00

Spider Woman, c. 1978
Red pencil, Black India Ink and marker
on comic book backing board.
Art © Bryan Mon. SPIDER WOMAN © Marvel.

see digital color version at monotonae: annex.
http://monotonae.tumblr.com/

TAGS May 30 & 31, 1994

2012-01-11T00:14:00.000-05:00

05/30: Passing ’gers.

05/31: Ignorance and bliss.

May 30: Here, Nick (skunk) gets slighted when as friendly greeting fails elicit a similar response. Wars have been started for less.

I think the reduction of Nick in frame from panel 2 through 4 works rather well, and the lack of establishing backgrounds* communicates a small amount of feeling of isolation, especially in the last panel. As I now analyze the strip, having the girl walk of to the left adds to the resultant feeling, with Nick being his farthest from her in the last panel, yet still looking in her direction. This wouldn’t be achieved if in the first panel Nick were walking to the left and she to the right. I’m quite sure that I didn’t plan this, nor I doubt that my storytelling layout skills were sharp enough to intuit it so. Lucky.

* Near the clock house, where folks clock in and out and workers of different shifts may pass. Nick has clocked out.

May 31: Break room. Supposedly on the next day form the happenings of the prior strip, Nick (13th appearance) crosses paths with Emily (tiger, 3).

Yeah, it’s quite unreasonable for Nick to carrying such a grudge for such a small occurrence, but comedy isn’t rooted in the actions of reasonable folks.

WonderCon 2012

2012-01-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

WonderCon 2012

Mar. 16th - 19th, 2012

Anaheim Convention Center

800 West Katella Avenue

Anaheim, CA 92802

http://www.comic-con.org/wc/

Black Canary, c. 1970
Red pencil, Black India Ink and marker
on comic book backing board.
Art © Bryan Mon. BLACK CANARY © DC Comics.

I will be at the Monster Enterprises booth in theindependent press/ small press area on the convention floor. The exact booth number is stillTBD.

Convention Sketches

Here I will be selling convention sketches in addition tothings like my independent adventure comic book, “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl.”

For the per-character rate of $20, I will draw, ink andblock in color with color-pencil on 9 in. x 12 in. Bristol board orin your sketchbook or drawing pad up to 14. in. x 17 in.Examples of my convention sketches can be found here on Monotonae.

Be prepared and stop by early to get your order in.

Make sure you bring reference if you have an obscurefavorite character.

Pre-Order Your Convention Sketches

I am accepting pre-orders for sketches from now up until Fri.Mar. 2, 2012.

If you absolutely know your are going to be there and wantto make sure you get your order in, then this may be the deal for you.

For the super reasonable per-character rate of $15, I willdraw, ink and block in color with color-pencil on 9 in. x 12 in. Bristol board.

I will only be accepting pre-orders for 20 characters, andlimiting orders to 2 characters per-person. I can be contacted via e-mail inyou “View my complete profile.”

I look forward to a good time in Anaheim.

Seeyou there.
Digital color version of Black Canary: http://monotonae.tumblr.com/

MegaCon 2012

2012-01-02T16:12:00.001-05:00

MegaCon 2012

Feb. 17th - 19th, 2012

Orange County Convention Center Hall D

9800 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819

http://www.megaconvention.com/


Batgirl, c. 2002 light blue pencil, black India Ink and marker on comic book backing board. Art © Bryan Mon. BATGIRL © DC Comics.

I will be at the Monster Enterprises booth in theindependent press area on the convention floor. The exact booth number is stillTBD.

Convention Sketches

Here I will be selling convention sketches in addition tothings like my independent adventure comic book, “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl.”

For the per-character rate of $20, I will draw, ink andblock in color with color-pencil on 9 in. x 12 in. Bristol board orin your sketchbook or drawing pad up to 14. in. x 17 in.Examples of my convention sketches can be found here on monotonae.

Be prepared and stop by early to get your order in.

Make sure you bring reference if you have an obscurefavorite character.

Pre-Order Your Convention Sketches

I am accepting pre-orders for sketches from now up until Fri.Feb. 3, 2012.

If you absolutely know your are going to be there and wantto make sure you get your order in, then this may be the deal for you.

For the super reasonable per-character rate of $15, I willdraw, ink and block in color with color-pencil on 9 in. x 12 in. Bristol board.

I will only be accepting pre-orders for 20 characters, andlimiting orders to 2 characters per-person. I can be contacted via e-mail inyou “View my complete profile.”

I look forward to a good time in Florida.

Seeyou there.

Digital color version of Batgirl: http://monotonae.tumblr.com/

Merry Christmas

2011-12-31T00:49:00.000-05:00

“Beach Holiday”

featuring Little Tuffy and the Tuf Gurlz

Water color on paper.

43.2 x 30.5 cm (17.0 in. x 12.0 in.)

2011.

http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2011/10/beach-holiday.html

http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2011/10/roasting-on-open-fire.html

Mele Kalikimaka

2011-12-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

Mele Kalikimaka, that’s the island greeting that we

send to you from the land where palm trees sway.

— Lyrics by R. Alex Anderson

Merry Christmas.

See you next year!

Jim Valeri

2011-12-17T11:19:00.001-05:00

Jim is a terrific artist working well both in traditional graphic media and digitally. Much of his career he has worked in product design and more specifically in toy design. Currently he is an illustrator/ Graphic designer/ product designer for the Disney Store.

2005, birthday

in the style of Mort Walker’s “Beetle Bailey.”

* * - - -

At Disney Consumer Products (DCP), we both worked in the same “house” as character artists from the start of my career in licensing and marketing and he already with the Pooh group, until I left and while he was heading up the toy group when DCP re-organized away from being property based over to lines-of-business based.

We would later work together under the “Cartoon” house, although I was in the Atlanta based part and he in the Burbank cased part on the other side of the country.

Jim’s blog: http://bigjiminy.blogspot.com/

[more Jim, 2009: http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/03/stepping-up-art.html]

Brian McGee

2011-12-09T02:50:00.001-05:00

Brian and I worked concurently as young artists at Disney Consumer Products for a few years, although as large as business was never on the same things. With random pieces of mail or phone calls people would get us confused, with us having the same name and same last intial.

To stave off more of that, I tried to to get people to refer to him as “Good Brian” to my “Bad Bryan.” That never caught on, and in that neither did my establishment of a bad boy reputation.

2005

in the style of Tom Wilson’s “Ziggy”.

* * - - -

Brain has solid drawing skills and a dramatic color sense. He also has a background drawing storyboards.

A few years later Brian was hired by Cartoon to specialize in digital illustration. Of note, he digitally painted the cover of a “Harvey Birdman” video game and several “Ben 10” DVD covers.

Brian’s blog: http://brianmcgee.blogspot.com/

[more Brian, 2009: http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/03/stepping-up-art.html]

Tom Shutt

2011-11-29T00:17:00.001-05:00

Going Away Card, 2011.

Light blue pencil and black roller-ball ink on paper

* * * - -

Tom worked as a designer for the off-channel print group for at least seven years (calculated merely based upon the earliest caricature I have of him).

2005, birthday

In the style of Charles Schulz’s ”Peanuts”

* - - - -

Just as most all of the designers, he had worked on a good number of DVD packaging suites and posters. Beyond that, it seems that he applied himself to several environmental design projects including a few re-designs of the lobbies of the Network’s office floors and the Cartoon Network store at CNN Center, Atlanta.

2004, birthday

In the style of Hanna Barbera studios, circa 1960.

* * - - -

The one thing that that stands out in my recollections about how/where he’d applied his talents out side of work is a fashion show where everything was constructed out of paper.

[more Tom (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]

Elizabeth Beasley

2011-11-26T02:32:00.001-05:00

Going Away Card, 2011

Light blue pencil and black roller-ball ink on copier paper.
* * * - -

Elizabeth worked as a writer for the network’s off-channel business for several years (five maybe?). For example, if you’ve read the back packaging of one the DVD volumes of a “Ben 10” show, then you’ve probably read her work.

She was involved with the Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy group in Atlanta (http://www.myspace.com/gloc). She spread her interest in improvisation to help folks at work access their creative inner beings while avoiding blocking others’ creative beings - or tried at least.

[more Elizabeth (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]

Face It

2011-11-22T05:44:00.001-05:00

Cover, “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl” issue No. 2

carmine red pencil and

black India Ink on Bristol Board

27.94 x 43.18 cm (11.00 in. x 17.00 in.)

This is the inked cover to the next issue of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl”

The girl in the foreground is a bit disproportionate, but the mast head and some snipes at the top conceal the most offending parts of the figure.

conceptual sketches

Unlike the dozens of thumbnail conceptual sketches made for the cover of issue No.1, I attacked this one by the sheer impulse of getting it done over the weekend.

The main “Tuff-Girl” section isn’t a repeat of the teaser advert. at the end of issue No.1, mostly because it didn’t need to be. It does, however, echo better the art drawn for the actual story. Namely, it includes the silhouette of Dr. Dockter.

Note my refusal to draw a complete wall of stadium seats, much less people in those seats.

Isis Booker

2011-11-15T22:25:00.001-05:00

Logistics involving paper, writing instruments, localselections of people and my attention not otherwise engaged govern of whom Idraw caricatures - in other words I mostly draw the people I work with and muchless so people outside of that circle.

Isis worked licensing and was one of those folks who havethe thankless task to guide the makers of things (licensees) to properlyreproduce characters to the liking of the owners of those characters(licensors) and hopefully to the liking of the fans (consumers).

2008

red ink on paper

* * ** -

WhatIsis likes, she LIKES. She likes Disney, and tries to visit one of the MagicKingdoms every year. She likes anime and so learned to speak and read Japanese.She likes Dragon*Con and attends in different costumes each of the first threedays of the fantasy/ sci-fi convention.

Matthew Crouch

2011-11-13T14:51:00.001-05:00

Matt Crouch worked just a few weeks short of 13 years as an off-channel designer at Cartoon Network, Atlanta; as such he’s work there for all the time that I have. (Off-channel roughly is everything that’s not “on-air” and includes billboards, and all sorts of printed promotional items like tee-shirts, trade collateral and etc.)

Going Away Card, 2011

light blue pencils and black roller ball ink on paper

* * *- -

Matt was one of the folks I knew who was fired two weeks ago. I drew the above faceless, faux-Hirschfield caricature above for his going away card.

2010, Speedy Recovery

carmine red pencil and black India Ink on paper

* * ** -

Matt was interested in fitness. He would go biking - I’m saying on mountains and stuff? He also did that P90X extreme workout. In my caricatures of him, I would exaggerate broad shoulders and wide chest.

2005, birthday

digital composite with cleaned scan of India ink

based on the anime style of Inuyasha

* * *- -

Matt likes comics, Star Wars and Japanese anime and manga and his cube was always an expression of that full action figures and statues. As a design art director, he was cast to work on action shows including the many Ben 10 series and Star Wars Clone Wars.

Matt, in his own words, also likes drinking, an aspect that anyone would find difficult to incorporate into marketing kids shows.

2004, birthday

digital color with cleaned scan of ink

vehicle based on the Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop

* * ** *

When putting together my Merrill’s and my comic book feature for Tuff-Girl, I hired Matt to design a logo. When Merrill and I expanded the idea to the independent comic book, Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, I again asked him to design that logo. I want to see those logos on everything from tee-shirts, socks, tailgates and—movie posters.

[more Matt (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]
[more Matt (2010): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2010/11/matts-back.html]

Gourd-geous

2011-11-13T14:47:00.001-05:00

My Jack-o-lantern for this past Halloween. I played it safe by basically drawing the face, peeling away the “white ” parts. It’s teeth were pumpkin seeds.

Ed Murrieta

2011-11-11T18:03:00.001-05:00

I wonder why someone isn’t telling the true stories that I want to hear. That’s actually a poorly assembled sentence with a consumerist’s point of view filled with conditional assumptions. Who is this rhetorical “someone” read as “someone else?” What are true stories, and what make them true? Are they actually not being told or have I just not heard them? And most insidiously, by what criteria would a story need meet that I would want to hear it?

But to the point, it’s this thought that bubbles to the surface of my consciousness when people leave. From that point forward all the things you shared with those people are categorically in the past, as if suddenly they were placed in a vault apart from the lobbies and living areas of your daily life. Am I the one who supposed to tell those stories? Ack, I should have been taking better notes.

Two weeks ago several people were fired from the Cartoon Network Atlanta offices. Ed Murrieta was one of those people.

Going Away Card, 2011

light blue pencil and black roller ball ink on paper.

in a minimalist Al Hirschfield-esque style.

* * ** -

In this and three other caricatures I again attempted to mimic Al Hirschfield’s caricature style but without facial features. For me it was more about expedience and meeting a deadline and not a conscious political statement. I’ve known Ed for about 15 years. He hired me to be a character artist at Disney Consumer Products, and he was my boss for about three years. At the time, I once said that he was the best boss I had ever had. It was a cheeky thing to say since he was also the first art-director/boss I had.

2010, Birthday

acrylic paint on vinyl figure

[more: http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2010/09/ed-at-50.html]

* * ** -

In 2000, Ed was hired for an art-director ofillustration for Cartoon Network’s off-channel business. I quickly asked him towhom at the then nine-year old network I should send my portfolio. Ed said thatwas going to be one of his responsibilities. Ed has been my art-director/bossfor the last 10 years and Cartoon.

2005, Birthday

digital color over scan of ink on paper.

in the style of Johnny Hart’s B.C.

* * -- -

Ed worked as an animator for Walt Disney FeatureAnimation in the mid to late 1980’s. He left that seeking more stableemployment at Disney C.P. along with many of his animator friends. He returnedto work on Atlantis, animating Audrey. There’s a caricature of Ed as anAtlantean in the film. It’s arguable if the “Big Boy” mascot for the diner inThe Emperor’s New Groove is also a caricature of Ed.

2004, Birthday

digital color of scan of ink on paper.

In the style of Al Hirschfield.

* * ** *

Ed told me that this drawing done for his birthday in 2004 was his favorite of my caricaturesof him. He likes Hirschfield and he likes life drawing, so I felt that indrawing it I was on the right track. You can’t see it in this terrible JPG, butI incorporated in the drawing his son’s name eight times.

2003, Birthday

black roller-ball ink on paper.

* * *- -

Knowing Ed for so long, I think I’ve drawn more caricaturesof him than anyone else to date. Mostly, they have been embarrassing birthdaycards, few of which I’ve had the forethought to make copies.

[more Ed (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-know.html]

[moreEd (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/03/stepping-up-art.html]

Beach Holiday

2011-10-31T14:09:00.001-04:00

Carmine red pencil and graphite on copier paper, detail.

5.08 x 7.62 cm (2.0 in. x 3.0 in.)

Watercolor on paper, detail.

5.08 x 7.62 cm (2.0 in. x 3.0 in.)

As soon as fall hits, the clock starts; the countdown to the end of another year and the beginning of a new one. In between, there arise successive holidays each bigger than the last. On my mental production schedule, the autumnal equinox means that it’s time to start on Christmas cards.

This year it concerns Little Tuffy and the Tuf Gurlz, a front-back spread and in watercolor. I’ll reveal the whole image some time after the New Year (sooner perhaps on “Fan of Bryan Mon” on FaceBook). However, in this detail, I demonstrate my restlessness as an artist; meaning that as long as I’m working on a piece of art, I’m tweaking it. In the draft, I roughly drew the layout in red pencil. I then transferred the image to watercolor paper by rubbing graphite on the back and drawing over key parts with a hard graphite pencil.

You’ll note that I did not transfer the seaweed vines (at top wrapped around a cluster of surfboards), nor by accident the sandman’s hat. The prior allowed me to finalize the seaweed pattern on the watercolor paper more cleanly. The latter only meant that I had to draw a new hat. I might not have redrawn a wider brim in the transfer process, but certainly being forced to draw a hat granted me liberty to do do so or draw a different style hat if I wanted.

Everything else, including placement of shadows to suggest the undulating surface of the beach is part of the coloring process. I’m only a painter because of a medium. But more accurately, I am a colorist, layering on colors to manipulate focus, suggest temperature or emotion, or as I did here, add spots of red and green because of the Christmas theme.

Roasting on an Open Fire

2011-10-28T02:45:00.001-04:00

Little Tuffy and the Tuf-Gurlz

Camping on the Beach

conceptual sketch

Scarlet red pencil on paper

2011

Elves Be Seeing You

2011-10-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

Red and blue roller-ball ink on paper.

Christmas must be nearing, because I drew elves to-day.

Meanwhile, ...

2011-10-18T00:26:00.000-04:00

Page 5, Panel 3, “Give Me a ‘D!’ Give Me an ‘E!’ Give Me an ‘I!’”

Scarlet red pencil and black India Ink on Bristol board.

25.72 x 12./70 cm (10.125 in. x 5.00 in.)

Panel 2:

Close up of the trophy. Doctor Dockter's hands are on the bottom of the trophy. Some of the girls' hands are reaching in for it. The trophy looks weird at this close view. It has strange markings and skulls on it. The girls are grabbing the trophy, and a sort of electricity is shooting through them and crackling over them.

Cheerleader: We won!

Panel 3:

They look like they are in agony. ~~Doctor Dockter is behind them in silhouette, smiling. Closer in on one of the~~ girls in mid transformation. Their clothes are ripping. They’re kind of hulking out.

Caption: But wait! A strange energy pulses out of the trophy...

— excerpt from the script by Merrill Hagan.

Some times when working from a script, I can just draw what’s written on the page. Most times, I pause and ask “what would work better?” As the editor-in-chief and publisher, I empower the artist (me again) to make changes - not changing the story but clarifying the story by shuffling or editing components of the script.

As an example, the actions described in panel 2 were just too numerous for a static image. It’s a close-up of the trophy and a bunch of hands (Dr. Dockter’s and the cheerleaders’). Added on that electricity effects crackling over the cheerleaders, whom would be indistinguishable if they’re only represented by hands.

So I instead introduce the electricity effects to panel 3, even though it would have carried into panel 3 any ways. The result is a more dramatic contrast between the states of before and after when the cheerleaders grab the trophy.

I chose to remove Dockter from both panels 2 and 3 since he commands 1 and returns in 5 with the beginnings of a declaration, making 2 and 3 entirely about the cheerleaders’ experiences. On the reader’s part, she/he assumes the all noted characters remain in play for the entire sequence even if they’re not all depicted in every panel. By that reckoning, the reader should also be assuming that Tuff-Girl, last seen on page 2, is still around seeing all this craziness.

MegaCon 2012

2011-10-12T15:29:00.000-04:00

I’ve signed up for a Indy Press booth at next year’s MegaCon in Florida. Part of that package is an opportunity to advertise right on the MegaCon web site in the form of a button at the bottom of the page.

Set the date on your calendars.

MegaCon

Feb. 17th - 19th, 2012
Orange County Convention Center Hall D
9800 International Drive

Orlando, FL 32819

A Turn Styled

2011-10-12T00:43:00.000-04:00

“Manga” styled Tuff-Girl, sketchbook drawing.

Scarlet red pencil and black ball-point pen on paper.

2009

Starting with Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets and Space Battleship Yamato, Japanese animation has been an influence on my art. To be fair, the Walt Disney animated features and Warner Brothers’ “Looney Tunes” shorts were a bigger influences. So it’s probably a fair statement that my “Manga” style isn’t really like any Manga book you might pick up at your local comic shop, even when considering styles vary with the artist.

Here, Tuff-Girl’s gauntlet is an electro-magnetic sling. On her right wrist, I guess, is where she holds her steel shot to use with her sling.

TAGS, May 13, 1994

2011-10-04T05:07:00.000-04:00

- Truth and Condiments -

India Ink on paper.

With a restaurant that operates sixteen plus hours a day including prep and closing and with a staff of close to a hundred crew members working overlapping shifts each of 4 to 8 hours long, the resulting combination of folks taking their breaks at the same time are at once random and limited. The break room setting became the most common device for mixing up the characters, exploring how the they might interact, especially when not dealing with the core “go to” characters.

In one such break room scenario, Monster sat with his imagined rival Even (Welsh Corgi, 5th appearance) with a discussion spurred by the appearance of Monster’s crush, Polly (penguin, 20). The subtext involved Evan, without realizing it, was the catalyst for Monster’s expressed insecurities. The failings of my Tags production schedule meant that there was only one strip prior to set up the Monster/Evan dynamic.

“The Apple Tree” dance was totally a high-school convention that had no counterpart in the operation of a major theme park or much less a restaurant operating within a theme park (which was where Tags was set).

There were a few strips where Monster was the quiet observer. Unfortunately, there’s no room in a daily strip series for a quiet observer unless he’s effectually a bit of property/ set dressing. If there’s one thing I like about this strip then it’s the opportunity to show Monster’s inner Charlie Brown.

Panel 1 (L-R as board pieces): Shirley (seal, 3), Suzie (deer, 3), Polly, Fern (kangaroo, 4), Bingo (snake, 3), Monster, Evan, Guy (dalmatian, 3). At the top is Monster in a Naval Commander’s uniform. The Submarine is of course designed after the Battleship game piece.

Off Key, On a Donkey

2011-09-27T00:29:00.000-04:00

Red pencil and black ball point pen ink on paper.

Digital color over cleaned scan.

“What should I post on monotonae today?”
I drew this while watching “The Sing-Off”.

As Sif I Had the Time

2011-09-20T13:07:00.001-04:00

Sif c. 1984

Scarlet red pencil and black India Ink on board.

17.15 cm x 26.67 cm (6.75 in. x 10.50 in.)

Digital color over cleaned scan.

It’s no surprise that comic book conventions are about super-heroes, in America at least. When I do commission drawings sitting at a comic book convention (maybe at the Monster Enterprises booth or at a four-foot tablette on artist alley), I get to draw a lot of super-heroes.

The demographic of folks who want to spend good money on a commission of their favorite characters tend NOT to be eight year-olds who REALLY love Ben 10. Rather they are older readers who want to celebrate their nostalgic fondness of characters from silver age (1960s) to 1990s. Luckily, I like that stuff too, so most of those commissions I can do from memory.

Although my memory is not photographic, I do retain much from doing just one drawing of every new character or costume design. So this represents me practicing*, the first in a series I started this year with the following calculated benefits:

1. Practice drawing new characters and maybe new costumes.

2. Practice inking with ink and brush, sometimes as a warm up to inking a page for my comic book.

3. Use for those packs of comic book backing boards I bought**.

4. Practice using colored markers.

5. The marker colored (below) pieces I can sell at comic conventions. As an unknown artist, it helps to have a portfolio for folks to flip through, and sales-wise, having stock for “quick sale” is good.

6. Maybe stuff to post on monotonae.

7. After a couple of dozen, I can assemble and print them in sketch books, book which I can sell at conventions.

Scarlet red pencil, black India Ink and marker on board.

17.15 cm x 26.67 cm (6.75 in. x 10.50 in.)

* This is what I did with with the Disney pantheon of characters up through the 1990s when I worked for Disney. I can still whether through a session of “stump the artist” when it comes to Disney characters.

** At my first comic convention, I discovered that colored pencils barely showed and marker based inks wouldn’t be taken fast to the coating on the face of the boards I had purchased, backing board commissions slipped into protective comic book bags was my whole plan for doing commissions. I was fortunate in that the reverse was not coated, and that was the side on which I drew. The subsequent re-stockings of backing board, actually resulted in a stock of a couple of packs with boards coated on both sides.

Gosh, That’s Scary

2011-09-13T01:55:00.001-04:00

Panel 6, page 11

“Tuff-Girl versus the Amazon Cheerleaders”

Scarlet red pencil on Bristol Board.

Script by Merrill Hagan.

Tuff-Girl Versus The Amazon Cheerleaders, Second-Half Draft

2011-09-13T01:50:00.002-04:00

Here I present the last six pages of twelve of a “Tuff-Girl” feature to appear in issue number two of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, each from thumbnail sketch to rough draft layout.

Page 7: Although not scripted, there are numerous little things about the costumes that I have to track from panel to panel. As the story progresses for example, Tuff-Girl loses her jacket and skirt. With the eight cheerleaders, their uniforms get torn in various states. Then I complicate things further by returning Doctor Dockter’s hat not present in the first rough layout.

Page 8: The change in panel three to have Tuff-Girl struck across the face rather than being socked in the gut was to better carry off their size differences. As a result, space opened up for the sound effect.

Page 9: Panels 1 and 2 are actually four panels, and I sure hope is reads that way in the final book. I had toyed with the idea of making it two-halves of a single long panel. The other complication of my own devising, is keeping track of the cheerleaders. In the script, the cheerleaders are generic. I wanted to avoid having cheerleaders recovering too soon in a panel right after Tuff-Girl knocks her down in a prior panel.

Page 10: By the fifth panel, the story unavoidably addresses the audience space in the auditorium. Here I opted with empty seats to suggest that most of the spectators have run off for fear of being hit by a stray pom pom or something.

Panel 11: Finalizing Tuff-Girl in profile in panel 2, makes Dr. Dockter more of an incidental and less another participant when it’s about Tuff-Girl talking down the cheerleaders. I think in panel 3, I got tired of panels with eight girls standing around. I don’t know if it was the right decision. With panel 5, I make use of a common comic layout device, silhouettes. A panel of silhouettes, breaks up the page layout, and works because the surrounding panels contain the same characters without all the visual details.

Panel 12: I changed the camera angle in panel 2 so that it didn’t contain another vertical element on the same page as the 3rd and 5th. The girls of panel 3 were re-positioned for the same reason.

Next: Inking.

TAGS, February 06, 1994 - color

2011-09-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

Digital composite of India ink and watercolor,

with digital color of the logo.

[link: Black and white version] as originally published.

As I retroactively color these full-page strips, the order has been hap-hazard. That’s just facts, and not so much an apology. I suppose I apologize for taking seventeen years to get around to coloring them at all.

Friend or Foe?

2011-08-30T03:45:00.002-04:00

I was lead to this site, Project: Rooftop, that is best described as a blog where fans may share their fanaticism in the form of redesigning super-hero costumes. On the surface, it sounded to me like a well-meaning effort in support of less than stellar ideas and art work. To my surprise it's not.

Project: Rooftop is co-founded by Dean Trippe and Chris Arant.

http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/

In support of their efforts, and to test the openness of their submission policies, I made this, which is based on the cover to Action Comics No. 252, which introduces to a surprised Superman a blonde girl in a costume of similar details as his flying out from a crashed purple rocket ship. The cover asks of the “Supergirl from Krypton” “Is She Friend Or Foe?”

Supergirl TM and © DC Comics.

Little Tuffy Backyard Surfing

2011-08-23T01:47:00.001-04:00

Red pencil and black ball-point pen on paper.

Digital color over cleaned scan.

Something I drew today.

Little Tuffy with Wilson and Catalina.

Five Gotta Feelin’

2011-08-17T02:24:00.000-04:00

Supergirl & Brainiac Five.

Red ball-point pen ink and black India Ink on paper.

Digital color over scan.

Here’s something I drew in one of my sketchbooks. I don’t think I intentionally left off B.5’s right hand glove detail, but in coloring it, I decided to go with what was there.

Supergirl and Brainiac Five © DC Comics.

TAGS January 16, 1994

2011-08-09T02:19:00.000-04:00

Digital composite of India ink and watercolor, with digital color of the logo.

[link: black and white version as originally published]

I think I’m getting close to a process for digitally combining separate scans of the ink and the watercolor which is over an ink-jet print out of the scanned ink.

I initially tried making each of the first seven panels seven different monochromatic schemes, but adding Monster’s blue threw that whole thing off.

Tuff-Girl Versus The Amazon Cheerleaders, Half Draft

2011-08-02T03:23:00.000-04:00

Here I present the first six pages of twelve of a “Tuff-Girl” feature to appear in issue number two of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, each from thumbnail sketch to rough draft layout.

Page 1: I drew the thumbnail sketch of each layout in the margins of Merrill Hagan’s final script. For no particular reason, I used red ballpoint pen. Next, to get a better sense of spacing and lettering, I drew “at scale” layouts on letter-size copier paper in black roller-ball ink. On 11" x 17" Bristol board within a 10" x 15" rectangle I make the rough-to-tight pencil layout that’s the stage prior to inking. With the details of her costume not scripted, I decided to start Tuff-Girl in a jacket.

Page 2: I think I showed Merrill the thumbnail layouts as work-in-progress samples, but I kind of doubt he could make out a lot of my design decisions. This page sets up the idea that Tuff-Girl and a gentleman named Doctor Dockter are judging a cheerleading competition. In panel 5, the doctor gets a top hat.

Page 3: The script called for three consecutive panels with the same background and unmoved Doctor Dockter. I rebelled against that idea in a quest to somewhat emulate Milt Caniff’s panel layouts, and he never drew the same background twice. On “Terry and the Pirates” Caniff also kept to regular panel layouts, so on the final rough I switched back to the six-panel grid.

Page 4: This is the page that first tested my resolve to do the best for the story, a story that has cheerleading teams in front of an audience; in other words lots of crowds. The addition of Tuff-Girl in panel 4 is for added dimension. Prior to the rough layout, the girls have not been drawn as specific characters with specific features. Before proceeding on the rough layouts, key members of the team had to be identified with initials (not shown).

Page 5: With eight members of the team transformed into Amazon cheerleaders, some times that’s plenty to fill a panel, and some times (panel 4) less so.

Page 6: I like a Jackie Chan action sequence, by which I mean letting the characters utilize objects, furniture and aspects of the environment in what they do. The jacket added to Tuff-Girl’s costume in page 1 is something she can use to tie up the hands of a charging girl in panel 5 here.

TAGS May 11 & 12, 1994

2011-07-27T00:54:00.000-04:00

05/11: Hurry up and waiting.

05/12: Party for Edie.

May 11: Some where Murray (cheetah) is running the clock out in a diversionary tactic to keep Edie (squirrel) from suspecting that, meanwhile (it’s really missing a literal “meanwhile”), the gang is waiting for them.

This strip is a bridge from the last two strips to the next and last in the “Edie’s birthday” series. Even with purpose, I see that it’s terribly flawed. Like why is Murray taking Edie to a 6:30 movie when he knows that people are waiting at the restaurant? On the other hand, if the movie is just a diversion, and he’s actually dragging her to the restaurant, does how long does he think he can keep that up before she figures out that the theater is not their destination? Are both the movie theater and the restaurant at the same location? And what’s up with the rhinoceros waiter?

There are tiny bits of comedy at the restaurant with Michelle (weasel, 3), Monster (monster) and Carolyn (raccoon) finding more to do with breadsticks than be used as appetizers. The Rhinoceros, by the way, like all of the TAGS regulars is based on a crittacature used in the “Backstage” and “Stagelights” series, with the exception that he’s not a regular player.

May 12: Step 1, Murray (13) and Edie (12) arrive at restaurant.
Step 2, their friends are caught waiting with their mouths full of breadsticks.
Step 3, regardless, they leap out of their seats to loudly greet Edie.
Step 4, they were GARLIC breadsticks. Comedy. I guess you had to be there.

I criticize that panels 2 and 3 are drawn too busy. You never see that in “Peanuts.” And panel 4 should have had Edie passed out on the floor, or at least with a garlic breadstick facial.

Roll call: (Panel 2 L-R) Rodney (African Lion, 4), Carolyn (5), Heidi (Gopher, 6), and Checkov (dragon, 9); (Panel 3 L-R) Brenda (mongoose, 6), Polly (penguin, 19), Bill (turtle, 5) and Rudy (pig, 6).

Disneyland Turns 56

2011-07-19T11:49:00.000-04:00

Carmine red pencil and black India Ink on paper.

Disneyland Park, the original in Anaheim, CA, just celebrated it’s 56th birthday two days ago on Sunday. It’s not one of the big decade ones, but they usually do something special on the birthdays, even if it is just specially decorated slices of cake for the guests as dessert options and ribbons for the Cast-Members (Disneyland speak for employees) that are imprinted with something along the lines of “It’s Our Birthday!”

When I was a Cast-Member, I used to make sure I worked on July 17, in a sort of reverse vacation request.

I rushed to do this special little piece of art on Sunday. It’s based upon the “Peter Pan” attraction poster the park once had but here featuring Tuff-Girl and Wichita. I colored it in a similar limited palette with which the original screen printed poster had been design. The color version was posted on Facebook, on the “I’m a fan of Bryan Mon” wall.

TAGS May 9 & 10, 1994

2011-07-12T23:47:00.000-04:00

05/09: Captains plan-it.

05/10: Secret gaurdin’.

May 09: Secrets and the keeping of them is pretty well used comedy material. Surprise birthday parties are curious things, because one would think that the guest of honor knows that her/his birthday is coming soon. Regardless, Murray (cheetah, 11th appearance) is going to organize one for Edie (squirrel). The story telling would have been helped slightly if the kitchen location were more clearly communicated. This is Bill’s (turtle) 4th appearance.

May 10: Some one has to be the weak secret holder, and here it’s Rudy (pig, 5) who also has to suffer weirdly drawn bangs in the last panel. However, Rudy’s name does get used for the first time here. To be fair, Fern’s and Carolyn’s (raccoon, 3) collective pressure isn’t helping. Meanwhile, Edie (10) plays dumb. Alas, Fern is still an un-named tertiary character, even in this her 3rd appearance, which kind of makes her role like being Fern-iture. Ha.

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T15:29:00.002-04:00

Carmine red pencil and black India Ink on paper

digital composite with text.

Rogue-pourri

2011-06-28T23:43:00.000-04:00

Here is an assortment of pages out of the last filled sketchbook, these focusing on ideas for some of Tuff-Girl’s adversaries. Designs and details may differ by the time they appear in "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl."

TAGS April 24, 1994

2011-06-21T03:49:00.001-04:00

Black and white as originally published.

India Ink on paper.

Digital composite of India ink and watercolor, with digital color of the logo.

Checkov (dragon, 9th appearance) and Connie (cardinal, 3) in an April appropriate situation.

It now occurs to me that it’s remarkable that the strip works without really answering the questions of “where” and “when.” On second thought, just by remarking about it doesn’t make it remarkable, and on third thought answering such questions is just my hang up and in the lacking of them the strip isn’t at all hurt. Here you go any ways: 1) they are strolling in one of the “backstage” areas of Happiland theme park, where customer/guests’ eyes are not permitted; 2) I like to think that they are on their way home having been released early on such a slow, cloudy day.

Panel 1: The bubble in his hat is a nod to scene from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with Dopey in the washing Grumpy for supper sequence. The underwater aspect also reminds me of Jiminy Cricket in “Pinocchio” when he was looking for Monstro the whale, especially with Checkov holding an umbrella.

As I continue to color these full page “Sunday edition” strips, many years after they were first drawn, I inch closer to an as-of-yet elusive satisfactory process. The down side for “monotonae” readers, I suppose, is that it throws off any imagined TAGS posting schedule. Case in point, I just painted this one this evening, while the last TAGS posting was three months ago. I apologize for that.

Super Heroes, Part 3

2011-06-13T01:36:00.000-04:00

Red Sonja - A colleague requested this commission if and when I had free time during Heroes Convention. That kind of time never did become available to me. So I created it after I returned home from the con. and with the added benefit of the fact that had I started drawing on 9" x 12" boards in the midst of the con. having run out of comic book sized (6.75" x 10.5") backing boards which, for the purposes of penciling and inking, were necessarily un-coated on one side.

Super Heroes, Part 2

2011-06-11T16:06:00.002-04:00

Convention Commission Sketches, Masked Men and Miscellany.

Invisible Woman - Here’s another blank cover opportunity. While I’m more familiar with the Fantastic Four’s classic blue and black uniform, the client was totally okay with me drawing that rendition - however, the book itself is the first featuring the team reformed as the “Future Foundation,” assuming new black and white uniforms.

Superman, Samurai Jack - The clients of these two separate commissions were coincidentally female attendees of the convention, and although one had a sketchbook in which she was collecting drawings, both seemed to approach my table as a new discovery and were neither certain of the subject matter they wanted me to draw. I guess it was because of all the “Tuff-Girl” stuff and the fact that I had been drawing so many girls.

Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, Power Girl and Superman, Mr. Freeze - There were a few clients who discovered me last year and returned for more. At this point these separate collectors had long exhausted their regular request list, so they’d start off with “How about...” followed by a contemplative pause. At least, they hadn’t begun the “Stump the Artist Game.”

Jeannie, Red Tornado, Midnight Man - As mentioned previously, experienced sketch collectors some times theme their sketchbooks or commission collections. Here, respectively, I added to collections of Jeannie, Justice Society of America and the client’s personal creations.

“Evil Kimberly” and Lord Zed - This double character commission based on characters from the “Power Rangers" series was the most surprising theme for me to add an original drawing. I think “Evil Kimberly” was a costume design original to the collector.

Super Heroes, Part 1

2011-06-07T02:20:00.000-04:00

Convention Commission Sketches, Girls

Heroes Convention, Charlotte, NC, June 3-5, 2011. Business was good this year for me where I had a table in the small press area, as compared to last year’s full exhibitor booth. I was nearly busy the whole convention from the start of Friday to the closing on Sunday with commission sketches including some over-night work done in my hotel room. Was it my location, a near beeline right out front of the Men’s rest room? Was it my extremely reasonable rate of $15 per character? Has some one been talking about my great service from last year?

This year’s strategy was to offer a copy of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl” No.1 for each first commission order. Gotta get the book circulating, you know. Also new for me this year - I came with more than just red and blue color pencils.

Here are ten samples of what I drew, featuring what seems to be the norm, girls. Please forgive the mottled lighting of these photographs with my shadow cast over the art, the flash failing to completely obliterate it:

Black Canary, Bat Girl and Mary Marvel - Could it be that DC Comics’ women are more popular than Marvel’s? I do seem to draw more of them, so it’s a good thing that I’ve memorized a lot of their silver age costumes. Black Canary was in the collector’s theme of Justice League International members; otherwise I would have opted for the 1960’s fishnet stocking costume. Mary Marvel was the very last commission (because I could squeeze it in) that was almost an artist’s choice piece.

Zatana vs. Black Canary, Lois Lane vs. Lana Lang, Mary Jane vs. Gwen Stacy - I don’t discourage multiple character compositions on con. sketches, but they do require a bit more planning with the layout both with figuring out spatial and interpersonal relationships, and of course they require more time to draw. At any rate, as such, I drew a few “versus” comps. “Z v BC,” is this an imaginary story of the battle of the fishnet heroines? “Lois v Lana” I didn’t want actual contact fighting and hair pulling, so I had them fighting over this valuable souvenir. “MJ v GS” was done when this collector saw the previous and wanted this Marvel pairing.

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy - Speaking of “pairing,” this is a popular team up from Batman’s rogues gallery. Any hesitancy of depicting Harley’s in this unlady-like pose on my part quickly gave way because it contrasts Ivy and it’s funny.

Mary Jane Watson - Spider-Man/ Peter Parker’s girl-friend/ wife, being a civilian, doesn’t have a costume, so that means I get to make things up, right? I think that if I compare it to John Romita’s work that I’d find some detail I missed. I personally don’t know where you can obtain them, but publishers like Marvel here print blank covers, expressly for original art to be draw on them. The coating made it tricky not to smudge the inking, and it seemed not to take color pencils too well.

Belle - On occasion I get to access my Disney past with a princess (or Tinker Belle) drawing.

Love Bunny - The prepared collector arrives at comic cons. with reference, as he this one did in this case of an Image character I had never seen previously. I thought she was out of “The Tick.”

Heroes 2011 - Update

2011-05-29T00:27:00.001-04:00

Heroes Convention is less than a week away and the site has at last been updated with final lists of exhibitors and assigned boot locations (although, at this point, I’m uncertain if my browsers had not been updating to show intermediate update made since late March)!

I'll be there all next weekend.

Find me!

Heroes Convention

Charlotte Convention Center, NC

June 3-5, 2011

Monster Enterprises booth

AA-126

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

Heroes Convention

2011-05-25T03:36:00.001-04:00

The Heroes Comic Convention is approaching in less than two weeks and I’ll be there (some where) in the small press area.

More information to follow.

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

Drawing Conclusions 2002

2011-05-17T03:11:00.001-04:00

Blue pencil and black India ink on paper
21.59 x 27.94 cm (8.50 x 11.00 in.)

Within a year of working for Cartoon Network I wrote and drew this update of my autobiographical comic strip. For what ever reason, I never got around to adding color. The structure is inspired by Windsor McCay’s classic “Little Nemo in Slumberland” Sunday strips.

Header: Witness my crude drawings of Monster (my alter-ego), a robot (they’re cool until the robot insurrection), Charlie Brown and a bear.

Panel 1: I am told that my older brother gave me crayons as a baby, and then I proceeded to draw on the sheets in my crib.

Panel 2: Of the toys I had as a baby, I had these stuffed dolls: a brown bear, a poodle and a baby clown. I’m told that the clown made me cry.

Panel 3: The transmogrified crib legs allude to my Chinese horoscope. The crib logo is for my “Time Flyers” story idea. The baby oysters are from “Alice in Wonderland” which I would occasionally hide in my Disney work.

Panel 4: A floating island with a pirate ship in dock is inspired by “Peter Pan”, while the rainbow bridge by Thor’s Asgardian mythologies.

Panel 5: The skyline is partially formed by a paint brush, compass, 30/60-degree triangle and broom.

Panel 6: I drew critter-caricatures of my Disneyland co-cast-members - Mike was a dragon. The crest is an interpretation of Monster. That’s a circle template on the wall. The banner icon is a painters palette with crossed brushes. The ten gallon hat and sarape alludes to a previous version of “Drawing Conclusions.” The mice are a nod to Walt Disney’s version of “Cinderella.”

Panel 7: There’s a cog in the background. I’ve been nursing a flying penguin story. I took some linguistic liberties with made up “enfaced” (applied to the face of) and “pantsed” (pants wearing).

Panel 8: An adult monster skull is a foreboding sign. The dark mountain in the distance is like something out of “The Hobbit” complete with flying dragons.

Panel 9: Introducing Fillo (Fill-oh) the toucan, mascot for my fictitious design company.

Panel 10: The symbols: panther, brain, Disney name tag, and Disneyland castle icon. The princess is generic. There are eyes in the dark.

Panel 11: Monster in silhouette. The princess has Aurora’s tiara, Belle’s hair style and Cinderella’s dress.

Panel 12: Television!

I think it’s about time I work on a new “Drawing Conclusions.”

Fantas-Diego Four

2011-05-10T02:06:00.001-04:00

“Fantastic Four at Fifty”
Preliminary draft.
Scarlet red Col-Erase pencil on Bristol Board
27.94 cm x 43.18 cm (11.00 in. x 17.00 in.)
2011

“Fantastic Four at Fifty”
Final ink.
Scarlet red Col-Erase pencil and India Ink on Bristol Board
27.94 cm x 43.18 cm (11.00 in. x 17.00 in.)
2011

“Fantastic Four at Fifty”
Digital illustration
6,600 pix x 10,200 pix.
2011

Here to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four is my submission to this year’s San Diego Comic Con souvenir book. It is based on the cover art of FF issue #49 (yeah, I know, ‘Why not #50?’) by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinott. My preliminary draft (top) is closer to the original cover layout even with the addition of the floating cake, but the Fantastic Four seemed too small to me.

The final art submitted to SDCC is cropped tighter and has added text.

120 [m ] : Young Justice Poster

2011-05-05T07:23:00.001-04:00

For most new shows the Cartoon Network (CN) launches, the marketing strategy includes key art, a.k.a. a central image. It is pretty much THE poster, THE iconic image for the show, and if there’s not enough money or time to have teaser images preceding it, or multiple posters to introduce individual characters than by default it is the poster.

Ideally, all other launch related marketing should fall out of or be based upon this key image.

Fall of last year, I worked on the key art for the new superhero action show from Warner Brothers (WB) Animation, “Young Justice.” For those of you who may not be familiar with the DC comic book on which it’s based and yet may remember “Teen Titans” (2003) and know the Justice League of America (JLA) (more or less the “Super Friends”), it’s like “Teen Titans” with the team is comprised of young superheroes many of which are side kicks of JLA members. This show takes itself more seriously than Titans, and has the team working as the JLA’s secret, covert squad while they train under the guidance of certain JLA members.

The six core members are Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Superboy and Artemis.

4 rough concepts.

Red pencil and black ink on paper.

As a superhero actioner, it was natural that I would fall back on comic book cover styled layouts for inspiration. My favorite is concept “D” with Young Justice battling the over-sized mechanical menace of Amazo.

Approved layout.

Mixed media.

In typical fashion, my favorite pick has little influence on what is ultimately chosen. This image is clearly an amalgamation of conceptual drawings “A” and “B” above. From “A” is the silhouetted line of JLA members. I prefer the contrast of having YJ in action. From “B” is a re-mix of the characters based on how the network wanted to feature the characters in a composition that was based on art press art created for 2010 San Diego Comic Con.

Near final layout.

Digital.

As a WB show, the WB not CN is responsible for producing the final character art assets. However in this instance due to a the lack of production time and benefited by being able to substitute all of the characters with existing character poses, we at CN vectorized what we needed with no new art from WB. That’s the only reason for the subtle changes to the YJ poses from the approved layout.

120 [m ] : Television

2011-05-03T03:48:00.001-04:00

Cheers to television, I love it, but admittedly I’ve been bewitched by it. Ever present during my lifetime, it’s been entertainer, baby sitter and timekeeper, ubiquitous, perhaps, but ever changing. Television presents old movies to new audiences. It delivers both amazing stories of real people and fantastic tales of a wonder woman or an incredible hulk. Occasionally, eureka, it will teach you something!

Defined by its very name, television, as one of the modern marvels, is a system of devices designed to transmit and receive sounds and simulated moving pictures. In it’s invention, it was conceived either as radio with pictures or as motion pictures telegraphed, except in contrast where motion pictures were preceded by still photography, television wasn’t preceded by the facsimile machine. Curiously, it was preceded by mechanical attempts each with a screen the size of a business card, a mere firefly compared with a giant, wide, flat screen of the 21st century. Doubtfully, the modern computer and Internet experiences wouldn’t be as fun or popular if they weren’t like enhanced televisions.

Television along with any number of video playback devices re-plays old movies, most of which without television I wouldn’t be able to see at the movies, and then to be forgotten to some twilight zone no matter the number of revival theatres. I think there’s more than just history appreciation to be gained by the daily show of classic films and legendary performances.

Friends and super friends of all sorts are introduced through television. It’s why I love Lucy, Reba, Lavern and Shirley. Maybe unlikely heroes will emerge from a group of freaks and geeks. Maybe you’ll see the Muppet show the celebrity guest lessons on being human.

Click through the channels to find a bonanza of entertainment tonight and live vicariously through the actions of fantastic characters. With a click you’ll leave a farm with a northern exposure in some small ville to get lost on a fantasy island. Click again and blast off on a star trek with a supernatural doctor who is an alien life form to the outer limits of time and space.

I may not necessarily get smart watching television. Although I’m unlikely to learn how fix my kitchen nightmares and become a top chef, I may be able to prepare 30-minute meals. I might pick up a little something to banter about at the office. While it’s unnecessary for television to assume the dirty jobs of being educator and counselor, I do get a little bit of glee to learn through televised, empirical demonstration that both thawed and frozen chickens can bust through an airplane’s wind shield and feel good for the knowing.

Everything else that I may click past is probably something some one else loves. So no matter who you are, what you watch, or when you watch it, television never says “no.”

p.s. 30 Rock, The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice, Hill Street Blues, Johnny Quest, Mission Impossible, The Powerpuff Girls, Schoolhouse Rocks, Sesame Street, Speed Racer.

120 [m ] : Cartoon Network 2011 Calendar

2011-04-26T01:59:00.001-04:00

Cartoon Network makes 12-month calendars as a matter of marketing need, viewed as a premium to help keep the network and it’s original shows near the forefront of our business partners’ minds.

As such, they’re not commercially available.
As such, they’re not a “line item” on the annual budget.
As such, there was no 2010 calendar.
As such, the 2011 hit the schedules late in the year with a couple of weeks of production time.

Each month was assigned to an artist/ designer, to be done in a minimalist, 3-color (black, white and a color), Saul Bass style.

In the end, I designed four, with three featured in the final calendar, (the monthly grid on the spiral bound calendar hangs below the single page of art):

Robotomy

To convey the idea of “robots in high school” of this pilot cartoon, the pattern of the composition book is composed of character head silhouettes and machine parts. Without the show being approved for a full season at the time of the calendar’s production, the page was replaced by...

Dude, What Would Happen

This show is what I call “Jackass Junior,” where three reckless hosts take preposterous concepts to their ridiculous, often explosive conclusions. An early attempt on this had the figures drawing as white chalk on a black board.

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

This new incarnation of the timeless cartoon, tells of tales of the five-some’s early association with an over-arching mythology. Where the new show’s character design is a slick updating of the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?”, I chose a character grouping from “The New Scooby-Doo Movies.”

Young Justice

This is a new show from Warner Bros. animation based on a DC comic. Much like the Teen Titans, the heroic team’s roster is comprised of young former sidekicks of Justice League of America members and of young heroes new to the crime-busting scene. In this incarnation, the team includes, Kid Flash, Artemis, Aqualad, Superboy, Robin and Miss Martian.

At the top on the layout, are the JLA mentors, Aquaman, The Flash, Batman, Superman and Green Arrow. At the left, is an early rendition with two white radial bursts intersecting creating a moire effect. The idea is a dynamic, new group coming out of the heart of the established group.

At the right is the final version.

120 [m ] : Cartoon Network stars

2011-04-21T00:03:00.000-04:00

Last year, a friend contacted me through Facebook inquiring about donations for an auction to be held by her PTA.

I arranged to donate one of the Blooregard puppets featured on the “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” Macy’s Thanksgiving Day float (2007, 2008, 2009), and a Flip video camera branded with the 2009 network on-air mascot (the big headed vinyl figure that was digitally repainted with the features and colors of Carton characters).

Additionally, I created these four pieces of original character illustrations.

Ben Tennyson (Ben 10, Alien Force), Chowder,

Dee Dee and Dexter (Dexter’s Laboratory), Samurai Jack

Marker and India Ink on board.

120 [m ] : Ben 10 QC

2011-04-12T03:59:00.001-04:00

At its most basic, saying that I draw cartoons for a living is enough for people to imagine what I do, which is make marks in an arrangement that look like things - even if what they imagine isn’t accurate in the details of the mechanics.

In recent years, compared with earlier years, I’ve accumulated ever fewer examples of projects where I’ve produced finished drawings. With most of the illustration projects at work handled in an assembly line process, much of my involvement is a type of quality control (a.k.a. Q.C.). Basically, I make sure other people’s drawings of Ben Tennyson, Humungousaur, and Rex of “Generator Rex” all look like Ben, Humungousaur and Rex compared to the studio’s character models.

Cannonbolt (Ben 10): This alien transformation of Ben’s can roll himself into a big ball and bowl things over. As with nearly all the “Ben 10” character models, Cannonbolt is drawn in a standing position, meaning there aren’t up front examples of how a character’s anatomy is supposed to work. Many artists new to Cannonbolt seem stumped by how his arms are connected effectively to where his ears should be on a giant head.
From left to right: 1) artist A takes a stab at Cannonbolt; 2) in red I rough out correction notes; 3) artist B does a new drawing.

Ditto (Ben 10): This alien hero can split off copies of himself. I don’t have any theories on what would make this little guy tricky to draw. But to my eye, I almost instinctively internally said, “not like that.” This not being the time or place for a “how to draw” the “Ben 10” heroes, I’ve presented these two examples with the assumption that the latter drawing are better and more on-model.
From left to right: 1) artist A; 2) my Q.C.; 3) artist B.

Drawing Attention

2011-04-05T05:41:00.000-04:00

WonderCon, San Francisco, CA, Apr. 1 - 3, 2011 - The 25th running of this convention of comic book aficionados, saw good weather and big crowds. With a table (way in the back) in the artist alley section, I used this outing as a test run to see how well I could handle traveling with stuff to exhibit.

Like HeroesCon last year, the convention sketching business kept me busy:

Wonder Woman : It could have been the subliminal suggestion by the convention’s name or recent news of the in-development television series, but the premiere heroine seemed a popular request.

Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah : for this fan I drew a triptych of battle scenes. The third (not shown) had W.W. standing triumphant over bound Cheetah. Plus a fourth commission has Cheetah behind bars (oddly still in her costume).

Power Girl and Supergirl : These two heroines were once parallel universe versions of each other. I’m not sure how they relate, if at all, in the current continuity. In the final P.G. art, I added a belt and colored her cape red.

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn : These were separate commissions, but I based both on the Bruce Timm, “Batman, Animated” television series costume designs.

The Thing and Spider-Man : “How would you like to draw these guys in their new costumes?” I was asked (more or less). Well, I kind of would have preferred their classic costumes, but for the right money...

I didn’t enjoy drawing Ben Grimm as a kid, but this one was fun.

Duo Damsel : This was a request by a fan collecting sketches Legion of Super-Hero members in his book. The B&W single version was done in anticipation of he dropping of his book.

Samurai Jack & Tuff-Girl : Team up!

Ben Grimm : Drawing the Thing was so much fun I drew another. Actually, this was the last commission of the Con. Whew.

WonderCon 2011

2011-03-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

Maybe I’ll see you there.

Lost Wages

2011-03-28T08:28:00.001-04:00

Light blue Col-Erase pencil and black India Ink on Bristol Board

27.94 cm x 43.18 (11.00 inches x 17.00 inches)

Following that manga style Tuff-Girl piece I made for MomoCon, I decide that I should create new pieces of art to commemorate every convention at which I plan to exhibit. Smart marketing or mis-guided errand?

Here Tuff-Girl and man-lizard baddie Rip Tyler are in the midst of another sparring session in front of a modified version of the famous “Las Vegas” sign. It seemed like a good idea - what with my writing partner Merrill Hagan using the city as the epicenter for Tuff-Girl adventure for the first couple of stories. However as an advertising image, it seems disconnected when I placed the WonderCon information on it, which will be in San Francisco. Oh well, that leaves it wide and clear to do something more connected next time.

If you’re following along with the development of the Tuff-Girl character, you may have picked up that I keep re-designing her costume. It’s not so much re-designing her costume as much as envisioning that in her different bases of operations or places where she can crash, she has closets full of different costume pieces and accessories. Beside, as you see here, she probably has them torn up pretty frequently.

From concept to final digital color, I estimate I totaled over ten hours on this piece. Up and through the inking, I has it in my mind that the image was in day light; so some of the black shadows are incongruous with the night time coloring I ultimately gave it.

WonderCon

2011-03-23T01:31:00.000-04:00

Hey, all!

WonderCon!

9 days away!

Mo and Mo

2011-03-15T00:31:00.002-04:00

Atlanta, GA, Mar. 12 & 13, 2011 - Momocon. The two day comic convention, had a major Anime and Manga component judging by the what one could find in the dealers’ booths and the offerings along artist’s alley. Still it wasn’t exclusively so as evidenced by my table in the dealers’ room, across from a large display of tee-shirts.

I actually sold a modest number of books and often received the sincere comment, “you’re good,” which was sometimes mixed with a hint of surprise. The convention commission sketching business wasn’t so brisk, so most of what I spent my time doodling, I took home.

Here’s a sampling:


Blue She-Hulk. This is was you get because I only bring red and blue pencils, and black pens.

Wonder Girl. The name was added in part because there was space, and in part because I felt like doing it this time when I usually don’t.

Ariel, the little mermaid.

Alice from Walt Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.” There’s something about Alice and her adventures that appeals to girls. I don’t quite know what it may be. Curious.

Spider-Man. Time to give the Marvel characters their due. There’s something genius about Spidey’s costume design.

Dr. Doom. I don’t think I’ve drawn the ruler of Latveria since high school. And again I make due with red and blue pencils while lacking a green.

Tuff-Girl. It’s my booth, and I can drawn what I want.

Supergirl. I guess I’ve got to draw at least one Supergirl for every con I’m at.

TAGS April 20 & 21, 1994

2011-03-07T23:03:00.000-05:00

04/20: Rain dears.

04/21:The “un” in “fun”.

April 20: Tanya (otter, 3rd appearance) hates the rain while Polly (penguin, 18) likes it, although to judge them by their species, they both should enjoy the water. Eh - it serves the story. Gerry (a.k.a. Geri, beaver) returns in only her 2nd appearance since about the first dozen strips. Because her role is main that of middle-management, she doesn’t get involved in the funner stuff.

April 21: Monster doesn’t dole out trust very easily, as Hans (fox, 4) gets all he can the joy from early release.

What happens in a theme park when it rains? A lot of people leave - the annual pass-holders and multi-day admission ticket guests - but not all of the people. So nearly all the attractions keep running and all of the stores get packed full of people where character imprinted vinyl ponchos and nylon umbrellas magically appear on shelves. Some restaurants are strategically closed to guide guest to others that have some indoor seating, makeshift as it may be.

A warm summer rain in the evening grants you short or non-existent lines, puddles on cobblestone walk ways that reflect twinkling multi-colored lights from the carrousel, and a sloshy, bathtub on wheels roller coaster ride in and out of a 147-feet tall concrete mountain. Squich, squich, squich your toes wriggle inside your squeekers.

Supergirl: Ice Work If You Can Get It

2011-02-28T20:44:00.000-05:00

a) Concept.

Red rollerball ink on pre-printed note pad paper.

17.8 cm x 25.4 cm (7.0 inch x 10.0 inch).

2008.

b) Digital color over scan of India ink.

2010.

More Supergirl fan art.

From the concept drawing shown, I drew a new, tighter drawing, inked it and colored it digitally. I’m in the habit (or have assumed the procedure) of building the art on layers for future re-manipulation, tweaking or re-coloring. For example, Supergirl, the iceberg and chain are comprised of 6 layers: one for the line work, another for flat base color and four for effects or lighting and shading.

Mo Momo Con

2011-02-22T02:25:00.001-05:00

a) Tuff-Girl and Wichita, digital color over scan of black ballpoint pen on copier paper, 20.3 cm x 25.4 cm (8.0 inch x 10.0 inch);
b) alternate re-color;
c) detail, 4.1 cm x 5.1 cm (1.6 inch x 2.0 inch).
d) rough drawing, scarlet red pencil on copier paper, 21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.5 inch x 11.0 inch)

Here is the full render of the anime style drawing of Tuff-Girl done for the MomoCon advertisement mock up. As I have been accustomed to doing with my work in consumer products and marketing illustration, both with Disney and Cartoon Network, the pose was designed as an asset, which is to say it is not intended to be final in its layout and cropping, but for use with in another layout. This partly explains the drab, flat gray color behind Tuff-Girl and Wichita. For the alternate re-color, I put a little more effort in the background.

The decision to use a ballpoint pen for the final line lies mostly in my comfort with the tool. Because the ink doesn’t bleed, it’s a passable substitute for a darkened xerographied or scanned pencil line, which to the best of my knowledge is part of the anime aesthetic. Because I drew the final ink line on top of the red pencil rough, the high resolution scan is the only way that stage of the art now exists.

The dramatic re-color done for the final ad, was mostly the result of playing with some of Photoshop’s capabilities- you know, because I could.

MomoCon, 2011

2011-02-17T01:20:00.002-05:00

Heads up, ya’ll!

This will be my first convention appearance of the year - MomoCon.

I hear it’s got a large anime component, so it seemed appropriate to try my hand at an anime style over Tuff-Girl and Wichita.

I’ll be a guest in the “Media” track, due to my day job - staff illustrator/ character artist for Cartoon Network. However, you can be sure that I will books and drawing to sell.

Admission cost: FREE!

I hope to see you there.

MomoCon, 2011
March 12-13, 2011
10am to Midnight (Sat)
10am to 10 pm (Sun)

Georgia Tech Square
5th Street and Spring
Atlanta, GA

http://momocon.moonfruit.com/

Covering a Cover

2011-02-07T03:41:00.000-05:00

(a. Red pencil on paper, 8.5 in. x 11.0 in.

b. Digital color and composite over clean scan of ink on paper)

Simply, here is my take on the cover of “Supergirl” #60.

TAGS, January 01, 1994

2011-02-03T03:06:00.000-05:00

“Ski Trip”

Digital color over clean scan of ink on paper.

I created this piece of art for one of the covers of “monotony.” I’m very certain that I colored it with water colors and of which a black and white copy was reproduced for that cover. As of this writing, I could not find that original water color. Here in its stead is my digital color pass of it. Being digital, I could then make the accompanying legend is quick order.

Guy’s “87” jersey refers to the first year I worked a summer at Disneyland. The paper lunch sack supposedly contained charcoal briquets for the snow-critters, which is an odd and otherwise unexplained detail to include.

At one point I was very concerned about which characters would wear boots. Biologically, I don’t think I got all of that detail correct. Also, I now wonder if Bingo and Bill would really enjoy the winter fun?

Marketable Skills

2011-01-07T01:29:00.001-05:00

“The French Market Restaurant Cast Poster, Summer 1989”

Black Xerographic reproduction on white paper

91.4 cm x 61.0 cm (36 inches x 24 inches)

1989

Here is one of the biggest self-started projects on which I worked relating to my days as a Cast-Member (i.e. employee) bussing tables at the buffeteria restaurant “The French Market” in New Orleans Square, Disneyland. Each of the 107 Cast-Members is depicted as her/his critter-caricature or as I coined, “critticature” (or crittature), which were originally developed for my fledgling comic strip series, “Back Stage,” of which I have discussed previously.

I don’t know if almost 22 years later I need to apologize for any of my critticature selections, but I can say that none of them were out of meanness. On the opposite extreme, none of my critticature selections very much gained me anything. I didn't even have much in the way of rules of going about it, save for trying to never use the same species or breed twice. Some were actually because they reminded me of an animal or cartoon of an animal. Some were merely alliterative with either their first or last name. The worst were because I had never used a particular animal before.

The poster was as big as Kinko’s copiers, at the time, could reproduce. I drew the original at 100% scale on illustration board as a single, sprawling piece of art and pasted on the names in the legend at the bottom. To my chagrin, the large copier’s rollers would not accept the large board, and I had to peel off the top layer. I ran off 200 copies for sale I guess. I would later frame the original and give it to the department supervisor to put on display in the office, where unfortunately it got water damaged when some pipes burst (or something). In all, I sum it up as some thing I did. I didn’t even seek official permission from the park to do it. I never followed up the poster with updated or expanded versions

Disneyland being a place of seasonal employ, for some on the poster, this was their first and last season at the Market, so I think I remember about half of these people, with a few more in the “oh, yeah” edges of memory.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-29T18:02:00.000-05:00

This season’s Christmas greeting for Monster Enterprises in three flavors.

Click each to play the animate GIF.

Saving Screens

2010-12-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

“Unstoppable Tuff-Girl: Los Angeles”

computer screen desktop

1920 x 1200 pixels

Back in August, I shared a desktop image featuring a photo-composited image of Tuff-Girl in front of old Las Vegas. Well, Tuff-Girl appears all over the American South-West. The re-used Tuff-Girl image over-laid with warmer tones stands in front of Los Angeles’ skyline in twilight, although not an old Los Angeles.

A Little Like Christmas

2010-12-11T19:47:00.000-05:00

“Tree” squibbill Christmas greeting

Carmine red pencil on paper.

“Bear” squibbill Christmas greeting

Carmine red pencil on paper.

“Sing” squibbill Christmas greeting

Carmine red pencil on paper.

Here’s a teaser on what is my current project. After a few years of putting Tuff-Girl on my Christmas cards, this year I’m using my TAGS characters again: Monster, Rodney (lion) and Polly (penguin).

I am also returning to the idea that I would do it as a series of multiple designs, a thing I started when I worked at Disneyland and was giving out upwards of fifty cards. The variations seemed to be intriguing to my friends and co-workers.

Ready and Wilson

2010-12-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Little Tuffy and Wilson
sketches
Color pencil and ball-point pen ink on paper with Digital color over cleaned scan.
21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.5 inch x 11.0 inches)
2010.

Surfer girl Little Tuffy has a pet Shar-Pei, Wilson.

Why a Shar-Pei? Because when I thought about it, I couldn’t think of any other cartoon or comic strip that ever had a Shar-Pei. Think about it.

Done?

Right, so L.T. would have the first cartoon Shar-Pei. I started in earnest designing Wilson one month ago, with little success. One month later, attacking the challenge only twice more in between, here above is pretty close to what he’ll look like.

Mon to the Next

2010-11-27T01:13:00.000-05:00

Red pencil on card stock.
27.9 cm x 21.6 cm (11.0 inches x 8.5 inches).

Digital color over scan of India Ink on card stock.
4200 x 4200 pixels.

Because a simple e-mail announcing a new e-mail address isn’t sufficient, I designed a couple of Rolodex style cards decorated with this self caricature.

Encircling me, are a number of my characters from past and present, chosen mostly because they would be reasonably shorter than I am.

(Clockwise from the 1 o’clock position) Un-named angel and devil conscience characters once doodled on my grade school notes. Their function are in the “good versus bad” tradition seen in cartoons. Their design are about as simple as I could make them, decades prior to “The Powerpuff Girls”.

Un-named flying penguin developed for a fable I had in my head in college.

Monster as the corporate mascot for Monster Enterprises is a beast who acts as much as my cartoon alter ego as Mickey did for Walt. He is a mash of bear, gorilla, Hagar the Horrible and Muppet. This is the fourth distinct character design of Monster. The others were used in three different comic strip series: 1) “B.M.O.C.” strip written in college; 2) “Backstage” and “StageLights” satirical comics based on the goings on in Disneyland’s restaurant department; 3) “TAGS” the offshoot of “Backstage” written for a wider audience.

A shue, the pet of Lurna, Moon girl. Lurna was a throwaway invention done eight years ago when I was bored one afternoon. Part of the idea included naming things that sound like common yet unrelated English words.

Odysseus, Jupiter squirrel, pet to Homer. Andromeda was my one story idea most inspired by Anime sources. It involved girls in space, mistaken identities, war, capitalist lizards, pirates and a hapless reluctant explorer Homer and his pet, one of a population of squirrels transplanted on one of Jupiter’s terra-formed moons to evolve into domesticated fur balls the size of house cats.

Wichita, Tuff-Girl’s canine companion.

A bird-winged fairy is a minor conception that arose in high school as a result of thinking butterfly-winged fairies to be totally implausible and ridiculous. The tiny winged horse was added thinking it to be about as reasonable an idea as a tiny winged girl.

TAGS April 18 & 19, 1994

2010-11-19T07:20:00.001-05:00

04/18: Heidi's choice.

04/19: Ach! Tsavbort!

April 18: Heidi (Gopher, 5th appearance) and Rudy (pig, 4) discuss one of modern life’s most important issues - ice cream flavors. The stork clerk is a nod to another crittericature I had done for one of my Disney restaurant co-worker. He not a re-occurring character.

Mmmm. Ice-cream.

April 19: On the flip side, Monster offers his take to Bingo (snake, 2) on the decision making process. Here the actual problem is inconsequential.

Some times non sequitur humor works, and some times like this it doesn’t. Don’t worry, I’ll try some thing different in the next strip. That’s one of the advantages of the daily strip.

Ever since writing this, I’ve considered developing a back story, at least, for the bald aliens with funny (Russian perhaps?) accents. Not getting much farther than that concept, it would have been called “Die, Monster, Die!” Ultimately, however, in whatever form, it’s existence would only be to justify this one strip and would be way, way beyond the core of TAGS.

Mmmm. Ice-Cream.

Tuff-Girl the Movie - 2009

2010-11-08T20:15:00.003-05:00

“Allison Miller as Tuff-Girl”

Graphite on paper.

21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.50 inch x 11.00 inch), 2009.

With this drawing I cast actress Allison Miller (“Kings” (TV 2009), “Blood: The Last Vampire” (2009), “17 Again” (2009)) in the title role. It might not be the best bit of casting since she doesn’t have an uncanny resemblance to Janine Turner (the initial primary model for Tuff-Girl’s civilian identity, Debby Durrance), and she’s doesn’t at all appear to be half Asian. But she does appear to be tiny and someone the bad guys would underestimate.

Here I minimized the eye mask considerably to reveal more of her face which is drawn a bit too full to be more than a moderately good likeness. Already I’m making Hollywood concessions. In my conception she would answer the question “why do you wear a mask?” with “because a broken nose really hurts,” inferring that she’s built in some sort of guard in the bridge of the mask.

Matt’s Back

2010-11-02T06:52:00.000-04:00

Co-worker Matt will be out due to a little back surgery on a “huge ruptured disk.” He tried to describe his condition with bacon as an analog, but that really didn’t help me. Mmmm, bacon.

I wrote this up between answering the door for “Trick-or-Treaters,” following up with inking, and coloring later into the next morning. I think more things should rhyme.

TAGS March 12, 1994

2010-10-26T04:46:00.002-04:00

Black and white India ink on paper as originally published.

Composite of India ink and watercolor and digital retouching of logo.

Sunday, 03/12: Take the hit.

To get it out of the way, I consider myself a lazy colorist. I try to get away with flat, non-graduated coloring as often as I can. Also, in coloring my own comic work, I’ve worked on the images at least twice before with the penciling and inking stages, so a bit bored with it, I rush through the coloring part. Still, you can’t underestimate the impact and transformative effect color has on the art.

Conceptually, I like the first panel of Al (beagle, 3rd appearance) in a boxing ring as a metaphor for the dating process. The humor of it with his opponent being a girl pops a lot better with the addition of color obviously.

The strip has to basic themes: 1) rejection sucks; and 2) Al plus Michelle (weasel, 2) would make for an odd couple. Maybe the humor could have been sharper or had more punch if I had stuck with just one idea.

The girls in the panels of the top half: Fern (kangaroo, 2), Jill (reindeer, 3), Suzie (deer, 2), Emily (tiger, 2), Shirley (seal, 2), Polly (penguin, 18), Rudy (pig, 2), and Tanya (otter, 2).

Then, in couple of break room exchanges, Bill (turtle, 3) and Hans (fox, 2) offer varied insights. And Michelle entertains a crowd including Wolf (weasel, 3), Sara (panther, 2), and Vern (horse, 3).

Use of Al here, as a final comment, was more a choice of not using Monster, because at the time, Monster would have been defeated after one rejection and have gone alone. Well, actually, Monster wouldn’t go to a Powerhouse concert, a rock band modeled after Van Halen. Powerhouse is named after a musical selection used by Carl Stalling in a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons written by Raymond Scott.

Letter Be

2010-10-23T16:37:00.005-04:00

Yet another distraction.

A few months back, I had posted a review of the Disney book “Animation (Walt Disney Studios: The Animation Series)” on FaceBook. Expecting to follow through with lots of reviews of Disney miscellany, I titled the proposed series “Disneyanadocious”. It obviously is intended to deal with Disneyana i.e. Disney collectibles, and mash that with the word you say when you don’t know what to say as coined by the song writing team Richard and Robert Sherman for the film “Mary Poppins.” Not content with that, in my estimation it needed a logo.

I stitched together a logo from the logos of Disney films, theme parks and other productions. I thought that with 16-letters, that I could honor the big landmarks in the company’s 82-year history. Unfortunately, the logos for Snow White, Pinocchio and even Mickey Mouse aren’t composed of letterforms that are necessarily iconic when taken out of context. I think I most regret that I don’t have a representation from any of the Broadway productions. It’s probably arguable that the second “a” is iconic enough, but I wasn’t going to omit the first and only animated feature to earn an Academy Award nomination for best picture.

Eventually, time permitting of course, Disneyanadocious will be part of my web-log of forwarded e-mail flotsam and jetsam, “That’s Good Spam” (thatsgoodspam.blogspot.com), mixed in with my five-point movie reviews.

And here are hints, for those who need it, of the sources of each letter and punctuation:

D - Dedicated by Roy as a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney.
I - A diamond in the rough.
S - Feature Mickey’s big feature film debut.
N - Takes down the Master Control Program.
E - Brought to you in thousands of sparkling lights, and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sounds.
Y - Practically perfect in every way.
A - Wouldn’t you think she’s the girl who has everything?
N - Enjoys the best of both worlds, chills it out, takes it slow, and then rocks out the show!
A - The most beautiful love story ever told.
D - In 1954, Walt visits millions of living rooms in glorious black and white.
O - A classic tale set in New Orleans in the roaring twenties.
C - Must leave the Prince’s ball before the stroke of midnight.
I - Lost a lucky rabbit and launched a company with a talking mouse.
O - You’ll think you’ve seen everything when you see him fly.
U - Flik’s epic story of miniature proportions.
S - Mickey Mouse would present these Walt Disney productions.
! - Where good clashes with evil in a nighttime musical spectacular on the Rivers of America.

The Commissioner

2010-10-18T22:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I exhibited my comic, “Tuff-Girl” No. 1, at the first mini-convention held by Oxford Comics in Atlanta. As much as anything, it was an opportunity for local comic artists to present themselves and their wares to the local comic buying public.

It turned out to be a modest affair, on an otherwise pleasant day for the outdoor event.

Here are the sketches that I worked up during the seven hours, save for three which I sold: 1) Humungousaur from “Ben 10 Alien Force”; 2) Supergirl; and 3) a commission based on the patron’s original character.

Thor
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

The first sketch of the day, and except for the commission done like all that I would do that day by memory. It’s not terribly well planned as far as fitting on the board, and I forgot to color in blue pants.

Samurai Jack
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Jack still has his fans. It’s nice to test myself to see if I can still draw things I haven’t draw - well, in this case - since May at Heroes Con.

Capt’n Ameri-Girl
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Based on Marvel’s venerable Captain America. I'm pretty certain that Marvel has or had a young female version of Cap, but perhaps that was in a fictitious “What If?” story. Other wise, this is an original design.

Robin
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Another challenge for my cerebral archives, Glen Murakami’s design for the character from the popular “Teen Titans” animated series that ran on Cartoon Network.

Supergirl
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Did I ever tell you that I draw Supergirl a lot?

Belle
Color pencil and black India ink marker on board
26.7 cm x 15.9 cm (10.5 inch x 6.62 inch)

Having recently purchased yet another home video edition of Walt Disney Pictures’ “Beauty and the Beast,” it’s no surprise to me that I pulled this out of my repertoire. In the context of a convention sketch, I might have been showing off.

Thor © Marvel Comics.
Samurai Jack © Cartoon Network.
Robin and Supergirl © DC Comics.
Belle © Disney.

Lady Slings the Blues

2010-10-14T07:17:00.002-04:00

“Sling”
Red Col-Erase pencil and Black Prisma Color pencil on Bristol board.
11.00 inch x 16.75 inch
2010.

The Oxford Mini Con (Oxford Comics, Altanta, GA, Sun. Oct. 17, 2010) will be holding a raffle. My contribution to the raffle is this original piece of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl art.

After finishing the piece, I got the strangest feeling that I had previously drawn the thing or perhaps had drawn the composition. Maybe it’s a lot like a Supergirl and Streaky I had drawn once (or twice)?

Cat’s Super

2010-10-11T03:49:00.004-04:00

“Clouds”
Digital color over clean scan of India ink on paper.
20.3 x 25.4 cm (8.0 inch x 10.0 inch) 2010.

Here’s a reworking of a an old sketch done in 2003 (montonae, April, 2009), ’cause I liked it - or most of it. I corrected the arms for perspective and foreshortening, basically moving Supergirl’s elbows closer to her shoulders. I also extended her torso a bit for clarity. Design wise, I changed the cape to attach to her more-clearly-drawn yet still rather ridiculous “S” shield blouse.

However, Streaky remains rather Disney-esque cartoony because, pretty much, that’s how I draw cats.

The different costume color schemes is fun and easy to do. Such is the power of digital art and the brilliance of layers.

The clouds are on the flat side - maybe a bit too much - because I only laid in four basic tones without painting in more or blending what I had put down.

And there should be some birds.

The Skull Army (The End Vol.1)

2010-10-06T12:30:00.003-04:00

Although not a comic or graphic novel per se, “The Skull Army” comes from the pages of “Silver Comics.”

Limited copies available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0044WNQ3I/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1286382457&sr=1-1&condition=new

http://www.amazon.com/

Food-tasmic!

2010-10-04T21:13:00.003-04:00

French Market!
unused sweat shirt design.
30.48 x 30.48 cm (12.0 inch x 12.0 inch)
Color pencil, marker and gauche on illustration board.
c. 1992

In the summer of 1992, the night time spectacular, Fantasmic!, erupted on the Rivers of America in Frontierland, Disneyland, CA. I was a cast-member working in The French Market restaurant in New Orleans Square, whose outdoor patio overlooks the Rivers of America (and yet, by the way, because of the area foliage and incidental pedestrian traffic, is NOT a good place to view the show).

Up until then, the whole west side of the park had a predictable tapering off of business from day to evening in the summers. With a huge outdoor attraction like Fantasmic! with colored lights, video clips projected on water screens shooting fifty feet in the air and pyrotechnics, and nearly every square centimeter filled in with guests in the cycle of arriving, waiting, watching and trying to exit - well, things changed in a big way.

As for this unpublished image, I had by then gotten in to the pattern of designing and selling printed tee-shirts and sweat shirts to commemorate that year’s crew. This time around, I transformed the Fantasmic! logo into the restaurant’s name, and transformed the rest of the marketing artwork, swapping Mickey for three of my characters from the comic “BackStage” and the Maleficent dragon for a gigantic, hungry sheep. This being a full-color mixed media piece on board, I had ambitions of some how reproducing it on tee-shirts, that is until I learned how difficult and expensive the process would be.

The bears (a nod to “Bear Country,” the land which was re-named “Critter Country” with the opening of “Splash Mountain”) by their costumes represent the three basic zones of the restaurant. Fran (?) in the French Market blue dress and white apron is the hostess providing counter service in the buffeteria style restaurant. She apparently is entrusting the group’s safety to some sort of magic straining spoon. Herb is wearing a French Market blue vest and is hoisting what’s probably a fifty pound buss tub on his shoulder. Bus tubs aren’t much good in a fight, not even overloaded ones like that. Miles is wearing chef’s whites for those cast members who cook, prepare and run the food to the front counters. Miles has an empty fry basket in a batter’s stance - could that have been a bad visual pun? “Fry/batter?”.

Of course, I put in a hidden Mickey.

Oxford Comics Mini Con

2010-10-01T02:04:00.004-04:00

In support of local Atlanta comic creators, Oxford Comics will be hosting a mini con.

Oxford Comics
2855 Piedmont Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30305
October 17, 2010
11 am - 7 pm

I'll be there as one of those local artists.

Bring the kids!

http://www.atlcomixfactory.com/

TAGS March 10 & 11, 1994

2010-09-27T04:10:00.001-04:00

03/10: Light snacking.

03/11: Gastronomics.

March 10: Picking up here from the action of the March 08 strip, the closing crew sits down for a light snack or coffee at Stacy’s restaurant (panel 2, back row l-r: Brenda (mongoose), Checkov (dragon), Corina (Poodle); foreground, l-r: Nick (Skunk), Monster (monster), Barron (stuffed bear)).

The joke telling here is pretty soft. It would have been better, I now think, for the first five orders be one or two word balloons and Corina’s bubble to fill two-thirds of the second panel. Then in panel three, Checkov’s watch check doesn't help the joke, because they shouldn’t really have anywhere to go any time soon - well, except to get some sleep may be.

The basic TAGS character design is about three-heads tall, so the giraffe server would have been a unique looking character - if I had decided to draw her more completely.

This is Corina’s 5th appearance and Checkov’s 8th.

March 11: Typically, the closing shifts are staggered, so for things even as simple as getting together for a late night snack have their stragglers. John (greyhound, 2) and Al (beagle, 2) finally arrive at Stacy’s as mentioned in the Mar. 07 strip.

You know what, if all Checkov ordered was a float then what is it that he’s still finish eating?

Here’s a lost opportunity to really punch up the joke with big, expressive sound effects in the third and possibly fourth panels, and we really should see shock on John and Al’s face in the last panel.

Appearance roll: Brenda (5), Nick (11), Barron (13).

Also, the gang has kindly left Murray and Edie to them selves on their date.

Supergirl vs. Boy Toy

2010-09-19T21:24:00.003-04:00

Red pencil on paper.

2008.

5.50 inches x 8.50 inches.

Here’s a concept drawing from one of my sketch/note books. I’m posting it just because I felt like sharing it.

Supergirl’s rubbery figure shows how I was still struggling with an animation friendly design.

“Supergirl Saves the World” is a book title idea I had the intention of pitching to DC Comics.

“Boy Toy” is pretty much just the Toy Man from Bruce Timm’s “Superman, The Animated Series” but more clearly here he’s a remote controlled robot. I had the thought, what if some GIRL stole the controls of the robot?

Um. I guess that’s about all that needs to be said about this piece.

TAGS December 26, 1993

2010-09-15T00:16:00.003-04:00

Digital composite of India ink line and water color.
B&W version originally posted October 2009.

That Hue You Do
Partly out of necessity, partly out of lack of time (or laziness), but mostly out of simple procrastination, most of the “full page” a.k.a. Sunday editions of TAGS were left as black and white inked line drawings.

Now that they have some thing of a second life here on monotonae, it just doesn't seem right to leave them unfinished.

My original process was to watercolor black and white xerographic copies. Invariably, the 20lb. copier paper wrinkles and warps. This go around, I’ve tone back the black to a 10% gray and ink jetted it on 110lb. card stock. It’s hardly a perfect system, however. For one thing, gray, of course with an ink jet, is an illusion created by little specs of black on white, and appear as such when you scan it at 300 dpi or higher. Second, the printing process, the watercolor painting and the scanning all introduce a bit of warping to the image. It’s nothing that a little Cut & Paste Photoshoppery can’t fix to match the clean line art.

TAGS, March 07 & 08, 1994

2010-09-14T01:36:00.002-04:00

03/07: Wait for it…

03/08: You can have pancakes 24 hours a day.

March 07: Some times a closing crew will split up going their different ways and see each other at the next shift. Some times you all want to do... some thing.

Barron (stuffed bear) takes a head count on the group. Brenda (mongoose), check. Corina (poodle), check. Checkov (dragon), check-a-roo. Characters mentioned are John (greyhound, who has appeared only once before) and Al (beagle, who also has appeared only once before and in the same strip as John) who, as is turns out, do not show up in the next strip.

March 08: Stacy’s is one of those family restaurants that remain open late or better still are open 24 hours a day. Naturally there’s a Stacy’s near the Happiland theme park, and a good place for Murray (cheetah, 10th appearance) and Edie (squirrel, 8) to get a sundae.

From the previous strip, the gang has increased by two to include, Barron (11), Brenda (3), Corina (4), Checkov (7), Nick (skunk, 9), and Monster (monster).

I also managed to put in the family station wagon that monster drives.

Ed at 50

2010-09-11T01:07:00.002-04:00

Ed Murrieta celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday.

Little Eddy and Atlanta Skyline.

When last seen on monotonae, Ed was caricatured on a tee-shirt design (Nov 20, 2008).

Little Eddy Mug Shot.

Creating caricatures of Ed has all but become an annual practice, but this year the caricature is in three-dimensions. On a blank “Bub” figure from Kidrobot’s Munny World line, I worked at the last minute to squeeze his essence with acrylic paints on to the 4-inch tall form.

http://www.kidrobot.com/

This may be the last caricature of Ed that I’ll do for a long time, because outside of getting one tattooed on my back, I can’t imagine being able to top this one.

Happy birthday, Ed.

Same Old Things

2010-09-07T01:16:00.003-04:00

This is the 201st post on the blog called monotonae.

For the 200th post, a nice round number, I was digging through my files for some thing special, but instead colored up a sketchbook drawing of Eagle One and his Eaglets.

Here’s something special for the first post of the next 100 - if I stretch the definition of the word “special.”

monotony
Before there was monotonae, there was a printed newsletter called monotony.

If memory serves, some time in 1993 I decided to quit working in a Disneyland themed restaurant, to get serious about finishing my art studies and embarking a career in the field. Wanting to challenge myself with maintaining and regular newspaper style comic strip (TAGS), I compounded the pressure with the creation of monotony as the monthly outlet for that work, if only for a year. The newsletter format, in turn, was also a major impetus for the addition of the Sunday edition full page format to TAGS.

Production was crude compared to the home office setups that are common today. Most of the layouts and text blocking was done in a program called Pagemaker. With no access to a scanner, all illustration was subsequently added either directly on the master pages (or boards) or as photocopies pasted on the board. Then the boards were copied in the wee hours (to get that after midnight discount) at the local Kinko’s shop.

Initially, copies were sent to about a half dozen friends of my Disney days.

Here are scans of the six pages of the first issue, with the mailing addresses redacted.

And monotony came with two inserts:

1) A subscription order card.

2) A survey form.

This Makes Me Stranger Than You
Even as I was in the middle of doing monotony I had the sense that it was a huge expression of “hey, look at me!” In essence, it was a web-log (a.k.a. blog) without the web. Except for family updates people send out with Christmas greetings, no one else does this sort of thing. Perhaps giving the publication a bit of parody aspect helped to relieve some of that egotistical part.

The core of it, or course, was getting TAGS out there in some form, and after a year, maybe I’d have a good sample package to seek out syndication.

The Runty story is the type of satirical prose I would write in one sitting to fill up a page.

St. Nick and Monster
Here, for the first time published in color is the cover illustration.

water color on heavy cold press paper.
1993

Eh. It’s no Rockwell, that’s for certain. Look at Santa’s huge mitts compared to his face.

On the Wings of Eagle's

2010-09-05T05:19:00.002-04:00

Eagle One and his Eaglets
Digital color over cleaned scan of ball-point pen on paper.
20.32 x 25.40 cm (8.00 inch x 10.00 inch)

From the pages of Wichita, the Tuff Mutt, here is Tuff-Girl adversary, Eagle One and his eaglets.

I imagine that from time to time E1 would have a near harem of hench-femmes, in the manner of Hugh Hefner. But the life of crime means that some times either he or they get caught and imprisoned, so the faces always change.

The drawing was done as concept in black ball-point pen over a red-pencil sketch across several lunch breaks in my sketchbook.

Supergirl

2010-08-31T04:27:00.003-04:00

Supergirl
Light blue pencil on paper
13.97 x 21.59 cm (5.50 in. x 8.50 in.)
1998

Here are color explorations for a costume concept for the Maid of Might. All because I didn't feel like only posting the blue pencil sketch. Yes, I spent about an hour this morning digitally coloring this thing just for monotonae. The twelve year old sketch features a Thor-styled cape a la Jack Kirby which I don’t usually draw on DC characters.

The overall style is based on Bruce Timm’s of his “Batman: Animated” series. It’s a style which has an attractive graphic simplicity, and yet a style with which I struggle because I’m always wanting to either put in more detail or complicate things with more accurate anatomy.

TAGS, February 06, 1994

2010-08-19T23:32:00.002-04:00

Sunday, February 06: Valen-time! Besides this being one of my friend, Dave’s favorite TAGS strips, there are one or two things that work about this one.

As I had previously commented, the larger format of the “Sunday” full page comics, drawn about 8 inch x 10.5 inch, offered more panels and relatively larger panels from the dailies. The dailies were drawn two at a time, about 8 inches wide, in the top half of a letter size sheet of copier paper. Here, perhaps better than ever before, is depicted a believable “back of house” kitchen environment. See the stainless steel counters and appliances. Note the stacks of plates and glass coffee urns. Observe the ceiling mounted bug zapper in panel two.

Less clear in the last four panels, are the front, serving area of the restaurant with ceramic tiles on the back wall, back counter and the front counter that Polly (penguin, 17th appearance) is cleaning.

In the first panel, Monster approaches a fallen box of broken heart shaped treats with a dustpan in one hand and a junior sized sweep in the other.

Murray (cheetah, 9) and Edie (squirrel, 7) make a connection here, but the thing I find remarkable is that three out of the four characters’ names are used in the strip. Edie is standing on a box in order to reach over the sink edge. But back to the exchange between Murray and Edie, it was written for them to make it a date easily, and from Monster’s point of view, it is unbelievably and unfathomably easy. I can’t say that it’s realistic, but it’s necessary for…

… Monster to formulate a thought, with the electrical circuit being a bit more complicated than it needs be. Then, without fail, he proves that he doesn’t really get it.

Although, not necessarily a milestone moment, I believe the drawings show a level of comfort that just about marks this as the definitive TAGS style.

Also of note, “Googleplex” is an intentional a misspelling of “googolplex” which colloquially is a very large number. Mathematically it’s defined as 10 to the googol power, where a googol is ten to the 100th power. This strip was written four years before the company known for its Internet search engine was founded.

15 years prior to the release of the Disney animated feature, “The Princess and the Frog” is introduced the idea that movie “The Frog Prince” recently premiered in the world of TAGS.

Tuff-Girl on the Small Screen

2010-08-15T16:53:00.003-04:00

“Unstoppable Tuff-Girl”
Desktop wall paper.
1920 x 1200 pixels.

Of course, I had to do something with the Photoshopped Tuff-Girl, and why not a wallpaper for my computer.

At first I was hesitant about covering up so much of the logo. But then I discovered the miraculous advantaged presented when the words have double letters - namely, you can still read it without relying on the logo itself being as well-recognized as say the “Superman” logo type.

I found the old Vegas Fremont Street image in a Google search, to which I then added specular lens flare effects.

The result has a bit of a movie poster aesthetic. If I had overlaid Matt Crouch’s logo with brush metal texture and had made it appear extruded, it would probably be firmly in that genre. Here with her face framed by long red hair, Janine Turner might be mistaken for the actresses of today, Evangeline Lilly (Lost) or Megan Fox (Transformers). However, I would probably cast a young unknown actress for the lead in a Tuff-Girl movie.

Photoshoppery

2010-08-15T16:12:00.002-04:00

“How to Build a Super-Hero”

According to the Wikipedia entry, the first version of the digital image editing application named Photoshop was created in 1988 by Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at University of Michigan. It has since evolved along with ever more powerful and faster personal computing systems to become the forerunner of digital image editing and creation programs. “Photoshop” is colloquially used as a verb to mean digital photographic manipulation.

With it, I created this conceptual image of Tuff-Girl.

Much of the photographic source material I grabbed from online Halloween costume retail sites. The advantage of this is that the photography is often clear, with fairly consistent camera angles and lighting, and across any given site’s catalog there are thousands of costume pieces.

The strategy is to start with a body posture and blouse or top that works best and add arms, legs and heads as needed. Since Tuff-Girl’s costume is ever changing, certain costume pieces can be different from what appears in her first comic adventure. In this process, skirts are that magic item for a couple of reasons: 1) they’re usually cute; 2) they usually easily hide where cropped legs are supposed to be connected to the hips.

Maggie O’Connell from the 1990 television series “Northern Exposure” played by Janine Turner was a major inspiration for the character of Tuff-Girl, not the least of which what she (a.k.a. Debby) looks like. Choosing actors from television series that are widely available in collections of DVDs or what ever the consumer accessible formats there be, is supposed to improve the consistency of drawing the characters. However, it’s not perfect. I subsequently decided that Debby is only about 5-foot tall and half-Asian.

Maq. it Pretty

2010-08-09T21:30:00.003-04:00

Tuff-Girl Maquette.
Grey modeling compound.
by Chuck Williams.

I haven't written about this since 2007, largely because it hasn't changed much - and, sure, other things have been keeping me busy. With a few changes from what you see here, it currently stands on one of my book shelves waiting for the next comic con opportunity to make people jealous that they don’t have one.

It’s a remarkable thing to have another artist recreate something that only existed in your head previously. There’s an up front layer of being critical of it, but when it’s done well and the artist “gets it,” then it’s like getting a Christmas greeting in the mail - no it’s like birthday cake, delicious, home-made, birthday cake with ice cream.

I’m critical of everything. In fact, I describe part of my job as a game of “What’s wrong with this picture?” However, Chuck is pretty close to cake with this figure. I’ll withhold my final judgment until after it’s been cast and painted.

To help communicate to Chuck what my idea of the target for which he should be shooting, I re-touched and colored a photo of the maquette. Among the subtle changes are fuller hair around her face; more "V" shape to the mask; more narrow face, and smaller smile. That’s a lot of stuff when the head is barely an inch high.

Digital imagery makes coloring black and white pictures easy. In essence, it’s the same technique as using watercolors over a B&W print. To help pull it away from that colorization look, I add highlight layers over the colors, with more over the parts I want to look shiny. I’m not saying that I draw white for the highlight layers, because the figure is already lit and the lighter parts are easy enough to select in subtle levels of lightness.

Although anxious to see the finished painted maquette, I’m already thinking of the next sculpted version of Tuff-Girl I want to work on.

TAGS February 03 & 04, 1994

2010-08-01T23:34:00.002-04:00

02/03: Dare to be stupid.
02/04: That look.

February 03: Who is or was Edie's boyfriend? Who Cares? What matters is that she broke up with the guy. And should Murray (cheetah, 8th appearance) ask out Edie and should Rodney (African Lion, 3) ask out Jeannie (swan)? For the love of Pete, YES! Let's just get on with it!

Per the stereotype, the guys need a little more incentive to make that first big step, even if it comes in the form of a competitive dare session.

February 04: The setting here is looking into the employee cafeteria (noted in panel 1) which has big glass picture windows around it (as suggested by the partially lined characters and diagonal lines which are cartoon iconography of glass). If you were a Disneyland employee who worked on the west side of the Park (New Orleans Square or Bear Country) up until 2008, you might see that strip and say, "ah, I get it." If not, I guess it might look like the girls are trapped in a block of ice in the rain.

Edie (squirrel, 6), the same as is mentioned in the previous strip, (yes, I should have fitted her name in the dialog) probably shouldn't be looking for a new boyfriend so soon after the break up. On hind sight, it kind of makes her appear cold to her ex-boyfriend, what’s-his-name. On the other hand, I do want to keep the story lines moving.

Jill (reindeer, 2) makes her first appearance where she is named. The design question for anthropomorphic reindeer and other hoofed animals is whether or not they should have hands with fingers. The answer is that no, it is not required that they should. As long as the hoofs behave like fingered hands, it works in the cartoon as is evident in "The Powerpuff Girls." If it still bothers you as the designer, remember that Porky Pig wears gloves.

Oh, and for the sake of story, Edie is referring to Murray. If I were going to write about a love triangle, I would have created an ex-boyfriend for Edie.

Those Girls from That Weekend

2010-07-28T00:30:00.005-04:00

HeoresCon, June 4-6, 2010
Charlotte, NC

In what resulted in this continuation of a June 7th "monotonae" post, "Girls for Sale," I recently typed my name in Google and found the site ComicArtFan, a self described gallery and marketplace of comic related art.

Here three members posted a combined total of seven scans of commissioned convention drawings I did at this years' HeroesCon.

This doesn't mean I'm famous or anything, but maybe in some way this may bring a little attention to Tuff-Girl.

This costume for this "classic" style of Cat Woman was from reference provided by the commissioner (That sounds funny. I guess I used the term "client" previously.). Yes, experienced comic convention attendees do carry stacks of reference with themselves in the hopes that they might get their favorite character re-created especially for them.

This composition was left open to me, so, no, I wasn't trying to re-create a comic book cover. The safe box is a bit of property that felt right for the image's story and something I gladly added on this, one of the first commissions of the con. However, since additional property means more drawing (i.e. work), I decided not to so easily volunteer extra work on later commissions.

This is Starfire in the now classic George Perez costume of the 1990's. The client, had a sketchbook nearly full of commisioned art mostly of Starfire based both on Perez's art and Glen Murakami's animated style from the fan favorite Cartoon Network series. I had to reference the sketchbooks previous entries for the costume details. Unfortunately I forgot to draw her arm band, an omission that bugged me the whole following week. I'm over it now.

I've drawn enough Wonder Woman art that I didn't require reference, and in fact, this one was drawn during some down time, and later sold. This, like most of the other pieces done at the con., is in the animation inspired style I've picked up, and you may argue that as result she appears too young.

http://www.comicartfans.com/

You can type "Bryan Mon" in the search box for everything posted.

Wichita in "Beach Thief"

2010-07-10T03:34:00.003-04:00

Here is the ten page Wichita adventure that played as the second feature story appearing in the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl." It's broken into two parts. The mythology is helped, in this first issue any ways, not only by have Wichita involved in the action, but also by depicting Debbie in it as herself and not entirely is Tuff-Girl and inserting Deanne, none of which is in the lead feature.

The conceit of the Wichita stories is that they're Tuff-Girl stories told from the dog's perspective. The story telling is simpler with a more cartoony art style inspired by Chic Young's "Blondie."

Early Wichita designs actually more closely followed that of Dagwood's pup Daisy (or Pluto). Her final design incorporates a smooth line from head to nose which better suggests the profile of an Airedale or wire hair terrier and fur concealed paws that was more inspired by the design of Danny the sheep from Disney's "So Dear to My Heart" (1949) than other cartoon dog designs.

Neither Wichita nor any of the animal characters will talk or "think talk" as do Snoopy or Garfield. Instead the details of Wichita's thoughts and actions are described by the narrative - think nature film ala Walt Disney's "True Life Adventures" or more recently "March of the Penguins."

Production wise, the feature was originally planned as an eight page story told in two parts until two pages opened up in planning the book. Which was a bit better for the story, since it might be an idea bigger than even the final 36 panels.

Not hindered by the fact that I had yet to coalesce how magic works in Tuff-Girl stories, I needed a magician opponent for the tale and had come up with Voilare based on "voila." His design is roughly a caricature of Jim Valeri because of the similarity of the names. Then I kind-of sort-of based the assistant, Ana Cara, of his wife Kara. Ana Cara's back story is that she replaces her sister as Voilare's assistant. Her sister's name is Abigail Carolyn Dubois (a.k.a. Abby C. DuBois).

I was hoping to have the rabbit, Friday, play a bigger part in the tale, but there really wasn't enough room. Friday is named for a magician friend.