Meredith McClaren

Debbie and Wichita
Artwork © Meredith McClaren
Tuff-Girl and related characters © Bryan Mon

Meredith has a drawing style that favors anime influences (think "FLCL"). It’s misleading to say so, because it has a flowing, introspective quality that’s as if it were something she invented in a similar way that nobody drew Mickey Mouse until Fred Moore drew Mickey Mouse (“The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Fantasia,” “The Brave Little Tailor”) a decade after Walt Disney invented the character.

Meredith is a young artist graduated from The Savana College of art and Design (SCAD). She posts an amusing weekly autobiographical comic strip, “Scraps.”

I met Meredith when she interned one summer at Cartoon Network, Atlanta. She created the image above as a pin-up for the first issue of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl.”



http://iniquitousfish.blogspot.com/

Check out “Scraps”:
http://iniquitousfish-scraps.blogspot.com/

Margeaux McClelland

Tuff-Girl
Artwork © Margeaux McClelland
Tuff-Girl ® and © Bryan Mon

Margeaux McClelland has a bubbly comic art style with obvious anime and manga influences (think "Lupin III"). Add too that her watercolors and her pieces often become an amalgam of saucer-eyed manga and comfy, spectral storybook qualities.

Margeaux is a young artist not too long graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design. She has collaborated with two other artists on a web comic and has on her resume work done for Carter's and StorybookAnytime.com.

I met Margeaux when she interned with Cartoon Network for a summer. She created the pin-up above for the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl."



http://mxartdump.blogspot.com/

Check out the web comic, "Burning Heart:"
http://www.burningheartcomic.com/index.html

Stephanie Gladden

Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt vs Rip Tyler
Artwork © Stephanie Gladden
Characters © Bryan Mon

Stephanie draws funny characters like Walt Kelly (Pogo) and draws cute like Fred Moore (Mickey Mouse), fresh, lively and always appealing. If that wasn't enough, she draws great dinosaurs - everything needs to have her dinosaurs in them.

Stephanie has been drawing professionally since 1991, where she got her start working in animation, including Disney’s “Pepper Ann.” Stephanie started drawing comics in ’93 and has drawn many licensed books over the years, such as “The Simpsons,” “Ren & Stimpy,” “Looney Tunes,” and “Tom & Jerry.” For nearly ten years, she worked as a character artist for Cartoon Network, creating art for “The Powerpuff Girls,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” “Duck Dodgers,” and “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.” In 1998, Bongo Comics published her own original comics creation, “Hopster’s Tracks.”

I met Stephanie working for Cartoon Network, Atlanta, where I estimate she drew 98% of all Powerpuff Girl (PPG) art ever to be used for marketing, advertising and licensing and a few PPG comic book adventures to boot; enough that I’d have to check myself and remember that some guy by the name of Craig and not Stephanie had created the super powered trio.



To see more of Stephanie’s work, visit her web site:
www.stephaniegladden.com.

Ruben Procopio

Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt
Artwork © Ruben Procopio
Tuff-Girl ® and © Copyright Bryan Mon


Tuff-Girl and Tuff-Mutt
Artwork © Ruben Procopio
Tuff-Girl ® and © Copyright Bryan Mon


Ruben Procopio skills as an artist are expansive covering both 2-dimensional design and 3-dimensional sculpture. His concept and comic art has a romantic noir feeling that reminds me of classic action thriller comic strips of the 1940's and '50s. His character sculptures are lively and fresh and are doubly astounding given his prolific output.

Ruben has contributed his creative talents to over 16 Walt Disney Feature films, including "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Lion King." His father, Adolfo Procopio, was a long time artist with Walt Disney Imagineering having worked on attractions for nearly all the Disney theme parks.

I met Ruben through mutual friend Ed Murrieta when we were all working for Disney in some way or another. When I asked Ruben for an action pinup for the first issue of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl" he obliged with not one but the two smash-up pieces (above).

For more about Ruben, check out his studio web site, Masked Avengers Studios or visit his web log for the latest from the creative dynamo. There's also an entry on Wikipedia.



Masked Avengers Studios
www.maskedavenger.com

Web Log:
http://maskedavengerstudios.blogspot.com/

That's Good Spam

"That's Good Spam, draft"
June 2009
Red pencil on copier paper
21.59 cm x 27.94 cm (8.50 in. x 11.00 in.)



"That's Good Spam"
July 2009
Vector illustration
20.32 cm x 25.40 cm (8.00 in. x 10.00 in.)


"That's Good Spam, header"
July 2009
612 x 180 pix.

There's something not right with me as evidenced by this "little" project.

Being dissatisfied with the appearance of "That's Good Spam," a recently begun web-log repository of jokes, links and minutia which have been passed to me, I set about to illustrate a more pleasing header.

"I draw a lot, this should be easy," I thought.

With my favorite red Col-Erase carmine red, the draft was completed in a half hour - tops.

Instead of cleaning up the line and blocking in digital color, I misguidedly decided to create the finished illustration with Adobe Illustrator, a program with deals with vector information to create imagery instead of the raster programs' approach with their grid of little color squares. At its most basic, you can created art which has the appearance of being comprised cut colored paper.

Of the little art I make in/ with Illustrator, most are with black lines and flat color fills. After 20+ man-hours of Illustrator version-10 fun (roughly estimated), I seriously think the reason that I do so little vector art is because I hate it. With it's necessary point-by-point drawing of each shape, spontaneity is all but completely excised from the creative process. And why not compound the torture? In addition to some simple gradients and transparencies, I thought I'd try my hand for the first time with two of the application's tools: 1) the "free transform" tool to create a perspective effect with the floor tiles; and 2) the "gradient mesh" tool to create soft blush and makeup effects on the face. 18 hours into the piece, I was still committed to the experiment.

The final piece barely shows 50% of the figure, and 0% of the tile floor.

I cry "woe."

Maybe I should have my internal "good enough" meter checked and tuned.

Please investigate and enjoy the blog at your liesure.

http://thatsgoodspam.blogspot.com

Stephanie

a: Digital color over scan of pencil, 2004.


b: Digital mixed media with scan of India Ink drawing. 2006.


c: Digital mixed media with scan of pencil. 2007.

Stephanie Gladden worked as a character artist for Cartoon Network both full and part time for several years. During which time she had the monumental accomplishment of creating over 90 percent of all the licensing character art for the "Powerpuff Girls" outside of publishing.

Her easy prowess with the cute and funny also had piled on her task list, "Codename: Kids Next Door," "Hi Hi PUffy Ami Yumi," and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends." As one of Craig McCraken's favored artists, she penciled many "Foster's" adventure features in the short running "Cartoon Network Block Party" comic book humor anthology (DC Comics).

Stephanie also has animation experience on her resume, but what has fans lining up at her table at Dragon-Con and other comic conventions is her past work drawing The Simpsons for Bongo Comics.


a) A birthday drawing in the style of "Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi" substituting a guitar for giant pencil. [* * * - -]

b) Another birthday drawing in the style of Milt Caniff's "Steve Canyon." The "borrowing" or outright theft of food placed in the office refrigerator some times requires a creative solution. A thought Stephanie would appreciate this Wile E. Coyote option. [* * - - -]

c) This one was created for her office shingle/ cubicle name plate. [* * * - -]


http://www.stephaniegladden.com/

Up, Up and a Birthday

I had a birthday recently.

Here's a little bit of math for you...

( 20.07 - 19.66 ) x 100 = 41


Jim Valeri did the illustration here. It's a play on my last name. The list is nearly endless, you know BatMon, AquaMon, LeMon, YeahMon, FireMon, etc.

And 3 points of articulation!

Thanks, Jim.