Adelia: The fishing hole (finished)

I finally finished this one! I've been painting it (what seems like) FOREVER! It was a lot of fun though...I usually don't get so complicated with my designs for Adelia - she's usually up against a white backdrop (as she's always running about in the snow)...so it was nice to break out of that. Hopefully this is the first of many new paintings for a new story featuring Adelia.

Adelia: at the fishing hole

I cleaned it up in Illustrator last night. This afternoon for lunch (in between magazine reading at the bookstore) I did a revision on this. I also decided I should do a light study...not set in stone or anything...I believe I'll have the light source come from the opposite direction from where it is in this picture...but I'm one step away from being ready to color it.

This picture is helping me brew another adventure for Adelia...hopefully it goes somewhere...but we'll see...

The Simpsons: The Burger King Project completed

So the 'Simpsonize Me' project is finally at an end (until they call me for the next thing). Originally (this time around) was going to do 6 executives as simpsons characters...but by the time I got the first e-mail about the job to when I agreed to it - we had ballooned that number to 26. And to top it all off they added another 5 characters to take me through the weekend. All in all it was a fun project...it's great to get freelance that pays as well as entertains.

You can find other Simpsons related freelance art (but mostly penguin art) at my portfolio - http://www.isaacmarzioli.com/.

Simpsonize Me: what I'm working on...

This is a project I'm currently working on for The Simpsons and Burger King. I worked with them earlier this summer helping to design a matrix where people could upload a picture of themselves and turn themselves into a simpsons character. It was supposed to be in conjuntion with the movie - we went up against the wire making the program work...you can check that out at http://www.simpsonizeme.com/.
I was contacted earlier this week to turn several groups of Burger King execs into 'kind' versions of themselves as Simpsons characters. This is the original picture:

And this is how I drew them as Simpsons characters...some lent themselves to the project easier than others (also, they didn't want anyone to be sitting and they're all holding briefcases for some reason...):

Zombie Baby Pictures: the beginning

This is for a start up company called Zombie Baby Pictures. They delve into the macabre and things that are cute and evil. The drawing was done and cleaned up in Adobe Illustrator and then painted in Photoshop.
Originally they were going to call the company Dead Baby Pictures, but people have a problem with dead babies. Now Zombie babies - who can complain about that? The little tyke is up and crawling and hungry for a little brain.
Anyhow - it's a great little company - and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Zombie Baby Pictures

There's nothing like sifting through the trash for some tasty morsel when suddenly the garbage starts biting back! Watch where you sift your hand - broken bottles, used diapers, spoiled food are unappetizing things to run across - but there is much worse. In Found Zombie Baby Trash we find a warning for our dumpster diving friends - One man's trash is another man's raging biting death.

Found Zombie Baby Trash is the line drawing to a forthcoming painting by Isaac Marzioli for Zombie Baby Pictures.

A bunch of new stuff...

I need to blog here more...I've been incredibly busy working at Nickelodeon - and doing freelance. Here's something I created just for fun this past weekend...It's from an old sketch I did earlier this year (trying to expand on my Frankenpenguin picture). It's the forgettable Igor. I want to do a full story about him. But we'll see...

Adelia: gazing

Adelia on a cliff...I tried to come up with better titles for this one - but they just struck me as incredibly lame (Adelia: Contemplative)...so Adelia: Gazing it is.... This pic has nothing to do with my current story - but I did a thumbnail of it and wanted to see it to completion...It's a little different than the other pieces I've done in that it has a light source coming from the back of the drawing (the giant purple moon thing)...so I've really tried to work with lighting to make it work - I have another similar drawing that I'm going to paint in a few minutes that takes it back to the lightsource behind the camera and up to the left (as I usually do)...

Illustrations: specs for a job

I've had to put the Adelia Project on hold as I do some other freelance work. These are just a couple of drawings I did - completely developed on Adobe Photoshop and then placed into Adobe Illustrator and redrawn and colored (seeing as how they color is so flat, I couldn't really call it painting). But it was fun doing something more realistic as I've been doing cartoony work for so long...

Adelia: The fight with the balloon

This is the second drawing I did after I saw the movie 300 - In the movie the little Spartan boy is sent out into the wild to fend for himself...and there's this scene where he squares off against a large mountain lion (some sort of cat creature with big teeth)...So...when I got home I drew this...and it's taken me this long to get around to painting it - I've been incredibly busy these last three weeks doing freelance work for the Simpsons.

Adelia - Finds the string

I might as well not have colored it - I just dropped in the base colors I use (the blue and the yellow) without tweaking it any...but I just wanted to put something up because I haven't done so recently...I've been working (just a bit, don't worry) and today I'm going to spring training (to watch the Oakland Athletics) so there won't be more posts for a while...and probably no new drawings until next week at least.
Anyway - this is a scene in the later part of the book...

Adelia - No Room At the Inn

This has nothing to do with the book I'm working on - but I was doodling in my perspective drawing class at the Animation Union (a class I'm taking because I want to better my storyboard skills, not because I'm still in school)...and came out with this drawing...I didn't learn anything that day - but I did come away with a sketch I had to draw...

also - check out my website at http://www.isaacmarzioli.com/ if you haven't already done so...

Adelia Plays Ball

I was in Spring Training in Phoenix this last week. No, I didn't play - once again I had to turn them down...but I went to watch the Oakland Athletics play (watched 4 games...against the Royals, the Padres, the Mariners, and the Rangers)...anyway - I was doodling a bit during some down time and drew several pictures of Adelia playing baseball...

These are just three of the drawings I did (there were a couple of her running down a ball, a couple of her batting and/or swinging)...I really liked the one where she looked apprehensive about catching the ball...so much so that I had to clean it up in illustrator and finish it up as a painting. I thought it would be appropriate as Baseball season starts (finally!) next week!

And no need to say it's fitting that she's missing the ball because she plays on the A's...if that's all you get out of this picture then maybe you don't deserve to look at it (or maybe you're an Angels fan...and in that case you have worse problems than mocking my silly little pictures)...

Adelia: in tree

I did this piece off of a sketch I did last night. It really doesn't have anything to do with my book - but I liked the piece enough to finish it off by painting it.

Adelia: In Tree

Adobe Photoshop

Adelia Sketch: on tree

I did this sketch thinking of those little birds that hang off the side of a tree...and I tried to imagine how Adelia would look...I think it still turned into a cute drawing....so I'm posting it here...

Adelia Sketch: on tree

Adelia sketch: surfing

I didn't have access to my computer last night - so I put my book drawings aside (which I'm currently cleaning up in Adobe Illustrator) and I drew this. It really has nothing to do with my book - but I currently enjoy drawing Adelia so everything ends up with her in it...

Adelia Sketch: Surfing

Adelia: Walking away from bed

I've done another one - This took me all day to complete - mostly I was frustrated at how hard it was to draw the bed looking cartoony enough. I was at odds with making the perspective correct that my first few attempts ended up looking like boxes (or like the futon I used to sleep on...very hard)...I decided to paint this the same way I did my last one - using Adobe Photoshop. I have to say that I quite enjoyed it...and even though the bed ended up looking like a giant candy cane (a color I might change, as it distracts from the balloon), I think it turned out quite well. As with before, I did a sketch which I scanned into my computer - cleaned up my lines (and corrected my perspective mistakes) with Adobe Illustrator - and then transfered my lines at 300 dpi into Photoshop where I painted it.

Adelia: walking away from bed

adobe illustrator

Adelia: Walking Away From Bed

Adobe Photoshop

Adelia: going sledding

This is actually a drawing that will end up in the book. I might change the hands a bit - but it will look pretty much like this. I've decided to do all my drawings in illustrator so I could have really nice clean lines. I liked this one enough that I had to color it - I started off thinking of doing it as solid colors (without any shadowing) but the more I worked on it, the more I wanted to color it stronger. All in all it took me 20 minutes to clean up my original drawing in Illustrator and then another 2 hours to color it in photoshop.

Adelia - Going Sledding

Adobe Photoshop

Adelia: scary stories

This drawing doesn't fit into the book I'm currently creating - but I was sitting in the living room while my girlfriend watched Dr. 90210...I was inspired by the horrors of cosmetic surgery to draw this pic...which I then dropped into illustrator and cleaned up (and colored).

Adelia: telling scary stories

Adobe Illustrator

Adelia: Telling Scary Stories

Adobe Illustrator

Adelia: More sketches

These are just some of the sketches I did of Adelia over the weekend. Something might come out of them but mostly they were just fun little drawings.

Adelia: sketches

I've really gotten into this character. I've been doing a ton of research on how one goes about publishing a childrens book. I'm going about it both ways (getting it published through the regular channels - so I'm in the process of making a 'dummy' book - and the second way is to self publish. I'm going to finish all of the drawings and then paint and print them. I've even started thinking up ideas for my next book!...and yes...it too stars Adelia the Adelie Penguin)

Here is a sketch! This might end up as a pic in the book, but probably just a little idea and nothing more...

Adelia: in snow - sketch

Adelia: riding on the sled

Here's the latest piece I did. I was also reworking the "Adelia: Painter" one, but ran out of time to finish it (I'll probably have it done by tomorrow). This one has Adelia and her balloon sledding down a hill. I'm currently working on the drawing that shows what happened once they get to the bottom...we'll see...

Adelia: Sledding

Adelia the Painter

I finished this last night - but wasn't terribly happy with it. I think I need to redraw it and then repaint it - make bits of it messier and fix some proportion problems I didn't see until I was transfering it from my rough to the watercolor paper. Since I had already 'wasted' the watercolor paper by having my pencil lines down already, I figured I'd better paint it (just in case it could be saved with paint...hide my mistakes and such)....but to no avail...it look okay, but it could be better...and it will be - once I redraw and repaint it.

Adelia: The Painter - first attempt

Adelia: balloon with a racket

That's right. I painted this today. That's all I did. I painted a balloon attached to a tennis racket. And yes, I did think it was a good idea. So now what?

Adelia: playing tennis - finished version

This is the final version of Adelia playing tennis - done on Watercolor paper (as usual) with Dr. Martin watercolor inks (as usual).

Adelia plays tennis

Adelia: The Balloon playing tennis - color comp

I thought it'd be fun to show Adelia's balloon playing tennis with her. This is the color comp, done in the same way I did Adelia (with color pencils on tracing paper)

Adelia: balloon plays tennis - color comp

Adelia: tennis rough...

This is another painting in my Adelia series - I want to do a couple of paintings based on the idea of how she perceives herself, and how she actually plays. This one is her tennis pro imagination at work. This color comp was done on tracing paper (over a sketch I did in my book. This time around, instead of cleaning it up in illustrator, I just adjusted the head of Adelia in Photoshop and printed it out at the appropriate size I wanted to work with).

Adelia: tennis - color comp

This is my original drawing - note that the head is much smaller than in the final version

Adelia: tennis - original sketch

Adelia Jumps for the Balloon: Finished Painting

I finished this on the newest watercolor tablet I purchased. It's 'Arches' cold pressed (which means that the paper is textured....hot pressed, which is how I did the virgin penguin piece, is very smooth) and everything seems to turn out amazing on it. I changed the composition slightly from my tone comp to this one by lowering the frame so the balloon looked like it was flying out. And having reference to where the shadows and highlights were, it was quite easy to paint.

Adelia Jumps for the Balloon

Adelia Jumps for the Balloon

This is the tone study I did for my next painting. I decided that I'd better start figuring out where I want my light source before I put brush to canvas. I did this on tracing paper over a cleaned up (in Illustrator) version...I also used this opportunity to readjust the placement and to put Adelia more on model.

Adelia Jumps for the Balloon

Final Version: Adelia waking up

I really like this character - I finished the painting yesterday and can't wait to start on another one.

Adelia and the Balloon wake up

Adelia: in bed - the color comp

I'm currently developing a series of paintings, hopeful to turn them into a book. They follow the adventures of little Adelia and her balloon. It's really due to the suggestion of Tracey that this is taking place (so thank/blame her). I had originally done Adelia as a big, fat penguin and my original intention was to place her in compromising positions meant for smaller bird (that could fly). My two original paintings with her had her standing on a tree branch and falling off.
The only thing is - the more I drew her, the more she changed from a turd of a penguin to a cute child like penguin. Meantime I did a second painting with my chinstrap character, only this time I imagined him as a fatty (I felt it added a lot to the painting to have this cute fat chinstrap penguin holding a balloon)...Tracey suggested I merge the two story ideas together and this is the first of many more to come.

color comp of Adelia with Balloon

Buy Valentines Day Cards!

Hey there
You lucky few who read this blog you! I've set up a way that you can purchase your very own Mothers Day Cards and/or Valentines Day Cards! You too can be a part of the magic on this day....here's a view of both:

New Store!

http://www.printfection.com/IsaacMarzioli - that's where you can find all the exiting new stuff that's come out of the Boring Penguin. There you'll find a bunch of my art...in t-shirt form!!!

Penguin with Balloon

I want to do this in a series of paintings...this is the first of (hopefully) many. I'm trying to follow through with (what I think are) interesting compositions....we'll see how far I'm able to do that. I really like how this one turned out though...and wish I had this painting when I did my christmas cards this year....

Penguin with Balloon

My brand new website

I've decided to build myself a real website and do away with all this blogging nonsense. I mean, I'll probably still blog a bit - but I won't be spending as much time here as I do on my website...

Check it out at www.isaacmarzioli.com
Some time soon I'll even have merch up so you can buy to your hearts content. Some time soon, indeed!