Squaremania: Panda has an Epiphany

Here's the final illustration:

I think it turned out quite alright!

Squaremania: Happy Panda

I printed out the rough drawing and revised it with a red pencil:

After scanning it back into the computer I completed the revisions in Adobe Illustrator and then transferred the lines into Photoshop to color.  So far I'm done with the Panda, and now I have to work on the background:

Squaremania Roughs

I'm working out some of the characters - and in the process I want to spotlight them with their own illustration that spotlights their particular trait or something significant about them.  Here are two characters - a female panda and a little gal piggy.

Squaremania: Rough drawing

This is a rough drawing I worked up in Adobe Photoshop.

Squaremania: Panda Family

We're working on a project and this illustration is one of the first to come out of it.  It's an alternate version of a previous Panda Family piece where you only saw the backs of the parents...Anyway - i wanted to change it around so you could see the entire family.

I did all the lines in Adobe Illustrator, and colored it in Photoshop.

Squaremania: Peeking

I did a similar drawing previously...but This one is the panda as a baby that I'm developing for another illustration - I cropped the picture at the lower part of his eyes so that way it looked like he was peeking over something.

It was drawn by hand and then cleaned up and colored in Adobe Illustrator.

I thought of this as part of creating mock up pieces for licensing artwork.  A company slogan or logo could go below the panda...and how could those cute little eyes do anything but influence someone to purchase whatever the panda endorsed!  That's the idea anyway...

Squaremania: Panda on a square hill

This is the latest illustration for Squaremania.  I wanted a triumphant panda standing on a square hill.  I working on getting the whole world feeling like it belongs together by trying to incorporate a square motif.

I thought it'd be nice to add a couple of the other characters, so I went back in and quickly drew them on their own hills.

What a square adoption

I was working on this illustration way back in February when my computer fell apart on me and I was left without Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.  I had to wait until the computer came back from the shop and I could see whether or not any of my files were salvageable.

The computer decided it wasn't on it's last leg, and I upgraded to CS5...and then I forgot about this illustration.  I'm currently updating my website (www.isaacmarzioli.com) and I discovered it again while going through my files.  I didn't have a background on it, and while i originally was going to have them in front of a supermarket, I went with a more whimsical background.  I almost drew eyes in on the hills, but everyone is doing that these days, so I refrained.

I did the illustration to commemorate our adopting two little kittens from Forgotten Animals of LA.  They're a fantastic organization that goes in and rescues strays and finds homes for needy animals.  And what's nice is that they have huge hearts and really care about what they do.  They even take in sick animals that the owners have given up on and get them treated.

Our two cats are the ones in front - they're twins. 

iF: Duet

This is a quick sketch of a little duet:

The panda is singing his little heart out...

Squaremania: Sad Panda

I did this in photoshop using a wacom tablet.  Just as I finished I wondered why I just used the cintiq as a screen instead of drawing on it...

Squaremania - Tea and Pandas

If you're going to have some tea....feel free to stir in some panda.  It's probably not sanitary, but it sure tastes terrible.  But disregard the taste, because you're drinkin' high priced panda tea.  Only winners drink panda tea.

Nothing tastes better than endangered animals!  Also, if this actually were to happen, I'd suggest green tea, it just seems like the right direction...

Squaremania: Kittens for Adoption

This is a piece I've been working on for the last couple of weeks...I did the drawing about a month ago, and used this three day president's day weekend to finally finish it.

This last month my wife and I adopted two kittens from Forgotten Animals of Los Angeles.  They're a terrific agency that rescues strays and finds loving families for them.  What's nice about FALA is that they take the time to find good people to match to the animals.

Since then I've added kittens to my cast of characters for Squaremania.  I wanted to do an illustration of these kittens and this is what I came up with:

 

The two kittens in the front, the twins, are based on the ones we adopted.  They also had two brothers (the grey kitten and the orange kitten in the back of the box) who were adopted just today.

I do the cleanup in Adobe illustrator.   Then I paste it into photoshop (keeping the vector lines in tact) and when the painting is done I go back to illustrator to 'self color' the lines.

And these are the combined color layers in Adobe Photoshop.  There will end up being one more layer when I add the background into it...so far it's just the characters (and they're floating on a blank whiteness...):

Squaremania: Lil Sweaty Panda

I did a version of this where the panda is just jumping into a game of hopscotch...but then the topic of Illustration friday, this week, was sweater...so I just had to make a revision so I could post it:

I changed the hopscotch squares into a sidewalk and extended it across the length of the hill and added a headband and wristbands to show how dedicated the panda is to exercise.  He doesn't wear clothes, but he wants to keep the sweat contained as much as possible - and judging by the looks of it, he's quite the sweater and the gear is not doing a good enough job.

Squaremania - lil' Panda's big jump

I've been too busy at Nickelodeon with work and at home with the brand new kittens that I haven't been able to draw as much as I would want.   I struggled to free up some free time, but was able to draw this and finish it in the last couple of days. 

I started with this rough drawing in Adobe Photoshop (drawn very rough with a wacom tablet):

Then I cleaned it up in Adobe Illustrator:

And this is the final color (adobe photoshop):

Squaremania: Important Family Meeting

It might feel like deja vu because I'm posting an illustration that I put up over a month ago...but I've gone back and made some changes.

The first thing I did was combine the version of the panda with his frog ear hat on:

It was sort of cute, but I felt that it distracted from the overall message of the illustration - because all you could see was that ridiculously adorable hat...

Anyway - the original always bothered me.  I thought it was a little too plain - so I ruffled up the bed sheet a little (it's not a straight line anymore, and the sheet now extends below the bed frame.  You can't really see either of these things, but it does help to break up some of the monotony).  The most important thing I did was add the picture frames.  I was originally going to put a mobile up, but I thought it would have been too complex and distracting, so i went with the pictures.  And even though I fully colored them, when finalizing the picture I wanted to push them further into the background so I desaturated the color and added the oval shadow.

And now it's done!

Squaremania: Kitties for Adoption, the cleaned up version

I played with the size of the panda a little bit so that way he would be bigger than the kitties.  I think I'm going to add some sort of background in there too - so I've printed it out again and I'm going to flesh out what's going on around them...

Squaremania - Kitties for Adoption, cleaner rough

I liked this rough drawing enough that I'm going to finish it up and make a proper illustration out of it.  So far I enlarged the drawing in photoshop, lightened the opacity and printed it out so I could use that as a guideline for a tighter drawing:

I changed the adoption sign to make it more like something that someone would have on or near a box of kittens.  The original drawing actually said, "kitties for sale" but it was pointed out that my wife and I are going to be adopting.  More important - there are way too many stray kittens in need of homes that a person doesn't need to purchase them, but rather, rescue them.

Squaremania - Kitties for Adoption!

This winter my wife and I are adopting a couple of little kittens from a rescue.   I've been drawing a lot of cats recently...and we can't wait to bring them into our home.

Squaremania - Lil' Panda in a Strange Land

I got a book for Christmas on the art of Greg "Craola" Simkins.  He's a fantastic gallery artist that comes up with some pretty twisted and intertwining works of art.  Anyway - it inspired me to sketch this:

I tend to draw very calculated things and this piece kept making me pause because I wanted to think about what I was doing...I think a good exercise would be to draw whatever is in my head and not get bogged down in making sense or in perspective.  At least I should sketch more...and it's nice to draw a character, every once in a while, that isn't square...but only every once in a while...

IF: Mailer - for publishing companies and christmas postcards

We did two versions of this as mailers.  Instead of regular christmas cards, we thought it'd be fun to do postcards.

"If you hear the pitter patter of square hooves on the roof, it's just Lil' Santa Panda and his square reindeer!"

"Just watch out for lil' square poops falling from the sky on Christmas Eve!"