Happy Pantry: K is for kissable Kettle

It's best to kiss the kettle before the water starts boiling.

afterwards, all you're doing is kissing your lips goodbye.  And, possibly, the respect of your peers.

Happy Pantry: J is also for Juvenile Jalapeno

We all know that juvenile jalapenos are the most dangerous kind.  They don't know their own strength and release their spiciness all at once.

I'm pretty sure that works with the young of all dangerous things, not just snakes.  That's science.
Sketchy science, to be sure - but science none the less.

Happy Pantry: J is for Joyous Juicer

Why waste all that chewing time when you can DRINK your daily requirement of fruits and veggies!?!

Also - if people disliked eating fruits and vegetables so much, why hasn't anyone invented a better system of imbibing these horrid things?  Blending and juicing get us closer than we've ever been to it - but juicing is stupid because you're not filling your belly with the goods, just a lot of sugar and maybe a small portion of nourishment.  There should be a pill that you can chew on that tastes like something other than chalk....

Until then, we'll use our blenders the responsible way.  That's right, I started talking about juicing only to flip the script and whack you over the head with my blended drink goodness.  It's for your own good.

Sure he's a blender, but he moonlights as a juicer on the weekends...

Happy Pantry: H is for Hot Tempered Hot Sauce

He's hot tempered because he tastes like Tabasco Sauce.

And we all know Tabasco Sauce tastes disgusting.  I'd be fired up too...

Happy Pantry: Almost Alliterative Alphabet Book, letter E

Gotta work those glutes!

Feel the burn (hopefully from being deep fried...because eggplant doesn't taste good any other way).

And that's why they need to work out - all that deep fried oil and grease doesn't do well for one's shape...unless you're going for eggplant shaped, then carry on.

Mighty Yeti logo design contest

My friends over at Mighty Yeti are currently in the midst of their Kickstarter campaign to help fund their first two interactive children's books.

Josh and Jennie Book, the creative minds behind Mighty Yeti, started a design contest where all sorts of adorable little kids sent in their versions of the Mighty Yeti logo.  Obviously it's terrible, but it's great to see the little ones try (fail, but at least they tried).  So the Books called out some of their animation friends and I decided to throw a couple of designs their way:

My wife immediately said I was being rude - but the Mighty Yeti logo is the top half of a cute monster head peeking over the name.  Since you only see the top half, it made me think about what if he was that way because he'd been chopped in a gruesome way (not the pleasant way, not that there is one).  I thought it was a funny drawing, but since they're making children's books, it's not very appropriate, so I had to go back to the drawing board:

I have several under drawings where I was exploring whether he'd be sitting or standing, or if he had a big furry tail...I decided against a lot of those and believed a fun little pose would have him reading one of the Book's children's books...

The rough drawing was created in photoshop, transported to illustrator to clean up the lines and then copied and pasted back into photoshop to color.

Lotzi: taught

I did this for the Illustration Friday topic this week - Teacher.  Sadly I'm finishing it on Thursday night, so it won't see much time on the site as it resets every Friday.

Lotzi's pose was inspired by my time in history class.  It was a general art history class - and even though I was quite interested in the topic, I made the mistake of scheduling the 8:00 class.  And I've since become a morning person, I couldn't get up before 10 back then...well, I could, but I need frequent naps in class.  I still ended up learning a lot, but it probably would have worked better if I was actually awake for more of the class...

I created this in Adobe Photoshop...starting with this sketch:

 Then I solidified some of the lines and revised the drawing a bit:

And then it was just a matter of cleaning up the lines on a new layer and painting color and texture on a different layer.

Oh - and I had another teacher in junior college that insisted we always hold our writing implement - the reason was that if you're not holding your pen/pencil then you probably weren't going to take notes...or, at least, you were more inclined to take better notes if you were holding something to write it all down with...

IF: Time....BOMB!

So this is my second sketch for Illustration Friday...originally I had Adelia holding up a giant pocketwatch...but the more I looked at it and the more I thought about it, it seemed like it should be a bomb. Sounded more interesting.



Also there's a lot more action going on...rather than just reverence for time (which didn't make much sense)...

IF: Time

This is a sketch i did this morning for Illustration Friday's theme: Time. Here we see Adelia and her little friends holding up time



Hopefully I'll have a chance to clean it up and color it for real...but we'll see...

IF: Craving - Adelia Holds Out!

How does this image fit? Well...let's see. The lil' characters were craving them some cupcakes - but their plan had a serious flaw as none of them match up to Adelia's stature.

The final version of a sketch I did this last weekend for Illustration Friday. I had been hoping to finish it - and I finally did...with a day to spare! The word this week was climbing and I thought of the little square characters I draw and what if they were climbing all over Adelia trying to get at something...I did the sketch last Friday and cleaned it up on Monday. From there I did several revisions (trying to get the character placement right and I also had to correct a lot of the perspective)...I started the color yesterday and today it's finally done!

IF: Climbing - Adelia holds out - clean up edition

I did a sketch of this on friday for Illustration Friday - this is the cleaned up version - after 3 rounds of revisions...gotta get it right....right?  I hope to have it colored some time this week.

IF: Climbing - Adelia holds out...

It's been incredibly busy the last couple of weeks. I made the mistake of telling someone I was blogging all the time - which was probably my downfall. I did this sketch on my wacom (which is a horrible way to sketch...I'd rather use a cintiq or grab some paper and a blue pencil)...but this is what I had in front of me, so I had to use it.

I thought about climbing - and wanted to relate it to my characters...so i thought a cute drawing would be to have Adelia holding cupcakes and the little kids climbing all over her to get at them.

I hope to clean it up and color it soon, but we'll see...there's way too much on my (work) plate...besides cupcakes...

IF: Pale - Adelia: Left out...

Here is my latest piece from Adelia.

Originally Adelia (the little blue penguin character in the foreground) was mostly outside the framing. I just joined a critique group through the SCBWI and it was suggested that I push her back into the frame a bit more. It made for a piece that worked better together...Adelia became a part of the picture once she was contained (mostly) within the frame.  From there I went and colored it:

I then submitted it to the Illustration critique group and got some more feedback.  From this I did a set of revisions - adding flowers to the back hill, desaturating the road (which was getting a little too much attention), adding shadows to the wheels on Adelia's cart (which I just completely forgot about), adding shadow to the flowers themselves (to give them more dimension), shrinking the size of the hill line (as the black line was a little too thick), desaturating the skunk's cart, and finally, saturating the sky and changing the clouds to less sucky ones.  I'd say the old version PALES in comparison to the new and improved version.

I've enjoyed doing all these characters together, and when I have time, I'd like to eventually put a story together around them. As for now, they're just going to help me out as a terribly cute subject matter.

Freelance Illustration - cartoon spec

One thing people in the illustration business have to do from time to time is work spec. I usually don't participate - because a lot of the time one's portfolio should be sufficient to show one's ability to tackle a job. But on occasion, when the job seems like fun (or a great opportunity), I'll work on spec (that means you're doing art for free, with no real guarantee that you've gotten the job. Basically you do the piece or pieces, turn them in, and hope the person or business will hire you). A couple of times it's amounted to nothing - but I've had some really good jobs come out of spec work.

Spec is also something that happens in the animation industry - but they don't call it that - they refer to it as 'testing'. You have to test for storyboarding, props, characters or any other animation job that's available. The worst part is that it's actually more time consuming than working spec in the illustration world...as some tests take an enormous amount of time. I had a friend recently take a storyboard revisions test and ended up having to draw over 70 pages (!). And they gave him a week to do it. It's crazy - but worth it if you get the job.

Anyway - here's the spec I did. I turned it in just a few minutes ago and I'm waiting by the phone...



It's for a cartoon that runs in several locations locally in the southern california area. All of the characters are copyright America's Kid Times. This cartoon (above) would run in February (I was going for a valentine's day theme). I did the original sketch in photoshop, and then cleaned it up on a different layer (also in photoshop).

IF: Resolve

It's my second IF: resolve post. I drew two sketches - one of Adelia and one of this little girl. Both had a 'look to the future' kind of resolve to them. That's right, even the little girl with her eyes closed was 'looking' to the future.

I did several sketches of luggage and went with the classic look.

I did the organic shape under her so I could use the wand tool to select that area. I had an idea of making it a sidewalk she was standing on...but as a vignette. I figured that just a sidewalk would be boring...and the organic shape made it interesting.

This was the longest color job I've done in Photoshop in quite a while. It's a lot harder to do human skin color than penguin or weird blobby creatures. And I tried to put a lot more texture in the clothes/hair/ground. It took a while, but I really like how it turned out.

Anyhow - I think it's a good start to the new year.

IF: Resolve - Adelia's resolve for the new year...

I can't believe it's already 2009! I did a couple of sketches that I did a couple of days ago that I really liked. The first is this one of Adelia:

It's all a mish-mash of figuring out the hands, the body and the characters. I cleaned it up in Illustrator and then had to completely redraw the body and feet because it was in the wrong perspective. I was also tinkering with the scarf because it wasn't feeling right hanging off the side like that. I did a couple of rounds of revisions and then re-cleaned it up.

This piece started off as Adelia, bags packed, steady resolve, and ready for the new year. Somewhere the bags were lost (they ended up in the other sketch I did, which I'll be working on next) but since they were unnecessary, I decided to leave them off.

Also - it seems that the second I changed my blog name to the Heebeejeebees I stopped drawing things that would fit (such as the cute animal eating blobs). I'll be bringing those back eventually - but for some reason when I put pencil to paper it always ends up with some sort of cute nonsense. Anyhow - I like how this turned out. I tried a bit of a background behind them, but liked the blank canvas (with just a shadow underneath them, so they're not just floating in space). It sort of sets the mood for this new year - a clean slate. or something...

IF - Adelia: vs. the stinky sock

Hello! First post of the new year!

clan·des·tine (kln-dstn):

"Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose."

Because, you know, Adelia isn't on the way to the hamper...

I've been working on this since last year! This was a sketch I did at the bookstore a couple of days ago. I spent all day yesterday (the 31st) working on a freelance project and I needed to do something fun...so I took this out of my sketchbook and went to work on it.

I really liked how the one hand (not the one holding the sock) turned out. Just a couple of years ago I used to really struggle to draw hands (and I'm still learning) - but I'm coming along quite well...

This was the first version I painted in Photoshop (or should I say colored in photoshop? I guess it amounts to the same thing, but it sort of feels like 'painted' sounds more like what an artist would do and colored would be something a kid would do with crayons...probably doesn't matter)...

but as I cleaned up the drawing I thought about another way Adelia could be holding the sock - it would make more sense, if it really was that bad, to not make skin contact. And then it meant redrawing and recleaning up and then repainting her right arm and the sock. I think the arm and especially the sock are a little bit more dynamic.

I felt this piece fell under the clandestine Illustration Friday topic because one doesn't just waste a stinky sock. One battles it for supremacy and then uses it for secret nefarious purposes. But, with such a pungent stinky sock, those purposes aren't secret for long. Anyhow - see ya next Illustration Friday!

New character closeups....

I did this illustration of Adelia and a panda walking by a snowy winter scene. These were the characters in the background. They're based on little toy designs I had thumbnailed.

I did add small stubby arms on a couple of the characters (the panda, and the pigs) to make the scene work better. I liked the idea of the pigs skating and the little boy pig scared and trying to stay upright.

I was trying to develop the illustration so that way each of the different elements/characters could all be a self contained drawing. I think they work quite well individually, but when I look at the entire picture, it seems a little empty...

But that's why I seperated them, so individually they can be enjoyed as (hopefully) solid drawings.

IF: Clandestine - Adelia sneaks about...

The first thing one will do when looking at the Illustration Friday this week is wondering just waht is clandestine. There's a good chance you've heard of the word, you might even be leaning towards a particular direction as far as figuring it out. If you're a nerd, it kind of sounds like some sort of group that must do something (D&D style) - a clan destined for...? And you'd have to roll the dice (24 sided usually).

Maybe it's seafood related - but then that would be clamdestine...in any case something smells fishy.

And it ain't this post - I just looked it up. I could have looked at the other entries this week (which I'll do in a minute, but now that christmas is over, I have time to post something)...

clan·des·tine (kln-dstn)

ADJECTIVE:
Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose. See Synonyms at secret.

So this is a piece I did. It's Adelia sneaking away from her balloon friend. It was sort of my transition piece away from my first Adelia book (still unpublished). It was about Adelia and her red balloon - but neither Adelia nor I wanted to bog her down in trying to find a way to fit the balloon into every Adelia drawing....so she's leaving the balloon behind.

Adelia - Walking with a panda

This is the latest illustration I've done.

I started with several small sketches - I wanted to make sure of the direction and composition.  As you can see - I have the two characters pointing in both directions, because I wasn't sure (at first) where they should be.  I did know I wanted them out of the frame...

And I redrew the panda character a couple of times to make his walk more natural and cute.  The panda and the other characters in the illustration are based on some vinyl toy designs I drew.  I want to expand Adelia's world to include more than just her and a balloon, so I thought this would be a good way to introduce more characters.