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...

Lotzi: All three in the series

And this is all three in the series together:

Lotzi doesn't hear any evil, speak any evil, or see any evil...unless he wants to.  He reserves the right.

Lotzi: Speak no Evil

This is the third and last in the series:

Lotzi doesn't speak any evil...unless you talk about his mother, then he might have some choice words for you...

This was my original drawing of Lotzi: Speak no Evil - but it looked too much like he was surprised or horrified...and I really had to stretch his little arm to come up to his mouth, so I redrew it where he was looking down and could hold his mouth closed more comfortably.

Lotzi: Hear no Evil

This is the second illustration in the series:

Lotzi doesn't hear evil because he's too busy listening to Weezer (but only their songs from the 90s).

I adapted the pose from the illustration on 'Lotzi: See no Evil"

Lotzi: See no evil

I thought of this the other day and thought I could do a series of drawings of just Lotzi - with no real bg or anything to distract from him.  And possibly do it as a way to showcase some of Lotzi's character.

First up is See No Evil:

I don't see no doggone evil!

As you can tell, Lotzi is very passionate about his senses...or is it his lack of sense?

This is also the look my wife gave me when I tried to suggest we go to Comic-con this year...

This was originally drawn in Photoshop:

 I cleaned up the lines in Adobe Illustrator (where I adjusted the horn and solidified the lines) and painted it in Photoshop.

Lotzi: Off Model surprise

I liked the idea of this drawing - as a companion piece to the previous post where Lotzi is about to draw on a piece of paper...the only problem with this one is how off model Lotzi is. So please ignore this post and move on to the next one.

I just thought he looked cute enough that I should post it.  Especially how he's slightly up on his toes...

Lotzi: Piece of Paper

The best thing about drawing is that you start with a blank piece of paper (or, these days, a blank screen on your cintiq) and you can do whatever you want with it.

It all depends on one's education and experience as to what comes out...

Anyway - this is my most recent illustration:

That's how I hold my pencil (only, with my left hand)

Lotzi: the big fight

Six should have been proud of Seven because he was a hero.

This was drawn and painted in Adobe Photoshop.

IF: Refreshing

I did this for Illustration Friday - the topic this week is 'Refreshing.'  And nothing says refreshing like a tasty drink:

And now that it's summer, refreshing drinks are at a premium!  One of my favorites (still) is a nice glass of chocolate milk.

I did this drawing in anticipation of a freelance project i just started.  They want a female character, and so I wanted to get a few drawings of girls in before I did something for them (as all I've been drawing recently is that squatty little dinocorn, Lotzi).

This was done in Adobe Photoshop.

Lotzi: in space

This was created for this week's Illustration Friday topic, "Space."

This is an illustration of Lotzi in Space.  I did the rough drawing and the color in Adobe Photoshop.

I debated about giving him a full space suit - but figured that his tough dinosaur skin would keep his body from being truly affected by outer space.  And then I was thinking about whether or not he needed a pack for oxygen...instead of adding anything like that I decided it could look cool to have a tube that comes towards the viewer and off camera to sort of hint that he's attached to something (like a space ship) just off screen.  And it kept Lotzi from being too junky and busy looking.

Lotzi: Shiny Box of Coins

I had this idea for Illustration Friday's current topic, 'secret.' 

There's nothing better than finding secret treasure.  Shiny, shiny treasure.

I did this illustration in Adobe Photoshop.

Lotzi: The big chase

I did a drawing of this for Illustration Friday a couple of weeks ago.  It was for the topic 'hurry'.  And nothing makes a fella hurry more than someone else chasing them with the intention of eating 'em.

It was a simpler time back them.  You saw something that you wanted to eat and you just chased them down and went at it....well, there were a lot of things you wanted and all it came down to was whether or not you were quick enough to catch 'em. 

In Lotzi's case...it's not his fault that he's really tasty...luckily for him he has some pretty good cardio.  But with his little legs, it's hard for him to put any space between him and the T-rex chasing him...

Anyway - I did a rough drawing:

And wasn't able to finish it in time for that week...so I let it go - but then I opened it back up and decided to finish it in Adobe Illustrator to see if it'd be worth finishing...and I liked the results...so I took it back into Photoshop to color it.

Lotzi: GHOSTS!!!

I did this for Illustration Friday. There's a show on tv where a couple of fraidy guys walk into 'haunted' houses and then proceed to scare themselves silly.  I don't watch the show because it's ridiculous.  And if there really was a ghost (or in this case three) you'd high tail it out of there.

Hurry up and get out of there!

I did the illustration in Photoshop.  It was based on this quick sketch: