June 29, 2009

Wander Over Yonder

Anyone who has talked to me for very long knows one thing for sure: I love cartoons and animation far more than your average kindergartener. Talk to me a little longer and you'll know that one of my all-time favourite cartoons is Craig McCracken's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. So when I heard that McCracken had a sketchbook entitled Wander Over Yonder, I had to go have a look-see.

And, of course, I had to purchase as well. It's a cute little booklet - in the fiction or poetry world it would be called a chapbook. There's no linear story per se, it's just this little guy wandering around the countryside. Black and white, simple backgrounds, loads of facial expression and character. It reminds me quite a bit of Walt Kelly's Pogo stuff, actually.

So, whilst at a church "game night" Saturday, I decided to have a go at drawing one of the pages from Wander Over Yonder. Sketching in pencil has become somewhat comfortable for me now (somewhat - I absolute HATED the pencil sketch of a beach scene I started before I switched to working on this drawing that night), so I decided to force myself to draw this little McCracken guy in ink only. Naturally the first stroke I made was not exactly absolutely the same as what I saw on the page before me ... and I was instantly forced to draw more and sketch-mimic-erase less.

Some examples from the sketchbook posted on his wife's site, Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls, are here.

Posted by Red Monkey at 6:32 PM | Comments (1) | Sketches | Stumble

June 8, 2009

Live Long and Prosper

So, what have I been so busy with that I had to give short shrift to my Hugo Awards logo entry?

Well, back in January a dear relative of mine announced his wedding intentions and I instantly volunteered to do the invitations. Click the image to see the invitation itself:

Oh, and it's actually not a Star Trek themed invitation ....

Posted by Red Monkey at 7:10 PM | Comments (2) | Design | Sketches | Stumble

June 6, 2009

Rocketship Hugo

When we moved from Austin to Arlington, I was bored. The teachers apparently didn't believe my old school, my mom or me that I was far ahead of their students and so they put me in the second high groups in reading and math. Cuz you know, that's what you do with an advanced kid - bore the crap out of them.

I quickly realized that my new school's library sucked. I was going through books at a ridiculous pace and my teachers were already getting tired of letting me go to the library after I finished my schoolwork and homework before class was over.

So I searched until I found the thickest book in the library. It was called Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein.

I had found a new obsession. I read every Heinlein book in our library, devoured Asimov with abandon and dabbled in Andre Norton and then Katherine Kurtz. As our selection began to expand, I eventually discovered Tolkien as well.

But I always went back to Heinlein, who was for me then, the end-all be-all of science fiction. Eventually I branched out into other authors ... but the one time I wrote a paid-academic piece, it was about Heinlein's novella Waldo.

So when I heard that the Hugo Award was looking for an actual logo to use - something the organization could use in print and use on stickers for the winning books and materials, I knew I wanted to throw my hat in the ring.

Unfortunately, I was rather swamped with two other projects at the same time and really didn't get much beyond the sketch stage. Here's the first two rough sketch ideas that I did not submit to the contest:

I wasn't fully sure that I wanted to let go of my little creature there ... so I did not even attempt to vectorize those sketches and turn them in to the contest.

Instead, I did work up the second concept I came up with. Unfortunately, I really didn't have time to do the concept the justice it deserved, but here's the image I finally turned in:

I thought for the printed pieces, the rocket portion of the logo should be a silver foil, preferably embossed. I wish I'd had time to work up a font closer to the one I sketched in the other concept, but ... *sigh* you do what you have time for, right?

Posted by Red Monkey at 9:04 PM | Comments (2) | Design | Sketches | Stumble

April 18, 2009

More Hand Sketched Cards

Last week, I decided to send out a slew of little cards to some folks I know - just a hey, how are you - kinda deal. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to add a more personal touch (and also because I'm bad with such small talk) - I thought I'd sketch something on the front of the cards. It's a great idea and it was fun. But I am still so critical of the doodles I create out of my own head, this turned into a much longer process than it should have been. To help simplify matters and to speed things up, I decided I would use one character that I doodled during a meeting and change what he was holding for each card - the object being held would somehow reflect the character of the person to whom I was writing the card.

One musician, a couple of sports fanatics, and a rather sweet couple. Here's the results on some blank cards in one of my favourite colours - bright spring green:

 

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | Sketches | Stumble

April 13, 2009

Aww, Shucks

Just a quick sketch on the blank front of a card.

Posted by Red Monkey at 6:16 PM | Comments (0) | Sketches | Stumble

April 5, 2009

Max the Wild Thing

Just a fast sketch of Max leaving the island of the Wild Things and returning home. I still can't believe the movie is not going to be animated ... but now that I've seen a couple of production stills, maybe it will be okay.

Posted by Red Monkey at 5:04 PM | Comments (6) | Sketches | Stumble