Taking A Few Days Off

I am taking a few mornings off... but thought I would throw up some old character design. Hey, it's good for a laugh.

Excuse Me Madame

THIS was a little bit more of what I had in mind...

The Lion

A fairly weak concept this morning. I have a long way to go on this guy. I pictured him as a larger than life warrior, who is really just a coward. Maybe he has great stories about his bravery in the "big war" that are all made up. It's a start, and it will evolve. Happy Monday.

Scarecrow Scribbles

This was just a little exploration on my part. I prefer the first option in many ways, but I think there are a few things here I can use. Progress!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Scarecrow

What if it wasn't "magic" that allowed the Scarecrow to hop around? What if it was a delicate "steam assist suit" with thousands of tiny gears and pistons? Man, that would be cool...

A Toto Beginning

So, I started scribbling these ideas for Dorothy's faithful canine companion. I am certainly not there yet, but I think I am closing in on something. I want him to be a small machine, but I also would like him to be expressive. A bit of work to do on this little guy.

Each of these concepts I do will more than likely go through several rounds of changes. Dorothy is an example of a concept hitting in an area that I like... but after I sketch out a few more characters I will most certainly visit her design again. I like to keep moving so I may jump around a bit.

Dorothy

A simple girl, with a love for grease. Wait till you see her dog...

Lovely Textured Beginnings

I know, I know. Move on to other things!
I will! Soon!

It's A Start

I ran out of time this morning before I could really flesh out a decent color job. My goal will be to make it read a bit better, and clean things up in general. For now, I will probably put the penciled version in the corner of my upcoming concepts. Speaking of that...

Thanks to everyone who voted in the "What Theme Should He Choose" poll! It looks as if next week I will start out re-imagining the "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" story with a "Steampunk" theme! It may be slow going, but I promise to stick with it until we have a cast of characters. (I may take a Christmas break if things go that long.) I also understand that many many things have been done as "Steampunk" so I will do my best to bring something new to the table.

Have a great weekend, and thanks again!

Many Moving Parts

I have a lot of work to do if I want this to actually be readable, but for now it is at least fun.

An Oz Beginning

Steamy

Yippee Aye Aye

Tis Monday once again!

I want to thank everybody for voting in the poll over the weekend! Very very cool of you to do so. There are a few days left, but it looks like we may either have a tie, or at least a very close finish. If we do have a tie, I will probably decide to combine the two themes... Three way tie? I guess I would have to combine the THREE themes! Western Steam Punk in Space! Whooo. Either way, I look forward to it.

Thanks again.

Now For Something Completely Different...

Happy Friday to all!

Today I thought I would kick off a little project that I have wanted to do for a while now. I kept putting it off with excuses like "I have no time" or "I'm not quite ready." Well, no more excuses.

Doing this blog has been great for me. It gives me a reason to draw every day, and it also makes me available for questions and comments. One of the most frequent comments that I get from art students around the globe is "What should I put in my portfolio?" While there are many different answers that all depend on your desired position within the art field, I do have several stock responses:

1. Throw away your school work.
2. Don't rip anybody off.
3. Take a well known story, and "re-design" it.

For today's post, I will focus on point number three. In my opinion, the best thing you can do as a prospective character designer/illustrator/concept artist is to take a story that the Art Director is familiar with, and put your spin on it. Push it as far as you want, but be sure you keep things clear and easily explainable. (Because believe me, you will be explaining them.) Character design is an obvious choice, but you could also explore environment and prop design.

Also, if you wanted to get extra bonus points, you could push things even further. Set the story in a completely different location or time period. Make all of the characters squirrels. Perhaps your version of Robin Hood takes place in the refrigerator. You never know...

So why am I talking about this? Well, I have decided to put my money where my mouth is, and do this myself. It may take a while, but each morning I will sit down and push toward my goal. the story I have chosen is "The Wizard of Oz." Why that story? I like the possibilities. Varied characters with very unique personalities. Fantastic locations. Magic. Fantasy. Good. Evil.

Here is the twist. I am going to let you (my loyal blog readers) decide what direction I go with this. I have chosen three different settings for this re-telling, and you get to pick where you want me to go. I have set up a poll over on the right, and you can vote.

Setting 1: The Wild West

Setting 2: Space

Setting 3: Steam Punk

Sound good? I will set the poll to run for a week, and after that I will get started. Please pick something good. (In all reality, any of the three would make me happy.) So vote!!!

This should be a lot of fun, and I look forward to getting started. Thank you all for humoring me.

Boo