More Licensing Show Illustrations

3 more illos from the Licensing Show a couple years back. I originally drew these in Flash and converted to Illustrator. I tweaked them a little before posting them.

happy holidays!!

illustration friday-mask

Let's get ready to rumble!!

illustration friday-might

just a quick micron ink marker piece this time...

illustration friday-clear

These are fun to do...trying not to sketch anything out before I do it. Good exercises. Glad to be a part of it.

pen & ink guy

Started reading the Fantagraphics' KRAZY KAT books by Geo. Such great stuff. Always wonder what it would have been like to meet and talk with Herriman...broke out the pen and ink and did a little inky guy for the fun of it.

smoke

A new illo for Illustration Friday, theme is smoke. What else could I draw but a smoking alley cat? Wanted to keep it as a rough sketch for a different look. Until next Friday...

illustration friday-wind

I think I messed up when submitting this topic, so hopefully next week I'll be able to make it happen.

Licensing Show illo

Here's one of many illustrations I did for my booth at the '05 Licensing Show in NY at the Jacob Javits Center. It's a great show and if you are in NY when it happens, it's worth it to at least walk around to see everything. I highly recommend it!

Cartoon Network comic book covers

Here are a couple of my CN covers which should accompany the previous post.

H-B comic book covers

I've been working for DC for a while now, working at first on their Hanna-Barbera comics. This was a dream job for me. I grew up with this stuff on tv and it's heavily influenced my style. I could have done this forever! I was one the regular artists on the Jetsons half of the Flintstones/Jetsons book for a while until the book was cancelled. I also did a bunch of other work on the CN Presents book, which featured stories with some of the lesser known characters. I got the opportunity to draw Yogi, Wally Gator, The Wacky Races, Secret Squirrel, etc. One of my favorite stories put one of my favorite characters, Peter Potamus, traveling to the Bizarro World. Another fav was a short 6 page Augie Doggy story.
After the H-B stuff was cancelled (except for Scooby Doo) it switched over to the Cartoon Network characters. I did a bunch of Dexter's Lab, Cow & Chicken, and continue to do Billy & Mandy. These characters are a lot of fun as well, but nothing compared to being able to draw those cartoon characters of my youth.
As I've gotten older and had the chance to find out about the old H-B artists, Ed Benedict and Gene Hazelton are the guys who have made a huge impact on my cartooning. Benedict, who just recently passed away, was the chief character designer for all of the early H-B stuff. Gene was the man responsible for producing the Flintstones and Yogi Bear newspaper comic strips. His design sense, character acting and layouts of these strips are fantastic. I am always looking for examples or originals of these strips, especially the Yogi daily panels. I don't think I have ever seen any finshed examples of these panels, but I've heard they are wonderful.

beat dogs comic

I thought this one would go well with the previous beatnik post. This comic was done a month ago using regular pen, ink, and brush on good ol' bristol. I've had an idea for a comic like this for a while and it just kinda came out, sketching and writing directly onto the bristol. It usually doesn't happen like that. I normally do 8 1/2 x 11 layouts that I'll enlarge on the copier. I'll then lightbox onto the bristol. When it's my stuff, the layouts are enough to ink on the lightbox. With licensed stuff, like Billy & Mandy, I may tighten up before inks.

Beatnik illo

This beatnik illo was done a couple of years ago when I only knew how to do vector art in Flash 4 which I would export to make an Illustrator file. I did this piece after I discovered the "beat" art of Gene Deitch. He did these great 2 color covers for a jazz record collecting magazine called THE RECORD CHANGER. He also did interior spot illos and a panel cartoon, The Cat, about a collector. Fantagraphics did a nice hardcover collection of all his work from those mags.

birthday dog

Did this one a while ago in Illustrator. That's the program I'm currently using for my artwork for The Children's Place. I'm part of the team that designs all the art for the boy's line of graphic T-shirts. I also do some occasional Billy & Mandy comic book stories for DC and gag cartoons for Nickelodeon Magazine.

fighting monkies sketch

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