I LOVED this movie! Is it perfect? No. Is Routh as good as Reeve in the part? No. However, all in all, this is a really good film. Not as good as I would like, but much better than I had hoped for. I really thought they were gonna butcher it. But Bryan Singer has created a great film, and a fitting homage to the first two Superman movies from the 70s. Please, if you haven’t see this film yet, go see it NOW! And if you have, go see it AGAIN! We can’t let something like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 beat it at the box office.

Same client as the Silhouette Girl above. This one of a bride. I am experimenting with the colored lines technique. Kinda like it. Everything’s so girly and pink about these drawings. But that’s okay…I’m secure in my heterosexuality. And, oh yeah, I DO realize this one looks like the “Teacher” character from the educational products company, with just slightly different proportions. Well, she recently got married, is all! Now the kids will have to call her by her new name.

Ah, I figured they were different clients, different markets, so I decided to use my default pretty blonde girl again. Actually, if you’ve ever seen my wife, this looks like a cartoon version of her alot, ao that must be where that “template” comes from in my head.

Just wanted to see if this thing still worked! Been awhile since I posted. This is a simple job I’ve been working on, some spot illos for a repeat client. She had a clip art of this kind of thing, a girl walking her dog, (the bottome one, with the pink around it) and wanted me to redesign it, with my own flair. Mine is the larger one, with the cell phone. Yes, I know it’s”Barbie-esque”. That fits in with the client’s corporate image.

Here they are, all of the characters, including Gary, in their final incarnations. You can see, the client eventually went witht he Asian Gary I preferred. I really loved doing this project, as it is the kind of cartoon illustration I want to do more of. Even thought the Gary design, in particular, was a bear, going back and forth a bit, the client turned out to be a real pleasure to work with. I can’t wait to see what they do with these little guys!

Besides the Class thing, and tons of events I’ve drawn at lately, this has been my big time consumer lately. Yes, there are 26 (!) people in this one. About half of the faces were drawn digitally, the rest drawn traditionally and scanned in. Of course, it was all colored digitally,a nd will be emailed out to the client.

Now I gotta start on the 68 people group……

Believe it or not…the client LOVED my “throwaway” idea of making Gary Asian! Go figure! He even decided to change the character’s name to Ming, to reflect the new look! I was against this name change, however, as it reminded me of Ming the Merciless, from Flash Gordon. But, hey, it’s not my character…it’s the client’s, right? Regardless, I still refer to him as Gary, just ‘cuz I like it better. Anyway, the one drawback to this “Asian Gary”, the client felt, was the eyes I’d given him. OR lack thereof. He thought it might come across as racist. So, he ordered a sketch of Gary with pupils showing. I also changed his nose a bit, to reflect his Asian look. I really liked version seven, with the small eyes, but waited to hear what the client thought….

I finally finished this project for the client, and all turned out well. However, there’s a lot I haven’t told you about the design process, still, since I’ve been so busy with everything lately. Let’s try to catch you up over the next few days or so on Gary. The next stage in character design for Gary was that the client asked to see him now without glasses. Remember, the original request was that he be overweight, with glasses and braces, dressed very nerdy. JUST like Carl from Jimmy Neutron, remember (see earlier Class posts). Now, he’s skinny, no braces, and no glasses. By this point I was so confused as to what my client wanted (remember, though, he is a very nice guy and has been paying a small fee for each of these revisions), and was really upset that now Gary was truly looking like Alfalfa. I’d went from a Carl ripoff to an Alfalfa rip off. On a whim, I just said to heck with it and threw in another, unasked for sketch that went in yet ANOTHER totally different direction….I decided to let him see what Gary might look like if he were Asian….

TO BE CONTINUED……

Tonight, I remembered to take my sketchbook with me when I ate out. Finally! Brady (my daughter…you know that) and I walked in, and there were three obnoxious teen boys ordering in front of us, at McDonald’s. I still don’t understand why, exactly, but one of them had a guitar with him. Goofing around, he was just wildly strumming on the thing, making up nonsensical lyrics…while I was trying to order our food. Grrr. I did say something to him, since I couldn’t hear myself think over his “playing”, and he did apologize and tone it down. But, the entire time we were there, he and his three friends passed the guitar around and “played”. I guess they were just being silly…I looked, and there were no teen girls they were trying to impress. Maybe they were high, come to think of it. Anyway, weird scene. I drew one of them, shown here, very quickly in my sketchbook, and when I got home just now threw some Photoshop color on it.

I’ll try to remember my sketchbook more…

For any of you who know me, my daughter, Brady, is the apple of my eye. She was born with lots of orthopedic issues, most of which she has overcome (thanks to lots of doctor’s visits, surgeries, and mostly prayer). For that reason, she’s never been able to run around and play as much as “normal” (hate that word) kids. But, man, can she draw. She’s got a real cartoonist’s eye, talent, and sense of humor. She says she’s gonna take over the family business one day and draw caricatures like Daddy. So, fairly regularly, she and I do training exercises together. I have set up a new Blog for just her artwork. Check it out sometime.
bradyparham.blogspot.com

This is her drawing of National Caricaturist Network luminary and good friend, Joe Bluhm.

Here’s a pic from a recent gig I did.