Champs

Recently I was hired to help create some character art for GoNoodle, a fun company that uses videos and games to help kids get more active physically and mentally. They were developing a series of fun monster characters called Champs. Another artist had done some terrific concept work but they asked me to build on it by asking me to imagine what those characters would look like at different ages as they grew up. For some characters/poses they provided preliminary sketches, for others I was able to build from scratch. There were about two dozen characters that needed four illustrations each. I took it to b&w line art, then passed it back to GoNoodle for final coloring.

The full range of finished art should be going public soon, but in the mean time GoNoodle has given me permission to share some of what I did for them. It was a super fun project and they were terrific to work with.

 

2016 Highlights and Accomplishments

2016 was another jam-packed year for my illustration studio. I’m deeply grateful to have such a fun job where I get to work on so many exciting projects with so many amazing people. Here’s a few highlights from our most recent trip around the sun. (I’ll warn you there are a lot of projects I can’t reveal yet but I’ve linked to as many as I could):

ILLUSTRATION

  • I created a couple of more spot illustrations for Highlights magazine. You can view them here and here.
  • I was hired by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune to help them pitch advertising ideas to several businesses and brands, including a national pizza chain, a local Renaissance-themed event, and a couple more projects I can’t reveal yet.
  • Speaking of art I can’t show, I also illustrated an activity puzzle for a major home improvement retail chain. I should be able to post the art sometime in February.
  • Goldfish Swim Schools hired me to illustrate a fun photo standee featuring their mascot (which I also designed). I’m also in the middle of a very large project for them that I hope to be able to show in a few months.
  • I helped out the Svedvick Collective with some ad concepts for a major cereal brand (again, I’m not allowed to show the work yet. Kind of a theme here.)
  • I illustrated another Gospel tract/comic for the ministry of Living Waters. This one dealt with the subject of Atheism.

TOY DESIGN

  • I continued to help with toy design and concept art for multiple Hasbro projects (most of which I’ll never be able to show for legal/confidentiality reasons).
  • I was hired by the Strottman agency to help them pitch several toy ideas to Chick-Fil-A. Once again I’m limited in what I can show but here’s a sample.
  • I helped out the Smiley company on a large toy concept pitch for a well-known novelty toy brand, which I hope to be able to review soon. In the mean time, this year I was finally able to reveal l small sampling of another batch of concepts I did for them back in 2015.

CHARACTER DESIGN

  • I was hired by Mountainside Farms, an east coast dairy company, to design a cow mascot for their packaging.

MISC

  • My goofy cartoon sketches evolved into a webcomic I’m calling Sketchbook Silliness. People seem to like it and a couple of the cartoons went mildly viral. I’ve put together a list of my ten most popular cartoons from 2016, and I recently launched a Patreon campaign for the project which you can support here.
  • I stepped up my involvement in the National Cartoonists Society. I’m now the social media guy for our chapter which means I run our Twitter feed and Facebook group. I also organized a draw-with-kids event at the Minneapolis St. Jude Walk/Run for childhood cancer, and travelled to Sioux Falls for our fall cartooning conference.
  • I once again exhibited at both MSP Comic-Con’s.
  • I re-posted a free download of sketchbook ideas for Inktober.
  • Although most of my work is very cartoony, I also do courtroom sketching from time to time. This year I worked at trials related to Prince, ISIS, a police shooting, and the man who killed Jacob Wetterling. You can see some samples on my other website, courtroomsketches.com.

Whew! I’m exhausted just thinking about it all. I feel very blessed. Thanks to all of you who have supported me and shown interest in my work over the years. I wish all of you a happy and healthy 2017!

Cow Mascot for Mountainside Farms

Earlier this year I was contacted by Mountainside Farms, a regional east coast dairy company, to help them design a new mascot for their packaging. They had been using a cow character designed by another illustrator but decided it was time for a new look. They asked me to design a cow who’s face could be plugged into the existing packaging layout.

Cow Mascot-Rough Character Concepts

I started by doing a bunch of rough sketches experimenting with various shapes and poses. Some were stronger than others but that’s part of the process.

I knew that the general public would likely only see the cow’s face but it felt more natural to design the full body. If, in the future, the client ever decided they wanted to use a full body pose for anything I didn’t want to be put in the situation of having to Frankenstein a new body onto the head. I think you get a stronger and more pleasing result when the body and head are designed together.

I also tried Photoshopping various heads onto the existing packaging. I also experimented with variations on different background shapes, cowbell or no cowbell, etc.

After some back and forth with a few refinements, here’s how the final design turned out:

Mountainside Farms New Mascot

View Full Portfolio

Looking for a mascot for your brand or business? I can help! Read about The Power of a Mascot or fill out this questionnaire to help me understand your needs.

Download My Updated PDF Portfolio

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I’ve updated my PDF portfolio to go with my shiny new website. It contains fifteen pages of illustration, character design, toy design concepts, and misc. sketches. Download a copy to keep on file, take to a meeting, or email to a client or colleague.

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Sketchbook Update: Colt Sniper, P.I.

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Another silly detective sketch for the Character Design Challenge group on Facebook. This guy had his own cheesy cop show in the 1970’s.

#characterdesign #sketch #detective #drawing

More Art for Goldfish Swim School

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A few years ago Goldfish Swim Schools hired me to create a mascot named Bubbles (see a few of the concept sketches here). They liked him so much that they’ve hired me to illustrate Bubbles on stickers and tattoos,  window clings, and coloring pages. They even made him into a plush doll.
Recently the client gave permission for me to post some more Bubbles art. Above are a few holiday themed costumes. I also created several more “coloring book”-style pages, a few of which are shown below.

If you’ve got company or brand that could use a mascot, drop me a line. I’d love to chat about how I can help you out. You might also want to read my blog post, The Power Of A Mascot

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