Last fall I was hired by Toys-R-Us to develop some rough concept sketches for a race track playset they were working on. The idea was to decorate the track with interactive elements including a grandstand, pit stop, oil spill, and orange cones. These are some of the rough sketches I worked up based on the ideas they described. Ultimately the project went in another direction, but Toys-R-Us has given me permission to post the work I did.
(Click images to enlarge.)
Last year I did some work on the new VeggieTales DVD that’s just now hitting the shelves, called “The Little House That Stood” (Amazon link). My comp copy came in the mail today. It features two stories: The first combines the Three Little Pig with the biblical parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders. The second story is a goofy retelling of Humpty Dumpty.
I was hired to do a smattering of concept art for this episode: I roughed out some early costume concepts; illustrated a few pieces of texture art for some signage and misc. props; and designed a cartoon goose that Larry calls “Mother”.
First, here’s the turnarounds for the goose I designed and a screen shot of the final animation:
In the first story Larry, Bob, and Mr. Lunt appear as construction workers. Here’s some quick, rough thumbnails I whipped up of possible costume ideas:
Finally, I created several pieces of texture art for the show. Here’s two of them: A backdrop for a weather forecast, and a fold-out map for use as a prop. (I slipped in a reference to the original “Superman” movie on the map. See if you can spot it.):
(Click to enlarge.)
You can order the DVD “The Little House That Stood” from Amazon or from your favorite Christian retailer.
Last fall I was hired by one of my regular clients, CPC Intersect, to create some FPO comp art to promote a new line of potato chips from Green Giant (which is owned by General Mills). CPC Intersect specializes in “event marketing”. They excel at creating fun, creative events designed to help raise awareness of new products and services. They always blow me away with their ideas and their projects are always fun to work on.
Above are a few of several sketches I worked up to help visualize a few ideas for the Green Giant launch. After I colored the first one, the client requested that I hold back a bit and just stick with mostly b&w for the rest of the sketches.
Lately I just can’t seem to get out of the courtroom. No, I’m not in any legal trouble. But around the same time I was working as a courtroom sketch artist for the Amy Senser hit-and-run trial, one of my regular clients hired me to do some animation that was, coincidentally, set in a courtroom.
I can’t reveal much about that project yet, but I can show a couple of unused character design sketches, posted here with the client’s permission. When designing characters I often try to give my clients a few options. These were ultimately not chosen but I really liked how they turned out.
I’ve got a few other projects on my plate, including yet another that is courtroom related. What are the odds? I’m also working on designs for a children’s travel product, a comic book project, a book cover, and some advertising comp art. So I promise to start posting some non-courtroom artwork soon.
Australian designer Jenica Smith publishes designmontage.com, a website which brings together an eclectic mix of creative goodies from all corners of the internet – design, illustration, photography, animation, and the like. She’s just posted a short interview with me about my illustration work and career. I encourage all my blog readers to take a poke around the site. There’s some really neat stuff, and I’m very flattered to be included.
Play Illustration, a portfolio website for artists in the toy and game industries, recently held their 2011 International Art Competition which I entered. I’m pleased to announce that they’ve given me a Silver Award (second place) in the category of Concept Art for Toy or Children’s Product.
I found out on my birthday, which makes it extra-nice news. It’s definitely more exciting than the time my high school voted me “Most Likely To Attend Comic-Book Conventions Well Into His Thirties”.
The piece I entered (shown above) was some concepts and the final design for a plush teddy bear created for DecoPac, Inc. You can see how the final toy turned out on the DecoPac website or on my earlier blog post about the project.
I want to congratulate the first place winner, Timothy Banks, as well as all the other winners in the other categories. I also want to thank the nice folks at Play Illustration for the award. You’ve given me the excuse I needed to start doubling my rates. (I kid, I kid!)
