Here it is, the first post of 2017’s MONSTER MONTH!!! For the first monster of the month, I thought I’d post one that was actually published this past year!
I was asked by Frank Pauer, the editor of the University of Dayton Magazine, to reimagine the university’s mascot in a sci-fi way. Frank asked a number of artists to do their own versions based on different themes, but sci-fi was definitely up my alley. Any excuse to include a monster, right?!
So, created entirely in Photoshop utilizing my handy dandy Cintiq monitor, here is my Dayton Flyer attempting to deliver a basketball against an opponent who couldn’t care less about fouling.
If you guessed October 2, you would be correct, but more than that, it is the start of Monster Month here on the ol’ blog. For many years now, each October I like to post a new monster sketch, drawing, painting, or illustration every weekday during the month that are fun, silly, and meant to be enjoyed by all ages.
I also will be posting these pieces of art that go bump in the night on my Instagram account. If you are on Instagram, be sure to follow me @ChadFrye_IllustrationGuy to keep up with the creepfest!Or, feel free to CLICK HERE if you want to see my Instagram page on the web.
So, get ready! Monday will be here sooner than you think!
This past weekend I attended the birthday party of a friend. A few weeks before, she had told me a story of how a few years back she was on a quest to get a pink Eeyore doll that The Disney Store had produced. She had told several friends about it, and then within a day, she was given multiple copies of the pink plush. D’oh!
As her birthday approached, this story had stuck in my head, so I went ahead and made Lauren a picture of more of the gang in this off-model color. Well, all were off except, of course, little Piglet who felt right at home in the color.
Someone must have washed them together with a red shirt.
While the above piece is a traditional watercolor and colored pencil painting, just for kicks for those of you who enjoy seeing more of the process, I’m including the original rough sketch that I did in Photoshop. I cleaned things up when I traced this rough onto the final watercolor paper.
Pink Pooh. Sounds like a medical problem, doesn’t it?
Sometimes I really don’t know why certain ideas pop into my head. It can be completely empty one minute, then BAM! A completely random thought quickly inspires a completely silly drawing. Thus was the case this past weekend.
Without provocation, somehow my mind zeroed in on Charles Lindbergh’s historic first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, then in an instant, I wondered what an old man might feel about this event today had he been a child at the time. Then this drawing came to mind. Really, these thoughts all took place in a matter of seconds not having seen anything about Lindbergh. It was totally random.
Of course, if one were to do the math, this guy would be REALLY old. Lindbergh’s flight was in 1927, so if this guy was alive and remembered it – let’s say he was five years old back then. That would make this chair jumper 95 today. More power to him.
Anyway, I grabbed my trusty tan paper sketchbook, and this scene came forth.
I woke up this morning oblivious to the fact that today is a milestone in the life of cartoonist Sergio Aragonès. Today is his 80th birthday!!! I read about it online. The reason for not realizing that today Sergio is 80 is because he seems like a man twenty years younger creating wonderful whimsical drawings more common for a man fifty years younger!!!!
Sergio is a cartoonists cartoonist. He’s the guy we all would like to be professionally speaking – prolific and hilarious. I also like to think of him as the Hemingway of cartoonists. He is a man who has lived a life of adventure around the world. He has the BEST stories of where he has been, and what has happened in those locales. They are absolutely amazing (and have cropped up in his comics from time to time). “The world’s most interesting man” is an amateur compared to Sergio.
I first met Sergio at a National Cartoonists Society gathering in New York City in 1996. The next year I moved to California where seeing Sergio became a regular thing, and a friendship ensued. I became involved with a Los Angeles based professional cartoonist organization called the Comic Art Professional Society, otherwise known as CAPS. Sergio was one of its co-founders and biggest cheerleader.
Ten years ago, CAPS established The Sergio Award, unbeknownst to Sergio himself. The first recipient at a banquet was Sergio’s fellow MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis. After Jack was given an award, CAPS gave one to Sergio as well. All the artists in the room were aware there would be two awards that night except for Sergio. We all had drawn tribute art to Sergio that was published in a second secret program book that was handed out when the award was being presented. Below is the piece I did for Sergio featuring his popular comic book characters Groo the Wanderer and his dog Rufferto.
I drew this at the time I was working on the show “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
The very next year after that banquet, it was the 25th anniversary of the Groo the Wanderer comic book. While drawn by Sergio, it is written by one of CAPS’ other co-founders Mark Evanier. The gang at CAPS each drew their own version of Groo which was put together in a big jam drawing and was published in the pages of San Diego Comic Con’s program book that year. Some of the folks who contributed their own version of Groo included illustrator William Stout, Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker, Momma comic strip artist Mell Lazarus, current MAD Magazine editor Bill Morrison, Mulan director Tony Bancroft, children’s book illustrator Mark Fearing, Usagi Yojimbo comic book artist Stan Sakai, and comic book legend Dan Spiegle to name a few.
A gaggle of Groos created for San Diego Comic Con’s program book in 2007.
Of course, I contributed one to the above composition. Can you find it in the crowd?
This is my take on Sergio’s Groo for CAPS.
Well, all this was written just to honor the man of the hour by saying a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sergio!
About a week ago, I went to lunch with my pal and Disney animator Kevin MacLean over at the oldest Bob’s Big Boy in the country located in the Toluca Lake section of Burbank, CA. Now, there’s no real point to this tale in specifically mentioning Bob’s other than it is part of the drawing, because this could have happened anywhere.
Kevin and I were returning to his car in the parking lot, and sitting on a park bench in front of the car with his back to us was a man who was wearing a strange headband with a cloth draped down the back of his head, and he was reading a newspaper and talking to himself. Kevin said, “I think he’s wearing a dress.” So, we backed out, and drove around to the exit where we had a clear view of him. Sure enough, he was sitting there nonchalantly reading the paper wearing a low-cut dress in Bob’s parking lot.
Later, when I got home, that image was still mulling around in my mind, so I let it spill forth onto some paper, the results of which you now see before you. Sometimes real life is stranger than anything one could imagine.
I wonder if he enjoys Dilbert?
You aren’t going to believe this, but Kevin and I were over in Hollywood this past weekend, and we saw the SAME GUY there again, passing us in a crosswalk. Kevin said, “Are you sure that’s the same guy?” I said, “I’d know that dress anywhere!”
The other day when wondering what I could sketch, it dawned on me that I hadn’t done a caricature in a while. Disney’s Moana was on my brain, and the voice of Maui, Dwayne Johnson, popped into my head as a possible subject. He’s got those great big muscles that most fellas don’t have, and such a gregarious personality. It was quickly decided that I should flex my own seldom-used caricature muscles to work out a drawing.
So, here is Dwayne Johnson with his own tribal tattoo converted to represent Maui and Moana. I noticed that Dwayne has a bull tattoo on his other arm, so I Disneyfied that one, too, by making it a tattoo of Ferdinand the bull from one of my favorite old Disney shorts.
You’re welcome.
If you would like to see the original rough sketch I did of Dwayne for this final drawing, come follow me on Facebook! It has been posted there as an exclusive. Just CLICK HERE to go to the page!
When going to the beach, I take sun lotion, a chair, an umbrella, a boogie board, and my sketchbook. Here are a few doodles from the ol’ sketchbook drawn two weeks ago in Kitty Hawk, NC.
I’d show you what I did on the boogie board, but thankfully no one else on the beach had their sketchbooks with them.
The key to beach sketches is to not get caught doing them.
