Illustration Guy Blog – The Chad Frye

Creative musings about creative stuff by a creative cartoonist.

Rudolph Jr.

Back in August of this year, I was hired to storyboard a new animated Christmas music video for Capitol Records’ recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as sung by Burl Ives. You remember ol’ Burl, right? He was the narrator of the original Rankin-Bass production of Rudolph back in the 1960s. Well, this new production…
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The Penguin

Oswald Cobblepot, making crime look respectable since December of 1941. That’s right, the Penguin turns 80 years old this month. Another page from my sketchbook that was colored in Photoshop. With a bit of DNA from the animated Batman show, thought I’d take a stab at my impression of the Penguin.
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Sarah Hale’s Thanksgiving

I had the pleasure this past August to illustrate a Thanksgiving article for this month’s issue of Clubhouse Magazine published by Focus on the Family. It tells the story of Sarah Hale, the woman responsible for convincing Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving an official holiday. Sarah was an accomplished writer of books and…
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William Wray

I love the work of William Wray. When I first met him a number of years ago, he went by Bill Wray, and was working on painting backgrounds for Nickelodeon’s show The Mighty B. His work was well-known in the animation industry having had a tremendous influence on the look of The Ren & Stimpy…
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The Con is On!

Walt Disney – “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a…” Today’s the day! After church, all you Disney fans in the San Francisco Bay Area should head on over to Mouse-Con in Concord. You can meet me, my pal and another…
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San Francisco Mouse-Con

Does anyone in the San Francisco area like Disney? On November 7 (this coming weekend), I’ll be a guest at Mouse-Con, a fan-organized Disney-themed convention taking place in the town of Concord, CA. I’ll have a selection of original art available that I’ve created over the past few years like this watercolor and colored pencil…
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Green Eggs For St. Jude!!!

Hey all you GEAH fans! I wanted to let you know that this original watercolor and colored pencil piece is currently available as part of an online auction to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital sponsored by the National Cartoonists Society. I was a member of the story crew for the upcoming season…
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2021 Monster Month: Horny Monsters

Welcome to the grand finale of my 2021 MONSTER MONTH!! And what a finale indeed! Not one, not two, but FIFTEEN monsters!!! (Seventeen if you want to also count the kids.) A little while back, I was invited to contribute a page to a kids’ activity book where each page was being created by…
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