Category: Animals

Bunny Trouble

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date March 29, 2016

With images of bunnies being in all the stores these days, and half price now (Easter – what are you going to do?), I thought I’d share with you a bunny painting created in collaboration with a couple of young artists.

A couple of years ago I visited my brother and his family at their home in the midwest. It was just around Mother’s Day, which also happens to be the week of my mother’s birthday. I got my head together with my nephews Cameron and Marshall, and we set out to make a birthday/Mother’s Day card for my mom/their grandmom. The idea was to draw ourselves like rabbits since they are a good symbol of spring.

Behold the magnificence of our collaborative masterpiece…

The Cookout

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date March 17, 2016

I’m not sure why, but next to monsters, I sure do love drawing bears. In fact, one of my favorite Disney characters is Humphrey the Bear from several Donald Duck shorts back in the ’50s, and then he even had a few of his own shorts. Bears can be interpreted in many different ways in art, and I usually go for some version of silly. As Leonardo DiCaprio can attest, though, real bears are not as pleasant. (Yes, that was a real bear, and no one can tell me otherwise, and I only saw the commercial!)

So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a sketchbook bear for you, drawn with a rollerball pen. While he is friendly looking, I’m not sure exactly how he started that fire. Maybe he finished off some campers, took their fire, and the fish is just his dessert.

Clearly he is not at all worried about his blood pressure with that generous application of salt.

Animals Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

In the Bleak Midwinter

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date January 18, 2016

I recently spent some time on the east coast of the United States, and was terribly disappointed that not a hint of snow was to be had anywhere in my travels. I returned to California this past week, and of course, the snow fell upon the ground I had tread just a few days before. Sigh.

With the hopes of snow dancing in my head, I sketched this bleak midwinter scene on the back of an envelope I sent to a friend who is situated in a very cold, white place where the winters seem endless. Perhaps that was mean of me. I should have shared some of my sunshine instead.

Animals Random Doodles Sketchbook

Norm of the North

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date January 15, 2016

Today a new animated film is being released in theaters across the United States called Norm of the North. I was one of the character designers.

I worked for several months on Norm back in 2014. At that time, Stephen Silver and I designed most of the main characters and some incidentals, while some other designs came from a studio in Ireland.

Two of my favorite creations for the film are these two caribou brothers seen below. I never did get a script to read, so I’m not sure what their function is in the movie other than what I saw in the trailer, but they sure were fun to draw.

Two caribou designs were my personal favorites to create for "Norm of the North." — These two caribou designs were my personal favorites to create for “Norm of the North.”

I also came up with the look for a crotchety old seagull character named Socrates (voiced by Bill Nighy) that in early designs was based on Michael Caine from the 1960s, then later became more John Gielgud with Caine’s old glasses. His CG interpretation in the trailer looked pretty close to my 2D drawings.

Other characters from my pen for the movie were some incidental humans, along with finessing designs by others, and breaking down attitudes and movement for Norm (voiced by Rob Schneider), Mr. Green (voiced by Ken Jeong), and the lemmings. It is always fun working on characters, and the ones for this film were especially fun to draw because director Trevor Wall was interested in being really cartoony with them. You don’t have to twist a cartoonist’s arm very hard to get him to draw in a cartoony way.

Animals Art: Animation Art: Drawings Character Designs Development Art

Merry Christmas 2015

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date December 16, 2015

This past year all my work came as freelance. Sometimes this can be a scary thing because you don’t know when the next job will be, but God has been good in keeping me quite busy. Unfortunately, as the holidays rolled around, I found myself unable to find the time to make a Christmas card as is my usual practice. So for those of you who have come to enjoy that tradition of mine, please know that you have not been moved to my “naughty list” to use Santa’s vernacular.

So, in an attempt to have a Christmas post of some kind, I thought I would share with you a little Christmassy doodle I did on the back of an envelope for a friend.

A gift that someone could really sink their teeth into.

So, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Animals Art: Inking Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date November 25, 2015

Thanksgiving is all fun and games for everyone, except for those being eaten.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's all fun and games until someone gets eaten. — We’d be all eating roast eagle if Ben Franklin had his way in making the turkey our national bird.

Animals Art: Photoshop Cartoons Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Christmas Cornelius

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date November 21, 2015

Thought I’d share with you a super cartoony illustration I put together recently for the LA Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS LA). This piece was used on the invitations for the NCS LA’s upcoming holiday party on December 12.

Why an angel bear? Well, as mentioned once before here on the ol’ blog, Cornelius is the mascot of the NCS LA. As legend has it, he once saved the life of LA cartoonist George Herriman (Krazy Kat comic strip creator) from a runaway toboggan in the early part of the 20th century. Of course, Cornelius passed away long ago, so he is depicted as an angel bear which is appropriate for the NCS chapter located in the City of Angels (Los Angeles).

Jolly ol' Christmas Cornelius saying, "Hey, Ho, Hey!" — Jolly ol’ Christmas Cornelius saying NCS LA’s standard greeting, “Hey, Ho, Hey!”

If you are a professional in the creative arts and wish to come to our holiday shindig, by all means, please contact me for details. It will be a great evening on December 12 of colleagues and their spouses enjoying a dinner and some entertainment led by New Yorker Magazine cartoonist Matt Diffee. Cost is $35 per person, and on a volunteer basis, we are collecting new art supplies to donate to the sick kids of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Animals Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations

Sketch Challenge 5 – Nevermore

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 30, 2015

Well, here it is. The grand finale of the week long Sketch Challenge between me and my friend Andy Heckathorne. Since tomorrow is Halloween, and this being the last day of the challenge, it seemed appropriate to break out the ink in grand style with a caricature portrait of the master of the scary short story – Edgar Allan Poe.

I always found it interesting that those tales of gothic woe came flowing from the mind of a man who looked like he could be the subject of his own stories. Perhaps when he wrote in the first person, he really was the subject of his own stories. Hmm, something to ponder.

Well, here he is with the title character of his most well-known story, The Raven, in ink and white gouache on a dark gray shade of Canson paper.

Is there another day in this sketch challenge? Quote the raven, "Nevermore." — Is there another day in this Sketch Challenge? Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

Thanks for tap, tap, tapping on your keyboards and mobile devices to come see my sketchy efforts. I hope you have enjoyed this week of sketch posts! And thanks to Andy for putting me up to the five day challenge. I hope I met your expectations, my friend.

Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Caricature Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook