The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyHappy Valentine’s Day! With everyone’s thoughts on love today (except for those forgetful fellas who will have a rude awakening when they get home tonight), I thought I’d post a little sketch celebrating the occasion!
I know that they say “opposites attract,” but I feel that there really needs to be a lot in common for it to really work well. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but there must be something in common with these two. Whatever it is, they figured it out.
Back in December I had to go to the post office during Christmas week. Oog, what a nightmare. I was there at 8:30am when they opened, and got in line behind about 25 people as only two postal employees worked the counter. So, this gave me time to watch the people around me.
This one guy standing about 8 people in front of me was the most peculiar. He wore a full length black trench coat, had kind of his own version of a porkpie hat, round so-dark-I-couldn’t-see-his-eyes sunglasses, hair that just spilled out from under the hat, a very unkempt mustache with a beard to match that had a couple of braided strands, and a black dapper cane with an ornate silver handle. He made such an impression, that I did this drawing of him not back in December, but only just this past weekend.
And yes, I was too afraid to ask what he was there to pick up. Some answers are better left unsaid.
Every now and then I pick up my sketchbook without an inkling of what is about to come out of my hand. Often this approach is helpful to get some bad drawings out to make way for the good ones. A few weeks ago I was having one such sketch session, and the page was just full of lousy drawings. There was only a small space still untouched at the bottom of the page when the head of this creature just appeared!
Even though it was just a head sketch, almost immediately I could clearly imagine this creature’s whole body, and just had to get it onto paper! I grabbed a large 24″x18″ piece of textured paper and went to town! So, kids, start a sketchbook and doodle bad drawings every chance you get so you can recognize the good ones when they come!
As this year’s selection of MONSTER MONTH delectations winds its way to the end, I have one more zombie drawing for you direct from my sketchbook. It shows that even when headed out on the town to hunt for human brains on which to feast, a girl has to look her best. I just hope she doesn’t overdo it on the perfume. I hate that.
It’s one thing for a kid to set up a lemonade stand in her front yard to make a little money, and it’s another thing entirely when she gets some big competition that can swallow her whole. Capitalism at work. It’s a common American tale kind of like what happened to my uncle’s camera shop years ago when a Walmart moved into his little town.
By the way, today’s beast is really more of a sketch than anything. Because I drew the whole thing from scratch on a Cintiq tablet on the computer, I was able to quickly dab in some color here and there for your amusement.
In the recently released Zhu Zhu Pets DVD, The Quest for Zhu, there are all manner of beasties ready to threaten the four hamster heroes Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Num Nums and Chunk. One such danger is a pack of saber-tooth tigers called Zhurassic Zhus.
Today I thought I’d share with you two versions of these growly striped kitties. Like a nature photographer, though remaining at my much safer desk, I was tasked with capturing the behavior of these creatures for inspiration to those that followed me in the creative pipeline. In our story, these fellas reside in the snowy mountain cliffs. Putting myself in the position of the hamsters, I imagined that the most frightening introduction I could have to this life-ending threat would be to perch them above on a cliff looking hungrily down while being framed by the blinding sun. So, I penciled out the pose, scanned it in and added some dramatic flare in Photoshop by including shadows.
Usually when I did these kinds of character development drawings, they would be passed along down the production line just as you see it. This time, however, the director took a shine to the drama in this piece, so he asked my buddy Tom Cain to paint it in color as I moved on to do other drawings. I really loved how Tom handled the whole scene so I thought I’d share with you his terrific version of these snarling, drooling hamster nightmares.
Not sure if today’s monster is the chaser or the chasee. If it is chasing something, I would NOT want to be in his way. If it is being chased by something else, just think how much more hideous its enemy must be! No matter what the story is behind this drawing, it was just a doodle that sprung to life in my sketchbook.
I often like to draw things that look like they are in the middle of a story. Hopefully this one makes you wonder where he is from, why is he running, and where he is going. Or maybe its not even a he!!! YOU get to write his or her story in your own imagination.
Every beast has his day in the sun, but there comes a time when he needs to just chill out and relax. This is tough for a monster who only knows the life of wreaking havoc on the world around him. I mean, at what point does he realize that he’s really not the vicious creature he once was, yet still fancies himself to be? Does it sink in when his scales start to flake off? Or perhaps when he has to be fitted for some polyresin fangs? Or maybe when he finally notices that his prey can not only outrun him, but also has time to turn around and mock him as he huffs and puffs his way towards them?
Yes, retirement for a monster is something none of them wish to contemplate, especially for a carnivore such as this very tired T-rex. Gone are the days of breaking through electric fences and chomping on lawyers in outhouses. No more traipsing through the jungle and having a battle royale with a giant ape. He is so pooped that he can’t even stop baby triceratopses which supposedly aren’t even real. (They do say the mind is the first thing to go.)
So sing sweetly the gentle lullaby of life to this giant soul as he shuffles off this mortal coil into the great tar pit of eternity.
