O Come All Ye Faithful

Here we are a week away from Christmas. I usually make my own Christmas card every year, but the past three months have had my head spinning, which resulted in a lack of a new card for this year. If you saw my last post, you know what has been occupying my drawing time. So, I thought I’d reach into the ol’ archives to share with you one that I like that was created for 2010.

This is a special one. It’s not often that I illustrate tons of people into a piece, but I was able to include a special couple that mean a lot to me. Kind of in the middle top area, you’ll see a portrayal of Evelyn and Carl Boone. They are not related to me by blood, but have been surrogate grandparents to me since I was born. They are Grandma & Grandpa Boone to me. Grandma passed away a few years ago now, and Grandpa is still a blessing to those who know him at the age of 92. He has always been a wonderful purveyor of biblical advice when one needs it most – a man who has put Christ first through many days both joyful and difficult. While I’m sure he had his days, I never once heard him complain over many years of looking after Grandma. He is the very definition of one who has been faithful both to his Lord, and to his wife and family. There are many generations of Boones and Fryes who love and appreciate him.

So, this piece of art has a bit of a personal story to it. Oh, and yes, that’s a self-portrait in the upper right side, too. 🙂

May you and yours have a blessed Christmas, and I pray that if you have not made Christ the focus of your life (John 3:16), that you will do so and join those who can be truly counted as the faithful.

 

O Come All Ye FaithfulO Come All Ye Faithful lyrics

 

And just in case you were wondering, it is drawn with colored pencil, watercolored with a non-permanent ink, and color tinted in Photoshop.

New & Improved!

Lately the bulk of my time has been spent at The Third Floor company where I have been working as a storyboard artist on a film. It has been tough to set some time aside for other projects between the day gig and preparations for Christmas. However, I have been helping out an old friend from my Disney days in redesigning a character I first came up with for his online traffic school, ComedyTrafficSchool.com.

Yes folks, Captain Traffic is back, and better than before! My pal Brett Drogmund first asked me to develop this character as a mascot for his then brand new company at least 15 years ago. My drawings have graced his website (and the side of a car) ever since then. (You can read about it HERE!) But it was time to update this road warrior with a more contemporary look.

While staying true to the cheesy essence of the good captain, I made him more sleek and sophisticated in his coloring style. This is the first drawing in a series of them I am working on, and it just so happens to currently be on ComedyTrafficSchool.com’s homepage right this very moment!

 

Captain Traffic – the hero of every traffic violator’s sentencing.

40 Years

I came across this piece in my digital files this past weekend and thought I’d share it with you. It has a little bit of sweetness to it, and a lot of sentiment, because I created it for my parents nine years ago for their 40th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that next July will be their 50th, should God allow them to make it to that milestone. Time and health are not always kind to those we love.

I admire my folks for the love and faithfulness they’ve shown each other over the years, and only hope that one day I could be so blessed to have such a relationship.

 

 

 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  – I Corinthians 13:4-7

2017 Monster Month: Day 22 – Coming & Going

Beware the fire “breathing” dragon that is dangerous both as he comes and as he goes, so to speak.

 

If that was the bluebird of happiness, we’re in trouble.

 

And thus concludes Monster Month for 2017. Twenty-two beasties from my drafting table to your eyes. I hope you enjoyed them once again. These are always fun for me to draw, and almost all were drawn just for fun.

As always, I am available to be hired should you have a project requiring my abilities, whether it is a monster or something else. There is plenty of variety of subject matter on my blog, and also over on Instagram where I post regularly, too! I’m chadfrye_illustrationguy over there.

I can be reached at chad@chadfrye.com with serious inquiries. I have illustrated children’s books, magazine articles, and regularly work in animation as a character designer and storyboard artist.

2017 Monster Month: Day 20 – The Job Interview

You know those job interviews where the interviewer can just tell by looking at the applicant that they wouldn’t be a good fit in their office environment? Yeah, this is THAT guy.

It just seemed funny to me that this monster thinks he is being turned down for his tattoo, when really it is likely due to the fact that he won’t be able to fit into a cubical, or control his oral excretions.

There’s also probably several folks whose dander allergies would be set off working side-by-side with Norman. (He just looks like a Norman, doesn’t he?) Anyway, he was accomplished traditionally in ink, watercolor, and gouache paint.

 

Human Resources – HUMAN. Not Monster Resources.

2017 Monster Month: Day 19 – Coffee Monsters

Today you don’t get just one, not two, but THREE monsters for the price of admission!! How about that, huh?!

These are three monsters that I drew in just good ol’ ink for some folks who worked at LA Studios in Hollywood when I worked there on the movie Animal Crackers a couple of years ago (the TRAILER is out now). LA Studios is really a posh recording studio, but our Blue Dream Studios production was in some spare offices on the second floor where we were working on story. Two of the folks these cards went to worked the kitchen and would make drinks for us, as well as for the actors and folks who came in to record in the many studios they have there. Many a time I was made a frothy coffee or a special iced tea. The third was for the valet. While employees like me parked down the street in a lot, I enjoyed the daily conversations with Brandon, and made him a card, too.

Since giving them the cards, I decided to go back this month and do a bit of shading on them. No, I didn’t ask for the cards back. I kept scans of the art, painted the shading on new watercolor paper, then married the two in Photoshop.

And why do I call this post “Coffee Monsters?” The paint was COFFEE! Genuine liquid coffee. Creme BrĂ»lĂ©e coffee to be precise (don’t lick your screen). You can actually see some of the grinds in the paint within the characters. A former drawing teacher of mine when I worked at Disney, Walt Stanchfield, sometimes would show us paintings he would do with coffee when he was in diners. He’d illustrate other customers and shade them with his coffee. I never did try it until now. Kind of a fun experiment!

 

2017 Monster Month: Day 15 – eHarm.com

Everybody deserves a little love, right? How would a zombie really find his match online? No human is going to trust him, of course. They’d go out for dinner and one would come back without any brains. So, zombies really need their own online dating service.

Introducing E-Harm.com, where monsters can safely find a mate compatible to their lifestyle.

 

Click on image to enlarge.

 

After the effort of making a dating website page for good ol’ Don here, it seemed a shame to not let you see him a little closer. He’s good looking, has a decent job, and is into small pets – or are they into him as it were? So here he is…

 

Now who wouldn’t fall in love with a face like that?

2017 Monster Month: Day 13 – Fluffy

So, did you make a guess as to which of yesterday’s sketches would be turned into a painting today? If you guessed the little girl and the big horned beast at the top of the page, you would have been correct.

It just seemed like a fun idea to take that little girl and make the big guy her pet. Clearly, he could totally be the one to take her for a walk, but he willingly allows her to be his master.

So, a little watercolor paint and some colored pencils applied to a textured paper can turn a few rough pencil sketches into something special…

 

Who walks whom?