There seems to be a lot of mermaids showing up on the social media sites I frequent. That’s because of the efforts of my pal Tom Bancroft who started the #mermay hashtag a few years ago encouraging artists to post mermaid art each day in the month of May.
Now, while The Little Mermaid was the film that first influenced me to consider animation as a serious career choice, I am not actually a fan of mermaids. They creep me out. Half woman? Half fish? Yikes! I’ll take my women with legs thank-you-very-much. So, you haven’t seen me posting mermaids left and right here on the ol’ blog, or on Twitter, or Instagram, or Facebook.
However, I DO like puns, and the other day while perusing the latest batch of mermaids from everyone, a pun came to mind inspired by my all-time favorite comedy movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which itself was full of puns). Made in 1963, it featured many of the nation’s best comic actors, and had cameos of the rest of them. It was truly epic. One of the featured players was Ethel Merman who played a loudmouthed brassy mother-in-law to the beleaguered Milton Berle.
So, here is my one entry for #mermay, Ethel Mermaid as she would have appeared in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Seaworld.
I think she is part of the loud mouth bass family.
Here we are at the end of the week, which means we have come to the final post in this step-by-step explanation of my Indiana Jones and Rocketeer dynamic duo. Once again, if you are just joining this party, perhaps you should start back at Step 1 to truly understand the anatomy of this painting. CLICK HERE to do so.
STEP 5
While Indy and the Rocketeer were outlined with a black Prismacolor pencil, the nuances of their inner details utilized many colors. Lilac, parma violet, deco yellow, violet, cream, sand, some greens, various reds, pinks, and maybe more not coming to mind right now. The point is, colors are important to the success of the piece!
Take for instance this close look at the Rocketeer. There are so many colors working together to create his details. See the lighter highlights on his flight jacket? That’s deco pink! The same deco pink creating highlights on his hands and on his pants. It was a nice gentle light color that also happened to tie him in with the colors around him on the background. You need your figures to look like they belong in their setting, and to do that is to use the same colors as would happen in real life with the idea of reflected light. (I’m not going into a deep explanation of reflected light, but you can look it up.)
The ONLY white used directly on this painting was for the bright highlights on the Rocketeer’s helmet and jacket buttons, and a little on Indy’s teeth. No white is in the Rocketeer’s eye pieces – that’s just a light green in there.The man with the hat ready for his close-up.
And with that, the piece is all done! Here is a scan (not a photo this time) of the final art ready to be framed and hung in a gallery.
Whew! All done!
THE SHOW
On April 22, the Rocketeer art show opened at Creature Features in Burbank, CA. There were MANY great pieces created in all mediums such as oil paint, sculpture, latex, metal work, vinyl, watercolor, marker, acrylic, ink, and the ever popular digital media.
Film score composer Christopher Young dropped by to check out the show!My old friend from our days in New Jersey, Walt Sturrock, who is also an amazing painter. We even worked together at Disney for six years.A wide shot of one of the gallery rooms at Creature Features with everyone enjoying the show.
FOR SALE
ORIGINAL 18X24″ WATERCOLOR & COLORED PENCIL ILLUSTRATION –$1,750.00
This past January, I decided to trade the warm winter of Los Angeles for three weeks of winter in frigid Russia. I hadn’t really experienced much of a winter since the days of my youth on the east coast of the U.S. Let me tell you, Russia REALLY knows how to deliver a winter.
I learned that when venturing outside on most days, it was advisable to cover up every single part of your body in abundantly warm clothing. Unfortunately, one must leave their eyes exposed to the elements for the strangely necessary need of vision, otherwise everything else is covered.
I wear glasses, but learned I could not wear those while out and about because my own breath would fog them up, or worse, would freeze on them rendering them useless. Once I removed them, I could then see, and my breath was now free to collect on my eyelashes where it would form icicles – or as I called them, eyecicles.
You may think I am kidding, but I am not. For several days over there, the temperatures dropped to about -32 degrees celsius. Translate that to fahrenheit, and it is -26 thank-you-very-much.
So, spending time indoors was a much better activity than walking around. My last three days there were mostly spent attending a seminar at a Bible seminary. A friend of mine was translating an English speaker into Russian for the students, so I sat in the back learning a few things myself. However, I also sat in the back drawing all the other students in the room, which is really what this post is about – my sketches of the Russian men I met during those three days.
It pays to carry a sketchbook with you wherever you go…
My favorite is the one with glasses I made real large in the middle. The man looked like he could be in an animated movie!
The Los Angeles Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society is having its annual holiday shindig tomorrow night. This year they are doing it at a restaurant that serves British cuisine. It was my duty to make the invitations once again, so with the venue for the party being what it is, it seemed natural to base the art on the most British Christmas tale that comes to mind, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Playing the role of Bob Cratchit is NCS LA’s own mascot, Cornelius the Bear with Tiny Tim being played by Krazy Kat cartoonist George Herriman. In the NCS LA theme song, we herald the bravery and generosity of Cornelius who, back in the day, saved LA based Herriman from a runaway toboggan while up in the mountains. Since Corny is no longer with us, and since he is from Los Angeles after all, we depict him as an angel bear.
Cornelius Cratchit and George “Tiny Tim” Herriman
Just in case you are curious, I inked this traditionally using a brush and a watered down sepia ink to give the ink line an uneven quality, and it allows for the brown color to show better. Then I scanned it into Photoshop where the colors and plaid fabric were applied. I tried to give it a bit of a nostalgic look in the method of drawing, but also in the color choices. For color inspiration, I looked to the work of my pal and fellow NCS LA member Dan Piraro who has such a great old timey look to his color choices in his comic strip Bizarro, yet at the same time his work looks edgy and modern.
Okay, I rarely get personal with my posts online, but today I shall make an exception. Today is the 40th birthday of my brother Blair!
Now, normally I wouldn’t go all public with the age of someone because many people are sensitive to such things, myself included. However, Blair has his birthday, including the year, on his Facebook page. So, I figure I am safe. I may no longer be safe, however, when he sees this post.
So, without further ado, I thought I would share with you the birthday card I made for my brother that is a portrait of him at the age of 40. He has held up pretty well, considering…
For those of you doing the math, yep, Blair was born in the year of our country’s bicentennial. So if you think Blair is old, the U.S. is now 240.
Earlier this year a friend talked me into joining Instagram. I was apprehensive at first because it was going to be yet another thing to update constantly, but when I took a look and saw all the amazing creativity there, it felt like I should have joined that party long ago. So, I got on my computer and joined it, not realizing that the only way to post was to do so from a mobile device. As a non-mobile phone user, this complicated things.
Well, I got it worked out, and have been posting lots of art there. While some drawings only make it to Instagram, some also get posted here on the ol’ blog. So, I invite you to check it out if you also are an Instagram user, and follow me there. My handle is ChadFrye_IllustrationGuy (naturally), and you can get to it by CLICKING HERE!
You can also be whisked away to Instagramland by clicking on the image below that features some Instagram posts.
Some of the many pieces posted on my Instagram. Click on the image to check them out!
So, to elaborate a little on my last post, I thought I’d share just a tad bit more about my camping experience a few weeks ago in the Russian wilderness…
Camping and I just don’t get along well. I prefer seeing nature through the protection of a window – protection from the insects. I am big and juicy, and every manner of mosquito, black fly, and anything with wings with a taste for flesh manages to find a spot on my skin and digs in for a delightful smörgåsbord.
Not having gone camping once since I was fourteen years old, I had hopes that this trip might be different. After all, Russia and America have been on decent terms with each other since the early 90s. Surely their mosquitos would welcome me with open arms just as the Russian people had. Just the same, following Ronald Reagan’s advice to “trust, but verify,” I went armed with the best deet bug spray I could find, and coated myself with that stinky armor ready to defend my pure, lily-white skin. The Russian mosquitos welcomed me alright – welcomed me with open teeth.
Ranging from teeny tiny to flies about the size of my head, my body became a living sacrifice to the whims of the wild. Due to the frequency of the swatting, I got to know the tone of the slaps on my body so well, that by the end of the camping trip I was able to flawlessly play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on my skin. This was strangely appropriate since that song was written to celebrate the 1812 defense of Russia against invading mosquitos – I mean, Napoleon.
While maybe not exactly scientific, this is pretty much an accurate depiction of how I remember the experience.
All humor aside, the trip did have many wonderful moments with friends old and new. The 50 or so other folks I camped with did indeed welcome me and showed me such incredible hospitality. The father of one friend graciously loaned me sleeping bags and a tent, one family saw my discomfort in not being able to sleep and loaned me an air mattress they had brought for swimming, while another family loaned me an extra sweatshirt as I was woefully unprepared for the drastic shifts in temperature, and the camp nurse graciously gave me a salve for my countless bug bites. Other folks did all the cooking, sometimes with a hot three-course meal which always helped distract from other discomforts. So yes, it was real camping away from the comforts of home, but with the generosity of others, it was an amazing six-day long experience.
Just two weeks ago, I was attending the National Cartoonists Society’s annual Reuben Awards convention held in Memphis, Tennessee this year. Our first day at the convention was spent at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital touring the facility, then drawing for the sick kids. What a special day that was.
As we split into tour groups of 5 people each, I was a part of a very special group because it included the legendary Paul Coker, Jr. I’ve known Paul for about a dozen years or so, but probably haven’t seen him in person in about that time since we live several states away from each other. What a treat to spend a chunk of the day with him and his wife Rosemary.
Yours truly and Paul Coker in front of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN just two weeks ago.
For those of you unfamiliar with Paul’s name, he has drawn for MAD Magazine for many decades, and has had a great career illustrating books, posters, comic strips, and even designed for animation. Ever heard of a little TV Christmas special called Frosty the Snowman? Yep, he did the character designs. We were drawing for the kids with Paul sitting one table away from me. While I was drawing for a child, the father of that child looked past me over at Paul and said, “Whoa, now THAT’S a good Frosty!” I then let him know that Paul was THE Frosty guy, and suddenly my Mickey Mouse meant nothing to him.
I don’t blame him, because it is an honor to get a Paul Coker original. It is even a greater honor to BECOME a Paul Coker original!! That day Paul told me that he drew me into his latest MAD assignment!
Well, just this past week, Paul’s latest assignment for MAD hit the newsstand! It is a funny two pager written by Kenny Keil showing what special perks folks get for the latest high priced Disneyland season pass. When it came time to poke fun at Disney animation artists, Paul put me into the hot seat, and I LOVE it!
I was THRILLED to be fired by Paul Coker in this month’s MAD!
If you’d like to see the whole article illustrated by Paul, it is in the issue of MAD in comic shops and newsstands NOW. To wet your whistle, here it is real small.
