Category: Character Designs

Carrying the Cross

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:5

 

The Messiah
The Messiah

 

Today is what we call here in the States “Good Friday.” It is traditionally the day set aside to remember the death of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In a country that continues to turn its back on God, it is amazing that we have a national holiday for this event where banks and government offices are closed, and most people have the day off from work. It is called “Good” because the Son of God’s sacrifice for mankind, in which He took upon Himself the sins of the world, made a way for those who believe to enter into heaven one day.

Isaiah 53 predicted the coming of the Messiah and what He would do for us, and Matthew 27 gives a full account of what happened that fateful day so many years ago when the Messiah did come and fulfill the prophesy. Matthew 28 continues the history of those days by telling us of Christ’s resurrection, which is what Easter celebrates.

The particular moment of this drawing comes from Matthew 27:32 which says, “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.” Simon, a man from the crowd, was called out to carry Christ’s cross to the hill where Jesus would be crucified.

This drawing was one of a half dozen or so new drawings recently added to the Generations of Grace Sunday school curriculum for kids. It comes in black and white for the kids to color when they learn this lesson in church. To learn more about Generations of Grace and if you think it would be a good program for your church to use, feel free to CLICK HERE.

Categories
Art: Inking Bible Art Character Designs Coloring Book art Illustrations

The Betrayal of Christ

Quite a few years ago I began drawing what turned out to be over 500 coloring book style pages of accounts from the Bible that became the Generations of Grace Sunday school curriculum. They crafted a three year curriculum for kids where not a single piece of art was used twice in that time, and it was designed for several age groups in the elementary grades so that all the kids in a family would learn the same lesson on their level each Sunday. It was a pretty neat approach.

Two years ago, those behind the curriculum wanted to colorize all my drawings for a new published version of the curriculum they intended to do. Some other artists began coloring them, but with so many drawings and a tight deadline, the task was great. So, I was invited back in to color my art as well, having to now follow the coloring style established by other artists. I managed to get about 20 or so pieces colored in-between other jobs I was working on last year, but to even get those done, I was so glad to get my pal and fellow artist Andy Heckathorne to help me.

Andy would first prep the drawings to prepare them for color, then he would go in and lay in all the flat base colors in Photoshop from his studio in Pennsylvania. He would hand them off to me here in California, and I’d add in all the shading. We were a good team!

All that being said, since this week many thoughts are turned to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross with it being Easter here in the United States, I wanted to share with you the one piece Andy and I colored from that account of Christ’s life – the moment when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus in the garden that led to the Roman soldiers taking Him away to what would eventually be his crucifixion.

 

The kiss was Judas' sign to the soldiers that this was Jesus.
The kiss was Judas’ sign to the soldiers that this was Jesus.

 

If you are interested in this art for your own church, or even for use in your own home, I recommend you check out all the different formats Generations of Grace has to offer for sale on their website. They have teacher lesson books, craft books, activity books, coloring books, and even a family devotional book so the whole family can keep up with the lessons together each day. CLICK HERE to go to their website.

If you would like to see more of my coloring book art from the death and resurrection of Christ account in the Bible, CLICK HERE and you’ll be taken to previous posts here on my blog.

Categories
Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Bible Art Character Designs Coloring Book art Illustrations

The Cookout

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.
Clearly he is not at all worried about his blood pressure with that generous application of salt.
Categories
Animals Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Norm of the North

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.

 

Chad_Frye_Norm_of_the_North_poster

 

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.

Categories
Animals Art: Animation Art: Drawings Character Designs Development Art

Merry Christmas 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.
A gift that someone could really sink their teeth into.

 

So, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Happy Thanksgiving!

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.
Categories
Animals Art: Photoshop Cartoons Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Christmas Cornelius

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.

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations

Sketch Challenge 5 – Nevermore

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.

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