Category: Monsters

2013 Monster Month: Day 4 – Meeting Minutes

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 9, 2013

C’mon, admit it. When you are in a meeting, your mind wanders to someplace other than where your posterior is physically located. Maybe you are thinking about what you will have for lunch. Maybe you are doing mental gymnastics about all the places you have to take your kids after work. Maybe you are thinking of a land of cotton candy governed by gummy bear constables. Me? I usually have monsters on the brain, and they usually find their way into my note taking.

This past May I was in a business meeting with about 20 other cartoonists at the National Cartoonists Society’s (NCS) Reuben Awards weekend in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Of course, I don’t remember what the meeting was about now because you can see that my notes ONLY consisted of monster doodles. If you think MY notes were incomplete, just imagine what all the other creative minds in the room were putting down on THEIR note pads.

If my notes are any indication of what the meeting was actually about, keep your doors and windows locked, Pittsburgh.

The next monster comes to us in frightening color on Friday!

2013 Monster Month: Day 3 – The Eyes Have It

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 7, 2013

What is “it” exactly? When someone (or in this case someTHING) has IT, everyone is attracted to IT, everyone desires IT, everyone wants IT. IT is the thing you can’t quite define, but can’t quite turn away from. In this case, the IT this guy has is charisma. He also has a huge optometrist bill for his contact lenses.

Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched?

Who knows what lurks in the pages of my sketchbook? Wednesday knows…

Art: Drawings Character Designs Illustrations Monsters

2013 Monster Month: Day 2 – Ball Point Terrors

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 4, 2013

Do you ever just get on a roll with sketching in your sketchbook? I do. This is what can happen when you combine an idle mind with a sheet of white paper and a ball point pen.

Sometimes it is the cute ones that are the most deadly.

Come back Monday to see what new nightmares await!

Animals Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles

2013 Monster Month: Day 1 – Wolfchad

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 1, 2013

What better way to get Monster Month kicked off than with a self-effacing interpretation of the Wolfman. This is a version of how I look before I’ve had my coffee in the morning.

This is how I really am. When a full moon appears, I become normal looking.

For those of you paying attention to my signature, I originally drew this one back in 2010. It was a sketch in my sketchbook that I inked, then scanned and colored in Photoshop. I was playing around with the idea of turning myself into the Wolfman for 2010’s Monster Month, when a funnier idea came to mind. I redrew myself a little less angry getting scolded by a police officer. CLICK HERE if you’d like to see THAT drawing which was inspired by THIS drawing!

The next installment of boogie monsters arrives here on Friday!

Animals Art: Inking Caricature Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Self Portrait

The Return of MONSTER MONTH!

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date September 30, 2013

It’s bAaaaack….

WELCOME TO THE RETURN OF

Monster Month 2013

For those of you who follow my blog, you know that I LOVE creating silly creatures that go bump in the night, especially during the month of October. Last year I was knee deep in working on a new television show to make it on air by the fall which resulted in the lamentable omission of Monster Month on my blog. Things continue to be very busy for me working on the second season of that show on top of other animation and print projects all at the same time, but I have managed to cull together some monster sketches and doodles for a slightly trimmed down Monster Month.

Beginning TOMORROW on October 1st, new monsters will begin to make their appearance here. While they won’t be one-a-day as in years past, I promise that they will be full of fun, fangs, and frightenings (not necessarily in that order).

So, please visit several times a week (if you dare) to see what is new during MONSTER MONTH!!!

Art: Inking Monsters

Tow Truck Sketches

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date April 19, 2013

Yesterday started out like any other: wake up, get lunch put together, shower, get dressed, and take off for work. The trouble was in the “take off” part. There was no “up, up and away” to be had.

You see, I drive an old car. It has served me well as it served my grandmother well before me, and some dude before her. However, yesterday my ’95 Mercury Sable decided to require service of its own. The power would not work at all. So, a tow was required.

While waiting in my car for a tow truck to arrive, I pulled out a trusty thin blue Sharpie marker, and found an old piece of paper in my trunk and began to doodle randomly. There was no rhyme nor reason to the sketching – no frustrated mechanics or dilapidated vehicles. Just some good ol’ fashion creatures. Although if I were to analyze these drawings, I was probably experiencing the disposition of the giant turtle creature while the happy-go-lucky guy inside the jaws was the mechanic about to make some coin.

Waiting for a tow truck can bring out some weirdness – in a good way.

So, no matter what curve ball life throws at you, with a pen and paper, you can get through it okay. I can’t wait to see what my next jury duty will inspire!

Animals Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

Lounge Lizard

It has been awhile since my last post. Things have been swamped at the office with the imminent debut of an animated television show I have been working on for the past fourteen months, and the schedule has not lightened up one bit. Spending all day every day drawing in someone else’s style can wear on you a tad, so every now and then you need to let a little of yourself out on the page.

Last night I wanted to do something fun to break in a brand new sketchbook. As any follower of my blog knows, I enjoy drawing monsters, and if I have to draw a real life monster, reptiles are what come to mind first. This skeevy looking alligator fell out of my pen ready to prey on his next unsuspecting victim. Right now he has his eye on Ms. Animation Deadline.

Yeah, he thinks he looks suave, but he’s really all gut and no glory.

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

Parasite Illustration for Answers Magazine ………. (part 3)

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date January 17, 2013

So, today is the unveiling of my latest illustration for the article Parasites – Unwelcome Guests featured in the latest issue of Answers Magazine (Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2013). If you have followed the past two posts about the process this week, you are ready to see some final artwork!

After the final drawing (shared here yesterday) is approved, I print it out and then trace it onto my watercolor paper with regular pencil. I use the VERY nice and very expensive Arches watercolor paper onto which I apply my Winsor & Newton paint. The edges of the painting are taped with white artists tape (it usually doesn’t rip up the surface of the paper when you pull it up later) because when I do a full bleed painting, I like nice clean edges.

This is the first I thought to take a photo of the work in progress. Quite a bit is covered at this point. In the unpainted areas, you can see some purple underpainting where shadows will be. Never use black. There are no black shadows in real life – just darker colors.

This is just a close-up of the previous image. You can see how the paint job is pretty sloppy. Sometimes in this moment you can lose focus, but you have to keep that final image in your mind so that you can get it where you want it to be.

The painting part of the illustration is almost done here. Once the color is all laid in, I will go in and continue with colored pencil. The paper is textured which gives the paint and pencil a nice look together.

So, now for the grand unveiling. Drumroll please…..

And here is the final parasitical illustration after the colored pencil was applied. While it was printed at roughly 7.5″x10″, the original painting is 14.5″x18″.

Hope you enjoyed the little behind-the-scenes of creating this piece. Painting is a lot of fun. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, grab a brush and paint something on paper! There is nothing like it. At the end of the day you can sit back and hold your creation in your hands – hopefully with some satisfaction. Then go do another one!

Animals Art: Colored Pencil Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations Monsters