Sadly, even the monster world can’t escape eyeglasses tape and pocket protectors…..
Categories
Art: Drawings Art: Inking Character Designs Monsters
Category: Monsters
Prior to this year’s Monster Month, I shared with you some of the art I created as a character designer for the new Zhu Zhu Pets movie, The Quest for Zhu, that came out on DVD last week. The drawings showed lots of cute little hamsters with their big eyes and button noses. What I didn’t tell you was that the movie also contains a few monsters, the most villainous of them all being the evil Mazhula!
Mazhula has a head inspired by a cobra, body of an alligator, and the personality of a jar of mayonnaise that has turned. My colleague Stephen Silver conceived her basic look, and I began to define her behavior and personality with the following drawings….
While the above were character study sketches, towards the end of production I did one more detailed drawing of the evil Mazhula that can be seen during the end credits of the Zhu Zhu Pets movie. Mazhula has this ability to shoot electric fireballs from the palms of her hands, but when she does so, she depletes her own power. To recharge, she plugs her tail into a spittoon-looking device that is an electrical outlet for reptiles of her caliber. The following drawing is based on a moment in the movie that was storyboarded by my friend Mike Kunkel (known for his comic book a few years ago called Herobear and the Kid).
Return tomorrow to see how a monster deals with far-sightedness!
He can’t help it that he was born this way. He’s really an alien with a heart of gold, but no one will really give him much of a chance. All this guy really wants is to make it big on the music scene. You should hear him sing an old fashioned love song, coming down in three-part harmony!
Back in 2004 I was contemplating getting into using the watercolor medium. For many years I created illustrations with colored pencil and gouache, an opaque water based paint. Watercolor paint started catching my eye to the point of inspiring me to give it a try. But what would be a worthy image on which to test this new medium? The first piece to drip out of my brush involved an alligator and a bunny rabbit, but then….. MONSTERS!
In the classic Frankenstein movie with Boris Karloff, there is a moment when this big lumbering beast comes across a little girl. As an audience, you know what this behemoth is capable of, and the little girl who is none the wiser just sees a potential playmate. What if some monsters got snagged into playtime with a fearless little girl who just would not let them go? Instead, she is the monster, and they are the victims. With that backstory in mind, I created this piece which turned out to be the launch of my interest in fun monster art:
Some of you may have seen the above painting on my website, but what you have NOT seen before are some of the preliminary sketches from my sketchbook that were drawn in the quest for just the right combination of monsters to be tormented by this situation. An illustration doesn’t just fall into place with the first critters that come to mind. Below are a few beasties that didn’t make the cut:
The six fellas above were just a few of the dozen and a half heads that came out of my pencil. Three faces were needed, and three faces were found, but not all in a row. Scattered amongst the many pages of exploratory monster drawings were the three you see below – the three that made it into the final painting:
So, there you have the genesis of my interest in monster art! I also happen to love the Muppets, so that might help explain a bit of the ol’ Henson influence that may come through now and then, too. Come back again tomorrow for another strange creation that’s a vision, but only an illusion – a monster that has nothing to hide.
WELCOME to the return of Monster Month!
This is my third annual offering of a piece of monster art every week day throughout the month of October. Some creatures will manifest themselves as watercolor paintings, some as inked drawings, digital art, pencil drawings, and even sketches direct from the pages of my sketchbook.
Word must have gotten out, because this past year I actually had a few commissioned monster assignments come across my desk, so I’ll be sharing some of those monsters with a purpose as well.
As has become tradition the past couple of years, the first monster drawing of the month was inspired by my mirror. In year one I was Frankenstein’s monster, and year two I was the Wolfman. So, with zombies being the most media savvy beasts these days, Monster Month will be kicked off with the Chad Frye Zombie! When creating my art, I’m usually most conscientious about the composition, but this time, I had to keep in mind the decomposition. (Can I have a rimshot, Smitty?)
Well, there you have it. And to think I did have braces when I was a teenager. Zombie life can be so unforgiving, especially on my skin. Sooo hard to keep those pores open.
Tomorrow I’ll share with you some behind-the-scenes goodies on the piece of art that got me started on this whole monster kick.
Hide the children,
and bar the windows and doors at night…..
…The monsters are returning for
another month of fright!
That’s right! For the third October in a row, it will be MONSTER MONTH on the Chad Frye • Illustration Guy blog! Each weekday throughout October a new piece of monster art will take to the unforgiving and cruel streets of the internet. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Come back on October 3rd as we unleash the beasts!
Categories
I’ve never been one to take very comprehensive notes in school. Always having an interest in art, many doodles littered the notes of any academic class I happened to be in. I usually was paying attention to the teacher, but somehow the margins were always full of stuff another part of my brain generated.
I recently started taking a storyboard refresher class at the Animation Guild that has been meeting on Monday nights. The teacher, Bob Kurtz, has been very interesting and informative on a topic near to my heart. However, knowing my proclivity to doodle during classes, this time I immediately cut to the chase by bringing a sketchbook along instead of note paper. I figured I’d be drawing more, and class notes would be relegated to the margins instead.
So, here is a page from my notes on the first night of class. The sketches had absolutely nothing to do with what was being taught. The closest thing to being remotely connected to what was happening in the room is that fella in the top left – he was one of my fellow students. Yes, I was paying attention. It’s just that my hand was off doing it’s own thing.
On a completely unrelated matter, I just wanted to wish my sister Tori a happy birthday today! And she is about to pop with her first kid, too! If he arrives today, that will make a new birthday in the family easier to remember!
Categories
Welcome to another fine addition to my Tuesdays with TIM posts showing you some of the artwork created in the development of this exciting short film project I’ve been working on with my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab!
When trying to develop the visual style of TIM in early 2010, we didn’t wish to stray from the visuals of Tim Burton’s creepy animated films. We wanted to channel the look of Burton’s 1982 short Vincent while combining it with the visual sophistication of films like Corpse Bride and Henry Selick’s Coraline. Vincent was in black and white, and had a certain economy of scenery that was inexpensive to produce yet visually compelling. The latter films incorporated color and style to their imagery that just captures the imagination.
So, with visions of the macabre dancing in my head, I grabbed my sketchbook and started to draw various scenes based on lines in the script. We chose a couple of them to illustrate, and I got to work on this particular piece.
Yes, the art below is a genuine old school painting in real life. I created it primarily in watercolor, and incorporated the use of colored pencils just a tad. I really love the watercolor medium, and use it often for my development art on this film. I think the uneven nature of it helps give a certain tactile feeling to each scene, and helps give the viewer a certain uneasiness with the creepy subject matter.
If you would like to hear Christopher Lee’s narration that goes with this piece, we feature it in our promo film over on Kickstarter. If you watch it long enough, there’s even a quick shot of me working on this very painting. You can go there right now by clicking on www.TIMtheMovie.com.
If you go to Kickstarter, please consider pledging some money to us so that we can actually make this film. We are in our final month of fundraising. I know at the $100 level, one of the things you’ll receive is a special limited edition print of one of my paintings. We have a few to choose from, so the print might even be of this particular painting.
Come back again next Tuesday for more revelations about TIM the movie! And come join the TIM Facebook page by CLICKING HERE!