Category: Art: Photoshop

2021 Monster Month: Horny Monsters

Welcome to the grand finale of my 2021 MONSTER MONTH!! And what a finale indeed! Not one, not two, but FIFTEEN monsters!!! (Seventeen if you want to also count the kids.)

 

Hopefully the art is just as cacophonic visually as the noise they are probably making!

 

A little while back, I was invited to contribute a page to a kids’ activity book where each page was being created by different cartoonists. The book was going to be published, and handed out at various children’s charity events by the non-profit organization spearheading the project. Covid hit, and the donors who were going to pay for printing backed out, so the book wasn’t printed. Bummer.

This was going to be a black-lined coloring page for the kids, where they also had to find all the horns in the picture, and I don’t just mean the musical instruments. Since some monsters have horns on their heads, it meant ALL horns in the picture – thirty-five all together!

This was a traditionally drawn image hand-inked on Bristol board. I decided to spruce it up a little by adding some color in Photoshop just for you Monster Month followers.

I hope you have enjoyed this month-o’-monsters. It was fun for me coming up with them You can sigh in relief that now it is over. We will be returning to our regularly scheduled (non-threatening) art posts in the days to come.

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Cartoons Character Designs Coloring Book art Illustrations Monsters

2021 Monster Month: Dino Drip

Maybe if the caveman had gotten the vaccine, he would be protected.

 

I guess it could be worse. The drip could be coming from his nose.

 

Ink in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2021 Monster Month: Fish Bowl

I can’t quite be sure, but I think this alien has fish on the brain. The truth is very likely stranger than science fiction.

 

That is some SERIOUS brain fluid!

 

Ink drawing in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2021 Monster Month: Monsters At Work

Well here’s something different in this month-o’-monsters – an actual bonafide monster job! Back in July I was hired to work on this advertisement for the Disney+ animated series Monsters At Work.

The agency had already written the ad, and another wonderful artist had illustrated it and laid it out (that means the graphic design part of it), but then two things happened: 1. it went through changes, and 2. the other artist had to go out of town and didn’t have the time to make the changes. So, I filled in as needed.

 

Click on the image to enlarge.

 

So, what you see here is a true team effort. I illustrated all the characters except three monsters in step 5 and Mike Wazowski (which are all by the talented Liz Masters), and then I re-laid out the steps and bottom info with all the new text following the look that Liz had already established. It was a super fun gig, and obviously I love drawing monsters. Happy to have had a crack at the Disney/Pixar creation all thanks to Liz for pulling me in on it!

Oh, and Disney+ tweeted this out back in July just a few days after I had finished it. Quick turnaround to meet the launch date of the new show!

Categories
Art: Animation Art: Painting Art: Photoshop Art: Typography Cartoons Disney Illustrations Monsters

2021 Monster Month: The Stare

Today’s entry for Monster Month is a piece I actually posted in 2019 on Instagram as just line art, and that’s how it remained for two years. It is an ink sketch from a sketchbook that every time I flipped to it, that hypnotic stare kept calling out to me in a raspy creepy voice, “color me!”

So, I took this zombie and his pet rat into Photoshop to see if a little color would make him even MORE creepy. I think it worked.

 

I wonder if he had LASIK surgery?
Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2021 Monster Month: Pet Monster

Hey, if a dragon can have a pet dog as posted here a few days ago, why can’t a little girl have a pet monster?

Honestly, if this guy wanted to get away, he probably could, but sometimes certain creatures enjoy a little domesticity. What’s not to like? Three squares a day, maybe a little belly rub, and lots of naps.

 

He probably just looks tough to keep up appearances.

 

An inked drawing in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.

By the way, I have visited this idea before. Think of this as maybe an alternate version of this Monster Month entry from 2017 that was a colored pencil/watercolor paint piece.

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

2021 Monster Month: SILA Certificate

Earlier this year, I wrapped up my time serving the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) as their Illustration West 59 Chair. Illustration West is an annual illustration contest SILA hold for professionals and students.

In my position, I was asked to create the art for the poster that advertised the show. Loving monsters as I do, I made an image inspired by creature features prominent back in the 1950s. I talked about the poster here on my blog in the past, including a step-by-step of that art’s creation. At the end of the contest, the judges chose what they felt was the best in each category, and those select few received a special certificate commemorating the judges’ decision.

While some of the recipients shared their certificates online this past spring, I never posted it before. So, without further ado, here is that certificate with a made up name on the recipient line serving as a place holder.

 

Needless to say, Joe did not blow. His work would have had to have been excellent to receive one of these!

 

I created the certificate completely in Photoshop with a new line drawing of the monster that appeared in my poster art. As Show Chair, my signature was printed on the certificates along with SILA’s President and terrific children’s book illustrator Joe Cepeda.

 

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Illustrations Monsters

2021 Monster Month: Doctor Visit

Hey, going to the doctor’s office can be a scary thing, even for a big scary monster. They need a little love and reassurance, too! (And they also like lollipops when it’s all over.)

 

If you see a frightened whimpering monster today, go ahead and give him a hug.

 

Traditional ink in a sketchbook with some slight blandishments from Photoshop.

Categories
Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook