It’s one thing for a kid to set up a lemonade stand in her front yard to make a little money, and it’s another thing entirely when she gets some big competition that can swallow her whole. Capitalism at work. It’s a common American tale kind of like what happened to my uncle’s camera shop years ago when a Walmart moved into his little town.
Yes, the monster’s tongue seems to do all the talking here. Haven’t you seen a tongue wearing a sun-visor before? (Click on image to see it larger.)
By the way, today’s beast is really more of a sketch than anything. Because I drew the whole thing from scratch on a Cintiq tablet on the computer, I was able to quickly dab in some color here and there for your amusement.
NEXT WEEK will be my final full week of monster art for this year! Don’t miss a thing as we approach the grand finale on Halloween!
My good friend and neighbor Brian Joseph Ochab formed his own production company called Wonder Motion Studios. Under this banner, he is developing some wonderful family entertainment. In fact, one of the projects he is working on is TIM, the Tim Burton inspired animated short film that I am co-producing with him. (CLICK HERE if you’d like to be up to speed with that project!)
In starting Wonder Motion Studios, Brian wanted a fun logo to get across the whimsy and imagination his projects have. He enjoyed my creatures from previous Monster Months, and wanted me to create one for him. After a few different ideas, we settled down with this purple balloon-loving mascot onto which Brian later incorporated his typeface.
He may technically be a yellow-bellied cyclops, but I dare you to be the one to tell him that.
Come back again tomorrow to see a monster entrepreneur at work!
In the recently released Zhu Zhu Pets DVD, The Quest for Zhu, there are all manner of beasties ready to threaten the four hamster heroes Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Num Nums and Chunk. One such danger is a pack of saber-tooth tigers called Zhurassic Zhus.
Today I thought I’d share with you two versions of these growly striped kitties. Like a nature photographer, though remaining at my much safer desk, I was tasked with capturing the behavior of these creatures for inspiration to those that followed me in the creative pipeline. In our story, these fellas reside in the snowy mountain cliffs. Putting myself in the position of the hamsters, I imagined that the most frightening introduction I could have to this life-ending threat would be to perch them above on a cliff looking hungrily down while being framed by the blinding sun. So, I penciled out the pose, scanned it in and added some dramatic flare in Photoshop by including shadows.
Now THIS is something that could just ruin your whole mountain hike. (Click on image to see it larger.)
Usually when I did these kinds of character development drawings, they would be passed along down the production line just as you see it. This time, however, the director took a shine to the drama in this piece, so he asked my buddy Tom Cain to paint it in color as I moved on to do other drawings. I really loved how Tom handled the whole scene so I thought I’d share with you his terrific version of these snarling, drooling hamster nightmares.
Here is Tom Cain’s great Photoshop rendition of my Zhurassic Zhu drawing. (Click on image to see it larger.)
Come back tomorrow to see if you scream, if I scream, if monsters scream for ice cream!
Deep in the steamy backwood bayous of the kudzu draped American South, the silent stench of the sweaty air is only permeated by the high-pitched whiny buzz of a mosquito in search of its next source of sustenance. Any intrepid guest to these weary waters proceeds with caution for there is no telling what camouflaged evil lurks in the ooze of the rising mists. Suddenly, wafting in and out of the silence is a low toned chortle that seems to emanate from every direction, a bone-chilling sound that grows like a fast spreading cancer into a riotous laughter. Then, you see it – a creature far too terrifying to even imagine – the mythical orange demon of the Everglades!!!
But what is this devilish hellion cackling about? Is he laughing because he knows your trousers are not exactly wet from the swamp? No. He’s seen that before. Is it because he knows you wish to run, but will be overcome by his swift aquatic maneuverings? No.
And then the sad sinking feeling hits you because you know in your heart of hearts, this ferocious beast of unearthly color is laughing at the stupid fishing hat your mother made you wear.
You know you’re in trouble when even nature makes fun of you.
So, dry off and come back tomorrow for another in this fine line of the creepy and crawly!
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!
Mealtime can be interesting with three mouths to feed.
A few weeks back I learned that my friends Abi and Harrison Craig were going to be leaving Los Angeles with their family and heading to Kentucky. Harrison has accepted a job working on the Ark Encounter, a Bible-based theme park that is currently in the planning stages. It is being put together by Answers in Genesis, the people known for the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.
You may remember Answers in Genesis here on my blog. Last year I told you about an illustration assignment I did for their publication, Answers Magazine(click HERE to see it again). In fact, I believe it was just recently republished in their special 5th anniversary issue.
Well, Harrison wanted a drawing of his family to commemorate this big change in their lives. His kids have only known California, and they are excited about this grand new adventure that they set out on this week. I thought I’d share with you the drawing in it’s three stages: rough sketch, final inked art, and the full-color final piece.
Working from photographs, I worked out the rough drawing with blue pencil on tracing paper. It went through a couple of alterations as per Harrison’s request, then I made a few spacing and size changes with Photoshop on the computer.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
You may notice some details like Noah’s ark on the pennant since they are going to work on the Ark Encounter. And if you noticed a chicken in the van, that’s because while the Craigs lived here in L.A., they had a chicken coop providing them with plenty of fresh eggs daily. Originally I had thought to add some chickens chasing the van, but then the idea of leaving palms for pines came to me and seemed like a better idea. So, one chicken made it into the van, although I don’t believe the same could be said about the real life chickens. Well, leastwise not sitting next to the bellies of those boys. (cough cough)
The next step was to print the blue lines out on a piece of 14×11 paper, and using a piece of graphite paper (similar to carbon paper but using pencil lead instead) under the print, I traced the drawing down onto a nice clean sheet of Bristol board. It was on this piece of Bristol that I hand-inked the art using a Pentel brush pen (a most excellent tool I don’t know how I ever lived without) and Prismacolor black tech pens.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
Then, it was time to color. Scanning the art into the computer, the color was added in Photoshop. I chose to keep things fairly flat, only really shading the skin tones of the people. The grass and van have some gradations, but by focusing the shading on the skin tones, it draws attention to the characters rather than to the environment.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
Well, there you have it. The A to Cs of a cartoony caricature drawing of one swell family.
?…my oh my what a wonderful day! It’s beginning to look a little like one of them zip-ah-dee-doo-dah days! Perhaps I should explain…
Over the past seven weeks, I have mentioned and illustrated several times here on the blog that on May 10, Hotmail had turned it’s back on me. I was locked out of the e-mail account that has kept me in touch with friends, family and business associates for the past thirteen years. The digital wasteland of Hotmail rejection was quiet and lonely – I couldn’t have felt more shunned had I been wearing a big red letter on my clothing.
The reason for the lock-out? I was the victim of a drive-by hacking. Someone had violated the sanctity of my little ol’ e-mail doing who-knows-what in my name. I sat before my screen with grumpy displeasure conjuring up thoughts of random people getting bad knock-knock jokes from me, or perhaps “yo’ momma” insults that would come back to haunt me one day. I could be walking down the street at some point and a stranger would stop me on the sidewalk to say:
“Are you Chad Frye?”
“Why yes, yes I am.”
“Well, YO’ momma is sooo ugly that children shriek when she passes by!”
I would be shocked and appalled at this unnecessary act of verbal abuse from someone I had never met before, only to have the realization a few minutes later that ah yes, this must have been retaliation for something a hacker sent them in my name.
Well, my previous blog posts on this issue were not written in vain. Two weeks ago I received an e-mail from an employee of Microsoft (Hotmail’s owner) who had seen my blog and offered suggestions on how to get back in. He had nothing to do with the Hotmail division, but rather was just being a good Samaritan.
So, I followed his advice which amounted to typing up an inordinate amount of facts about my account to submit to Hotmail, then hitting “send” and going to bed. Waking the following morning and wiping the sleep from my eyes, I sat down at the computer to some stunning news. There on the screen was an e-mail from Hotmail (to an alternate account) stating that I now had permission to re-enter my account!!!
I don’t mind Mr. Bluebird being on my shoulder so long as he doesn’t leave any residue behind.
OH HAPPY DAY!!! The advice had worked and I have since returned to e-mailing everyone willy nilly like a giddy little schoolgirl! From all the e-mails I am now receiving, many people in foreign countries seem to be trying to get a hold of me to give me millions of dollars in transfers and lotteries once I provide them with my bank information. So, not only did I get my e-mail account back, I soon shall be RICH! Win-Win!
Two weeks ago at The Writer’s Guild in Beverly Hills, CA, entertainment legends Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke had a conversation on stage on the occasion of the release of Mr. Van Dyke’s new autobiography. Hosted by Writers Bloc Presents, these two legends swapped tales and memories before a rapt audience of which I was very happy to be a part.
Carl Reiner & Dick Van Dyke at the Writers Bloc Presents event on May 31, 2011.
As a child, it was quite easy to become a fan of Dick Van Dyke due to Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, only to further appreciate his talents with The Dick Van Dyke Show, and many other projects all the way up to the fairly recent Night at the Museum. When first arriving in California in 1997 to work for Disney, I was hoping that would be my ticket to finally meet Dick Van Dyke. Turns out that ticket was a wee bit elusive.
Every now and then, I would hear that friends of mine would have met him at the computer convention Siggraph that I would also be attending. Others would meet him on the Disney lot now and then, even once making a planned appearance with Julie Andrews at the renaming of one of the Disney soundstages in Ms. Andrews’ honor. Where was I? Foolishly working.
A few years ago, the charity group Actors and Others for Animals [click here to see my previous post on this group] were having their annual fundraising banquet in honor of Dick Van Dyke. Mary Willard, the very funny wife of the very funny Fred Willard, called and asked if I might be willing to draw their personal ad for the program book. How could I resist an opportunity to draw Dick, Fred and Mary? Better yet, the job came with an invitation to the event where one would certainly have the opportunity to shake the hand of the rubbery master of mirth himself!
This was my initial rough sketch to show the Willards for their input. After incorporating their comments, the final art below was produced.
After completing the whimsical ad for the Willards, my anticipations for meeting Mr. Van Dyke were growing exponentially each day. In a cruel twist of fate, those same precious anticipations were frigidly dashed yet again. The banquet was being held at the same time I was scheduled to be on the opposite side of the country on vacation with my family!
This was the final ad that Mary and Fred Willard placed in the black & white program book honoring Dick Van Dyke.
It was beginning to feel as though Dick Van Dyke was a myth that parents made up to tell their children about on cold winter nights. “Twas the night before movies, when over the lot it happens, a tall lanky sweep appears, that guy from Mary Poppins….” Seriously, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to hang a plate of tea and cakes from the ceiling at night to see if he would appear. Or at the least, add an ottoman to my office decor.
Well, Virginia, there really is a Dick Van Dyke. Last year, several years after parting from Disney myself, I was attending a private reception when I turned around and there before me was the man behind Bert, Rob Petrie, Caractacus Potts, Dr. Sloan and so many others. I finally was able to shake his hand, and thank him for being a part of filling my own head with imagination as a child that indubitably continues within me today.
Chad Frye with Dick Van Dyke at the Hollywood & Highlands complex in 2010.
