The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyThe other day I was doodling in my sketchbook with a blue pencil when this little creeper came out. I liked how he looked, and decided to put some ink on him. The rough inking raised his appeal a bit, and then it escalated into including some shading. Having just made a pot of coffee, I dipped my brush into the coffee and gave him some brown stains to complete the sketch. I know he doesn’t look it, but now he smells good – like a caramel macchiato latte.
Every now and then you have a dead moment (so to speak) at work waiting for your next assignment. Such a moment was upon me today, so instead of surfing the net or getting a sixth cup of coffee, I decided to start doodling. While keeping things very sketchy and rough, the doodle kept expanding in size, scope, and hideousness until it arrived at this heaping hulk of a concept monster.
Is he a brute with beastly intentions? Perhaps a misunderstood miscreant with a heart of gold? Or maybe it is someone who just regrets not having taken better care of his teeth in his younger years.
Whoever he may be, he most definitely is a sketch who evolved in a moment of a little workday idleness.
Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air! Well, maybe not those of you on the east coast who have been hit with a dollop of snow in recent weeks. Here in Los Angeles, we have been setting heat records for this time of year with it being in the 90s. I tend to enjoy things a little cooler than that, but we make do.
So with spring around the corner, I felt like sketching a smiling little bunny rabbit. Perhaps you might enjoy looking at it from your sunny front porch, or from your snow fort – whichever the case may be.
Recently I started working on storyboards for a new animated film called Animal Crackers. I had some time between assignments last week, and just to keep busy, I started sketching. This bear came out of hibernation by way of my Cintiq screen. (That’s a monitor you can draw on with a stylus.)
While the film does include many animals, this is not one from the movie lest your hopes were up for a sneak peek. For that, you should visit the Animal Crackers Facebook page where you can see some of the characters as designed by the amazing Carter Goodrich!
This past Saturday, December 6, approximately forty professional artists from the world of comics and animation descended upon the Warner Bros. Ranch studio in Burbank, California, to draw pictures for the kids and families coming to a holiday party sponsored by the Ronald McDonald House organization. It was such a blast to spend three hours of our day putting smiles on the faces of these kids.
You see, throughout the year Ronald McDonald House helps out families that have kids with some serious health problems. Each December Warner Bros. graciously opens their property to a wonderful party for those families who have needed Ronald McDonald House that year. They come and can ride on carnival rides, they are fed all kinds of goodies, they can meet Santa, they meet Ronald McDonald, there is face painting, free Christmas hats made by a senior citizens group, they can meet child actors that come, and they get lots of toys all for free.
The best part is, they come to the artists for free drawings of whatever they would like, or whatever the artist is able to draw. Sometimes the two don’t exactly match. I’m not afraid to tell folks I don’t know how to draw a particular character, but sometimes they pull up an image on their phones which makes me obliged to accommodate their requests.
Enough chit-chat. How about I let some photos do the talking…
So, that was the great event! Looking forward to joining the group again next year with the hope that we won’t see some of these same kids again because they healed!
Several weeks ago on a visit to one of my favorite jaunts, a little restaurant known as Chili John’s in Burbank, California, I doodled a monster on one of their paper placemats. It was just one of those things that happened when a ball point pen met a piece of paper while I was enjoying conversation with the great folks who work there. They liked it, and pinned it up on their wall which in a way is a challenge to anyone else who comes in to do better.
To “do better” is not very hard in this eating establishment, because cartoonists from all the animation studios sit at Chili John’s lunch counter each and every day. They are always doing drawings, most of which go on display in the back room for the amusement of the owners and staff.
Chili John’s is the second oldest restaurant in Burbank (only The Smokehouse is older) established in their current location in the 1940s. The fare is simple – good solid no filler spicy chili in beef, chicken, vegetarian, and here at Thanksgiving – turkey. You can have it served over rice, spaghetti, beans, a chili filled tamale, or a hot dog. That’s it! The food is good, and the clientele from all walks of life come in to dine. It is not unusual to see their share of famous people past and present such as Tom Bosley, “Weird” Al Yankovic, Grant Show, Roseanne Barr, Greg Proops, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Roebuck, and any number of recording artists who inhabit the hidden studios along Burbank Blvd. Just last week the CBS show CSI was taping two doors down at the hobby shop, and cast & crew kept coming in for some of that good ol’ chili! It got to where the Craft Services cook came and got a supply to put on the buffet outside. Even Guy Fieri featured it on his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network. But I digress.
So, back to the monster sketch! Someone DID decide to pick up a pen and meet the challenge. In my absence, Delilah – age 8 – came in with her mother, saw my monster sketch, and decided she was going to draw him, too. She studied and concentrated and came up with her own beautiful version of my beast. She also one-upped me by giving him a name – Lumpy!
I LOVE IT Delilah – whoever you are! Well done! Please keep drawing and drawing so that one day I can copy your work, ok? Hopefully sometime we can meet each other there at Chili John’s. We can enjoy a bowl of hot chili together and laugh at each other’s placemat doodles. Then maybe Anne Hathaway will have to follow in OUR footsteps. 😉
Sometimes it is just fun to sit in a comfy chair and let your hand and mind go nuts on a page in the ol’ sketchbook. Such is the genesis of today’s Monster Month offering. Purple pencil, blank page, and some unhinged mental musings…
One of my favorite places to eat is at the Colington Cafè in the Outer Banks (OBX to the initiated) of North Carolina. It is a classy joint at the beach in an old house set back off the road amongst some giant old and twisted trees. It is just a little bit of beach elegance.
I, of course, had to bring it down a notch by drawing on the tablecloth. Care for a little Old Salt of a monster with some sweet dessert?
