Here is yet another pencil drawing that I did for the series of end credit images that can be seen in the new Zhu Zhu Pets movie, The Quest for Zhu, that was released yesterday. (By the way, if you happen to misplace your Zhu, before heading out into a carrot forest or a creepy jungle, start your quest by checking the cushions of your couch, or maybe the back of the dryer where that other sock is.)
I actually was pretty excited to draw a bit of the jungle foliage for this picture. I believe it was two of our layout wizards Wallace Williamson and Chris Aguirre who designed the jungle scenery in the movie, so I had some of their work in front of me as I set about creating a corner vignette. I loved all the strange leaves and plant life they came up with – kind of reminded me of the creativity of the wacky plant life in a section of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. It would have been fun to have had the time to handle the painting duties myself, but that job fell to my buddy Tom Cain.
By placing our four main heroes in the opposite corner from the vegetation, it left a big space in between the art for a few credit names. When the drawing was just about done, a request came down the line to add smoke wafting up from the campfire. I would rather have seen that smoke just painted in faintly so it wouldn’t collide with the text. That space really needed to remain open for the lettering. The director agreed that it needed more open space, so when you see this art in the final film, you’ll notice that all the jungle growth was edited out. Sigh. Such is life on a production.
So, I’m happy to share with you today this drawing that I loved with the jungle, the mighty jungle, completely intact. The hamsters can sleep tonight. (Feel free to click on the art to see it larger!)
