Here’s a character pose from a recent project. The client had en existing cougar character that was in need of updating, as well as adding a few new poses to the mix to help liven up the place. Super Charlie here is the mascot for a Pool League team, and this is his “super” pose.

After looking at it again with fresher eye’s I think I might have made his top front fist about 40% larger to really add some extreme dimension and pop him off the page better. I should do that.

tags: character design, drawings, sketches, cartoons

Today’s Illustration Friday topic is “Portrait,” go play!

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “Speed.” And as the turtle sketch below suggests, speed is relative. Sometimes your clients don’t see it this way though. Slow speed is still speed! Don’t discriminate!

tags: turtle, drawing, sketch, character design, illustration

Video Run Time 3:45 - Here’s another video demo of me drawing, this time the subject is one of my cartoon dog characters. I’ve been scoping out the digital camcorder scene, what a deep pond of water that is. After a bit of research I’ve got my eye on a few models, the Panasonic PV-GS300 in particular. Enjoy the video and if you’ve got a comment or suggestion, I’m all ears! (click here if you can’t see the video below)

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Here’s that Florida Art Festival poster I said I’d post for you when it was done. (click the image below to enlarge) It was actually for the Palm Beach Cultural Council if anyone knows of it.

This was a fun assignment but it was tricky getting all the characters to piece together just right. As you can probably see from the original sketch, there was a lot of tweaking involved. That’s another great advantage to working digitally, vector in particular… it’s relatively easy to work the composition by adjusting placement and sizing of elements. Some might call this cheating, I call it saving years of my life.

I’m looking forward to getting a copy of the full-size poster from the agency when it’s complete… it’ll make a nice addition to the studio. I need more finished art on my walls, plenty of sketches and works in progress but not much color stuff.

The client was very pleased with the final art, I was even lucky enough to get a quote from the art director for my upcoming testimonial page…

“Brad’s artistic and professional capabilities are superior and made it easy for us to complete our project and go beyond our clients’ expectations!”

w00t!

tags: illustration, character design, tiger, poster, Florida, art, festival

I enjoy watching other artists draw stuff so I figured I’d dust off the old video camera post something of my own. There’s no audio… maybe I’ll get brave enough and slap a mic on for the next one… Enjoy! (click here if you can’t see the video below)

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This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “Insect” so allow me to introduce to you - Mr. Love Bug. A peek into the softer side of the cynical mind of Brad.

tags: characters, bugs, illustration, illustration friday, love

I’m currently working on a character design for a client that needs a “tough, but nice” black sheep character for his business mascot. I think these two guys are a good start in nailing down the attitude, but I think we might have to simplify him a bit by losing the clothes and possibly the halo. He’s a good guy, but not that good I guess. There’s also talk of bringing him back down to all fours so there’s no mistaking he’s a sheep.

tags: sheep, character, drawing, character design, sketch

Goats seem to be the “old men” of the animal world. Whenever I see a goat - illustrated or otherwise - I always think if they could talk they’d sound exactly like a grumpy, 92 year old man who hates kids and voted for Ronald Reagan. Or is this just me? … *looks around*

Here’s a cartoon dolphin character for this week’s Illustration Friday Topic: “Sea” Enjoy!

tags: dolphins, cartoons, characters, character design, ocean