A Peek At a Naughty Chicken

Here are a few more images from the upcoming epic, "Oscar's Naughty Chicken". Coming out as soon as I settle a few issues, like coloring in photoshop and laying out the full page spreads.

I have been working on this book  for quite awhile now, and as much as I'm enjoying it, sometimes finishing the illustrations becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. As this is my first original children's book, I want it to be perfect, so that gnaws at the kanker, too. I do have to say though, that since we are putting the book out ourselves, there is no editor breathing down my my neck making nit picky unnecessary "changes. A first for me. 

For you art lovers out there, these drawings were done on cold press stock, with Micron pens & Sigma brushes.

I think I covered this before, but someone recently asked me about my "working methods". I love to hear this kind of stuff from other cartoonists, so if you're a cartoon geek like me, maybe you will find my techniques mildly interesting, at least.

I start by doing a bunch of scribbles on typing paper, with a really soft pencil. This is real stream-of-conciseness stuff, and I do it quickly. When I finally have something I like, I use a light box and re-draw the illustration on a  good piece of paper leaving room for the copy (That explains the empty white spaces in these images). I don't trace the rough, I actually do a new drawing, trying as hard as I can to keep the looseness of the original sketch as much as possible. When I am happy with the drawing (or at least content), I ink the drawing using mostly markers with archival ink. I used to use the traditional dip pens & brushes with India ink, but the quality of them has fluctuated so much in recent years, that I am more  comfortable with the markers  right now. The markers are cheaper too. Always a plus.

By the way, all the images you see here are copyright me, so you can look but don't use!

Next time, something new and exciting!

Or more of the same.