EEEeeeee!

This is another digitally inked page of the comic I previously posted about. Again, very heavy on the line until I have a chance to sprinkle in the color. It's kind of funny to see it out of context in it's current state, without the dialog. Another challenge of this particular comic is that I can't reveal the face of the main character (which is the main reason for the hood and raincoat). I should note that I don't really consider these in what I would loosely define as my style. I'm working with another artist's characters and in the style of the game we are developing. But I tend to think some of my line quality shows through.

Rain

These are a couple of nearly finished pages of a comic I'm working on at FableVision. I'm grappling with how to best represent rain. These pages are heavy on line right now (no color, and I haven't blocked in any blacks), so they won't be completely realized until color gets applied. The comic needs to be delivered in Flash, so these are all completely "inked" in digital vector. People familiar with the program will understand how tricky it is to draw consistently straight lines, so it has definitely been a challenge. I think the rain is working so far. My approach is to draw the characters, then the rain lines, and then the elements behind the rain. Note that these pages don't come right after each other, though you can probably fill in the blanks.

"Dine-in" or "Table for One"

Leave no napkin undoodled!

New Comic for ARGH!

After going nearly a year without making a single comic, this is truly an accomplishment for me. Félix Diaz and Jorge Parras were kind enough to invite me to contribute a 2-page comic to their new comic magazine, ARGH! A Spanish comic magazine, at that! I'll be part of Issue #2, along with a number of comic artists. Everyone worked in the same color palette, because the magazine is printed in a 2-color process of black and cyan. This also marks a first for having my comic translated into another language (thanks Félix, I don't know a shred of Spanish). Anyway, here it is!

Good Ole Days

This is a still frame from a short animation I made for a documentary film. Some producers came to FableVision with the goal of sprinkingly a bit of animation their film. It happens to be a period piece, so when they saw my Jinx the Monkey cartoon they loved the old-time vibe of it. It was a trip down memory lane making a 1920s style cartoon again. I'll try and post the whole thing when I know it's okay to show (a lot of this stuff is pretty hush-hush when it's in production).

UPDATE: Watch the full animation at this post: History, animated.

Elder Codswallop

"I say...curious weather we're having!"

Calling all Flash Artists! FableVision wants you!

(Warning!! shameless corporate plug ahead!)

All aspiring Flash artists...the company I work for, FableVision, is looking to bring on a handful of talented illustrators, animators, and designers who have a good handle on Flash. Here's the standard PR snippet:

FableVision is a on a 200-year mission to bring the world to a better place through media, storytelling and technology. With new headquarters at The Boston Children’s Museum in Boston... FableVision’s partners and clients include PBS, Sesame Workshop, Scholastic, Nickelodeon/Noggin, the Jim Henson Company, KCET, Carnegie Hall, National Academy of Sciences, WGBH, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Pearson Education, the Research Institute for Learning & Development, and Boston University.

We're looking for people to help us on a number of educational online games and websites. It's an amazingly fun, inspiring, and creative home for any artist. One of the websites we developed that I'm particularly proud of is iWASwondering.org, which we created for the National Academy of Sciences to help get young girls interested in science. I was the lead designer, and my artwork is sprinkled through the site in games and comics. If you're curious, leave a comment, or shoot an email to me at bobf@fablevision.com.

UPDATE: As of May '07, we're still looking for Flash artists local to the Boston area.

(we now return to our normally scheduled doodles and ramblings)

Fight Lava with Ice!

So, here is the colored version of my illustration for Roger Omar's Elmonstruodecoloresnotieneboca, a book of childrens' dreams. I am just one of about 80 artists from several other countries he selected for the project (we were all chosen to illustrate a dream). The other contributing artists can be viewed here. A special shout out to Onsmith Jeremi who will be also featured in the book.

The dream I selected was experienced by a Mexican boy named José:

I was in a planet with a lot of volcanos, and it was too hot.
I was walking when a big lava-monster jumped out from a volcano.
I threw laser-rays from one hand, and ice from the other hand.
The monster threw gigantic lava balls. I could not beat him until I threw ice to him. Weakened, the monster went inside the volcano and did not came back.

I can only hope that my lava monster will live up to José's expectations. The book is to be published sometime this year, and evidently Roger is planning an exhibition in Spain.

UPDATE: Fellow artists Loren Lee and James Hindle contributed illustrations as well!

Lava Monster

I'm doing an illustration for the "Book of Dreams" project, and I just inked my drawing. I'll write more about the details of the over-arching book and project when I post the final color version, but a guy named Roger Omar has collected the dreams of kids from Mexico, Spain, and Brazil, and he asked me (and about 80 other artists from around the world) to illustrate one of them. This boy dreamed he was battling a lava monster. I'm guilty of a lot of line here (no black fills), but that's because I plan on breathing contrast into it with color.

Suit yourself

I just finished a series of 7 illustrations for Improper Bostonian.
Above is the full-pager that introduces the article—a man's guide to getting things done (tips on how to get a table at a popular restaurant, how to score good tickets, etc). I've also posted a handful of the spots I did below. Seeing that the article is supposed to be a manual of sorts, I decided to go faux-duotone and limit myself to working in red and blue. I'm really pleased with how this "suit" illustration came out. I usually color in every inch of my canvas, but I decided to let the line live on its own here, to also help the guy in the suit punch the most. On another note, these are completely digital—all drawn entirely in Flash, because I needed to get them completed over three nights, and it's faster than inking by hand. Not to mention I prefer "undo" to white-out.