More from "The Bear Who Hated His Job"

Here's a crayon sketch of a narrator character I had designed for the "The Bear Who Hated His Job" story. He was supposed to be your typical Burgoskovian (a country I made up for the story) citizen, which lent him some very stereotypical cold war Russian features combined with wooden clogs. While fun to draw, I eventually felt this narrator was limited in his ability to clearly move the story along, and replaced him with the sensible British art curator and historian. I do, however, plan on using this character in the story still, so he will probably pop up again.

 Here's a very early rough (and a peek into my thumbnailing process) of the second part of the story. Although, a lot of this has ended up on the cutting room floor, so to speak,

Finally, here is an early rough of my cover for the story, which I liked so much that I barely changed anything but the typography. You can see the finished version of this cover here.

Well, that about does it for today. If some of you notice some layout changes to this blog, it's because I finally made the decision to do some ad placement and I'm trying to make it work. Thanks for looking in the meantime, and as always, comments and suggestions are really appreciated.

The Bear Who Hated His Job- early sketches

by David Finley

 Today, we revisit 'Bear', a character in a story called, "The Bear Who Hated His Job". I did a previous post that featured a working version of the cover I'm going to use and you can view that here.

 I hope to get the writing finished for it soon. My writing, while growing, still takes me a lot longer to do than my art does. Anyway, I should probably get down to the nitty gritty and post an image. Here are the oldest remaining sketches I have of my knife throwing bear. The original sketches were lost.

 In the oldest drawings, he had a little derby hat, but my friend Jonathan suggested that I give him one of those fuzzy Russian style hats.

 So, here he is.

Earl-y

Today's image is my post for this week's Illustration Friday category, "Early". I ran through so many ideas with most of them involving roosters, and even a hot-dog eating contest, but this idea came to me last night. I started playing on the the "Earl" part of the word early and almost named one of these men as the Earl of Sandwich. I think the Earl Grey tea really set the mood, though, and the picture became more playful and whimsical.

Chimpan-Steve

This doodle was completed in the web based sketch program, Harmony. This is Chimpansteve screeching and bellowing shouts of pure unthinkable rage. What's he mad about? I dunno.

Thanks for looking today. I hope to post more here soon.

Gigi Fifi

 This is a slightly more feminine piece that I made for my wife's much more insightful than my blog: gigififi . The lines were done in Illustrator and colors were added with scanned watercolor and Photoshop. I like working in this style. It feels very sophisticated and fashionable.

 Anyway, my wife, Nicole, is a very charming writer and her blog does a good job of sharing that charm. She talks about everything from antiques and flowers, to dance and making pie. As you might have guessed from the description, it is a feminine blog, but I think that is a good thing.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

This rough is for a show concept we pitched at my job. I like the concept of a character people would judge or dismiss having without looking at who he really is. I also added a touch of mystery to this character by mostly back-lighting him.

The lines were done with ink and brush and the colors applied in Photoshop.

Sperm Whale Tornado Pirate

Today's entry is a new character of mine that I came up almost by magic it seems. I'm interested in whether people would be interested in buying this on a tshirt. Now, witness the wrath of the seven seas!

Finnigan's Last Resort- Yummy Orange Juice

 

 The First Official Finnigan's Last Resort Strip

Well, here it is... the very first official Finnigan's Last Resort strip. Ultimately, this is an experiment on several levels. This was roughed by hand and tightened up digitally, but I would like to experiment with a completely hand drawn and inked version before I decide on a final look for the stories. I'm excited to experiment with different techniques.

Thanks for looking!

More Harmony Doodles

Here's some more harmony doodles. One of my Last Resort character, Esau, and another of the robot from my previous post. I'll post some non-harmony art here soon, but for now, I'm happy to be publishing a little more than before.

A Robot with a Heart Doodle done in the Harmony Art Program

Today's entry is another Harmony doodle and my first Illustration Friday entry in quite some time. I'm still really enjoying Harmony's unpredictable results.

Thanks for looking!

A doodle to get back in the swing of things.

Hi all,

I've been up to my ears in projects lately, between working set design at one job, and teaching art at another, and trying to get my comic going full swing too, so I thought I'd post something here, to try and get myself on a more disciplined publishing schedule.

Today's post is a rough doodle of one of my old cats. I drew this using a program called Harmony and its unpredictable tools make for some pretty awesome looking sketches. You should give it a try by visiting here.

Thanks for looking.