Color Breakdown

My computer was attacked and I have been working on retrieving lost information plus getting certain programs up and running again. I feel lucky that over 90% of my artwork was backed up and I was able to retrieve all of the rest with some effort.



Start with the pen & ink drawing



This is not the program I use to create my multiple level colors scheme but I lost my program and with out a back up disc I’m out of luck. (one of the two I can not fix)


But this should give an idea on how many layers I work on to create one colorful page


Bottom Layer




Layer One




Layer Two




Layer Three




Layer Four




Layer Five




Layer Six


Each layer sits one on top of the other bringing to life the pen & ink drawing adding some depth and texture to my artwork.


Finished Artwork



"Hamlet"

Hamlet with his pack

 Twenty-one things my dog taught me about being a better man:

1. Be true to your own nature. There’s no point in faking it. A golden retriever isn’t a chihuahua or a pug or a greyhound, and for good reason. Being comfortable in your own skin is 90% of the trick to rocking out your life. Not everyone is meant to be Rintintin or a seeing eye dog or an Iditarod racer. It’s okay. Find yourself and embrace your nature. That’s always a great place to start.


2. Be true to the ones you love. Your friends, your family, your tribe, your pack. A life lived for others is a life well-lived. Selfish pursuits aside, ambition often grows hollow when turned inwardly instead of outwardly. It’s one thing to want to be pack leader, but there is just as much value and honor in serving than in leading. When in doubt, see item number one.


3. Never say no to a chance to go on a car ride. When the days grow short, I guarantee you’ll wish you’d have gone on more car rides.


4. Leashes are the enemy. Avoid them at all cost.


5. People are strange. So much potential, yet here they are, doing everything they can to complicate rather than simplify their lives. It’s puzzling.


6. Belly scratches.


7. The end isn’t pretty, but if you can face it with dignity and grace, none of your body’s weaknesses will matter. Your heart, your courage, your spirit is what people will see and remember. This isn’t only applicable in your last days and weeks. It’s applicable every day of your life. Adversity happens. It’s how you deal with it that matters.


8. Forgiveness is easier for dogs than for humans, but humans have opposable thumbs and the ability to speak, so it all balances out in the end.


9. Your bark is your own. No one has one quite like yours. Own it. Love it. Project it.


10. Trust your instincts. They rarely steer you wrong. The feeling in your gut though, that’s probably just something you ate.


11. Just because you’re meant to live on land doesn’t mean you can’t feel at home in water. Play outside the safety zone. Swim in the deep end. Dive in. We’re all designed to do more than the obvious.


12. Play more. The game is irrelevant. Just play. Tip: Exploring is play. Having adventures is play. Finding out what’s behind the next hill is play.


13. Your body growing old doesn’t mean you can’t be a puppy at heart. Actually, the first should have no impact on the latter. If you find that it does, take a step back, regroup, and restart. Always be a puppy at heart.


14. Humans aren’t all bad. But they aren’t all good either. Choose yours wisely.


15. Always keep that 20% wolf in you. If you ever give it up, you’re done. A dog without a little wildness in the blood isn’t a dog. It’s a furry robot. The beauty of a great dog doesn’t lie in its obedience but in its loyalty. Loyalty is a choice. Dogs choose to be dogs and not wolves. That’s what makes them so special.


16. Running full bore across a field in the rain.


17. There are no mysteries. Take cats, for example: Half rat, half badger. Crap in a box. Eat rodents. Where’s the mystery in that? If you look hard enough, you can figure most things out for yourself. The world isn’t as complicated as it sometimes seems.


18. Sometimes, you have to back up your growl with a bite. Go with it. Some people like to test your bark-to-bite ratio. With those “inquisitive” types, a little education goes a long way. As much as it sucks to have to go there, it is sometimes necessary. (It’s what the fangs are for.) Your territory, your space, your safety… They’re worth defending. Make a show of it once, and chances are you’ll never have to teach anyone a lesson again.


19. Being alone is no way to go through life. We’re pack animals. Humans, dogs, same thing. We need others to make all of this worthwhile. As an aside, if we live through others, why not also live for others, even if only a little bit? It isn’t that much of a stretch.


20. When you chase the ball, CHASE the fucking ball. Two reasons: a) It’s a chase. You don’t half-ass a chase. You go all out. It’s what you do. It’s the point. b) You don’t want some other mutt to get to the ball before you and slobber it all up, do you?


21. In the end, you will revisit your adventures, your battles, your chases, your voyages and all the excitement of your life with bemused pride, but it’s the quiet moments with loved ones that your mind will settle on. The comfort of those days when all you did was spend lazy hours with them, your head on their lap, their on yours, taking in the afternoon sun and the hundreds of fleeting stories carried like whispers on the breeze, those are the memories that will stay with you to the end and beyond.


Never give up on your thirst for life, on the beauty subtle moments, and on chasing that ball as hard and fast as your legs and heart will carry you.

A note from my editor:

A note from my editor:
""Stephen, I thought you'd like to know that "Why Am I Me?" is selling nicely.
People love the illustrations as well as the story.

I love notes like this!

Reading level: Ages 9-12


Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: 4RV Publishing LLC (March 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0982834624
ISBN-13: 978-0982834626


Book Description
Why am I me? Children want to know the answer. Where do they fit in the world and the universe? Why Am I Me? helps them understand.

Why did it take me so long to look this up?

Why did it take me so long to look this up? It’s beyond me it is also embarrassing. Not for the first time I was reading Michael’s Splog and he showed artwork from the 1940 version of Fantasia

While looking at the artwork it kept reminding me of a book I have in my home of another’s artist artwork, I have had this thought in the past but I never did any type of search nor asked anyone if he did work on the film well today I finally took the time. So now I’ll share it with you. The artist name is Heinrich Kley I’m posting his work against the film grabs that I have taken from other Internet sources.

According to Wikipedia: Kley's artwork was an inspiration

 



Link to Michael's splog





I have always found Heinrich work inspirational and hope you do as well

The Breakdown

This is the breakdown from sketch to ink drawing from "The Marshmallow Man"; it kind of speaks for its self. I like to keep the artwork looking fresh.





Sketch



part of Storyboard



You can see I don’t waist a lot of time with a clean pencil drawing. I rather add in the details as I ink my artwork and save time. Why draw it twice?



page 8 Pencil





page 9 Pencil



Using a Light box I ink the drawing onto a clean heavy stock drawing paper at one time I would have inked it onto watercolor paper but that was a long time ago now that I color digitally.


page 8 Ink




page 9 Ink



Things you should read

I am sharing a couple of links today one is about one person journey on Internet Harassment it has a lot of great links to help others.
 The other link is about poor walk cycles and unnecessary violence in animation.
So off you go, go on, shoo, get out… I’ll post something new in a few days.
I'm off to fix my faucet

1) Are you a Victim of Internet Harassment?

2) Bad Animation

added #3 on May 11, 2011

3) Animondays: ASIFA-EAST

PS I fixed my faucet

I create a flow for the story by using a storyboard

After taking the time to sketch out the main characters, I started on the breakdown on how the story will unfold with pictures. It is kind of having a little movie in my head and I start to grab frames out of the air on what is the most important part of that particular scene to illustrate. You will hear from other illustrators “I’m telling the story behind the story” I’ve said it my self, another way of saying it “I am looking for the story’s voice”.
It was not a hard thing to find with this story, Rena writing is amazing and that helped me create the fun characters.

The Marshmallow Man manuscript came with instructions; example: Page 1 of text (illustration facing page of text).

Once I started to create the storyboards I realized that the page instructions could be different what if instead of one page of text facing an illustration, that it may work better by using both pages to illustrate the story and having the text worked into the body of the illustrations. I sent an email with an attached sketch of my idea to my publisher asking if it was okay to change things around. A response of yes came very quickly and I just created a lot more work for my self.



Marshmallow Man storyboard



Marshmallow Man storyboard



You are looking at two storyboards I created. I used them both for the finished work picking what I felt worked better.


second storyboard for Marshmallow Man



second storyboard for Marshmallow Man