Flu Season!

Yep, it's that time of year again... flu season. =(

Just thought I'd share some fun character sketches we recently did. They're for an educational animation we're working on about how the flu spreads.

Remember to cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, and most importantly, keep your hands clean by washing them often.

Good luck this flu season!




Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Fun Art Fridays: Warrior Bear!

I’m all about pushing myself… whether it’s implementing our Monday Morning Motivators or working on my digital painting, I think it’s important for every artist to keep practicing and learning. So with that spirit in mind, I joined a cool new group over on Deviant Art called Design-A-Character. Every week brings a new character design challenge for members to participate in. From designing characters out of simple shapes, to re-imagining existing characters in totally new styles, the exercises are great practice and really fun to do!

Here I present you with my "Warrior Bear!" He’s one of my recent designs for the group. Notice the progression backwards from character rotation, to color mock-up, to the initial sketch created out of a simple shape. It’s really cool how just a random shape can evolve into a full-blown character.

So if you’re interested in pushing yourself to design some cool new characters, you should definitely go check out the group. It's a blast! ;)





Copyright © Joe Costantini

Character Designs: PunkArts' 12penny

Here’s the third and final character design we did for PunkArts. The hip-hopper named 12penny!



Above are the final ink & paints and below you can check out the rough sketches, which were done in Flash. I think of the three characters I had the most fun with this dude… especially the slide, kick, and upside down poses.



Below is the comparison sheet of Sarah’s original sketch (on the left) to my final design (on the right). The client wanted more whacky proportions, but again, I was able to use her sketch as a starting point for my work.



Finally, is the alternate hairstyle sheet. I always find it amusing to see this sort of stuff… what could have been his hairstyle had the client chosen differently.



I’d say the correct choice was made in the end, although the afro IS pretty sweet!

Copyright © PunkArts

Character Designs: PunkArts' Flikka

Here's the second in our series of character designs for PunkArts... the sweet rocker chick Flikka.



Above are the final ink & paints and below you can check out the rough sketches, which were done in Flash. I find that I'm really comfortable working with the brush tool directly in the program. You'll also notice the crazy colors in the sketches below... I find that switching up colors helps me if I feel like I've hit a wall creatively.



Last but not least is the comparison of Sarah's original sketches (on the left) to my finals (on the right). We basically mixed her two concepts with my style to get to the final design. Having the ability share concepts and bounce ideas off of each other is a great way to get the best possible design.



More designs to come...

Copyright © PunkArts

Character Designs: PunkArts' Sandi

2A! recently worked on a series of character designs for a company called Punk Arts. Real fun stuff. Here's the first in the series, a cool dude named Sandi.



Above are the final ink & paints and below you can check out my rough sketches, all of which were done straight in Flash.



Below is Sarah's original sketch (on the left). As you can see, the client wanted to go for a more stylized version in the end, but she laid the ground work for me to get to the final design (on the right).



More designs to come...

Copyright © PunkArts