Saturday, March 3, 2007

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Ooo! Ooo! Do I get some sort of No-Prize for having two (maybe three) references to the topic in a single illustration?

No?

Crap. I never win nothin'

So, I decided to stick with flat colors because shading it, even cel-style would have muddied it. The background is a cheat, but it needed... something. Whenever I use any kind of gradient/airbrush when shading in photoshop, I feel like I'm cheating. I'm not sure why, but it does.

I was originally planning on having this character surrounded by wolves. Maybe at a wolf cocktail party. But Sweet Enemy pointed out the Far Side-ness of that and a stuck with portrait. There is certainly nothing wrong with The Far Side, but it wouldn't have been a good enough joke for an homage.



I also want to share that I got a new toy. I've gone backwards in time and bought a Twin-Lens Reflex camera. Does anyone else use one of the marvelous things? Oh, feel the mechanical goodness!
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6 comments:

  1. Michelle LanaMarch 3, 2007 at 9:01 PM

    Cool illo!

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  2. annMarch 3, 2007 at 9:27 PM

    great idea, very nicely realized.
    PS---thanks for the cockroach anecdote!

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  3. Diane DudaMarch 3, 2007 at 9:54 PM

    very cute! love his face!

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  4. mike r bakerMarch 3, 2007 at 11:14 PM

    My opinion - there's never any shame in using a PhotoShop effect to shortcut an otherwise mundane task. The background highlights the character just fine. Great foreshortening, nice lines.

    I think your wolf cocktail party is a great one and not all that Gary Larson. Might be funny too if one of the wolves recognized the skin and struck up a conversation. Heh...

    Nice work - I enjoyed it very much.

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  5. demosthenesMarch 4, 2007 at 8:53 AM

    excellent character, beautifully colored.

    i was taught there's no such thing as cheating in commercial art. anything that makes the work easier and faster is good.

    nice camera too. i have a minolta SLR, i always had a problem with the inverted image in the TLRs.

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  6. Andre MessierMarch 5, 2007 at 10:09 PM

    I love the facial expression... Looks like he's scared to death but has no choice to try and pass himself off as a wolf! Brilliant!

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