Heat Miser/Snow Miser

 I've noticed that I have a bunch of fun sketches on my facebook that I've never posted here. And maybe that's because I try to post mainly polished-up art on this blog, as opposed to rough unfinished stuff. But sometimes that rough unfinished stuff is just fun, and doesn't need to be polished up, right? And I think this is one of those exceptions.

 The Rankin-Bass stop-motion"animagic" holiday shorts are among my most favorite things in the entire known universe. And those guys (Paul Coker, I'm looking at you!) were amazing character designers. They have so much life and personality and they're so engaging, and I think that's a big part of why people love those mini-movies so much. I think this was Christmas 2014 that I sketched up two of my favorite characters, Heat Miser and Snow Miser. Honestly though, who doesn't love them? Here they are in a screen grab from "The Year Without a Santa Claus":

And here is my take on the big hams:

 Like just about every rough sketch that I do, I'm hoping to do a more cleaned-up version of these, maybe for next Christmas. Until then, I hope you enjoy!

Zootopia: Nick Wilde

Went to see Zootopia and was blown away with how good it is, on so many levels. But the character designs are what really stood out to me. Cory Loftis really killed it! Disney has always been the best at designing compelling, anthropomorphic characters. My favorite has always been Robin Hood. But Zootopia takes the aesthetic of movies like Robin Hood and pushes it so far above the bar. Nick Wilde is such a great character. I love his expressions, his body language, and how it all works perfectly with Jason Bateman's voice acting. Plus, I have a thing for foxes, especially cartoon foxes. So I had to sketch him up. And then I colored him using some new photoshop brushes. I'm pretty happy with how he came out and I hope I captured some of his cool, laid back spirit. What do you think?

INKtober: Scooby-Doo Villains Month - WEEK THREE

Continuing my INKtober redesigns of classic Scooby-Doo villains.

All of these sketches are done with blue Col-Erase pencils with quick inks using a Flair pen, and then quick digital colors in Photoshop.

DAY FIFTEEN: The 10,000 Volt Ghost, from the 1976 episode from Season 1 of The Scooby-Doo Show, "Watt a Shocking Ghost". Okay, so I cheated a little and chose a really simple monster this time. But he's a classic! And I was starting to fall behind and now thanks to this simple design, I'm all caught up! Threw in a little background color this time, so I could add a cheap little glowy effect.


DAY SIXTEEN: The Ghost of Elias Kingston, from the 1969 episode from Season 1 of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, "What the Hex Going On?". My favorite thing about this guy is his blue skin. Without it, he's pretty much a generic Scooby creep. Or maybe zombie Elvis.


DAY SEVENTEEN: The Werewolf, from the 1970 episode from Season 2 of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf". Not to be confused with the Wolf Man from week 2. Why is this werewolf green? No idea, but I just went with it. And I kept that weird squiggle in his cheek because it's just an odd little choice. He kinda looks like Willem Dafoe, doesn't he?


DAY EIGHTEEN: Wiki Tiki, from the 2005 direct-to-video film, "Aloha, Scooby-Doo!". I've been doing the older Scooby villains, but this one was a request from my nephew. Happy birthday, Logan!


DAY NINETEEN: Zombie, from the 1969 episode from Season 1, "Which Witch is Which?". One of my favorites. And I guess he's one of everyone's favorites. I did a sketch of this guy about 2 years ago, which is what started my obsession with drawing Scooby monsters. I like this one a lot better than that old drawing.


And unfortunately, that was my last one. As a result of the the past two weeks, I'm getting an influx of freelance work. Which is great, obviously, but that combined with my birthday and Halloween coming up and prepping for CTN Expo next month (!!!), this fun little project had to be put aside. But I sure did have fun doing it! Thanks for coming along for the ride! 

INKtober: Scooby-Doo Villains Month - WEEK TWO

Continuing my INKtober redesigns of classic Scooby-Doo villains.

All of these sketches are done with blue Col-Erase pencils with quick inks using a Flair pen, and then quick digital colors in Photoshop.

DAY EIGHT: The Rambling Ghost, from the 1976 episode of The Scooby-Doo Show, "The Ghost That Sacked the Quarterback". I don't know why they gave him a pale pink football helmet, but I just made it an old-timey brown leather helmet. If I actually fleshed this out, I probably would've done a little bit of research of vintage football gear, and definitely would've messed up his teeth a little.

DAY NINE: Sea Demon, from the 1984 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, "Scoo-Be or Not Scoo-Be?". This one was a bit of a challenge. The original design is pretty terrible, so trying to make sense of it while remaining faithful to the original concept was tricky. The ones I've done so far came together pretty easily, but I struggled a little with this guy. But overall, I feel pretty good about how he turned out.

DAY TEN: Cat-Man, from the 1978 episode from Season 3 of The Scooby-Doo Show, "Make A Beeline Away From That Feline". This one was fun because he's more like an old Marvel Comics' Defenders villain than a Scooby monster. Not sure why he's green though. Maybe he's related to He-Man's Battle Cat?


DAY ELEVEN: Cat Man, from the 1980 episode from Season 2 of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, "The Old Cat and Mouse Game". I don't remember this one, but that's probably because I didn't pay much attention to the Scrappy-Doo episodes. But I came across him when I was looking up Cat-Man for yesterday's sketch, and I kinda liked him. I think I drew him too friendly-looking though. Ah well.


DAY TWELVE: The Miner Forty-Niner, from the 1969 Season 1 episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, "Mine Your Own Business". No the most interesting character to draw, but I can't possibly draw Scooby villains without including this guy!


DAY THIRTEEN: The Phantom, from the 1978 episode from Season 3 of The Scooby-Doo Show, "The Diabolical Disc Demon". One of my all-time favorite Scooby villains. This guy is obviously very inspired by KISS, and the episode had Micky Dolenz of The Monkees as a character who was a musician friend of the gang. Pretty cool stuff!


DAY FOURTEEN: The Snow Ghost, from the 1970 episode from Season 1 of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, "That's Snow Ghost". I don't know what he's supposed to be. A yeti from outer-space? I gave him a little more shape and made him a little more ape-like and played up his weirdo eyebrows. Actually, now that I'm looking at him, he kinda looks like a white fuzzy Thanos. Ah well, hope you guys like him anyway. Threw in a quick snowy background this time, since he's an entirely white character.



And that wraps up two weeks! On to week three!

And again, if anyone is interested in buying any of these sketches, I'm selling them for $25 each. You get the inked sketch, the original blue pencil sketch, and an 8x10 printout of the color sketch. I'll also do commissions if you have a favorite Scooby villain. Email me at joeboylenyc@gmail.com!

INKtober: Scooby-Doo Villains Month - WEEK ONE

Wow, that last post was a year ago! And here I am back to my mission to draw a shit ton of Scooby monsters. That being said, I'm dedicating my INKtober to my niece Ashley. We just celebrated her being 2 years cancer-free, and has been in and out of hospitals and surgeries. She's been so strong and phenomenal throughout all of this and I'm so proud to be her uncle. Her favorite show as a kid was Scooby-Doo, so for the month of October I'll be drawing one Scooby-Doo villain every day in honor of her.

All of these sketches are done with blue Col-Erase pencils with quick inks using a Flair pen.

DAY ONE: The Ghost of Mr. Hyde from the 1970 episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! titled "Nowhere to Hyde".

DAY TWO: The Wolfman from the 1969 Season 1 episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! titled "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts".

DAY THREE: Carlotta the Gypsy also from "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts".

DAY FOUR: Ghost Clown from the 1969 season one episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! titled "Bedlam in The Big Top". Getting a little more comfortable inking with this cruddy Flair pen. And this time I had some extra time to throw in a little flat digital color. I really like the way this one came out. 

 

DAY FIVE: The Ghost of Redbeard the Pirate from the 1969 Season 1 episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! titled "Go Away Ghost Ship". I really like the shapes that happened in this guy. And I gave him a little bit of grit. He's a pirate, after all. Again I threw in a little flat digital color. Who decided he should have pink in his costume?? Not very intimidating.

DAY SIX: The Ghost of Dr Coffin from the 1976 episode of The Scooby-Doo Show titled "The Harum-Scarum Sanitarium". Another one of my favorites. He's kinda like Nosferatu mixed with a mad doctor. I'm going to try to throw in some quick flat colors for the rest of these. Not that this pale guy really has much color to him. 

DAY SEVEN: The Specter of Ebenezer Crabbe from the 1976 episode of The Scooby-Doo Show titled "High Rise Hair Raiser". Love this guy. He's like a glam rock vampire. Which appeals to me on so many levels. And I think I'm finally hitting my stride with these designs and inking with those pens. More to come next week...

If anyone is interested in buying any of these sketches, I'm selling them for $25 each. I'll send you the inked sketch, the original blue pencil sketch, and an 8x10 printout of the color sketch. I'll also do commissions if you have a favorite Scooby villain. Email me at joeboylenyc@gmail.com if you want 'em!

*UPDATE: The Redbeard sketch has been sold.

Scooby-Doo: Charlie the Funland Robot

 Another Scooby-Doo monster sketch. This creepy guy is Charlie the Funland Robot from the episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! titled "Foul Play in Funland" (Season 1, Episode 8). What I particularly love about this guy is that he was one of the creepy faces in the intro to the show.

 This is a screenshot of Charlie from the episode. And here's some Scooby trivia: This was the first time in the series where the villain wasn't someone in diguise. Charlie was a real malfunctioning robot that someone sabotaged.

 He's not the most monster-y of the Scooby villains, I know. But of the handful that I've done so far, he was the most fun to draw.

 Here's my original sketch and the color clean-up, done in Photoshop. I tried to make him look like something that could've been kid-friendly, but would also scare the bejeezus out of you in a dark alley. I thought he might look kinda cool if I opened his mouth a little, but once I colored him, I thought he looked more spooky & mysterious with his mouth closed. Hope you like!

Scooby-Doo: The Spooky Space Kook

It's probably no surprise to anyone that I used to love Scooby-Doo when I was a kid, especially the monsters. As warm-up excercises, I've been doing sketches of the Scooby monsters, and I really like how they've been coming out. So I started fleshing them out a little, adding a little color, and I thought I'd share some of them on my blog. This guy is The Spooky Space Kook, one of my favorites because it's such a offbeat idea for Scooby. So he's supposed to be...an undead alien? If he's from another planet, shouldn't he be roaming graveyards on Mars? I don't know, but I sure had fun drawing him!

Here's a screen cap from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Season 1, Episode 15 "Spooky Space Kook".

This is the progression from sketch to color:

And a close up of the final. Just a cleaned-up sketch with some quick colore added in Photoshop.