Little Mermaid: The Complete Thumbnail Collection

So, after painstaking hours condensing an epic fairytale into a 32-page book, while trying my damnedest not to rip off the Disney adaptation, I've finished the thumbnail layouts for Matt Pickett's The Little Mermaid!

I put the cover concept at the end of the story instead of the beginning, for some reason (I'm dumb). And I put quite a few thumbnails on each page, so I'm sure you'll need to click them for the larger versions.

The hairdresser on page 26 is my friend Britten. She's a great stylist. (If you've seen my shaggy hair lately, you can probably tell that I haven't seen her for a while.) She gave me advice on making over Azrael midway through the story.

Under the Influence

I didn't draw this, but it took forever to compile regardless...

The Influence Map is a current fad in the art community. Basically, using the grid allotted, you map out samples of the artists that have influenced your drawing style. So, before I show you my Little Mermaid crap this week (though, thanks to the backwards format of blogs, you'll see this after my Mermaid pictures) I thought I'd share mine with you.

You're probably not shocked that most of my influences are animation.

The Little Human Mermaid

Here's some concept art for my Little Mermaid storybook. First off, here's Azrael in human form. As you can see by comparing it to my previous drawing of her as a mermaid, I've decided to make her less gangly and anorexic looking. Now she's a cute little pudgy hipster chick. I'll revise her body shape accordingly in upcoming pictures.

Another sheet, with a stripped model for detailing her tattoos. (Yes, that's a mermaid Hello Kitty on her underwear.) I'm going to give her more. Anyone have some suggestions on what they should be? I want some on her legs and wrists. I also included a head turn of her with her old black hair. I can't decide if she should keep her piercings after the transformation.

And here's the sea witch, Fuckis. I worry that his body looks a little bland, but I can work on it. The three faces at the top represent his expression throughout the story. The head in the bottom left is the expression he makes on the final page after winning.

 

Lastly, here's a rough of the Prince and his band...

And to help myself design their look, I picked a song to imagine them playing. It's "Help I'm Alive" by Metric, which would be the final song on the soundtrack if this were a movie.

So much emo hair...

Once Azrael becomes human in my Little Mermaid story, she gets a makeover. I came up with several concepts for her new hairstyle, and I'm sending them to my hairdresser Britten (pictured left) for her opinion on the best one.

They're quite rough, but you get the idea.

Azrael, the Little Mermaid

I've been plotting my Little Mermaid storybook for Illustration II. I wanted to establish a color palette for the main character, to keep her consistent, so I put this together. As you can see, I wanted to make her as different from Disney's Little Mermaid as possible. I'll probably make models like this for several of the main characters.

I'm thinking I should do more on the design. I'll probably give her some tattoos and stuff. And I'm still not pleased with those piercings...

Mah Boy

Hey, I did this comic strip the other week. Check it out.

(If you're not familiar with Zelda, the main character is named Link. The King sends him to save the Princess... Get it?)

Tom Thumb: Complete!

We turned in our Tom Thumb pictures today. You can see my rough drawings here. And here are the finished pieces...

 

 

Other news: My Batman yin-yang was just featured in the Batman fanclub on deviantART: Such an honor!

Happy Bart-day

This is the first drawing I've done in Illustrator, but I'm sure it won't be the last! Great program.

I drew it for a friend's birthday this week. I haven't seen her since 9th grade, but somehow she found me on Facebook. She used to make me draw Bart Simpson all the time, so it seemed appropriate.

GORDON EARNED THE CROWBAR OF LOVE!

Gordon Freeman from Half-Life meets Scott Pilgrim. That would be the best video game ever.

If you aren't familiar with awesome stuff, here's what I'm referencing...

and...

Two Sides of Gotham

Never in the history of fiction have I seen two enemies as completely different as Batman and the Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime is truly the Dark Knight's antithesis in every way; he's his twisted reflection, the other face of his coin, the cold side of his pillow.

I'm especially proud of this piece, as I drew it entirely with my Bamboo tablet. Until now, I've only used it for coloring things I've drawn on paper or doodling simple stuff.

Tom Thumb roughs

I did color versions of my Tom Thumb roughs, drawn completely with my computer tablet. That's quite an achievement for me - I normally just use it to color drawings I've scanned, but these are 100% digitally made.

Another drawing of me

I drew this for the ex. This is a photo of the drawing, not a scan, because I left the original at her house. It's based off of her favorite album cover, with us in the place of the couple.

Header

Starting this blog off right, I decided to create a fancy header. I look kind of sickly in it... Enjoy!

Testing

This is my art blog. It is a blog for art.