Thursday, October 8, 2009

Extraordinary Uses...



Here's a handful of spot illustrations I did for "Extraordinary Uses For Ordinary Things" —my first mail-order book for Reader's Digest. I did 150 illustrations in total —all 2-color, which not only saved a lot of time, it also helped make my kid-friendly style a bit more adult.

10 comments:

  1. Great work! I especially like the female character!

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  2. I really dig your style, Chuck. These are great spots.

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  3. Thanks guys! I enjoyed drawing the lady, Christina. We had a name for her, but I've already forgotten it. Whenever possible, I tried to add humanizing touches to her, like the shoe dangling from her toe.

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  4. Chuck,
    Your cartoon style really lends itself to animation. You would be great at designing characters for animation. I wish I could hire you to design some characters for movement. Have you ever done a character model sheet with a full 360 turn?
    When you decide to get into animation give me a call.

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  5. David, I've done character and background designs for animation and it's always rewarding work. I did a few character models for Bobby's World back in the 90's, which sometimes involved turnarounds. I also do character orthographics for toys on occasion, which uses the same skill.
    Feel free to call anytime. Even if it's something I can't fit in, it's always good to talk to you!

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  6. Chuck, these are wonderful! Incredible energy and character!

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  7. Chuck your style is a perfect fit for these...lots of visual information and great expression & movement!

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  8. very cute, and yeah the color does make it look more adult, or retro or something~ me likes

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  9. Great designs and style. Is the linework created with a real brush, or is it done with a computer tool?

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  10. Thanks, Brian. The linework is pencil. The shapes of color were created with broad swipes of a marker, scanned and colored in Freehand. I have a very quirky way of working, but it gets me where I'm going. When I'm in a hurry, or when I have lots of color to add, I will create the shapes with vectors right in the computer.

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