Franquin-style Lily - Part 2

Here are the sketches I promised I'd show in my previous post:

The first Franquin-style Lily experiment pencil sketch (Type A), done on March 4, 2012:

Another one done on the 14th (with the previous design added for good measure!):

And here's a second variation on the Franquin-style design (Type B), which resembles the previous Lily design I worked with, while also recalling Franquin's work on round-headed characters like Gaston Lagaffe and Modeste!  (It also looks sort of like Peyo's work as well, like the Smurfs or Pirlouit, which was sort of what I was looking for!)

And soon did a fully-inked & colored version on tablet in Photoshop!

I love both designs!  Type B is more like what I was looking for, but Type A looks like it could work.  :)

Happy Birthday, Nico!

Just finished a little birthday present for the funny and very talented cartoonist/animator, Nico Colaleo!

Pictured here is Rekira getting some, er, attention from Nico's "hipster chick" characters, Scribble and Skarfy!  Done on tablet in Photoshop.

Have a great one, Nico!  :)

Franquin-style Lily!

Just to let you all know, the family is doing fine after Arianna's passing.  We're coping as best we can.  Friday of last week was the memorial service, and it went beautifully.

During the last week or so, I've been playing around with Lily Merriweather's design once more.  This particular new look is inspired by the style of another favorite comic category of mine, Franco-Belgian comics! Especially the likes of The Smurfs, Spirou & Fantasio, Modeste & Pompon, etc.  These titles have appealing, cartoony characters, and yet the stories they inhabit are not only funny, but very intriguing as well.

I've been doing pencil sketches, which I'll post next (once I finish a second batch), but here's my attempts on tablet in Photoshop.  This particular style for Lily is inspired by the works of veteran Franco-Belgian cartoonist, Andre Franquin, one of my favorites.  The first, fully colored, was done on March 6th.

And this prior one from February 29:

Goodbye, Arianna

I am very sad to report that my grandniece, Arianna, who was born prematurely on January 14, passed away last night at about 10PM (February 24).  She was in intensive care, and succumbed to an infection she was fighting with for weeks.  My family was very sad over the news, some of my family members pretty much saw it coming.  I was looking forward to having more kids in the family.  (But we still do have Jenna, who's several months old, so I'm thankful for that.)  So I decided to express myself with this drawing:

Done tonight on tablet in Photoshop.

Happiness is... Hugging a Warm, Fuzzy Friend.

After playing my Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron PC game for the umpteenth time (it's one of my favorite games), after using two favorite playable characters in the "Dog Fight" mode (and it's always a comfort whenever they're on the same team), I just felt like drawing this.  Also because, thinking of Snoopy Come Home (Mendelson-Melendez/Cinema Center Films; 1972), I always felt that Snoopy and Peppermint Patty were a great couple.  :)

Drawn this morning on tablet in Photoshop.

Happy Valentine's Day! (2012)

Finished today is a new piece I did for Valentine's Day!  (Done on tablet in Photoshop.)

Here is the general discreet version, which will be posted in all my other art venues:

And the version I'm keeping strictly on this blog (to avoid any conflict in forums with oversensitive viewers); a variant with Lily in the nude, much like that of a traditional cupid!  Yeah, I know, but I have to take a chance.  It's just innocent fun, and there's nothing wrong with Lily being a traditional cupid for once!  (Showing her butt is the only extreme I'd ever allow if drawing her naked.)  :)

I did another version of the above two this morning!  I like the above versions better (a bit more elaborate and polished), but these are worthy of showing:

And don't worry, the nude version below is more discreet this time!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day.  :)

My 50th Post!

This is my 50th post on this blog!

To kick off February for this occasion, I did a new doodle on tablet in Photoshop during the night!  Just completed is a scene of Rekira being surrounded by a horde of Omicron Robot Spies, and ready to fight them.

As an added bonus, some more Rekira stuff I had yet to post from last year.  All were also done on tablet in Photoshop.

Here is a test comic art I did of Tatsuo, on utilizing a technique similar to the col-erase procedure I've done with many of my recent doodles.  This was done on December 10 of last year.

An illustration I did on November 5th last year of Mysti-Girl from the Dynamic Heralds!

And another test of Rekira himself done on November 15 of last year.

And a couple of FX tests done with the above.  The first is an NG "half-tone" test, the other is a red neon test.