The Process of the Planet of the Apes

Like many sci-fi fans, Michelle and I are hyped to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. A nice, long, wordy title but it still doesn’t beat The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Nevertheless, I think the ape movie might be the better film. So we’re gearing up for it by doing some ape art.

In this week’s video, I do an ink and watercolor illustration of the movie’s antagonist, Proximus Caesar. He’s a big, scary ape and he fits right in with our channel’s usual monsters-and-villains theme. And in keeping with our share-the-knowledge theme, we recorded my process.

In the video, I take you through my entire illustration process from digital sketch to pencils to inks and finished watercolor. My way is certainly not the only way to do it, or even the best way. But in searching for the best way to do things, Michelle and I enjoy watching process videos by different artists and learning all the options. If you like that stuff too, maybe you’ll enjoy this video.

Have you seen the trailers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? I’m always on YouTube so it’s kinda’ hard to avoid them, and any accompanying spoilers from the peanut gallery. For the past six months everyone and their brother has been speculating on the plot, the characters, whether or not there’s time travel, whether or not it’s a reboot of the original 1968 film — enough already. It opens this Friday and I’m gonna plug my ears until I see it.

If you’d like to see our completely spoiler free video where I draw Proximus Caesar, the link is below.

Making A Mini-Comic: The Sequel

If you’d have told me two years ago that I’d have to spend time making a sequel to our popular “How To Make A Mini-Comic From One Sheet Of Paper” video, I’d have whined and complained for hours. But as it turns out, Michelle said that very thing to me just a couple weeks ago and I had the exact same reaction.

It’s not that I don’t like making videos…or mini-comics. But I thought we’d already answered all the questions about how to do that. Then Michelle pointed out the literal arm-long list of questions in the comments section of that video, and I agreed that maybe a followup would be helpful.

Since some people like to work digitally, we did a deeper dive in the second video on the different drawing apps you could use to set up your mini-comic. I dusted off my iPad and dug into Procreate for the first time in way too many months. Actually had a lot of fun working in that app and I look forward to experimenting with it a little more.

We also covered using different-sized paper, adding pages, and before it was all over, I’d put together two different new mini-comics to use as examples. Granted, one was just a portfolio of horrendous caricatures of Michelle, but what do you want? I was under a time crunch!

We also brought back our friend, voice actor Owen McCuen, to do some voicework on a dramatic reading of my new mini-comic about public domain cartoon characters. So if you want to see that, and maybe learn a little about making mini-comics, the video link is below.

And for anyone who missed the first part (nearly 3 years ago) here’s a link to that video too:

Our Holiday Tribute to Rankin/Bass

If you’re old enough to have watched all those great Rankin/Bass stop motion holiday specials when you were a kid — or young enough that your parents force you to watch them because “that’s what Christmas was like when I was your age!” — then you might enjoy our holiday card for this year. It’s an illustration of some of the worst creeps and goons Rankin/Bass ever animated.

Creeps like Professor Hinkle, for example. The failed magician who ended up stalking a small child through a frozen wasteland only to lock her in a greenhouse while her magical snowman friend melted into lukewarm water. Nice guy, right? And a wonderful thing for children to watch. It really helped prepare us for the real world. Never trust a magician.

And, of course, you have the Miser Brothers, Snow and Heat. These two petulant monsters argued constantly to get their way and threw tantrums when they didn’t. A great example of now NOT to solve conflicts. These Rankin/Bass specials really were valuable on so many levels.

And that’s why we decided to honor those fantastic holiday specials with a collage of their villains. We did it in watercolor — no colored pencils or inks for linework or details — and tried to capture that holiday magic that Rankin/Bass imbued all of their stop motion specials with. Well…maybe not Little Drummer Boy. That one always put me to sleep.

If you’d like to see us put this holiday illustration together, you can watch the video below. And since it’s just a couple weeks until the end of the year — Happy Holidays! We hope you have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for 2024!

Emmet Otter’s Other Christmas

Most of you have either seen Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas or read the original children’s book by Russel and Lillian Hoban. It’s a Christmas classic about a mother and son trying to celebrate Christmas, and make ends meet on the banks of the Frogtown Hollow River. But for our holiday video this year, Michelle and I rowed down a different branch of that river.

This year, we’re breathing life into the long lost, controversial, alternate ending to Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. What? You’ve never heard of this so-called alternate ending? Well, neither had I until I found some old papers hiding in a dusty box I got at an estate sale years ago.

Is it legit? Who knows? Maybe it’s just some stuff I typed up and dunked in coffee so it would look vintage. But Michelle and I ran with it regardless. And we used illustrations, needle felted sculptures, and dioramas to bring this alternate ending off the page and capture it on video.

I created the illustrations digitally because deadlines are tight, and digital mistakes are easier and quicker to fix. But I had the easy part. Michelle had to needle felt not one, not two, but three characters from the story. We each put our own spin on the characters, and I’m pretty happy with both the 2D and 3D versions.

This diorama was a challenge too. Another time-consuming cog in this chaotic machine. But to tell a story this epic, we had to go big. And that means going small, and filling this miniature set with miniature props.

So, whether or not this alternate ending is real…it’s the ending we need. And it rights the injustice that occurred at the Frogtown Hollow Talent Competition all those years ago when the Mayor let those goons from Riverbottom into the contest at the last minute. And it reminds us all of maybe the most important lesson you can learn at the holidays: Hit them before they hit you.

Have a wonderful holiday season, stay safe, and have fun. Here’s the video:

How To Make an 8-Page Mini-Comic from One Sheet of Paper!

That’s right! No staples, no stack of paper…just one sheet of typing paper, some creative folding and cutting, and you can make your own mini-comic! I’ll show you how in our video this week.

I mean, you’ll also have to write and draw your comic, or story, or whatever you wanna fill 8 pages with. But once you figure out what you want to say, there are a number of ways you can go about getting it on paper.

In the video, I talk about drawing and lettering it by hand directly onto a piece of paper. But I also create a mini-comic from scratch using some graphics software (Clip Studio Paint) and a printer. Either way, the process is pretty simple.

I hope you give it a try. And if you do, I hope you have fun! -v

Two Hellboys for the Price of One!

And since nobody’s charging an admission fee, that price is free. Free to watch me ink this Hellboy.

I used traditional, brushed ink on watercolor paper, something I’ve been trying to get better at.

But that’s not all — I said two Hellboys and I meant it. In an episode of Ink It or Stink It, Run Red Run also took a shot at inking a Li’l Hellboy drawing I did!

How did she do? You’ll have to watch the video to find out. Hope you like it! -v

How To Draw A Cartoon Cat

We move from 3D witch sculpting to 2D cartoon drawing this week. A simple How-To-Draw tutorial that’ll take you through the steps of drawing this cute little cartoon cat.

This is more or less a recreation of a short presentation I did with some girl scouts over a zoom conference troop meeting. I had to do a “how to draw” segment, and this cartoon cat was what I decided to use. I worked digitally (in Clip Studio Paint) but the exercise could be done with pencil on paper as well.

I tried to keep it pretty basic — simple shapes, not too detailed — and if you follow along, yeah, in the end, there should be a cat on the page (or monitor) in front of you. But from that starting point, you can experiment, change, alter, or even forget everything in this lesson, and create a cat that’s personal to you.

It’s a pretty short video, and easy to follow. Hope you have fun! -v