Chimp Haven: Chimps with Personality

Here's some more artwork that I did for the Chimp Haven article from SB Magazine. These are all various chimps that were used in the final layout. I drew these from various photos of real, actual chimps at Chimp Haven. When I showed the final drawings to the people at Chimp Haven, they actually recognized the chimps and pointed them out by name. I was proud that I captured the chimps' personalities.

Chimp Haven: Inked Artwork

Here's a couple of inked drawings. The chimp holding the stick is not just digging in the dirt with a stick. He doing something called "termiting." The chimps take a long stick and place in down into the ground. At that point, the termites climb onto the stick and the chimps eat the termites. Those are some smart chimps.

Chimp Haven: Banana Smoothies

Here's a sketch and a inked drawing of a chimp drinking a banana smoothie. You might think this is a joke, but according to the Chimp Haven folks, the chimps LOVE to drink smoothies.

Chimp Haven: Rough Lookin' Chimps

Here's a couple more very rough, rough sketches of various chimps. These were some of the very first sketches that I did. The more I drew the chimps, the better the drawing progressed.

Chimp Haven: Rough Draft #1

Here's the initial layout that I did for the Chimp Haven illustrated article. The purpose of this rough layout is to establish the flow of the words and pictures. Consider this to be the first draft of a term paper. After doing this first layout, I determined there was WAY too much copy and the drawing needed to be more prominent. 

Above is the original title card for the illustrated article. I really liked it, but ultimately it was dropped due to lack of space.

To be continued next week!

Chimp Haven: Sketchy-Looking Chimps

Once I met with the Chimp Haven officials, I realized that they took their chimps very seriously. They DID NOT want me to draw their chimps riding unicycles and wearing funny hats (as most chimps are depicted in movies and TV). They supplied me with lots of chimps photos that I used as reference.

Weird Sketch Wednesday: Evil Chimps

Ok. Here's a sketch from my Chimp Haven project that I didn't use. I thought the white eyes made them too creepy looking.

Chimp Haven: Initial Sketches

Unused sketches from Chimp Haven project

These two sketches I've posted today were rejected by the Chimp Haven staff. They wanted to illustrations to accurately depict the chimps housed at the facility. The first chimp was drawn from a reference photo of a baby chimp. At the time, Chimp Haven only had fully-grown chimps. Regarding the second sketch, they felt the chimps were too cartoony.

The Chimp Haven Project

Colors by Matt Beckham

Sketch by Brad Campbell

Back in 2005, I was drawing freelance illustrations for SB Magazine, a local monthly community mag. I've showcased many of those illustrations right here on my blog. Each month, my illustration would accompany an editorial or humorous column written by a staff columnist. 

When it was announced that Chimp Haven, the wildlife reserve for chimpanzees, was opening in Shreveport, SB Magazine planned to feature an article on the topic. Editor Mike Whitehead decided that it would be more interesting to showcase an illustrated article and charged me with the task. 

Working with writer Amy Lyons and colorist Matt Beckham, we produced a 2-page illustrated article. To this day, Mike Whitehead claims that it was one of the most visually interesting articles that was published in SB Magazine.

Over the next two weeks, I'll be posting various sketches, inks and layouts that will lead up to the completed Chimp Haven project.

GIANT SIZED TALES TO SUFFICE!

There's this cool guy I know. His name is Kenny Keil. He's a cartoonist. A few years ago, he moved to sunny California and signed a book deal with independent publisher, Slave Labor Graphics. They published the first issue of Kenny Keil's creation, Tales to Suffice. Life was swell.

Then, the economy tanked. Slave Labor Graphics placed issues 2 & 3 of Tales to Suffice on indefinite hiatus. Did this discourage Mr. Keil? 

Of course, it did. Don't be an idiot. 

Discouragement notwithstanding, Kenny was not going to let a measly recession stand in the way of his dream. He started a Kickstarter project to help raise the funds necessary to self-publish his book. With the donations from his Kickstarter backers, he met that goal. A few months later, Giant-Sized Tales to Suffice is a reality. In fact, it's for sale right now. Stop reading this and go buy a copy!

www.talestosuffice.com

Once again, congrats Kenny.

This is the cover art. The book collects the first issue of TTS published by SLG, AND issues 2 & 3. That's three full issues of pure entertainment. It's VERY FUNNY, especially if you love comic books. It's a comic book for comic book fans.

Here's a pic of my Finkleman Fun Pack. As a backer, Kenny sent me a HUGE PILE OF REWARDS: artwork, pins, stickers, postcards, a mini-comic, sketches (not to mention the actual book).

Here's one of my rewards: a lifetime membership card of the Friends of Finkleman Foundation. That's Mort Finkleman on the card. He's the publisher and shameless huckster of Tales to Suffice. He bears a striking resemblance to famous real-life comic book creator...hmmm.

Here's a something cool: a copy of Tales to Suffice #1. I already own this issue, but this one has perfect binding (that's a square spine, folks). It's awesome.

Kenny also sent a Cool Beans, Man mini comic. If you haven't read Kenny's journal comic, check it out at his blog. He even lets me color the comic (which is cool).

Here's another one of my Kickstarter rewards. It's a comic book cover designed specifically for me. I love it because features my comic strip characters, Roofus, Dogstar and Dog Wonder, AND it pays homage to Batman #1 at the same damn time. Nice work, Kenny.

If one customized cover wasn't enough, Kenny decided to make me ANOTHER customized cover. This one is the MY FAVORITE. It features a crossover between my webcomic, Roofus, and Kenny's (now defunct) webcomic, Squaresville. It's so cool to see Roofus drawn in Kenny's style.

Puppy Power

Here's another SB Magazine illustration from my archives. This drawing accompanied an article about pet adoption. I did a few really loose sketches to warm up (see above). I liked the final sketch, but it felt too obvious. I wanted to try something different, so I decided to show the back view of the dog instead. Adding the "kick-me" style sign was a nice touch. In retrospect, it should've read, "Pick Me."

Weird Sketch Wednesday: Weird Puppy

Here's a weird looking pupppy. This sketch was a preliminary sketch that I did for a SB Magazine illustration. Tomorrow I'll post the final illustration (which looks NOTHING like this).

Abandoned Pets

Here's a single-panel comic that I experimented with years ago. I only did about 3 or 4 of these strips. I've included the original drawing that I did with traditional pen and ink. I also redrew the strip on my Wacom tablet and colored it in Photoshop.

Hollywood Shuffle

Here's an editorial cartoon that I did for SB Magazine a few years ago. When I originally drew this, it was timely because Hurricane Katrina forced the Hollywood filming in Louisiana to relocate from New Orleans to Shreveport. So, the way I see it, Shreveport was a stand-in (or a replacement) for New Orleans (as illustrated here). And yes, I intentionally made Shreveport look like New Orleans' country cousin. I've included the original pencil art and inks, so you can see the progression of the final work.

Owl Project: Part 9

This was my favorite owl from my owl project. I really liked how this turned out. I was going for a mysterious atmosphere with this illustration. I did this using pen and ink and painted the black areas with acrylic paint.

Owl Project: Part 8

Here's the a realistic owl illustration that I did as part of my owl project. I'm usually not very good at realism, but I'm pretty proud of this one.

Weird Sketch Wednesday: Owl Project Part 7

Here's a sketch I did that was part of my owl project. I think this superhero owl looks pretty cool.

Owl Project: Part 6

Here's an owl that I created using various patterns and shapes. I actually did a pencil sketch of this first, then cut it out using an exacto knife.

Owl Project: Part 5

Here's another photo collage owl that I did. This was a food-themed owl. I made this by cutting out food items from various magazines and glued them together.

Owl Project: Part 4

Here's another owl from my owl project. This was a type collage. This collage was done the old-fashioned way. I cut out a bunch of letters from a bunch of magazines and glued them on illustration board. I've also included the original sketched thumbnail.

Owl Project: Part 3

Here's a freaked-out looking owl. I drew the original pencil sketch by hand, then drew this on my Wacom tablet.

Weird Sketch Wednesday: Owl Project Part 2

Here's a bunch of weird looking owls. Especially the "Freaked Out" one. And Spidey Owl makes me chuckle.

Owl Project Part 1

Here's some sketches from an owl project I worked on. The project involved creating a series of owl illustrations. I like the robotic owl holding a computer mouse in his mouth.