The Creature project pt 2

Thrilled to have been invited back again this year to work on The Creature Project (Austin, Tx.) It's for a great cause- inspiring young artists. Being a part of such a talented roster is an honor in itself. Each illustration is 8.5 x 11 inches on Bristol.

I was given three drawings by camp kids, and I have to interpret them in my style. Exposing kids to a wide range of art, is crucial. I did my best with my illustrations, wanting to inspire them or their friends if they want to get into illustration. Other artist styles on the roster include lowbrow, abstract, fine art, mixed media collages and pottery.

First kids illustration, pink and purple polka dots, and a very cute creature, resembling a jellyfish in my opinion. They wrote “Marshmallow eyes in poka world”. I couldn't get more context on any of that so I went with my gut on what I thought they were getting at.

I guessed poka world was either regarding the polka dots they had going on there, OR it might be a reference to Toca World, the game. So I created a polka dot world, in a similar style of Toca furniture designs.

Sorry for the watermark, I'm about to become insufferable with the Croteau font.

Second kids illustration is super detailed. We got a person whistling a tune. We have a golden container of some sort, and what looks like a bowl of soup being spilled. And a big gator type of character.

I guessed that the human and the gator might be the same person. They're sort of wearing the same stuff.

What if the golden container was like an elevator, and the soup had some active ingredient in it and the soup transformed the human into this giant gator character?

Without context, I have no idea if I’m close at all to their ideas. But it’s half the fun of showing how we can be so inspired by their doodles, look at the world I can create from their ideas.

Got the gator dude with the bowl of soup on his head. He's whistling a tune like he did when he was human. He's breaking the golden elevator to get out of it. I think this is the first time he's ever changed into this gator side. Really proud of how I illustrated the metal being cronched up easily.

The last kids art was called “Devil Cat”

There was instructions to get more information on the back. I wasn't able to get more context, so I had to take what is there and run with it.

We’ve got something like a Cheshire cat character, with big red horns/ears, bloodshot eyes and an interesting body. I feel like It was intentional to not make all four legs typical of a cat. Like it's intentionally morphing/part of the devil part of it.

Going off the idea that their devil cat design morphs, I decided to illustrate the cat like it's gone through an RGB filter. THIS WAS VERY FUN TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE. I mean yeah, I could have just taken a photo and run it through the digital RGB filter but then I wouldn't have learned anything.

Now I know the rules for how to create that dizzying effect, which will be great for future wall mural art and other large phsyical art I can't just run through a digital app.

For the design of the devil cat, I kept it white, I kept the detail of one row of upper teeth only. I expanded on the horn design and I left the hind legs as a morphing blob.

I added a third eye, and made that one bloodshot. Absolutely just a stylistic preference on my part.

For the last 8 years, he's always kept me company when I got up at 4am for my art related nonsense. He's sound asleep here. It's so different seeing him sleep so much, it’s so quiet now even with my music on.

I loved working on those illustrations. But now I relax a little with no more owed art. It's been hard to force my best work out when so much death and change that has been going on. My focus is solely on the shop orders now and cuddling with Ronon & my kids in between.