d*U*d*d*L*e*B*u*G's DOOdLebOOk

[duddlebug]

Here's some other recent bits and bobs...

Some IFX stuff, a couple of quick sketches for the Q&A section and a 'Circus' line up that's the line art for a workshop in next month's magazine (a teaser?), and a tough looking bounty hunter for the King of Space.

[asoir]

You're..updating? Whoa.
Very characteristic as expected!

[Eriboss]

great stuff Mr Duddlybugg, I always love an update in here
Great character, sexy lines, and super well thought out design on all fronts. hehe cant wait to see the TD piece in full, looks epic!

Cheers dood,

Eri

[Mr-Joe]

Hi Duddlebug. I love all of this, you have really great humor in your art. I enjoyed looking through this thread. Which issue of imaginFx do you have a workshop in? Also congragulations I think thats quite an honor.
And I have a question about the hungry viking, how did you get it to look like its on a canvas?

Joe.

[Dreamworker]

Wow stuff with great energy! I love this image with so crazy characters http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1165838276
Keep it up ciao

[Art_Addict]

t's difficult to avoid some Calvin similarities whilst still going for big head, little body and cute little boy look.

Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't even know how to approach it more differently then you did. forget about it. Was a stupid remark.

Love the new updates btw
Your characters allways have soo much personality.
One of the most important factors for making appealing imagery.
Great work !

[Miro]

love the linework and characters
"King of space" = )

Great stuff, keep 'em coming.

[Ostrander]

Great update!
I love the UK vs Scandinavia Tdome piece. That had me laughing. Erik the hungry...too funny.
Everything else is a real treat too. Keep posting!

[Sundance]

bloody brilliant...

[DavidCousens]

Very nice stuff Johnny. Just wanted to say thanks to you for inspiring me to get some blue col -erase pencils, they're great for sketching! (I should've got some darker ones though, the ones I ordered are a really light blue!)

Cheers mate,
Dave

[duddlebug]

Thanks guys! For those who wanted to see the finished 'Erik the Hungry', the UK vs Scandinavia Thunderdome is now up, here:

Let's Bash the Vikings!!

But for those who don't want to see lots more lovely pictures, here it is... I might flatten and save off a few WiP's and upload a series of process images tomorrow.

And here's a few answers...

Mr.Joe: I've done quite a few workshops for ImagineFX now. The most recent ones were the Chimpski workshops about learning Painter and there's a character concept workshop coming in the next issue (which is the fully coloured version of the circus line up above)

Dave the Original: I LoVE Col-Erase pencils. I started using them (and became a concept artist) when i started a job for Warthog and the hadn't got a computer sorted for my first day. A friend of mine Darren Vaile (who had trained as an animator) who was working on the concepting, lent me some of his and i spent my first few days drawing mythical monsters in blue Col-erase (rather than building rally cars in 3DSMax!) and the management liked them so i ended up as another company concept artist. 'Twas a very lucky break! And i've been using 'Blue' Col-erase (not 'Light Blue' or 'Dark Blue') for most of my character sketches since.

[Azrael]

Damn, I picked up the latest imagineFX yesterday and didn't even realize that was your piece in there. That was the first time I picked up the magazine and I was shocked how many artists from CA are in there. Mike Corriero, Posh Spice, and your work. I'm probably mising a few others too. Looks like I'm subscribing. Love the viking piece dude!

[nofingers]

That Viking piece is great, I love the animals balanced on top of each other, a nice little addition. The stylized waves, and framing devices are great, my only crit would be that all the guys kinda look the same. I also really dig the circus lineup, very cool. You have a great variety of stuff going on here, loved the stuff in IFX, too, that chimp astronaut really stuck out as a great piece, even before I knew who you were.

[Mr-Joe]

Hey duddlebug, thanks for replying, The chimp astronaught thats in this sketchbook was in workshop of Imagin Fx? Which issue, I only found out about that magazine since last months issue so I only have 2 of them, but mabee I can order old issues cause I wanna see that chimp guy if thats the same one, really great character. Anyways the circus people look great so I'll definatly grab next months issuse. But also How did you get that canvas look on the viking piece, btw the finnished image looks great, I love the little story pictures of each country on his journey on the outside. And if your gonna put up some Wip shots then ignore this question.

Thanks Duddlebug,


Joe.

[Jason Snair]

love your style man. awesome work. I really appreciate the tutorials...it's always nice to see how the work is created.

oh. and that Viking piece and the King of SPace is killer.

[sve]

Whoa, someone is over excited today, just can't stop posting, can you? ahahaha.
Me too, I need a long sleeved shirt .
Well, great TD entry and thank you for that, for taking your time and putting so much love and good humor into this piece. It is heavy saturated with your personalty, you know. With your talent to notice funny things near you, in poses, gesture, faces expressions.
Hope this ability of yours is noticed and exploited by book illustration publisher... if not I think you should try to advertise your excellent art more, send them your resume and show your work any chance you have... I think it would be such original and beautiful illustrations for books, children and adults... The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, O.Henry little stories.
Stories about little people, because I think you make all of them look special and unique.
I want to say something about your sketches too... they are digital I think, but look like pencils, that's rare quality and very nice one.
King of Space is wonderful comics, see , here it is, you notice little things and dig them out for us... Short people complex, to conquer the world, funny. They need to always prove something to all the people and to themselves. I'm short too, and it is funny for me especially .

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1165838247
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1165838255 How strange, the rat has much more individuality than the killer guy, looks like you didn't enjoy drawing him much, for me the difference is huge. One is fun and love, other is a struggle. I wish you gave him something more personal, only his keds kind of hint about who he is, otherwise he is pretty dull, despite the effective look from beneath...

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1165838276 Ohh, guy with harmonica is so tasty, can't have enough of this. I don't know if you notice but there is a lot of legacy and culture in your work, it still looks like nothing I saw before, but I just feel that it is your past life in it, what you saw and loved when being a child, from those times probably.
I like all of them, and the little guy with wheel collar too.
Btw , i already asked one time, but didn't get the answer. did you draw the illustration with creepy looking circus in the town for some book? was it published?

Today's TD entry..
It is funny and wonderful, although it might benefit from a little more working on it.
Despite that, I like the raw, not polished feeling from the main picture, it adds so much to the characters, to their dumb simple nature.
Still.. I wish you did some subtle changes to make the objects more readable. Not much, but a little. I don't want something flashy btw, I would suggest some sort of miracle to keep the style, kind of careless coloring and in the same time help your viewer's eyes to separate objects just a little more.It's hard to read silhouettes sometimes, the cow, hen nest, the other vikings are getting lost in pretty much the same values.
The main character, with a book is beautiful. Thank you so much for inventing those stripy pants and square trunk, it is a beautiful find!
The sketch is much easy to read and has better deepness, not sure the lack of deepness is a bad thing in final version. it gives some claustrophobic funny nuance to the boat and some Primitivism art charm.

[duddlebug]

Cheers for all the comments... Mucho appreciated!

nofingers: it'd probably be most inappropriate for me to tell you that they all look the same because they all started out as drawings for Erik!! And then i kinda liked the similarity... So i used them all!

Mr-Joe: nope, it was a different Chimp astronaut picture, but the image in this thread was the inspiration for a character called Chimpski. I did three Chimpski paintings for IFX006, 007 and 008. I'll post them here later on today. the paper texture on the Vikings piece was done using the 'paper texture' feature in Painter. But i applied it to a solid grey layer which i kept at the top of the layers palette set to Multiply (i think?) and masked out here and there.

Sve: WoWzers!! thanks for the critique! i really do apreeaciate the time you put in and think you've come up with some really useful points. i was busy posting on Monday. i was struggling with some paid works and took a few breaks on conceptart to get inspired and protect my sanity! i've not done any book work. i work almost exclusively in games with smatterings of editorial work (like the stuff in ImagineFX). But i'd love to work in books! 50% concept work and 50% publishing (books, comics and magazines) is we're i'd like to be in my career. It's my target for 2007. the creepy circus was for the 'Spectacular' challenge on CGtalk. It came fourth, which was nice.

Regarding the Vikings, i think you're right on lots of points. I was aiming for some naivety, so knew that the persepctive and positioning of the characters could be 'unrealistic' and too jumbled. The same applied to brush marks. I wasn't aiming for ultra-polish, but more of a painted look. I did make concessions because of the deadline and the time i had available, and once i submitted it i knew that it'd need more work for me to be happy. The sky wasn't (still isn't) finished, for instance! But i do think the image needs to read better, as you mentioned. I haven't got time this week to make proper adjustments, but here's a quick tweak using a couple of adjustment layers in Photoshop... hope it helps... i desaturated some of the background characters and animals to help bring Erik to the fore.

I'd also like to do some work on the cow's head and have it stretching forward to munch on the sail...

[Badger]

Love your work jonny, really strong illustration. How do you get such a unity over the image? the elements all seem to combine in the composition, like abstract theory its all flowing and readable... GRR.
We need a northern meet, one when i've got a car with a working radiator.
-B-

[Kliment]

Amazing!!! Great works, style and technique
Thank you for the inspiration!!!

[duddlebug]

We need a northern meet, one when i've got a car with a working radiator.

Absolutely! Me and Kian were thinking Manchester perhaps..? Early 2007..?

And cars often run better with working radiator!

[sve]

Hi, Johnny. hehe, yeah, a bit of familiarity, but I like the sound of your name, it is round and warm ( not boiling hot) like a little winter sun . I like you nickname too, doodlebug is a charming name... You HAVE to go to illustrations of books, preferably children's and humorous book. Both of your names and personality of your art hint on this like crazy... Don't you hear voices at night? Show me to publisher, show me to publishers...
And I love your country, duddlebug, so much, even though you personally live in a small wet part of it, despite that Poshspice showed it in a bit spooky way in his TD piece... Still I love it so much.
And your art has the same taste as your country... Cozy and very personal.

OK... about the vikings piece. Yeah, better, in my opinion, you did shadows deeper and darker right?
The other thing and I suggest it only, but you have too many values for such small sizes detail, like faces. the noses if you simplify the values a bit they might protrude more from the rest. I do think you should be careful with this, I like kind of mosaic effect on the faces... still the variety and a lot of many spots, that's what make them hard to read... Erik's wonderful hay stuffed tummy is a bit lost in this carousel of colors... so the faces of other vikings... But I would suggest be careful if you decide to simplify the values. Be gentle with the style. it is one of the charms and it works so wonderful with overloaded boat. Everything is tied together and just the fact I need to look thoroughly to find the silhouettes makes me ask for simplification.

In some cases, maybe slight reflected light on the outlines will help...

[Kan Muftić]

Now, hold on! I can't take it anyomore. You're destroying my ego, dude.
GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

I shall find you one day and absorb your powers with my space laser.
(evil laugh in the background)

Best regards and big respect,

[TheGnoll]

very nice sketchbook!
yours is one of my fav pieces from the Uk vs Scandinavia T-Dome...your style reminded me a bit of Paul Kidby, Terry Pratchett's illustrator...

...keep sharing and make this SB grow, here's some stars for ya

ciao

[TIO_MATT]

I always like your stuff!!!

[j a k e]

Lovely lovely stuff mate. Saw all your tuts etc in IFX, great work.

[cakeypigdog]

that line up with the height chart is killer mate: such a splendid variety of shapes in your designs! the siamese clowns ith the accordian are particuarly splendid!

[duddlebug]

that line up with the height chart is killer mate: such a splendid variety of shapes in your designs! the siamese clowns ith the accordian are particuarly splendid!

Cheers cakeypigdog! Here's the finished piece for ImagineFX...

[duddlebug]

I've been away for a couple of weeks for Christmas and NEw Year, so sorry i haven't responded to anyone!

Sve: Heh, I'm glad you like my name. I 'spose there wasn't much i could be other than an artist... or maybe a clown. or a stand up comedian, but i think you have to be funny for that? Getting into children's books is one of my big goals for 2007, so we'll see how it goes. It's 10 years since i sent anything to a publisher, so it's probably about time i bit the bullet. i made a few more tweaks to 'Erik the Hungry', so i've attached the image. there's a few more tweaks to the saturation and i painted in the clouds that i hadn't finished for the Thunderdome. I'm planning on doing a little bit more next week if i can keep a few hours free...

Chupacabra: Haha... I think someone's absorbed any 'powers' i might have had before Christmas. I can't draw this week! AaArGh! maybe it's because i'm a bit flu-y...?

TIOMaTT: Thanks!

Jake: Thanks and thanks for the link! I'll reciprocate when i do my big web update (that i wanted to do over The festive season!) ImagineFX has been great fun to work for... talking of which, i've got an IFX monster to paint... Seeya!

the Gnoll: Cheers! I'm glad you liked the piece, i've gotta say that i really enjoyed painting it.

[stalsby]

cool style i like ur stuff!

[Gspot]

OOooooohhh!Awesome that you colored that piece that I like so much....keep up ze good workzzzz.