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Monday, November 07, 2005

Wolf boy or...?


Ever since doing this piece last year ( the original piece, that is ) I've been intrigued by the little guy peeking out from behind the tree. I really liked the looks of him, and always planned to do some character development on his silhoetted form...eventually.

After posting the digital recreation of the painting last weekend for Illustration Friday, I could resist no longer - I decided to see what he actually looks like when not lurking in the shadows. From the beginning I had always intended that he should be a werewolf - but a cute little werewolf. I've been playing with the kawaii form of cartooning over the last couple of years ( mostly unsuccessfully ) and I imagined wolfie in that style.

But the first sketch didn't look right...



And the second sketch didn't look right...



And the third sketch at least started to look "wolfish" - but it just wasn't "cute".




At this point I was feeling pretty depressed and in need of some kawaii inspiration. Whenever I need an injection of that kind of cute I head on over to the Pucca Club. The tiny little characters that inhabit Pucca's world are just the ticket to get my kawaii juices flowing.

I started working on a new sketch - direct to oils in Painter - and was feeling like this time I might just be on the right track when in walked my darling wife, Wendy, and commented enthusiastically, "Oh wow, I LOVE your angry chipmunk!"


Huh.

So there you go.

Should you ever find yourself wandering through the woods of my paintings at night, under the full moon, and you hear the snap of a twig and spy a shadowy figure crouched by an old dead tree and are filled with dread - fear not - its just an angry chipmunk out for a midnight stroll.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

COOOL drawings and illo!

Anonymous said...

Hhheeee, he IS a chipmunk in last drawing because tail and nose are short ... a superb angry chipmunk though!!

Mark McDonnell said...

Nice to see the progression of your thoughts. Great concept.


MAC

Ward Jenkins said...

That's very funny! And I love the way you were working out the character.

milanrubio said...

Love this angy chipmunk!
Thanks for sharing your process. The "night" illo is fantastic, awesome mood and incredible and effective shiloutte.
The texture on the moon is really nice.
Good work, and blog too (sure I'll be back)

steve said...

Noooooooooooo! Now I'm having flashbacks of that horrible chipmunk incident again! Thanks leif.

headshotmoney said...

your original piece with the tree and the moon was so inspiring that i chose it for the basis of my second tattoo.The work on my back is pretty true to your painting added my own lil critter at the bottom but for the most part it is true to your work. I just wanted to thank you for creating something so beautiful.It is not finished yet something like ten hours more to go but i just wanted to give you credit and thank you again.

leifpeng said...

Hey, that's very cool indeed, headshotmoney! - please send me a jpeg when your new tat is done. :^)