It is that time of year.......Rudolph and the Grinch

(click on image to enlarge)

I was digging through my archive of old illustrations and I stumbled upon this "SEASONAL" drawing I did for Wizard Magazine back in 2000 and I thought I would share. I am a little embarrassed to show this.......... I believe that this was published in one of Wizard's lesser known publications "IN Power" magazine. Back in those days, I drew most of the "Last Man Standing" illustrations while that magazine was published. ("Last Man Standing" was an illustration of comic battles you never thought you'd see). The editors would provide me a script that would out line what needed to be illustrated, I would then e-mail them 3 sketches. The editors would then pick the best one based on composition, placement of characters, etc. I would then try and knock out the pencil inks and colors in the next couple of days. This time in my life was very busy for me. I was working at an advertising design studio and doing a lot of illustration and coloring on the side for various comic companies. Needless to say, I had a lot of very late nights.

I did have fun drawing the "Last Man Standing" spots. It was interesting to illustrate characters that would never be seen interacting together. I was challenged when I had to incorporate the different drawing styles of the characters with my own drawing style when I drew the secondary elements and backgrounds. On this particular illustration, I had colored it a little different than I usually color my illustrations. I had just finished painting the backgrounds for Eric Wiese's "Spaceboy Slim" short and I really liked the style I had created and I thought that I would try it on this piece. When it comes to the drawings of the characters themselves, I did not do very well. I think I was on model with the Grinch and his dog Max, but with Rudolph and Hermey.......... I missed the mark. The characters look very rushed, they aren't very dynamic, etc........ at the time I did the illustration, I was unable to find good reference for the characters. I guess the drawing works in the sense that you can kind of tell who the characters are but that is about as far as it goes. If I remember correctly, I had a quick deadline on this illustration. So maybe that is why they are not as well realized as the rest of the drawing.........

............or maybe I got distracted thinking about Hermey wanting to be a Dentist.

Jack