Scram-Pire - The Reluctant Kid-Vampire


Meet Bud.

Earlier this year I was very pleased to receive an email from author Julia Dweck, asking me if I'd like to collaborate on a new eBook she was writing. Julia is an established and prolific writer of kids books and so it was a real thrill to hear from her and her publisher Kite Readers.

It turns out Julia had seen an earlier post of mine which I'd sub headed "Scram-Pire". Here's the original sketch from that post. It was a particularly hot day back in January here in Oz, so I imagined it would have been doubly terrifying for Vampires.

This simple sketch was enough to get Julia's creative brain clicking and whirring, and she came up with a new concept about a Vampire kid shunning the vampire life. So rather than running from the sun, Bud ends up running from the expectations of Vampire life.

Concept Art and Sketches:

An early idea for Bud

Here is the coloured up version on the initial sketch that I sent to Julia. I also threw in a couple of facial expressions to give her a sense of how Bud would look through the story.


Vlad. The Draco to Bud's Harry

Page Progression:

Rough: First of all I deliver all the pages to Julia in Storyboard form. I do this very quickly and roughly in Flash, using the brush tool.

Pencil Rough: I bring the Flash sketch into Photoshop and begin to produce a more detailed rough

Rough colours: This image show the colour progression from left to right. I use very rough colours to give a plan out my tones plus light and shade, before rendering in the final version (see steps)

Final Version: After lots of layering and tweaking, the final image emerges. 

Cover ideas:

Early cover idea which we scrapped as it looked a bit too grim.


Rough redesign, harking back to my initial sketch that sparked this project

Coloured Rough


FINAL!!

Well that's just a little background into the making of Scram-Pire! I've been a bit slack with this blog lately so I hope this makes up for it.

Bud is available for kindle here for $2.99. If you're kind enough to support us, please leave a positive review and help our rankings.

Thanks for reading :)

Bits and Pieces



A good friend pointed out to me today that its been too long since I posted anything on here. He was right, of course, and I could list a whole bunch of excuses as to why I haven't. But really that's all irrelevant. So here are some quick sketches and scribbles I threw together today. Better than nothing I suppose.

Generic mad scientist guy

He's probably saying something like "they all called me a fool" or some other cliché. Then he'd be all like "they'll rue the day they ever doubted my genius" before doing something sciency and bursting into a standard "MwuhahahHAHAHHA" laugh. Probably.

Port Folio

BOOK ILLUSTRATION
Alpha Monsters



If You're Happy And You Know It
 




The Great Big Aussie Easter Egg Hunt





COMMISSIONS

Pocket God - iPhone Game





American Greetings (Character Designs)

 



Animax (Character Design)





Discovery Centre (Mascot Design)

PRINTS











ONE OFF PIECES




PERSONAL WORK











"Mogwai's song" or "The theme month that never was"

I'd had such grand plans for 2012. I was going to start the year with my very own theme month. It was to be called "Fanuary" and every day I would post a drawing of something geeky that I loved and it would be crammed full of 80s stuff that us 30 somethings seem so reluctant to let go of. Oh yes it would have been a fun project alright.

But then life got busy. The first few days of "Fanuary" slipped by and already the project seemed doomed to start. With all the best intentions in the world nothing happened. An ongoing job needed finalising, a last minute decision to sell our house saw the majority of free time spent cleaning, de-cluttering and painting. What free time was left saw me collapsed and snoring on the couch. Selling a house is a tiresome affair.

Today is the last day of "Fanuary" and all I have to show for it, is this rough and hastily drawn Gizmo singing his little song.

Oh well, maybe next year.

Planet of the Japes

I often have a movie playing while I'm working on my illustrations, often I just listen to the dialogue and look up to watch the exciting bits. Today's movie was "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", and it was pretty enjoyable. You could say I picked a winner. Thank you, that is all.

something different

Seems as though lately my days are being swallowed up drawing cutesy little animals. My last 3 books (including the one I'm working on) are all animal themed. So when it came down to a little warm up scribble this morning, I thought I'd try a lovely lady. For some reason I always tend to draw ugly guys or monsters (see previous post), so it made a nice change to draw something feminine. To be honest I could use the practice on that front.

Anyway I thought I'd post my scribble and the reference picture I found. As you can see I'd changed up the pose a little and broken her (screen) right ankle. Poor lady.


Happy Halloween

"Hand it Over"

Even though it's hardly celebrated in Australia (outside of retail that is),  I can't let the holiday slip by without putting something up. I don't have a lot of time for much personal work at the moment so I quickly threw this little image together.

Happy Halloween everyone.


BOO!

Totoro sketch

I'm currently half way through a family holiday to Japan and had the opportunity to visit the awesome Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. I couldn't resist
picking up a Totoro plushie and considering I haven't drawn anything for the best part of a week, I thought I'd do a little sketch of him via the iPad.

A2D Exhibition

"Game, Tech and Match"

This Friday, Flare Magazine are hosting their Analogue:Digital exhibition for the people of Bendigo. Sadly I will be out of town for the big night, but if you are in the area, you should definitely go and check out a bunch of artwork from a range of local artists.

My piece "Game, Tech and Match" will be a part of the show and just in case you can't make it I've put a preview for you here.

Find out more about the Magazine and the show here

Arj Caricature

Today I scored some free tickets to see Arj Barker on the weekend. The competition organisers suggested I do a little caricature. So I did.

I couldn't resist throwing in a little Poopy sneaking over his shoulder for good measure.

If you didn't know, Arj and Poopy was a web cartoon animated by the incredibly amazing Bernard Derriman.

Check out Bernard's super incredi-skills  in this episode and weep!

Illustrations approved!

Today the final artwork and design of the book I'm illustrating for Scholastic was approved!! Obviously I can't share any final artwork yet, as the book won't be released until next year. But here is a cheeky Tassie Devil I've grabbed from the front cover image.

Next I get to work on my illustrating my own story. Can't wait :)

Illustration Friday "mesmerizing"

"I am an EVIL hypnotist"

Just had a few minutes to throw together a quick Illustration Friday image. When I saw the topic was "Mesmerizing" I immediately thought of the Big Train sketch about hypnotism. The moment when the Evil Hypnotist creeps past the open door is fantastic.

If you haven't seen Big Train before, treat yourself to an afternoon on youtube, it could well be the greatest sketch show ever