Space Chocolate

One of the jobs I do from time to time is quick key frames for an advertising agency out in New York City. They usually email me with a bunch of stuff they need done and, of course, they need it yesterday. So, it's less a "how good can you draw" assignment and more of a "how fast can you draw and still be able to tell what's going on" kind of assignment.

So, I put away the good bristol board and the ink brushes and inkwells and pull out the cheap cardstock and the sharpie markers. Everything is quickly roughed in with a non-repo blue pencil (that way I don't have to erase anything when I am done inking) and then inked with the sharpies. Scan that into the computer, maybe add some color, and, voila, job done!

The only problem is I'm never quite happy with the art. I know I'm going as fast as I can and I can still tell what's going on in each panel but the perfectionist in me always hates what I did. Honestly, every time I do a job like this I'm afraid it will be my last because the drawing, in my mind, is so awful. After six years of working for this client you think that voice might go away. Not yet.

This latest job was some quick key frames for a campaign to bring a French cereal over here to America. One of the panels needed to show the two main characters flying a vat of chocolate to a landing platform in space. What liked about these panels is that, while they aren't full color, I was told to use brown and sepia tones to highlight the chocolatey goodness of the product.

So, I really liked the way the monochromatic coloring looked. I may have to use this myself someday in my own work. It's gives the whole piece a touch more atmosphere without going to full color. And this is one of the pieces I was actually happy with.

Maybe I am getting that little voice inside my brain to finally shut up.