This is one of the illustrations from the latest kids book I am working on for the Tampa Bay Rays. It's the first one I get to write and illustrate, so it's pretty exciting. I am doing the whole thing in illustrator which is fun, but reeally time consuming at the same time. It can really make to start hallucinating after awhile. Hopefully it is all worth it though...

I Scream

Here's my first run on the picture for January in our yearly Moore's calendar. This one is going to get changed a good bit since we've decided to try a different method on the calendar this year so I thought I'd post it here for viewing. Pa-chow.

Doodles

It just so happens, I filled up one of my sketch books the other day. It's always kind of a sad moment, but there's also a sort of sense of accomplishment when you've got no more blank pages left. You get to go back and look through it all and find the little things you forgot you even drew stuck in between a lot of the bigger stuff that you might have been working on that got finalized. I went back and scanned some of the little doodles that I remember enjoy doing. These aren't even the half of them, though, I didn't want to be scanning forever. These little doodles are usually the ones that are the most fun to do, for me at least, because there's no pressure what so ever, and you basically just start drawing lines and see what comes out. Even if it comes out lame or the concept ends up way out there, it's just you on the page. I could do that all day...

Sundress

I have no idea why, but I was sketching in my notebook and started thinking about fashion illustrations and how all the characters seem to be very elongated. Even though fashion is one of the last thing I would ever be interested in, the illustrations can be interesting. I drew a sundress because sundresses are hot. Especially with a nice pair of flip flops. Not those super thick flip flops, those things are annoying. Any shoe that's sole purpose is to make a woman look taller is extremely unattractive in my opinion. Wow, one drawing related to fashion and I've got myself talking about it. I'm so lame.

Cutie Pies

Still super busy with work and everything, so here's some old work I did for a nice lady who wanted to start selling pies. It was fun to do.

Flamingo

Super busy at work, so here's a quick one. In the Florida spirit.

The Other Side of Nature

So we decided to share the nature strips while we do them until waiting to release them all at once in a book. You can check them out here: theothersideofnature.com They are all wordless because they are animals and we didn't want to do the typical talking animals kind of strip. Also, I like to think they are more universal when you don't have to read text. Anyway, they are fun to work on especially with my brother. Take look and hopefully enjoy!

I get to do a book about the Tampa Bay Rays coming up. Doing a little sketching in the sketchbook. Pretty excited. Matt Garza's no hitter got me pretty pumped...

Cricketeer

Another one from the sketch book. Cricket player. Or a Cricketer? Cricket guy? Not sure what you call someone that plays cricket, but that's what he does. Cricket...

Old School Mod Slash Rude boy

Something out of the sketch book. He's a Mod. I've always wanted a Vespa. It's just one more thing to add to the list of unpractical, "will-never-have-but-really-want"'s...

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

This is a song about a whale-NO! This is a song about being happy! I'll teach your Grandmother to suck eggs...

B-Baller

I have been working on laying out a 192 page book full of text for work, and I got the urge to animate something. He's a baller. He wishes he was a little bit taller and also wishes he had a girl who looked good so that he could call her...

Soda Fight

This was made by Al for our old Kwiki Joe's site. I just want it to be up somewhere because it's awesome. Hee hee.

Shoe Trouble Out Now!

Shoe Trouble's out now! You can grab a copy online here at Mascot Books or here at Amazon. You gonna love it! Fo Sho!

Deer Farts

Click on the image for a larger version

The Moore family is beginning work on a collection of wordless strips, paintings and short stories based on nature. This is the first of many to come. We haven't decided if we will post them online as we do them or just wait and release them in a book all at once. We'll see how it goes. We're thinking of calling it "The Other Side of Nature" or "Behind the Scenery" or something. Hope you enjoy.

Checkers

Foxes playing checkers...

Swamp Foot

Here's a quicky. It's a bigfoot and he's green so that means he lives in a swamp.

Lizardmin Uniforms

I posted this over at Lizardmin.com, but I thought I'd post it here, too, since I haven't put anything up here lately. This is just the sketch I did to keep track of the various Lizardmin uniforms. Not incredibly interesting, but I like looking at them all blankly staring in the same direction...

Oh, and I feel bad putting this up right after Danny's awesome artwork so make sure you scroll down and check the previous 4-5 posts for his posts showing his process!!

Shoe Trouble 3

Here's the final. I had to move stuff down to make room for the text in InDesign...

This is a follow up from the last post. Thought I'd show the steps, so here it goes. I know I'm not breaking any new grounds or anything, this is just for fun. I just did close ups of the dog for this example.

1. For foreground elements I usually outline them first using a different brush that looks kind of like a paint brush with thicker paint. You can click on the images for a larger view.

2. Then I use the other brush I was talking about and fill in the flat colors.

3. Next, I rough in the shading and highlights using the same brush at 90% opacity.

4. Finally I smooth it out with the brush at 40% opacity and selecting colors back and forth between the middle colors and the highlights or shading. That's about it.

Shoe Trouble 2

Here's the background. I like to do it sort of like animation and paint a full background so that I can go in and do each character separate and move them around to find the best layout. I even do each individual plant and picture on it's own layer so if I need to move those around later I can as well. This is all done in photoshop using brushes I created that have the canvas texture to them. I start a shape by painting a base color at 100% opacity. Then I lay down 90% shading and highlights and go back with my brush set to 40% and basically smooth everything out. It's a lot of selecting with the eyedropper tool to get the middle tones I need. It takes a little time, but it's fun. I enjoy it.Now that I look at it, I may have made this background too crisp which might distract from the front characters later. We will see...

Uber Mom

©2010 The Moore Family

Trying to finish up my Ma's book Shoe Trouble about a boy having problems keeping his shoes tied. This is the sketch for the second to last spread where Mom comes in to save the day. I am obsessed with processes and how things are made and how people create their art, so I decided I would show a little bit of how I am doing this book just for fun. I'll post subsequent steps along the way. All images are copyrighted!

Skater Girl

Haven't done anything in Illustrator in a while...it's a girl with a skateboard. I like to think she is daydreaming while waiting for the bus...

Surf Logos

These are kind of old, but I sort of enjoy them. They were parts to a surf logo for a company that didn't really work out. Oh well, it was fun to work on and dream about being a part of while it lasted.

Flying Ferret

Just getting away from the every day, same old, same old illustrations I've been doing for work.

Ape Suit

I come to find myself feeling like this rather often...like a chump in an ape suit craving cheeseburgers. Life does that to you I suppose. One day I'll get to step out of the suit and eat that burger, then the world will get to see the real man behind the mask. The man covered in mayo and mustard and greasy cheeseburger goodness. Hmmm, maybe masks are a good thing...