Sunday, July 12, 2009

"Scooby-Doo" preliminary art (May, 2001)

One day, out of the blue Scholastic Books asked, at the recommendation of Warner Brothers, if I'd like to illustrate a Scooby-Doo children's book. I'd never done one before so I jumped at the chance. Here are the cover concept roughs, character designs and story thumbnails for "Scooby-Doo and the Invisible Android"--




Final cover art...

New supporting character designs...

When drawing continuity I always start by scribbling directly on the script:
Here are the story pages...











(All Scooby-Doo and related characters are TM & © Hanna-Barbera)

This is the only book I illustrated for Scholastic. I also worked on two still-born books for Golden Books, back when they were having problems, as well as six for Chicago-based publisher Publications International.
It was fun to draw the dog again.

12 comments:

Mug It Up!/Jim H said...

The cleanest line in the business -great stuff Vin!

Nicolette Davenport said...

These are so much fun Vince!

max said...

They're packed with fun, great pages.

I have one question though, you say that these are concept roughs and thumbnails. Do you mean that you're done an even cleaner pencil out of these?

I'd love to see some of the finished pages. Will you post them?

Vince M said...

Thanks, Jim. I always try to present preliminaries as clearly as possible to clients. Especially when I'm not there in person to talk them through.

Glad you enjoy them, Nic. I'm very much in love with your latest posted image. Great graphic.

As always, I appreciate the kind words, Max.
And yes, there are cleaner, larger pencils that were put closer to model and inked, scanned and colored digitally.
These thumbnails were done on letter size bond paper and judging from when they were created probably faxed or possibly scanned & emailed to the client for approval. Not sure.
And I will do a follow-up post that will show a page and the whole process- from roughs made directly on script pages all the way through to the printed final page.

RYAN ASTAMENDI PHOTOGRAPHY said...

Vin, you didn't just draw the characters, you really caaptured the essence of the show. You make it look easy.....even though it's not.

Greg said...

These are incredible, V. I've always admired those who are at home with story telling and sequential art. I LOVED Scooby when I was little. He is tricky to draw, lots of exaggeration, a bit of anatomy and lots of expression. You nailed it all! Beautiful!
KimZam

Cafe Pasadena said...

Scooby-Doo is a fav character.
XXce!!ent work on one of our famous dogs. You can use this dog as a reference.

Oscar Grillo said...

Ue, Paesá!

Vince M said...

Thanks for coming by Professor, I appreciate it.

Vince M said...

I appreciate the kind words, Ry. As always. This was a dream project that fell into my lap. But it wasn't all roses-- they left my name off the credits, promising to correct it in future printings. I was extremely disappointed. But I did enjoy illustrating the story.

I love storytelling, Ms. Gregory KimZam! I would do a lot more of it if I had a scriptwriter. I'm such a timid writer that I find it takes me forever to finish a story outline. I'm more of a concept guy.
Thanks for commening, Kim.

Wow, Cafe Dog, first time here, eh? Nice to have you on board. Thanks for taking the time to give your 'canine-centric' point of view.

R.Dress said...

Oh man these are so great! I love page 18-19. You work so clean! Thanks for sharing your process.
R

Vince M said...

My pleasure, Robert. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I love continuity and all of the problems it presents along the way.