Bud Bear Town Mayor versus Colonel Crumbum

I've got a little more Finnigan's Last Resort stuff for you today.

 Bud Bear serves as an antagonist to my main chartacter, Finnigan, in many ways. Yet, even he should have an equal rival in the political arena. Enter: Colonel Crumbum, a southern gentle-fox who is gobbling up land deeds.

Skelly Cat Chases an Orange

 They do this all day.

http://society6.com/DavidFinley/Skelly-Cat-and-Orange_Print#1=45

Les the Short Neck Giraffe MC's a Wedding

 So, I had to do a bit of public speaking recently and was struggling with my nerves while I waited to start. Usually nerves aren't an issue for me, but this time it got me.

This doodle is what I used to calm myself.

A Few Sketches

Where Does Personality Come From?

"Are your characters based on you or someone you know?"

 It's a question I get a lot. In most cases, it would be easy enough to say that I base most of the characters on aspects of my own personality, while a few are based on people or pets I know or have lived with. And that answer would be true enough, even if it is overly simplified.

However, there is one character that I have that defies that explanation. Esau the Donkey is based on Esau the Donkey.

 To be fair, Esau is actually a creation of mine and my friend Andrew based on silly stories we would make up while doing improv together. He's a character born of collaboration, and by far, the easiest of all my Last Resort characters to write for.

When I'm plotting scenes for Esau, I finally understand what authors are talking about when they say their characters tend to write themselves.

Swarm part 2- Carl Doesn't Get To Enjoy His Honey

So here's the colored version of one my earlier posts that I did for Illustration Friday. You can see the original here.

I tried to keep to a French Rococo period color scheme using mainly blues, golds, and pinks and I'm pleased with the results. Let me know what you think.

Where Orange Juice Comes From

Admittedly, I doodle a lot of really stupid things, but I had to post this one. Here are Esau and Orange answering an age old question about the origin a certain breakfast beverage.


I won't ruin this moment by typing much more. The drawing was done in a free online program called Harmony.

Finnigan Doodles: Which Bear Should I Choose?

I found these doodles in one of my scanners yesterday. They're a few months old, and rougher version of these characters, but I like them. Esau the Donkey is always fun to draw.

Here I was experimenting with the look of some of my bears. I threw Finnigan and Orange in just to provide some interaction. I'm really torn on the look I want for Carl the Bear (The second and third bear designs) Any feedback would be helpful.

Which Carl is more appealing?: The squat bear with shorts on the left, or the taller, more inquisitive version on the right?

Illustration Friday- Swarm

 Poor Carl just wants some honey to curb the longing of his always persistent sweet tooth. Of course, bees don't tend to like that very much and have given Carl some lessons.

 I hope to color this soon. The sketch was completed on paper with ballpoint pen. (that's been a trend for me lately)

It was a battle to get this entry for Illustration Friday's topic: Swarm up before the deadline. My microtek scanner is down. Luckily, after some searching, I found out I had a backup scanner.

Finnigan's Last Resort- Yummy Orange Juice

 

 The First Official Finnigan's Last Resort Strip

Well, here it is... the very first official Finnigan's Last Resort strip. Ultimately, this is an experiment on several levels. This was roughed by hand and tightened up digitally, but I would like to experiment with a completely hand drawn and inked version before I decide on a final look for the stories. I'm excited to experiment with different techniques.

Thanks for looking!

More Harmony Doodles

Here's some more harmony doodles. One of my Last Resort character, Esau, and another of the robot from my previous post. I'll post some non-harmony art here soon, but for now, I'm happy to be publishing a little more than before.

A Story about a Cat

This is my cat Skeletor, or "Skelly" as he's commonly called. As you can see, he is a great lover of literature. I post this picture of him because he's awesome and also because I include him as a recurring character in lots of my stories.

In "Finnigan's Last Resort", Skelly is a companion and friend to the main character. He represents loyalty, friendship, and perseverance in hard times.

 In my stories, I use him as a device to connect the audience with the happenings of the story. He is a somewhat silent witness to it all.

This scene below depicts the main character on his surreal journey out of the grey world of depression and loss toward a more primal and basic land full of strange and almost mythical things. There are unicorns on mocha mountains and oceans of Yoo Hoo chocolate drink.

 But amidst all this, Skelly, the cat is showing a concern for his friend as this journey takes place. He is an observer, and a guardian of sorts.

 

Made in Adobe Illustrator and then colored in Photoshop.

Finnigan's Last Resort- Ballpoint Pen Sketches

It's been a while but I've been working on Finnigan's Last Resort again. For those of you whom I have shared these characters with over the years, there have been some changes in the story and its makeup. For one, I'm not writing it alone anymore.

Today's post is two sketches from my brainstorming sketchbook. The first is a concept sketch of the main character with his cat. He has gone on a surreal journey to a strange place, where he contemplates the events of his life.



 The second is Esau the Donkey enjoying time with his friend Finnigan the Duck. Finnigan runs an inn that the characters frequent and lots of offbeat hi jinks are sure to follow. These were done with a plain black pen on regular brown paper. The tones were added with pencil.



I'll post more of these soon.