FemJesse the Fourth: Out of the Loop

[#400 :]

Well I'm going to keep it simple, its a kid's book and I don't want anyone thinking they're the mailman's babies...

*Crash_7 tries to look innocent, whistles, walks away.

[#401 :]

Here is adjusted sketch for the father. I'm meeting with Sarah later to get some feedback, but if she gives it the thumbs up I'm going to start designing the children.

Sorry I had to get rid of the "hair horn" silhouette...

[#402 :]

You talent always amazes me Jesse Its good to see that your still active at Futurama fan-art as well as your own personal pieces.

[#403 :]

Thanks Lee!
I'm trying to keep everyone in the loop about whats going on as far as my projects go. The author of this book is around my age, so rest assured there will be some pop culture references, and definitely little inside things for adults to enjoy.



This is the concept for the children. Sarah really loved how the family dynamic came out. The next step for me will be color selection and then storyboarding.


Here is the family all put together. I'm really happy with the way they came out and the author is as well.

[#404 :]

the final version of dad turned out great, kids too. Very nice work, FemJesse!

[#405 :]

Ees verr' nice, but I can't help thinking they look a lot like the dinosaurs from Dinosaurs. Was that intentional? Also, the dad has sort of a Bowser-esque look to him as well.

These'll be great to see coloured.

Edit: and now I go back a page, I see that was your intention. I really should read further back before I dive in and say stuff.

[#406 :]

Those are great.  Personally, I think the beard makes the dad look more like a granddad, though. 

[#407 :]

Really I was kinda going for hipster goatee? =P

[#408 :]

I thought hippy when I saw the goatee.

Its probly the lack of color. *hint hint*

[#409 :]

I thought hippy when I saw the goatee.

Its probly the lack of color. *hint hint*

There's no part of that post that I don't agree with.

[#410 :]

http://www.peelified.com/index.php?topic=18300.msg2147483647#end

This thread inspired me to do a little sketch.

[#411 :]

*bump*

Sketch for the onlookers on the cover


“Did you see their claws?” Mr. Bear asked. “What about the neck on
her? I mean, honestly!” Mrs. Giraffe said. “And those wings! Scandalous!” Mrs. Bird chimed in.
Mr. Raccoon shook his head. “There goes the neighborhood.”

content property of Sarah "The Beef" Leboeuf and Jessica "FemJesse" Tommassello

[#412 :]

Great designs for the kid's books, Jesse.

[#413 :]

Thanks I just did the quick color drop in and I'm going to have Sarah look at it again. I want this to be something we're both really invested in and agree with before I start painting in details.

[#414 :]

Lookin' good!

[#415 :]

This is the sample with dropped in (unpainted) colors. I'm not sure if I like the red pigtails, looks a little like raggedy Anne or the Wendy's girl... I'll ask Sarah when she gets here.

Some guys have convinced me to keep the linework, so I cleaned it up in illustrator and pasted it in as a vector layer. (Gotta love CS4)

[#416 :]

I would suggest lightening up the red hair(on both the daughter and father) to be more of a dirty orange... If I were involved in this project at all. ... but Im not. so... yea...

[#417 :]

To my non-artistic eye, all I can say is, "Everything looks great, FJ.  I wouldn't change a thing."

and I really mean that.

[#418 :]

I presume the red and purple hair on Dad and Mom are your Futurama nod, FJ?

Cute how both Dad and Daughter are waving.

[#419 :]

I would suggest lightening up the red hair(on both the daughter and father) to be more of a dirty orange... If I were involved in this project at all. ... but Im not. so... yea...

Close to Sarah and me's actual solution, we decided to use the orangey yellow of the father's horns!

As a nod to your ealier grandparents suggestion, we figured that it would make sense if one of the mother's parents were yellow so thats why she would have yellow spots and carry the yellow scales gene as seen in the son. The spots of yellow in the mother allude to the fact that she does carry those genes, and the fact that her son has her purple hair as well ties it all together. So the overall intent was to reverse the roles to give the son more of the mother's features and the daughter more of the father's.

I presume the red and purple hair on Dad and Mom are your Futurama nod, FJ?

Cute how both Dad and Daughter are waving.

Thank you and it is indeed the intent
I couldn't make the hair on the father too orange without too much similarity to a certain Koopa King.

Originally the mother was waving too, but it was causing some unsightly tangents so I removed the waving hand. I've started detailing the cover image and even come up with the series logo.

Edit:



You can see I've finished shading and detail on the mom and dad and started on the son. I'm also trying to come up with some patterns to unify branding.

[#420 :]

Excellent.  Seeing the beard colored in now, it looks better to me.  In the first drawing, not colored, I thought he had a white beard. 

[#421 :]

Thank you, I was also trying to make the father's hair spikier because its more masculine so it almost doubles as a horn.

I hope some adults will understand the joke with the bear in the lavender shirt =3

hint check urbandictionary...

[shameless plug]Also thank you for allowing me to present how a concept goes from a loose sketch to a (near) final product. Keep me in mind if you ever have any projects. [/shameless plug]

[#422 :]

Hehe. I wondered if the lavender shirt was a subtle message.

[#423 :]

I like how its turning out.
I gotta say the daughters hair color pops out much better than before, what with how it contrasts with her skin color.

Nice grandparents tie in, too.
Will that be mentioned in the book, or just suggested via the picture?
Just curious, 'cuase I always felt media in general underestimates the potential intellect of children.
Specificly how challanging them helps them gain intellect.

[#424 :]

WHAT DAY IS TODAY? IT'S FEMJESSE'S BIRTHDAY! WHAT A DAY FOR A BIRTH-DAY! LET'S ALL HAVE SOME CAKE.

[#425 :]

"Another day older,
And deeper in debt."

[#426 :]

Happy birthday, Jess.  Be careful, though.  Keep having those and you'll catch up with me.

[#427 :]

Yay I got spotlighted on Comedy Central for a 7 year old piece of fanart!

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2010/08/25/futurama-fanarama-kissarama/

[#428 :]

Neat, better late than never. Congrats!

Btw, that book cover looks good.

[#429 :]

Here's the frogged out cover for the SciFi book. Its almost ready to go to print.



Its worth noting that The black "flashes" are all just k 100 so that there won't be any plate shifting with the type should an offset press be used.

Yay for years of nerdy trapping and overprinting!

[#430 :]

http://www.peelified.com/index.php?topic=18300.msg2147483647#end

This thread inspired me to do a little sketch.

I love it I dont know why people hate the idea it looks really good.

[#431 :]

Congrats on the book, Jesse. It's a great cover.

[#432 :]

Here's a random spread from the kid's book I'm illustrating. You can see how I use shapes and gestural lines to establish characters position and attitudes. Particularly evident in the arms and legs of the characters...

[#433 :]

I'm loving the art, especially the kids book illustrations which I think are absolutely fantastic.

Some of the lines in the pic above are easier to see than others, but whatever technique you're using clearly works - the characters are full of..er...character (damn my crap vocabulary). I mean I try to use a similar technique when drawing figures but there's no substitute for pure skill and talent.
Only thing I would nitpick is possibly the poster in the background might not be in kilter/parallel with the ... erkh damn my vocabulary again - vanishing point(?)
Otherwise, pretty damn flawless imo!

[#434 :]

Shiny.

I guess all mayors need to wear a top hat, huh? 

[#435 :]

Only thing I would nitpick is possibly the poster in the background might not be in kilter/parallel with the ... erkh damn my vocabulary again - vanishing point(?)
Otherwise, pretty damn flawless imo!

Yea that kind of thing I'm actually going to design separately then skew when I put it on there, I just wanted something placeholder to show the author. I also have placeholder circles for the mayoral seal and the coffee shop logo...

The mayor is heavily inspired by Tortimer from Animal Crossing. I like the idea that a turtle lives long and is wiser, plus our small town community in the book is called "Turtle Hill" so we thought it would be cute for a Turtle to be the mayor.

[#436 :]

Only thing I would nitpick is possibly the poster in the background might not be in kilter/parallel with the ... erkh damn my vocabulary again - vanishing point(?)
Otherwise, pretty damn flawless imo!

Yea that kind of thing I'm actually going to design separately then skew when I put it on there, I just wanted something placeholder to show the author. I also have placeholder circles for the mayoral seal and the coffee shop logo...

Ah I see. Makes sense! :embarrassed:

[#437 :]

Some more paid work

Waiting on publisher approval on this one. The illustration was approved, but not the final layout. I'm having a really fun time doing these, and the foundation has a few more books lined up - but they are running low on cash and need more donations for the publishing wishes.

As it stands I "donated" about 6 hours so far on this project. (The illustration was very time consuming)



The cloning book is good to go, I just checked the proof copy today and it came out perfectly as far as design/layout and the cover are concerned. I'm waiting to hear back whether this will be the "final final" as I'm hearing many things from different people concerning the status of it.

But if its ok'd it should be on Amazon in a few days, making it my first designed large format novel.

[#438 :]

Love the pattern work on the cross - I think the layout looks lovely.

I'll look out for the other book on Amazon! Congrats!

[#439 :]

Yea actually its going to be a bit more time I think... the author and the publisher have some "minor" revisions to the book interior. (Like I'm surprised)

I think its impossible to solicit a final manuscript these days. Its expensive for me to keep replacing things and tweaking things.

More money for me less for the foundation. So conflicting...