Gorilla Detective - The Sketches

Months ago, I was deep into my nerdiness. I had received the entire run of Homicide: Life on the Streets. Not only did it have every episode, crossover episode, and movie, but it came packaged in a miniature file cabinet. I know...that's amazing. Well, after plowing through three and a half seasons, I decided that I wanted to make a character that really showed my love of Cop Dramas. I was flipping through some old sketch books and came across a small doodle of a gorilla with a tie, sporting a cop badge. Seems I already had this idea four years ago. So, after laughing at myself, I got to work on drawing my Gorilla Detective. I wanted it to be dead serious, and really thought about doing it as a comic. Here is my first "serious" drawing:
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that as much fun as a comic would be, it would make for a really great children's book. The first order of business was changing the look of the character. Bitter, middle-aged, gorilla probably wouldn't fly. So, I had to try and "simplify" him, or at least make it feel like my other children's book work.


No, a child did not draw that. It's pretty embarrassing, but I thought it should be included.


This is where I really started to get a feel for what he should look like. He still was bit too grumpy looking, but I felt good moving on. Around this time I thought that I should make a painting that could be used as a postcard. It was tough at first, because I really didn't have a story to fall back on, and had a hard time finding the right tone. While I always make work that makes me happy, I have to keep in mind the intended audience is children. So, anything too action-packed or slightly violent was tossed out. Eventually, I decided to do a little homage to my favorite superhero Spider-man.


I'm pretty pysched with the sketch, and can't wait to start painting. I'll post the beginnings of that soon.

First Post

I've never written a blog. I'm not really sure how it's done. What I do know is that I wanted to make a space where I could post some of my sketches, doodles, and finished paintings. I always love when illustrators and artists show sketches, and the step-by-step process they use to make work. This is what I want to do with this blog.

Sometimes, the struggles and mistakes are just as interesting as the finished product. Hopefully that will happen here. There should be some fun stuff up soon.