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.