Icarus Chimp colour - "all's well that ends well"

Although he doesn't deserve it after the way he has been behaving our soggy simian gets his fruit after all. Ma and pa parrot have raised a thoughtful little fellow.

Icarus Chimp colour - "no he doesn't"

You cannot argue with Isaac Newton... stupidity is no defence.

Icarus Chimp colour - "he jumped...he flys"

I think I would have seen everything when I've seen a chimpanzee fly... fly my pretty fly.

Icarus Chimp colour - "don't jump"

There's no stopping the little guy... never let gravity or aerodynamics get between you and a good meal.

Icarus Chimp colour - "feather snatch"

The night time treatment was till bothering me, and as my agent asked to see the image preceding the snatched feathers I decided to have another crack at things.

Icarus Chimp colour 3 (revised)

Something didn't sit quite right with my first version of this. In particular I was fighting the parrot's blue and black colouring against a night sky. After comments from my agent and the sage wisdom of my good mate Kev I've tweeked and twiddled. Different computer displays will show 'different versions'...I guess the best I can hope to is satisfy all of the people some of the time or some of the people all of the time :) It was worth the second shot to notice the 'moon beak', which I hope doesn't look shoe horned in.

Icarus Chimp colour 3

The chimp as thief in the night, getting all he needs to enact his masterplan.

Icarus Chimp colour 2

Monkey see, monkey do (before anyone says, I know chimps aren't monkeys...). Our little simian friend is about to get his bright idea. I don't know if it comes across but I figured a bit of genetic inheritance into the parrots tail colours. Dad has the cool colours, Mum the warmer ones, and little P has inherited the whole rainbow. I also imagined that such lovely plumage was down to their diet... all those juicy rainbow fruit they have been eating.

With each piece I do now I'm trying to get my working methods quicker and more efficient, and so far I don't think things aren't going too bad. One big help I'm finding on these sequential pages is to keep a running palette document which I can slot new colour choices into as I go. It saves you opening up the previous whopping psd and toggling through all those layers! More chimp to follow.

Icarus Chimp colour

I knew that the second panel in the storyboard was one of the most appropriate images to work up in colour, but I also enjoyed the grasping pose on the third panel... so I combined the two. That rascally chimp really wants those rainbow fruit!

more chimp bits

Well this is the very rough storyboard for my chimp sequence (I'd not really call it a story, this is more an exercise in putting a character through it's paces...). As I look at it there are 'jump cuts' in the narrative that I cannot get away with. There are also some staging issues and poses/expressions which I want to improve on in the final 3 or 4 colour pieces I'm aiming for. That all said I'm enjoying working with the characters and setting and eager to get it all into glorious technicolour.

chimp bits

I'm working away on my favourite subject ... primates. I cannot get enough of drawing chimps, gorillas and orangutans so I've decided to make my next quick project for the book fair a chimpy one! I have a very rough storyboard sequence of images almost ready to blog and work up into some colour pieces but I've just been watching some of the extras on the Ratatouille DVD and leafing through the art of book for the umpteenth time and the digital sketches of Dan Lee (to whom the film is dedicated, sadly missed I'm sure...) have really inspired me. I'd forgotten just how much fun quick wacom sketching can be...and I'm glad I gave it a go as it's loosened up my thinking on my background treatments for the project... I'm finally headed in the direction I wanted (a kind of looney tunes/flintstones colour and layout... I hope).