Super thanks again to Jason at CRP for letting me do this one! Frogger is one of the most iconic video games out there, and to do the cover art for it is just pretty sweet awesome. Yes I said sweet awesome. It just is.

This is the cover for the North American version; Japan and Europe have different covers. This cover is aimed more at kids, and we tried to convey different things in the game, like the classic trucks and cars, as well as the new additions. Apparently this poor frog also has to hop over tanks, evade mean snakes and rats and dodge Apache helicopters. I don’t know why, perhaps he escaped from Raccoon City or something.

My original art featured a night scene as I thought the lights would show up better. But I guess since the other covers featured day scenes we hanged it to a day scene as well. Below is the original color scheme and art. Frog had a longer tongue as well.

I’ve been rather bad with the updating of the blog this year, and this one’s another belated post. This was done for the Wall Street Journal’s Ask Teri column and it’s probably the fastest job I’ve turned around so far.

It happened that the 4th of July fell on a Monday this year, so lots of places were closed for the long weekend. As a result, I got the brief a day later than usual, but still had to turn out the final by the following day. So, I had to rush out a couple of sketches to the art director, then go straight into the final art in the evening. The article was a question from a senior lady who wanted to know what to wear that would be appropriate for her age but not frumpy.

The people at the Journal were very nice and helped give me some suggestions about what to draw.

Below are the two sketches I sent off.

Eye glasses were added on later. I originally had her with white hair but the editor felt that made her look too old so I changed it to a light blonde instead.

Another Journal piece for the ‘Ask Teri’ column. ‘Ask Teri’ is a question-and-answer column where readers ask the fashion editor, Teri Jones, for her advice on different things.

For this piece, the reader was a 40-something year old lady who said she was a size 12 and fit, and wanted advice on what swimsuit to wear. The editor suggested a few things, including a one-piece with cutouts.

Now, size can be a tricky issue. Being a size 12 does not have to mean a person is fat, and these days it’s even more important to depict various weights as acceptable so long as the person appears healthy. But that being said, in a fashion column, people are usually depicted as extremely thin. So I try to maintain a balance by depicting someone who’s not fashion-model skinny, but who probably isn’t a true size 12 either.

The Journal usually has a fast turnaround – I get the brief on Monday evening and expected to produce 2 – 3 sketches by Tuesday morning. The approvals come some time on Tuesday afternoon and we shoot for a Wednesday morning delivery so that everything can be put together for delivery in the Thursday paper.

Considering the short timeframe, I sometimes do roughs and sometimes I just got straight into a sketch. I did do some roughs for this piece. Roughs are usually not shown to the client, they’re just my own ideas for layouts:

I pick 3 roughs to work on and did them up. Here are the sketches I delivered:

The final artwork was done up in Illustrator and imported in Photoshop for additional touchups and to enhance the soft edges.

Limited edition print - The White Stag of Scythia

Buy Sword & Swocery for iPad / iPhone - Click here

Now that it’s been announced – here’s the print I did for the 2nd run of the Sword & Swocery vinyl EP. The print features the ‘white stage of Scythia’ and this piece is probably the most ethereal project I have worked on to date.

If you haven’t already heard, Sword & Swocery is a beautiful and amazing game for the iPad and iPhone. Created by Superbrothers and published by Capybara, the gem of a game has been making waves for its unique qualities and sheer awesomeness. The game also features a kickass soundtrack by Jim Guthrie. Well, soundtrack is a bit of a loose term, the music (so I am told) was created not so much for the game as WITH the game.

I was pretty much given a blank canvas, so I ended up listening to the soundtrack and watching the game on a borrowed iPad. By chance, I happened to read up about the legend of the White Stag and I thought that it was a great idea for the print, considering the game A) has deer and B) has a Scythian as the protagonist. Or THE Scythian.I wanted to do something with Rorschach patterns because I liked the idea of working something subliminal into the image, and I ended up just pouring paint and squishing it as the soundtrack played in the background.

Anyway, if you would like to get your paws on a copy, you’ll have to buy the lovely vinyl from Jim. Or if you prefer your music digital, you can get the music off iTunes as well (sadly, that doesn’t come with the print).

Buy the soundtrack from Bancamp - click here

Another one for the Journal. This was about getting special offers and things on your smartphone. Was a bit surprised that they asked for this concept, but I guess it showed off the phone with the mannequin better than the sketches where you could see the lady’s face.

Another piece for the Wall Street Journal. I have actually already forgotten what the article was abo0ut… my memory seems to be getting worse and worse. Oh well. The ‘fashion mags’ were done in Painter, which was quite interesting. And quick.

View full comic at WHAZAMO!

I was invited to contribute a 1-page web comic to WHAZAMO! I was asked to do a short about a book that made a difference in my life, and my book is ‘How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way’.

WHAZAMO! Ontario Graphic Novel Month is an online comics celebration by Open Book: Toronto. Be sure to check out the other shorts that are and will be going up! There is also a short video to be released at some point this month featuring the contributing artists.

Lots of love to Ian Daffern of Vepo Studios for inviting me to contribute to Whazamo!

Another fun, and quick, job for the great guys at the Journal! Did this for last weeks ‘Ask Teri’ column. The lady on the left is wearing a tight top (you know the kind – the super tight superhero ones where it’s actually fastened at the crotch), and the lady on the right is wearing a twofer. Being fashion-challenged, I had to Google up ‘twofers’. Thankfully the art director sent me some links to check out. Thanks a bunch – that was super helpful!

Wall Street Journal - Ask Teri / Charlene Chua illustration

I created an illustration for the Wall Street Journal’s Ask Teri column. The piece talks about winter boots, and how they are more practical footwear for the cold, wet winter weather in New York lately.

Here is the original sketch. The art director requested that the buildings be removed so as to let the girls come to the foreground. I think it was a good call!

By the way, I am making all the sketches blue in the hopes that they don’t show up in Google’s ‘clip art’ search. I don’t quite have a problem with Google itself (though I wish they would call it something other than ‘clip art’). However I noticed that there are some sites offering what they call ‘free coloring pages’. They’re basically riding off the Google clip art search, and running their own ads on their site. While it’s not a unique situation, I really don’t like how they’ve set up and besides, it’s running up bandwidth usage for everyone. It’s not cool. Anyway, here’s hoping blue sketches don’t qualify as ‘clip art’.

WSJ Ask Teri / Charlene Chua illustration

This was done for the Wall Street Journal’s Ask Teri column for Thursday Jan 20. It was a very quick turnaround (same day). The column is about a man who lost weight and so got his suits remade to fit. He was asking if he should get his shirts remade as well since the necklines were still uncomfortable. The art director originally asked for a picture of a tailor working at making a suit, and I supplied him a sketch of that. I also supplied an alternative sketch for an idea with a pair of hands with a measuring tape across a businessman’s neck, which I thought had related more to the text. The team at the Journal liked the idea and we ran with that. I ended up making the guy look older with a bit of a heavier neck. It was a nice, quick job, and it was great working with the folks at the Journal again (who are simply amazing with their response time!).

These were the sketches I provided:

This was the original tailor idea.

This was my original alternative. I adjusted the guy to be older.