Comments about Guest Artist Dave Waller:
- SnowBuni Pinup Artwork by cartoonist Dave Waller
- Discussion: Contest Time! Hit the Beach Pinup Contest 2005 in the Pseudo Comments forum
Artwork Introduction by Guest Artist Dave Waller:
- I thought I'd send you some info on how I came up with my design for the swimsuit contest. As most of my site's hits come through snowbuni.com, I thought it'd be rude not to ;-)
- It took me a long time to come up with the idea for this pinup. I knew from the start that I didn't want to go for the gratuitous bikini shot so I tried to come up with something a little more subtle - approach the problem from a different angle.
- I thought about Snowi's character and personality and it struck me that she was the kind of heroine that young, space-cadet wannabes would day-dream about. This, eventually, led me to the thought of a young bunny, day-dreaming while having a rather boring day rock pooling.
- I knew that I wanted a bit of narrative dialogue, the kind you make up in your head when day-dreaming, and a giant sand dwelling beast. This gave me the opportunity to focus on layout to help compensate for any failings in drawing ability. I tried to use the colours, text boxes and tentacles to lead the reader's eye through the image.
- The actual dialogue was a little more difficult and I found myself trying to have the day-dream
- while in the shower every morning. The final wording finally came to me (after about a week!) and I wrote it down quickly before I forgot it.
- I'd already penciled the piece and decided that I'd try and ink it digitally rather than by hand (like my winter entry). Now, I spend all day, everyday using Flash at work so I'm pretty familiar and quick with its drawing tools
- So that's what I used. I inked it and set up the main colour boundaries in about a morning and then took the EPS into Photoshop for colouring.
- The colours took a little longer to do as I couldn't decide on the colours of the beast. When I finally got it done, I added the lettering and bubbles with Freehand and hit save. The mono image came a few days later, once I'd played with the contrast settings and halftone filters in Photoshop.
- I'm pretty happy with the finished piece, although, I think I may revisit it to make a few adjustments. I like the overall form and shape of the Garganid, and I'm really pleased with how Snow Buni turned out, but there's something not quite right with the mouth and eyes of the beast. It looks a little bit flat, so I might redo the mouth, bringing the teeth out, reaching and scratching for Snowi's weakening body!
- All in all, an enjoyable challenge, and great feedback and ideas from all the judges and entrants.