There is a Dog

@ronmarz has a picture of his dog as his twitter icon.  His dog looks nothing like this and it's head is actually turned in profile to the right, but at the small avatar size, this is the dog my brain sees... even though I know better having already seen at a slightly larger size it's clearly a completely different image. I'm always fascinated by the flexibility of perception. It constantly reminds me that reality is open to interpretation, subject to the resolution and expectations of my own imperfect perception. This is a good thing to know so that I can correct myself when a new more appropriate idea or model of perception comes along without being too overly attached to my old ideas and paradigms.

There is something there, but it's not what I think it is, and that's ok.  In fact, it's good because it generates creativity.  I can create something original and useful out of my flawed perceptions. This drawing looks a lot like my own dog, so you can see I've projected my own experience into a vague image.  My brain has reconstructed the image with detail and meaning that it expects to see which isn't actually there.

How is this misperception useful? In this case I've created a character portrait that I might be able to use in a story, or a cute image I could put on a greeting card, or a toy design, or use it as a story starter, or create fresh interesting content for my blog. ;-)  It's the same process of improvisation people use to compose art, invent technology, innovate business processes, invent scientific hypotheses, find new ways to communicate and relate to one another, and philosophize about almost anything.  Imagination creates new solutions and modifies things in ways that suit new purposes.

Cartoon Christmas Wrapping

I'm really looking forward to seeing my two little nephews this Christmas. I think I had as much fun making their gift wrapping as they will have with the gifts! The improvised cartoons were meant to be some randomly fun pictures to decorate their plain brown wrappers, but they sort of turned into a little story... a tableau of things two young siblings might like to do together in the winter.

Threadless Reject

This is my first design submission to Threadless (a crowd sourced T-shirt design and retail company).  I worked hard on the design and I figured it was a good one.  Even so it did not get voted/rated enough to be printed.  I'm not sure if it's because the design isn't good enough or because I don't have a big enough following that will go on there and vote for it, or maybe I didn't do a good job of communicating to my following in an inspiring way.

I'm interested in your feedback.  Got any ideas of how I could improve this design or my campaign for votes?  Email (scott@moon-man.com) or tweet me (@scott_mooney).

Cheers!
Scott

War of 1812 TV and Comics Illustrations

This summer I got to work on a historical TV program and related comics about the War of 1812 (in which America attempted to invade Canada). My client for this is Zeros2Heroes, a comics and entertainment company out of Vancouver. There were 6 episodes in total (of which I illustrated 3) and each episode was also turned into a 22 page comic book (of which I illustrated 2).  I was hired on as a penciller, so the inks and colours and lettering were designed by other artists.  These are some samples of those pencils.

These TV bits are from the episodes about Sir Isaac Brock and Laura Secord.

These comics pages are from the story of Enos Collins, the privateer that helped win the war, got rich in the process and founded a bank now known as the CIBC, which is one of the biggest banks in the world right now.

Mighty Bubble Issue 3

My latest Mighty Bubble minicomic.  I went for a retro 3 colour treatment on the cover because it looks cool and sophisticated, and to save time… it’s actually a really efficient way to colour something.  Lazy or efficient?  You be the judge.

Mighty Bubble is a character I created (in collaboration with the communications team at AECOM) for Hudbay Inc. as a part of their corporate citizenship with Flinflon Manitoba/Saskatchewan (the town straddles the border).  Mighty Bubble is part of an ongoing campaign to get kids excited about hand washing. Fun things I’ve created for the campaign include Mighty Bubble himself and his accompanying characters, stickers, puzzles, activity sheets, temporary tattoos, and of course the comics, written and drawn by yours truly.  It’s a really fun and creative program to be a part of.  I really want the program to grow from Flinflon to the rest of the world.  It's a great public message with huge potential to improve public health, and the kids are loving it.

Canadian History Doodle

Here's a little character study for a period piece I'm working on for an entertainment company.  And that may be about all I'm legally allowed to say right now.  But I thought it was a nice image and this will likely be the only place anyone will ever see it.  It's a doodle I made in the margin of the script to help me get a sense of the character.  The final product ended up being something quite different than this.  

She Hulk and Hellboy Get It On Again

Scroll back a couple of years or so in this blog and you'll see that this is a sequel to an older bit of fan art.  I love seeing Hellboy and Shulkie together.  I think they make a good pair.  Could be a great crossover comic.  Differing in personality, similar in temper and braun.  Lots of super powered chemistry and conflict potential.