Cover art from our new eBook Where are the dinos. Written by Julia Dweck and illustrated by Bob Ostrom

Hello readers. Whew, its been busy here at the studio lately… not just busy but the kind of busy where you just wish there were more hours in a day kind of busy. The funny thing about this business is I’m not really allowed to share what I’ve been working on outside the studio until the art has been published. Sometimes that can take up to a year. So, you didn’t hear it from me but I’ve got some really big projects in the works that you guys are going to love… including a great new interview I did last week with my good buddy Mr. Carlos Castellanos over at DrawnbySuccess.com

I recently emerged from hibernation long just enough to do an interview with one of my favorite artists and pod-casters, Carlos Castellanos. Yes, THE Carlos Castellanos creator of the Baldo comic strip and my co-host from the wildly successful DrawnbySuccess.com. This time the tables were turned however  and I found myself on the opposite side of the mic. I just want to say its great being a guest for a change and not only was I a complete natural but I enjoyed myself immensely.

Anyhow, Carlos interviewed me and my good friend author Julia Dweck where we both appear as guests on the latest episode of DrawnbySuccess.com. Julia and I spent a little quality time with Carlos discussing our new eBook, Where are the Dinos available on Amazon right now as we speak! We get into lots of details about the creative process, scoring a top spot on Amazon’s top 100 and some of the killer marketing techniques we used to get our book seen and reviewed. I couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve done and was thrilled with the opportunity to collaborate with someone as talented as Julia.

So here’s the skinny… If you’ve been thinking about getting into the eBook market as a writer or an illustrator you won’t want to miss this interview. It’s chock full of super valuable information about how to create publish and market an eBook.  This is the kind of artists gold you will only find on a site like DrawnbtSuccess.com. So put your phone on vibrate, shut off your email for the next 32 minutes, tell the receptionist to take a message and please come check us out over on Drawnbysuccess.com.

A Few Fun Links:

Where are the Dinos Facebook page - Want the latest on the the Where are the Dinos book. Here you can interact with the Author and illustrator and ask them any dino questions you’d like. You can also find free printouts and lots more. Like us on Facebook and for a limited time only Bob gives you permission to tell all your friends he said you were to cool for school.

Julia Dweck’s Website – Ever wonder what it’s like to be a children’s eBook author? Well wonder no more. Head on over to Julias site and get the inside scoop

Youtube Where are the Dinos Contest – Got a question about dinos? Bob Ostrom Fake Dinosaur expert is a trained professional and will answer all your dino questions. Who knows maybe you’ll even be featured in Bob’s next dino video.

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To be Featured in the Next Bob Ostrom Fake Dinosaur Expert Video

• Post  a link to your dino video question in the comment section below or on our Where are the Dinos Facebook page.
• You’ll need to get permission from a parent or guardian if you are under 18.
• If you are too shy or don’t have a way to make a video you can always submit your question in writing on the Where are the Dinos Facebook page.
• Be sure and include your favorite part of the Where are the Dinos eBook.

Get your question in soon this offer is for a limited time. I will try to answer as many questions as possible. Good luck can’t wait to hear your dinosaur questions

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Hi readers this week and next I will be featuring art from my latest book Where are the Dinos ?, written by author Julia Dweck and published by Kite Reader. You can find it in the hot new release section over on the Amazons. So far it looks like we’re doing pretty well. Lots of very positive reviews. WHOOT!!!

Illustrating a children’s ebook is no small task. It takes lots of planning, an endless amount of sketches, roughs, layouts, revisions and many late nights at the drawing board. The amount of work that goes into producing just one book is staggering. It is truly a labor of love. Surrounding yourself with good people always makes things a little better. I’d like to give special thanks to my good friends artist Richard Carbajal, author Julia Dweck and all the kind folks at Kite Reader for making this look easy (trust me when I tell you it’s much harder than it looks). Here is just a small part of what we do…

Start with a rough sketch. How rough is rough? Just enough to get the idea down on paper.

Once I have the idea down on paper it’s time to tighten up the sketch.

Every piece is reviewed several times before it goes to publishing.

The final art with type in position.

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Most of the functions in Photoshop are not a huge stretch to learn. Admittedly though, they can sometimes appear a little intimidating. Editing video is one of those functions. When I first looked at it, it seemed overwhelming but after about an hour or so of research and working with the program I felt totally at ease. The learning curve is gradual and best of all it relies on many of the functions I’m already familiar. You’ll find everything pretty much right where you remember it to be. The time line interface is predicable and easy to use and adding audio is as easy as clicking a single button.

Up until now I had been using I’d been using Apple’s latest version of iMovie to edit my videos…ugh. Maybe because I’m familiar with the Adobe programs or maybe because I’m just not in love with iMovie, I feel like comparing these two programs almost seems unfair. While iMovie is clunky and counter intuitive Photoshop uses a platform I’m already comfortable with and allows me to do all the things I’m not able to do in iMovie. iMovie is great if you don’t mind using pre-fomatted functions. Photoshop really allowed me to create whatever I wanted to and whats more I feel like I’ve just started to scratch the surface. All in all it was a great experience and I can’t wait to see what else I can do with it. The only drawback I’ve run into so far is that it’s tends to be bit of a memory hog when working with it. File sizes however are still manageable so far. This file for instance is under 10mgs. If you’ve worked with video editing using Photoshop I’d love to hear about your experience and how it’s working out for you.
If you are interested in learning more about video editing here are some of the the resources I used.

I highly recommend:
Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a book - (Ok yeah, the cover’s a little creepy but it’s a great book)
YouTube video tutorial  – http://youtu.be/praOG6jJxpc – Straight forward look at editing with Photoshop and how to get started. Walks you through from start to finish.

If you are interested in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign and happen to live in the Raleigh area you are always welcome to join me in any of the locations where I teach-

Wake Tech community college
The State Personnel Development Center

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Designing a character whether it be a cartoon mascot or a logo always starts with lots of sketches. Here’s a look at the process I used to design the Mr.Chewy cartoon mascot for on-line pet food giant Chewy.com.

The assignment was to develop a mascot to represent Chewy.com.  The main character would be Mr. Chewy, a dog, who would most likely have a side kick. Since we determined Mr. Chewy to be a dog I naturally thought a cat would make a fun side kick. The direction for this project was very loose and allowed me a great deal of creative freedom. Knowing I had a lot of room to experiment I quickly grabbed my sketchbook and got to work.

Putting together sketches helps me think and come up with lots of ideas. I like to try as many different directions as I can in the beginning. Eventually something will grab my interest and I begin to refine. I take an idea far enough so I can easily discuss it with my client and then begin on a new directions. I repeat the process several times until I have exhausted all my ideas. Once I’m done I pick out my winners to share with my client. This is always my favorite part of the project. Sharing sketches open discussions and allows us to get creative.

Cartoon mascot sketches for Mr.Chewy

Developing a mascot or logo character is an evolutionary process. Discussing direction early in the process allows us to really think things through. Knowing how and where the character will be used will make a big difference in the design. Does he need to hold an object, or does he walk on all fours? Will he appear on a website, the side of a bus, a business card or all of the above? Paying attention to this kind of stuff early in the developmental phase helps us avoid pitfalls later on. The last thing you want is a character who needs to be redesigned because he can’t do the things you want him to.

Once the initial sketches are submitted I review them with the client. Sometimes a character jumps right off the page, sometimes it’s a combination of a couple of different directions, sometimes nothing sticks at all. In this case we found a few characters we liked but the Mr.Chewy character didn’t really come out. So it’s back to the drawing board but I’m not worried because after our conversation I now have a clearer idea where we’re headed. My client and I are on the same page and we’re both having fun. We have lots of new ideas for this character. We’ve had a blast talking about possibilities and the client has decided to add a few more characters to the line up. I can’t wait to get back to my drawing board and explore some of the new directions we talked about.

Round two – More cartoon mascot sketches

Round 2 and we have a winner. One of the sketches catches my clients eye. He asks for a few changes but overall he’s thrilled with the direction we’re headed and is excited to see more. I refine and tighten my sketches up then resubmit. The client gives me approval and lets me know the tight sketch is right on the money. Time to finalize.

My client has a great sense of humor and we joke about all the fun we will have with our new Mr. Chewy character. Our discussion opens the door to working up the additional characters.

Finished cartoon mascot character Mr.Chewy. Done in Adobe Illustrator.

The new characters are a hit and will all be featured on the website in an upcoming online campaign. We’ve had a great time developing the characters and laughing about the fun scenarios we will be placing them in. It’s always cool to see a project come together like this.

Since I began working with Chewy.com they have grown from a small start-up to a house hold name… practically overnight. Mr. Chewy has appeared in all kinds of  ads from greeting cards to a Facebook marketing campaign. It’s been amazing to see how successful this company has become in such a short amount of time.  If you Google the Mr.Chewy character you can find him everywhere and thanks to the good folks at Chewy.com he is loved and well received by their customers too.

If you happen to see Mr.Chewy out there on the inter-webs anywhere please post a link below. I would love to see where you found him.

Bob Ostrom is a cartoon illustrator. When he’s not designing cartoon logos and mascots you can most likely find him illustrating a children’s book,  teaching a class or taking a well deserved nap. For more on Bob and his incredible napping drawing skills hop on over to the about page. If you’d like to hire Bob for your next project you can contact him directly at 919-809-6178 or through his rep Deborah Wolfe LTD at 215-232-6666.

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I’ve been looking for old Photoshop ans Illustrator files all morning and I can’t seem to find anything. I remember the images but when I search for them by name nothing comes up. The reason nothing comes up is because the files aren’t really lost I just happen to be using the wrong names when I search. My clients tend to name files very differently then I do and therefor when I search using a logical title nothing comes up. If only I’d known about tagging my images with keywords when I created them I wouldn’t be going through any of this now.

Adobe built this great little feature into it’s programs to help out guys like me who’s files are all over the place. Here’s how it works. Suppose you have a file like this one on the right. It’s name is something like ZRX_1357-22BRB.PSD. Great for the client not great for me. When I search for this image I would probably use a search term like Monsters, Haunted House, Halloween…. you get the idea. The problem is none of those words produce results. So how do we fix that? Simple we add keyword search terms right into the file.

Here’s how it works. Before saving the file we’ll add some tags to help us find it later. That way if the client needs a title full of letters and numbers we can still find it using simple search terms later. So here is my file. I happen to be working in Photoshop right now but this works for other Adobe programs too.

In Photoshop start by going to File > File Info

A panel that looks like the one below should now be up on your screen.

You can add a title, author name, file description, key words etc. Let’s focus on the keywords. By tagging this image with common keywords I can easily find it in a search later by using any of those terms.

Now when I go to find my art using my computer’s  search
my image will show up using any of the keywords I added.

If you can build this into your routine you will never lose another file again.

The great part about it is it’s never too late to add the search terms. Once you find your lost file open it add your keywords into the file at any time and then simply re-save.

•note – You can also use Adobe’s bridge to add keywords but that’s a story for anther day.…

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All images are copyright of their respective owners. Cartoon logo design by Bob Ostrom Studio.

The post Cartoon Logo Design by Bob Ostrom Studio appeared first on Illustration.

Childrens Book Illustration
by

Bob Ostrom

The post Childrens Book Illustration by Bob Ostrom Studio appeared first on Illustration.

On the right is a very old photo of the character used for this logo, a relative of the company owner.

This cartoon logo is based on a real life character. I’m not really much of a caricature artist but when this project came along I couldn’t resist. I took one look at the reference photo and I knew we were going to have some fun. This is my favorite of several versions done of this logo.

alternate logos treatments – VintageKnives.com

 
You can find out more about vintage knives by visiting the website at: VintageKinves.com

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Drawn by Success is a website dedicated to serve as a valuable resource of proven marketing and positioning strategies designed to help freelance artists prosper at the creative work they love, while also serving as a source of encouragement and accountability to those artists bold enough to do the work necessary to attract Better Clients and Charge Higher Fees and prosper as creative professionals. Check us out at DrawnbySuccess.com

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