Monc (the musician I did a short animation for last year) contacted me a few weeks back about a new project he is putting together for kids. He’s been compiling these odd surreal songs about a number of subjects and characters he has created. It’s very cool stuff.

One thing that has perturbed me about children’s entertainment throughout my life is how often it patronizes its audience and ridiculously dumbs down any subject matter while trying so hard not to offend anyone that it becomes intellectually offensive. I have fought to make sure that doesn’t infect my work and Mike and I were always cautious not to tread that ground when doing puppet shows. Monc also seems to share these concerns. He has recorded these fun ditties that are peppered with imagination and oddness and never insult the intelligence of the audience. He asked me if I would be willing to do some concept art for a few of the characters. I was delighted to. I took inspiration from his music and lyrics (and our conversations) and threw in whatever my mind puked out while sketching. I hope you guys enjoy the results.

Oddly enough, while working on these, a need for storybook style illustrations arose on the Van Von Hunter movie at work. I spent a week putting together a few fun images for that and I hope to be able to share them in the near future.

It’s been nice to have an excuse to draw again and to develop my digital painting skills. I’m finally beginning to feel like I’m getting somewhere with digital painting, although I feel I have a long way to go before I am truly happy with my abilities.

Several more images if you click here, children!