Zalien: Measuring the Alien

The Tiki Carver was a bit easier to keep consistent but, as I mentioned, the previous character studies of Zalien tend to be all over the place.  Some are longer, skinnier, shorter, etc. than others.  He's a hard character to keep straight so it's important to establish some parameters.

This character study, I think, was correctly proportioned at about 3 1/4 heads in height:

This next character is the same height but other proportions have strayed:

Especially the heads... they seem to belong to two different characters.  One way, I believe, to tighten that up is to create a controlling parameter.  Here's my theory about "The Box":

3 different expressions but clearly they are all the same character.  Now I'm starting to get a kick out of Zalien.

So I have my next task cut out for me: I'll rework a few of my character studies and once they start to look right, color them.  Stay tuned.

Zalien: Emotional Zalien

Some time back I penciled a few ideas showing Zalien experiencing different emotions:

I seem to have had a better grasp of the character back then.  Zalien's a hard one to draw consistently, meaning I have to do lots more of it.

Incorporating these expressions here are perhaps more developed character studies:

Zalien: Alien Off the Starboard.... Roof, Sir!

I'm not happy with my character sketches at all... but I persevered in coming up with some ideas for a picture.  Here are some layout ideas:

I went with the last one (I draw right to left, bottom to top, because I'm left-handed... as if that makes a difference but for some reason it does). 

I liked this layout because of the full frontal profile of the spaceship and Zalien.  This isn't a bad idea and a pretty good depiction of how a spaceship wound up in a neighborhood on Halloween night.

Zalien the Alien: Character Development

Well, I'm all over the map with this one:

...obviously, I still have a lot of decisions to make.  But I have enough, I think, to depict Zalien flying in his spaceship over a neighborhood.  At night.  Stay tuned.

Zalien the Alien: Environment Thumbs (Strato Views)

When Zalien samples the chocolate he suddenly remembers that chocalate upsets an alien's multiple tummies.  Ohhhhhh.... suddenly he doesn't fell well.  Could someone please fetch his tummy medicine from his spaceship?

Gina is the brave one in the little group of trick-or-treaters and she rushes aboard but accidentally - with a click and a swoosh - launches herself into space!  A panicked Zalien desperately tries to talk her down.

These thumbs are a few studies of the view from the spaceship as it suddenly takes off (roofs, streets) and launches itself into space (earth seen from the stratosphere).

Zalien the Alien: An Idea for a Spaceship

Here's one idea taken from the sketch page:

Switching gears: Zalien the Alien

I'm blocking on an image of a Hawaiian market.  Rather than struggle I'm changing lanes to another idea, Zalien the Alien.

Zalien interrupts three trick-or-treaters on Halloween night and samples some of their chocolate.  Then he remembers that for aliens, chocolate upsets their multiple tummies.  Adventure ensues.

I have the characters but I need a good space ship.  Here I scribbled some ideas.

Try it, it's fun.  Each scribble should take a minute or less:

Fill a page!

My Grandpa, the Tiki Carver

Adoring grandfather.  Adorable granddaughter.

Same picture, different style.  Maybe I prefer a "scratchier" look.

Tiki Carver: Granddaughter (rough ideas)

I'm thinking the Tiki Carver story should be told from the perspective of the granddaughter... the story is developing in my mind... so I want to create this character.

So I guess it's important to scribble ideas pretty much as fast as you can rather than second-guessing them...

.

... just random, non-thinking scribbles at first.  The bottom row, though, is giving me something to work with.

This, I think, looks more like a 6-year-old who considers her grandpa to be the "best grandpa in the whole world":

It's probably a good idea to fill a page with scribbles everyday. 


Here are some tikis in 3/4 view....

...always handy.  They can be re-purposed as required. 

Tiki Carver: Tikimobile to the Rescue!

Here it comes...

... hak cough cough.... smoky damn thing. 

Tiki Carver: Sitting by the Roadside

I

t isn't much fun sitting by the roadside waiting for someone to buy a tiki.

Tiki Carver: character process

I'm working on a little picture of Tiki Carver sitting by the roadside in a kiosk, offering tikis for sale.  Here is the character process from scratchy lines to (more or less) finished character:

His expression says: it gets a little boring waiting for someone to stop and buy a tiki.