
A new section I am adding to this blog is "From the Sketchbook"...where I'll be posting some stuff in the rawest of forms...the pencil sketch. As I've talked about in the past, it's important to look back through sketchbooks, if not only to remember ideas that you forgot you once had. But it is also important to see your process...how you came to the final image.

So to kick this section off...I figured it was good to talk about my most recent venture, my picture book, Fishing for THAT ONE BIG ONE (My own way). Looking through my sketchbook, I remembered how tough it was to come up with the father in the story. I definitely wanted this character to resemble my own dad, Bob Marchant (whom the story is dedicated to), but I wanted to make sure that kids nowadays would respond to him in a positive light.
The image at top-left is the first preliminary sketch I did of this character. It closely resembles my dad, but I made him a bit "geekier." I was going for a Bob meets Ned Flanders type look...a total middle-aged product of the 70s & 80s. But, after some discussion and rethinking, I decided that the kids that this story was targeted to didn't have dads from the 70s & 80s like I did...they had dads that came of age in the 90s.

I reworked the character into what you see in the sketch at right of this page. I dropped the glasses, lowered his "hiked up" socks, and traded in the mustache for a goatee...giving him a younger, fresher persona. I feel that it still sort of resembled my dad, but it was a version of my dad that had been born 20 years after he was.
After a bit of more character development, I came up with the final image that you see at bottom-left. This is the first time you see this character in the book...so I went for a "hero's pose" with him...the way the son in the story would see his dad.
Overall, I think this character turned out great...I'm very pleased with the direction I took him in. I believe I gave proper tribute to my own father, while being able to relate to today's youth and their own fathers.
Check Back Soon For More "FROM THE SKETCHBOOK"...