A few more Cartoon Cuties ink sheets passed through the scanner. Above is a cuddly shot of Crissy Carrots (although I'm certain I will go back and maker her bottom half larger, as her legs look really tiny here). The main goal of the book is to make people smile. I don't always use cheesecake to do that, either. Directly below are a couple of pages featuring sisters Beverly and Jeannie, that last panel hopefully a warm and fuzzy depiction of sisterly love. When it came time to ink the top page, I was very cross with myself for having set the scene in a library!
Of course, the girls have their cheesecakey moments as well. Here's a pinup shot of Jeannie... (one where her head looks rather large, I may need to tweak it a little...)
Jeannie looks a bit better proportioned (if still in an animated way) in the next ink sheet. If I thought I made a mistake setting a story in a library, I discovered it was still far better than choosing to draw a tennis game. Those rackets in particular are challenging when you draw everything but straight lines and perfect circles freehand!
Finally, we have a potential cover ink sheet which features Bev and Jean. I find I draw Beverly in states of frustration quite a bit. That's really only because she's so expressive, so putting her in situations where she's able to be expressive obviously makes sense. By nature, Jeannie is a bit more graceful and thus more prone to wearing a happy face.
Yvette Pond (named by colorist/letterer Jim Ludwig) has proven a fun character to draw. She has several short episodes lined up for future issues. Here's a sample of her work... (Her head also seems a bit large in most of these pages. Sometimes it's useful for me to scan a few pages as I seem to notice what needs to be fixed more quickly after seeing a scan than from just looking at the art itself. The downside of that means sharing my mistakes with you rather than presenting my best work!)
Simone Grace hasn't commanded as many pages as I expected her to, she being the local weather girl with dreams of stardom. Here are a couple of pages from a solo story which features her. What issue exactly this episode will appear in, I can't say just yet. Simone was one of my earliest characters because I was commissioned to create her shortly after I developed Crissy Carrots. She proved difficult to build a book around for some reason, so I never really did anything with her. Even her appearances in Cartoon Cuties are peripheral. At least they have been so far. I'm sure she'll have her turn, though.
A couple of new faces now. The first appears only fleetingly in a story I recently finished the inks for. Here's the main page where she's featured, during a photoshoot at the movie studio where most of the book is set, or at least centered around. Not sure yet who she is, what her name is, or even if she's going to be a return character. She came out cute, though, so I may try to find more for her to do. (UPDATE - I go back and alter this page after posting, when I noticed just how long her right arm is.)
This next character I've been hesitant to show off, since in black and white she looks a lot like Minerva Mink. The similarities go even farther, since this character is Maxine Mink. Max is a local TV personality, the spokesmodel for prominent fur seller Marco's Minks. I've got a couple of stories lined up for her (and even a joke about her really being a racoon who dyed her hair). The similarities to Minerva Mink will be gone once the pages are colored, but it's hard not to see them here. Granted, most cartoon characters (Minerva Mink, Mickey Mouse, Alvin, etc) have very similar faces. That's something I discovered when I began drawing "femanimals" for Cartoon Cuties. Even so, her long hair and tail and similar name make Max look like a copy of sorts. Again, though, once colored that will be negated.
I've come to grips with the fact that Crissy Carrots is more or less my mascot. Here are some Carrots drawings. The first was planned as a sales piece, but it may find it's way into the book instead. Below that is a page from a story I just did final clean-up on.
Lastly, we have an illustration which may not be an actual page for Cartoon Cuties. I actually saw it more fit for T shirts or something of that nature, which is why it doesn't have typical panel boarders. It'll also mean more after a few issues have been released, but to my eyes it perfectly sums up the series itself. I said the book's purpose was to make the reader smile, and here's a drawing that should do just that once one is familiar with the characters.
Cartoon Cuties, all art and characters (c) 2019 Rock Baker
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