For a while I was part of a group doing a ‘word of the day’ challenge, where everyday we would have a different adjective to illustrate.
Seeing as I’ve always been a bit of a rock music fan, I thought I would interpret ‘heavy’ as in ‘metal’, and couldn’t resist drawing the rocking dog.
Initial sketch
I originally thought of having a cat playing the guitar, but I liked the idea of a dog’s long ears flailing about inthe air, kind of like a rocker’s long hair.
There was really only one choice of guitar for the power-chording pooch - a Gibson Flying Vee.
It just says hard rock to me more than any other guitar. I also thought the dramatic shape suited the pic.
Adding the background
Had to be a bit stack of amps,shaking about with the volume.
Colouring the characters
I thought I’d have the guitar in a nice bright colour to stick out from the more muted tones of the dog.
Adding washes
Using a digital watercolour tool, I added washes to the amps and also under the characters for shadow.
The finished cartoon
Finally, I added a purple wash at 30% opacity to set the tone. I also added the musical notes aa few movement lines.
‘Defening Leppard’
This version of the cartoon appeared after I did a picture for my friend’s wife’s birthday.
He told me that she was a fan of the band Def Leopard, and asked me if I could do a cartoon with some sort of pun on the name. I thought reworking the ‘heavy’ cartoon would fit the bill.
As well as swapping out the dog for a leopard, I recoloured the guitar red so that it would stand out fromthe yellow of the leopard.
What’s next?
I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, contianing a whole host of characters, as well as occasionally cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.