Another artist with a distinctive style goes by the distinctive name of Edwardian Taylor. He works as a concept artist, storyboard artist, and children’s book illustrator. According to his web site, “Edwardian Taylor has always loved to draw. It became so bad, that his parents had to hide his crayons from him because when he was out of paper he would draw all over his bedroom walls. He got familiar with the uses of cleaning supplies at an early age, but this never kept him from drawing.” Among his interesting current projects is a new book called The Animal Alphabet Fairy Tale Edition, which presents each letter of the alphabet via a different creature from myth, legend, and classic literature. His Shop also has a collection of his books and art prints.
Furry Art
Monsters and Mayhem
Paul Schoeni is an artist, illustrator, and animation designer who has spent much of his career working for Dreamworks Animation. According to his web site, the films he’s worked on have included Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, Megamind, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Shrek Forever After, The Croods, Turbo, Trolls, and The Boss Baby. He works in 2D and 3D on computers, but he also has a passion for working with good-old pencil and paper. Not to mention that he has a very distinctive art style! At his Shop you’ll find his sketch book called Monsters and Mayhem for sale, plus many examples of his other works.
One Big Bird — and Not From Sesame Street!
Mary J. Lai creates art and animation under the moniker of Birdzilla Studios. According to her web site, “She has a fondness for birds, which are a frequent subject in her work and cause of quite a few shenanigans in her life. Her achievements include receiving the Matt Groening Initiative award for her thesis film Velo Hoot (which was also selected for an encore in the Best of the NorthWest Animation Film Fest), featured filmmaker for UCLA’s Film & TV’s Director’s Spotlight for her second year film dream(drem)n., and multiple donor awards.” And of course, there are lots of animal, monster, and anthro-animal characters in her portfolio too. Check out her demo reel!
Make the World a Prettier Place
Tyler “Ty” Amato is another artist we met at CTN. He describes his skills as Art Direction and Illustration. Or more precisely, he says it like this: “Hi, I’m Ty! I’m an art director, designer, illustrator, doodler, and a dreamer based in Orlando, Florida. I’m passionate about intricate art that tells a story and I’m hoping to make the world a better place by making it a better looking place.” To that end he has lots of illustrations (of furries, humans, and many other characters) at his web site, as well as a well-stocked Society 6 page where you can buy his artwork as prints, t-shirts, coffee mugs and other fancy stuff. [And of course, Merry Christmas to you all! We hope you and yours had a good one.]
Dog Pictures. And More.
Janice Rostenthal is an illustrator and character designer whom we met at the CTN Animation Expo. She describes herself as a “Disney Imagineer, Ringling College of Art and Design illustration & visual development alumna, dog-person.” As you can see from her web site, that seems to cover all the bases! [And with that, we wish you all Happy Holidays and a Blessed Solstice!]
Children Can Be Animals
So it turns out that there are these two creative moms in the UK named Nat and Naomi. One day they decided to apply their mutual sewing skills to crafting animal-based comfy winter coats for their children — turning them effectively into rabbits, foxes, bears, and so forth. The good news is, they then decided to set up an Etsy shop (oliveandvince, named after their kids) and sell their wares to the children of the world! We agree with an article over at Bored Panda: It would be cool if they would offer some designs in sizes big enough to fit adults, too!
The Elephant Just Goes “Toot”
By far one of the oddest things we came across at Long Beach Comic Con was the world of Cy the Elephart. (Look, people, we don’t make this stuff up — We’d be a whole lot richer if we could!) Created by a trio of “phartists” (their term), Denise Saffren, Paul Schoepflin, and Becky Mann have brought us a friendly and fun-loving elephant who loves nothing more than to break wind. And, apparently, to do so in some very prettily-painted environments. We’re not saying it’ll make more sense, but you’ll see just how busy these folks have been with this project when you visit the official Cy web site. And yes, they have a book project in the works and lots of Cy goodies for sale.
So Cute It Might Hurt
Here’s another find from the Long Beach Comic Con.”Adorkable” is how the artist Jeff Victor describes much of his own work, and indeed his cartoon creations tend toward the “chibi” side of things. A veteran of Warner Brothers TV Animation and Nickelodeon Games, Jeff now works as a freelance illustrator — and a quick glance at his web site will show you what he’s been up to lately. Cartoon characters and yes, funny animals abound.
Cartoons? Stick ’em On!
Decalzilla is an art project and on-line store created in 2010 by two artists named Jon and Courtney. No prizes for guessing: They create custom hand-made vinyl decals in a variety of designs and colors. Comic book stuff, anime, and yes lots of cartoons (including cartoon animals!) find there way into the works you find at Decalzilla.com. All of them original designs, mind you, not just copies of official artwork. Based out of Southern California, they travel to anime and comic conventions all around — and they’re hoping to expand their circle into other parts of the country and even internationally as well.