A bunch o' bugs

Things really do come and go in waves. For a while, it seemed like everything I was working on involved birds. The duck was a given, as it was a part of the company's identity. I'll always love drawing ducks. I always have. Ducks, like chickens and penguins, are just naturally funny. Well, that's what I'll argue, at least. Speaking of penguins, I've struggled to get them into some kind of client design for some time now and I've scored zero in the attempt. Either I have been poorly serving the penguin community, or corporate types just hate penguins. Or it could be a little of both - who knows.

At any rate, once upon a time, the wave was bugs. These first ideas were for a small company looking for something to identify with. A bug seemed to suit well, and they really liked the idea.



They even liked the first round so much, they chose one right off the bat. "Things are going really well, self!" I said to myself.




Even the next round went well - they liked all the rough ideas with only minor changes. "Things really are going well!" myself said back to me.



Then, as I was finishing up the first illustration, the client called and said they wanted a dog to replace the bug. From bug to dog? Uh... sure. So that's what they ended up with. Despite the sudden last-minute change, they stuck with their more or less dream-client ways and proceeded to eat up the stuff I sent them with little or no changes.



I really like the dog, but I prefer the one with more blue. It doesn't even have to be that particular shade, either. Just not straight zero-saturation. I don't like taking "black" literally. To have appeal, it needs a bit of color to give it a sense of presence - of being affected by light. Any color will do, based on the requirements of the setting. Any thoughts from the thousands of people not reading this?



Finally, we have the bug getting the boot. This was for a mailer promoting pest exterminating services. The kicker (heh) was that they sent along a plastic bug and target setup thingie where you could flick their bug while waiting on hold to have your own bugs killed. First, it was narrowed down to these two:



Then, having picked a bug (they wanted a cockroach that looked like a grasshopper...) it was on to flicking mechanisms. Here we have the spring-loaded platform and a boot:



First color:



Then the final art:



Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the final mailer or I'd scan that in & post it as well. My coffee is almost gone, so I'm going to go fill 'er up and get back to work.

K