Shhhh... I'm hunting Wulfies.

The VA Tech Hokie Bird is about to stop the Wolfpack from snatching up the ACC.

This is an illustration I did for The Key Play.  I love drawing these mascot battles.  Mascots are so naturally cartoony looking that they just seem to need to have cartoon adventures. 

Here is the quick sketch I did to figure out what I wanted to do.  I was happy enough with the character design. The Wolf Pack (or Wulf Pac) guy is a little off model but that is just because I did not like the model.  Their official emblem they use looks more like a boxer dog than a wolf to me and the mascot costumes they use look more like bears to me.  So, I made him a little more wolfish.  I was going for a John Stanley vibe with the pigs.  The composition is lousy though so I re-drew it.

Here is the re-draw.  Now the picture is more balanced.  Kind of a reverse take on the Frazetta pyramid thing.  It's top heavy but most all mascot costumes are really top heavy so I think that's okay.  (Speaking of the Frazetta pyramid, have you ever noticed that Howard Chaykin often uses a diamond form?  I have.  And it's awesome.)

The next step is to ink that sucker up. I inked this with a brush. I seldom have the time or room to ink with a brush. My art studio is usually my lap so it's usually not convenient to break out the bottle of India ink. But for this old fashioned cartoon style the brush is essential. If I used a pen it would look too frail. Well, it would look pretty much like those pencil drawings up there. Even if I put a bunch of labored pen rendering in there it would still just look wrong. It had to be brush.

The next step is to throw it into photoshop and drop in some color.  Which, takes about two hours longer than it did to draw it.  

Do you like sports mascots?  Know what you should do?  You should pay me to draw them for you.  For reals. I do custom sketches really cheap.  Full color finished illustrations are cheap too but that price just depends on what you want.  So, ya know, let me know what you want and we will make the magic happen. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith