WRESTLE SPROUTS!

These are a couple of quick character designs for something I've got stewing in the back of my head. All I know is that it's focused at children and it's somewhat nutrition-based. Since my wife got her job working for the local hospital's "healthy kids" program, I've been thinking about some sort of imaginative children's concept that promotes healthy living without resorting to the sort of brainless, ham-fisted conceptualizing that usually accompanies that sort of thing (y'know, where there are bad guy characters who are invariably anthropomorphized soda pops and candy bars and the fearless good-guy in a ridiculous costume always gathers the kids around in a huddle to hammer home the importance of exercise and good nutrition as they nod and feign excitement). I want to be a bit more creative and far-out in characterization and plot, staying far away from anything so obvious as to get in the way of the enjoyability of it all. Kids aren't stupid, after all (well, most of them anyway), and they can smell something designed by men in suits to push a "message" a mile away.

All I know about these characters so far is that they're part of a wrestling troupe called the "Wrestle Sprouts". I came up with the name while eating brussel sprouts and ruminating about wrestling. Aren't I clever?

"LUCHADOLOROSO VS. DEMONIOPULPO" ROUND 1: pencils!

And here's the brave Luchador with the "wee flopsy legs" confronting his archenemy. "LuchaDoloroso" roughly translates to "painful wrestler" while "DemonioPulpo" is, of course "Demon-Octopus"! I'm trying to decide whether to give them a setting at all, or to just use some sort of graphic element as a background (stylized speedlines or radial explosion, etc). I'm thinking the luchador could use a battle scar or two, as well. Still hammering out the details.

LUCHADOR!!

Top half of an work-in-progress featuring this big boy leaping upon his natural enemy! Finished piece coming soon!

WRASSLIN' LOVE!!

This is an image designed to accompany the short story "Charlotte" by Tony Earley. The story takes place in Charlotte, NC, and centers around a failing love relationship paralleled with the shift in popularity and loyalty from "professional" wrestling to the new Charlotte Hornets basketball team in the early 90's. The story is found in a collection of Earley's short stories titled, "Here We Are In Paradise."

It's quite a good short story and features several colorful wrestling characters -- initially, I was going to stick true to my nature and go completely gonzo-overboard with cartoony charicatures of these wrestlers in a free-for all explosion of wrasslin' madness! Perhaps mix in some fight poster elements. I may still go with this idea for a later project, but I decided to pull way back and focus instead on the doomed relationship, turning the lovers into opposing wrestlers, as their bed becomes the ring, complete with ropes and turnbuckles. Clearly, a great struggle has taken place, although no one seems to have emerged "victorious.

Setting up all the reference and deciding on a color scheme was quite a struggle, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. Pen and ink with photoshop colors.