The Ecobears by David Sterricker and illustrated by me (Calvin Innes) has just been launched by My Little Big Town.

The Ecobears is an exciting and action packed children’s book with a message of caring for the environment and the protection of the Earth’s resources.

In a far off galaxy there is a lush and vibrant planet known as Vynen. The rich, forest covered planet is home to thousands of exotic species of plants and animals, from the Giant Hairy Momomouth to the miniature Flip Beetle, each of them cared for by the Ecobears.

The Ecobears are highly intelligent creatures who watch over plants and animals on planets all across the universe, protecting them from harm. They travel vast distances across space to strange worlds with unimaginable forms of life, with their only aim being the protection of endangered species (whatever they may be).

When the evil bears known as Krakkov and Dilus (The Bear Reaper) are located on a distant planet the brave Ecobears must quickly jump into action. These villains are know well on the planet Vynen and wherever they go, trouble quickly follows.

Can they protect the planet from certain destruction? Join the Ecobears in their first action packed book to find out.

You can get hold of your copy over on the My little Big Store or from all good retailers.

I’ve been so bogged down with work for these last few months I haven’t had time to post.. in fact not a new post up here since March. While a fair bit of my time has been sepnt doing the usual client work, cartoons, character designs, advertising material, etc… most of my time has been taken up with the launch and pretty rapid growth of my publishing company My Little Big Town.

We have some great new titles out including Gorgeous George & The Giant Geriatric Generator by Stuart Reid and The Ecobears by David Sterricker. Check out more on both titles over on the new My Little Big Town Website.

Now things are a little more organised (certainly not less busy) I’m going to start updating the blog again. Keep checking back for new sketches, artwork and news on what I’m currently working on.

I’ve been working on a new children’s book for the last few weeks, based on a short story I wrote a few years back. It’s about a young boy who finds himself in a strange world known as Bubbalo. The whole thing is digitally painted so it’s a little different form the stuff I’ve been working on recently. The book will be out later this year, but for now here’s just a taster……

The Bubbalo Bird

The Bubbalo Monkeys

The Bubbalo Fish

The Bubbalophants

A few characters from a new comic strip I’m working on featuring a bunch of laboratory animals. It’s kinda sick!

Boils the Hamster - Used to test experimental beauty products.

Lobe the Rat - Currently growing a human ear on his back.

Twitch the Rabbit - A nervous type, he is used in various experiments.. usually involving electric shocks!

A random sketch from one of my sketchbooks I decided to draw up for a little practice. Illustrated in Photoshop, using a Wacom Cintiq 21ux. About 4-5 hours work in total.

The rough sketch. Just a random sketch taken from one of my ‘scribble pads’… not one of my main sketchbooks, one I use for jotting down basic ideas and page layouts. I kinda liked the look of this one so for a bit of practice I decided to draw it up.

The inked page. Inked using Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq 21ux. It’s inked a little looser and less detailed than most of the pages I’ve been doing recently.

The finished, coloured picture. After a bit of deliberating over the colours (she started off blue) I settled on the red and orange ‘flame-like’ colours. As an afterthought I made the face a little more feline/animal-like and added some flames/smoke/swirls on the arm.
For a final touch I added tons of blur and blending on the background so the main figure pops out a little more.

(I kinda like how the signature turned out too… I’ll be using that again!)

View more of my work at:

www.calvininnes.com

Twitter:
twitter.com/calvininnes

Facebook:
facebook.com/CalvinInnesArt

Thanks!

I had a bit of free time this week so I decided to work up a sketch I doodled before Christmas. It was just a silly little scribble but I thought it might make for a good illustration. The fish is a character I came up with way back, about five years ago… and originally he wasn’t a fish. He had weird little stumpy legs like a fat pink cow. Then there was a bird, with stumpy little wings….. I’ll probably work some of those other sketches up shortly as this one was quite a bit of fun to do.

The initial scribble from my sketchbook

The first stages of colour added. Most of the work so far has been done in Painter but I now switch to Photoshop to work on some of the lighting.

About half way through the illustration. Just basic colour and a bit of shading at this stage.

The finished illustration with all of the shading done and details added.

All in all about 6 hours work switching between Painter and Photoshop. The whole thing was illustrated using a Wacom Cintiq 21ux.

Koubelam… character illustration from a project we’re working on at My Little Big Town Comics at the moment. Sketch, ink and colour by Myself.

One of the characters from my new comic book Archietomorph is based on myself… all be it a little more messed up. Half Vampire, half human, half psychopath (yes I know it doesn’t add up). Enjoy!