Create a Comic, Help Polar Bears

“My Arctic Animal” Competition: Create a Comic for Conservation – Help the Polar Bears Through Creativity

I’ve teamed up with Wildlife Warriors, an organization for wildlife conservation and awareness, to host an international comic competition for kids and teens in support of Polar Bears International and the Arctic Documentary Project.

Open to contestants internationally within three age categories – eight and under, nine to thirteen, fourteen to eighteen, entrants are invited to submit a one-page comic inspired by Arctic wildlife! The winner will receive a character cameo in a Last of the Polar Bears side-story, an original illustration, The Last of the Polar Bears Pre-Dawn book, and a Polar Bears International bear adoption kit!

Click here for more competition details!

Please spread the word to family and friends. Pass on the link through Twitter, Facebook, and email. If you know any teachers, or kids and teens that are interested in art, comics, or wildlife, let them know about the competition. It’s a great opportunity to inspire creativity and help promote Polar Bear research and preservation of the species. :)

Last of the Polar Bears storyboards

Finished the storyboards for all of The Last of the Polar Bears! Check out that giant stack of paper! Now to scan and compile...

You can read more about my storyboarding process here.
Download my comic template to use on your own projects here.

(Curious about the adorable bear plushie sitting behind the polar ball in the photo? That's Mr. Bear from Tea Club, made by my friend PMBQ.  There's also a Big Butt Panda variety. <3)

Marina

Marina takes a small respite from otter play to enjoy the soothing sounds of the ocean as she gazes at a pearl from an oyster she found.

Part of the Mustelid family alongside ferrets and weasels, otters are among my favorite animals to watch. :3

Pencil + coloring in Photoshop CS3.

Daily Animal Sketch – Bears and Wolves in Motion

Quick gesture sketches from the last few months. Polar bears, grizzly bears, and wolves.

 

Daily Animal Sketch - Grizzly and Polar Bears

Studies of full grown grizzly bears and polar bears (plus one cute polar cub) done throughout December and January.

Just for fun, let’s draw cute animals

Drawing a Bear in 4 steps:

From Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals by Sachiko Umoto. Part of an adorable series of drawing books. I just adore Sachiko Umoto's charming illustrations and whimsical approach to making cute animals that's simple enough for anyone to follow. Reminds me of the Ed Emberley drawing books I loved so much as a kid.

Warm up Bears

Warm up sketches of polar bears. The bears here range in age from a week to six months. Instead of my standard mechanical pencil, I decided to try a new technique: sketching with blue line pencil, and finishing with Tombow Mono100 pencils. Feels good, and produces a cleaner drawing. I don’t know if I want to start drawing comic pages this way, but I’ll stick with it for sketching.

Speaking of the comic, in case you missed the announcement the first time… I’m currently working on storyboarding The Last of the Polar Bears in its entirety. There will be a big relaunch for LOTPB early 2012, and regular weekly updates. Really exciting stuff planned. I intend to devote the whole next year to my bears! Thanks again to everyone for being so patient with me.

Honey Bear

Honey is a bear-butterfly-lion (a Bearflyon?). My favorite part is her heart-shaped nose. :)
Pencil + coloring in Photoshop CS3.

Percy the Vogue Ferret

 Here's a new ferret character I designed, done in my Peach Fuzz-style. It took a minute to return to the cute bubbly style of my Peach Fuzz series, but after some warm up sketching, it came back to me, and so fun to do! Cel style coloring is also a joy.

He's based on The Vogue Ferret's real life ferret, Percy, seen here napping in a hammock.

 A sable like Peach, she would probably like this charming fellow (look out, Edwin, there's competition)!

Here's the conceptual sketches for Percy's look and pose:

Mothra

Found a crazy looking moth outside. Kinda looks like a monster out of a fantasy RPG.

Here's another angle. Any moth experts able to ID him?