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Different to Me

This is a short strip with a rhyme about one of the odd wonderings that came into my mind one day.

'Whistler' Illustration

My lucky brother, Liam, and some of his friends spent their Christmas and New Year in Whistler, Canada on a skiing holiday. Before going, Liam asked me to do a cartoon that he would have printed onto hoodies for everyone in 'Team Whistler'. His brief was simple... "a wee boy with a big referee style whistle" (presumably a 'Whistler')...

One of the first things that I sketched out was what the overall shape of the boy might be, considering that he will be blowing into a whistle. What were the implications of this action in terms of composing a dynamic illustration? I thought in terms of how I would animate it...

 
The anticipation for the blowing action would be a great big gulp of air: the chest would fill up with air and the whole body might arch backwards, poised. When the character breathes out the body shape would do the opposite with the head coming forward as if to help the momentum of expelled air. The front of the body goes from convex to concave as the air from within is released. For the illustration I wanted the boy to be in the middle of blowing on the whistle. Accordingly I did some sketches of the boy and his enormous whistle with the above 'breathe out' body shape...

In these sketches I felt that there was not a close enough relationship between the boy and the whistle. There is a distance between the two caused by the breathing out shape: the boy arches away from the whistle. I tried some sketches with the boy arching towards the whistle to bring the elements together despite this meaning he would be closer to the 'breathe in' shape...

  

 I was much happier with the results of these sketches. As well as there being a closer relationship between boy and whistle the body shape of the boy highlights the oversize nature of the whistle: he's bending backwards, it's overpowering him! With the body curving into the whistle it was easier to have him holding on which helps the feeling that he's struggling with the size of the whistle.

Above are a few character development sketches. I wanted to keep the design simple while showing the stress and difficulty of the task through his facial features. Having decided upon the basic design of the character I sketched it out a few times looking for one that was just right through the slight differences that come when drawing the same thing again and again.

I liked this one...

I scanned the desired sketch to copy while producing the coloured, textured image in photoshop. I wanted the composition to be a circle like a 'badge' for the hoodies...

I gave the boy a nice christmas jumper since 'Team Whistler' were on a christmas holiday and because it was a ski holiday he's in the mountains. On his grassy hill in the mountains he's putting out the call on his whistle just like an Alpine horn player!

So here is the final image with a border to contain it a bit more pleasingly...