Skip to main content

Cement and Miette

Click for larger view.
Early production art from Puppets with Cement and Miette.

Early production art for Puppets blocking out the basics of form, grayscale tone and scale. Cement is 6 stories/65 feet tall and Miette is barely 4 feet tall so getting them into the same shot/frame was one of the first challenges.

Reviewing Godzilla, King Kong and Gamera movies (which I somehow have all of which on VHS and VCD) saved me a great deal of time. Looking at the composition of the screaming crowds or Faye Wray and Naomi Watts has helped me structure my shots and lay out.

Paul Schmitt Puppets graphic novel
On the Mittman Street Bridge Cement faces off against Ratso and his horde.

Looking at my own unlikely combination of very large and very small characters make me feel like there is a unique "middle ground" created by this combination as if the two would be radically different w/out each other's company. Miette alone would be an vague, indie Ghost World rip-off. Cement alone would be a Concrete/Godzilla clone. Together they are better.

Puppets by Gargantuan MediaRoaches by Gargantuan Media
Copy code to add Puppets to your site:Copy code to add Roaches to your site:

Popular posts from this blog

Monster City

This giant monster art is based on my favorite comics and cartoons: Paul Chadwick's Concrete, Sam Kieth's The Maxx and Big O. I've wanted to see all three of them combined for awhile now. The first few chapters are written but not illustrated yet. It's a personal project that will come after the next bug book called Kingdoms .

Ratso The Rat King

New character art updates and clarifies the original Ratso character style. Ratso is one of the central villains in the blog. His pages are largely separate so I can sort out where he comes into the story. He plays a large part with the history of the Magic Shop, Miette and her Grand Dad. He's like a Morlock - a dweller in the periphery of culture that only wanders in and out of the book to provide some foreshadowing. It's his rat wave that does all the real damage. Ratso thinks he's Dr. Gone from The Maxx. Original digital inks for this character without shading or color in AI. Thought that I would also post some process pieces with each one of the final images to provide an idea on how this stuff gets thrown together from inks to colored art.

Character Sheets

Miette is the main character Puppets and always in some kind of bad trouble. These raw colors are a few steps removed from finalized panels but hey, buddies, they contain the art basics. Above, Miette is getting swarmed by giant sewer rats, the rabid followers of Ratso The Rat Man. This charming fella is Ratso the main baddie from Puppets. Adding hordes of small rats and having them move in a massive wave is admittedly pretty fun. Ratso rides along like Ice Man as the rat wave moves beneath his feet like a mobile escalator. I'm having a lot of fun with Ratso and his pals. Copy code to add Puppets to your site: Copy code to add Roaches to your site: