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Licensed Character Artist- Freelance Cartoonist Portfolio

As a freelance cartoonist, I’ve had the privilege to work on some licensed character projects! Not all artists get this opportunity, so I consider myself very fortunate. I’ve done this a few times, so I guess you could call me a Licensed Character Artist.

Many artists or freelance cartoonists have only one style of illustration. It takes a special ability to be able to work as a licensed character artist. Probably the most important skill would be to draw the licensed character as they were originally drawn without deviating or changing he character whatsoever. Often, licensed character illustrations have to pass through a review board with experts who know their characters to a minute degree and will only approve them if they are drawn authentically.

Below are a few of the projects where I’ve worked as a licensed character artist or in some other capacity on projects that include licensed characters. Select the tabs below to read more about my role on those projects.

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Barbie; A Fashion Fairy Tale Children’s Book

This was the first of two Barbie projects I’ve worked on as a professional freelance cartoonist. I was hired as a colorist for the “Barbie; A Fashion Fairy Tale Story Book” version of their 3D animated feature film that was in development at the time. This was being coordinated by a design firm in London with artists located in different countries.

My job was to receive the pencil sketches from 3 different pencilers, and color the artwork to Barbie’s specifications. I was only one of two or three colorists for the book. As with all multi-artist projects, the finished product needed to look as though one artist created all the illustrations from beginning to end and match the elements in the feature film. You can read more about this project on my Cartoon Blog’s article ” My Work as Colorist on Mattel’s Barbie; A Fashion Fairytale Storybook“. You can view some of the final illustrations in the licensed character portfolio below.

I was honored to be part of this project in creating products featuring this monumental licensed character!

Mattel’s Barbie Magazine

For this project, I was hired to illustrate Barbie drawing lessons and other illustrations to be used in 3 different issues of Barbie Magazine out of Germany.  Each issue features a special Barbie dress for that month.

One of the requirements for this Barbie project was to create each illustrated step of the drawing lesson, to look as though the work was hand drawn using colored pencils. Other illustrations accompanied activities related to the issue’s dress or event, such as Barbie’s hair style, Barbie’s makeup, cut out accessories and other elements. Again, a true honor to work on this famous character!

You can read more about this project on my Cartoon Blog’s article ” My Freelance Illustrations for Barbie Magazine“. You can view some of the final illustrations in the licensed character portfolio below.

Princess Odette & Prince Derek from Swan Princess Animated Feature Films

Throughout eight animated feature films for Swan Princess Properties, the main cartoon characters Princess Odette and Prince Derek were slightly changed each time resulting in very different character artwork from the original.

I was hired as a licensed character illustrator to draw a high resolution illustration of the original Princess Odette and Prince Derek from the very first Swan Princess animated feature film. I’m told they will now being used as the artist’s reference for the animators who will work on future animated Swan Princess featured films. I can hardly wait to see #9!

You can read more about this project on my Cartoon Blog’s article ” My Work with The Swan Princess Licensed Characters“. You can view some of the final illustrations in the licensed character portfolio below.

King Feature’s Popeye and Olive Oyl

My client designed and manufactured a stack-able anti-fatigue mat for boats that aided a driver to see over the bow of the boat at lower speeds. He wanted illustrations to demonstrate the use, purpose and benefits of his product using a character similar to Popeye.

I called King Features and found out if was relatively inexpensive to actually use the original Popeye and the other licensed characters rather than design a character from scratch for his purposes. Then I proceeded to draw Popeye, Olive Oyl and Whimpy in a series of Before and After cartoon illustrations. Each illustration once completed needed to be submitted back to King Features for approval prior to use so they could verify that the characters were authentically drawn. Below are just of few of the many humorous Before and After scenarios showing the licensed character illustrations.

Teen Snow White

Probably to a lesser known degree than the other licensed characters above, is Teen Snow White. The company that owns and licenses this character has rapidly become popular in the licensed character arena for their unique twist on popular fairy tale characters recreating them as princesses, high school kids, or zombies.

Although they get much, if not all, of their cartoon illustration from South America (at least at the time of my contact with them),  I was able to work on a single project for them and demonstrate that I was capable of drawing their character in a different pose. Most of their materials were all ¾ view, so I opted to do full face which I often don’t do as it is not as appealing as characters drawn in a ¾ view.  A very challenging and fun project.

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