You

can rough
anything...
with cartoons and illustrations

Alec Ellis
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You can rough anything...
with cartoons and illustrations

Introduction
This collection is just a small selection of roughs used to create cartoons and
illustrations for clients over the past 10 years. The roughs are more fun to do
than the finals. They tend to be funnier and because not so restrictive you let
it go more often, meaning you are less afraid to get it wrong!
I find there are many ways to create roughs that portray whats in your head,
that mental picture. One way is to just stare into space and picture the
scene in your head, then just draw as fast as possible, it doesnt look pretty to
anyone else... so DONT SHOW them. This is private time. You end up with a
recording of the scene in your head. Then at ease you can plan it better.
Another method I use is to stick my ear phones on
and blast the music up as loud as I can stand, try
Green Day, or Rainbow, works for me, then fast
and as many roughs as possible, still aiming
to get that scene in your head down on
paper.
Please let what you
see inside inspire
you. The purpose
of this book is for
the budding artist
or illustrator to get
ideas.
Enjoy yourself.
Alec

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Sport
The stretch nazi... Most of the following sports illustrations were for a Sports
Drug Agency, against drugs in sport. The rough ideas came from photos of
athletes and quickly laid down so to draw in a more controled and designed
fashion. Just the nature of design, compared to fine art.

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A sprinter about to take off...

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You get down the basic action, and how you see the facial reactions, where
the ball is going to end up, perspective and first thoughts. Doesnt matter
what it looks like, as long as it envokes the original mental image, enough to
assist you in the final.
Like the girls better, got quite abit right from the start!

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This was a good first attempt, love the expression, hair and top half,
especially.

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The cyclists... love the order of the bykes, once I got this right the bodies were
easier. I could work on expressions later.

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The face was perfect on this one, just needed to simplify a bit, the action felt
good but the rough allowed me to see that she was too close to the bales...
ouch!

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This was cool, she had life straight away.... loved the darts, about 10x fatter
than normal darts... what gives the cartoon character.

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Nice and straight but wheel chair took more research, its not a chair on wheels,
only research would help this problem.... and it did. The final took alot to make
work.

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Got the arms right, felt happy with that, but shows that the legs are wrong,
they need to be in opposite direction. When you are roughing you do lots of
things to get it right, its not easy to just get a photo, you dont feel anything!
You need to get up, get a ball, pretend you are about to score, then it all comes
together, you can then sit down and quickly sketch. The finish comes later!

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This was very nice, I didnt try this... photo research!!!

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Quite liked this one actually.... it really works, the hair helped. It can be just the
little things, but the little things can be the most frustrating. If you cant get it
right, get rid of it and put in something else.... it was never meant to be, and
the drawing is telling you so.

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Ugh.... the action was great, loved the bubble bath.... <grin> but the face...
what was I thinking!!! swim-zilla. I calmed it all down later, and in actual fact it
turned out pretty good.

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You can get some actions working fine, but the head made me unsettled. The
head is too small, but everything below it worked!! So I increased the size of
the head abit with another piece of layout paper.

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Very different style, very aggresive drawing. This was the influence of the brief
and very loud music through ipod earphones.
Loved doing these and they are my preferred illos style now. These give me the
chance to be wild, but I solve many other issues, it the way it happens.
I had many a laugh with these guys!!

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Science
I loved doing the
roughs for the science
illos and cartoons. I have
kept them all.
The roughs are so much
more real and more fun.
Individual characters
here helped me to
develop my people
cartooning skills, where
as the kits helped me
envisage composition
more quickly.

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These sets of science materials, kits for prizes, were given to me in bags. The
brief: Create an overall scene involving each item. That was it..... total autonomy!
Great eh? Ever had that much trust, its a buz.

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Once the kits were laid out on my light box, its a big light box, I would draw
a quick rough (as shown), these would go to the client for approval, all
corrections or adjustments were done at this stage. I then used Fine Point
Pens or rotring pens to outline the roughs using the light box. I would then
use Pantone Colour Markers for colour.
They looked stunning.

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Left side was a typical experiment, though most had kids performing them.
Above was a typical kit with some idea of applications.

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Experiments
Most of the following are experiments for the science magazine, the roughs
are what went to the client for adjusting or approving.... these roughs were
loose, straight from the left side... or is it right?? Well, you know what I mean.

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Kid using the signing kit... invisible ink, light pens, recorders and stamp kit....
just a few. Great prize... sometimes I would say that the idea hadn't come yet
(so as to keep the items for a little while longer... and play).
What a kid!!

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This is where I would get close and personal... freckles gave the kid personality,
big fingers meant nearer to the viewer.... I could have more fun with
perspective.

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I actually love this illo rough.... the handle and the flame... and well, it all actually.
The illustration was great in rough form and I think lost it when it was tamed.

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This was fun, but in this case the final was brilliant!! The rough a bit hammy....
but it worked, I got down what my mind saw and had time to translate it later.
The colours were awsome.

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Loved the cockroach.... made me laugh then and still does now.... how many
times have we seen a cockroach just sitting there motionless when we caught
them out. With this illo it became a “he”. Gulp.... what have I done!

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On the left side the character is great. This was a perfect first step, was almost
a pity to redraw it with control to match the other illustrations, but that was
work! The pic above led to a very cool colour version.

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Again a really nice original.... PS These were not done from a photo... straight
out of the nogin... my head. You have to feel what the character is doing... you
might have to do a few sketches and use the rubber (eraser) abit, but then you
balance it up and the picture comes out itself, or it feels wrong.
Love the creature, insect, and bug crossword next door.

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The kid in this rough was great, but I also love drawing in-animate objects....

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Robot no.1
These were great fun to draw, thank god I didnt have to build them, or prove
they worked!!

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These were robot ideas for a robot ideas competition. The science kids would
have to draw a robot and illustrate what things on it were for. For example a
viewer, hydraulics for bouncing on rocks, testers......

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... suction noses.... and loads more thatn I have. These robots just gave the kids
an idea if what was expected. Was as much fun for me as for the kids!!

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These were for the same science magazine but a foray into a different style.
Great thing about robot people is you cann easily draw their movements and
be forgiven for hard edges. The robots were fun to draw.

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Drawing the candle and the melting wax was nice and relaxing, funny what
curvy things do to you.
Have you noticed the space craft, kids... they miss everything!!
Not really... just like putting in these little oddities.

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The ant crossword.... arent ants great!! So easy to draw and so much character.
Drawing crosswords was fun for this client. I was just given the basic word play
and had to illustrate around it. Lots of little scenes!
What do you think of the bird on the right.... soooo coool! This is MY humour,
most definately. Makes me fall over laughing everytime I see this bird...
hahaha.

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 This guy is my hero, note the
shotgun and ammo. Thats
persistance for you.
Silly smiling fish.

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Good old Bing...

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 These were two bosses of mine
way back when I was first starting....
Westham beat Nottingham.

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Keys.... keys were
drawn above his
hand. He had just got
his first cool company
car. Reps!

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This was a birthday
card I drew for a client
for the rider. She was
actually a very quiet
and well mannered
individual, but had an
adventurous streak,
she had been given a
ride on a Harley, that
was it, she was gone!

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Love doing
these, a dear
little angel...

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 Another birthday victim.... arent
their friends evil, kept meeting
so many though!

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This was
Anna, and the
GLC was the
Greater London
Council, cant
remember
what the joke
was but I think
she made a big
thing about
defending
their policies.
These are the
sort of things
that make for
an original
charcature.

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Peter.... eeeehh?
Alright Fonzi.

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Harry... loved that
moustache, and the pink
suit he wore to a Xmas
dinner.

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Other roughs
This was fun and I loved the sketchy feel, the final didnt stray far from the
rough.
Anti smoking.... sorry smokers, this was easy to do... I am very much an ex
smoker of 20+ years.

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This was so funny, dung beetles, quick off the mark eh? I think they follow
cows around, as soon as one drops, its gone, unless I am in the same field, they
always seem to leave one for me to step in.

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At one stage everyone wanted a health illo, healthy foods and comparison bad
foods, none here though. It was all healthy from the local Health Department.
Encouraged me to look into healthy food too...

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Really liked this one, seemed to all work perfectly. Loved the composition and
the style. Kept this style for some time, hard and rough outlines, kept that
rough look.

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I had a range of illustrations for a book about local gun laws. This was for the
local government. They were amazin to say so myself.... They were curvy, and
smart and I was very proud of them. Hope they didnt glorify guns too much.
More computer human actions.... yum yum.

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Yes... sorry, wasnt too chuffed that year. Lots of things happening. All sorted
now, and my little girl is all growed up!
Phew!

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