Cartoon Genie Concert Poster

June 5, 2008December 22, 2018 | George Coghill

I recently completed a concert poster design featuring a fez-wearing cartoon genie mascot character for Nashville, Tennessee roots-rock jam band Vinyl Soup.

I have been working with guitarist Andrew Hooker for some time now with t-shirt designs, a logo redesign, concert posters and other promotional materials for the band.

Recent gig poster design work for Vinyl Soup had started to go down a path of design-only work. Andrew initially contacted me for a t-shirt design for the band, and his initial interest was in my cartooning/illustration work.

Starting out on concepts for this poster, I was again working on a solely design-oriented approach, and before I got too far along I dropped Andrew an email to see if going back to an illustrative style would be cool with him. It most certainly was, so I set about to work up a theme for the poster.

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“Average Joe” Cartoon Mascot Guy & Sexy Woman Illustration

May 17, 2008December 22, 2018 | George Coghill

“Average Joe” is a recent cartoon character mascot I created for a client. The project specs were pretty straightforward – two cartoon characters, one being “Average Joe” who would become the company mascot, and for this particular illustration he would need a sexy cartoon woman wrapped around him.

This project had a very tight deadline, so I got to work immediately on the sketches. The initial rough sketch was created to get the general idea down and to start the conversation. Being a tight deadline, I sent out a sketch that normally I would have refined a bit before sending. In this case, I needed immediate feedback on the direction so I sent this rough concept to get the client’s OK on the overall posing of the characters and the general look.

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Cartoon Dog With Cigar – Mascot & Logo Illustration

May 7, 2008December 26, 2018 | George Coghill

I recently finished up this cartooning project of a cartoon mascot & logo of a dog with a cigar and a hockey stick. The client had a specific vision for this character, which initially included a cowboy hat (see sketch below), but the hat was nixed before going to the final vector art.

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Gorilla Video

May 6, 2008June 13, 2012 | George Coghill

I recently created this cartoon gorilla holding a video camera as a logo/mascot character for a client. I went through several rounds of sketches on this illustration, some sent to the client, some not. For some reason, I was really struggling with getting the ape to look like an ape. Initial sketches had him looking too “monster-ish”, which of course is not desired. It was odd because monkeys, gorillas and apes are probably some of the most fun types of characters to draw, and I just assumed it would come naturally.

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Pixish: Illustration & Photography Social Networking, Or Stealth Spec Work?

February 13, 2008 | George Coghill

I recently signed up for the new illustration & photography networking site Pixish. What is Pixish? I’ll let the site’s creator’s tell you in their own words: “Pixish is a place where people who want images and people who make images can easily find each other and collaborate on creative projects together.”. Sounds kinda cool. But also sounds like a way for people to get free work out of artists.

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Cartoon Goldfish Character Illustration

January 6, 2008June 13, 2012 | George Coghill

Fairly recently I worked up this cartoon goldfish for an illustration project of a cartoon style aquarium. This was part of a recent round of cartoon illustration work for a client doing some re-branding of their aquarium water treatment/cleaner/additive Algone. The cartoon fish tank illustration was used to update a product instruction sheet.

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Cool Guy/Rocker Dude Cartoon Character Sketch

January 6, 2008December 22, 2018 | George Coghill

This cartoon sketch of a trendy ‘cool guy’ rocker type mascot character was created for a current project. He was to the the male ‘companion’ character for the cute cartoon indie rock/alternative rock girl created for the same project. While I love how the head and face came out, I am not so pleased with the body – could use a bit more flair. This is an initial working sketch, so had the client approved that would have been edited. The client wanted to go in a different direction with him, so he’s on the reserve list for perhaps another project.

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Cartoon ‘Teeth Creature’ Sketch Tattoo Art

December 16, 2007June 13, 2012 | George Coghill

Months ago a fan emailed me to get the OK to use one of my sketches as a tattoo. I usually give the go-ahead on any not-for-profit use of my personal art (that said, unless I actually do give the OK, it’s not officially OK). In this case since it was a personal sketch I had done I was cool with it.

I have a few tattoos myself (all done by the venerable Eric Starr over at Arkham Tattoo in Akron, Ohio). I can sympathize with someone who finds the right art for a tattoo – I had Eric ink over a bunch of early stuff that I became less than enthralled with – and now have a huge Japanes-style koi fish shoulder piece in addition to my original Mayan God/Ancient Astronaut glyph.

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Cute Goth Girl Cartoon Character Sketch

November 27, 2007December 22, 2018 | George Coghill

This Goth Girl cartoon character sketch is one of a series of characters I am currently developing as a series for a client. The entire set will include all sorts of cartoon characters with different personalities, lifestyles & looks. More details on this project as we get closer to completion…

The goal here was to find the look and keep her cute. The original incarnations of the little goth came out a bit too old and also a bit too punk/heavy metal, but since the Goth will have an “older sister” Rocker Chick for the group, I’ll be able to use those initial rough sketches for the Rocker Girl. The Rocker Girl will probably be more along the line of a Suicide Girl — with clothes on!

Once I had the face & head down, I moved on to getting the clothing right; the obligatory striped stockings, skull t-shirt, spiked wristbands, black rubber bracelets and combat boots completed the look. I especially like how the long pigtails came out for the hair.

An interesting aspect of this project, developing 12 characters in a family, is keeping consistency. I have found that some characters have lent themselves to more wild exaggeration than others, and I have had to tone down the look of some of the characters which I would have otherwise gone a bit more wild with. In order to keep the overall look of the group I have had to sacrifice some stylistic choices.

It’s a great experience and process as I have been coming up with variations of characters that I might not have other otherwise pursued.

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