Character Design 101

So....you want me to design a soft puppet or hard figure for you? Here's some things I'll need to know when I start designing your new partner.....

1. Soft puppet or hard figure?
Soft puppets and hard figures are put together differently. They're construction is as unique as any real person's, and each needs to be designed a certain way.

2. Who's going to build your partner?
I've seen many great works out there by many of the best puppet/figure builders around. I've studied them so much, I like to think I have a feeling for their style. So, I can design to their style of work.

3. Who is the character?
 - Their name
 - What's their personality? Are they a goof, cheeky type, old man/woman, grumpy, sneaky
    shy, etc?
 - Are they human or an animal...or something else? What animal? What creature?
 - Do they have a certain profession they'll portray?

4. Full or half body?
Full-body characters are usually used by ventriloquists, while half-
body characters are usually used for puppet stages. *If your character is a stage puppet,
will they have rod or glove arms?

5. Costume design?
Will I need to design a costume as well as the character? Or, will
 you simply take care of finding them clothes yourself?

6. E-mail!
Write me a detailed e-mail about the character you invision. Include sketches of your own, no matter how crude they may look, they could help.

7. Phone!
Give me a ring and tell me all about your ideas!

*See contact info to tell me all about it!



Contact Doodles!

Wanna reach me to tell me what sort of coloring page or puppet design you need? Look no further!

E-mail: doodlesbydoodles@att.net

Cell #: 918-876-2648

I can now also be reached through the Doodles By Doodles! Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.179582872056127.47281.179572892057125&type=3#!/pages/Doodles-By-Doodles/179572892057125

Crash the extreme sports possum gets nosey

with Boo Boo at the Shrine Circus!

possum©2012 Axtell Expressions Inc.

                                         

LINKS!...and I don't mean sausage!

Do YOU like clicking on links that take you to cool, fun places on the internet? Me too! Here's some I enjoy....

- Axtell Expressions - Snazzy sculpted latex puppets!
http://www.axtell.com/

- Neal Bacon & Friends! - Canadian ventriloquist! Yes...they have them there too, eh.
http://www.baconandfriends.com/

- Mr. D's Daily Ventriloquist Journal - That's Clinton Detweiler to you
http://www.ventdj.blogspot.com/

- Pavlov's Puppets - Makers of amazing sculpted foam puppets!
http://www.pavlovspuppets.com/

- Selberg Studios - Tim Selberg's stunning vent figures!
http://www.selbergstudios.com/

- Folkmanis Puppets - Makers of beautiful plush puppets for all ages!
http://www.folkmanis.com/

- Kyle Scribner - Great young ventriloquist!
http://kylescribner.com/

- Rey Ortega: Entertainer - A wonderful ventriloquist...among other things!
http://reyortegaentertainment.com/

- The Bartlesville Fun-Addicts - The clown club I belong to!
http://www.fun-addicts.net/

- Boo Boo: The Wackiest Clown In Town! - My bestest clown bud!
http://www.boobooclown.com/

- Chatters The Clown - My blue-haired bud!
http://www.chatterstheclown.com/

- John K. Stuff! - The creator of Ren & Stimpy! (site is PG-13 in my opinion)
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

- Laurel & Hardy: The Official Website - Website of the greatest comedy team ever!
http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/

- Puppet Project.com - Do you like building puppets? Then you better be clickin'!
http://www.projectpuppet.com/

- The Muppet Whatnot Workshop - FAO Schwartz lets your build your own MUPPET!
http://www.fao.com/whatnots/builder.jsp

- SPORE - Download the FREE creature creator, and build your own cool critters!
http://www.spore.com/

- Luna's Puppets! - Some of the most interesting puppets around!
http://www.lunaspuppets.com/

- The Dummy Shoppe - Beautiful sculpted foam puppets!
http://www.thedummyshoppe.com/

- Doodles By Doodles! can now be found on FaceBook!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Doodles-By-Doodles/179572892057125

- Doodles On FurAffinity! Yep...I got me a page there!
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/doodlesbaughman/



*MORE TO COME! Now...get clickin'!

Grusome and Dr. Frankendoodles!

monster©2012 Axtell Expressions Inc.

$ Pricing $

-Coloring pages/single character:
$30.00 each...$5.00 for each additional character in the color page 

*This means...if you want a coloring page of yourself, it's $30.00. If you want a coloring page of yourself, and a friend/puppet ect., it's $30.00 for your image, and an additional $5.00 for your friend's/puppet's image. If you want two seperate color pages of just yourself, it's a total of $50.00 and so on.

-Full-Color art:
$40.00 each....$5.00 for each additional character in the image

- Stock Art:
$20.00....this is a discounted price as the art is already drawn! All that needs to be done is to add your information.  ** If you want stock art in full-color, it will be the regular full-color price.

-Puppet/Figure Design:
$50.00 - Soft Puppet
$60.00 - Hard Figure

*Prices may be subject to change

Goggles...don't leave home without them!



Sample Art - Clowns!

Here's some of my buffoon buddies as color pages....

* B&W coloring pages are $30.00 each. Add $5.00 for each additional character.

Bungles! (Jeff Potts)

*Visit Bungles at...

http://www.bunglestheclown.com/

The cover of the coloring book I created for my clown club!

Boo Boo, the wackiest clown in town!

Hattie and friends are on the go!

ZeeBo and his pooch pal are havin' fun!

Nurse bubbles & Casey doing what they do best!

 

MORE TO COME!

What I Need From You!

Things I'll require to make the best coloring pages and full-color art I can for you...

1. Color photo/photos of you and your characters. After all, How can I draw you folks if I don't know what you look like? **PLEASE send full-sized JPEG files ONLY!

2. Info about you etc...
- The title of your show, if any...("Uncle Dusty's Wild West Show!" for example)
- The names of you/your characters/your clown name.
- Your website address, if any.
- The name of your troupe/club, if you want it on the page...("The Super Circus Clowns", "Pongo's Precious Puppets" for example)
- Your phone number, if you wish it to appear so folks can call to hire you.

*If you wish, I can print up most of this info and send it as a 2nd sheet so you can photocopy it on the back of your color pages. To keep the page uncluttered.

3. Is your clown/character known for a certain catch phrase, gag, prop, skill. etc? Please tell me what they might be. I might be able to incorporate them into the drawing to make it more interesting.

4. If you hail from a non-English speaking country, PLEASE let me know what the information means in English! This will help me better understand how to arrange it.

PUPPET DESIGN:
Write me a detailed e-mail outlining what you have in mind for your puppet character.
*See "Character Design 101" for details!


*If you order a coloring page or full-color art, I'll likely post it on this site as a sample pic. If I do this, I'll include a link to your website!

*This info will be updated as needed

My duck Wally in one of his many photo manipulation pix!

duck©Axtell Expressions Inc. www.axtell.com

Terms Of Service/Disclaimers etc.

A few things you should know...

1. I reserve the right to refuse to draw anything I deem distasteful, offensive or inapropriate (weapons, sexual content etc).  I also refuse to draw/re-produce another artist's work. If another artist drew an artwork for you, you need to contact them to de-design it.

2. I will scan the images I draw into the computer to add the cool fonts and info. HOWEVER...I live in beautiful STORMY Oklahoma. This means if it's a stormy time of the year, my computer will be turned off at times so the poor thing doesn't fry. So, there may be slight delays in my sending your artworks at times. Please be patient.

3. I will rarely work during weekends/holidays.

4. There may be some puppet characters I won't/can't draw. This is due to the company not giving their consent for me to do so. I appologize in advance for this. But I greatly respect my fellow artists. You'll be notified as to which characters those may be.

5. All copyright info (from the puppet builders, myself, etc.) Must and will be present on each and every artwork. These copyrights cannot be left off under any circumstances.

6. Holiday art (Halloween, Christmas) must be ordered during the summer months. I will stop taking orders for this type of art September 1st. So, if you place an order in September I'll have to refuse your order

*This info will be updated as needed

Steampunk Doodles!



Sample Art - Axtell Expressions!

Take a peek at some samples of color pages I've created starring Axtell Expressions Characters....(go to http://www.axtell.com/ to see more of these super cool puppets!)

* B&W coloring pages are $30.00 each. Add $5.00 for each additional character

Benny Bird!

Laughin' Louie

The Baby Elephant!

Big Sad Wolf!



Wildthing!

Youcan Toucan!

Hang-On Monster!

Baby Dinostar!

The P-p-p-p-Platypus!

Lenny Lemur!

Gator The Great!

The Cheeky Monkey!

Parrot/Cockatoo!

Big Bear!

Chuck The Duck!

Meerkat!

Ding Dong Dodo!

Basset Hound!

Vern The Bird!

Dolly The Hippo!

*Can also be ordered as a boy!

Silly Goose!

Webster The Frog!

Fancy Flamingo!

Bulldog!

Awesome Possum!

Dusty Dragon!

 

 

More to come!



Coloring Pages 101

Here's a few points to remember when designing your color page....

1. Your page shouldn't be too busy. The more you cram into a page, the more detail you create. The more detail you have, the harder it is for kids to color. Coloring pages should have BIG/OPEN spaces to color.

2. Keep in mind that you may want the character's name, show title, your website address, and copyright info to appear on your coloring page. Keeping the artwork simple will help make room for this important info. *If you use puppet characters built by a specific company (Axtell Expressions for example), their copyright info MUST be in these color pages too.

3. It's always fun to make coloring pages that pertain to a certain show your doing, holiday, or other special event. It's also good to change your coloring pages every so often so kids don't wind up with "the same ol' coloring page". Shifting characters around, doing single character pages, and special event pages can keep things fresh.

4. Some of the kids in your audience may have a favorite character from your shows. Having individual character pages can be great. Kids can collect them all and make their own simple coloring book.

5. For clowns, I recommend "portrait" coloring pages. This is where I draw the clown from mid-chest up. This is because the clown's face is where all the detail and personality is. If I draw a "full-figure" page (from head to clown shoes), the face becomes smaller, and harder to color the make-up design.

6. If your puppet or clown character is know for a certain prop, talent, gag, catch phrase etc., let me know! I may be able to encorporate it into the page.

Once I've drawn your coloring page, I scan it, and add the snazzy fonts/info in my computer. As soon as I get payment conformation.....I e-mail the work on to you to photocopy into hand outs!

One of the many clown face designs I've created.

Purpose of this site....

This website is where entertainers (ventriloquists, puppeteers, clowns etc) can order their own custom coloring pages, full-color art, and puppet designs. Coloring pages can be handed out to your kid's show audiences to promote your shows! Puppet designing can help you create just the right partner for your act.

My pal Wally and his latest fan at the 2012 AKDAR Shrine Circus!

duck©2012 Axtell Expressions Inc.