Frank Grau

Illustrator • Designer

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Tis the season Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

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GOING DEEP

Whatever that title means… So here’s the latest background I did at Plain Joe Studios for the Go Kids ‘worlds’ program. Like the last two, I enjoyed illustrating this one.

I always thought if I had a chance to do an underwater scene, I’d get to do something whimsical and fun like the underwater scenes in Disney’s Pinocchio or the Silly Symphony, Merbabies (I think that’s what it’s called). I…

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The Cold Spell As always, I've neglected posting here. However, I've been a little more diligent about posting at IG, which, if you don't follow me there, here's another background I did at…

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Yet Another Background Illustration Here's the latest background I did at Plain Joe Studios for River Valley's Go Kids program. This is by far my favorite background I've done for them.

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It’s A Jungle Out There Here's the final installment of background illustrations done for Plain Joe Studios' client, for their Go Kids cast of characters.

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Hot Stuff This lava city is another Go Kids "worlds" illustration done for Plain Joe Studios' client, River Valley Church.

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Going Underground

The creativity never stops at Plain Joe Studios. If I could post everything we did, I’d be posting every day, but then I’d never get anything else done. In any case, I only have a couple more of these I want to post in upcoming weeks and then I think I’ll start posting more Procreate “doodle” videos.

This week’s Go Kids background follows last week’s illustration, which was the exterior of the…

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More “Go Kids” Background Art Here is yet another illustration I did at Plain Joe Studios to serve as a background for one of our client's Go Kids characters.

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Progress Doodle #7 - Random Sketches

Progress Doodle #7 – Random Sketches

Before getting the Cintiq, I used to sit at my drawing board with a large stack of copy paper next to me and doodle away, tossing those drawings into the trash as I created them. I didn’t throw them away because they were bad. I threw them away because I created so much of it that it wasn’t feasible to keep and store a lot of nonsense sketches which served no purpose beyond my having some fun…

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Illustrative Storytelling 3.0 Here's yet another sampling of an illustration done at Plain Joe Studios as a supplement to the spacial story characters created for River Valley Church's Go Kids ministry. The smaller versions show the different ideas before arriving at the final rendering. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

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IG Process Videos - Jan 1, 2019

IG Process Videos – Jan 1, 2019

Here are a few progress doodle videos I posted on Instagram last week, in case you don’t follow me there.

These are all just quick color sketches. When I sit down to do these, I really have no idea what I’m going to do. I just start drawing or blocking in colors and whatever happens, happens. Sometimes I like the results, other…

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Progress Doodle #6 This'll be the last progress doodle post for the year. Even though these sketches are rough, I hope you enjoy seeing the process.

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Progress Doodle #5 - Christmas Elf

Progress Doodle #5 – Christmas Elf

Here’s a little Christmas doodle I did on Procreate a couple nights ago. I know I need to cultivate a habit of posting regularly and I think Procreate’s progress video feature is a great way to share the creative process, even if it’s just personal little doodles and stuff.

I notice when deciding what to sketch, I tend to default…

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The Legends of Lightfall #1

The Legends of Lightfall #1

Plain Joe Studios (PJS) has been creating a six-issue sci-fi-fantasy comic series called “The Legends Of Lightfall”, which we’ve spent the last year-and-a-half producing. The issue is available for pre-order here, and it’ll ship in January as far as I’m aware.

The client took some of the art and put together this small promo video, which I got to see for the first time yesterday.

[youtube=https://…

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Spacial Storytelling Characters

When Plain Joe Studiosdoes spacial storytelling, that often involves creating characters to aid in telling the client’s story. One of the characters we created as part of the Go Kids cast was a squirrel named Tom E. Over the years I’ve had to create different iterations of this character for different applications. Justyn Smith of River Valley Church took the various renderings I did and…

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Illustrative Storytelling 2.0 Second verse, same as the first... Here’s another rough sketch and the final art I did at…

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Illustrative Storytelling Here's a rough sketch and the final art I did at Plain Joe Studios for our client, …