This is Peanut Bear, who was comissioned by one of my first clients after I went into full-time freelance illustration. He was intended to be the mascot for a children’s toy and sporting goods website. Has anyone ever seen it before? I make it a point never to share my work online  until the client has used it. But after four or five years, I figure I’m safe.

The project went through many differnt sketches before I landed on the one they were happy with. Here are a few of my favorites. (Please note that these are only a portion of the 14 sketches I showed the client, and that doesn’t include the myriad of sketches I discarded and never showed anyone).

From all the different bears drawn and the sports presented, it’s clear that the client wasn’t quite sure what they were looking for when the process began. And I hadn’t yet learned the skill to read between the lines and determine what the client really expects. I imagine that if the process was done all over again today, I wouldn’t need quite so many sketches. And if you want to test that theory, feel free to hire me to design a mascot for your website or business.

And please let me know if you see old Peanut anywhere online. I’d love to know what happened to the guy.