Clink
Written by Kelly DiPucchio • Balzer + Bray, 2011.
Clink is ancient, as far as robots go. Who could possibly want him?
Making a robot
Originally Clink was written as a robot who is part toaster and part accordion. Toasters are easy to draw. But accordions are really only recognizable when they don't have toasters connected to them, and even then only by old illustrators.
The best part of illustrating Clink was also the hardest — I had to create dozens of robots and robot packages. I invented many of them on the drawing board, but often I had to figure out a new robot while I was painting, to fill a spot on the shelves.
Scroll down to see early sketches.
Click on any image to enlarge it.