Drawrings, etc.

Steve Jobs illustration

2011-10-17T22:39:00.000-04:00

I did a technique demo for my wife's AP Studio class last week using acrylics and watercolors, a la Sam Weber, but without the skill or finesse that Sam has. It's a portrait of Steve Jobs, and I wanted to do an image that depicts him as a visionary, so I tried several ways to call attention to his eyes. Not sure which one works best, but I'm leaning toward the straight portrait with no background or embellishments. Any favorites?

Sketchbook Experiment

2011-08-31T20:20:00.005-04:00

I scanned a page from my sketchbook and played with it in Photoshop to see where I could take it. I had been looking at a few Klimt pieces and was inspired to try some digital gold leaf.

Here is the sketchbook scan. The drawing is done with Tuscan Red and Cream Prismacolor pencils on brown craft paper.

Here is the final...

Yonah Mountain Crush Fest

2011-07-23T18:20:00.003-04:00

Here is a recent commission for a North Georgia vineyard called Yonah Mountain, named after the prominent geological feature with exposed granite scars amid the rolling hills of Cleveland, GA.

This is the poster; Jeff Holman is the designer and he's responsible for the very nice type design.

Originally, the idea was to create an extreme horizontal that would serve as an outdoor board, as well as a vertical piece that would serve as the poster. So, I had to work in the outdoor board orientation which was 5 feet wide by 2.5 feet high at 300dpi, so it was quite a beefy file. Turns out it won't be used as an outdoor board, but as a smaller scale road sign leading to the event...

The artwork was a bit richer and saturated than this, but Jeff added a texture effect which reduced the contrast and made it look even more like a vintage piece. I like the result.

Watercolor test piece

2011-03-23T17:16:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite artists and illustrators is Burton Silverman. I have a few of his books but they mostly deal with oils and drawing. Then I saw he had a book called "Breaking the Rules of Watercolor", and the images were stunning. It looks more like oils than watercolor, and I was very curious about his process so I bought the book.
I am teaching a watercolor illustration course this spring, so I wanted to try a piece or two using his suggestions, and I'm very happy with the first trial piece...

Two things make this technique different from traditional watercolor; the surface is 3-ply Strathmore Plate Bristol paper. Very slick surface, harder than hot press watercolor paper. The colors slide on the paper and don't penetrate so deeply into the fibers, which means you can lift colors off to reveal the lighter areas of the image with a moist paper towel or a damp brush. The second thing is the addition of a bit of opaque white gouache to add a bit of haze, or semi-transparency to the color. It tends to deaden the vibrancy a bit, and makes things feel less garish than purely transparent colors can be. It will take lots of paintings to really get used to the feel of the paper, and to learn what can and can not be done with this technique, but so far, I'm pleased and intrigued with the possibilities.

Merry Down Cider transfer demo

2011-02-28T18:20:00.026-05:00

This is a technique that involves using acquired imagery such as old engravings, scans and photographs, and transferring them to the substrate using acrylic mediums or acetone, or simply collaging printed materials to your artwork and painting over them with acrylics.
A little background; Merry Down is a hard cider beverage from England. Their advertising imagery always involves images that can be viewed right-side-up, or upside-down. Typically, the right-side version shows a happy drinker with a full glass of Merry Down. The upside-down version shows a sad drinker with an empty glass. I've used this idea as an assignment for some of my techniques classes because it involves clever and fun imagery, and necessitates thinking ahead several steps to make everything come out right.

This is the final, after the type was added. I am going to take you through the major steps of this process...

This is the thumbnail I used as a rough guide for the piece. I wanted to keep it a bit unfinished which would allow for a bit of flexibility in the development of the image.

The substrate is a 12 X 16" piece of Luan; birch plywood about 1/4" thick. I "stained" the surface with acrylics and water, using burnt umber and burnt sienna to get a warm walnut color. After lightly sanding the surface, I painted on two coats of Liquitex Matte Medium thinned with a little water. I then transferred the sketch using an Artograph opaque projector. I used a compass to draw perfect curves, by the way.
After the drawing was transferred, I used Scotch soft release painter's tape to tape off the margins, and to roughly mask off the center capsule shape that would be the robot's head; I used the tape to carefully define the sides of the shape, but needed to leave the curved areas at the top and bottom visible, so I cut the tape short in order to see the lines. I used liquid masking fluid to mask off the curved areas, and carefully painted in the fluid up to the edge of the compass curves.
Once everything was masked off, I used acrylic paint to paint in the warm cream tone for the background. It seemed too stark and even, so I mixed a slightly darker ocher and scumbled it in around the edge of the masked area and where the beer taps would go.
I removed the masking fluid and tape, and then used a ruler to find the center-line of the "face". I drew a light line at that point, and used a compass set to the same radius as the goggles inside and outside diameters, and using a drafting pen with fluid acrylic paint, drew the perfect circles where the goggle transfers would go.

I painted the rims of the goggles with a yellowish tone that would resemble brass when finished, and a sky blue for the eyes. You have to remember that this acrylic transfer technique leaves only the toner of the laser print behind, so any area that appears white on the print will become transparent in the transfer; the underpainting determines the color of the lighter values of the transfer. I added a bit of tonal modulation in the brass rings, but that may not be necessary... I get a bit obsessive about these things.
I scanned a book of engravings to get some of the elements in this piece, and I did some internet image searching to get the rest; the beer glasses, the beer taps and the robot hands were found online. The rings of the goggles were a scan of the bottom of a can of mixed nuts...anything is fair game!
The elements here were printed on a monochrome laser printer on plain bond paper and cut out with an X-Acto knife. I laid them out toner-side up to get a sense of how the sizes were going to work.

This shows the elements roughly "dry-fitted" before being glued down permanently.

I did some Photoshop work on the beer glasses to make one look almost empty. These would be simply printed with an inkjet printer, cut out and glued on the artwork using matte medium.
I then painted a generous amount of matte medium on the panel where the black and white transfer elements were to go and also painted medium on the toner side of the cut-out prints to ensure good adhesion. The pieces were placed face-down on the artwork and were carefully burnished down using a bone folder, trying to avoid getting any medium on the back of the prints which would make the pulp removal process much more difficult. Notice I taped down the robot hand prints to make sure they would be perfectly positioned with the glass when the transfers were done.

This shows the robot hands after the medium has dried and the transfer process has begun; after several hours of drying time (preferably overnight), the back of the prints are wet with clean water. Dip your fingers into the water and begin to gently rub the back of the prints. The paper pulp will begin to pill up and rub off. Continue wetting and rubbing the prints until the paper pulp has been rubbed away. It's almost impossible to get every last remnant of the paper pulp off, but if you are patient and persistent, you can get 90% of the pulp off and retain all of the detail in your transferred print. You will see that if you rub too hard, you run the risk of ruining your transfer. If you stop too soon, you will end up with a cloudy image that has too much pulp remaining.

You can see the pulp that has pilled up with continued rubbing, and you can clearly see the difference in the tap, which has been rubbed for several minutes, and the goggles which have only been wet at this point.

The rubbing is complete; all of the elements have been transferred using the acrylic medium technique. Some areas were a bit cloudy because I was worried that I might begin to rub off the transferred toner, so I stopped a bit too soon. To counteract that a bit, you can paint a coat of matte medium and water on the transfers and they get a bit less cloudy.

At this point, the transfers are done and the painting can begin. You'll notice that in the lighter chrome areas of the beer tap, the ochre background color shows through. In some areas that's great, because the colors all integrate with the background. But it needs some cooler colors and some highlights to look like metal, so I'm painting in some blues on top, some oranges underneath to reflect the color of the beer, and some white highlights to add some sparkle. Notice I'm trying to angle the highlight brush strokes to mimic the knerling on the fixtures. Nothing is perfect here, but why should it be? This is a painting, and the imperfections add to the character of the piece.

So now I'm painting the top and bottom of this robot's metal head; iron on the "down" side and brass on the "Merry" side. I painted a flat tone to begin with, and then slowly built up darks and lights to give it a hand-hammered look, with lots of imperfections. The brushwork is very loose and impressionistic. I've also painted the eyes a combination of dark blue and light blue, with black pupils and several catch lights. Note that the catch lights, or sparkles in and around the eyes line up on a consistent bias; this implies a single, specific light source and makes it look more realistic.

The two noses go on next; I wanted one to be metal and the other to me more retro, so I went with a leather look. The eyes seemed uninteresting, so I added an orange ring around the pupils.

Now it's time for the "grin". I saw this as a hinged, slotted metal piece, reminiscent of a knight's jousting helmet. Rather than try to laboriously hand paint around the the precise rectangles and the gentle gradation from light in the center to darker at the sides, I decided to make a frisket (mask) out of canary tracing paper and rubber cement. I covered most of the artwork with the tracing paper to which several coats of rubber cement had been applied, and cut out the part to be painted with an X-Acto knife. I removed the frisket and, using a 1" flat brush, quickly painted in the metal grin with shades of blue-gray. I carefully replaced that the frisket that had been removed, and then removed the rectangles that make up the slots, or "teeth" of the grin. I used thinned black acrylic ink and a 1/2" flat brush to darken those slots.

After the frisket was removed, I painted in the highlights on the slots, and added a rolled edge to the top and bottom of the metal grin. I also painted in some bolts on the side so the piece can swing up and down. The last step was to paint in the details of the robot hands which were not very clear in the transfers.

Here is the finished piece with type; this is the happy "Merry" view...

And here is the unhappy "Down" view.

Cheers!

Pastels: Slue Foot Sue

2010-11-24T15:56:00.004-05:00

This is a demo I did last quarter for my Techniques 1 class. I didn't quite finish it in class, so I took some time this week to complete it. The technique involves using 90# or 140#cold press watercolor paper, and laying down watercolors that are roughly complimentary to what the intended final colors in pastels will be. It creates an interesting underlying color and texture that makes the piece more active and visually more interesting that the standard pastel piece on colored paper. It seems to lend itself nicely to simpler, stylized visuals like children's book illustrations.
Here are a few progress images showing the underpainting in complimentary watercolors, then the build-up of pastels over the top of the painting.

This is the watercolor part; the colors aren't pure compliments, just colors that are ball-park compliments, or that will simply look nice when the pastels overlay them.

And this is the buildup of pastels. It's a fun process that doesn't require masterful watercolor skills to get a good result.

WIP: Thom Yorke

2010-11-09T19:25:00.011-05:00

This is a demo for one of my techniques classes. It's an acrylic texture layer with watercolors for the finish work. This first state is just the acrylics (except for the darker hair at the temples which is watercolor; I was moving too fast and not scanning as often as I should)...

I taped off the central vertical area with painters tape and loosely laid in an acrylic mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. The runny paint was pressed into the Fabriano 300# hot press watercolor paper with a piece of plastic bag ( wax paper works better but I forgot to bring it in). Lifting the plastic creates unpredictable textures and breaks in the value, leaving behind a very organic tonal base on which to paint in watercolors.
(I should have scanned it at this stage but didn't think about it until it was too late.)
Once the central area was dry, I cut a frisket of canary tracing paper and rubber cement to reveal the darker overcoat area. I repeated the acrylics and plastic bag process to create a darker textured area for the coat. I used pthalo blue and burnt sienna for a greener tint. The frisket wasn't perfect; some paint oozed under the frisket onto his chin and hand. The chin area will be quite dark so it isn't a problem, but I had to fix his hand with opaque acrylics. Not sure how that will effect the watercolors in that area...

Here I've just begun the watercolor painting, working slowly with thin glazes of color to begin to flesh out the features and to bring out the form. All of the detail will be held within that vertical central band of darker tones.

A bit more detail in watercolor, working slowly from light to dark, wet to dry.

Adding some darks to the overcoat, and bringing out more of the form in the face.

I went back and taped off the center column again so I can deepen the value and add more detail to the overcoat in that middle area. A bit more red in the hair, and red around the eyes, with little details here and there. This is all traditional to this point.

This is the final piece with some enhancements in Photoshop. I darkened the coat in the central area to frame the hand and face, and built some more contrast in the face with a soft light layer. I also cleaned up some ragged edges.

Asylum; WIP

2010-10-15T10:45:00.004-04:00

The Illustration Department at SCAD-Atlanta where I teach has a club called the Illustration Asylum. This is a sketch and an unfinished color version that I've been playing with as a possible logo for the club. There is already a logo in use so I'd stopped working on it, but I was encouraged to finish it so here's what I have so far.

sketch; graphite on bristol board

I still have to work out how I'm going to handle the word ILLUSTRATION at the top.

work in progress, roughly half-way finished. Photoshop

I'll post more as it progresses.

Rescue

2010-03-27T20:24:00.003-04:00

This piece was auctioned at an animal rescue fundraiser last year, and I'm happy to say it helped pay for having several animals spayed and neutered.
Larger version here.
Mixed media on illustration board.

Clumsy

2010-01-24T12:28:00.002-05:00

There is nothing clumsier on land than a pelican. In the air is another story - dignity and grace with the attitude of a fighter pilot.

Annibel Lee rough

2010-01-23T22:26:00.005-05:00

Two rough sketches for Annibel Lee; the one on the left shows the dead figure of Annibel framed by the moon, and standing before the sea with the wind blowing her hair. She is holding a chambered nautilus shell as a reference to the demons of the deep that await her arrival.
The sketch on the right depicts her under the water, with the demons of the deep dragging her down to their lair.
Any preference?

This is the semi-final painting. Not sure it's done... gonna look at it for a while and then decide where to go with it.

Undone

2009-12-21T21:09:00.003-05:00

Hatch

2009-12-11T11:33:00.004-05:00

Detail of a murder mystery book cover entitled "Endangered Species" by Nevada Barr, published by Harper Collins / Avon.
To see the entire piece, click here.
acrylics on illustration board

Crunchy

2009-12-04T11:25:00.003-05:00

Detail from a Macy's poster I did a few years ago. It's acrylics on illustration board. To see the entire piece, click here.

Experiment

2009-11-22T22:13:00.003-05:00

This is an attempt at a technique that Sam Weber demonstrated last winter at the Arts Forum. It involves doing something akin to a monoprint with acrylics, then painting the values and detail with watercolors. Mine was only marginally successful with these materials, so I did some fairly major tweaking in Photoshop.
Here are a few steps after the initial acrylic monoprint was done. It begins after a little of the face was started with watercolors. I wanted to document the acrylic part but it goes really fast and there's no time to stop and photograph it in progress.

Music

2009-11-20T18:07:00.002-05:00

This is a piece I did for a very good friend who plays violin for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She runs an amazing summer chamber music program for very talented high-school kids in Atlanta called Franklin Pond Chamber Music. The group meets at her home, which is actually on a pond that is a frog haven, so the frog quartet was a natural theme. It was done entirely in Photoshop, aside from the instruments which I photographed and composited in to the artwork.

Frozen

2009-10-16T22:31:00.001-04:00

Graphite on bristol paper with digital color.

Pattern

2009-09-28T16:10:00.004-04:00

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker showed a pattern of decline for decades until it was finally declared extinct in the mid 1900's. There have been a few unofficial recent sightings in remote woodlands, and some groups are continuing to search for the Ivory-Bill, but it may be just a memory.
Of course, the checkerboard pattern of the graph also helps legitimize the image;-)

Cracked

2009-05-22T12:38:00.005-04:00

Black prismacolor on coquille paper and linen weave paper with digital color.

This is the black and white drawing before digital coloring. It's a bit unusual in that in incorporates two different papers to achieve the textures; the clothing, or fabric areas are done on linen-weave acrylic paper which gives a woven texture to the drawing. That paper was carefully cut out and glued on to a sheet of fine Coquille paper, which has a texture of random, raised organic shapes. When you draw on each with a black Prismacolor pencil, you get two distinct textures which can be reproduced as "line" art, meaning that it doesn't have to be converted to halftone, as a grayscale drawing would be.

Here's a close-up of the two textures:

Theater

2009-04-24T17:18:00.004-04:00

Not exactly Shakespeare, but it does take place on a stage. It was done to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Atlanta College of Art (see the number 100 anywhere??).

Impossible

2009-04-19T18:44:00.004-04:00

Pigs flying, impossible constructions, multiple points of view...all indicators of things that can not be, yet actually came to pass!
Mixed media plus Photoshop

The Key

2009-04-02T21:39:00.006-04:00

This was done as a process demo for one of my classes, and I offered it up for auction to a very worthy cause: the Art Fundraiser to Benefit the Atlanta Animal Welfare Committee. The auction/gala was this weekend... see comments below!!

Subtract

2009-03-20T11:05:00.002-04:00

This was done as a book cover for a murder mystery called "Copy Kat" by Karen Kijewski. It was painted with airbrushed acrylics on illustration board, then some Photoshop effects were added later.

Celebrate

2009-02-15T12:59:00.002-05:00

Lace

2009-02-12T22:46:00.002-05:00

This piece was done for an article for Airbrush Action Magazine. The article was about using lace and other materials to airbrush through to get "lacy" effects. Several different paper doilies and lace patterns were used here to get that heavy brocade robe and the fancy collar.
The artwork was done with acrylics on gessoed masonite panel. The brick background was added later in Photoshop to give it a dark, catacomb look.

Rambunctious

2008-12-12T14:56:00.002-05:00

Get it?... ram - bunk - shoes?? Oh well, it was fun.

Balloon

2008-12-01T22:42:00.004-05:00

This is a re-post of one of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade posters I've done, since it's all about balloons. It was for the 2002 parade.
For those who are curious, this is all digital, mostly Photoshop with a bit of Illustrator for the type and the general structure of the Macy's building. The poster elements, such as each character, balloon and float, were done individually in layers, flattened, and then assembled into the final poster file. The poster was 21 x 27", 400dpi, CMYK. The final print file was about 600mb, but the working file, with the main elements on individual layers was over 2gb. If all the layers of every file that went into this were counted (and they weren't), there was something in the neighborhood of 2000 layers, give or take a few hundred.
Here's a slightly larger version of the poster.
And here are the others I've done for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (these are not digital).

Island

2008-09-12T09:27:00.001-04:00

An oldie, but a good fit for the theme. This was done for an article in a travel magazine about the popularity of diving vacations.
Acrylics with a touch of Photoshop

Detach

2008-08-15T18:03:00.001-04:00

acrylics on panel and digital

Legendary Senior Rockers

2008-08-15T14:21:00.006-04:00

In my recent Materials and Techniques classes I've covered the mixed-media process that several illustrators use, primarily C.F. Payne and Mark English. It's a great technique for caricature portraits, so for the past two quarters I've done demos of some familiar rock and roll folks who have lots of character in their faces and in their body language. Here are the first two in what I hope will be several pieces celebrating the Senior Citizens of Rock and Roll.

Keith Richards
(scientists have claimed that the only living things capable of surviving a nuclear holocaust are cockroaches, rats, and this guy)

Bob Dylan

Foggy

2008-07-13T21:11:00.003-04:00

This originally appeared as a cover for the novel "Liberty Falling" by Nevada Barr for Avon Books. It seemed like a good fit for the foggy theme, but I have to admit that I enhanced the foggy look a tad.
Acrylics and Photoshop

ICON5- NYC, July 2008

2008-07-10T23:55:00.002-04:00

I had the great fortune of attending the 5th Illustration Conference (ICON5) in NYC the week of the 4th of July. Go here to get the skinny on what it was all about.

Fierce

2008-06-27T13:03:00.001-04:00

This piece was recently done as a demonstration of rendering fur textures with airbrush and traditional brushes for Airbrush Action Magazine. It was done in acrylics on hot-press illustration board.

Baby

2008-06-01T10:42:00.002-04:00

This image was a book cover for "Bop" by Maxine Chernoff. It was a collection of short stories which always makes for an interesting image; elements from several of the stories were drawn upon to create a surreal, dreamlike narrative which collectively relate to the book as a whole rather than to any individual story.
Acrylics on illustration board.

Worry

2008-05-23T17:43:00.002-04:00

As an American in this election year, with our economy a wreck, in a war we can't seem to get out of, and the sketchy group of candidates from both parties that are contending for the White House, I'm more than a bit worried.
Mixed media on illustration board.

Wrinkles

2008-04-27T17:04:00.004-04:00

A book cover I did a while back for a murder mystery called "Body in the Basement" by Katherine Hall Page.
This edition is no longer in print, so the current cover is different.
airbrushed acrylics on illustration board

Another wrinkly image, this one for "The Last Good Kiss" by James Crumley.

Primitive

2008-04-19T22:31:00.002-04:00

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), as well as most government institutions are not only primitive in their structure, but are "manned" by sub-humans with a sour disposition and the I.Q. of a sponge. Just kidding... I love you guys, especially next month when I have to renew my drivers license. You guys ROCK!

Fail

2008-04-16T15:09:00.002-04:00

Doomed to fail, but you've got to admire the commitment to succeed.

Homage

2008-04-02T21:47:00.004-04:00

This is an homage to two illustrators whose work I have admired for decades; Gilbert Stone who made the distorted portrait famous, and C.F. Payne who perfected the mixed-media layering technique that I used for this piece. Payne also distorts his figures from time to time and pays homage to Gil Stone as he does so. Of course, stretching the figure isn't a modern phenomenon, and these guys' work is an homage to the Renaissance masters like Boticelli and the Mannerists who idealized the human form by distorting the proportions to create a more idealized figure.
This was done as a technique demo for one of my illustration classes, and the model is a student of mine named Jill.

Blanket

2008-02-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

This was originally done as the cover for the murder mystery "The Wrong Case" by James Crumley, published by Vintage Contemporaries. The heart pillow is a bonus, what with Valentine's Day around the corner.
Airbrush acrylics on illustration board

Little Things

2007-12-07T21:03:00.000-05:00

This was done from a photo that I found funny and touching at the same time. It reminded me of my mother-in-law whose beloved little dog passed away this fall. Her love for that dog was one of the little things that make life special.
This was another demo that I just finished a few days ago for a pastel techniques illustration class.
Rembrandt and NuPastels on sanded paper

This is her little Buster that died recently. I'm so glad I did this drawing for her for Christmas two years ago.

Excess

2007-11-30T17:07:00.000-05:00

This was done as a demo of a mixed-media technique for one of my illustration classes. It is an image that represents everything excessive that one human can do to itself. The problem I had with it was, no matter how much I tried, I could not make the illustration look as bizarre or as excessive as the real thing.

The Zoo

2007-11-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

This is a compilation of two pages from my sketchbook, drawn from life at Zoo Atlanta which is famous for its gorillas. Willie B was the patriarch of the zoo for years. Here is a quote from the Zoo Atlanta website:
"When Willie B., our magnificent western lowland gorilla patriarch passed away peacefully at the age of 41 in early February of 2000, the Zoo Atlanta family mourned his loss deeply and painfully. He had been more than an important animal in our collection of endangered and fascinating animals. Willie was a hero of sorts, a larger-than-life character who had come to embody the remarkable reinvention and rise to success of our zoo. His graceful transition from solitary caged animal to affectionate patriarch of an expanded family living in the lush Ford African Rain Forest came to represent the institution's rise from the brink of failure to its current status among the nation's finest zoological parks."
These sketches were made in 2006, years after Willie B passed away. But some of these animals are his offspring, and they are a testament to his resilience and adaptability.

Scale

2007-11-10T11:05:00.001-05:00

Owl: acrylics on gessoed masonite
Hummingbird: airbrushed acrylics on illustration board

Hats

2007-11-03T20:58:00.000-04:00

A book cover for the murder mystery "The Man Who Understood Cats". That's me in the fedora (hat) and trenchcoat with Mittens, the cat from Satan's own litterbox tucked inside my coat. Mittens had issues, to say the least; my daughter looks like she came out on the losing end of a prison knife fight because of this cat's razor claws and demonic attitude. He has since taken up his rightful place to the right hand of Lucifer, may he rest in peace.
Acrylics on Strathmore illustration board

Trick-or-Treat

2007-10-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

I did this earlier this week as a pen-and-ink with watercolor demo for an illustration techniques class (with apologies to Jack Unruh whose technique was the thrust of this assignment). Great fun, and a lucky match for this week's theme.
Happy Halloween!

Witch Too

2007-10-25T21:32:00.000-04:00

This was an airbrush demo I did at the SCAD-Atlanta 24-Hour Art Challenge last Friday. It was a good week for witches, I guess.
Some folks have said it looks like a 3D model, like in Maya or Strata. Nope, it's old-school; airbrush, india ink and acrylics.

Captain

2007-08-17T10:30:00.001-04:00

This portrait of Captain Goatman of the Intergalactic Defense Force was done as a demo for one of my Illustration classes at SCAD-Atlanta. It involves the layering of pencil, acrylics, watercolor, and oil washes (in that order), with a bit of colored pencil (and a pinch of Photoshop for the name tag).

Moon

2007-07-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

reprise of "Night"
For a book cover called The Enchanted Cat
The moon is a doctored NASA photo, the rest is from scratch in Photoshop.

Twist(er)

2007-06-30T18:07:00.000-04:00

I know the theme is TWIST, and this is a lame substitution. This started out as a book cover, and now it is threatening innocent beach-goers once again.
Acrylics and Photoshop (I got a little filter happy, I'm afraid)

Rejection

2007-06-16T23:09:00.000-04:00

The old passive-aggressive heave-ho.

Suit

2007-06-09T16:46:00.000-04:00

Mr. Monopoly; the quintessential "suit". This is from the 2002 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Poster, and it's my favorite of the four I've done. It's all digital, created in Photoshop and Illustrator.

To see the whole 2002 Macy's poster, click here.

Cars

2007-05-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

From a time when cars represented much more than transportation from point A to point B. They represented transportation from childhood to adulthood, or so we thought. Cars were the way out, of the confinement of parents and home, as well as a way in, to the freedom of the road and independence. It's still that way today, I guess. Though the cars have changed and the culture of the road has changed, the romance of riding down the two-lane with the wind in your hair is still a siren song for everyone who wonders what is just beyond the next hill.

Acrylics on Strathmore illustration board with a touch of Photoshop for effect.

Citrus

2007-05-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

Last minute entry; an old but tasty one. I'd prefer a Corona with citrus, but nobody has asked me to paint that yet. Maybe someday, then I could do LOTS of research on the product and call it a business expense (don't tell my dear friends at the IRS that I said that...they don't have much of a sense of humor).
Acrylics on Strathmore board

Polar

2007-04-20T15:35:00.000-04:00

From a book cover titled "Elements of a Kill" by Christopher Lane.
I've never figured out why I was chosen to illustrate this series of mysteries that are all set in the "Frozen North". I grew up in Alabama and Georgia, where it might snow every third year or so...not exactly Inupiat territory. In fact the closest thing I've ever seen to a Polar Bear in the wild was an albino squirrel who lived in the woods behind our house a few years ago.

By the way, the odd looking thing in the water in the foreground is an authentic Inupiat ceremonial mask (it's supposed to represent the spiritual aspects of death and rebirth, I think).
acrylics on Strathmore illustration board

This is the actual cover with type and all.

Fortune

2007-04-15T15:05:00.000-04:00

Apologies for this reprise, with alterations, of a previous post.
Pencil, acrylics, watercolor, oil wash, colored pencils, Photoshop

Green

2007-04-08T20:58:00.000-04:00

The Masters Tournament in Augusta exemplifies the color green. It ended today, and although Tiger Woods finished tied for second, he always looks darn good in green. Congratulations to Zach Johnson, who is wearing the fabled green jacket for the first time.

Wired

2007-03-13T21:50:00.000-04:00

A reprise of a previous IF post, but with a few tweaks. The theme is perfect for this week where I teach...it's the last week of the quarter and all the students are running on Red Bull, coffee and any other chemicals that will help them stay awake and finish all their projects on time.

Crash

2007-02-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

Another old book cover. I know, too literal, too old school, but hey, it's a crash. And it's all I got. Sosumi. I thought about drawing Anna Nicole Smith, but that was also too literal. And just too sad on so many levels.
Click here for a larger view.

Red

2007-01-27T20:33:00.000-05:00

This is a detail from a Nero Wolfe book jacket I did called "Some Buried Caesar". I don't have time for a new IF piece this time, and it's the only thing I could find that had enough red in it for this week's theme.
Acrylics on Strathmore 240 illustration board.

80's

2007-01-14T22:45:00.000-05:00

A quick doodle of three 80's Pop icons as if in their 80's. Sadly, MJ didn't need much work to make him look decrepit.
Click here to see a larger view.

Buzz

2007-01-06T23:35:00.000-05:00

Peace

2006-12-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to everyone!

airbrushed acrylics and Photoshop

This was cobbled together from these two book cover pieces:

Help

2006-12-18T17:59:00.000-05:00

If this were me, HELP!!! isn't the only thing I'd be screaming, and a few involuntary bodily functions would likely be streaming. Dangling by one's fingertips hundreds of feet above a rocky, instant death. What fun!

Mask

2006-12-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

Chalk pastels on sanded pastel paper.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

These are two of the four Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade posters I've done; 1990, 1996, 1997, and 2002. It's always an honor to be involved in a project that is so univeraslly recognized as an American Tradition.

This is the one from 1990. It's traditional media; airbrushed acrylics on Strathmore board.

This is the most recent, for the 2002 parade. This one is digital, mostly Photoshop with a smidgin of Illustrator for type and such. The file was huge, and when I added up all the layers for all the individual components, it was well over 1000. The scratch file was about 2 gigs...yikes!

These are a few snippets from the 2002 poster at actual printed size:

Kermit

Monopoly Man

Clifford and other balloons and floats

And here's Old St. Nick. Happy Holidays!

Clear

2006-11-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

This is an image I made for a book cover titled "The Heart of the Dove". It is a composite of a photograph of a piece of damask fabric and a dove I modeled in Strata 3D. Plus a LOT of Photoshop to make it look at least a little convincing. I was never that happy with the result, but it makes a logical entry for this week's theme.

Smoke

2006-11-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

Long time no IF entries. I HATE when that happens. Just too dang busy to breathe these days. And way too busy to create something new for this topic, which has a ton of fun possibilities. But, I chose an image that isn't fun, but is appropriate for the Halloween time of year. It was done as a book cover called "Happy Birthday Murders". Hope you find the smoke to be deliciously deadly.

Clean

2006-08-02T21:52:00.000-04:00

A spread from my one and only foray into children's book illustration; a sing-along version of Mary Had a Little Lamb. The original idea was for Mary to be a border collie and all the other characters to be animals as well, and since I love doing animals, I took the commission. After I was well into the sketches for the book, the publisher called and said that a focus group felt that a dog as the lead character might frighten the children who are the target audience for these books. Mary and all the other characters had to be human children (of specific ages and ethnicities). I was more than a little disappointed and lobbied for the border collie version, but in the end the brilliant focus group prevailed over the idiot artist. That's why I now stick to doing books for mature audiences; no focus group has ever overruled my artwork (yet!).

Click here for a larger version.
Airbrushed acrylics on illustration board.

Sacrifice

2006-07-14T11:43:00.000-04:00

This was for a book cover that is part of a series; the author is an ex-priest and the novels are mysteries that involve a "sleuth" priest who uncovers all manner of foul play within the Catholic church. For these covers I try to use religious icons as appropriate imagery and render them as stained glass. I grew up in the Catholic church and always loved the stained glass work in the cathedrals and churches I have been in. The original cover art lacked the spilling blood, but I think it looks better and feels more "sacrificial" with it.

Photoshop

Rain

2006-06-24T15:56:00.000-04:00

I like to ask my students to identify the product that's being advertised in this piece I did several years ago.

Give up? Windshield wiper blades! Duh! Everybody knows that Noah and the gang never would have made it if they hadn't tricked out the Ark with the very best wiper blades.

Here's the happy ending...

Acrylics on Illustration board

Jungle

2006-06-11T12:31:00.000-04:00

Lately I find myself with no time to create new work for IF, so I offer these jungle animal sketches from the zoo.

Zoo Atlanta is famous for it's Lowland Gorillas. They've had a spate of recent births, and it's great fun to watch the mothers play with and tenderly care for their tiny babies. To me, though, the huge silverback named Ivan is the big draw. He is so incredibly powerful it's awe inspiring just to see him casually strolling around his compound. He makes Ah-nold look like a wuss.
______________________________________
A few more random sketches of jungle critters.

Sumatran Tiger and Hornbill

Cory Bustard (bird) and Bongos (antelope)

Orangutan (male)

Cake

2006-05-26T09:10:00.000-04:00

No time for an original for IF, so here's my cake, marking a not-so-joyful occasion. It was done as a book cover for "Happy Birthday Murder" by Lee Harris, for Random House/Ballantine publishers.
Photoshop

Fat

2006-05-08T23:37:00.000-04:00

I feel uncomfortable with this post and this topic. I wish I had time to do a witty, funny take on this theme, but here's what I've got... a 20 minute sketch from a life drawing session of a very nice woman who could afford to lose a few pounds. Not funny, not witty. Just real.

Under the Sea

2006-04-28T15:35:00.000-04:00

Cover art for "The Woman Who Walked Into the Sea"
by Philip R. Craig
acrylics on illustration board

Robot

2006-04-22T18:42:00.000-04:00

I scanned a page from my sketchbook and used that as the foundation for this robot figure. I am a big fan of Hajime Sorayama, who made an international name for himself doing a huge body of work with the female as robot theme, some of which are quite pornographic in nature, but all are meticulously rendered and sparkle with machinelike precision. His robots have highly polished metallic bodies, and many have flesh-and-blood faces, which gives them a softer, humanlike quality. I am attempting (clumsily, by comparison) to paint a female robot without the human face, but with a sense of humanity and warmth. I am using darker, less chrome-like metals, and textures that mimic weathered bronze, which to me feels oddly organic.
Anyway, tune in for further iterations in what may turn out to be an epic (several days) Illustration Friday entry.

This is the sketch I started with.

Spotted

2006-04-14T21:08:00.000-04:00

Spotted: Megamoviestaurs
These were done for the Fernbank Science Museum in Atlanta; they were playing on the popularity of Jurassic Park and wanted to portray their dinosaur displays as stars in their own right. I tried to give the T-Rex a Jack Nicholson vibe; the others were just generic glamosaurs.
Acrylics on Illustration board and Photoshop
To see a larger version, go here.

Speed

2006-04-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

Slow and steady may win the race, but a jetpack is WAY more fun!
Photoshop

Monster

2006-03-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

Photoshop

Feet

2006-03-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

Meet Gwyneth. Meet Gwyneth's feet. She thinks they are amazing. So do I.
Prismacolor on Canson charcoal paper.

Insect

2006-03-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

I've done lots of insect illustrations, but this is one of my favorites because of the statement it makes. It was the cover art for a book titled "Denial"; it's one of those rare instances when the title and the image work perfectly together to bring forth the essence of the story.

Another, slightly more menacing, insect.

Song

2006-02-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

I offer the Amphibious Suite in C (croak) minor, by the Franklin Pond Chamber Music Quartet, performing nightly (in the warmer months), to the delight of many in north Atlanta, USA.
(The frogs and environment were done from scratch in Photoshop. The instruments are digital photos. To see a larger version of this art, go here.)

Simple

2006-02-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

A simple drawing of a simpleton (all too common these days) simply baffled by the simple act of making change.

Chair

2006-02-03T18:16:00.000-05:00

Once again, deadlines won't allow me to create something new this week, so I offer this "chair" that I did some time ago. It was for a story about how insane it is to sacrifice old-growth, exotic species of trees for the sake of high-end lawn furniture.

Cat

2006-01-20T14:40:00.000-05:00

I've done lots of cat illustrations, but this is one of my favorites. It was for a poster for a jazz festival that has a running theme "We're the Cats that Make it Happen". I did a different poster for the same event a couple of years later and posted it here for the theme "Small" a few weeks ago. I hope to do a new cat piece specifically for IF if I have time this week.

E is for...

2006-01-13T11:22:00.000-05:00

Eccentric Escher Effort

I'm a big M.C. Escher fan, so when I got the opportunity to do something that involves the idea of multiple points of view, I jumped at the chance to play with strange spacial relationships and impossible forms. It was great fun, and incorporates many different traditional media as well as some tweeks in Photoshop.

Sea

2006-01-07T10:42:00.000-05:00

The sea: water. It's the nectar of all life. There will never be any more nor any less than there is at this moment. The water that we are drinking today was in the sea just a short time ago, and it will be again. Let's take care of it, and everything that lives in it. It's a matter of life and death.

Done from scratch in Photoshop for Illustration Friday.

Flavor

2005-12-30T12:30:00.000-05:00

or Flav-ugh

Blech!...talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth! I'm not a fan of those "reality" shows, but I accidently happened upon this most distasteful spectacle one day and almost lost my lunch. Of course that's FlavaFlav and Bridgette Neilsen swapping spit.

Holiday

2005-12-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to everyone at Illustration Friday!

This was done a few weeks ago for a friend. She is a symphony violinist who also runs a summer strings program for serious middle and high school kids. The frog by himself is the standard logo I did for her a few years ago, so when she asked me to do a HOLIDAY card for her, putting the frog in a snowglobe was the perfect solution. The whole thing was done entirely in Photoshop.

Surprise

2005-12-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

This image was done as a demo for one of my illustration classes. It's just a silly piece that really has no agenda, but it lends itself to any interpretation one might want to put on it. I call it "Bush be Nimble", and it's the expression on some of the onlookers faces that makes it fit the theme.

Blue

2005-12-02T10:21:00.000-05:00

Chalk pastels on sandpaper pastel paper.

Blue, too...

A page from my sketchbook which was (unusually) done in blue and white on gray paper.

Small

2005-11-27T13:08:00.000-05:00

I'm short on time this week, so here's a small jazz fan that I did a few years ago.

Free...variations on a theme

2005-11-19T23:12:00.000-05:00

The good

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The bad

Free, but why?

The ugly

Free (for the moment)

Strength

2005-11-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

They say that gram-for-gram, ants are among the strongest creatures around. This is for those of us who are small in stature but with the inner strength that it takes to accomplish mighty things. I like that idea... the rhino doesn't.
For a step-by-step of this piece, go here.

Strength step-by-step

2005-11-10T19:28:00.000-05:00

Step 1:

The ant was done several years ago for a company that makes pesticides. It was done in acrylics with airbrush and traditional brushes. I played with the scale and position of the ant until I found a relationship that looked like it would work...I know the ant is much too big in relationship to the rhino, but the ant is the hero, and it needs to be large enough to see, so I took some artistic license with scale. The rhino was drawn using photo reference found online. Of course, there were no photos that were from the correct angle, so this guy is a conglomeration of many. I did this drawing in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos II 9X12 tablet. The sketch layer was moved to the top of the stack and the blending mode was set to "Multiply" so that it's visible from every layer under it (Multiply makes the dark marks visible, but the white areas [the background] become transparent).

For reference I also used these sketches from a trip to the zoo; they came closer to the angle I was after than any of the photos I could find.

Step 2:

The sandy ground was done on a new layer at the bottom of the stack. I filled the area with a sandy beige color, then I used the linear gradient tool and did a gradient of dark khaki to transparent from bottom left to upper right; the gradient blending mode was set to multiply.
I wanted the texture to be obvious in the foreground but fade as it recedes into the distance, so I pressed "Q" to enter Quick Mask mode, dragged a gradient from upper right to lower left to mask off the upper right area, pressed "Q" again to create a selection of the un-masked area, and ran the texturizer filter using sandstone as the texture.
The sky was done by drawing the shape with the pen tool, changing the path to a selection, filling the selection with a sky blue, then using the radial gradient with a very light blue to give the impression of a sunny day.

Step 3:

The rhino was done in several stages: the head was one layer; I made a tracing of the sketch with the pen tool, changed the resulting path to a selection, filled the selection with a neutral gray, and then used the brush tool and a variety of brush configurations to paint in the textures and details. The foreleg and foot were on another layer, and the surface textures were on yet another layer; I'm a big believer in layers because they offer so much flexibility.

Step 4:

Next come the horns, which were done exactly like the head, but on a new layer.

Step 5:

The ear is next; rhino ears are very strange, and kind of cute; they remind me of a waffle cone that's been rolled up, before the ice cream goes in. I then added a shadow for the ear on a layer below.

Step 6:

The rope comes next. I thought about drawing the chain going all the way around the horns, but the grays and blues of the chain were too close in color to the rhino's horn and might have gotten lost, so I chose to attach the chain to a rope, instead. The rope was traced with the pen tool, converted to a selection, then filled with a yellowish, "ropey" color. The braids were done with the brush tool and the same yellowish color set to multiply mode.
I also wanted to give the appearance that the feet were being dragged through the sand, so I created a new layer and added "dust" coming up from his feet, and in front of his chin and leg.

Step 7:

The chain comes next. I created a new file and drew two links that were the largest size I would need. After I was happy with the color and the metallic nature of the links, I dragged them to the rhino art. There, I went to Edit>Transform>Distort, and shaped the links to fit the angle and the perspective correctly. Then I hit Command-J to copy the transformed links to a new layer. I then hit Command-T to go into transform mode on the new links and adjusted them to the proper size and position so that they lined up in the correct position, scale and perspective relative to the previous links, and repeating this process until the chain was complete. The ant was copied onto a new layer and was transformed (squished) to a shape that would serve as a shadow for the ant; the shape was moved to it's proper position, then I command-clicked the layer icon to make a selection of the shape, and filled it with a cool gray. I used the blur tool to soften the shadow in appropriate areas.
The ant needed some "footprints" at this point, so I added those as well.

Step 8:

The final step was to copy the completed chain onto a new layer and turn it into a proper shadow for the chain to cast onto the ground; I used the same procedure as I used for the ant shadow above. The ant shadow and the chain shadow were placed on the same layer, and the blending mode was changed to multiply and the opacity was reduced a bit to allow the texture of the ground to show through. And that's that.

Night

2005-11-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

Some of you may have seen this before. It was done recently for a book cover that is yet to be published. It's all Photoshop, save for the initial sketch which was good 'ol pencil and paper. The big blank spot on the moon is for the title.

Broken

2005-10-28T16:59:00.000-04:00

bro·ken
Pronunciation: 'brO-k&n
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English brocen, from past participle of brecan: to break.

There are dozens of definitions of the word broken, each offering a different opportunity for illustration. Most have a negative connotation, but I chose to look at broken from a more hopeful angle, as in having broken free from some restraint, or perhaps from a bad situation. I will leave it up to you to interpret this image as you wish.

Remote

2005-10-22T00:12:00.000-04:00

While on what was to have been a routine reconnaisance mission, Major Blunder found himself hopelessly lost when the guidance system failed on his F-3487and3/4 Intergalactic Fighter. Nearly out of fuel, and needing to go to the bathroom REALLY badly, he made his way to the only solid ground within range. When he finally emerged from the cramped cockpit of his broken ship, he found himself on a strange, remote planet. The first thing on his mind was "I gotta take a leak". The second thing was "I wish I could paint happy trees like Bob".

Below is v3.0; same as above but without the RGB video projectors beaming across space. Don't know why I didn't think of that earlier on...oh well, better late than never, I suppose.

Below is v 2.0 (same as above but without the bazillion inch TV)

Below is the first version...

These were done digitally with a combination of photos (the remote controls), Bryce4 for the basic planets, mountains, sky, etc., and Photoshop (CS2) and a Wacom tablet for the details, type, etc. The intergalactic fighter plane, the Major Blunder figure, and the other drawn elements were invented.

Cold

2005-10-14T18:10:00.000-04:00

A recent book cover piece that fits the theme nicely. The original art just showed a crack in the ice, but I wanted it to feel even colder, so I added a little something to give you a chill. This was painted from scratch in Photoshop.

This is another idea I had, and since I saw no others that addressed this angle on the "cold" theme, I decided to do a quick graphite drawing. Growing up in the South, where freezing weather is a bit of a novelty, it was easy to get kids to do the "lick the flagpole" trick, and then revel in their stupidity as they stood there with their tongues hopelessly frozen to the metal. Of course, it was the bullies who perpetrated such evil...I would NEVER do such a thing.

Lost

2005-10-09T22:31:00.000-04:00

I've been battling a nasty bug all week, so I regret posting another non-original piece.
This was a book jacket done in acrylics on illustration board, but it needed a little more drama so I digitally added the reflection of the couple on the bridge looking down into the water.