Illustration Friday: Primitive

Here's an example of a primitive business card from my early days. Check out the AOL email address and (once critical) fax number - this even pre-dates my website!

This illustration was done (if I remember correctly) with a rapidograph (technical) pen. These pens clogged incessantly and and drove me ape. Eventually I evolved to using a brush for inking. A brush delivers a more varied and interesting line and won't seize up.

Taking Flight

This past weekend I attended the New England SCBWI conference in Nashua, NH (SCBWI is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators).

This illustration was my entry for the weekend's poster showcase. The theme of the showcase was "Take Flight" and I walked away with the honorable mention in the published category!

This annual conference features dozens of workshops presented by professionals in the children's publishing market (including writers, illustrators, art directors, and editors). My friend Teri Weidner gave a great workshop entitled Giving Visual Punch to Your Picture Book. The weekend was educational, fun and exhausting!

Taking Flight

I'll be attending the SCBWI conference in Nashua, New Hampshire, the weekend of April 11 -13. The weekend's festivities include a poster showcase. Here's a sketch of my poster - a boy and his pterodactyl terrorizing Boston Common.

I apologize to police everywhere for resorting to the clichéd "cop eating food on the job". I did manage to resist drawing him with a donut.

Illustration Friday - Homage

Kudos to Sanja Jansa for this week's inspired Illustration Friday topic: Homage.

Picasso said "All art is theft"; I prefer to think that all art is homage. Intentionally or unintentionally, I continue to pay homage to the artists that have influenced me.

This poster is an intentional homage to Tim Burton. The font is very Burtonesque. And speaking of Tim Burton, everyone should see his adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It's lovely and demented and I'm downright obsessed with it.

This poster design was donated to Los Altos Youth Theater in California. The line art is scratch board, with digital color.

More Adventures in Digital Painting

Occasionally, my part-time graphic design gig affords me the opportunity to do some illustration. I created this digital painting (and the one in the previous post) for an insurance company (a rather hip insurance company).

I began this illustration with the line art, and then applied the color in a separate layer. The second image shows the illus without the line-art layer. Spooky!

Adventures in Digital Painting

A couple years ago I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Wacom tablet as a joint birthday present from my extended family. Most of them didn't know what it was, but I explained it was like an Etch-a-Sketch and that I was really happy!

Recently I found some great tips on www.danidraws.com. Dani Jones is a great illustrator (and teacher). Her video tutorials demonstrate digital painting techniques that really make sense to me. The key (in one sentence) is to use textured brushes to build the color with varying degrees of opacity.

The first image is the final illustration. I've removed the line art on the second image so you can see the technique a bit more clearly. To see great illustrations and tutorials visit Dani's website!

Go Figure

Some sketches from a figure drawing session I attended last week.