'See Much, Study Much, Suffer Much'

I loved the Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series as a kid. I mean they’ve got knights, wizards, bards riding giant cats, undead warriors, other magical things - what’s not to like?  They’ve always seem a little under the radar, except for the Disney movie (which I’ve never seen).  So I figured what the hey, I’ll do some Prydain pictures . Here’s the first, from the Book of Three, with wise ole Dallben putting some serious learning on Assistant Pig-Keeper Taran.

Here are some close up crops.

And here's some process.  First, some thumbnails.  I knew going in I wanted a big shaft of light coming into the study and a soft dusty atmosphere. From there I played around with some different set ups.  These are just a few of those.

I went with that first thumbnail.  Here I worked out and tightened up the composition.  The arrows on that second one were making sure things were leading the eye to the points of interest (Dallben and Taran) and not out of the picture.  Also, the image started flipped the other way.

Here's the final drawing.  I flipped the drawing back and forth as I was working, but I settled on this direction.  Having the window and light coming from the left helps lead the eye into the picture. Hopefully.

After that a quick value study to get an idea of the lights and darks.

And then some color studies.  More or less went with that last one, though it did change a bit.

And then BAM! Finished picture.  Just kidding. Lots of work and adjustments, but that's the gist of it.  More of these to come!

Illustration Age

I'm thrilled to say my work is being featured on the front page of Illustration Age! A big thanks to them.

And here's a mighty warrior pig, standing ready for any challenge.

Hermit Crab

Just a quick warmup.

The Weary Traveller Rests

I'm still here!
Sorry for the lack of updates.  I'm working on several projects and can't share anything at the moment.  But lots of cool stuff coming down the pipeline.
In the meantime, here's an picture of a weary traveller.

And some process for fun.
Here's the original thumbnail sketch I chose. There were more, but I didn't scan them.

The final drawing, before being cleaned up.

Normally I'd do some color studies, but I actually had an idea of the color palette I wanted to use going in, so I just dove right in.
Here's a screenshot from the painting process.

And a closeup of the little dude.

Quirky Cars

Some tiny cars.  I love tiny cars.

Crocodile Rock

This morning's warmup.

Here's the sketchbook doodle.

Dapper Gentleman

Saw this guy on line at the bank. I liked his suspenders.

Victorian Dino

A silly Moleskine sketch, colored in Photoshop.

Thank You Card

Made my own thank you cards.  Those are my cats.  I'm getting these printed up by the always awesome moo.com.

Back!

Hi everyone!!
Sorry for disappearing for a bit there. Things have been a bit busy around these parts.  I have a couple of different client projects I'm working on.  Also, I got married! 
Now I'm back and making some art, so lots of stuff to come.
Here I am with my lovely wife on a dinosaur. Of course!

A Game of Bats and Balls

I love baseball.  This is a nod to the old days I never saw.  The stadium is mostly based on the old Polo Grounds, but there's a bit of Ebbet's Field in there too.  The player isn't anyone specific - the 57 on his uniform is for the last year the Giants played in New York before moving to San Francisco.

A close up.

Some thumbnails.  I played with the idea of it raining for a bit.

Some color studies.  There were more of these, but I seemed to have deleted them. Whoops!

And the final drawing before coloring.

Also, I'm a feature illustrator on the awesome Illustration Mundo this week. Awesome!

Lt. Falcon Enjoys a Game of Chess

...with his cat.

Another in the Introspective GI Joe series.  This one features the illustrious Lt. Falcon challenging his feline companion to a game of wits on a balmy summer night.

'Lt. Falcon Plays Chess With His Cat'

Modern Life

The stresses of modern life symbolized by creepy monsters. Of course!  And you can say the title to the tune of David Bowie's "Modern Love." It makes it better, I promise.

'Modern Life'

Some of the initial sketches.  The big fat fish monster riding on the skinny guy is the focus and I did a bunch of thumbnails to figure out what was going on around them.

 I just liked this creepy monster face.  So creepy.

 

 Here was the layout I went with initially.

 

I got over excited and jumped right in.  Bad idea!! That layout just wasn't that great.  And I was in denial until I was pretty far along. But I had to face the truth - the composition just wasn't working. Bummer.

'blerrgh'

So I tossed it.  Well, first I drew over it and worked out a new composition. Ah, better. Then I threw it out.

'ahhh'

Almost used this dude in the back, but I went with the long flying bug.  I stand by that, but this guy is pretty funny.

The final drawing, done in red Prismacolor and good ol' mechanical pencil on cold press watercolor paper. The red pencil has been removed via Photoshop witchcraft.

And here's an early stage in the coloring process.  The yellow rectangle used to be much taller.

Are you guys digging these longer blog posts?  I figured the Tumblr is great for putting up images, and this blog can have more in depth, hopefully informative, posts.  And occasionally feature David Bowie references.  So there you go.

Cheers guys!

Walking Home

I did this one after reading a couple different news articles.  One was in the NY Times about carbon dioxide levels reaching dangerously high levels and the other was about a company trying to start a colony on Mars.  So I did an illustration of a woman walking through a post apocalyptic landscape with a bag of fruit.  Upbeat stuff, right?

Here are thumbnails and sketches from the early stages.  I started with the idea of her having an umbrella and the rain being acid or poisonous.  I ended up dropping that for normal rain and a fruit sack.

My original thought was to go with an intense yellow background.  Here was a quick study.

The rough layout was done in Carmine Red Prismacolor pencil and the final drawing in 2B pencil right on top.

I really wasn't digging the background, so I drew another and composited it in.

I worked on the yellow version for a while, but it just wasn't clicking.  So I let go of my yellow obsession and I think the blue works much better.  But, I couldn't resist the allure of yellow and did a new yellow version this morning.  It's pretty fun.

Prints, tote bags, iPhone cases and other things of the blue version are available on my Society6 shop.