Mirror Mirror

Mirror mirror on the wall

Who is the fairest of them all?

Nevermind.

I can see the fairest of them all is me.

My beautiful eyes

My flowing hair.

I must be this fair everywhere.

Ostrich

I once had an ostrich egg omelet  for breakfast. My life has never been the same since.

Billy the Bearded Whale

Most of us knew that whales were mammals, but Billy shows us how mammalian whales can really be!

When pigs fly with JETPACKS!

And these little piggies went WEEEEEEEEEE! all the way home.

Drawn on tracing paper with charcoal in layers, scanned, and colored in Photoshop.

The Death of King Arthur- Cut Paper

This was fun exploring the use of some new tools in Photoshop, such as bevel/emboss, dropshadows, and creating brushes. I also enjoyed taking on a subject I haven't tackled before...medieval people!

Hair-a-sites! Digital Illustration Midterm

Help! I've got hair-a-sites!

I don't know what to do!

They latch on just like parasites

and become a part of you!

I first saw them in the shower

as I was getting clean.

Hair appeared in places

that I had never seen!

They've latched on to my armpits.

I've got some on my chest.

They're growing in my belly button!

I'm getting very stressed!

They latch on tight and won't let go!

I pull them out, but they regrow!

I shave them off but soon they show!

Oh no! 

I've got hair-a-sites!

Pharyl the Country Pigeon

Pharyl the Country Pigeon

I've been developing a story about a pigeon named Pharyl who was raised in rural France on a farm. He and a couple of his friends go on a life changing adventure to London where Pharyl finds his true identity and destiny.

Here is primary group of characters! Pharyl is insecure, sarcastic, humorous, and just wants to find a place where he fits in. Little does he know he is a small carrier pigeon with a big destiny!

Fleur is a pig with OCD about cleanliness. She is timid but sincere. 

Olivia is fun loving, care-free, and wildly attractive. 

Victor is strong willed, courageous, and a little bit dense. 

To better develop my character, I created a sculpture of him out of Super Sculpey! And let me tell you...that stuff is awesome!

The first step is to create an armature, which is essentially a wire skeleton, of your character. Using 12 gauge wire helps the skeleton to be nice and strong. This armature is inserted into a wooden base, and the joints are reenforced with epoxy putty.  

Around the skeleton, I put aluminum foil, which helps build up the sculpture, and helps the sculpey to not be too thick. Thinner Sculpey= less chance of cracking!

This is Pharyl when he is roughed in, and without legs. It is best to smooth the sculpey as much as possible at this point because once it's fired, smoothing gets pretty tricky. I smoothed the surface of Pharyl with moisturizing hand sanitizer which seemed to work well because of the lotions and the alcohol. 

This is Pharyl, post firing. You fire a sculpey sculpture in a regular oven. I baked Pharyl at *200 degrees for 7 hours or so. Hardly any cracking! Yes, his eyes are beads :)

 Before the paint was applied, I smoothed the fired surface with dental tools, wet/dry sandpaper, and fine grade steel wool. The final step is to spray with a matte grey primer. 

Looks pretty good for my first Super Sculpey experience!

Arctic Friends

A friendly arctic neighborhood get together to watch the northern lights.

cut paper and patterns

Learnin about how to create a cut paper look in photoshop.

I have a strange fascination with aliens. I asked myself,

"What would be a weird thing for an alien to abduct?" A whale. Yes, a whale.

I've always loved the way this incredibly tall animal gets water. 

I had a lot of fun with this wood block print technique. 

Barney and Elmo

I grew up watching Barney and Friends so here is a little depiction of Barney dominating Elmo.

Anatomy of an Artist

A spoofy little anatomical drawing describing the collateral damage associated with being an artist.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

I don't blame these goats one bit for crossing the bridge. There ain't nothin to eat on their side!

This is gouache again and man, it's fun.

Roan Inish

My friend gouache and I have recently been having some fun together. I think I'm going to start doing this kind of thing a bit more.

Redwall

This was an endeavor to use a bit more Photoshop and a smidge less Illustrator than I usually do. I think it helped me with light and shadow quite a bit. I tried to sum up the whole story of Redwall in one image.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

For each character I framed them with a storytelling element that foreshadows their eventual fate.

Creole Cowboys

Seeing as the perimeters of this project were...how shall we say...non illustrative; I took some liberties with the photograph. Yee haw!

Book Covers

Here are some book covers I have created for your viewing pleasure.

The Color Crow