Theater Poster: Mark Twain's Mississippi

Might have taken this project simply to play with the "Mississippi" type. But had a great time working  Twain's handwritten manuscripts into the image

Theater Poster: Gathering Blue

A theater poster for "Gathering Blue" for Oregon Children's Theater. Such a great production!

Imagination Station: new book cover

The cover art for the upcoming entry in the Imagination Station series.

Character Sketches

Working on the cover art for a fantasy book series. These are portraits of the two main characters. (And yes, there will be dragons)

Recent Sketches: Out on the playground

More of my model

Sketches from our various outings over the last few months.

Trinity Cathedral Sketch

Had a meeting in NW Portland the other day. Arrived a little early and did a sketch around the corner at Trinity Cathedral. It was a warm day here in Stumptown and just thought it was amusing and appropriate that a guy had stretched out in the shade of the parish doorway for a mid-afternoon siesta. As religion is supposed to do, the church was giving this guy the comfort he needed at the moment.

Illustration Academy: Project #1 (Part 2)

This is the second image I created at the Illustration Academy for the first project (for more details scroll down ever-so-slightly and check out yesterday's post). I probably created 50 different thumbnails for this because I wanted to ditch linear perspective and yet still give the viewer the sense they were above the guy on the stairs. Alas, it was a no go. Turns out you still gotta' use a couple vanishing points sometimes (but god bless Brunelleschi for figuring it all out)

Speaker Sketches: Oregon SCBWI Conference

Attended the Oregon SCBWI Conference this weekend. Had a splendid time chatting with everyone and of course doing quick sketches of some of the speakers. I'm looking forward to seeing how the chapter continues to move forward and evolve!

Stumptown ComicCon & Dr. Sketchys!

This weekend was Stumptown ComicCon. This was my first time visting the con. And I'm kicking myself for not going earlier. Saw a ton of great art, more than a few familiar faces AND stumbled on to my first Dr. Sketchy's drawing session. I have been meaning to hit up Dr. Sketchy PDX for ages and I took advantage of the opportunity. Way too much fun!

Author Sketch: Matt Phelan

Headed over to A Children's Place Bookstore on Saturday to catch illustrator/author Matt Phelan talk about his book "The Storm in the Barn" which was just turned into a theater production by Oregon Children's Theater. Matt was in town to watch the world premier. Really excellent work and a super nice guy.

Speaker Sketches: Washington SCBWI Conference

Just got back from the Western Washington SCBWI conference. Had a great time (as usual) and did my customary speaker sketches (they just really help me remember what the speaker said) Should anyone actually know the people in the drawings and feel (rightly so) that my sketches look NOTHING like them, I abjectly apologize and would like to point out that some of these sketches were done 50 or more feet away from a moving subject. I'm lucky they aren't just peanut shaped blobs with hair.

Models: A different kind of sketching

These are in-progress sculpts of Patrick and Beth, the two main characters from "The Imagination Station" book series I've been working on. While I've already drawn these characters many times I've noticed that there are some angles that are, frankly, tricky. These models are meant to make it easy to draw our hero's from any point of view.

Portrait: Charlie Sheen

This is the same Charlie Sheen portrait as seen in my previous post  only this time it was created using a "Gouache Relief" technique. This involves painting the white areas with gouache, letting that dry completely, then painting over the entire image with black waterproof ink. (That last bit is fairly scary to do) And finally rinsing the entire image under running water and scrubbing (lightly) over the surface so the ink and gouache washes away revealing the image.

This technique gives a finished result that looks a lot like a wood cut print and creates some really distinctive marks.

Characters: People Who Sat Still

A collection of sketches made while waiting. These people were kind enough to sit still long enough for me to grab a likeness. (Bless 'em!)

Portrait: Charlie Sheen

This is a new project for my illustration class.
The idea is to choose a celebrity and after researching him or her assign keywords that will determine how the viewer responds to the finished art. Not one to ask my students to do something I wouldn't, here is my interpretation of Charlie Sheen (circa spring 2011). My keywords were: "Manaical, Self Involved, Dangerous"

Here is the process I used to arrive at the finished piece:

I researched a bunch of photos of Charlie Sheen and chose one that had a single light source and strong cast shadows.
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Adjusted the photo so that it was more contrasty and the shapes that made up the features were clearer.
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The original photo did not have the feel/keywords I wanted so I modified his face to look more like the photos of Charlie Sheen when he was at his most volatile.
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Redrew the light and dark shapes so they could be transferred to watercolor paper
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Created and ink wash of painting of the photo, being conscious to use the brush to create quick angular strokes that would reinforce my keywords.
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I wanted to add a second element that would further reinforce my keywords and decided on the "catchphrases" Charlie would endlessly spout during this period. Again, actively using a mark making style that would suggest a person coming unhinged.
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The two pieces were composited digitally and this is the end result.
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What's really fun about this process is that you can easily substitute other equally compelling images to achieve a similar effect.

Ice Rink Sketches

Went to the local ice rink with a bunch of other illustrators this morning to do some sketchin'.
Very different from figure drawing in the studio -- mostly in that these little ones didn't sit still for more than a couple seconds. Gotta' grab that pose quickly!

Portraits: Visitors

With the holidays we had a number of house guests over. These are a couple of the younger ones who were good enough to sit still while I sketched 'em.

Portrait: John Lock

I titled this John Lock because I'm pretty sure that's who served as the reference for the original sketch (or rather Terry O'Quinn the actor who played him in Lost). Of course a day later as I did the watercolor I "lost" (see what I did there?) my reference so a lot of this is just plain 'ol made up.

Portrait: Evil Accountant?

This gentleman is from a site of old Australian criminal mug shots. Who knows exactly what this guy did -- but he doesn't seem all that sorry about it.