New Illustrations

I recently got a somewhat large illustration gig- at least large for me. It was going to be 17 paintings in two weeks which didn't sound terrible at the time. But after all the sketching, revisions, and rigmarole, I really only had a few days to complete all of them. Yes there were several all nighters involved. Enough with the pity party, below are a few of the watercolors that I liked.

Bernanke WIP

Here's part of a big illustration commission I got last week. I'll be posting more of these as I finish them, but I thought I would share this one today. It has been a while since I did any drawing or digital painting, so it took a little bit to get back into the swing of things. After the next two weeks though, I should have all the rust shaken off.

Rack 'em up.

Yesterday morning I awoke to a chipper Melissa holding a large box. As it turns out, it was an early birthday present. Melissa bought me a shiny new guitar. It was an awesome gift since I've never really had a new guitar. It's strange since I've been playing the guitar for probably 16 or 17 years and I've only owned hand-me-down guitars. Just never decided to make the investment I guess. Anyway, since I now have two guitars at my apartment, Melissa suggested I make two guitar racks and hang them above my desk (there has been a daunting blank wall space there since we moved in). And so, yesterday I made one just to see what it would look like. I think it turned out pretty swell. It's made out of poplar and walnut with black oak pegs. I covered it all with a mineral oil based finish.

Now its time to get started on the second one.

Oh balls...

A few days ago, I had some free time and had recently discovered the animation tools in photoshop. It only seemed appropriate that I spend an entire afternoon figuring it out. The interface was consistent with the rest of photoshop's features: rather confusing to noobs. But alas I triumphed and casually burning half a day to produce the rough 9 seconds you see below. I never really considered animation as a possible career path for myself. It definitely sparks my interest, and I have a ton of respect for those who do it(especially those who do it well.) But nothing ever really got me hooked on it. That being said, I have always wanted to try it. I might try to work on a 1-5 minute short as a side project. If for no other reason, the massive amount of drawing involved would be beneficial. We will see. Summer's coming up and I'm sure the caricature season will take over my life once again. C'est la vie, que sera sera.

Illustration Friday (Suspense)

Here's this weeks submission to IF. I think Mr. Hitchcock fit this weeks topic of "suspense." I've been trying to work on speeding up my digital painting process so I tried to keep this loose and finish in about an hour.

Trojan Man

After doing that last sketch, I had pictured it as a digital painting, though I really wanted to do it in watercolors. But, I didn't have a good sized piece of watercolor paper lying around and I didn't want to go buy any so I just did it in photoshop. The painting did provide some challenges such as creating the translucent feel of a condom. I feel satisfied with it now, but there were many revisions.

Detail.

Illustration Friday (forward)

I didn't get a chance to paint this one for IF, but I thought the sketch will do for now. I'm debating whether to paint this in photoshop or watercolors. Your thoughts?