Year of the Tiger

New Year's cards are kind of a big deal in Japan. Sort of like Christmas cards in the States. Anyway, I made these a while back ---sometime in the beginning of this past summer--- for a bunch of New Year's card contests.

























[ all: concentrated dyes & color pencils on watercolor paper, & Photoshop ]
The last one was selected as one of the winning works, and is now available on sale at Joyful-2 (an arts & crafts store) around Japan!



Hope everybody is enjoying what's left of 2009.

This Cat Always Cracks Me Up.

Archivin' these two older pieces---stationary ideas:




My main site has been updated (every piece is bigger!) so check that out too! I need to make&add new pieces real bad. I'm also thinking about making my site Japanese-friendly some point in the near future. I wish web design wasn't so frustrating!

Swine Fluzilla

I'm not really the editorial / contemporary events type of illustrator, but this swine flu madness is getting ridiculous (in every way) that I just had to draw this.



Concentrated dyes & color pencils on watercolor block, some Photoshop.

I'm On A Roll! GG Color Comps.

I guess it's just one of those days where I'm oddly inspired and productive!

Chuck Bass Color Comp:

[ click to enlarge ]

Blair Waldorf Color Comp:

[ click to enlarge ]

Let me know if you have any favorite(s) or any other color suggestions! The only things I want to stick to are: Chuck's purple suit, Blair's red lipstick & white dress. I might come up with other variations with her headband/bow thing.

A Bit Early...

...but Happy Valentine's Day.

DC Completed.

Daniel Craig



Quantum of Solace was excellent.

[ Gouache and color pencils on a gray Canson Mi-Tientes paper + Photoshop ]

Animals!

We went to the Jacksonville Zoo today, and I got to sketch animals from life!






I personally enjoyed drawing the monkeys the most. Unfortunately they didn't have all the monkeys on exhibit today (like chimps), but oh well. It was still a great time.

Colored It.

Two Boys.

Couple more new pieces:


Gouache on wood, with subtle scanned textures added in Photoshop.


Ink dyes on illustration board, scanned textures added in Photoshop.

I've always preferred working on traditional media over digital but I really enjoy utilizing digital tools to enhance non-digital things.
The forgivingness and the range of possible experimentations of Photoshop is just as good as the unpredictability of traditional media.

Wood Paintingz

Some of the sketches from the previous entry done in color:

Gouache & color pencils on wood, enhanced in Photoshop.
I had been wanting to do more wood painting, and applying subtle textures digitally. Here are my results, I'm definitely more happy with the first one than the second. I like how bright the green came out (and that wasn't digital, the gouache was super bright).

An Apple A Day...

Just doodlin' on the school Cintiq.

Also, here is a link to Lobaton, an amazing caricature artist. I really admire his illustrations because it is a prime example of "less is more." I love how simplified YET still very recognizable these faces are.
(MUTE your speakers first, the intro page has music...)

Bird

Here is a preview of the piece I was working on in the previous post. I've actually made several versions of this piece so this particular one may not be the final. Regardless, it's gouache + color pencils, with ink dye textures combined in Photoshop.

I also have a ton of fun personal projects in progress/brainstormed up! More on that soon.

Sketchies & T-shirt Design

Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives:


Sometimes I get OCD and cover an entire page with random patterns:


A T-shirt design concept I did for this project a couple months back:

It's being processed right now for production, will update more when that's all set!

Modernized & Urbanized

Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf is going to be a creepy hobo.

Zoo Color Comps & Genevieve Kote

Here are the color comps that I had whipped up in Photoshop for the zoo mural art.

I ended up picking the bottom left colors for the final piece, which was done in concentrated dyes, gouache & color pencils. I think color comps are a great way to lay out any value/hue issues before getting to the final. In this particular piece I only varied the background color because I decided to keep the animals colors naturalistic (so there were no confusion as to what was what).

---

The illustrator link of the day is Genevieve Kote, who is from Quebec City. She does a lot of freelance stuff, mainly for publications. I just love the whimsical characters, well-planned composition, and bright color schemes that she executes in her illustrations. She also has a great ability to depict any situation in a light-hearted, yet not overly-comical way.

She also has a flickr which has more up-to-date sketches &pieces.

Penguin On A Vespa

I designed three T-shirts for Ska Weekend, and here is one of the designs:



Well, in my Electronic Illustration class I colored it:



Fairly straight up Photoshop.

Here is a closeup:



I will post images of the shirts later!