I must love Christmas...

I haven't posted anything for a really long time--since Christmas, in fact. I've been painting a lot over the past 4 months, but it's been for clients so I can't really post it. So today I sat down and started working on a little painting that I may end up using for a book I'm working on, but I thought I'd pot it anyway. And I thought it was appropriate since it's a picture of Santa Claus. From now on, I'm only going to post pictures that have something to do with Christmas!

It's obviously far from done (pay no attention to the right side of the mustache :)) Let me know what you think.

Christmas Card for a friend...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to design a corporate Christmas card for his film company. This i what we came up with. He hasn't seen the finished copy yet, so I hope he likes it. We'll see. I thought it turned out pretty well. It was done in Acryllic and colored pencil on a 16X9 piece of illustration board.
Let me know what you think.

Charlie

After painting Ben from "Lost" last week, I felt like painting another character. This time it was Charlie. I also thought it would be fun to show the painting in stages starting from the initial drawing all the way to the finished piece. This was done in Acrylic. Hope you enjoy.

IF: Island

I was really happy when the topic for this week was announced. I've been trying to think of a good reason to paint one of th characters from "Lost." And when it came time to choose a character, I was torn between Hurley and Ben. I think at some point I'll try to think of a reason to do Hurley. Maybe if "Dude" was the topic.
This is acrylic. I'm still exploring different styles. This may be a little too splochy for it's own good, but I kind of like it.

IF: Clutter

Wouldn't it be great if we could just "right click" all of our clutter away! Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

A few people have asked what medium I am working in here. It is acrylic and then the drop down menu was added digitally.

IF: Memories

As I was looking at other entries for this week's topic, I found an artist (Robert Squier) who had found an old drawing from his childhood and redone it. I thought that was a cool idea, so I did the same. This painting is after a drawing a did when I was a junior in high school. This is Acrylic.

IF: Routine

I've been trying to paint with acryllic more. This was really fun and I think it turned out kind of nice.

IF: Detach

Here's a quick painting I did for this week's Illustration Friday topic: Detach. This is acryllic and colored pencil. I hope you like it. Thanks for visiting the site.

IF: Poof!

Here's a painting I started last night. I'm only a few hours into it and there's a lot more to work on. We'll see how it turns out. Thanks for looking.

Basketball

This is a digital underpainting I did a few days ago. Once I got it to this point, I printed it off, mounted it on a piece of illustration board and finished it using acryllic and colored pencil. It's a new technique I was messing around with. I really enjoy incorporating digital along with traditional mediums--it saves a ton of time and its a lot of fun. Hope you like it. I'll post the finished piece later to see what you think.

IF: Save

I try not to get in to politics too much, but I know a lot of people who think this guy has the best shot at saving our country. (I know it's a stretch. I actually was just really happy with how this turned out and I wanted to get it out there for people to see)

This was done using the same process as "Homage"-- Acryllic, Watercolor, Oil, and Colored Pencil.

I'm a Dad...

This is completely unrelated to anything that this blog is really supposed to be for, but I just want to announce that I'm a brand new Daddy. You can see pictures of my new baby girl by following either of the "My Little Family" links on this page. Maybe I'll do a painting of her or something in the next few weeks.

IF: Homage II

I really like this weeks topic for Illustration Friday so I went ahead and made another picture for it. This painting was actually inspired by the topic. This is a painting of my wife's late Grandmother, after whom she was named. Here is my homage to Grandma Helen, or as the grandkids always called her, MeMe (May-May).

This is Acrylic, Guache, Oil, and Colored Pencil on Illustration Board. Thanks for looking.

IF: Homage

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Homage." This was an assignment that I got in one of my classes. We were insructed to illustrate a classic story of our choice. After having a hard time thinking of what to illustrate, I asked my professor for some guidance. He asked what my favorite story as a kid was and I told him "Where the Wild Things Are." I was really surprised when he told me that that's what I should illustrate. After the assignment was finished, he looked at it and with a confused look asked, "What part of 'Where the Red Fern Grows' is that?" Turns out there was a miscommunication somewhere along the way.
Anyway, this is my homage to Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."

IF: Multiple

I haven't done a piece for Illustration Friday for a while--I never make the time. So I thought this week I'd make time enough to do something...even if it was something reall quick and simple. So that's what you get. As always, thanks for taking a look and sorry to those of you who check often only to find that I haven't done anything new.

Huckabee...

This was a painting I did today to take a break from some other projects. In case your wondering, this should not be seen as vote of support for Huckabee, he just looked fun to draw. (If you didn't even realize it was supposed to be Huckabee, just disregard that part.)

Illustration Friday: Stitch

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Stitch." I didn't have time to do a very detailed painting, but I did this sketch and I thought it was kind of cool so I thought I'd post it. As always, thanks for looking.

Illustration Friday: 100%

This week's topic for IF was 100% and when I was trying to think of something to paint, all I could think about were these horrible little t-shirts that girls where these days. I think it's amazing that we wonder why kids are such brats when we buy them t-shirts, and even dolls that teach them to be brats. Anyway, it was a fun illustration to do. I hope you like it.

Backwards

This weeks topic for Illustration Friday is "Backwards." I had this idea and really got excited about it. I probably should have been doing homework, but this was a lot more fun. I think it turned out really well. Tell me what you think.

I had some requests to show what happened next so here it is. I know it's kind of a cop out, but I really have to do homework so I couldn't do a whole new illustration for it. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Little Things

I found this website called Illustration Friday where they post a subject and invite illustrators to use it in their work. This week's subject is "Little Things" I know this is cheating because I painted this a while ago, but I wanted to try the website out. Hopefully it will help me keep doing new work.