Hampton Jazz Fest Poster

At one point I was called about doing a poster for the Hampton Jazz Fest. At first I was super excited about doing the piece. I was going to be illustrating several jazz greats on one piece. Then reality set in. Keep in mind this was during the days when you couldn't just punch up Google and find 500 pictures of the coliseum at night. For one, I had never been there and the art director sent me a black and white xerox of the place during the day. I wasn't extremely happy with it, but then a change came in. We had to replace the previous trumpeter with Chet Atkins. I can't really remember the reasoning, but it had to be done. Again, no problem current day, but this was paint on board. I ended up taking the top layer of a Strathmore Illustration board and illustrating Chet Atkins' face. I then cut it out and placed it on the painting. Well enough to fix it for reproduction purposes. Years later after I started working on the computer, I decided to pull it in and rough up how I thought it should have been. Of course, then I was able to find reference online. That made a huge difference. The original piece is on the top and the reworked piece is on the bottom. Even now, I still have mixed feelings about it and have the urge to keep tinkering with it.

College Work - Jazz Musician - Gouache Technique

This was a piece done during College. Using the gouache pick off technique and colored pencil. The image was from some photos taken during a jazz performance that one of my friends did at the 6th marketplace. This was prior to them tearing it down and revamping that area. Sounded great and it was a really good opportunity to get some great reference shots.

From the Sketch Book - Mermaid Vignette 1

This was another sketch of a Mermaid concept. I was mainly trying to capture my thoughts on types and scene locations for the stories. Time to sketch them was usually during long movies at PBS, and usually when the idea struck, I had no real drawing pencils. In this case, I used the blue ink pen from the log book that we used to take signal readings from the Charlottesville Tower.

From the Sketch Book - Merman

Around the late 90s I was really into this idea of a book based around Mermaids and Merman. Sort of a underwater culture that mimicked our own. I started to sketch different vignettes and types while working at PBS. The sketch book filled up with about 7 or 8 vignettes while I was there.This was a Silver Tip Shark Merman concept.

From the Sketch Book - New Style - Girl

This was around the same time as the Sugar Ray Robinson Sketch. Just wanted to try another picture in that style. I think when I started this style, I was thinking of diagrams and technical drawings for typography or icons. This was pencil this time. Fun to do and it was therapeutic drawing all the circles and angles.

From the Sketch Book - Sugar Ray Robinson

During my stint with PBS working Master Control, I had a lot of time in between movies and shows. I would sketch every now and then. This was also after a time where I was feeling burned out on illustration as a career. At this point, I felt like maybe if I developed a new style I would get that passion back. This was one of my sketch book attempts to develop a new style. I chose to use a picture of Sugar Ray Robinson. All I had on my was a black colored pencil, pencil and the blue ink pen from the log book. I found this picture in a envelope full of pages that I ripped from my sketch book. They were squirreled away for future possible final paintings. The top piece was the whole sketch. The bottom is a close up detail section.

AMF Wind Surfer Illustration from Poster Concept

This was another vignette from the AMF poster piece I had worked on. It went along with the archer that I previously showed. I show this piece, because it is one of those things that I learned from. It serves as a constant reminder to flesh out ideas before tackling them in final form. Also that small rough thumbnails do not necessarily translate to large final formats. The red triangle in the corner is what was supposed to be a part of the AMF symbol. While in my head and on a small thumbnail form, the idea seemed great, it really did not translate well at larger size. Not to mention the amount of work I inadvertently carved out for myself by creating all these vignettes. I don't think it ever made it to print and frankly I am glad.

Bullets Cowboy Drive Thru Concept Illustration

During our down time in the freelance days of Pencil Pushers, we would try to come up with pieces that we could drum up work with. This was right around the time of the burger joint, "Bullets" opening and being kind of big. I wanted to do a tie in with this guy going through the drive-thru. I got this far and was side tracked with actual work. By the time I got back to it, I wasn't to much in to the idea anymore. The piece remains unfinished and lacks enough board to finish it traditionally. Was done with Payne's Grey and White Acrylic. White and Black Colored pencil for some detailing.

Detective Recorded Books Cover

Another Recorded Books Cover found in my old Portfolio. I cannot remember the series that I worked on. Only that the Detective's initials are B B. I do not remember too much about this one, except for that with this one, I was trying to work in reverse. I made everything really dark and started working the highlights out with colored pencil. Some quick airbrushing and it was done.

Historic Jamestowne Telescope Packaging

My job at DMA involves all aspects of the product. In this case, the product was established, but we needed to update it with site specific graphics. I researched the site for imagery and colors. Above you can see the style applied to the packaging. This style was used in some shape or form for other products that we developed for them. Sometimes, seeing packaging come to life can be as equally satisfying as seeing the actual product come to life.

SMA Annual Scientific Assembly Pop Up Illustration

Testing out sending from my phone using the Blogger app. I was hired by Wilson West Livesay to produce the Jazz musician.This was pretty early on in my freelance days. All airbrush and colored pencil. The previous jazz trombonist illustration in my portfolio was what helped me get this job. Will post the actual flat piece when I track it down and scan it in. The distortion and lighting in the picture make it harder to see. It was cool to see this piece when it first got made.

Colonial Williamsburg Lenticular Concept

This concept was for a Motion Lenticular project. I am going to put an animated gif since some people cannot see the video on their mobile devices. We ended up not using this version, but I chose to show it, as I felt it was pretty successful. The reason the top version was not used, was that the wrong group was shown. The official Fife and Drum Corps was replaced in the scene and we used that version for the final. I actually got to go down and take pictures of the Fife and Drum Corps in full dress rehearsal. This version is shown below the top version. Notice the difference in Costume and Movement. The official Fife and Drum Corps does not do the high leg lift. For those in animation this would be a cakewalk. Most of us here though were not animators and have developed a sort of animation-lite approach to making art for Lenticular items. One of the great things about working with a bunch of other talented people is being able to learn from them as well as use techniques and art they have created. In this case, I was able to grab a sequence of fireworks made by Steve Hannah. The rest was a combination of found imagery, digital retouching and some digital illustration. Our company has put out some awesome Lenticular products. Fun jobs to work on. Click on each image to see the animated version.
*NOTE* I just realized that in some cases mobile browsers are not supporting animated gifs. In that case if you would like to see them, after you click on the image you can then save it to your phone. Once opened in the gallery or image viewer it should animate.

Michael Haynes - Lewis and Clark Figurines for DMA

One of the things I enjoy doing sometimes is working with other artists on illustrations. Whether it be, doing under drawings, backgrounds or colorizing their artwork and vice versa. In the case of the the Lewis and Clark figurines that we did for DesignMasters, we worked with Michael Haynes to create a series of Lewis and Clark Anniversary. He is a notable historic artist. http://www.mhaynesart.com/Home.html. In this case, we hired him to do the initial drawings and also provide historical guidance for coloration and costuming. As I colorized his drawings, I sent them for his approval. The top image shows his front drawings. The middle image shows his drawings colorized by me digitally. It is also important to note that in some cases we shifted or eliminated items as needed in order to make sure that production of these figurines would be possible. All I am showing are the front views, but we had to show all four side views for sculpting reference. The bottom image is just a selection of closeups to show a little more detailing. Again, I want to stress that the initial figure drawings were not mine. I was the digital colorist and I in no way shape or form claim anything beyond that. As soon as I find some more sculpts or pictures of them, I will post the finished product.The products were sold in the Gateway Arch Giftshop as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 200th Anniversary.

Shenandoah Shutters Illustration

Marked under "The Things I Never Thought I Would Be Drawing. . ." were a couple of illustrations for Shenandoah Shutters out of Richmond, VA. Shutters were beautiful and they were looking for an artful way of showing the attention to craftsmanship. This was just used at a means for calling out the certain features. I remember drawing the shutter from a couple of views in this technique. They were used in a collateral sales piece. I wish I could find the paperclip I had to illustrate. That was a funny job call.

Unkown Recorded Books Cover Found On Back of Another

Yet another Recorded Books Cover. As with most of these covers, I just knocked them out as quickly as possible. They did not receive the same attention as other pieces may have most of the time due to the time constraints as well as the pay. Still it was nice to have those filter in every now and then. This was the image that was mentioned in the Vampire Recorded Books Cover Piece. Now the piece shown here is not what was on the back of that piece. The underdrawing/underpainting was on the back of the vampire illustration. What I ended up doing on this piece was doing a quick pencil sketch drawing and then laying down a wash of gouache of purple. I used water to pick of the highlights and then I was done with that. From there I just scanned the piece into the computer and colorized it. It was pretty much my first time doing that technique and served as the guide for how I would approach traditional and digital combination illustrations in the future.

Vampire Recorded Books Cover Illustration

This was another Recorded Books cover. Or at least it was originally used as a Recorded Books Cover. I cannot remember the title, but was a vampire related book. At this size it is hard to see that he has fangs. I guess I should have supersized the fangs. The original did not have the veining in the lower darkest part. That was added after the fact. As usually with these covers, it was pretty much a keep it simple and knock it out. The real reason I posted this, is for the fact of what I found on the reverse of the illustration board it was done on. It was another start of a Recorded Books Cover illustration. It was one of the starts of my moving towards digital illustration. It will be the next post. This illustration was the usual airbrush acrylic and colored pencil.