Poseidon Illustration

This was another one in a series of 3 images. Mercury, Poseidon, and Atlas. Done for Overnite shipping through Wilson West Livesay Advertising. This one was also done with Acrylic, Airbrush, and Colored Pencil.

Hubbell Lighting Inc. Architectural Line Illustrations

During the Pencil Pushers days, we would tackle some projects together. In this case, Pep Freeman and I worked on a large grouping of lighting illustrations for Hubbell Lighting Inc. This is a cover from a brochure folder that showed a collage of a few of the illustrations. At first we established a sort of assembly line process. Pep would start the pencil line drawings and I would add forming color with airbrush acrylic paints. We both worked on refining the illustrations with colored pencil, brushed acrylic paints, custom rub on transfers and additional airbrushing if needed. Challenges included pre-mixing paints that would match the across all products, maintaining a similar style, and time frame. This series also led to some additional work involving lighting products.

Richmond Braves Multi Game Ticket Stub Illustration

I found this digging around for some printed samples of my earlier illustration work. This was another quick baseball illustration I knocked out for the 1996 Richmond Braves through Taylor Weirup Marketing. They had worked up the concept and I finalized it. It was another small size piece in order to make make sure that I didn't spend too much time getting caught up in the details. Acrylic, Colored Pencil, and Airbrush.

Executive Education June 1998 Cover Illustration

This was an illustration for a cover done in May of 1998 for a June Issue. Straightfoward airbrush, colored pencil, and acrylic. I can guarantee that this was pretty much done on a cold press illustration board, frisket and a huge cloud of acrylic from airbrush in the studio.

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.

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.

AMF Bull Whip Bowling Ball Illustration

Another Bowling Ball Illustration around 1997 I think. The majority of this illustration wasn't seen in most cases. Just a square part for a face of the box. The other parts just wrapped around and were background. It was a fun piece and I had make sure he stayed purple, I kept wanting to go to blue like Babe the Blue Ox. Mainly an airbrush piece, with colored pencil. I felt like I illustrated so many bowling pins during my freelance years. It would be so easy to do them current day with the 3D tool in Illustrator or any 3D program for that matter. This was done for AMF through Wilson West Livesay. Great company, they were instrumental in helping me start my freelance career.

Power

This was another college piece. I don't remember the assignment but I do remember my thinking. I was striving to illustrate muscles and the human form convincingly.The X on the back of the head was a symbol that was having a resurgence in the late 80s. Also cutting designs in to hair was a big thing at the time. It was just supposed to feel powerful. Just for kicks I shopped the illustration to be a bit more topical to the current times and posted it beneath the original. The original was airbrush and colored pencil. The piece ended up being one of my promo piece mailers and was received pretty well during portfolio reviews.

Signet Bank Moving Advertisement

Pep Freeman and I would sometimes work on a piece together to keep each other busy or speed up a piece. This was one where he did the under drawing and some paint work. I mainly worked on the paint work and airbrush and detailing as well. Pep, Pete and myself all posed for the people and Stuart took the photos. The reference photos make for some pretty funny pics when seen out of context. There were some perspective errors we had in here but luckily the crop on the final piece helped hide some of the proportion and perspective problems. The part of the painting I was most happy with were the mountains and the volcano.

Denzel Washington College Technique Test Piece

This very early college piece is very nostalgic to me. Alex Bostic taught us several techniques. One being a quick technique to illustrate skin tones. There a lot of problems with this piece but I like seeing moments of learning captured. After this piece I was hooked with that technique and tried to use it as much as possible when doing skin tones. Still use elements of it today when working digitally.

Snowglobe Magazine Cover Illustration

I don't remember what magazine this was for or even the concept. I do remember however the request for specific items. Also shooting reference for the hand as well as the globe. I wasn't to happy with the interior items and felt I did better with the glass globe, base and hand. The usual media with more emphasis on airbrush. Also note the again the ever experimenting with the signature. I was going with just an emblem style here.

Computer Tips Editorial Illustration College Assignment

This was for an Editorial Class Assignment back in College. Course was taught by Chuck Scalin. Very fun class. The end illustrations were required to be placed into the layout of the article. The floppy disks and serial cord plug on the side of his neck show how dated this illustration is. Pep posed for this picture. I was going for a pure concept of computer and human interaction. Becoming one with your computer. Funny how true that is today. Seems like people cannot live without their computers. This was one of the first techniques I learned at school from Alex Bostic. Pencil under drawing with a medium wash of Paynes Grey. You would think use black to make the shadows and white to build the highlights. He mainly used acrylic and brush, but I preferred using colored pencil for most of my sharp detail work they allowed me more control.

Zyrtec Statue of Liberty Advertisement Illustration

This Zyrtec Allergy ad was done back in the Pencil Pushers Illustration days. Ironically current day I am taking Zyrtec on a regular basis. I remember really enjoying working on this one. Especially working on the under drawing of the statue. I don't have copy of the ad. Pretty much the same media. Airbrush, Acrylic and Colored Pencil. This one was a bit larger than usual as it was going to possibly be used on larger formats also.

Short Stories Recorded Books Cover Illustration

I do not remember the name of this Recorded Book cover, but I do remember the some of the stories. I used a peg board with photos of the stories stuck to them. Again this one was knocked out very quickly. I shot a couple polaroids for reference. Airbrush, Acrylic and Colored Pencil. Doing the cork board texture and photos would have been so easy to do with today's photoshop.

Jim Thorpe Recorded Books Illustration

Another Recorded Books Audio Cassette Cover Illustration. This was on Jim Thorpe. The thing I specifically remember about this was the lack of imagery I could find on him at the time. The imagery I did find was not the best quality either. Turn around time on these was very short and the budget was lower end. For that reason, I usually tried to crank them out as quick as possible, especially when slammed with other work. This one was about 6 x 7 actual size. Acrylic and Colored Pencil.

Bon Secours Banana Slip Billboard Illustration

This was supposed to be for a Bon Secours Billboard. I don't know if it ever got used, as I didn't see it on any billboards. The concept was to have his knee breaking the border of the billboard sign. The banana peel was my favorite part of doing this illustration. This was just straight airbrush and colored pencil. Some acrylic brushwork to finalize it.

Stitches In Time Audio Cassette Illustration

This was for Recorded Books around 1995. The book was Stitches in Time by Barbara Michaels. Surprisingly, this is still for sale. The model was a girl I worked with doing a temp job at night to earn some more cash. This picture used a similar technique to the Jean-Claude Van Damme portrait with the exception of the Gesso. The technique was done straight on cold press Illustration board.

Virginia Museum Nocturnes of the Nile Party Poster

This was for an Virginia Museum event called Nocturnes of the Nile and it was one of the earliest freelance assignments I had. It was through Barber Martin when they were located downtown. They used it as small poster as well as for other collateral associated with the event. Pete also did a illustration for this event. Acrylic and Colored Pencil.

Reynolds Metal Website Illustration

This was actually an illustration for a website. The concept was fully laid out, they just wanted it rendered out. Most times in commercial illustration you find that you are rented hands and the creative end is already laid out. Regardless, I had a lot of fun with this piece. The glow was unintentional at first. Once I lifted the frisket after blasting in the dark background, I realized that the globe needed more shading. I blew in darker blue without the frisket and noticed the glow effect happening. Just liked it a lot and kept it going. This was the usual airbrush, acrylic and colored pencil. It was about 10x10 inches.