2015 United States Capitol Ornament

This is the 2015 United States Capitol Ornament. I initially designed this based on artwork from Constantino Brumidi paintings within the capitol. The sheer amount of work from Constantino within the Capitol is truly inspiring. Additionally, the undertaking of restoring the artwork within the Capitol is equally impressive. This ornament as well as the 2016 and previous years ornament can be purchased here, United States Capitol Annual Ornaments.

This as well as the other ornaments that I have worked on require a true team effort. Several hands along the way help create the final ornaments.

Callaway Gardens Butterflies Illustrations

This was a series of digital illustrations for Callaway Gardens in 2002. They were done as porcelain magnets and ornaments. The main challenge for this project was in achieving the desired through decals. All of the butterflies were approximately 3 inches or smaller. Very fun series to work on. The butterflies for this series were of the Adonis, Blue Morpho, Doris Longwing, Emerald Longwing, Lacewing, Monarch, and Swallowtail.

Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination 2014

This was a digital illustration for the 2014 Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination. It was used across a grouping of objects including a porcelain mug, ornament, and tote bag. This year the main theme was the Capitol Building. I had never been to the Grand Illumination, so I decided to go this year to take pictures. It was quite an experience. Very cold but very fun. I can see why this is a tradition for so many. If you have not been, keep it in mind near the beginning of December.

Texas Jakes Lenticular Postcard

This was an animated lenticular postcard I conceptualized and rendered for Texas Jakes located at the Stockyards Station in Fort Worth Texas. Flashing neon, bucking bronco, dangling spurs, Fort Worth Herd cattle drive, and more cowbell! This was a fun one to work on. If you would like a custom lenticular image you can find out more at Design Masters.

2013 Biltmore Estate Annual Ornament

This was a rendering of an 2013 annual ornament concept for the Biltmore Estate. It initially started out as a pencil sketching on vellum and then I brought it into the computer and completed the rendering in photoshop. This rendering process has evolved over 13 years and continues to be refined. The challenge is always to give the closest impression to the final product, whatever the material may be. If you happen to be visiting or staying on the grounds, this ornament as well as the current years annual ornament can be purchased in their gift shops. They also can be purchased online at shop.biltmore.com.

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.

United States Capitol Porcelain Bowl

This is a Revere Bowl that I worked on at Design Masters. It shows the four stages of the United States Capitol Building. This was pretty much a straight forward digital design. At the time, I did not have access to a 3D program so I used the built in 3D revolve capabilities of Illustrator and mapped art to the shape. It had it's limitations and hurdles but I was able to find a way to make it work for the conceptual rendering that is seen at the top. It gave me the ability to see and adjust how the art would look on the final bowl. The actual bowl can be purchased from the United States Historical Society. Additionally it was bonus that I noticed while binge watching the Netflix series House of Cards that the bowl I worked on was being used as a regular prop. Some of the scenes are posted below the conceptual rendering of the bowl.

The Getty Villa Acanthus Rosette Magnet

Here is another project I worked on at Design Masters. It was a sculpted magnet based on a ceiling rosette. The top image shows the packaging from the concept. It was not fully fleshed out at that point and during final art we moved in a slightly different direction while still keeping a similar feel. The magnets were carded so that they could hang on pegs.

George Washington's Fan Chair Ornament

This is one of the first packaging illustrations and packaging layouts I did for Design Masters. The ornament was a 24kt Gold Finish representation of George Washington's Fan Chair. This started out on vellum. For George and the chair I used ink. Coloring was all done in the computer. This was around the very early 2000s and I remember being amazed at construction of the ornament. At that point I had no knowledge of how to make one of these. Making these type of ornaments present their own set of challenges but really shine when done right.

CWF Emoticon Dog Tag Necklace

At Design Masters, we are constantly reinventing ourselves, coming up with new imagery and products. This dog tag necklace is a part of our Q3 line, a semi-custom product grouping offering High Quality, Low Quantities, and Quick Delivery. Shown on this one is a design I worked up based on text emoticons. 

Gateway Arch Painted Image

This is the LONGEST post I have done yet. This was a picture that I created for the Gateway Arch. This was all digital involving both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The long image shows how the image started and evolved to the final image which is shown below the long image. At first I wanted to do something that looked like a travel poster. During that process I worked up another version that was received better. Soon I was working on versions where the angle of the arch changed, colors changed, positioning of elements changed. It was truly a collaborative process. In the end it was used across several products. 

Purchase of the products can be found at the JNPA giftshop. One of the products using the final image can be purchased here Arch Skyline Ornament. Other products can be found through their online gift shop shop.jnpa.com. Puchases made help provide educational programming, exhibits and site improvements to JNPA partner locations.

Steam Yacht Medea - Maritime Museum of San Diego

This was another part of a huge compilation of illustrations that our company generated. This illustration was of the Steam Yacht Medea along with the Berkeley that was on the previous post. This one was done in the same fashion and utilized some similar features and techniques to maintain the series.

More information on this boat can be found at Steam Yacht Medea. Again if you find yourself in San Diego stop by and check out the museum and giftshop. Maritime Museum of San Diego

Steam Ferry Berkeley - Maritime Museum of San Diego

This was a part of a huge compilation of illustrations that our company generated. This illustration of the Steam Ferry Boat Berkeley along with the Medea were digital illustrations that I created for the program. It started as a straight vector illustration. After the vector scene was done, I pulled it into photoshop to add filters and finishing touches. The inspiration for this was heavy on art deco and slight influences from vintage postcards. This whole series was very fun to work on especially this one and the Medea as they allowed me to do a full illustration from start to finish. The close up shot shows some of the detail and finishing effects that I used. The images were used on several products including as mugs and coasters.

More information on this boat can be found at Steam Ferry Boat Berkeley. **Update** It looks like product is on the website now. If you find yourself in San Diego stop by and check out the museum and giftshop. Maritime Museum of San Diego

de Young Museum Magnet

This was a magnet done for the de Young Museum. It was also was done as a keychain. The copper discs used for these magnets and keychains were recycled from the construction of the perforated walls of the new museum design. This is an excerpt from their website regarding the building. "The building’s dramatic copper facade is perforated and textured to replicate the impression made by light filtering through a tree canopy, creating an artistic abstraction on the exterior of the museum that resonates with the de Young's tree-filled park setting. The building's copper skin, chosen for its changeable quality through oxidation, will assume a rich patina over time that will blend gracefully with the surrounding natural environment." 

In order to simulate the intent of the actual building. I designed the magnet so it had a spot varnish that would allow the magnet to age in a similar fashion. With time the pattern would oxidate and becom more evident. The packaging tied in with a metallic copper ink for the graphics.

The magnets are still being sold in their giftshop · de Young & Legion of Honor Museum Stores
More information regarding the museum can be found here · de Young Fine Art Museum of San Francisco

Cast Iron Key

This is another 3d model I made in a totally different program. A colleague had pointed me in the direction of a program called 123D Design. After digging around in it, I decided to use it for a project we are involved with at work. It was my first time working in this program and some methods were similar to other 3d programs but the overall method of building was very different from what I was used to. I learned a lot just trying to make this not so simple key and in the end I was pretty darn happy with the result.

2014 Texas State Capitol Ornament

The 2014 Texas State Capitol Ornament. This is an ornament that our company worked on. It was chosen out of at least 9 designs proposed. This one in particular was a design that I had worked up during the presentation phase. As with most ornaments we do at Design Masters, once a design is chosen, it is truly a team effort to bring the end product to life. The ornament really is stunning and the packaging just sets it off. At the top of this post is a rendering I did for how the end ornament would look. This is done with my "patented" bling action, additional digital illustration, and doowahs. The next image is a photo of the final lid. The interplay from the multiple foils really looks great. Below the lid is a movie of the ornament based on my very first rough rendering. I was toying with a new 3D program and wanted to see if I could build an ornament inside it. Since I was working on this ornament I used it as a test. It definitely took some time to do with the learning curve, but I was happy with the end result. Building in 3D is something I really would like to delve more into and whenever I can add a new skill, I take the chance. Overall this was a challenging and fun project to work on.  

Stop on by their gift shop and pick on up.    Texas State Capitol 2014 Ornament

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.

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.

WHHA 2010 Annual Ornament Artwork

These were artworks that I created for the 2010 White House Historical Association Ornament. The artwork was used on the front and back of the ornament, as well as the packaging lid and booklet. Fun project. There was a ton of historical research done on everything from the building to the Marine Corps Band's Uniforms. This was one of those projects that involved a ton of people. I helped on pretty much everything involved with this ornament and packaging, but it really took practically the whole company to "birth" this beautiful ornament. This ornament as well as the current year and previous ornaments can still be purchased at the White House Historic Association. Click the link below to see the page for the 2010 ornament.

www.whitehousehistory.org

Harbour Town Lighthouse Hilton Head N.C.

This digital illustration was done for a series of products for Harbour Town Lighthouse in Hilton Head NC. I will try to post pictures of the artwork on the actual items soon.