Without actually reading the entire book, Catherine gave me snippets of descriptions from the manuscript, picture inspiration, lots of detailed descriptions. Since she is an artist herself she was able to sketch out basically what she was thinking as well. Through collaboration and a few revisions we were able to nail it to get something we were both happy with. Here are a few process images to simply show that these covers take work and dedication, especially when it’s something that does not exist. It’s for a 6″ x 9″ book with a .6″ spine. Thumbnails done with pencil and paper with a little digital clean up. Final completed using Photoshop CS5  mainly with various pastel tip brushes. Had some help with Poser for the people, Illustrator for the map and foreground water farm on the back. I really like the way it turned out and want to do more. So please let me know if you need anything done. I’m happy to help.

Comments are welcome!

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta commissioned an original painting as gift for a retiring executive. He had a big part in creating their One is Not Zero program.

I hand delivered it yesterday to a very happy client.
11″ x 8.5″, acrylic on watercolor paper, no digital tweaks.

I was inspired by this Adobe Illustrator tutorial and did my own version in about 30 min. Completely created in Illustrator.

It was a challenge coming up with generic icons for various government officials. Most of the rendering was done in Illustrator and texture was added in Photoshop. Please buy the paper so I can continue to get editorial jobs like this.

I had no real reason for doing so except that it was a cool and freaky creature.

Last night I saw Captain America and I noticed the emblem on the Red Skull villain was a skull with tentacles.

It only has 6 tentacles so it’s not a true octopus. It’s the Hydra emblem. Despite the name’s capitalization per Marvel’s official spelling the name is not an acronym but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra. The organization’s motto references the myth of the Hydra, proclaiming that “if a head is cut off, two more will take its place” proclaiming their resilience and growing strength in the face of resistance. Reference from Wikipedia.

Well I got inspired and did some color adjustments and came up with this version and made up my own backstory.

Beware of the Skulloctopus of the small Coral Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This vile creature guards the Cosmic Cube of the Red Skull! No one can has found or gotten past this vile creature. This is only a rendition of what it would look like.

I love typography whether it’s illustrated or a font. Laying out a page, picking photos, organizing chaos all appeal to me. Design and illustration go hand and hand. Both use the same principles of composition, line, weight, value, concept, color theory and more. It’s tough being good at both but some can actually pull it off. I’d like to know from you if I CAN pull it off. There are art schools and industry professionals that have differing opinions on if you should strictly specialize being an illustrator with a distinct style and be really great at that specialization and others say it’s OK to be a Graphic Designer that can draw and do illustrations for their designs. I have made a career out of being an Illustrator that can design. Being versatile and flexible with what ever the client needs has been my success. That includes illustration style and being able to design a cover or website with my art or even someone else’s work. Some use the word Illustrative Designer or Designutration or the more generic Graphic Artist. Call me what you want, but it’s what I can provide that makes the difference. It’s actions not words.

Most of you might know me as an Illustrator and I have been specializing in that for many years. However, I get requests and jobs to do Design based on my Illustration work. For example: Since I do both I get asked all the time to do illustrative logos. It’s a great marrying of the two disciplines and it’s fun for me. I have also designed, produced and maintained over 20 websites in my career. Some are shown in my portfolio. I know HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver and WordPress, UI design. I design book covers, packaging, sales sheets, brochures, marketing materials, corporate identity and much more. I have done a bit of Flash work as well. I’m not proficient in it yet, but currently I’m watching a TON of videos about Flash on Lynda.com and messing around in Flash CS5.

So here is a NEW GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTFOLIO that I just created. You will see my Illustrations incorporated into some of it, but that’s part of design. It can’t be just a bunch on color shapes and text. You gotta have images whether it’s photography or illustration.  If you can do a specialized task well and fit the design/concept, a company would rather keep all illustration and photography in-house or go with a full service design firm. I’m not boosting that I’m a full service design firm, but I can do a little bit of everything quite well and if I need an expert I know when to call one in.

Honestly, I am looking for that right freelance gig, part-time or even full-time job that can take advantage of my years of experience in both Illustration and Graphic Design. I do have a degree in Graphic Design and what I would consider a Masters in Illustration. Most jobs descriptions in my field I see want you to be able to do it all; design, illustration, photography, print, web, Flash, programing, etc. I know a lot about all of it. Why wouldn’t you hire me?

I would love to know what you think about all this and my Graphic Design portfolio. Be honest!

The reason I post this now is the new show with these backgrounds are showing this Sunday night at 11:45 P.M. EST on Adult Swim. See if you can spot my work and let me know what you think. Most of the work was done in Adobe Illustrator then texture and touch ups were done in Photoshop.

Last Summer did the this School Intersection for The Intervention episode.

The rest are new backgrounds airing this Sunday, July 24th at 11:45 P.M. for the show “Last Dance for Napkin Lad”

I imagine the backgrounds will be shown for mere seconds so don’t blink while watching. You might miss them!

This is the flat version I gave them with all the buildings on separate layers. Then they animated it.

Make sure to check out the first airing of the show with these new backgrounds this Sunday, July 24th at 11:45 P.M. EST on Adult Swim.

If not, search for “Last Dance for Napkin Lad” on Adult Swim’s website.

All of it started in Adobe Illustrator and some ended up in Photoshop.

It’s not something to enter award shows with or hang on your wall, but it’s practical in many ways.

I think I excel at work like this. Making the complex communicate simply. Please contact me for any of your technical illustration projects.

My entry for the keyword “Swept” for this weeks Illustration Friday. It’s a book cover I did last year for Crispin and the Great Tree. Here is the cover I designed for it as well.

Earlier this year I won a Certificate of Merit for Crispin and the Great Tree cover art from the Society of Illustrator’s in Los Angeles, California, (SILA).

It was on display at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA from Jan 21-31st.

For the entry fee, hanging fee, print, frame and shipping it was over $303. To get it shipped back to me the Gallery said it would cost about $70. They put it up for sale for $150 and I could not stand to take another loss. Don’t get me wrong, I love this piece. It was just printed and framed to sell. Apparently, I’m not the only one in this same predicament. Ever since SILA has been accepting framed prints for gallery shows they get left with several “orphan works” from many different illustrators. This is of course not the same as the orphan works bill that was in Congress last year they are all just art that needs a home. The other day I talked with Alyce Heath, the Associations Manager of SILA. For the first time ever she offered me that she would keep the painting there and let everyone I know know about this framed piece that’s available at the Gallery Nucleus. So please make room in your home for this eye catching cover art. It would be a lovely addition to any boys bedroom or conversation piece for the living room.

The 12″ x 12″ hand signed, Artist Proof, double matted in a 18″ x 18″ frame is for sale for only $150 plus tax and shipping. Let me know if your interested. Contact me or the Gallery Nucleus for details. Shipping might be cheaper for you depending on where you live.

Concept:
I gave the students the broad topic of doing a character illustration of a “manamimal”; a cross between a human and an animal or somehow personifying an animal. Most of my “paying” work is conservative and corporate. So here is was another chance to do something completely different and stretch my creative boundaries as an artist. At first I thought of doing a version of a Clawdeen Wolf Doll of Monster High shaving her werewolf legs, since my 10 year old daughter just loves Monster High and werewolves. But that was just a little strange and I could not figure out how to show a female wolf shaving her legs without it looking posed and not too sexy. Besides, I did want to show my innocent daughter the final painting and wanted it to be safe for her. So you say seeing this black widow lady with her hand covering her bare chest was not much better, your probably right. Oh well. I liked the idea of a half woman half Black Widow to just be scary and gross and put a bit of a narrative to it. It has nothing to do with my own encounters of the opposite sex, just an image in my head that had to get out. The seductive female has fooled and trapped her male victim in her old bedroom and transformed herself into this deadly hideous creature.

Research:
The inspiration for the assignment/technique came from the famous and über talented and successful illustrator, Chris Payne. Mr. Payne does wonderful portraits for the covers of Time Magazine, backs of Reader’s Digest covers, children’s books, his own versions of manamimals and much more. Even when I saw him demo this technique in person back in 1993 at Portfolio Center he stressed the importance of reference. Take the time to find copyright free photos or take photos yourself of your reference. Don’t copy your reference just look at it to remind you of what reality looks like rather than relying completely on your third eye. Also, the best hand model around that I know is me. My hands are ALWAYS available, don’t complain and are free.

Technique:
The students had to follow a precise order of many different mediums in mostly transparent layers to create there manamimal. Chris Payne, perfected this and is appropriately named: “The CF Payne Technique” It’s no huge secret since Mr. Payne is famous for demoing this technique in front of countless students all across the nation, published in an old Step-by-Step magazine, and where he teaches illustration at Columbus College of Design, where he is the chair of the Illustration Department. I’ve posted about other paintings I’ve done in this technique here, here and here. To my students I give a very detailed materials list and even a list of steps to follow. If you would like a copy of those e-mail me, but the BEST way to learn it from me is to take my class at SCAD. Learn more about the SCAD Illustration Degrees.

Process:
1. After doing a detailed color comp in Photoshop above. I printed out the file and transferred it using homemade graphite paper to 14″ x 14″, 500 Series Strathmore Illustration Board, vellum surface. I taped off my 12″ x 12″ image area with 3M blue safe release house painters tape. I perfected my details while transferring it with graphite and colored pencil. I then spray fixed the drawing with workable fixative and sealed it with a thin coat of water down matt medium. This makes the board non-absorbent which is crucial for the paint layers to follow.

2. I then painted in acrylic the lightest values of the highlights in the scene. This sets the base color values of the highlights that can always be rubbed down to. No details at this point and I was not concerned with painting over the lines in the black spider parts since I was going to go over that with an opaque coat of ink later.

3. Next ,applied some watercolors for the midtones to start giving the body some form. I would lay down an even flat coat of color and then lift out the watercolor with a brush and paper towel to reveal the acrylic highlights underneath.  This is a subtractive process and takes a bit of practice since it’s not a very intuitive way or painting. It’s something you just have to see happen to understand fully. Check this 2 part video of Mr. Payne himself doing this process. To see how does the watercolor skip to 19:48 of the video.

4. After that I use a micron india ink pen to outline the details any areas that the form color is black or VERY dark. In this case it was the spider body and the hair. This line was also useful on the inner parts of the spider body once it was covered with ink I could still see the line details.

5. Then I filled in the black areas with waterproof india ink. I prefer Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star, but most any india ink will do. You might need to do a couple of coats to get it super black.

6. This is a bad iPhone photo of the next scary step. With a brush I apply a purplish oil wash over the entire piece for darker shadow unification. It’s a mixture of mostly Dioxazine Purple and neutralize it a bit with Permanent Green Light oil paint. Thin it to a watery but not runny consistency with 100% mineral spirits. I prefer using Gamsol. Wait for it to dry until the surface is dull, then lift out the hightlights with a kneaded eraser leaving the purple in the shadows. This unifies the shadows in the whole piece and leaves an interesting gritty texture to the surface. The photo here shows the background and some areas of the body already removed with a kneaded eraser. The dark specks in this oil wash were from using an old oil mixture that had dry up a bit. Better to use a fresh mixture in a glass jar, but these specs were easily removed with a kneaded eraser.

7. Here is more of the oil wash removal. The oil wash colorizes the black ink and could be used as a dark mid-tone of the black.

8. Before you go any further with details with colored pencil and acrylics the surface needs to be prepped with some extra colored pencil grabbing tooth. For the longest time CF Payne has used a retouch spray varnish that was intended for traditional photo retouching. That exact spray has been discontinued and this Suregaurd Retouch Vellum Spray took it’s place. It’s super toxic like most varnish sprays, but gives the surface a fine texture that takes colored pencil very well. Spray the whole painting in a ventilated spray booth or outside. Using Workable Fixative or clear gesso don’t have the same effect, but I heard of people using it instead with OK results. Then this is where the piece really comes alive with the details in sharp Prismacolor Pencils. You can correct past painting imperfections and add small highlights and details to finish it off.

9. More Prismacolor Pencil details. If you are better at painting in acrylics than colored pencil you can add more opaque details to the piece to brighten up areas that the oil wash dulled down. All along I wanted to have a warm light coming from a window on the right and a cool light coming from the left. (If you are still reading this, send me an email with the word “manamimal” and I’ll send you an 8×10 print of my work for free.) With the colored pencil I was able to accentuate that with cream and a light blue colors.

Final:
I added some dark reds to the black spider body and built up my highlights with colored pencil and acrylic. For the final highlight touches I used acrylic gesso for the highlights instead of acrylic paint because gesso is naturally dries to a dull finish that matches my painting surface and it’s very opaque. Highlights only with colored pencils would not be bright and pop enough so paint was necessary to add these final gross factor glistening highlights to this dark and deadly lady of the night.

It’s a complicated, but quick process once you understand it. This whole painting took about a week and a half to do while doing MANY other things. It teaches a lot about the properties of each of the 5 or so mediums. Once you have done and understand this exact process you can then modify the techniques to your own liking.

Comments and questions are welcomed!