Prehistoric

Is that a little man or a big phone? Illustration Friday this Friday -- or should that be last Friday? -- I'm still catching up -- theme is "Prehistoric." Maybe it's the fact that I just got a new mobile phone and am still learning the shortcuts to all the things I could do with my old phone before, much faster,
but the first thing to come to mind was a guy with the old, eighties style less-than-exactly-mobile-mobile phone. Won't be long before there'll be inner ear implants at this rate. "Hello? I'm sorry, no it's not the network, it's my inner ear congestion and post nasal drip that are effecting the call, try calling my other ear, I just took a decongestant. Funny, I just realized this kind of looks like my dad back in the day. I think he even had one of these chunky phones in his car, back when they were still called "car phones." To his credit, he would never be seen using something like that outside the car. I suppose if he ever broke down, he could use the phone as a "chock block" to keep his car from rolling down a hill.

Savour The Moment

"Savour," this week's Illustration Friday theme, made me think of a kid savoring an ice cream cone. Somehow,
it was a rough sketch of a boy, then a girl, then I noticed the shape of the cone could form a "V," so, I added type to what eventually became a little logo or label. Although, this is still a "rough," I would love to take it to a tighter, finished form. I think it could make a great ice cream flavor or brand. "Savour the Flavour!" Yum!, creative freedom!

Happy Turkey Day USA

I know it isn’t officially US Thanksgiving yet,
but, with travel coming up etc. I thought I would go ahead and send pre-turkey day greetings.
Watch out gobblers! Your tan-vanity may get ya cooked!

SSSSSneaky

Sneaky is this week’s Illustration Friday subject. Maybe this idea came to mind having seen countless Tom and Jerry cartoons growing up. I imagine the dog, a few seconds forward will be recoiling with a Homer Simpson sized double take. Dooooh! I’m sure dogs somewhere still eat those big calf bones too! Somewhere, but, not in gourmet dog food advert land.

Sneaky little devil

Better Nate Than Lever so to speak...

Only a week “late!” Did not get to last Friday’s Illustration Friday assignment until today, while working on this week’s “IF.” Sometimes watching my favorite college or pro football team really gets my blood boiling. I think that today, with all of the different camera angles and super super slow mo, it just seems like the viewer can see waaaay better than that elderly ref or official with coke bottle glasses and advanced macular degeneration. Anyways, I guess thats why this image came to mind under the premise of the given subject: “Burning.” Hang onto those peanuts!

Afterwards

Didn’t get around to the Illustration Friday till the day before the next Friday,
but, at least I got to it. The theme this week is “afterwards.” Something tells me that’s not water in that glass.

Ever felt “S p e n t ?”

That's “Ess-Pee-EE-Eun-Tee” for all you fellow Southerners.

That’s DOG tired!

Anyway, Illustration Friday (on a Monday for me this week) posted the theme “spent,” sent in by Misterhow. I’m glad I had the chance to ruminate on this one, because I liked how it turned out. My first thought was something involving a man, shopping with his wife in the middle of the Holiday season. Then, after I completed this instead, I realized that this is probably more spot on. Whereby I am represented by the dog. I digress. More than likely it was a subconscious depiction of how I felt the other day after an early season allergy-sinus-nasal-event-thing. Ugh. Hope ya like it!

Richie Raccoon Illustrated character “cubed!”

Remember, kids, always wear a helmet!

Tim Floyd, over at Palmetto Health Richland, recently uploaded some neat pics to Facebook. They are a new sign for the children’s hospital featuring the affable “Richie” mascot character. Tim is always great to work with and a great guy to boot. It was fun developing the look and feel of Richie and even more fun to see him “living and breathing” on all the applications around the hospital. A fun, well thought out illustration and a great design are always a rewarding combination!

Hello World!

___Blank___Race ...

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "racing" suggested by Traci Maturo. Made me think of an illustration I created a while back for a conference in Baltimore. I guess they have pretty big warf rats in Baltimore, being a port town and all, so, I assume there was a logical tie-in. Anyway, the rat race is an old term, but, I guess we all get caught up in the “race” at some point or another, whether we realize it or not. This rat seems to be enjoying his race as he looks back over his shoulder. Who knows what awaits him ahead?

SpOoKy FrIdAy

This week, the theme for Illustration Friday is “Spooky.” I just happened to be experimenting with my Pogo Sketch stylus from Ten One design this morning, so, I decided to go ahead and use my “experiment” as my illustration for Illustration Friday. Actually, the software “InkLet,” from Ten One, is what allows you to draw with the trackpad on your MacBook Pro.
It does take much getting used to. I have been using Wacom graphics tablets for many many years, so, the hand eye coordination was not the challenge. The challenge is just in getting the settings right and re-learning how to draw with a special kind of input device. You have to toggle the InkLet software on and off using the tilde key (~) to change brush sizes and settings etcetera. The “active area” of the InkLet app sits “on top” of all active software, which is a mental adjustment as well. I like to experiment with various drawing apps for my laptop and found that even though I have Alias Sketchbook Pro, that a little program called “Scribbles” worked just fine in conjunction with InkLet and the Pogo. The interface is über simple and clean, so jumping back and forth between layers, brushes, erasers and the like is quick and efficient. It’s also vector based (even though it doesn’t seem to be or feel like it) so, you are not confined to one size or resolution.
Although I cannot say I used it yet on any “real” client jobs, I can’t see why I necessarily couldn’t. Anyway, this was fun and challenging and I hope it came out SPOOKY.

Transported by Music for Illustration Friday

Interesting synergy today. Right after I scanned my drawing into my computer from my sketchbook to begin coloring it, I opened my web browser, which like many more, automatically opens to Google. See if you see what I am referring to between the character in my image and the google-oid from today.

(Which, btw, is there to celebrate the birthday -- tomorrow -- of John Lennon, who would have been 70) Anyway, the topic was suggested by Christie Beckwith and came with a great quote from John Cage: “Music is a means of rapid transportation.”  I usually try not to take a quote too literally, but, this is what I envisioned anyways. Happy Birthday John John. Continue resting in Peace.

You never know what’s “Beneath” the surface....

Illustration Friday once again, and today’s theme is “Beneath,” submitted by Susan Sorrell Hill. No explanation for this other than I just started drawing and this is what happened. I ended up with two ideas. The first seems to be a commentary of the recent discussion of the nation’s city’s aging, and crumbling infrastructure. The second, (is this setting longing for a bit more tropical summer?) hopefully speaks for itself.

Old Fashioned for Illustration Friday

Interesting that the first thing that came to mind today
for the Illustration Friday theme: “Old Fashioned,” was someone holding a door for someone else.
The topic suggested by Susan Sorrell Hill (http://susansorrellhill.wordpress.com/) is based on a good quote from Audrey Hepburn: “It's that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so 'don't fuss, dear; get on with it.' “~ Audrey Hepburn
I guess I was brought up with the same ideals, especially as it relates to common courtesy. Being from the South, it was just something people did.
Funny, there was a good scene from the TV show “Community” last night that seems to underscore the importance of that “Old Fashioned“ notion of decency and courtesy. The main character had gotten himself in quite a pickle with all of his friends and classmates. Eventually, he won them back over when called upon to speak about “tools”in his Anthropology class. (The teacher was played by Betty White, very funny-- nice to see her getting a resurgence of late) Anyway, (paraphrased greatly) he went on to talk about the “tool” of respect, that we all have, but don’t always choose to utilize. We all get so caught up in our own selfish perspective, that we too often forget about the feelings and perspectives of others. He concluded that respect was the one thing (tool) that unites us all. Simple, common courtesy may be an “Old Fashioned” notion, but in my opinion, is a true sign of universal love and respect for others.

Illustration Friday: Acrobat

“Acrobat” is this week’s IllustrationFriday subject.
I thought of an old 3 part postcard mailing I created
and thought that would fit just fine. This image was
split into 3 parts so that the person receiving the card(s) over 3 different times, would re-compile the series to complete the one, large image.
In retrospect, these dudes look a little too happy.

Proverb. Illustration Friday

In honor of a friend that is currently traveling in Scotland, I chose a proverb from a Scotsman, George McDonald, for this Friday's illustration. Not sure why I thought of ducks other than another friend of mine sent me an e-mail this morning of a bunch of cartoon ducks he had drawn. As far as the “ducks in a row” approach, probably subconscious, since I was usually that duck in the back. Thank goodness for the patience of my parents and others...

Dessert Friday

Yum. Dessert is the Illustration Friday theme this week.
Fortunately, I am at least busy enough today to force myself to
“go for it” and just render the first idea that comes to mind.

Unfortunately, I am busy enough today to force myself to

“go for it” and just render the first idea that comes to mind.

Oh well, still makes me wanna get some ice cream!

Immovable.

Is it FRIDAY again, already? TIme’s fun when your’e havin’ flies.
This week’s given subject is: “Immovable.” Crap, I just made a visual subconscious pun. Im-move-a-Bull! I finally tried out the Japanese
brush pen I ordered months ago. It’s interesting because it’s actually re-fillable and has a nice brush nib. Good combination. If you’ve ever worked
in pen and ink with a brush, you know you have to get used to continually dipping your nib in the ink vat time and again. This, I must admit, is not an absolute perfect substitute, but, I think it works really well considering.
If you want to get the nice varied line of a good ink brush, but don’t have the time or patience at the moment to get out the ink and start dipping and, eventually, cleaning, then I would recommend this pen-brush. I got mine at jetpens dot com. I think they actually call it a “pocket brush pen.”
It will be interesting to see if the brush nib dries out any time soon.

Demo Poster

A quick demo poster tutorial image for a digital illustration class I teach.
I created this in class tonight to demonstrate a working process between Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The assignment was to create an ad poster for a modern product in the style of poster designs from the early 20th century, up to, and including the WPA period. I demonstrated also how you can build your own color themes using the eyedropper tool and any digital image as well as Adobe’s own Kuler website. We also talked about how to use the airbrush tool settings in Photoshop, like the dissolve mode, to give the old style, roughened airbrush look. We also talked about how to work with the layer blend modes to further texturize and fragment the dissolve brushed areas.

Atmosphere

Another entry for Illustration Friday.
Looks like after 3 weeks, I’ve finally been able
to manage to actually create the art on the same
Friday the subject is announced. This is interesting.
I like the challenge of a random, spontaneous illustration
once a week. Time to get my illo-muscles back in shape!

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

My interpretation of “Star Gazing”, the subject for this week’s
Illustration Friday post. As I intend for most all of my entries,
I went with my first idea and tried to let it come to life on it’s own.
Stars gazing at one of their own stars showing off.

Ink drawing colored in Photoshop.

Sketchbook Project

Finally signed up for Illustration Fridays, and noticed this ad for Sketchbook Project 2010. Interesting. Looks like I'm in, I got my stuff just the other day.

“Caged” for IllustrationFriday.com

This is my first entry to IllustrationFriday.com.
Subject given was “caged.”
I’m looking forward to having some fun every week
creating a quick illustration from a random subject word.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, how much is 1,000 pictures worth?

Here we go. Sorry if that sounded like a lame catch phrase from a beer ad,
but, I had to start somewhere. My first blog entry made me think of an old spot illustration I did for Presentations Magazine. The little guy looks eager doesn’t he? I’ll try my best to recall this little guy, heart blazin’, and ready to go, as I pause to make my many pictures and words to share along the journey ahead. On your mark, get set...