Cruel Summer

IF (Illustration Friday) 6/20/14, the topic was Summer.  For this particular topic, I chose to personify Summer by portraying the season as an individual, which also gave me the excuse to pay homage to one of my most influential and favorite illustrators, Alphonse Mucha.  I had been toying with the idea for some time to create a series of the seasons similar to Mucha's original incarnations while infusing them with my own vision.  This piece was a labor of love, but a harsh one, and it took WAY longer than anticipated to complete. There are a few details that I'd like to alter, add, or change, but ultimately, I'm happy with how it turned it.  While the initial concept was executed quickly (sketch and outline), the color phase really held me up.  I had a difficult time choosing a scheme that worked with the theme of the piece, and still offered enough contrast so that the original work wasn't lost.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter, with some manipulations done in Photoshop.

Sam am I

IF (Illustration Friday) 6/13/14, the topic was Mask.  For this particular topic I had several ideas, one that I even completely sketched out and was ready to work on when a more attractive option popped in my head.  How, where, or why this particular idea came to be I cannot exactly remember, but it was either while I was watching TV, or reading.  At any rate, I wanted to do a character piece, because I love to make art based off of pop culture, movies, games, comics, books, etc., as they are all great influences on me creatively, and I like to pay homage to them when applicable.  For this project, I decided to do an illustration of 'Sam' from "Trick r' Treat", a surprisingly great movie in which four gruesome tales are told, and in which each story 'Sam' makes a cameo.  'Sam' (short for Samhain), is the spirit of Halloween who appears in the form of a child wearing a strangely disturbing costume of an orange onesy and a burlap sack over his head with a stitched smile and two button eyes, and his trademark razor-sharp sucker.  For the most part, I'm pleased with this work, but it did come with it's own set of challenges, as the reference I used wasn't the greatest, and some of the finer details were left up to my own interpretation.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter with some manipulations/filtering done in Photoshop.

UPDATE 3/26/18:
To purchase this image, please visit my etsy store here:
Sam I am

Icarus

IF (Illustration Friday) 6/ 6/14, the topic was Contraption.  This topic was initially a struggle for me, as I had a hard time coming up with a satisfactory subject matter that reflected the topic.  After some brainstorming I came up with an idea that fit my taste/style, and represented a 'contraption'.  For this topic I decided to draw upon one of my main inspirations (Greek Mythology), and illustrate the tragic literary figure of Icarus, son of the great Greek inventor Daedalus.  In the Greek Myth, Icarus and his father attempt to flee a prison island by using wings that Daedalus has created from feathers and wax.  Daedalus warns Icarus not to fly too close to the son, or the sea, for fear his prideful son will damage the delicate wings and perish.  In this illustration I have depicted Icarus before he takes flight.  I had a lot of fun with this particular piece, and I really like the style, and striking contrast I was able to achieve.  There are parts of the work, I would have liked to develop more, or make feel less static; however, I felt it was time to stop tinkering with it, and let it be.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter.

Splitting Hares

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/30/14, the topic was Temptation.  I had a rough time with this one, but ultimately, I am really pleased with the final product.  Initially I wanted to do a piece depicting the dark side of temptation, and it's allure, but I continued to struggle to get my initial concept down, it just wasn't working for me.  Then I decided to work on an old project that fit the topic nicely, but abandoned that as well when I realized I wouldn't have enough time to complete it (it was way too detailed).  Finally I reverted back to an idea I had earlier, and did a bit more research which led me to the current design here.  As with most of my work, this piece is too influenced by pop culture, particularily my fondness for movies.  I decided to depict a concept from The Matrix.  In the movie the protagonist Neo is given the option of a red pill, or a blue pill.  The red pill will give him the opportunity to leave his mundane existence in the "matrix" and see how far the rabbit hole goes, while the blue pill will allow him to live out the rest of his existence in the "real world" in blissful ignorance.  The movie itself borrows from many other notable works, including Alice in Wonderland, and the Odyssey to name a few.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter with some manipulations done in Photoshop.

UPDATE 3/26/18:
To purchase this image, please visit my etsy store here:
Splitting Hares

Prime Candidate

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/23/14 the topic was Universe. Lofty goals seems to be the theme of many of these illustrations I attempt for the IF topics, but if I'm not challenging myself, then I am not growing  as an artist, right?  So for yet another space/cosmos themed topic, I decided to utilize a subject matter from my past that influenced me growing up.  Video games have long been a source of inspiration for me, and filled many hours of my youth.  I've never really been an avid fan of space themed games, as fantasy always held my heart, but one franchise in particular managed to capture my imagination more than any other in this genre, Metroid.  Metroid revolutionized gaming for me, and many other boys my age, because it starred a female lead in a majorally male dominated culture, and past time.  I had this particular idea floating around for some time, but had yet to execute it properly outside of a sketchbook, and I wanted to at some point pay homage to the heroine Samus Aran properly.  The first incarnation of this illustration was Samus, standing on her ship, and had much more of the background pictured as well as the craft itself.  After several hours of working on the piece I decided it too broad and the main subject matter was getting lost, so I cropped it....twice...and I am much happier with the final incarnation.  I also wanted to try stylistically, something different.  I wanted to capture Samus in a comic-book style of art.  While it's mostly successful, I think I would like to attempt the style again, but perhaps approach it a bit differently (or more precisely), and in the earlier stages of the illustration.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter.

Spell it Out

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/16/14, the topic was Retro.  So as stated in the previous post, I had a plethora of ideas for this topic for some reason.  This idea came literally at the 11th hour, and I was able to finish it quickly (as it wasn't overly complicated), and I love it's simplistic nature.  I took a lot of inspiration for this piece from another artist by the name of David Perillo.  David's style is very retro, and the more I thought about my topic the more I wanted to do something along the lines, and in a similar style as to what David has done particularily with his public service anouncement posters he did for a gallery show citing modern pop-culture.  I wanted to do a reading poster, and my first idea was a kid reading a Steven King novel, with a catch/tagline of "let your imagination run wild", but I couldn't picture how it was going to look.  Instead I decided on a Harry Potter themed poster with Hermione and Ron.  Seeing as Hermione was the "studious" one, and Ron the comic relief I figured I would put them in a setting and add a bit of humor by having Ron's hair fried by a misfired spell from his broken wand.  The entire piece is digital, done in both Painter, and Photoshop.

The Italian Job

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/16/14, the topic was Retro.  Initially I labored over what to do, and changed my mind several times for this particular topic (as you'll see here).  As time was coming to a close, I decided to dust off an old idea that I started but never used to for the first topic of IF that I participated in, Search.  Basically I did an illustration of everyone's favorite Italian Plumber Mario.  The Initial ideas was that Mario in the original installment of the series (and subsequent sequels), was always looking for Princess Toadstool, but at the end of every level was always told that the "Princess was in another castle".  I decided to utilize this scenario for my illustration, but interject a bit of realistic humor.  I mean there were 8 levels in the original game, and honestly if I was Mario, Id be pretty irritated if I had fought my way to the end of each level only to realize that the Princess wasn't there (or at least not the one I was looking for).  For this topic, I decided to finish the project, and since it is a throwback to the original Mario Brothers game, I figured that classified it as"Retro".  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter, with some manipulations done in Photoshop.