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.

The Babylon Candle

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/9/14, the topic was Voyage.  Down to the wire as usual with these!!!  This particular topic wasn't easy, but when I finally did come up with something the concept was more well received than I feel the execution was.  For some reason it feels unfinished, and I can't put my finger on why.  At any rate, I decided for this topic to pay homage to one of my favorite films in recent memory, Stardust (based on the book by Neil Gaiman).  In the movie the protagonist Tristan, traverses about the mythical world of Stormhold using a magical device called the Babylon Candle, while looking for a falling star, who turns out to be a girl named Yvaine.  Once lit, said candle will take the holder to where ever their heart desires.  This particular piece depicts Tristan and Yvaine's final destination together which they reached by using a Babylon Candle.  I wanted to depict the characters in the piece while still retaining the simplicity of the illustration, so I decided on a silhouette in the flame of the candle.  In the movie the candle is black, but I decided that dark green would work better for this piece, and I wanted to include a background that relates to the events taking place in the film.  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:The Babylon Candle

Sinful Nature

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/2/14, the topic was Revenge.  I missed the topic last week, and in all honesty, I just didn't have time to work on it.  By the time I got started it was too late, and I had to scrap the project which I was really looking forward to doing.  Ironically enough this weeks topic gave me the opportunity to do an illustration on a subject I had tossing around for some time.  For this weeks topic I decided to do a portrait of Carrie White, the star of Stephen King's most famous novel Carrie.  I wanted to capture the pivotal moment that the tormented teen had finally snapped, and became both a heroine and villain, which is indeed a strange dichotomy.  As a child I remember this movie gave me epic nightmares, probably because of just how disturbing it really is.  This particular piece also came at a time for me, when I was changing environments, and as an outsider it can be hard to find those connections that I lost. I also entitled this piece 'Sinful Nature' after the song by Bear in Heaven, which fits this piece perfectly (not to mention the bizarre relationship Carrie had with her Mother).  I would have liked to work on this one more, but, as with all works I never seem to have enough time, and I wanted to make sure I finished it before the deadline (afterall I've missed two, and didn't complete one of them).  I am happy with the way it turned out, but I would have liked to fine tune it a bit more.  The work is entirely digital done in Painter.