Salome!

This is my first figure painting from live models since art school. I've done alot of drawing in the last 15 to 20 years but not full blown painting. These professional models look familiar because they've posed for all the big studios, agencies, and schools around southern California for years. The 12 x 12 inch acrylic painting, in progress, depicts the Biblical story of Salome who danced the dance of seven veils for her stepfather King Herod in return for John the Baptist's head.

Lost In Translation.

Any of those folks that went to art school in Detroit between 1985 to 1991 can remember this assignment from Design Theory One (color theory). That's where you pick an image to paint, plot out all the colors in the scheme, and paint 4 more variations (translations) plus a negative (complimentary) version, and draw a 3 dimensional diagram of the color chart for each. And, yes, it was all done by hand in gouache. Sleepless nights & losing myself in the paintings, I'll never forget the process and, more importantly, the formula.

Caricature Studies.

This is a work in progress. These drawings vary in degree of caricature and are in the first stages of development. There may be improvement in design, clean-up, and color may be added to the final art.

Holiday Card!

Sometimes I paint a card or draw pictures for the Holiday Season. And sometimes I get inspired to do a theme for the subject matter, but most of the time, it's just random stuff.

Native American Editorial.

This piece was acrylic and gouache on cold press illustration board and was painted rather large. Working larger on certain compositions are usually a tedious process, especially, if the piece is not particularly exciting. I tend to get bored easily if I'm not into the painting. This was an editorial assignment from the client depicting a cave dwelling of a native American tribe called the Anasazi. It was challenging to not show the people in their everyday activities as to not offend or make assumptions of what they look like. Growing up in Canada, I have a certain respect for the original Americans that lived here before the settlers came.

Something New, Something Old.

Here's another sample that was done in the bullpen at the illustration studio back in the day when I was an apprentice. Again, it was inspired by the old magazine story art of the 50's and 60's. I found it while cleaning out the storage area in my apartment. This was acrylic on cold press board.

Experiment in Traditional Mixed Media.

Taking an image from my sketchbook, I picked a drawing of a couple of trees as my subject. I applied a layer of gesso on cold-pressed illustration board with a broad brush and then drew the image on top of it after it dried. I then laid down a warm wash of color (gouache) for the bark of the trees. The second layer was the green mixed with black for the outline and leaves. The third was the mask for the inset image. And the last layer included a cool blue wash (acrylic) over the rest of the painting. I lifted the mask and exposed the warm inset image. The last step was to touch up the darks and lift the paint with a wet brush & cloth for the highlights on the bark. Looking back, this technique could be translated into Photoshop and Painter which I'm exploring now!

One More Old School Illustration.

Back in my art school days, I did a painting that featured Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in front of a classic car of the 1920's and 30's era in the Coles Phillips' fade-a-way style. I used gouache & airbrush.

X-mas In July?!

Development art is particularly fun when it's animation. In this case, it was a pitch for a TV series back in the mid 90"s created by John Fox. Paranoia affects the neighborhood insomniac who sees his nemesis as Santa Claus everywhere. It was never picked up because of its "psychological subject matter" but a similar show popped up a month later at a big (to remain nameless) studio where it was pitched. Very much inspired by "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James & The Giant Peach" and probably ending up looking alot like "Coraline". It also marked the end of traditional illustration for me as I continue my exploration into digital media.

Vid-Game Box Art 2.

Stuntman 3 art was one of many in a series from the advertising company Ayzenberg a few years ago.

The End of an Era.

In 2005, GM created the Pontiac Solstice Convertible and I was experimenting with colour. I came up with a 3 frame storyboard idea that was drawn traditionally, scanned, and coloured in Photoshop. I used flat colours to get the posterized look of the ads from the 1960's era. It was labeled "work in progress" and remains unfinished today but I thought it would be an homage to the Pontiac line and the auto giant.

Animation Prop Design.

I also design props for animated shows. These (semi-cleaned up) designs were for the animated series "Wolverine & the X-Men". The Futuristic Rifle, the Cerebro Core, and the (Arc-Angel) Medical Apparatus with Tentacles were only a few done for the show. The Core design was discarded for a smaller, compact and less interesting version. A couple of my favorite designs (not pictured here) were of the X-Jet and the Sentinel Robot under reconstruction. They were actually a collaboration with other prop and character designers. Otherwise, prop design involves drawing a lot of everyday mundane objects, ... but once in awhile, the occasional spaceship or robot pops up.

60's Revisited Part Two

Here's another gouache painting in the series that was 4 x 6 inches in size. The bridge in the background was originally supposed to be the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit to Windsor Ontario but I left it more abstract so that it could be a bridge to any big city. The illustrator Bob Peak was the main influence in my work at the time.

The 60's Revisited

I'm going back to an art piece that was inspired by the Boy/Girl/Car illustrations of the 1960's.

I did this one in '96 following a few earlier pieces in Detroit to round out the series. I may even revisit the genre on a larger scale with acrylic on canvas instead of gouache on board. This painting was done 3 x 6 inches in size.

Game Box Art

Ayzenberg in Pasadena is one of many game advertising design companies who hire sketch artists like myself to visualize ideas to fit into graphic layouts. It's actually a collaborative effort and a bit of an assembly line with the account executive bringing in the job and corresponding with the client and the designer (more like an art director) designing the logo, the packaging, and advertising campaign. With Dungeons & Dragons Online, I drew the characters and environment separately and the designer composited the elements to fit into the layout. This is one of many drawings that are part of a separate portfolio and representative of that creative process.