Illustration Friday: Orange

How's it going out there everyone!? It's been a while since I last posted on the old blog but I thought it would be fin to share with you a recent painting that I created. As some of you know The Illustration Friday website hosts weekly challenges based on topics suggested by artists from around the world. I really like participating in these challenges because it forces you to think and sometimes work outside the box. This weeks topic was Orange. Being a character designer I thought it would be fu to create a lounge singer spokesperson character based on an orange.

Here we have Oscar T. Jones aka OJ not to be confused with a certain former NFL star turned murderer. After a brief stint on the 1968 top 20  list for his popular jazz song : "Orange You Glad its Me" his career, if thats what you want to call it, experienced its share of up and downs. For the past few decades OJ has been found singing in various bars, taverns and state fairs across the country. As luck would have it his popularity picked up and he is currently the headlining act at the Tropicana in the desert oasis of Las Vegas. Ironically, he is also the current spokesman for the Florida juice company Tropicana!

Okay enough goofing around hope you enjoyed this weeks topic. If you have any questions or comments sound off below! Take care everyone!

Illustration Friday: That's "Nature" For Ya!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Nature". While I was trying to think of an idea for the painting several different possiblitlies came across my mind; like someone taking a walk in the forest, or some kids gathered around a campfire telling ghost stories, or even Poison Ivy from Batman surrounded by plants and shrubs. 

All of those ideas seemed like the obvious route then this one hit me...

 I was on the phone speaking with a client and I randomly drew this quick sketch of two birds perched on a tree with a hawk in the background swooping in on them. Almost immediately this joke popped in to my mind; "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." Boom, now I had an idea to run with... The circle of life and a little karma mixed in. 

Here we have Thomas (green bird ) getting his worm snatched away by Nathaniel (red bird) who is unaware of his impending doom. 

Down below is the original sketch drawn on copy paper with a blue mechanical pencil and the rest was painted digitally in Photoshop CS6 on a Wacom 24 HD Cintiq. 

Have a great week everyone!

 Original Sketch

 Value Block-In

 Color Ruff

Final Painting

Sir Lancelot!

Today's post is kind of inspired by two different sketch/ illustration challenges. The Illustration Friday topic for this week is "Treasure" and one of the Sketch Dailies topics earlier this week was "Lancelot". So I thought it'd be fun to combine the two subjects in to one Illustration.

Here we have Sir Lancelot posing with his fresh kill, admiring his trusty sword and contemplating the  riches and treasures awaiting him for his gallantry in defeating the dragon.

*note I still need to add some color to this painting. I'll update the blog once its finished.

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Illustration Friday: Nefarious

Sorry I've been away from the old blog for sometime now. I've been so focused on finishing up school that I have failed to post on the blog regularly.

For those of you that know me or follow me on social media sites like Tumblr and Instagram know that I post up a new sketches daily. That's great and all but aside from being super busy I haven't had a lot of time to post up more completed personal work. So, to rectify this I have decided to participate in the the Illustration Friday weekly challenge. Each week a new word or topic is chosen and the artists have one week to come up with something. This weeks work to illustrate is "Nefarious".

Here we have Little Don Vito Cannoli sitting in his study contemplating his next move against his arch-rival Don Tony Ravioli. This was painted in Photoshop CS6 using a Wacom Cintiq 24 hd.