The Holy Trinity of Real-Life Monsters: Plaque, Witches and Heartbreak, Oh My!

It's been a long time since I posted anything new but I'm making up for it today! Year Three at ACAD has been absolutely crazy. The projects are bigger and tougher but they're also way more fun. Lump in a bunch of freelance illustration work and that makes me one busy monkey. The top pic was our first assignment for Figure Illustration. I turned quiet and sweet Maaike into the horrid White Witch of Dutch mythology. Don't worry, she got her revenge by transforming me into a crotchety old man. (Some have said it's not much of a stretch :) Wish I had toned down the colors a bit (as usual) and I got some much needed practice rendering in Photoshop, though clearly more hours are required. I accidentally deleted that last one (my favorite) the night before it was due so I had to redo it. Such a techno-twit!

The second pic is from Information Illustration; the assignment was to illustrate something that we can't see and I felt it was my duty as a super-powered humanitarian and enamel avenger to reveal the dirty truth about plaque. These guys were fun to draw. I really enjoy doing work for a younger audience. There was a lot of info to cram onto this thing which definitely made it a challenge. Dig the colors and the handmade title font. Wish I hadn't gone too sloppy with some of the colors and I got chewed out by my instructor for that bogus pinky knuckle.

Finally we have a cover I was commissioned to do for my pal and writer extraordinaire James Davidge. His publisher will be releasing an anthology of his short story work in Fall 2012 and it was an honor and a joy to create the cover. He requested a Lichtenstein/50s Romance feel and I think I nailed thanks to some studies, textures and good ol' fashioned half-tone pattern (computer simulated of course.) But like the capital IDIOT that I am, I accidentally flattened the original Photoshop file so will probably need to recreate this at a later day. Damn my technological ignorance!!!

That's all for now. More work to come, including storyboards and the long awaited comic project.