Graphic Design and Illustration.

October Fun

Hello! October can be a real fun (and super busy) time of the year for artists! On and off, I have participated in the monthly art challenge of Inktober. I regret I won’t be able to participate this year as I decided to do something similar for later on in the year. I just couldn’t justify doing both.

Instead, I have decided to resurrect (see what I did there?) something from my very early start as a designer: Tales from the Darkside.

It used to be a tradition among local designers to get together once a year and “celebrate” jobs that didn’t go so well, and retell them close to halloween.

So I’m going to put on my storyteller hat and try to do the same here about once a week until the end of the month. The good news is, I’m not naming names and even if I do, they will be changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty. I will also be digging things up from early on in my career (and maybe even school) so people and companies have pretty much moved on. So there should be very little fallout if word gets around that I’ve been telling tales out of class.

So stay tuned and we shall see what I can come up with this Friday! Enjoy!

Winken, Blinken and Nod

Inspired by an old children’s poem. This one at first glance seems like quite a departure from my normal children’s illustration style, but all I am doing is using a more opaque colour palette and removing much of my line work. Sometimes small things can have a profound change on your illustration style.

Playing around with the textures was fun too. Enjoy!

Christmas Cards

Fall is fast approaching and that means figuring out what to do with the annual Christmas Cards will soon be upon us!

Here is a collection of the various cards I’ve helped put together over the past few years. My wife comes up with the ideas for these as she is the pro photographer in the family, and then leaves the bulk of the actual design to me. She even trusts me to retouch them as well! Rare praise from a photographer (they generally don’t like the somewhat hamfisted way we designers often abuse our Photoshop privileges). My only input into the photos is to act as kid herder, be a voice-controlled light stand, and keep my big feet out of the shots. You think the first two are hard, try that last one. Big feets!

Enjoy!

Northern Lights

So a long time ago now, I created this super hero character with the emphasis on a somewhat realistic and less sexualized costume. While I never did what was intended with the character, I liked it and developed her a bit further, trying out different styles and slightly adjusting the costume a bit. This is the most cartoony style I have tried so far (and am willing to share).

This would be early in her career as a crime fighter. Before she had a real handle on her powers. All derived from the gauntlets she wears. The inks were done traditionally, with the colour dropped in on my iPad and a little tweaking to the background and overall colour in Photoshop. Enjoy!

Space Pirate

Women of my age are usually out with the kids (or even grandkids). or are out for an evening date night at the coffee shop with their significant other. Maybe even a book club.

Me, I’m in deep space orbiting a red giant star system, relieving a rival band of privateers of their iridium ore. Brandishing my vibro-sword rather than a cup of herbal tea, or ethically sourced java. And swearing… like a pirate… instead of polite, urbane discussion about the weather, or local politics.

With choices like that, I’ll take the pirates any day!

Another attempt at the sci-fi and fantasy covers I enjoyed in my youth. This was a fun take on space pirates. Learned a lot on this one. Especially patience. Enjoy!

Here Be Dragons!

Years ago, my son loved, loved, loved How to Train Your Dragon. We watched it back to back for days on end. He used to call the show “Birds” with impunity. He was around 2 at the time so I guess he can be forgiven.

It was around then I drew a bunch of dragon heads in a similar style. Four years later I finally got around to doing something with them.

A more muted palette than I usually work with. Was a challenge to keep things fairly loose. Enjoy!

Character Design

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was never allowed to play DnD as a kid. But I used to spend hours pouring over the artwork in various Monster Manuals for AD&D and other popular role playing games of the 80s and early 90s. I especially liked Shadowrun for some reason. I also read Sc-Fi and Fantasy voraciously as a kid. I still try to pick one up now and then.

So here’s a lineup of various cartoon fantasy players. I tried to make them as silly and friendly as possible. Using Bill Waterson of Calvin and Hobbs fame and the Etherington Brothers of various British comics as guideposts for developing these guys. Lots of silly fun! Enjoy!

Pen and Ink Sketches

After reviewing my site, I was surprised I never posted any of this. As I have blogged about in the past, I sometimes take part in the monthly art challenge of Inktober. I usually avoid the various prompts people post and do my own thing. One year I decided I just wanted to draw people (my favourite subject matter) in different poses in natural settings with an emphasis on trying to get as much variety as possible. The ones I have posted here are the ones I think turned out.
I also added a splash of colour to each one for effect. Since Inktober takes place in the month of October, I felt an orange colour was best. Enjoy!

Angry Face

Here’s your staple, run-of-mill angry elf fighter. Everybody has drawn at least one. This one turned out pretty good. I was originally going to finish off this one in colour, but I decided to just leave it as is, right from my sketchbook.

As a quick aside, I was never allowed to play DnD as a kid. My only experience with it was (without my parent’s knowledge) sitting in the basement at a friend’s house waiting for the DM to show up. And waiting. And waiting. He never showed. Didn’t seem like a very engaging experience, so I never understood the draw. Though I did read gamebooks like the old GrailQuest series and Steve Jackson’s Games whenever I could find them as a preteen. Those were pretty cool.

Strange Boy

When the native human population of Epsilon Eridani C arrived, they quickly adapted themselves to better survive in their new environment. Today, there are very few of them left and mostly keep to themselves. Which suited the newer settlers and tourists just fine as they looked odd to untouched humans and they sometimes seemed “otherworldly” and “peculiar” in behaviour.
But Jackie was the only friend I had made when my folks migrated here from Earth last year. So I put up with his odd behaviour, and his looks never bothered me.
Until now. It was nighttime, the twin moons getting high in the evening sky. And Jackie just stopped, standing there silently with a far away look in his eyes. Like he was seeing something that wasn’t quite really there. Like a cat does.
What was going on?

I was never into horror comics (or horror of any kind) as a kid, but while trying to come up with something for my sketchbook, this image came to me. A strange boy who may or may not be trouble. Or maybe just in trouble?
Lots of fun playing around with ink textures in making this one. A nice blend of traditional and digital inking and colouring. Enjoy!