Graphic Design and Illustration.

Posts from the ‘Illustration’ category

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!

Metal World

I couldn’t believe we finally made to Bernard’s Star. The first extra-solar world humanity colonized. It was before terraforming, so we just started building enclosed metal city, after city. Without having to worry about ecology, or habitat, the whole planet was eventually turned into one, giant city.
It also meant it was totally dependant on trade to survive.
That’s were I come in.

A quick test to see how well I could come up with a quick looking sic-fi world. Came out pretty good even if it does rely on a lot of Photoshop trickery to work. The nebulae in the background was fun to do.
Enjoy!

Nerdy Girl

Everyone loves a nerdy girl, right?
A quick sketch from my trusty sketchbook, inked with a brush pen, scanned into the computer, and then quick colours dropped in using Photoshop.
I tend to use more simplified backgrounds for my cartooning. It helps to keep the foreground/midground elements and the background elements separate. Plus, it’s easier to draw! Got that tip years ago from watching an interview with Matt Groening of the Simpsons fame.
Enjoy!

You’ve Got Mail

Another quick pencil sketch that really came to life digitally! This was the end result of creating a workflow that could be incredibly fast and would respond quickly to changes.
Tried to keep the colour loose and used nothing but available brushes that come with the current Creative Cloud of Photoshop.
Enjoy!

Sir Justin and the Questing Beast

A fun pen and ink sketch that got a bit out of hand. Some edits done digitally along with the text and fake screen tone. Sources of inspiration include concept art from the How to Train Your Dragon series of movies. Was created for a self promo piece.
Enjoy!

Mermaids

 

Every year there is a art challenge called Mermay. For the month of may, artists are encourage to try and post a new mermaid every day. Having a busy work life and young family, I don’t always get the chance to participate, but in 2018, I managed to do it with just pen and ink drawings. Over the next year, I managed to flesh a few out in colour. These are the result.

 

I tried to go for a variety of different styles. Though I think there is something that links it to me every time. So despite my feelings (and reputation) that I am some sort of design/illustration chameleon, I do seem to have some sort of emerging style. Enjoy!

Among the Ruins

Nobody ever came here.

The monolith rose out of the only oasis in the Sea of Broken Glass, or Quaa Rouchar, in the local dialect of the desert nomads who managed to survive out here. It was built eons ago in the hopes of banishing an ancient menace from the land. One thousand souls were sacrificed in the dedication rite, so determined the ancients were to rid the land of it’s tormentor. It was never permitted to happen again, And it was thought would never need to happen again. So the ancient blood rite was forgotten, and place abandoned. Even the reason for the monument’s existence was a faint and distant memory. All was well.

It worked, didn’t it?

Sarna knew otherwise. And he had a plan on what to do about it.

This was a redo of artwork long abandoned by me (it’s not just ancient monuments that get left on the dustbin of history). I wanted to monumentalize something that is ordinarily quite small. In this case a chess piece. A knight. Was fun to really play around with the sunset style colours.

Started out as a pencil sketch in my sketchbook that was totally repainted digitally in Photoshop. Enjoy!

A Boy and His Bot

“This is no place for the likes of you,” said the giant robot. His old gears creaking as he bent down.

“Come with me. For an adventure. I’ll not harm you.”

This was a fun one to draw. Started out as a pencil sketch. Was scanned into the computer, and colour loosely dropped in behind in Photoshop. The lines were then redrawn over top with a fairly gritty brush in Photoshop. I tried pretty hard to preserve as much of the original line as as I did that. I wanted to keep everything fairly loose. Adding in the texture to the robot was my favourite part.

I can’t take full credit for the design of the robot. In my son’s Kindergarten class, the had an in class assignment to build their own robot to teach them about different shapes. This monstrosity was all my son’s doing. I just added a few details.

Enjoy!

May The Fourth Be With You, Always.

Long, long time ago, in a galaxy not to far away, I did this image to make a poster for a Christmas present for my then girlfriend (now wife).

Keep in mind, this one was done in 2004. The third prequel had yet to come out, and it never really looked like there would be any future Star Wars movies, so I thought it was a pretty safe bet to create a fictional seventh movie.

Most of the background stars came from an even older digital painting I’m too embarrassed to post here, the planet is mostly a photoshop filter, and the vehicles are 3D renders with a bit of digital paint thrown in afterwards. Everything else is me trying my very best to digitally paint using Photoshop.

The poster still hangs up in my office to this day.

Enjoy.

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