Colonial Downs Racing Mural Illustration

This was one in several illustrations that we (Pencil Pushers) did for Colonial Downs. We split up and tackled several of them. This is one of the ones that I did. The Green border and background were just added today to dress it off. The actual illustration was blown up and displayed in one of the areas of Colonial Downs. It was neat to go and see them all in their different spots when done. This was years ago when they first opened and I have not been in awhile, they may not even be up anymore. Used Acrylic, Airbrush and Colored Pencil.

Mercury Illustration

I can't for the life of me remember what this was for. It was one in a series of 3 images. Mercury, Poseidon, and Atlas. For some reason I am thinking it was for Overnite Trucking Company, but I am not positive. I will have to check and see. This series was done in part due to an illustration that I had done for a Signet Bank Illustration. The look was very angular and stylized and the advertising agency liked the idea of using a similar style for this Mythological campaign series. The actual pieces and were done with Acrylic, Airbrush and Colored Pencil. Rest of series to follow if I can find them all.

Old/New Technique Test Jerry Stackhouse Portrait

This was a test for a new technique I was trying to develop. Now this is where some people get ticked. The technique involved tracing. Well, I have no problem tracing an image when time is of the essence. I can draw it without tracing, but it will take longer, so really I see it as a tool to speed things up. Now with that said, the theory behind this was to use a sheet of matte mylar. Placing the glossy side against the picture you would be tracing. I would then trace and shade the drawing using a colored pencil. The next step would be to brush a thin coat of matte medium over the base drawing. After it dried, the illustration would be completed using washes of acrylic, colored pencil and white opaque acrylic for the highlights. Now besides the ease of using pictures under the mylar, the added benefit that I saw was that I could in theory paint different color schemes for the background and place under the mylar to see which one I like best. Of course today it is as easy as dropping it in the computer and multiplying it over a color. The technique still intrigues me and I often thing of other ways I could push this. Maybe one day I will revisit and try finishing this portrait of Mr. Stackhouse. The image shown shows the mylar taped to a white board on the left and on the right I slid a piece of red notepaper behind the mylar to show the effect of color dropped behind. The actual image is only about 4 inches tall.

Mardel Biospheres Blue Fish Illustration

This one was pretty far back. It must have been around 1999 or 2000. If I remember correctly it was for a company called Mardel. They made this solution that helped protect fish called biospheres. I don't think this ever made it to finals. It was more of a initial concept. Acrylic, colored pencil and some liquid white out for the bright whites.

Baseball Billboard Concept

As you can tell I am and was really into Baseball imagery. While exploring a new technique I was thinking of a concept for a billboard. It was really never fleshed out fully, but I like the extreme horizontal nature of it. Being the a Braves fan, the only issue I had with it was that I used Wade Boggs for reference. I used Acrylic, Gouache, Colored Pencil and Matte Medium for this piece. If you note the bottom right corner, this was a variation of my signature, of which to this day I still have not found a signature for my work that I like. In some cases you will see no signature and in some cases I used to hide the signature within the painting.

The Squird and Birrel

These were a couple of goofy sketches I did year ago after hearing a friend, Gayle, talk about a skeleton they found in her back yard. They couldn't tell if it was a squirrel or a bird. So they referred to it as a Squird. They said I should draw up a picture of it, so these were the result. I still have them at my desk today. I had started compiling a bunch of animals to do in the future, but other projects took precedence. Years later I saw a similar theme being done with some super photoshop artwork on 1000 Words.

WH Concept Portico Painting

This was a painting that was done for a White House Ornament Packaging Option. It was not used and resides on my wall now. This was one of the first paintings that I did of the White House and also one of the first times I tried to paint entirely in Oils. Because of this I was sat out in the warehouse with the doors open. It was near the end of winter and wow was it cold and rainy those days I was working on it. I ended up pulling it into the computer to do some revisions as I ran out of surface to paint on and the picture needed to show more width wise. Additionally I learned a technique to add snow falling in photoshop. Great learning experience overall!

WHHA 2010 Annual Ornament Artwork

These were artworks that I created for the 2010 White House Historical Association Ornament. The artwork was used on the front and back of the ornament, as well as the packaging lid and booklet. Fun project. There was a ton of historical research done on everything from the building to the Marine Corps Band's Uniforms. This was one of those projects that involved a ton of people. I helped on pretty much everything involved with this ornament and packaging, but it really took practically the whole company to "birth" this beautiful ornament. This ornament as well as the current year and previous ornaments can still be purchased at the White House Historic Association. Click the link below to see the page for the 2010 ornament.

www.whitehousehistory.org

Harbour Town Lighthouse Hilton Head N.C.

This digital illustration was done for a series of products for Harbour Town Lighthouse in Hilton Head NC. I will try to post pictures of the artwork on the actual items soon.

Virginia Lenders Conference Digital Illustration

This was another 3D modeling and Digital Render around the same time as the Capitol One job. I was exploring the possibilities of digital illustration at this time. It was sort of like exploring the possibilities and limitations of it as a tool. Sort of like when I started learning to airbrush. Little did I know that eventually I would be be doing it almost all of the time in the future. The one thing I do remember is how long it took to make changes and save the file. The main limitation at that time would have been the hardware running the programs. Wow have times have changed. This job would have been done in about an hour or two current day.

Capital One Concept 3 of 3

3rd in the series of 3 for the Capital One proposal. 3D modeling and digital illustration. Creating the steak was interesting. I initially created this blob of a steak in 3D but no matter the texture I applied it just came out looking dead. I ended up using photos of actual steaks and cloning in steak over the shape. Added in enhancements where necessary.

Capital One Concept 2 of 3

Second in the series for a Capital One proposal job. Combination of 3D modeling and digital illustration.

Capital One Concept 1 of 3

This was an image for a Capital One Proposal. It was one of my first venture into 3D modeling being used as a starter for a final digital illustration. Very difficult at times as I was learning the program as I was doing the series. This is first of 3 images.