End of Dinosaurs Comet Illustration

This was a collateral piece, but I never knew what the end product would be. Pretty much the whole scene and concept was predetermined, they just needed an image to go with their idea. The overall reality of the image is pretty unbelievable, but it suited their needs and they were happy with the end product and that was all that was really important in the end. I had a lot of fun with the skin folds on the T-Rex. It was about 14 x 20 inches and pretty much all acrylic by using airbrush or traditional brush. Some colored pencil work too.

AMF Bull Whip Bowling Ball Illustration

Another Bowling Ball Illustration around 1997 I think. The majority of this illustration wasn't seen in most cases. Just a square part for a face of the box. The other parts just wrapped around and were background. It was a fun piece and I had make sure he stayed purple, I kept wanting to go to blue like Babe the Blue Ox. Mainly an airbrush piece, with colored pencil. I felt like I illustrated so many bowling pins during my freelance years. It would be so easy to do them current day with the 3D tool in Illustrator or any 3D program for that matter. This was done for AMF through Wilson West Livesay. Great company, they were instrumental in helping me start my freelance career.

Odor Eaters Carpet Cushion System Animation

While I was working for CommuniQue' Marketing, I was able to practice 3D modeling/Animation and actually put it to use. This was an animation that was done for Odor Eaters Carpet System. The carpet had an enzyme layer that activated with spills. It would attack the stain from the bottom and the additional spray would attack from the top. This was my first real 3D modeling and animation project and it really pushed my limits but also taught me a lot. I particularly remember building and rendering the carpet fibers which to me was extremely difficult. I had to look up a tutorial on extruding along a spline. The other part that was killing me was the bubbles. I had the hardest time getting the timing down. The bottom bubble would be flying at top speed and the top bubbles would be slow as a snail. Took some a lot of tinkering to get it right. The logo at the end was something where I decided to add a the spin to the orange swashes. The animation ran in the middle of a commercial. One memory of working on this project in particular was the final rendering of the frames. I used at least 5 of the computers in the office to render the frames in order to meet the deadline. The video is much sharper than what is seen in this small down sampled video shown above.

Power

This was another college piece. I don't remember the assignment but I do remember my thinking. I was striving to illustrate muscles and the human form convincingly.The X on the back of the head was a symbol that was having a resurgence in the late 80s. Also cutting designs in to hair was a big thing at the time. It was just supposed to feel powerful. Just for kicks I shopped the illustration to be a bit more topical to the current times and posted it beneath the original. The original was airbrush and colored pencil. The piece ended up being one of my promo piece mailers and was received pretty well during portfolio reviews.

Signet Bank Moving Advertisement

Pep Freeman and I would sometimes work on a piece together to keep each other busy or speed up a piece. This was one where he did the under drawing and some paint work. I mainly worked on the paint work and airbrush and detailing as well. Pep, Pete and myself all posed for the people and Stuart took the photos. The reference photos make for some pretty funny pics when seen out of context. There were some perspective errors we had in here but luckily the crop on the final piece helped hide some of the proportion and perspective problems. The part of the painting I was most happy with were the mountains and the volcano.

Denzel Washington College Technique Test Piece

This very early college piece is very nostalgic to me. Alex Bostic taught us several techniques. One being a quick technique to illustrate skin tones. There a lot of problems with this piece but I like seeing moments of learning captured. After this piece I was hooked with that technique and tried to use it as much as possible when doing skin tones. Still use elements of it today when working digitally.

Stipple Studio Self Promo Illustration

Found gem. This found it's way to me by way of an old print my father kept. It was a printed promo piece for Pencil Pushers. Our first mailers/handouts were black and white since that was all we could do cheaply. We tried to showcase a variety of techniques with stipple being one. This was a concept for the Reach toothbrush and I used my self for the model. The stipple alone brought back so many memories of working with rapidograph pens and constantly cleaning the clogged tips. Fingers tips covered in india ink. We did get some stipple work from this and other pieces, so at least it worked. Not the strongest stipple piece but it was definitely an representation of my work at that time.

Snowglobe Magazine Cover Illustration

I don't remember what magazine this was for or even the concept. I do remember however the request for specific items. Also shooting reference for the hand as well as the globe. I wasn't to happy with the interior items and felt I did better with the glass globe, base and hand. The usual media with more emphasis on airbrush. Also note the again the ever experimenting with the signature. I was going with just an emblem style here.

Computer Tips Editorial Illustration College Assignment

This was for an Editorial Class Assignment back in College. Course was taught by Chuck Scalin. Very fun class. The end illustrations were required to be placed into the layout of the article. The floppy disks and serial cord plug on the side of his neck show how dated this illustration is. Pep posed for this picture. I was going for a pure concept of computer and human interaction. Becoming one with your computer. Funny how true that is today. Seems like people cannot live without their computers. This was one of the first techniques I learned at school from Alex Bostic. Pencil under drawing with a medium wash of Paynes Grey. You would think use black to make the shadows and white to build the highlights. He mainly used acrylic and brush, but I preferred using colored pencil for most of my sharp detail work they allowed me more control.

Fahrenheit 451 Recorded Books Cover Illustration

This was for Fahrenheit 451. I look at this and always have mixed feelings. Certain things I liked a lot, for example the coloration and lighting. The rest not so much. Another thing that cracks me up is the outfit I gave him. It was based on the old planet of the apes costumes. Probably a little too closely based. I wish I would have emphasized the books more too. Maybe made a pile of books behind him. Today I think I would have went more with an image that was very conceptual rather than very literal. Still I learned a lot from this piece. I think this one involved more actual painting than airbrushing. Still used some colored pencil for fine detailing too.

Zyrtec Statue of Liberty Advertisement Illustration

This Zyrtec Allergy ad was done back in the Pencil Pushers Illustration days. Ironically current day I am taking Zyrtec on a regular basis. I remember really enjoying working on this one. Especially working on the under drawing of the statue. I don't have copy of the ad. Pretty much the same media. Airbrush, Acrylic and Colored Pencil. This one was a bit larger than usual as it was going to possibly be used on larger formats also.

Short Stories Recorded Books Cover Illustration

I do not remember the name of this Recorded Book cover, but I do remember the some of the stories. I used a peg board with photos of the stories stuck to them. Again this one was knocked out very quickly. I shot a couple polaroids for reference. Airbrush, Acrylic and Colored Pencil. Doing the cork board texture and photos would have been so easy to do with today's photoshop.

Jim Thorpe Recorded Books Illustration

Another Recorded Books Audio Cassette Cover Illustration. This was on Jim Thorpe. The thing I specifically remember about this was the lack of imagery I could find on him at the time. The imagery I did find was not the best quality either. Turn around time on these was very short and the budget was lower end. For that reason, I usually tried to crank them out as quick as possible, especially when slammed with other work. This one was about 6 x 7 actual size. Acrylic and Colored Pencil.

Bon Secours Banana Slip Billboard Illustration

This was supposed to be for a Bon Secours Billboard. I don't know if it ever got used, as I didn't see it on any billboards. The concept was to have his knee breaking the border of the billboard sign. The banana peel was my favorite part of doing this illustration. This was just straight airbrush and colored pencil. Some acrylic brushwork to finalize it.

Stitches In Time Audio Cassette Illustration

This was for Recorded Books around 1995. The book was Stitches in Time by Barbara Michaels. Surprisingly, this is still for sale. The model was a girl I worked with doing a temp job at night to earn some more cash. This picture used a similar technique to the Jean-Claude Van Damme portrait with the exception of the Gesso. The technique was done straight on cold press Illustration board.

Jean-Claude Van Damme Portrait

This was a piece done back in school. I was working on technique taught by Alex Bostic. It involved putting Gesso down in a slightly heavy fashion. Allowing brush strokes to be seen. You would then do your under drawing. The next step would be to seal your pencil drawing with matte medium and then glaze a almost opaque wash of Gouache over the drawing. The objective was to use a darker color that would ultimately serve as your shadow color. The next part was the most fun. You would just use your brush, sponge or paper towel with just plain water and pick out the highlights. Sort of like erasing the paint. The final parts would be adding color using color pencil and airbrush. It gave a really unique effect and I was totally into it for everything after I learned it. I have included a close up to show how the surface took the color pencil and the effect it gave everything.

Kevin Grijak Richmond Braves Trading Card Illustration

Kevin Grijack Trading Card Illustration. The actual size of this one was about 5 x 6.5. It was a quicky. I noticed that looking back through my artwork of this time I had a fascination with the color Teal. Unfortunately that color is one of the harder ones to reproduce in printing. Loved doing these baseball trading cards. Maybe the Flying Squirrels are open to doing some?

Virginia Museum Nocturnes of the Nile Party Poster

This was for an Virginia Museum event called Nocturnes of the Nile and it was one of the earliest freelance assignments I had. It was through Barber Martin when they were located downtown. They used it as small poster as well as for other collateral associated with the event. Pete also did a illustration for this event. Acrylic and Colored Pencil.

Reynolds Metal Website Illustration

This was actually an illustration for a website. The concept was fully laid out, they just wanted it rendered out. Most times in commercial illustration you find that you are rented hands and the creative end is already laid out. Regardless, I had a lot of fun with this piece. The glow was unintentional at first. Once I lifted the frisket after blasting in the dark background, I realized that the globe needed more shading. I blew in darker blue without the frisket and noticed the glow effect happening. Just liked it a lot and kept it going. This was the usual airbrush, acrylic and colored pencil. It was about 10x10 inches.

Avoiding Market Pitfalls Illustration

I honestly can't remember what this was for. I believe it was after college so it may have either been for a small local magazine or maybe just a test piece. Editorial in nature. I just remember it being very literal. The guy in the suit is me. It looks to use the same techniques I used for the Wrapped up in Paper Illustration. Acrylic, Colored Pencil over Matte medium with Gouache airbrushed over and picked off with water.

The Hippo Who Ate Too Much Illustration

This was an illustration done in school for a class called Children's Book Illustration, taught by Chuck Scalin. Acrylic and Colored Pencil. We showed all the pieces at Narnia Books. This was one of the pictures that ended up being shown in the local paper that cover the exhibit. Fun piece to illustrate.

Lewis & Clark Annual Report Illustration

This was an illustration for a Heilig-Meyers Annual Report through Barber Martin. I remember that the main goal was to match the look of Thomas Moran's Style of Mountains. I had never tried to emulate a style like that and at first I wasn't sure I wanted to try. Ultimately the need to eat and pay bills was enough motivation. This was one of my first payed jobs for which I used a combination of oils and acrylics. I did not feel comfortable enough to paint only in oils so they only played a part in certain areas. The rest was acrylic and colored pencil. The thing I remember most about this, was that we rented a costume for us to wear and take photos. We commonly posed for one another. Pep posed for both Lewis and Clark. I was extremely happy with the background and clouds. Okay with the figures. Coincidentally I ended up rendering another artist's (Michael Haynes) pencil drawings for sculpts of Lewis and Clark in my current job. The reference and detailing for those were great. I will post the drawings and hopefully photos of the sculpts later.

Chrome Cadillac Hood Ornament Illustration

This is sort of a follow up to the oil and chocolate illustration. As mentioned one of my instructors at VCU was Alex Bostic and he had us practice illustrating things like, metal, chocolate, clouds, feathers, rocks, etc. This was the result of the Chrome assignment. I remember going to the Library and finding a book on cars and they had hood ornaments. I don't know for certain but it appears to be a hood ornament from a 1950s Cadillac. Of course when I found the reference I found it in a book, much easier to find online current day. This was mainly an airbrush piece with the final parts being done with Acrylic paint and colored pencil. The scan is not that great but it helps hide some of the rougher spots. Some parts I feel succeeded very well. There are many areas that I would change today, but it truly reflects the level I was at during that time of college.

Merry Elvismas Studio Promo Piece

During our studio days, we were either slow or slammed. During one holiday season we were all slammed and were not able to send out a holiday card to our clients. Pep suggested doing a card for Elvis' birthday and our Elvismas theme promo was born. We each drew ourselves in an Elvis outfit with different concepts. Stuart wrote a whole story loosely based on the travels of the 3 wisemen. Overall it was a success and lots of people got a kick out it. It also helped us stand out from the deluge of Christmas promos that were sent out. The one I did was pretty much a Acrylic and Colored Pencil. I could not do the lip curl so I had to hold my lip up. We decided to keep it in the picture as a goof. I tried to add in little holiday elements into my outfit. A Christmas tree on the vest and Christmas ornaments on the belt buckle. If by some chance I can find the actual promo piece, I will post it. The story just makes it all that much better.

Oil Coating Chocolate C&T Quincy Ad Illustration

Practicing helps! Did I ever think I would have illustrated oil coating chocolate by itself? No. Luckily for me, my instructor in school gave an assignment to illustrate chocolate. It was surprisingly hard, as slight color shifts make it look unappealing. The practice piece I had from that class helped me land this job. Thank you Alex Bostic for making us illustrate things like chocolate and chrome! The interesting thing was that I think they had a photo of pretty much the same thing, but the photo made the chocolate look dead and not rich. I have included the illustration as well as the ad it ran in. This was pretty much a airbrush piece all the way with acrylic touch ups applied with brushes.