Western

I went and saw Rango a few days ago and it reminded me of a painting I did a little over a year ago. It was for a card game for an Italian food company but it was never published. So I figured I would scan it in and post it here.

Baseball!

Well, it has been a few months since I posted and in that time we have moved to Utah. It's been over ten years since Kasidy and I lived where there has been snow. The process of adjusting to the cold has been slow, but it has been really great to be back around family. Now that we are all settled it's time to start getting some new posts on here.

I've been doing a lot of baseball drawing and the first two books in the Ballpark Mysteries series were just released. The third book will be released in July with a few more to follow. It has been a real pleasure working with David and Random House on these books. You can get updated information on the series at ballparkmysteries.com.

Book #1 is 'The Fenway Foul-up'. Click here for more information and an amazon link for the book.


Book #2 is 'The Pinstripe Ghost'. Click here for more information and an amazon link for the book.

'Tis the Season

I had the chance the to do a Holiday Card for Porkchop BMX. It was a bit of time crunch but was really fun to do. It's been a while since I've done the painting part all digitally so that was fun too.


This is what is going to be on my holiday cards this year. I think penguins have to be some of the funnest animals draw. This is acrylic on watercolor paper.

Highlights

I've been bad at updating so I'm a little late with this one. So if you happen to be getting your oil changed or waiting for the dentist check out their old magazines for a September Highlights. I did a few illustrations for a story called 'How Low Can You Go?' by Maggie Murphy. I was really nice to be able to do anamorphic characters.

Counting Cows

I've been meaning to post this for the last couple of weeks. I did the illustrations for a counting book that came out early March called 'Counting Cows' by Michelle Medlock Adams, published by Candy Cane Press. You can find it on Amazon here.

It was a real fun book to do and very nice to be able to work in a bit more simplified style.

Process

Happy New Year to everyone!

It seems like making a post about your process is the cool thing to do. So when I painted my Christmas card I took a few pictures as I went along. I didn't go to great length to get good photos of the process, but they give you a pretty good idea what is going on.

First, I made a few corrections to the drawing that I posted earlier. Once I scan it into Photoshop I adjust the color of the line to either a warm or cool color depending on the painting. I basically do a quick color study under the line drawing in photoshop. I set the basic values and colors at this step. For this painting everything has kind of purple cast to keep that cool feeling. You could go a lot further at this point than I did, but I prefer to do most of the work in paint.

After I'm done in Photoshop I printed it out on some 13x19 Epson water color paper. I gave a few quick coats of workable fixatif. The ink in my printer is very waterproof or else you have to really coat it with workable fixatif. Then I stretch it like you would any other type of watercolor paper.


In the end pretty much all of the digital painting won't be visible, but it helps to speed up the process, and gives you some direction. I use acrylics and usually start from the furthest point and work my way forward. For me it helps me keep control of values, and you don't have to worry about painting around things as much. Also if I paint the funnest things first then I run out of motivation to paint everything else.
Here's a detail where you can see that I'm not very concerned about over painting things in the foreground.

I keep moving forward. The buildings are a good example of how in paint I refine things but the digital color still peeks through here and there. Basically the same concept as toning a canvas.
The values are off in this picture, but at this point I'm starting to refine the main characters.
Once everything is painted I spend a little more time making all the small adjustments. I could do this forever and would more than likely eventually end up ruining the painting. So after a bit I usually stop myself and call it finished. (click on the image to see it a little bigger).

Here are a couple details shots.

Some Stuff

I haven't had the time to do much commissioned work, but I was able to fit this one in. This was for some friends that used it as their Christmas card this year. I've never considered myself very good a catching peoples likenesses, but I think they turned out very recognizable.


I love to tinker and figure out how things work, I also have fasination with old things. I love old cars and have owned quite a few, but I just don't have the time or space to deal with one now. So I've been messing around with old bicycles when I have a chance. Earlier in the year I was part of a build off contest at Rat Rod Bikes (check out the forum there are lots of cool bikes and cool people). For the contest I volunteered to do a drawing of the winners bike. This is what I came up with.

I actually ended up coming in second place and here are a couple shots of the bike I put together. The bike is a 1962 Schwinn with tons of antique and customized parts..