Christmas in July

Creating Christmas card art in July is not all that unusual around here.  In fact, stop by some time during the summer and you might just hear some classic Bing Crosby completing the mood in the studio.  Happily, this time, the art had me dreaming of snorkeling some far-off tropical waters.  And yes- there's actually a market for beach-themed Christmas art. 

Retro Sales guy

The assignment: Create a somewhat cheesy, retro, in-your-face salesman holding out a pen, with papers ready to sign- to be used as a small ikon on a website, letting customers know this ISN'T how they'll be treated.) It's always fun creating corny retro spots... The cheesier the better.

Storyboards

Twenty-five years ago I was fortunate enough to get my start drawing storyboards for television ads. Back then, they were all done with markers but now it's all digital... and much less full of toxic fumes.  Once I tried to do a rough count of how many frames have been pumped out of this studio over the years.   I'm pretty sure it's over 10,000 by now.  Here are a few frames from a job last week...

"Horseplay" Digital Illustration for Bits and Pieces Puzzle Company

     Lately I've been having a great time painting digitally in photoshop.   Based on requests from one of the artist reps I work with,  I've been creating traditional scenes of birds, animals, and holiday themes.   Painting on canvas with a brush is something I used to do many years ago and I've missed it.   Now, in Photoshop, I'm finding that same freedom I enjoyed on canvas, only with an "undo" feature that acrylics and oils never offered me.  Plus there are all sorts of tricks and enhancements that can be added that would have been a huge challenge with a real paint brush.   It's really nice to have a  computer counterpart that paints along with me and is ready to make some hi-tech corrections when my feeble human skills veer off in the wrong direction.  It's also come in due time since my late-40s eyes are starting to give in.  (Thank you magnifying tool!)
     In spite of my many attempts to do "cool" art over the years,  my inner gravitational pull seems to always steer me back to happy and cute scenes.  It's just who I am and I've decided to start owning it!

Bill-Blip's ship

25 years ago I wrote and illustrated a children's book thinking it was going to be my ticket into the big-time. Instead it turned out to be a ticket to receive lots of rejection letters. Anyway, last week I decided to re-paint one of the main spreads just for fun. It was a story about a little boy who wanted to stand out by doing outrageous things, only to venture to a planet where it was so wacky, the only one who stood out was a very humble little girl.

Vector birthday card and plate

Rendering vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator was once, for me, a great source of angst.   Pen tools are tricky little buggers for novice users.  If you're trying to tame one yourself, I promise you, just breathe and relax...  you'll get it.  I actually love working in vector now.  The clean, crisp lines and deliberate choosing of shapes for shadows brought out a whole new happy style and feel that I was unable to attain in other mediums.  All of them have their place though.  For bright happy birthday graphics, vector is magical.

1993 illustration: Grannysmith Gets Sweet With McIntosh.