Black & White Illustration - Monsters in the Pool

The latest illustration from this year's Halloween series.

Using new digital tools to mimic old printing and illustration techniques

For this year's Halloween series, I've been hand drawing the illustrations and then using Photoshop to create a faux zip-o-tone type effect. I always thought it was cool to see those evenly spaced lines creating shadows and textures on older illustrations. Then I colored this with the limited palette of colors used for silver age and bronze age comics. I did use a Gaussian Blur to soften the light and a satin FX layer for more shadow. It creates an interesting effect.

Halloween 2015: Wandering Koala in the clutches of Witch Hazel

Yesterday I posted the black & white line work of my latest illustration. Today I present it in glorious color.

I've always been a fan of minimalist color schemes. This one is basically orange and green with a bit of yellowish versions of those colors, and yet somehow it appears to be full color. I colored and toned this storybook illustration in Adobe Photoshop CC after drawing it with a Prismacolor Brush Pen, a Tombow Art Brush Pen,  a Japanese Brush Pen from Pentel, and a Sharpie.

I love the shorter stature of the figures, the cutsey look they have, the faux toned shadows, and the minimalist color scheme.

But what do you think?

B&W Illustration - In the Clutches of Witch Hazel

It probably feels like I've disappeared forever, but I haven't. I've just been very busy with design work and haven't had much chance to do much drawing aside from a few sketches.

But it's Halloween, and that means a new series of Wandering Koala illustrations! I love Halloween, and can't let this great holiday pass me by without celebrating it, at least a little.

Here is the first one in a Black & White style I really like. Check back in a couple of days for a colored version.