2021 Calendar - Wandering Koala on a Turkey Hunt

 

 

It took my quite a while to come up with an idea for November, but after a few false starts and an entire trashed illustration, I finally came up with something I really like. It's one of my favorites.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Concept Illustration: Surprise!

I've always liked the idea of the common exercise to take a concept and then illustrate it. (I don't remember actually doing it myself, but I've always meant to.) While coming up with an idea for my next illustration, I thought of that exercise and realized I had finally done it (albeit accidentally).

I drew this with a Staedtler pencil, inked it with a Tombow Brush Pen, and colored it in Adobe Photoshop CC. The background was created with a couple of photographs and a lot of Photoshop effects. I really like how it turned out. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Wandering Koala rides The Wild Turkey (colored)

A colored version of the the engraved style drawing. I'm not sure if I like it better with or without color.

Wandering Koala rides The Wild Turkey (black & white)

This month in honor of Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays, I plan to create a series of illustrations related to that theme. This first one is a black and white rendering inspired by the brilliant newspaper comic strip work of Roy Crane on Buz Sawyer.

 This illustration was inked with a Zebra Disposable Brush Pen and toned in Adobe Photoshop CC. Let me know what you think!

Thanksgiving

I've always enjoyed Thanksgiving. When I was young, it was because I liked watching the floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then going up to my grandparents for dinner. As I got older, I started enjoying it for what it is: a time to give thanks.

I used this illustration for a birthday card for my mom. It was around Thanksgiving, and the message was gratitude related, so it seemed appropriate. The drawing was done with a calligraphy pen, one of my favorite ways of drawing. I colored it in Photoshop, then used a photograph as the background. I've been mixing my illustrations with photos ever since I started doing websites. It's a really nice technique.