Wildlife Artwork

Recently, I got involved with a project for a prior student of mine to create several artworks of different wildlife for his restaurant. These works varied from fish to birds to cattle among others. the challenge was to create images that were colorful and creative yet representative of items he planned to serve on his menu. This challenge meant to portray the animals in such a way that it wouldn't cause patrons to "feel bad" looking at a real representation rather that they would be impressed with the renderings and informed of the options available. To achieve this I created a series of artworks which all are slightly abstracted using black line and represented in bold colors from a single palette as to have them all relate to one another. In addition, each work includes an additional actual object in the composition to stimulate interest and curiosity in the theme of the work.

Family comics

Making comics of my grandkids as they grow up is a gift to myself as well as to my family. The challenge of taking their interests and making it into a comic just gives me time to think about them more. They may appreciate the effort more later when they get older.

How would you imagine "Wild Goose" in a wild goose chase? Tough one to imagine...Wild like Crazy? Wild like vicious? Wild like determined? I considered each of these as I sketched this image for a local charity race. In the end,I went with slightly disheveled, crazy eyed, and focused sprinter with running shoes.

The client loved the image and I think I may of nailed the "Wild Goose Chase".

Native American Mascots

Visualizing the image for schools can be tricky when it comes to all of the Native American mascots in our area. How to depict the characters, what they wear, what they are doing needs to be both respectful and tell the story of the composition. This design called for the inclusion of a waterway so that sometimes helps. Who wouldn't want to be canoeing down a creek in Pennsylvania?

My process for motion in cartoon images

Going from concept to finish is the most exciting part of creating art. The images have to stay consistent, stay true to the composition, and keep an element of humor imbedded to keep the viewers interest. In this case the client wanted a drawing of their mascot facing off with the mascot of a rival school to use to promote an upcoming game. Working with Knights and Rams leaves a lot of possibilities, I hope people appreciate the solution I came up with.

From sketch to finish....

Ideas, concepts, and preliminary sketches fill the hours of any artist in their studio. The process of taking those ideas/sketches and making them usable or presentable is where the artists skills are tested.

This is an image that I recently needed of a warrior throwing a spear. The thought was to show motion in both the character and the spear to give the image life. I decided to put the warrior in buckskins and also holding a tomahawk in his other hand to add to the drama of the image. This sketch was done in a single sitting based on those thoughts using an iPad Pro and an apple pencil. The drawing turned out ok and I decided to use it in the project I am working on.

As you can see, the finished version that was completed in Photoshop and Illustrator shows the finished image with clean lines and crisp colors. Many details were added and the overall look of the concept was refined to a quality level. Check back to see the project I am planning to use this image in....

Community creativity...

We are part of a valley community here in Sayre, recently we got all 4 schools together for a holiday basketball tournament. The cover of the program was the challenge. Incorporating, a redskin, a wildcat, a wolverine and a black knight playing basketball at the North Pole seemed like a noteworthy challenge. This is what I came up with...