Basketball picture done!

I was inspired to do this illustration from one of the stock illustration sites that I upload to (Dreamstime).  They hold a monthly contest that I've been uploading images to...but when I drew this one (in Adobe Photoshop) I thought it looked too good to waste on one site.

I also know that I won't be winning the contest (as photographs are heavily favored), so having to exclusively upload it on the off chance it'll place in the contest seemed like a horrible fate for this illustration.

Anyway - I really like how it turned out - the kid's face is a little more cartoony than the dad's face...but that's just what happens in their world - the older you get, the more realistic you get...or something like that.

Oh - and a big deciding factor was that it felt like it could sell well on Istockphoto - and because of all the elements (two characters, action, a full background with depth) that it would sell for a lot more per download.  I just uploaded it to the site, so it'll take about a week to get approved...we'll see how well it does.

And finally - I did the original sketch in photoshop (like I said above), but then colored it completely in Adobe Illustrator.  My wife Tracey did a color pass (because she's better at color than I am) and then I added all the shadows and gradients to round out the illustration.