IF: Double sided postcard in full color

So I finally finished with my next promotional postcard - I've been working on it on and off for the last three or four months. 

Each person that sends out a postcard does it a different way - I prefer to have illustrations on both sides, and in full color.

This is the front of the postcard:

And this is the back:

IF: doubled flowers

So I was reading a couple of the best art magazines (Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose)and it inspired me to try and do something a little outside of my usual parameters.  This is what I came up with:

It's really the first time I've drawn these characters, so they should develop a lot more as I work my way through them.  The original idea was that I wanted to do three characters using basic shapes to make them - the circle, the square and the triangle.  Then I wanted to put something weird on each one of their heads - and really was stumped after putting a toe on the circle's head.  So the triangle ended up getting eyeballs on antennas, and the square originally had the number 2 on top of his head, but that changed to green horns when I cleaned up the drawing.

I wanted to populate the grass with a lot of flowers and originally had one type of flower that I was going to duplicate over and over...but that didn't look as good as I thought it would - so instead I drew a series of strange flowers and then copied it and put it's double somewhere on the other side of the hill.

After coloring it in Photoshop I took the original lines (which I keep as vector, so I can continue to edit them if necessary) into Illustrator and self colored the lines.  What makes it really easy is to copy over the color into illustrator as well, and then change all the lines into shapes.  Then you can just select a line you want to color, eyedrop a color and darken it.

IF: Animals in eggs in double and triple!

So this started as a panda in an egg and then doubled into a fox in an egg and then finally it's third incarnation was the skunk in an egg.

I really liked these quick little sketches - so I figured I'd clean them up and see about painting them:

I really liked the skunk character the most...so I decided to paint that one first (and by paint, I mean color in photoshop).

Stuck in Traffic

This is another illustration that's waiting to be approved for the Dreamstime contest.  It's completely out of my element to draw adults and to draw cars...so it's fun to participate in the contests as I get to practice my hand at things out of my comfort level.

This is the rough drawing:

I was all set to go ahead with this one when I was told that traffic doesn't flow in that direction.  So I had to flip the drawing to make it correct, but then the driver (in the lower left hand corner) was no longer behind the wheel (well...he was behind a wheel, but then it didn't make sense because he was on the wrong side of the car)...so I made him a passenger and had to draw in a driver.  But then it turned them into a carpool and everything was okay.

Alternative to Traffic

I did this illustration for the Dreamstime contest this month.  The topic is everyday transportation.  It's been nice since we moved last year that I'm within walking distance of work.  And sometimes I actually take my legs up on the offer and walk (but usually I get a ride).

Oh, and I'm usually in shorts...not a suit.

And for those of you who don't know - Dreamstime is a stock image agency - the contest is for members with at least 50 images online (which isn't that hard if you draw a lot, or take a lot of professional quality photographs).  Vector images sell better than regular ones (this illustration was done in Adobe Illustrator and I used a variety of gradients and blends to help make the drawing a little more complex and well rounded).

IF: Diary in full color!

I did a bunch of changes to the original drawing - now there's no rug, no stripes in the bed...and now it's in full color.

People shouldn't be so surprised that their diaries end up getting read.

From the original - I wasn't happy that the bed was one color...and the floor bothered me.  Also I drew something outside the window - I then went on a different layer and painted over it to make it look more abstract and window like.

And here's yet another revision (it's getting close to completion!):

IF: Diary

I was against the topic when I first saw it - but then instead of drawing a character having a quiet moment with their diary (and having to come up with something clever for them to say), I thought it would be more fun to have an illustration of a character being caught reading another's diary.

I'm just starting the color part of this drawing - so it has a bit to go.

And isn't that really the only point of having a diary?  So someone else can read it?  And isn't it a law that if you find someone else's diary, don't you have to take a gander?

Anyway - the line art was done in adobe illustrator and the color was started in photoshop (the kitten is done, now all I have to do is the background and the pup).

IF: Giant Piano

I've been working on this throughout the week and didn't finish until the last day of the current topic on Illustration Friday.

It's a cute little Panda playing on a giant piano.

here are a couple of thumbnails I did to rough out this piece:

This is the final version:

I showed the piece to my illustration crit group and they suggested a couple of minor changes.

IF: Giant and ready for popping

I don't know what it was that made me think of this - maybe all the people drawing giants for the theme 'giants'.  But I was trying to think of something that would fit the theme (unlike my previous entry) and would not be something that everyone was drawing...

Anyway - I illustrated it in Adobe Photoshop - and used a brush I usually don't use for the entire thing to give it a specific texture and unified look.  It started as a pimple...but I added a couple of hairs, so maybe it's a wart or mole.  It probably needs to be lanced, in any case.

IF: Giant leap of imagination

I decided to do a tonal study type of drawing based on this little thumbnail drawing I did:

I thought it would be a cute, but more importantly, easy illustration to finish.  And the next thing I know the weekend is gone and I just finished.  I think the problem was that since I did it in the computer (photoshop) I was able to noodle as much detail as I wanted to - and instead of just doing a straight silhouette, I ended up wanting to put some detail in the plane and characters.

Anyway - this is how it turned out:

Here's a slight revision (I changed the clouds and added highlights):

Speaking of props - trunk train

I was working on my own project and this is one of the drawings to come out of it:

If nothing else it's good to practice prop design as well as character design.  You never know when you'll be called on to create something.

dirigible prop

If you work in animation - at some point or other (unless you're one of those jerks who's really really good at networking) you'll have to take a test for another position you want.  Whether it's color stylist (character and prop color), storyboards, revisionist, cleanup, character or prop design - there's a test for each position.


This is a dirigible that I recently did for a test...before this I hadn't even heard of the word before - but apparently it's a giant balloon...some people would call it a blimp - but, I guess, dirigible sounds more impressive...so I drew a dirigible (not a blimp).

On a show where there's cg elements - the artist has to do the drawing from several angles so the cg modeler can build it easier in Maya.  So the test was to draw a dirigible, draw the same one from several views and also include sketches rough sketches of other dirigibles to show your thought process.

Microstock report for June, 2010

Shutterstock was the winner, once again - it was a nice month with another EL (a $28 dollar sale) helping to pull June above last month's total.  It looks like we added a bunch of images (a lot of them were variations on older designs), but we really didn't pay that much attention to the stock sites for the last couple of months...as we've been busy with other projects.  It's nice to see them still getting downloads.

Istockphoto almost beat last month's BME (best month ever)...but lost by a buck and a half.  It's still a great site and as we add more images it produces more sales.  Baseball caps and candy - those are my two images (I illustrated the caps, my wife Tracey drew the candy) that are selling the most (each with over $100 worth of sales each lifetime on the site).

Dreamstime was third.  I had the second most downloads on this site ever, but yet half the total from the month before...so while the site has a lot of action, it's for subscription downloads (35 cents) and not as many credit downloads.

Bigstockphoto was back to it's disappointing self...once again failing to break 10 dollars for the month.  The previous month had an EL, which is why it was so high - but with as many new images as I put on Shutterstock, it's rather annoying that nothing is picking up here.

And then there's the rest - I forgot to put them in order of earnings (like I usually do) - and Fotolia came through in a way that it hasn't since spring of last year - but it cleared 20 dollars!  And Vectorstock almost matched last month's BME for that site...and nice to see that while downloads are slow (it's still one of the smaller sites), they are growing.

Stockxpert closed in February, but all the images have been moved over to Thinkstock - only I can't access that site and all the earnings are reported on my stockxpert page.  Strange how they went about that - and unfortunate considering Stockxpert was my 4th highest earner and now Thinkstock brings in about $5 a month...Another thing that's annoying is that they record the previous month's earnings only once.  Every other site updates daily...but Stockxpert/Thinkstock do it once a month.

Crestock is definitely a site worth avoiding.  I've been having a hard time uploading images for the last three or four months (which is why the number stays at 99)...and the sales have suffered since the beginning of the year.  Last month I had zero sales...and this month only 2, which amounted to .50 cents.  But it's a site I'm going to start ignoring.

And finally - I also joined Veer last month because they were running a promotion where they'd pay you for every image they accepted...so I uploaded about 60 illustrations and have half accepted and the other half still pending...So I made some sort of cash from the ones they approved, but the site doesn't seem to be very user friendly so it's difficult to figure out.  None of the files has yet to be downloaded, so it doesn't really matter anyway...it's a new site (for me) and we'll see how it goes.

Give a shark a hand.

So everyone knows just how tasty shark fins are...but it seems kinda rude to grab a shark and yank off a couple of fins and throw him back...the idea was batted around to improve the sharks with bionic parts...and that's how the 6 million dollar shark was born.

Sadly, after a promising pilot and speculation of a season pickup...all the smart studios passed on the bionic shark idea...because it was stupid.

But that left sharks flopping around on the bottom of the ocean floor.  So a new idea came to some people who had a surplus of puppies.

And since nothing is cuter than a three legged dog, it just made sense to do a bit of creative chopping and give those extra limbs to the sharks.  So while it's hard for them to be scary predators, they can at least doggy paddle over to a boat to beg for scraps...

The only thing that sucks is that after I finished this (horrible) drawing I realized that it was probably the back fin thing, not the swimmy fins that people are eating in soups and as jerky. 

Anyhow - viola - shark doggy paddle.

back of the postcard finished!

 This is the other half of the postcard:

And this is what it'll look like when it's printed (and stamped and labeled):

Chased by Bees

Here's part of the finished illustration for 'chased by bees'.  It's half of the back of a postcard I'll be sending out to children's book publishers.

Chased by bees

This is a rough drawing that's part of the back of a new postcard I'm working on.

And here's the cleanup I did for it in Adobe Illustrator:

She's on the run with bees trailing behind her.

Soccer Family

This is a companion piece to the Tennis Family.  This was cleaned up and colored in Adobe Illustrator.  It's another contest piece for Dreamstime.  I didn't think I'd care for the topic this month of Family Sports...but just one week in and I've illustrated three pieces for it.

I thought it'd be okay to post to Illustration Friday because there is a trail - and it goes right by where this family is playing Soccer.  The previous illustration (Tennis Family) didn't have anything even remotely resembling the topic (unless I said something like the one team trailed the other)...but that would have been lame.  And this time, but only this time, I figured I'd only post something if it actually matched the topic.

Tennis Family

This is another illustration for the Dreamstime contest.  I originally did the basketball dad and son for the same contest, but decided against it because of how well I thought it turned out.  This one also turned out better than I originally expected (I was working with a style of character that was very stylized and that I hadn't done before).

I originally drew it without the girl in front - but I think she adds so much more dimension to the piece.  There's a lot of green in this picture, but I think it helps 'pop' the characters...and also, from the courts I've played on, the color scheme is very similar.  I drew each character separately in my sketchbook, and then cleaned them up in Adobe Illustrator and placed them on a tennis court I drew way back in 2006 (for a children's book that never went anywhere)...and I colored the entire thing in Adobe Illustrator (well, I did a first pass at color, then my wife took a pass, and then I finished it off by adding gradients).

And for those of you who don't know - Dreamstime is one of the big microstock sites - they hold a monthly contest where the top three prizes are hundreds in cash.  The contest is open to site uploaders (whether it be illustrations or photographs) with at least 50 images in their portfolio.  And even if your image doesn't win, it is still bumped up to a higher selling bracket...

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.