Illustration Friday: "CHICKEN"

Yikes! Haven't done an Illustration Friday for a while. Been really busy. But, I had time to do a quicky. Thought I would bring back Becky for this one. She's in a chicken suit. Enjoy.

Teaser

8: A Steampunk Anthology

I know, I know, I've already talked about this because I've posted some images from my story called Pest Control, but I just wanted to show off this sweet promo image made by my pal and fellow "steampunker" Lee Wiley.

We've had some bumps in the road with this anthology, but everything is ironed out and ready to go. We're shooting for a release date of sometime in late March, early April.

I'm so excited about this thing guys. I was excited about that first anthology I did called 8: A Kid's Book Anthology, but I think I'm MORE excited about this one because it's an 8 page mini-comic, which is way more fun to read than a regular picture book.

This comic is the reason why I haven't been posting very much on this bloggity blog. I've been super busy with commissions and this comic, so my apologies to anyone who checks this thing regularly looking for updates.

New Logo

So, for some reason I really like making logos for my personal properties. It's super fun. Anyways, I trimmed the fat on my Pest Control logo. I cut it down and made it more simple, yet a little more complex and the same time. I always wanted to make it look a little bit 3D, but didn't quite get how to do it until now. Enjoy.

The Process Diary

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I was a guest on The Process Diary podcast with Paul Cageggi.

You can listen to it here:

CLICK HERE

Paul Cageggi, Sam Kirkman, Lee Wiley, Warren Belfield and myself talk about our upcoming anthology which is called

8: A Steampunk Anthology

If you do by chance listen to this podcast, a fun game to play while listening is to count how many times we all say "You Know" and how many times I clear my throat obnoxiously. HAHA! Enjoy.

Look through the posts and you'll find a sneak peek at my story for the anthology called Pest Control.

Children

I'm an illustrator. I have children. Sometimes, those two things aren't best friends. Here was one of those times.

I have 3 year old twins. They watch me draw. Of course, they

want to do what daddy is doing. So, when daddy is in the bathroom, they grab a permanent marker (which was just right there on the desk) and express themselves all over my stuff.

Now, the tablet and the keyboard didn't really bother me. They're just plastic and it will come off. My biggest concern was the monitor. But, thanks to this stuff:

It now looks like this: TA-DA!

Everything turned out good in the end. So, for those illustrators out there who are debating on whether or not to have kids: Sure, crazy stuff happens, but you can fix it. Go have some kids.

PEST CONTROL

Hey there followers of this here blog of mine, here is a sneak peek of a new mini-comic that I'm putting together with some of the artists from the 8: A Kid's Book Anthology. This time around we're doing a Steam Punk comic anthology. Mine is called Pest Control.

Above is the Pest Control logo and page 2 of the comic. Enjoy.

Process anyone?

Here's a little process for anyone who is curious about the methods to my madness.

1. First thing I do when I open up Photoshop is create a new layer. Then, I do a rough sketch with the default brush at 7pts.

2. After the rough sketch is done I drop that layer's opacity to 20% so I can then use it as a guide to trace over top of.

3. I create a new layer on top of the rough sketch layer and with the 7pt brush size I draw the black outline. This process is very similar to inking in traditional comics. When doing this I make sure that all of my lines are connecting so that there are no gaps anywhere for the next step.

4. I use the paint bucket tool to fill in the flat colors. If there are gaps, then the WHOLE canvas will fill in with the selected color instead of just the part that I want to color. In the case of the image below, I just want to color the face.

5. The paint bucket doesn't get everything, so I go in with the brush to fill in those areas like the little white spaces below.

6. Flat colors are done. Now for the shadows.

7. When flat colors are done, I then use the lasso tool to make a selection of where I want the shadows to go. Then, I paint bucket fill with a darker version of the base color.

8. To add a little color in the 'RED ZONE' of the face, I grab a bright red with the brush, then drop the brush's opacity to 5% and color on the ears, cheeks, and nose.

9. Almost done. Just adding some finishing touches. Add the highlights to the hair, nose, cheeks and a blue rimlight in the shadow area. And, wha-la! Done.

There will be more process to come. This is just how I do the foreground characters and elements. The background is pretty close to the same process with a couple more added steps here and there.

So there it is. Enjoy.