Ocean Acidification Illustration - Coming to Seattle

So far, this illustration has been picked up 3 times since it was published in E Magazine back in 2012. Once by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, once by an Australian publication whose name escapes me at the moment, and most recently, by the NSF funded series QUEST, The Science of Sustainability, on KCTS TV in Seattle. I guess the illustration works. :-)

Ocular Inserter 3D Model & Render

This is an illustration I did for Fingerpaint Marketing. It's an Ocular Inserter, a device used to deliver medications to the inside of the eye. Modeled and rendered in Strata Studio CX 7. Straight render, no post work.

I'm all over E

My illustration is on the cover of E Magazine this month. My work is also on the inside, with a spot for E Word and 2 large infographics for the feature article about the Changing Ocean Chemistry.

I've been working with E for 15 years. 

Homage to Johnny Hart

Visit E Magazine's site

Giant Hogweed

Another one for the Adirondack Explorer. Giant hogweed is a very large (some over 20 feet tall), noxious cousin of Queen Anne's Lace.

Sea Shepherd

This was for the JAN/FEB issue of E Magazine. The article is about the Sea Shepherd (as seen on Animal Planet's Whale Wars), a group who uses some extreme measures to fight against illegal whaling. The wave in the image is based on a well known Japanese watercolor. The Sea Shepherd regularly goes up against Japanese whaling ships which are in violation of international whaling laws established to protect threatened or endangered species and prevent overfishing.

1. Sketch  2. Final art

This is the concept sketch I sent to the client. Normally, rough concepts are -- rough, but I was pretty confident that the idea would fly,  so I went to a tighter sketch that I could use as a guide for the final art.

Painted in Photoshop

Freshwater Sponges

Who knew? Evidently, freshwater sponges live in cold streams in the Adirondacks. Here's an illustration I did for the upcoming issue of Adirondack Explorer about the subject. The colors are very saturated and brighter than they appear in print. This is intentional so that on newsprint, the colors don't look too dull.
1. Sketch 2. Line art  3. Final art.

Concept sketch

Line art

Final art. Line art is scanned and color is added in Photoshop.

Work in progress . . . Audiobook Cover

Thought I'd post some sketches and working images of this illustration-in-progress. Initial ideas were sent to the client via text message attachment. I was at Barnes & Noble sipping coffee and working on ideas. I used my cell phone to snap a few photos of sketches and sent them to the client. He called me back and we discussed the sketches and agreed on a concept. The story is narrated by the sister of a boy who dies of cancer. Baseball plays a central role in the story, and the glove is an important linking element.

This is the concept we agreed on.

This is the cover comp. It's a rough idea of how the concept will look in color, in place with the title & text. This is also where I begin to work out the composition, lighting, etc.

This is the final sketch of the concept. I scanned this and brought it into Photoshop for painting.

I colored the background and began blocking in the window and curtain, working my way to the rest of the background and then the figure.

More work on the background and window.
Reworked the face and decided to add some filtered shadows in the lighting.

Here's a detail of the face. I think this part's done.

A little more work on the face to warm up some of the skin tones. Worked on her left hand & arm ... still awkward, needs more work. The glove is finished, except for final once over when everything else is done. Added more contrast between the figure and background.

Finished! Several projects in between the last entry and today. Here's the final illustration and the cover with the artwork in place. I painted a lot that wouldn't be seen in the final crop to allow me some flexibility when it came to positioning the image on the package cover. 

This was painted in Photoshop CS3.

click images for larger view