Yawning Cat

Here's my cat yawning. This was done some time ago.

Illustration Friday - Camouflage

Ugh! I had big plans for making this my best digital piece yet, but it all fell apart due mostly to time constraints. I tried making a plaid pattern in Photoshop but I couldn't figure out how to tile it correctly, so had to search for pictures of plaid. I ran out of time while rendering it in Photoshop and it never really came out the way I wanted it to. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I'm still learning my way around the brushes and other tools in Photoshop. I wanted to make a drop shadow but I couldn't figure out how to make the edges soft. I tried feathering it but it didn't help, so I ended up just using the airbrush tool at 30% or so to make a little bit of shadow. Will I ever learn what I'm doing with this program?

Illustration Friday - Rejection

Somehow cats seem to dislike men they don't know.

Woman

Woman's Head

This drawing was done using Char-Kole, and I'm afraid I'm a little too heavy-handed with it. I ended up switching to General's compressed charcoal which I like better, although I do like the really dark blacks I can get with Char-Kole.

Illustration Friday - Suit

King of Hearts. This is my very first piece done in Illustrator. I've had the program for a long time but never got around to playing with it, so I got the Total Training DVD for it and went through all the lessons recently. I can't remember most of it, but enough stuck that I was able to make this rudimentary illustration. After some initial frustration with the anchor points, I started to catch on and it actually became enjoyable.

Self Portrait

Here's an old self-portrait I did a decade ago. I was clearly struggling back then with proportion and distortion, although I find that all of my self-portraits are a little bit distorted when drawn from life. Check out the giraffe neck!

Curt

Here's a quick sketch I did a few winters ago.

Illustration Friday - My Paradise

Whew! I wasn't sure if I'd get this one done in time because I had to research so many different elements. The inspiration for this illustration of course comes from the paintings titled "Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks. I've always loved animals and my idea of paradise would be spending a lot of time with all my favorite animals at once! I included some storm clouds in the background because I also love severe weather, in fact it's the biggest thing I miss about my Midwest upbringing.