Supposedly MIA for the past month

I didn't mention that I was going on a sort of hiatus. But that's where I've been. Explain? Ok.

I've been doing illustration for a little over a year now as a full-time job, largely doing work for various clients, getting to know the art community better, trying to promote myself, and developing a particular style (which Illustration Fridays have been most excellent for). But things haven't progressed quite as quickly as I thought they might - not due to laziness or by any fault of mine (as it's often been perceived by myself), but as Meagan pointed out with a statistic, that it typically takes between 5 to 10 years for an illustrator to make a name for his/herself.

...So one year down.

That said, it's looking like I'll be going back to working with the rest of the world, part time or full time, I don't know yet. With that looming possibility, I was given the advice to take about a month and really push hard on one project, though there are many that could be worked on (which is why Illustration Fridays and blog posts were pushed to the backburner for a while).

The project that I decided to work on was Munch, the children's book story that I first began developing in my last year at school. I'd never been satisfied with the rhyme scheme or a large portion of the final illustrations. So I set to work on that story, solely. The first draft of the story, which is in rhyme, took about three weeks (almost my whole month!) to complete. But to keep myself sane, I took some time out of those three weeks to work on some illustrations for the book too - the ones I knew would be kept through all of the editing. Here is the first:

The final draft of the story still isn't completed (and neither is this illustration or any of the others), but I'm okay with that. It's better to take a little more time and fill in all of the potholes, so to speak. Particularly when working with rhyme. The goal now is to keep just as resolute to finish the project even if another job takes up time.

So now I'm back, more or less, though I don't know if I'll be attempting to keep up with things like Illustration Friday as regularly as I was. But I'll still be making the illustration rounds. For instance, and I'll leave you with this, I've just put up a couple of brand new illustrations on my website for another been-in-the-works-for-a-while kid's story. You can check those out here!

Enjoy, and until next time, mi amigos.

IF: Surrender

Sometimes life puts you in situations that you can't ignore, and there's no way out of them unless you surrender. In most cases, the symbol for that is waving a white flag. In other cases, it may be a banana. For instance:

(Desperate times call for desperate measures.)

And in other news, I got some a nice little something in the mail a couple of days ago that I'm pretty excited about it:


These are some promotional mailers that I've been trying to get printed for a while now, and wasn't having much luck on the local scene. So I opted for Overnight Prints and I couldn't be happier with them. To tell the truth, I think they got the colors downright perfect. So now, I'm addressing envelopes and slapping some stamps on 'em to see about drummin' up that biznass.

IF: Dusty, version 2

I finally finished this thing. A couple days late, but finished none the less. Most of this info is in the post below, but this image is for this past week's Illustration Friday topic, "Dusty".



I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out in the end. It was definitely a "work with it as you go" type of project.

I'll probably go back and add some images into those blank picture frames when I get the time. I'm thinking radishes and maybe another couple veggies? Give me suggestions if ya got em. :)

IF: Dusty

It's late. But it's Friday. Which means Illustration Friday! I've been one of two things that has led to me not participating much the past couple of weeks for IF: 1) slack, or 2) busy. Perhaps a bit of both. Either way, the topic for this week is "Dusty", and here's my entry:

Get it??

At the moment, it's a work in progress and I'll probably finish this up in the next couple of days so be sure to check back! When I've finished, I'll post the current one both on here and send an update out via Twitta'.

Also, if you guys like my work and care to keep up with what I'm up to, you can follow me on Twitter or here on the blog - it'll boost my self esteem, I promise. :)

UPDATE! (2/1/11) I finally got this thing done and can now move on with my life. :)

Hot Robot Action & Singer Wedding Films

Hey guys! Just wanted to share a couple things with ya quick. First, some cool news that my buddy Mike sent to me - over at Do Your Part, who I designed a character for a while back, have put up a video with said designed character animated! Simple, but kinda neat anyway. Click the link to watch.



In other news, that same buddy who sent me that link asked me to design a logo for his new wedding and event filmmaking service, Singer Wedding Films. He's awesome at what he does, tremendously easy to work with, and on top of that, he's one of the most stand-up guys I know. So if you've got a wedding coming up (reasonably close to the Charlotte area), or know someone who does, be sure to send this link their way! (Click the logo below to go to his Vimeo page and see some of his work.)

Chickens + Snowmen does not equal SnowChickens

Sorry I haven't updated much recently. I've been trying to get all of my ducks in a row. And speaking of ducks, this week's Illustration Friday topic is "chicken".

Here's my entry:

Chicken.

And because it's been a while since I've posted any sort of update, I've decided to make this entry a double feature. A friend of mine and my wife, Austin Herring, commissioned me to do the logo image for his production company, Snow Stories Films (you can view one of the short films here, which features my beautiful wife as the lead!). This is what we came up with in the end:

Tada! Never before has a snowman had such ingenuity.

In other news, my wife is about to finish reading the Harry Potter series, so I'll finally be able to talk with her about one of the greatest stories I've ever been told. (For those of you who may roll your eyes, it's only because you haven't read it yet...)

Until next time!

Final!

Hey guys! Welp. I did it. Got my entry off to Communication Arts for their Illustration annual. I think this is the first competition I've entered into since middle school or something. And certainly the first I've paid money to enter. We'll try to improve that track record in the future...

Here's the final submission:

Many thanks to those of you who helped me critique the piece before I sent it along, including Mr. Oxendine. I should find out in a little less than two months whether or not it's been chosen, and I'll be sure to let all of you know how things went!

Cowboy

Cowboy
(Click the image to see it bigger.)

This started as just a sketch that I did some time ago, but never got around to finishing. And recently, I had some time on my hands and got the inspiration to spruce it up.

I don't think it started out as a caricature/cartoon of Sam Elliott, but it definitely became that as I went on. Which is fine with me. He's got such an iconic old cowboy look.

If you've never watched the movie Tombstone, you should do so. You'll be doing yourself a favor!