Illustration Friday - Spooky

Illustration Friday - Topic "Spooky"
Originally uploaded by jpillustration

This week's topic was "Spooky". October is already my favorite month (not just because it's my birthday month..), so drawing things having to do with the month of October is a no-brainer as far as fun goes.

My take on it is the campfire tale, told by Ol' Jack, about how it came to be that the deranged Mrs. Carver gave him a lobotomy. Those lil' pumpkins won't sleep for weeks.

I noticed that there's still a Friday left before Halloween is upon us, so here's hoping that the topic that comes out tomorrow is another Halloween-themed diddy!

And just in case you're wondering, I scrambled to get this entry to IF in on time, so it took me a lean 5 hours or so. I might revisit it for some touch-ups here and there, but it's not bad for a hurry-up.

In other news, I've been working with my brother-in-law for the University of Cincinatti, doing some stuff for their website. Random, but awesome.

Til next time, patrons. (Probably tomorrow - got some coasters droppin' on Etsy!)

UPDATE: The new topic is "Racing". Not exactly halloweenish, but that's what creativity is for.

Coasters Galore

Sea Garden
Originally uploaded by jpillustration

Not to put the word out there too soon, but it's not too far off, so I ain't skeered.

Meagan and I have been working on some coaster designs for our Etsy store, as well as getting some prints of other works of mine up there for sale (for your viewing-and-owning pleasure).

The first set of coasters are of the bird images that I've been working on - the bluebird and the cardinal that you can find on my website, as well as a couple of others that I haven't debuted yet. No word on whether we'll be making coasters not particularly geared towards your mother or grandmother (i.e. hummingbirds with gatling guns - see previous post). You should let me know in subtle hints if you're interested...

Which presents a nice segway for a followup of the last post. I entered said hummingbird design into a Sketchoholic t-shirt contest, and just got the results back. ...And I accept defeat. But only by 1 point! The winning design (which was well done) had 8 votes to my 7. And I can't hang my head about that. Instead, I'm thinking of hanging the hummingbird design up on redbubble.com for people to get their very own t-shirts! I'll let you know when that's up.

Now its off to finish packing for a quick weekend trip to Orlando to see my new nephew! Huzzah!

This was really just too cool NOT to draw

Birds, birds, birds. That's what I've been working on this past week. So in all this bird drawing (a couple of them you can already view on my website), my wife and I were heading out somewhere and we passed a sign for an apartment complex that had a hummingbird as the logo. And an image, as some images do, sprang into my mind. One of those that's really too much fun to just let die as just a thought and nothing more. Thus...

Then I turned it into a t-shirt design

for a contest over on Sketchoholic.

Wish me luck!

Quick note on the Brackish design

I figured that I should go ahead give the background on the Brackish design because it's just a cool concept that Teddy Hart and I worked on together. The idea came from James 3:11 where James asks the question "How can both salt water and fresh water flow from the same spring?" The truth that each one of us does both righteous and evil things, and that we are always working at something - whether to build up and nurture or break down and destroy. But it's impossible for both to happen together.

Same thing goes for speech and what we say. We can't be speaking insults while encouraging that same person.

Thus comes the tshirt, with an image of destruction and an image of nurture. The crown on the destruction image speaks to the mindset we have when we insult others, put others down and put ourselves before others - we crown ourselves king, and assert our dominion over them. The nurture image carries the halo, symbolizing sainthood and with that, servanthood and all that is under that umbrella.

Destruction image

Nurture image

Brackish revision - WIP

Brackish revision - WIP
Originally uploaded by jpillustration

For a short project, I decided to rework the color on the Brackish t-shirt design. It's such a cool character, how could I not?? The other guy in the background is thus far left out, but I'll probably add him back in later, and I don't know if I'll recolor the other half of this shirt design (with the tentacle guy in the background. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can view both images on my flickr account here.). Makes me kind of want to though, then maybe offer them as a diptych print? Yes? No?

Got some other things I'm working on - going to be starting up an ETSY page to sell some prints and things, so that's coming down the pipe, and I may preview a couple of illustrations that are being done specifically for that, too.

For now, it's back to the drawing board..

The Oz Zoo

The Oz Zoo
Originally uploaded by jpillustration

This was a fun little side project illustration. It started out as a random sketch and morphed into something a little more complete. I've gotta say, if there were an Oz Zoo, I'd be tempted to hitch a ride on the closest tornado I could find.

But as far as I can remember, the zoo would consist of only flying monkeys and lions that would hide in their caves, so it would be sort of a short field trip.

Needy Birds

Needy Birds
Originally uploaded by jpillustration

Another t-shirt design that went through a few revisions to hit the right notes. I was reading a book by Watchman Nee, where he was noting the disciples' response to Jesus, when Jesus asked the disciples to take the five loaves and the two fish and feed the congregation of five-thousand strong. Referring to the bread and fish, Jesus was asked "But what are these among so many?"

Far too much, we choose to focus on the few paltry loaves we have in our possession and forget the reality that God is working and moving in ways that go far beyond a $2 loaf of bread you can buy at the store. Focusing on what little we have distracts us from what is available.

Again, this t-shirt is available now if you're local (Charlotte), and will be up at ignisis.storenvy.com soon!