Greeting Card Designs

since i think i'd like to make it into the greeting card business, i think i'll start making a few simple designs that could be used for greeting, get well, birthday, (etc) cards! ooooh, happy days!

Yeee!!!

"Yeee!" is what i'm calling this one. it's the second piece in my Radicchio Series. i'm pretty damed happy with how this one came out. i tried my best to adjust the image in photoshop but i may have to get up on the good ol' fashioned scanner action later and repost the final image.


in any case, i think i'll be submitting this bad boy to the 2012 AAU Spring Show next year! i'm sure it's got a shot!



with some more color.



here's where i started to feel that i might have fucked this up!

but in the end....




BAM!

Radicchio

here's the newest piece i'm working on. i don't really have a title for it yet, but it's the second piece in my "Cherry Picker" series. here, Radicchio (top), Lamond (right), and Baddicus (bottom) are in a bit of a jam trying to get ahold of those delicious Jazzberries!


i hope to have this bad boy finished this week. if it turns out well i'll enter this in the 2012 AAU Spring Show!



yeee!

BUnny Time

started out with this random sketch in class the other week and i decided that i wanted to make a logo for myself to stamp on my illustrations. ya know, cuz' it's the thing to do nowadays.



for some reason i'd been on this weird bunny kick in my classes so i figured might as well go with it.

i took that image into ILLUSTRATOR and gave it a nice little vector facelift. i've got 3 versions of the sketch, each with slight color variations. i just wanted to test the waters out and keep my hands on my tablet :)

VERSION.1


i decided to go with a black silhouette of the skull and just mess around with the flames and such. added some orange and darker red to it.

VERSION.2


the second one just has a small gradient in the flame. i kinda like this one the most so far.

VERSION.3


this one uses a gradient too but i'm not really feeling the dark red that i used in it. so, MEH!


aiiight, that's about it for now. gotta keep working on that portfolio.

Watercolor

i need to step it up and watercolor more ;)

Messing Around With Adobe Illustrator

so, i took SCI-FI/FANTASY ILLUSTRATION this semester and i decided to stick with the fantasy side of the course and go with a few children's book stories. i wanted to challenge myself and do most of these with Abode Illustrator. i think it was a pretty successful attempt and doing so i've gotten a bit more comfortable with the program. i've been thinking a lot recently about getting into the greeting card business. i think i could hone my style to fit one of the many companies out there. here's hoping, eh?


anyways, on to the designs!




here's my first piece, "Hansel & Gretel". i wanted to use the witch's robe as part of the background design.

NEXT,


this here be my design for "The Little Mermaid". this one is prolly my favorite design from the class. my prof thought this would make a nice stationery design.

FINALLY,


my piece for "The Ugly Duckling". this one didn't come out too shabby either. just gotta keep at it.




this class was pretty tight. it also made me realize that i need to learn how to paint with PHOTOSHOP. that's gonna be my next venture.

I'm Still Around!!

haha, it's been a pretty busy semester for me. it's actually my FINAL semester here at school so i've been dedicating a lot of time finishing up projects and such. now, with this being the last week i can finally get back to blogging it up again!!!! aren't you happy????


kinda???


....yea


anywayz, i'll currently designing my website. i figured it was about time i got up on that! not too bad (price-wise) and it's really easy to manage once i get the hang of it. i'll keep you posted on this once it develops. well i think it's time i posted a couple of things that i've been working on in the next post!


YEEE!

Self Portrait

so i recently deleted my old Facebook account. i'd had it for about 7 years now and that's a long time to gather a ton of unwanted apps, spam, and all that jazz. with a new account i only found it fitting that i needed a new profile pic, and what better profile pic to have than one i created myself.


behold, my self portrait. actually didn't take me as long as i thought it would, heh heh heh.



it's inspired by another fellow illustrator friend of mine, Cap'n Chants.


good stuff.

Ba-Doop!

another character illustration :)

Simple Simian

here's a little something i did a couple of days ago. i'd sketched this ape character a few months back and found it the other day and decided to give it a little bit of life (aren't second chances nice?)


the original sketch



color'd up




with a simple background shape finish

i wanted to try something different and decided to avoid line work as much as possible and tried to use shape and color to show form and change in planes. i'm happy with how it came out.

special shout out to my dear maddie for being my belly button ring model :p

here's a few more steps in my process towards the finished piece. so far to get from this outline to the (nearly) completed character design took about 2-3 hrs. i think i'm getting a little bit quicker, but i'm not there yet. gotta keep practicing EVERYDAY. but so far, i'm happy with how she's coming along.






gettin' there.




here she is, almost done! :)

so for my sci-fi/fantasy illustration class we were given a short description of a scene from a story and it's up to all of us to depict that scene in our own way/style: characters, set-up, perspective, etc. so here's my version of one of the characters, the Night Priestess Charnel. i'm still all about the angular and elongated style that i've been getting into so i thought i'd keep it going with the character design. i'm gonna try to get this as close to completion as possible tonite. here's hoping.

Creatures

here's a little guy that i'd sketched up and gave a vector face lift, Blobby (seriously, that was the first name that came to mind).



and here's the lil' fella with some friends.



swim on, Blobby. swim on.

Sketchbookin'

here's a random page outta my sketchbook. playing around with shapes and turning them into little creatures FUN, FUN, FUN! :D!!!!

A Litt'l B'it Mo' Pra'ctice

aiiight, he's another practice piece i worked on over the summer break! this one was my first attempt at using ILLUSTRATOR since class had ended in may. i've been toying around designing characters with very sharp and angular faces and features. i think i've found a new style to play around with and hopefully i'll be able to push this style further :)

the sketch



i actually think i prefer the head as a standalone piece :p



and here's the third version. just playing around with the design.

Skull Girl

here's another piece i worked on over this summer. at this point, i'm just getting more familiar with the in's and out's of the program and tools. like i said, vector art is my new thing now. i do still love watercolor and pen & ink but i think it's that time i set those bad boys down for a little bit and try to expand my skill set.

so here's the initial rough sketch of Skull Girl,



and here's the final piece,



i'm trying to be a little bit more design-oriented as opposed to trying to get perspective and stuff down. i've always been a fan of character-driven illustrations, here's to doing more of those soon!

Back From Limbo

well, it's been quite some time since i've posted here on my blogger but i'm back in FULL FORCE! i'll be updating my blog 3x weekly from now own with a multitude of new sketches, concepts, and a few works in progress, and finishes added in, too! haha. so, let's do this!!!

So here's a sketch of mine that i did this summer. i think i've been put into my panda kick again especially after meeting this great gal, Maddie. she's been an interesting source of inspiration, both visually and story-wise!



And, here is the final product all done in VECTOR. i've really found a knack and great respect for vector illustration. it's just that much more rewarding to me :)



gotta love them pandas ;)

New Sketches

Coming Soon ;)

Collabin' and other projects

seems like this semester just keeps on throwing more and more at me, but i can handle it (just wish i had more time to play my PS3).

the next project that i have to work on is a collaboration for my SENIOR PORTFOLIO class. seems pretty simple enuff since i do have a bunch of illustrator and art friends. i might hook up with my boy Matt Gee (pretty cool graffiti art style) and try to bust something out with that and my pen and ink skillz. we'll see how this turns out in the end....tho, i miiiight actually try to go digital with this bad boy.

i still want/NEED to work on some personal pieces. my little squirrel guy, Radicchio, needs more time in the spotlight. i think i'm gonna get down with that after the semester's done and over. i'm ready for a damn break before my last semester hits this FALL.

aiiiight, back to more sketching and planning before i head off to work.


PEACE.

Dia De Los DONE.

well, it took a helluva while (sweat, tears, near starvation) but i finally finished my poster piece for class. i'm pleased with how it came out.

i think i'm really starting to pick up on this DIGITAL action. more to come.




BOOM!

Just A Bit More.

so, here's a bit more progress in my poster design, i've gotten more used to the program (layers and how they work). this is turning out pretty nice. once i get the basic shapes laid out i can focus on effects and all that jazz...


GRADIENTS~~~

aiight, back to work.

Dia De Los Muertos Poster Assignment

so i'm currently working on my newest assignment for class, a poster design. i decided on the holiday DIA DE LOS MUERTOS because there's just something about it that draws me to it.


in any case, i think i'm off to a good start, but i'm gonna leave it here for now (work soon). build up the shapes then work on the effects and all that afterwards.

New Post. YEP.

here's another image of mine that the posting first time around didn't do it justice. i just need to invest in a nice scanner, but until then my school's facilities will have to do ;)



the original was a charcoal sketch of one of the models in my clothed figure drawing class a couple of semesters back. i decided to go back and spice him up with a lil pen and ink with a watercolor finish.



ALSO....

this beauty is a fave of mine. i went and experimented with coffee along with the watercolor and pen. i like the result and i'm currently planning another in the series.


Untitled

Watercolors & Inks

here's another piece featuring my little squirrel character whose name i have YET to decide on. i like how this one came out, it's simple and that what i dig about it. had to get a better scan 'cuz the first time around it was pretty dark.



Shazzam!!!


AND ON ANOTHER NOTE:

here's the first in a series that shall remain nameless for now (i love surprises). just a little collage of character action here.



^ what my mind is full of.


-J.E.

Pen Practice

here's a lil' something from a few weeks ago. i basically took an original graphite sketch by George Coghill and brought it into ILLUSTRATOR and messed around with layers, the pen tool, and other various functions. fun stuff!

Updating :)

it's been a while since i've last updated but let's just say it's been a helluva spring break. here's a little something i did recently for class:

behold, my Marvel Bears. it was for a symbol assignment for my vector art class. i decided that i wanted to use bears for the subject matter and unify them all by turning them into various Marvel Comics heroes and villains. i like how they came out. big fan of the Venom bear.

i'm feeling a bit more confident with my CS5 skills.

Jackson Black.

a stencil idea....or maybe a wheat pasting project? hmm...

Lady Brown

the "Lady Brown". i think i'd like to bring this into the world of vector art once i get those skillz up.

The Final Panda Piece...(for now?)

i've been pegged as the "panda boy" by some due to the fact that i draw pandas a lot....i dun want that to be the case so i decided that this would be the last panda piece i'd do...

so far, it's been working out :)

here we go. starting off with the pencils.

throw on a lil bit o' color.

grasssss....

THERE's the panda!

FINISH.

Special Project.

a little bit of pen & ink action to combat the colors on the blog. this was something i did for extra credit in a comics course in school.

the line work.
the finish.

The Cherry Picker

one of my all-time favorite pieces. check it out, step by step