Prehistoric Surprise

While prepping my Boy with Gator illustration series for publication in a book, I found a hidden layer with surprise dinos!

(Original version can be seen here.)

Summer Gator Postcard

New promo postcard design. Opinions? :)

Boy and His Gator 3 - Complete

It's done! Here is the final Boy And His Gator picture for my portfolio. It's a sad parting, but a bathtub (even a clawfoot bathtub) is just not a proper place for a growing alligator. However, as you may recall in the bonus image, the boy can still always visit his little friend. :)

This picture took me forever to do. Many, many little details in the trees and undergrowth. I've been working on the coloring portion of it since the 29th of June. (The drawing part of it was about a half day on top of that.)

Incidentally, I've been playing around with Livestream, and recorded some of the coloring process for this picture with it. You can check out those videos here. (click the on-demand tab to access them).

Nature Speed Paints + Boy and Gator 3 WIP

Here is where I currently am on the final Boy + Gator piece. I'm working my way down from top. The treetops and distant background details are done. Tomorrow, I plan on tackling the tree trunks and ground areas.


To brush up on my foliage painting abilities for the illustration, I did a couple of speed paintings, referenced from photos in my personal archive.



This was the view from my window at the last apartment I lived in. Photoshop CS3, 30 minutes.



Photoshop CS3, 50 minutes.

Watch me create the piece on livestream:

Boy and His Gator - Bonus

This image is *not* final part of the three-part series "Boy and His Gator". I'm still working on that image (stay tuned!). :)

Rather, I created this one for use on the back side of a new promotional postcard I'll be putting together soon.

Boy and His Gator 2 - Complete

Whoops! Mom found out about boy's secret alligator friend.


This is the second illustration in the three-part series, "Boy and His Gator". The first piece can be viewed here: [link]

Pencil lines + coloring in Photoshop CS3.

In contrast to the first image, where I used cool shadows to give the scene an ambient, calm feeling of two friends sharing a private moment, for this second piece, I used warmer shadow tones. I felt that the red tones helped heighten the intensity and harshness of the scene. I imagine mom storming into the room and turning on the light.

Quick tutorial regarding the denim texture:
The denim texture comes from [link] (Thanks Messa for posting such a useful pack of textures!) After I finished painting the shadows and highlights on the jeans, I made a new layer, shrunk down one of the textures and stitched it together over the length of the jeans. Then I set the layer to soft light and 50% opacity. Finally, I used the dodge tool over the highlighted areas of the jeans to soften the intensity of the texture.

Boy and His Gator 1 - Complete

Boy and His Gator WIP 3

Final picture in the series!


Tearfully, the boy returns the baby gator where he found it. Wild things belong in the wild. Aww.

The background lineart is rough because I intend to express the background details during the coloring phase. It's been my experience that lines tend to get in the way when it comes to organic scenery.

The Florida Everglades will be my point of reference for this background. As unlikable as this place can be in the summer (soooo hot outside right now), I'm excited for an opportunity to feature my home state in an illustration. :)

Boy and His Gator WIP 2

"Not in MY house, young man!"


Picture #2 for Boy and His Gator. Out of necessity to get Mom properly placed in the picture, and still show her displeased hand-on-hip body language, I changed the orientation. I had originally planned to make all the pictures in the series the same size, but a taller format just works better in this case.

Just one more to go and then I move on to coloring.

Boy and His Gator WIP 1

Here's the first drawing in a series of three about a boy and his pet gator. Who hasn't wished they could have an alligator for a pet? :)

Incidentally, I was at a park the other day, and had set down my purse for a moment to feed some seeds to a squirrel. When I picked up my purse, I discovered a small stowaway--no, not an alligator, haha--a baby lizard. When I tried to remove him, he scurried onto my hand and up to my shoulder and tilted his head to give me a seemingly quizzical look. I instantly fell in love with the little guy. Of course, I couldn't keep him, but I walked around with him for a bit before depositing him on a bush. He didn't want to leave. Friendliest baby lizard I've ever met. Good luck in your adventures, little lizard! *sniff*

Anyways, back to the drawing, I'm planning on drawing all three one after the other, and then doing the same with the coloring process. If I'm satisfied with the finished picture, the first one might just become the new picture for my next promotional postcard.


Here's a sneak peek at the roughs for the other two:

Gator Studies

When planning out a new illustration, I find that the best place to start is to do some studies of the subjects in your picture. My next picture, actually a series of pictures, is about a boy and his pet gator. So I dug through my photo archive and pulled up a bunch of photos I've taken over the years of full size and baby alligators and did some sketching.

Here's the result:
It occurred to me as I was sketching that I'm no stranger to drawing alligators. The design of the Handra character in my Peach Fuzz books is partially inspired by the shape of an alligator's face. Here's what the Handra look like (sorry, this is the only picture of the Handra I have that's easy to access): You see? Little gator snouts!


I also did some general figure sketches just to keep my people drawing skills up. (Hopefully no one's bothered by some mild nudity here). Here's an excerpt from the exercise: