Feline Friday: A Family

Recently I posted a sketch of a family portrait I was asked to do.  Today, I would like to share the finished digital product.  I loved how deadpan the cat seemed in the reference photos I worked from.  He kind of reminded me of Mr. E in that way.  I tried to play up the lack of expression in the caricature.  I'm very proud of this piece and I hope the family is as pleased with it as I am.  This piece was so much fun to work on that it has inspired me to do something similar for my feline family.  Can't wait to get started!  Happy Friday!

The City Flea, July

I've been a bit absent from blogging due to preparations for The City Flea in Cincinnati.  This past Saturday was my first time having a booth at the event.  Sadly, it was the only weekend I had free to peddle my wares, but hopefully in the future I will have more time to devote to it.  I had a great time despite a little bit of rain and met some great people.  And to my delight, my little bat painting, Night, finally found a permanent home!  It makes me so happy when my paintings go to good people!

SOLD!  Congratulations to my little bat for finding a forever home!

In case you couldn't make it to The City Flea, here's some snapshots from the event.

My sweaty self after setting up the booth.

I had my trusty roadie with me in what I guess has become her art/craft show uniform.  Thanks for helping, Shannon!

A big thanks goes to Zach for helping with the booth set up and break down!

Way to pay attention, guys!

There are more pictures from the event over at Metromix Cincinnati.  Pay close attention to photo #18.

Thanks to everyone that came out.  I can't wait to do it again!

Feline Friday: A Portrait

I'm taking a break from the "experiment" image this week to work on a few other projects.  One of these projects is a family portrait of an adorable couple and their cat.  It's still in the sketch phase and needs some work, but I'm loving it so far and I thought I would share it. 

Happy Friday!

Feline Friday: Experiments: Round 3

This edition is another version of my standard digital style.  This one has no outlines.  It looks quite a bit different form the other 2 I've already completed.  Having no heavy black outlines is the main reason, but I also fiddled with the value of the colors.  Without the black lines separating the colors, the cat seemed to disappear into the rug, especially when checking out the values in gray scale.  I did try making the shadows black, but didn't like how that looked, so I ended up making the colors of the rug less bold.  I think that really helped the cat to stand out.  I was trying to stick with 2 values per color (main color and shadow color), but I am interested to see what it would look like if there was a 3 or even 4th value added.  Maybe I'll try expanding on that soon.

 




































It's been fun to see the evolution of this image over the past 3 weeks.

I still want to try some things that I don't normally work with like adding textures and, gasp, digital painting.  Stayed tuned to see what transpires!

Happy Friday!

Feline Friday: Experiments: Round 2

In retrospect, I think I should have started off this venture by completing the image how I normally do.  In order to play a little catch up, here's the piece using the more clean-lined approach I usually take when doing digital illustrations. 

Happy Friday!

Feline Friday: Experiments: Round 1

You may recognize the image below from the sketch I posted last week.  I'm trying out some different techniques for completing illustrations to see which ones I would like to incorporate into my current repertoire.  This is round 1.  Over the next few weeks you'll be seeing this image a lot, with slight variations.  I figured to get a good idea of what techniques work well for me and how each affects the finished product I should stay with a common image and color palate.  At the end of my exploration, I'll line them all up and compare the results.  Feel free to let me know what you think of each edition along the way. 

I do have to thank Mr. E for inspiring the main image.  This is his signature pose during the long, warm days of summer.  He positions himself directly under the ceiling fan in the living room and lets the soft white fur on his stomach sway in the breeze.  Since the temperature has been quite high the last few weeks, I've been seeing this display with increasing frequency.

Happy Friday!

Feline Friday

Happy Friday!