Getting Kids to Read

This is an older piece that I had forgotten about, but recently found buried beneath stuff. It's based on an idea that I had back in college. I'm not sure why I never did it then, but it's probably for the best. I'm not sure it would have come out this good if a 21 year old me tried to do it. Anyway, I have some new Gorilla Detective sketches that I'm working on. I'll post those soon.

Gorilla Detective - Done!!

Ok, I think this is finally finished. For some reason, I encountered a ton of problems with this painting. It felt like every decision I made was the wrong one. Thanks to grad school applications, I got to step away from it for a while, and I think that really helped. Instead of making a lot of big changes while I was frustrated, I made a calm, rational one...I just lightened the sky. It might not seem like a big deal, or even show up in the photo, but this made everything better and now I can sleep at night. So yeah, here's Hank Gorilla: Gorilla Detective. Enjoy.

I'm Back

Sorry about the lack of posts. I just finished all my applications to Grad School. So, now I can get back to Illustrating. I'm going to finish the gorilla painting this weekend (I hope), and I'll put that up during the week. For now, here's a portrait of Orson Welles I did for someone awesome.
If anyone cares, there's a little inside joke in this painting. On the pipe are the letters TL - which stand for Turkey Leg. We (meaning me and the "client") used to joke about what happened to Orson Welles. He started out as a dashing young director who made the greatest movie ever, then somehow gained 100 pounds, grew an awful beard and was the voice of Unicron in the Transformers movie. What happened was all the turkey legs he ate. That's what did him in.

Is this done?!

I'm not sure if this painting is done. I want it to be done, but is it done. I'm still not happy with the orange text. But I've tried other colors and none seem right. Should I cut it out all together? Or would that then make the painting feel empty? Plus, if I do get rid of it, I feel like it'd be harder to know what exactly the painting is about. Any feedback would be great.

Gorilla Detective - The Painting Pt.1

Normally, I would break this up, or post it as I was going along, but the holidays and work have gotten in the way. So, unfortunately this is going to be one long post. We'll start with the outline. For whatever reason, I developed this way of working. I love line work, and this seemed like the best way to preserve the original energy of the sketch. I should also mention that I use a projector to blow up the sketch. Then I put Acrylic medium over the pencils. Then the black outline.

Then I do a quick burnt sienna under-painting, to help me figure out the tones, and what the brightest/darkest object is. When I was in school, for some crazy reason, I never did an under-painting. Then one of my teachers told me how dumb that was. Thanks Fred!

This is just the first couple coats of paint. I like to work dark to light, and really build up the colors. Does anybody work light to dark? Is that even possible?


This last one is where I'm currently at. I can't seem to get the tie right. I wanted it to be bright and tacky, but it really looks crazy. It's like something the Joker would wear. Anybody have any suggestions? Hopefully I'll have some more stuff soon.

Gorilla Detective - The Sketches

Months ago, I was deep into my nerdiness. I had received the entire run of Homicide: Life on the Streets. Not only did it have every episode, crossover episode, and movie, but it came packaged in a miniature file cabinet. I know...that's amazing. Well, after plowing through three and a half seasons, I decided that I wanted to make a character that really showed my love of Cop Dramas. I was flipping through some old sketch books and came across a small doodle of a gorilla with a tie, sporting a cop badge. Seems I already had this idea four years ago. So, after laughing at myself, I got to work on drawing my Gorilla Detective. I wanted it to be dead serious, and really thought about doing it as a comic. Here is my first "serious" drawing:
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that as much fun as a comic would be, it would make for a really great children's book. The first order of business was changing the look of the character. Bitter, middle-aged, gorilla probably wouldn't fly. So, I had to try and "simplify" him, or at least make it feel like my other children's book work.


No, a child did not draw that. It's pretty embarrassing, but I thought it should be included.


This is where I really started to get a feel for what he should look like. He still was bit too grumpy looking, but I felt good moving on. Around this time I thought that I should make a painting that could be used as a postcard. It was tough at first, because I really didn't have a story to fall back on, and had a hard time finding the right tone. While I always make work that makes me happy, I have to keep in mind the intended audience is children. So, anything too action-packed or slightly violent was tossed out. Eventually, I decided to do a little homage to my favorite superhero Spider-man.


I'm pretty pysched with the sketch, and can't wait to start painting. I'll post the beginnings of that soon.

First Post

I've never written a blog. I'm not really sure how it's done. What I do know is that I wanted to make a space where I could post some of my sketches, doodles, and finished paintings. I always love when illustrators and artists show sketches, and the step-by-step process they use to make work. This is what I want to do with this blog.

Sometimes, the struggles and mistakes are just as interesting as the finished product. Hopefully that will happen here. There should be some fun stuff up soon.