DOODLE: This Ain’t Your Mickey Mouse Mouse King

I was sitting in my car, waiting to pick up my daughter from rehearsal where her ballet company is preparing to present their annual performances of “The Nutcracker”. (They do an incredible, professional-level job of it- massive sets; beautiful, intricately-crafted costumes; and incredibly talented dancers.)

So, naturally, with some minutes to kill, I begin doodling. I doodled the Mouse King. A homicidal, rage-fueled maniac of a Mouse King.

I realize now why they’ve never asked me to design the costumes for their production.

 

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A Christmas GIF: Happy Huladays!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Feel free to download and use this GIF to wish all your friends and family a happy holiday!

NOT DOODLES: A Smorgasbord of Styles

One of the things I love most about being the senior staff illustrator for In Touch Ministries is the diversity of styles and techniques I get to use in my illustrations. As opposed to what many illustrators out there have to do as a necessity (it’s easier to market your skills if you have an identifiable style), I don’t feel the pressure to have a certain “look” to my work; I get to play around with different approaches, depending on what I feel a particular article calls for.

Cases in point being the two illustrations below. This first one is for a piece entitled “When a Gift Becomes a Given”. In the article, the author speaks of a certain modern art print, and how what had at first been a piece that made him stop and ponder every time he saw it eventually became something he didn’t even notice. I wanted to pull that modern art motif into the accompanying illustration (created using ArtRage):

This next one is for a piece entitled “Bringing Bethlehem Home”. A family starts a new Christmas tradition of trekking through the snow on Christmas night to visit a tiny manger scene set up in humble surroundings. I chose a crisp, clean approach to convey the cold night air, and a close-up of the Christ-child figurine in a small, mittened hand to capture the intimacy of the setting (done in Photoshop):

All art copyright ©In Touch Ministries. Used with permission.

NOT A DOODLE: Bouncy Santa!

This happy, bouncy guy (minus the watermark, of course) is available on apparel and stationery through my new Cafepress shop. Let the tacky Christmas shirt wearing commence!!!!

http://www.cafepress.com/bouncysanta