New Camera.

I'm turning 40 this week and as an early birthday present I got myself a new Nikon D90 DSLR. It has just been so much fun using this thing! These are just a couple of quick photos I've taken using it.
I've felt like I've always had a camera strapped to me in some way since high school, being a yearbook and school paper photographer. My first real camera was a Nikon N2000 that I bought at a local used camera shop on a lay away plan. That camera got me through high school, college and into my 30's before I was able to afford an upgrade. That was my F100. I loved that camera. It felt like an extension of my hand that was hard wired to my eyeballs. It made me look like a better photographer than I am. But as digital slowly took over the landscape I found myself wanting something smaller and easier to carry to take snaps of my kids so I've had a couple of small Canon digitals and the F100 soon sat lonely on my shelf making me feel guilty, like I've been cheating on it. I kept picking up the abandoned camera just to hold it and to remember what a real camera feels like. I would push the trigger just to hear the satisfying sound of the shutter release but I just had no real reason to shoot with it or spend the cash and time to get a roll of film developed. Now here is the D90 and I feel like I've rediscovered a great old friend.

Logos Conference 2009

Reverend Tom asked if I'd design a new image for our LOGOS 2009 East conference and I was only too happy to oblige. I tried to take some inspiration from 60's rock posters but still trying to keep it simple and legible. I think it came out pretty well.

Spencer Graduates.

Our friends Jay and Beth asked me a while back if I'd be interested in doing up a caricature of their son Spencer who is graduating high school this year. I told them that I'd be delighted and I think in the end I was able to get a really fun image together that captures all his interests and his personality. Spencer is a great kid and I have no doubt that he will go very far in life. Congratulations!!!

The Lowells

This is a little portrait I did of our friends the Lowells and their dogs. The pooches were a bit "poofier" in real life but I am pleased with the final result.

Merry Christmas and Happy Year!

From my family to yours; may you have a most wonderful holiday and the brightest of New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Wee Kirk

Our church has a children's ministry named "Wee Kirk". It's name means "Little Church" and, like so many things in our town, has a Scottish heritage to it. So I thought I would keep that in mind when I was asked to design a logo for the program.


Here is the pencil drawing that everyone liked. It has our little guy leaning on a sculpture of a tree stump with a scroll that is a featured monument on the lawn of our church.


The next step was creating an ink line drawing that could be used on stationary, black and white signage and such. The inking was done digitally in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool with the bezier curves. I could have inked this by hand with a sable brush and scanned it to the computer and then "tweeked" and "tweezed" it from there, but honestly there are days I just don't want to deal with all those steps and there is something to be said for doing it directly into the computer from the get go when that's where the piece is ultimatly heading. It's not necesarily easier or harder inking digitally. It involves a different mindset and it offers you a different set of options while demanding you adhere to the same artistic pricples that would apply to traditional inking.

And here we have the final color of our guy. I took the paths that were created from the digital inking and brought them into Photoshop to use as the basis for the illustration. I mostly used the airbrush tool and standard brushes to get the final look.
I think he came out alright.

Tarzan

I've been going through some old drawings and I came across these little thumbnail sketches I had done while I was working on the Tarzan style guide at DCP. The image of the professor and the apes was idea for merchandise art work that was never used. The other four were ideas for collectible prints for Disney Art Classics. I believe the one with Young Tarzan and Terk riding the bird was eventually picked and illustrated for the print.
I always liked these little idea drawings. They are fun and lively.

LOGOS

Sorry that it's been a while since I have posted anything. I've been busy with lots of work but its all stuff that I can't mention because of confidentiality.
But I can post this!
My wife and I are involved in a youth ministry at our church, It's called LOGOS. It's quite an amazing and rewarding program from my perspective both as a participant and as parent seeing my kids learn and grow with God. When I first volunteered with the ministry I thought it was just something small and exclusive to our church. But I recently found out just how big and widespread the program is when my wife and I attended a seminar in Chicago recently. Apparently the program has been in existence for about 45 years and around 3500 churches use it. Go figure! There were so many wonderful folks from different congregations from the south and mid-west and we were all there for a common purpose to help expand and nurture the faith in our children and families through LOGOS. Just before this event, one of my pastors asked me if I was interested in designing a crest for a LOGOS conference he was overseeing that was geared specifically for teens. It needed to be simple and to convey the theme of the conference which was "Dance before the Lord".
So here's the design.