Have you any wool?

The wool theme was a hit, so why not go full sheep right?
I know, let's show a woman sitting on a sheep? No, doing Yoga on a sheep! That absolutely says Joint help, right?
(It is so fun being an illustrator!)

Just like the grapes, that increased with each review in the first illustration... this illustration I had to add more swirls on the joints. With each review I was asked to add more glow and highlights behind the swirls on the joints. You know, MORE!

I have to say, I love my corn. I love my sheep, too. The client soon requested "more corn" and a smile on the sheep, so there you go. MORE!

Also, the woman has changed. The client decided all the women in the product line should be based on the same woman, so we went with my original 'goddess' woman with flowing hair... only her hair could switch from left to right, and from auburn to brown and black. This is the final illustration.

Do your knees crack?

The second product line for the packaging illustration project was for Joint help... so I came up with a woman in a yoga pose, highlighting the major joints.

Here is the original concept sketch on a thumbnail of the packaging shape. One of the main ingredients in the product was derived from wool ;) so a later sketch showed a woman, in a yoga pose rising above a fluff of wool. Yeah, wool.

Neither of these sketches would make it to the final illustration.

Closer In

A closer peek at the illustration. You can see the texture I've layered over the vector art as well as some of the added details like apples on the trees, striations in the sky and, of course, more bountiful grapes!

It is always a balance between what the client wants in the illustration and staying true to your vision, your style, your experience with what makes a good art. I really struggled with the ongoing issue of grapes with this client. It was the only sticking point between us. My work is generally large shapes, "bad-tangents" and the play and movement between positive and negative space. I'm not an artist who fills an image with detail. As an illustrator I know, and enjoy, creating art for a purpose, for a client, for specific sizes... at what point do you let go? at what point do you fight for what you think looks good/better?

I decided in the end to add as many grapes as the client wanted, knowing I could remove them later for my portfolio. Still, I can't look at the final art without thinking the grapes seem too busy and out of balance with the rest of the illustration. Sigh.

Adventure Continues...

My "great opportunity" has proven to be a wild ride. Not that it isn't still a wonderful project but it has had so many twists that just like life, you think you know where you are headed and then you find yourself someplace else :D After concepts and sketches were approved and designs explored it was finally time to begin illustrating! The fun part!

I've been working digitally for years but rarely do I get the opportunity to create a real painting completely digitally. I was excited! (I create artwork in my day job digitally but they are either icons or vector spot illustrations, and not 'painterly' or as fully developed or high res as you would want for print.)

The job was for a series of products in the health and beauty industry. There would eventually be 5-7 product lines the client imagined. Yeah! I love working in series! We began with the first to debut, a product that contains Resveratrol... a powerful antioxidant from grapes. Each time I showed the client the illustration, she asked for more grapes. I'd add more, submit and hear "great, but can you add more grapes?" This was going to be a Gilligans Island vineyard! I created the artwork almost completely in Adobe Illustrator. I did add a layer in Photoshop of texture, a screen of a photo I took of a plaster wall. This added a softness and a 'toothy' feel like it was painted on a heavy rag paper. I liked the effect a lot.

Sketches for layouts

It's one thing to sketch out an idea for a painting and then if you are an illustrator you have the added confines of space, layout, overlays of text or graphics.

I always start with a very rough sketch of what I'm picturing in my head. This is simply a communication between my imagined painting and my hand. I only need to quickly let a rough image flow from my head to my hand and paper and then I can move on to a more refined sketch.

Left sketch is the initial pouring of my idea to paper and then on the right I've refined it more and placed it on a thumbnail template of the most limiting conditions of the layout... which for this project was the product pouch. Very tiny. Also the client wanted to see EVERYTHING on the pouch. (Personally, I would zoom into the character so the image was larger on the pouch... but it was the client's decision.)

Illustration Adventure

A great project came my way this summer and it has truly been an adventure. So many parts of it have been new... it's a totally digital illustration, it's for the food-beverage-vitamin industry and I got to design the packaging as well! Crazy cool, no?

The concept in the beginning (that's some of the adventure part, things kept-a-changing, but more on that later) was a strong, beautiful woman, a Goddess. She would be admiring a bounty of grapes on a rolling hill vineyard.

After a bit of loose sketching I did some funny photos, trying to capture how the Goddess might sit or kneel in a vineyard. I'd set the timer on the camera and then dash over to grab the grapes and pose. Many of the photos have my dog walking past me or sniffing the grapes! Let me just say how happy I am that we have digital photos and I did not have to send in film so some photo tech could look at all these ridiculous shots! To be cont'd....

Going Big

Breaking away from my original intention for this Blog, just for a bit. This Blog is for my personal art, my Three Moons Studio work...

But this project is just too cool and exciting not to share!

I've been creating icons and illustrations for Yahoo! for the past 10 years. Recently we wrapped a semi-truck with my front page iconography and it looks so fun! so cool and colorful! I love it!