Matthew2

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 3

2012-02-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

Challenge 3: Leave the story behind.

We in the film industry can find ourselves increasingly drawn into the world of the imagination. As exciting as creating imaginary world's can seem, it's best to regularly leave the excitement behind in favor for the real world.

We strengthen our stories by living in the real world. Have you ever watched a movie or read a book only to encounter plot points which seemed unauthentic? We all do it. We get blinded by the story we are making and tell handicapped stories. However, some people keep a good grasp on reality, and their stories carry the added weight of experience.

We strengthen our families by living in the real world. The elements of strong families have not changed with this influx of media. Wise Christian families only consume a little media, opting to spend their family bonding time in work, service, worship, reading aloud, or pleasant conversation. To consume media, even Christian media, may be a shared experience, but it does not naturally lead to a healthy family culture. Someday we may find our children leaving us for a modern pied piper, having grown up listening to his song during our watch. Our families are healthiest when we leave the contrived world behind and embrace the real world.

We understand God better through His real creation than through our own. The mad man does not have a problem with his imagination; he has a problem with his perception of reality. In similar ways, we can believe lies about God, lies backed by some powerful mental imagery. However, the created world offers a check on those ideas, and in that check we can recognize the evidence of a God of order, meaning, and power. The wise will also delve into the truth contained in His scripture to understand God more specifically.

Sometimes inventing worlds in our heads allows us a limited amount of insight into this real world. G. K. Chesterton once wrote, "All my mental doors open outwards into a world that I have not made." While we live in a made world, every time that we imagine something we testify that we could not make a world this complex, both stable and surprising. Thankfully, as interesting as our shallow imaginations are, we cannot stay there. Such a life is unsustainable. The real world will eventually break in, rudely awakening us from our dreams.

And when it does, may we recognize the glory around us and leave our imaginations for the greater role we play in the real story of life.

Digging deeper: Colossians 2:8, II Corinthians 10:5, I Thessalonians 4:11

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 2

2012-02-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

Challenge 2: Tell a good story.

What story are we serving? Is the story worth our service?

It's easy when the adrenaline courses through our veins to pursue whatever story comes into our lives. However, these stories take a while to tell, and involve a lot of energy. It's not a bad idea to ask whether or not this story is worth all that effort.

Telling a good story means that it is well told. Does it open in an engaging way? Does the story lead us into a believable world with meaningful characters? Does it follow correct plot structure for movies? Does it move us by the emotion bottled up inside? If it does, it's probably well told. I had the wonderful privilege of working with John Moore on a remake of an earlier film. He created Heartstrings, which was fairly popular, but he knew that he could tell it better. And so he's created Ace Wonder: Message from a Dead Man as a total retake on the concept. It carries its message with power and eloquence.

Telling a good story also means that we remember where reality is. Stories aren't real, but they remind us of what is real. Even the most bizarre story, if it is a good one, it reminds us of something that is not bizarre. Men from mars are still men, deep down inside. They are generally intelligent beings who live by some universal moral code. The stories we tell are not reality, but deep down inside, do they reflect reality?

Telling a good story lastly means that we tell God's story. We humans often act completely oblivious to the good work that God is doing in this world. Do the stories we tell reflect God's work, or are they, too, oblivious? The fool says in his heart there is no God. A foolish Christian lives like it. And foolish Christian filmmakers do not acknowledge God or His work in their stories. As Michael Dornbirer once encouraged me, "Write something that'll turn your audiences' eyes heavenward!!" The market is already filled with films which do not acknowledge God. By discussing the ignored spiritual reality, we tell a worthwhile story.

And if we tell our stories well, our audience may be the better for the listening.

Digging deeper: James 3:2, Romans 14:19, I Corinthians 10:31

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 1

2012-02-16T18:16:00.001-06:00

I am somehow involved in the Christian film industry, though not a filmmaker. I'm excited about this industry, have been blessed to work on some great films, but I'm learning some in the process. I hope that you will find them as helpful as I have found them in my own life.

Challenge 1: Serve the story.

The burgeoning Christian film industry is very exciting. So exciting that we can forget about the most important aspect of the industry: telling stories.

I've felt the rush. I've seen it in other's eyes. The lust for something that movies give us. It's just really exciting to be a part of that. In the excitement we must remember that we are merely there to serve the story.

Serving the story means that we do not seek personal fame and fortune. The industry revolves around the fulfillment of desire and selfish ambition, but God calls those "earthly, natural, demonic." Instead God calls us to the gentleness of wisdom. What is appropriate for this situation? Do I need to take center stage, or does the story require me to recede into the background? Others will seek the spotlight to their detriment and to the detriment of the story. We must, in contrast, seek what's best for the story that we are telling.

Serving the story also means that we work hard to support the story. In the excitement we can get a little tipsy with the thrill, but the story is not served when we skip over basic tasks like script-writing, storyboarding, and other menial disciplines. These quieter, less glorious tasks make or break the story. I've seen many filmmakers dabble at the craft without any real progress. On the other hand, one of the most principled filmmaking families is working on their first full length feature, Remember. It promises to deliver the limited budget and major elbow grease that they've poured into it. Sometimes serving the story requires discipline.

Serving the story also means that we don't rush through the process. Time is money and money is time, so therefore we need to take the time to get it right the first time. Because it takes even longer to go back to try it again. It's been great to work on some films where they did great planning, humbly working hard at the filmmaking job, but I've seen other filmmakers out there flounder. One filmmaker learned his lesson the hard way and spent 4 years filming a movie that could have been filmed in less than a month. (His next film will be awesome, though—much more planned out.) Measure twice, cut once.

So instead of spending our time and money serving our own desires, let's find good stories to tell and serve those stories well.

Digging deeper: Romans 15:1-3, James 3:13-18

Modeling

2011-11-11T17:44:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I enjoyed the chance to model for John Ball's painting night. John Ball has opened his home for a life painting group, and it's always a pleasure to gather together and try to capture the model's likeness.

Painting from life is very important for an artist. Not only does the artist get practice, but he also gets a challenge, and a learning opportunity. Whenever someone works from their memory or from photographs, they lose some information. When an artist sits down to paint a model, he sees more information than he can record. He is always learning something.

That's why it's very important to have good models. And when we can't get one, we paint ourselves. I had the extreme privilege to sit for my fellow artists and took the chance to capture some of the experience.

First of all, from the model's perspective, the night looks like this:

Usually we set up the model, try a couple poses and then dive in. We work in 20 minute painting sessions with 5-10 minute breaks for the model. It's great time to think and dream.

And you get to see amazing artwork created before your very eyes. John Ball has graciously allowed me to post his small demonstration sketch for your amusement. I took a photograph every break, so here is an evening's painting condensed into a matter of 10 seconds.

To see more of John Ball's beautiful paintings, check out his website. (His blog is amazing too!)

Grandma Harriet

2011-10-14T10:02:00.001-05:00

I took a break last night and sketched my great grandma who recently passed away. My sketch does not do justice to her spunky, sweet, practical personality. Her memory is a treasure.

After finishing I remembered how she looked in the casket, and missed her... But while I was painting, I saw her smile, heard her laugh, and remembered many happy memories. She was a great grandma in many ways.

Hobbit Proportions

2011-09-30T13:04:00.000-05:00

Hello again! This is what my dad might look like as a hobbit. Therefore, I'm going to call him Papa-o. And just for today, he's got three brothers who look awfully like him, but yet not so much.

Meet Rotundo:

He received the bulk of the family genes.

And Sticko:

He's the middle child and he got squished.

And Doc:

Who inexplicably was born with the eleventh Doctor Who's legs.

You can see the family resemblance can't you. They all look very much the same... and yet they look slightly different.... Maybe it would help if we stuck them all in a row:

An artist will often use the same colors to make objects that are very different. So, how did I make these three characters look different?

Well, it's not in the face, even though each face has a different expression.

I made them look different through the body proportions. Papa-o has the most normal proportions. I made Rotundo wider, even making his legs and arms wider. Sticko is thinner, and if you look real closely, you'll notice that his legs are even thinner. The Doc is much taller with legs of normal proportions under a hobbit body.

Notice further... where did I put the stomach of each character in his body? And how big is that stomach? Where did I put his knees? How much space did I put between each characters legs? How wide did I make each leg, and does it stay that wide?

God made each of us with the same basic body shape. He put two eyes, a nose, and a mouth on our faces, and they appear in about the same places. But you look like you and I look like me. Why is that? Well, God made my nose slightly larger than your nose and he put it in a slightly different spot between the eyebrows and the mouth. And he tweaked your face too. That's proportions.

So, what should an artist do with all these people running around who are all just slightly different? First, he should know the pattern—the basic human proportions. Second, he should practice drawing specific people, noticing how they are different than the general pattern. Third, he should talk with other artists about what he's seeing and share his work with other artists, just so that he can remain objective. Otherwise, he could be making hobbits when he thinks he's making humans....

Lighting and Hobbit Faces

2011-09-16T22:58:00.000-05:00

Often photographers will complain about point and shoot cameras, and if you let them go on long enough they'll talk about camera flashes. What would a photographer have against camera flashes? Camera flashes have a tendency to flatten a picture, removing the illusion of form.

Artists, too, do not generally use lighting from straight on. The lighting has its place in folk art and was used in some illustrations to create a simple quaint look, but whenever artists are trying to create any type of drama, they choose another way to light the scene.

Let me show you what I'm talking about.

This is a ball shown with straight on lighting. It's sufficient to show that this sphere has form, but just barely. As a sphere, it's not much too look at.

If we move the light all the way to the other side of the ball, it creates an effect like this. This is called backlighting. Original, isn't it? This is the king of dramatic lighting—not much for form, so what is shown had better be significant.

To move the light to the side of the ball, creates an effect like this. This light source is slightly behind the ball.

This lighting will be most used. The light sits in front and to the side of your subject. This accents the form, shows the colors, and makes the detail visible.

To further examine these lightings, I made a little experiment. Using my own face as a source, I made a hobbit face and then "lit" it in different ways. I don't really know why I chose a hobbit, but if I had to do it over again, I'd choose a different source. It just feels strange and narcissistic to paint my own face as a hobbit face in different lightings. My only consolation is that someone might learn something from the following middle earth sillyness.

This lighting is from straight on. The lighting has its place, but generally is not as effective as other ways to light a subject.

Here is backlighting. Notice how much of the details disappear and the mystery and drama is majorly heightened.

This is side lighting. This shows the form fairly well, but something bugs me about this type of lighting. Sometimes that kind of uneasy emotion is great for drama, but more often than not three-quarter lighting will be better.

Last, but certainly not least, this is three-quarter lighting. This is the work horse of most works of art through the ages. As I said before, three-quarter lighting shows off the form, the colors, and the detail very well. As an artist you will probably light your subjects like this often, but from personal experience I sincerely hope that you will not be repeatedly drawing your face as a hobbit in this lighting....

The Basics of Composition

2011-08-19T18:41:00.003-05:00

Well, I’ve been creating a “Friday Art” post on both Facebook and Google+. It’s been a lot of fun, but last week I didn’t post one, partly because I just had gotten back from a trip to Texas. Also partly because I had told a friend that I’d post this and it was getting too big and uncontrollable.

So, I think I’ve got it under control now. Hope you enjoy it.

Topic: How does informal composition work?

A formal composition balances all of its elements symmetrically—often with a center of interest in the center of the composition, but not always. If an object sits on the right side an object of equal weight sits on the left side.

Chancellor Séguier by Charles Le Brun

Informal composition radically moves the elements to balance without symmetry.

The Grey Cardinal by Jean-Léon Géróme

Some do not understand how this works. How can an informal composition look good if its not organized? The secret is... it is organized, but not in a 1+1=2 sort of way. Let me explain it to you. It’s for your own good. Really. Some may dislike asymmetrical compositions merely because they don’t understand them. This explanation should give you some visual “higher math” to feel better about most paintings, illustrations, and movies. (Did you know that movies use a lot of informal shots? It’s going to bother you now, isn’t it? Well, I’d better get on with the explanation then....)

This is a formal composition:

The center of interest (the boy) is in the center of the picture. The house and the trees on the right balance the tree on the left. The path and the bridge and the trees behind the boy are all in the center of the picture.

Yes, all you math-heads, though the tree doesn’t exactly mirror the house, though the path leans one way and middle trees behind lean another way, and though the bridge is at an angle, this is most definitely a formal composition. Because of the variation some may think of it as informal; however, this formal composition merely uses informal elements for variety. They still are arranged into a formal composition.

What if we took the center of interest and moved him off to one side? (Yes, it’s just called the “center” of interest. It doesn’t have to be in the center. You just have to make people look at it like it is.)

He looks awfully lonely and the other side look really empty. How could we make it look better? I’m glad you asked. Let’s get a little abstract.

First you need to know that everything in a picture does something for the composition. I’ve color-coordinated some of these abstract elements and we are going to step through them quickly to tell you how they work.

The red object is our center of interest. I like to call elements like these target objects, because they attract attention. The blue object is what I call an arrow object. The green object is a frame object. And the yellow object is a halo object. (Appropriate, eh?)

Since those colors and names do not tell you much, here’s more information on each:

Arrow objects point to stuff. Ideally, they point to your target object. They can point like arrows, or if they have a front they can face in a direction. Arrow objects do the bulk of the work making our eyes move around in a painting.

Halo objects form a little halo around the target object to attract attention subtly. They can be light, golden, dark, feathery, solid, or just about anything. They circle around the target object, essentially saying, “Inside here is something special!”

Frame objects stop movement from leaving the composition. This framing object is like a large halo, but instead of indicating something special, it says, “Stop! Look back toward the target object....” Sometimes frame objects act like halos, and other times they act like arrows, but they do a unique job in the picture.

So getting back to my picture with the little boy, what could I do to spice it up a bit?

First, I’m going to put in a large heavy arrow object on the opposite side from the boy in the picture. Notice that as a whole—the bridge, the trees, the house, and the grass by the river—they form an arrow pointing to the boy. Also, notice that both the house and the bridge seem to be facing in the boy’s direction. These are both examples of how arrow object’s work, both as a mass and as individual elements.

Notice how this effectively shifts our attention from the big empty side to the boy. In fact, it’s so strong, we tend to look off the left of the picture. The target object, strong as it is, cannot effectively counteract the strong leftward momentum in the picture.

Second, I’m going to add in the halo object behind the boy. This halo object isn’t the strongest use. Many times artists use halos that compliment or contrast the target object.

Notice that while the halo object helps, it doesn’t solve the entire problem. The left side of the picture still needs help.

Third, I use a frame object! This effectively stops our eye from wandering off the page.

Oh, and last but not least... here’s the path. Just so he’s not floating on air. We wouldn’t want that, now would we? And believe it or not.... the path actually compliments the composition further, but that’s a more advanced lesson.

In fact, this art moment just scratches the surface of how informal composition works. Fine art, comic books, and movies subtly use value, color, space, and action in many ways to balance informal compositions. The next time you see an informal composition, try to figure out how it works. You might surprise yourself! Email me about your findings. Then I can enjoy reading your thoughts!

Step-by-Step Imaginair

2011-03-16T14:22:00.000-05:00

I see many views that I want to paint, but don't have the time to paint. Some sights are too glorious to forget and those I try to memorize and paint at the earliest possible opportunity! These I call my imaginairs. They are plein airs that I paint from memory.

Early monday morning my dad had car trouble, and on my way out to save the day, the sun rose over the bay. I saw it from the top of a bridge. I normally don't have time to capture something like this so fast, but yesterday I had some time so I painted away. Hope you enjoy!

Step 0: Remember everything that I saw. (This image is really I cheat, but there's no other way to visualize this step. This is the final image faded and blurred to approximate how memory looks.)

Step 1: Outline the large shapes. Every art piece needs a plan. We put the idea of the finished piece to paper as soon as possible. This gives us something to evaluate. (Instead of evaluating a blank sheet of paper.)

Step 2: Blocking in major shapes.

Step 3: I realized that I made my trees too large for the composition that I wanted. So I squished the composition to give more sky for the cloud effects that I was going to put there.

Step 4: I should be just blocking in still, but I got carried away with the tree tops. I will regret that later.

Step 5: All blocked in!

Step 6: Stretching the composition to bring the trees closer to us and still have a large sky.

Step 7: Detail in the sky and tree tops.

Step 8: Making the colors darker and more vibrant.

Step 9: Finished detail.

I hope you enjoyed this as much I enjoyed the original sunrise! There is something about the real thing that I cannot replicate. But that's part of the thrill. God created a magnificent creation full of complication and detail. In observing and replicating it, we do not attempt something that we can easily do, but rather we attempt something that is so beyond our ability as to be unthinkable. May we rejoice with God over His wisdom and creative power.

New Sea Sketch

2011-02-21T19:27:00.000-06:00

A Wide Gulf

February 21, 2011

plein air sketch

Some people have asked me if I've updated my blog. I tell them that it's more like a pseudo-portfolio. But just for them, here's a sketch that I just made at my grandpa's condo. The gulf is so large and magnificent that I had to paint it in a way that engulfs the figure in the foreground. The colors glowed beautifully in late afternoon, so I took fifteen minutes and sketched out what I saw. Hope you enjoy.

Young Artists

2010-12-29T13:45:00.002-06:00

Often young artists will ask me to critique their work. I enjoy doing so and try to use the critique to teach them some things about art that they might not know. Every once in a while an artist comes by with an outstanding work of art.

Such an amazing painting landed in my inbox last week by a fellow collaborator. He asked me to critique it, but I could find little wrong with it. So I critiqued the little there to fuss about, and asked if I could post both his artwork and my critique. It's a great example of where I hope all my artistic friends will be in the future!

For finished piece click here!

First of all, let me commend you on your draftsmanship. Beautiful work.

Ok, I have three levels of art criticism: metaphor, representation, and aesthetics. Because you aren't really saying anything with this particular piece, we can throw out the first level. However, I will note that the greatest works of in the history of mankind all had a message or purpose outside of themselves. So while we do create artwork to better ourselves, we ultimately want to make something meaningful outside of practice or personal achievement.

On the representational level, I have little to criticize. You have captured the light in space in a believable way. I love the light falloff of the large earth-like planet. The detail, color, and value of the land, water, and atmosphere masses are very believably painted. Also, the larger moon's light falloff, combined with the shadow of the planet is beautiful.

I would have two criticisms. The first deals with the falloff of the little moon. Though a little moon would naturally have a smaller falloff, that falloff would be proportionately the same. Thus the little moon looks more like a round hole in the picture. If you give it just a little more falloff and a whiter highlight, it should be perfect.

The second issue has to do with gravity and the large moon. Perhaps it's the placement of the moon, but it can look like the moon is sitting on the surface of the planet. In fact, with the small moon in the light side, we might wonder if the these orbiters really have that much of an orbit. Perhaps it's the value and color: the planet being very bright and thus seemingly close to us, and the moon looking darker and more neutral and thus looking farther from us. Perhaps the large moon just rolls around on the surface. (Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little now......) If you created some space atmosphere in between the planet and the moon, pushing the planet back in space and pulling the moon out toward us, that would solve the problem. Or you could brighten the moon and darken the planet. Or you could make another orbiter, which is obviously out in space, maybe on the other side of the composition. Or you could introduce rings to the planet in such a way as to show that they have distance from the planet. Or you can try to do all of the above. Just be sure that you save a layered version of this picture, and be subtle with your spatial enhancing techniques, whatever you do.

On the aesthetic level, again I have little to criticize. The color is very good, beautiful in fact. Your use of value is stunning. Compositionally, this is very strong. You have placed your planet/moon cluster at about the 2/3 or 3/5 section of the painting. Your bright blue star balances the composition nicely.

Since the critique, Dieki implemented my suggestions. You can see his finished piece here.

Not all of the artists I critique are as skilled as Dieki, but I enjoy critiquing them, all the same. If you want to share one of your paintings or sketches or get input on them, be sure to email me! Happy painting!

An artist off to a film festival?

2010-10-19T17:47:00.000-05:00

Well, this has been a very exciting year! I have learned a lot and have grown in my artistic repertoire.

In just a week I’ll be headed off to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. I've been watching this festival with great interest since it started back in 2004. It's a dream come true to go out there and participate in the festival. I especially look forward to meeting with some of my new found film friends.

One of these friends is named Mike Dornbirer, and he’s made a movie called The Free Ride. I highly recommend this film, not just because it’s got a great message, but because I did a sky replacement for it! The movie made it into the festival, so I am very excited to see some of my work on the big screen! If you watch it, look for the moon. That’s my sky replacement! Go here to check out Sanctum Entertainment’s website.

A still from The Free Ride

I’ll also visit with John Moore and Johnny Reighard, two filmmakers from Heumoore. I’ve been working with them on artwork for their next film, Ace Wonder. The movie should give many Christians a lot of good excitement and fun with a thought-provoking message. Check out Ace Wonder’s website for more details. If you look hard enough, you'll see some of my artwork in one of the trailers.

A still from Ace Wonder

Well, speaking of artwork, I think I’m going to get back to work now…

Illustrated Portraits

2010-05-01T13:35:00.006-05:00

An illustrated portrait is a portrait that has illustrated elements in the painting. It faithfully represents the person, while introducing historical or geographic elements that add spice and adventure. The illustrated portrait is an exciting way to make a portrait more meaningful.

Ace Alan

I love painting people’s portraits. When my illustration schedule allows, I try to paint at least one portrait a week. This habit developed while in art school.

Head Study '08

However, I also love illustrating. The challenge of telling a story and of recreating an era or a culture, which is far removed from our own, excites me. I suppose this desire grew out of my family’s fascination with living history museums and national parks. It seemed like every vacation my parents would pack my siblings and I into a cramped car and drive a day or so to find some historical spot. One summer we traveled the Lincoln trail, visiting where he lived in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.

Pocahontas Illustration

Historical Book Illustration

The two pursuits are very different. Painting portraits is very academic. The finished painting must at least look like it’s subject. Preferably, the painting will also carry something of the feeling or emotion of the person modeling.

Head Study '07

In contrast, illustrations are patched together. The illustrator uses a book on European landscapes to understand what the Norwegian coast looks like, and googles the latest archaeological find on Scandinavian jewelry. He may have a model pose as the subject, but he often will tweak the face and proportions to make the subject look more authentic. The illustration has a message to deliver, and the artist sacrifices all for that message.

Treasured in Her Heart

The illustrated portrait is an amalgam of the two different crafts. On one hand, the artist must carefully represent the person being painted. On the other hand, both the artist and the client have the freedom to choose a different historical or cultural setting for the painting. The person can even choose to set their portrait in a classic novel or fairy tale.

Self-Portrait as Mock Renaissance Artist

If you are interested in creating an illustrate portrait, email me at matthewsample2@gmail.com.

Step-by-Step Sketch from Life

2010-03-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

I have wanted to paint Alan now for at least a year. One good reason: he sits real well. Second reason: he carries on fascinating conversation while he is sitting. So this is my step-by-step sketch of a dear friend.

I quickly sketched his head shape to start off. Unfortunately this looks more like Voltaire than Alan, but I took care of that later.

I sketched in the rest of his body and added the shading on his lower face.

Glasses next, and definition to the lower shaded area.

At this point I realized that his face was too low in his head and so I shifted his face up.

Clean up of the nose and a little forehead and chin work, too.

At this point I realized that I had skewed the whole figure. Often artists will twist the figure without realizing it, but I try to eliminate all skew in my own work.

Now I get to begin laying color down!

At this point I am playing with form through the use of warm and cool colors.

Whenever I paint, I am constantly refining edges, constantly trying to determine if the expression is right.

At a certain point I abandon all hope of a masterpiece and just try to finish the painting. I enjoyed painting Alan very much and look forward to the next opportunity to sketch him.

Weekly Portrait Sketch

2010-03-10T14:34:00.000-06:00

I'm hoping to do this every week. We'll see how it goes!

Second painting night of the year: We had an excellent model, but I was struggling to get his face, and you will see that. I never really got his face until the very end. I’ll explain why I think that happened as I go along.

First of all, I think it started with the hat. The hat stood out as a strong element on the model, so I painted it first. I probably should have started with the eyes and nose portion of the face.

This forced me to work from the outer proportions inside and make the inside fit the outside. To do that I really had to nail the outer proportions . . . and I didn’t.

I squished the face horizontally, and so I fixed that here and went on to lay in more value. However, the face was too large in the head, and I didn’t realize that yet.

The most significant difference between this step and the last one is his left ear. I lowered it slightly. In the midst of painting the artist is constantly checking the proportions and alignments of all the features in relation to the whole picture and to each other. Sometimes it can be very complex to isolate one problem in the middle of a cacophony of problems.

In this step I just piled on a bunch of value.

Here I refined the beard and the eyes. After doing that, I realized two things about my painting: First, the face was too big for the head, as I’ve mentioned before. Second, his eyes looked slightly wall-eyed and that bothered me.

Here I fixed the face by squishing it up into the head. Right now it looks strange, but in later steps it should all make sense.

Finally, I decided to compose my painting. I felt that positioning his head slightly toward the left side of the painting would eventually create a dynamic composition after I introduced the color and finished the painting.

Also, I obliterating some of the detail work in the eyes and mouth. This will prepare for better detail later.

At this point I am finally satisfied with the general proportions of the face. The eye sockets take up the right amount of space. The mouth is in correct proportion to the mandible.

On the foundation of a strong value painting, color can happen very fast. Since I had been working transparently over the background, I could paint the warm light underneath the face. The warm shadows I painted over the face and then I crunched the layers together.

With the cool and warm light dynamic happening, I felt comfortable painting the eyes again.

I solidified light play over the flesh and worked on the mouth.

My fellow artist were finished and I was dawdling on. So I laid in as many final details as possible. The mouth finally looked the way I wanted it to look. So I called it quits.

This morning I revisited the painting, added value to the background and played with the levels, hue and saturation. I wish I could change the hat and the shirt, but I’m leaving it the way it is. At some point the artist must stop, and that point is happening . . . now.

Step-by-Step Sketch from Life

2010-03-03T14:35:00.000-06:00

Last night I had an enjoyable time at painting night with some old friends. I’m ashamed to admit this is the first head from life in a long while. And my rustiness shows in the amount of time that it took to finish this—about two hours. However, the sketch turned out really well.

After arriving late, I slapped in some face and hair color in the general shape of our models upper face. We took a break before I could get very far, but that interruption allowed my working method to stand out. This is generally how I start my paintings.

After I got the rest of the face blocked in, I resized the face to crop it for an interesting composition. By this time in the painting process, I should have recorded all of my major lights and darks and have determined my color scheme. All that’s left is to define and refine….

My painting is in the midst of the “ugly stage.” I have just enough of the major features to recognize what it is, but not enough refinement to acknowledge any artistic accomplishment.

By this stage, the painting is refined. I could stop here, but the likeness is too far from the model for my comfort.

I moved her jaw and left eye closer to the left margin of the picture. Also the colors of the face were updated.

At this point, the painting was finished, for the most part. So I isolated the remaining details that needed to brought closer to a decent level of finish, and step by step finished each little area. It wasn’t until I reached this point that I could see some of the features that resembled her sister.

So, just before I uploaded this, I finished it off with some color adjustment in Photoshop. The painting now has a fine art quality that I like.

So that was the painting night. I had a lot of good conversation and got the privilege to paint a beautiful painting. Maybe calling it a present from God is too presumptuous, but maybe not. Even the air we breathe and our ability to converse are precious gifts from God’s gracious longsuffering hand. We often take His simple blessings with scarcely a nod. So, I’m thankful of His hand of blessing and grace last night.

The Largest Paintings I’ve Painted to Date

2010-02-10T12:30:00.000-06:00

Last autumn a friend asked me to get involved with a very large project. I worked on the two paintings for about a month.

Before this, most of my professional work fell in the 50-100 megabytes range. The illustrations measured about 2x4 to 9x12 inches. During my master’s degree, I worked on some large digital paintings in the 300-600 mb range. They measured from 18x30 to 24x36 inches. At that point the sizes and the save times (10-15 minutes) blew me away. I thought I would never really use the larger digital paintings ever again. How many people actually make poster-size digital paintings?

The banners measured 3 feet by 10 feet. The master file used 6+ gigabytes (a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes) after a little crunching. The largeness of the files created two major problems.

1. The files took really, really long to save—up to 30 minutes. With sizes like that, I can’t save every 5 minutes. So I work for a significant amount of time, and then I save, and go write a philosophy paper while you are waiting. Unfortunately, if Photoshop unexpectedly quit before I could save, I sometimes lost an hour’s work.

I had no way to solve that problem, except to treat my computer with kid gloves. So I was very careful, and prayed a bit, and tried not to rush the computer if it was having issues. Patience really makes a difference.

2. The paintings were so large. Because the paintings were so large and the objects in the paintings were so huge (imagine a crown that you could lay down in), I could lose myself in the painting and could forget how a brushstroke compared to the big picture. I do not get the full effect of the whole paintings through my small laptop screen. Nor can I see how one small brushstroke effects the whole painting.

To solve this, I would zoom out a lot. This helped me remember how small details effected the big picture. Also I would do a lot of my work at actual size. That helped me remember how big something was in relationship to the whole. Finally, as a last tactic to ensure a good final product, I began by painting the large shapes, and finished by painting the small shapes. The painting really became cohesive by painting large shapes before detail.

The two banners hang as decoration in a friend’s church sanctuary.

Agnus Dei

Our worship revolves around a suffering Savior. The first painting emphasizes the pain and the agony that Jesus experienced, by showing a crown of thorns like the one He wore 2000 years ago. The guards in charge of His torture pounded a similar crown onto His head shortly before He was killed. We realize that Jesus took the punishment for our sins by dying, so our worship reflects the pain and the relief at knowing that our evil is removed and that we no longer are slaves to that evil.

Christus Rex

Our worship also revolves around a King in Heaven. The second painting emphasizes the glory and the honor that Jesus Christ deserves as Son of God. While He will get that honor as ruling Lord of Heaven at the end of time, so He also is King now. Three days after He died He arose from His grave to demonstrate His power over this natural life. So in our worship, not only do we look back on a suffering Savior, but we look forward to a ruling Lord. At the same time we recognize that His sacrifice covers our present sins and that His Authority extends to our current living. We are not only set free from the power of sin, we are called to live holy lives before Him in love.

I can think of no other project that I would rather have had to cut my teeth on very large paintings. It was very rewarding. The creative director was Sarah Marina and the graphic designer was Sean Kent and together we did something that continues to encourage families at a modest church in California.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T11:59:00.000-06:00

Perhaps the day after Christmas is too late to be wishing people a “Merry Christmas!” and giving them gifts, but I never knew quite how to act proper. So, in honor of yesterday and in gratitude for the few of you who know about this site, I show you some of the paintings I made for this Christmas! I hope these paintings give you a smile and a sense of awe in your heart. May this Christmas season bring you and your family closer to heaven and to each other.

Snowball - My sister and I would run around the backyard and pelt each other with snow. While my memories show me as the one sneaking up behind my sister, I do remember the distinct feeling of snow down the back of my neck. Obviously, my sister got me good too.

Hard Luck Story - I am privileged to have discussed life and prayed with a few of our local homeless characters. I had the idea for this piece based on a couple incidents which happened to me. Thankfully though, I haven’t gotten a pink slip like the poor guy outside the Unemployment Bureau in my painting.

Treasured in Her Heart - This is an adaption of my Heaven in His Eyes for a church in my area. We wanted to give more context to original image. In creating that context we changed the meaning slightly, which is fine with me. The original image was more of a statement on the Jesus’ deity and humanity. This image is about Mary’s (and all humanity’s) relationship with Jesus. The title comes from the verse, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” [Luke 2:19]

Peace on Earth - A local church asked me to paint this for their Christmas Eve service. I tried to emphasize a real family dealing with a stressful situation, and the wonder in the midst of the strain. Normally, I would like to make my paintings more historically correct, but I do not think that most people would recognize the original nativity. Someday, I will make the totally historically correct portrayal of the manger scene.

Until then, I hope you will remember that the event actually happened and ushered in the most remarkable change in human history. No longer are men left to their evil and judgement. A Savior has come. The Lord of the universe made peace between Himself and men, by living with us and sacrificing Himself for our eternal salvation. Christmas is a celebration of that liberating gift—Jesus Christ our Lord.

My Favorite Illustrations

2009-12-05T15:51:00.001-06:00

Every once in a while a project lands on my desk that just stands out from the rest. Something happens where one illustration ends up better than the others. These paintings are my favorite professional illustrations.

I like this painting better than any other professional illustration I have ever done. The main visual themes from the story weave together with the carefully chosen colors, the tight composition built around the title, and the themes of adventure and tenderness all in one illustration. It is not often that an artist gets the privilege to work on something so involved and rewarding.

I like this. I could talk about why I like the composition or the interplay of colors, but in the end I just like it. When I look at it, I can taste the hot dust in my mouth. It is a dry year to be planting, but maybe after the plowing is finished, the rains will come.

I enjoyed working on Helen Keller. She faced so many obstacles with her limited senses, but she overcame them through hard work and discipline. The world around her is barely perceptible, as this picture illustrates, with her hands the least altered by the fog. Her hands became her doorway back into reality.

For this illustration I distorted photographs to provide realistic texture and recolored them as color washes inside the lines. As an illustration, I like it’s novelty. And as an illustrator, I just think that it’s fun.

A poem in one of the A Beka readers needed a portrait of Pocahontas. I chose a historically correct portrayal as far as age and ethnicity goes, but I had to remove all the facial piercings and body paint that she probably would have worn. The poem made no mention of the practices, and many of the readers would have found the strict historical interpretation offensive. As it is, it is my best digital imitation of an oil portrait. And it’s a touching picture of a young woman coming to the age of decision.

This is one of my earlier computer paintings. I took a sketch and colorized it. The young man in the story is essentially sacrificing his chances to become the king’s son in order to protect a lost little girl and bring her home to her mother. His coat, a gift from the king, is tattered and torn from his good deeds, while his rival sits inside and preens the matching coat. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t guessed the outcome, so I’ll just say you can read about it in A Beka Book’s reader, Open Skies.

Life can be complicated for missionary kids. They deal with the trauma of extreme situations in foreign lands, many times with very little time from their parents who have gone to the field to minister to others. Ofter the children feel isolated and lonely. In this story the missionary boy befriends some Japanese boys through a makeshift basketball court. The colors in this illustration especially appeal to me.

Edison experienced an accident on his first real job selling newspapers on a train. He saved up for chemicals and would conduct experiments with chemicals he had bought. Once the train hit a bump and a jar of phosphorus spilled and started a fire on the train. The enraged conductor physically threw Edison and his chemicals out of the train onto the train tracks. The tilt of the train car is shown visually with the strong diagonals and Edison’s contrasting corrective movement.

While this may not be the most captivating image I have ever created, but for those who have ever been lonely or those who have stared at fires, it may strike a familiar chord. The illustration has just enough detail to make scene look stark. The vibrant color contrasts with the mood, and the cool blues and magentas carry the lonely feeling.

This illustration started as a very textured colorized sketch, but I layered opaque color to cover up a lot of the texture. The overpainting subdued the strong texture in the sketch. I used the same colors as I used in the last illustration, but they are softer, more fitting to the mood of the story. I found a bust of Beethoven and used it as a source for his head in the picture. Believe it or not, the shadow on the wall is my favorite part of the painting.

I visited the Rockies only once, and Arizona once. Someday I’d love to go to the badlands or travel the Oregon trail. This cover is sort of an ode to all those dry and difficult places in life that can look so beautiful in the right light.

The Animals in the Great Outdoors reader was one of my most intense illustration experiences, and one of the most profitable. I had just finished college, and still had that ignorance that made impossible deadlines seem feasible and the energy that compensated for my time miscalculations. Frogs are wonderfully clumsy and beautiful creatures and I look back on this reader as some of the best creative work I have done to date.

One of the third-grade readers included a poem with a mock rendition of Robinson Crusoe. I created this illustration, a tongue in cheek, as an almost "Wish You Were Here!" postcard depiction of Crusoe. I like the sun hitting his left eye, the perfect shipwreck practically sitting on the water, and the sand castle peaking over the beach. I laugh whenever I see this.

This is one of the first illustrations that I used the colorized black and white sketch style. I had not refined the style yet, but it displays a raw intensity that convinced me of the technique's potential. I still begin many of my illustration with variations of this technique.

This began as a joke in the publishing department, and provided a great deal of enjoyment for everyone involved. I love the sheer variety in this painting—the cat breeds and the expressions on their faces. I also enjoy the grouch of the bunch.

This final painting expresses an ideal that is too often absent in the modern conception of a father. This father, as he checks his son in the night, provides a portrait of a loving, protective father. One hand holds the lit match, the other shelters the flame, and both hands form a heart.

How I Illustrate

2009-12-05T15:21:00.003-06:00

Anybody can write a story, some write good stories. Really, anybody can illustrate, but it is my job to illustrate well. Through my process of idea generation and refinement, I strive to make the best illustrations possible.

First, I read the text to be illustrated. If I do not know what the text is saying, I cannot illustrate it. In this case, the text was the nativity story from the Bible.

Very often when reading a historical story, I realize that many details have been left out. What exactly did people wear during that time period? The author is not going to spend a chapter detailing the make and fit of the heroine’s dress with the fabrics and patterns. So I will have to research characters and settings outside of the story in history books and encyclopedias. Sometimes I will call museums or specialists to isolate the right fact.

Throughout the research stage, I am thinking of images. How can I illustrate the text in the most powerful way? As I am researching, or afterwards, I spend a certain amount of time creating rough sketches.

A rough sketch is a road map for the artist. Many clients insist on seeing sketches, but I have rarely met a nonartist who understands what the illustration will look like straight from the sketch. A better indicator is either the final drawing, the color study or a color sketch. Often I will jump straight from the rough sketch to a color sketch, and then start refining that into the final illustration. However, I started with a rough sketch for this illustration because of time issues.

After a sketch is approved, I look for source photos. For this painting, I visited a farm and photographed cattle eating. A friend who lives across the country posed as the face and my sister posed in costume as Mary. In lieu of a friend from New York, I posed for Joseph, but more on that later.

I also looked up pictures of sheep on FreeFoto.com. Most photos only give a feeling for the anatomy of the sheep, and I mix and match body parts and poses, making sure to keep the image my own. Every once in a while, I run across a pose and lighting situation that matches exactly what I want and have to resort to changing the species, like in the above image. In the final illustration, I changed the species to one of those speckled lambs. I would be more careful with what I use for my sources, but this was a donated illustration.

After creating my source collage, I create a color study to get a better idea what the painting will look like when it's finished. I now have correct poses from the collage, and can experiment with the colors. I paint the characters and setting in with broad brush strokes, not caring about a lot of detail. I know that I will be going over the entire painting before it's finished. I just want enough detail to get a feel for how the painting will look in the end.

The faces and the hay painted.

I usually break the illustration down into sections. I work first on this face and then that face, then on this body and then on that body, then on the foreground elements, and then on the background elements. Step by step, inch by inch, I steadily finish the illustration.

Sheep painted on the right side.

Cattle painted on the right side.

Mary's outfit painted.

Animals painted on the left side.

Wall blocked in and Joseph painted.

Often when painting a face, I will have a friend pose as a character from history or as a different nationality. This pose will give me the lighting and much of the modeling needed, but will not give me the unique facial features. I will then find photographs or artwork depicting the face I need. I will then think about the face in a three-dimensional way and model the face after the source, while preserving the lighting of my model. As a final step I will tweak the expression to make it exactly what I want.

Rock wall and final tweaks.

After I finish a painting, I send it off to my clients and often they have suggestions to improve the painting or to mold it more closely to their vision. Sometimes comments can leave me feeling troubled, as any creative person feels when someone critiques their work. Many times, though, after assessing them for validity and urgency, the suggestions cause me to create an even better painting. And I really enjoy making my paintings better. There is few things in life as pleasurable as a job well done.

Fine Art Paintings

2009-11-28T11:45:00.002-06:00

I enjoy illustration with all my heart. Telling stories with images satisfies me like few other occupations. However, my art training taught me as a fine artist with acrylic in high school and oil in my higher education. So now and then, I enjoy painting a landscape, and I’ll be painting a series of still lifes in the future.

Each medium is special in its own way. While I paint full-time digitally and love the intuitiveness that the digital medium has, it cannot compare to traditional media in many ways.

First, I can work with more colors with traditional media. With printed media I have four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (excluding specialty colors). With traditional media, usually artists will squeeze six or more colors on their palette. I can play with warm and cool reds, blues, yellows, greens, violets, greys, browns, and an assortment of other colors. The artist that uses many colors creates artwork with much more depth than an artist who uses few colors.

Second, traditional media have a three-dimensional quality to them. Not only can oil paint be painted thick in an impasto way, but the buildup of color creates interesting juxtapositions of color variations. Even flat media like pastel and colored pencil build up color, laying one color on top on the other. The effect cannot be imitated by printed media yet. Also, an artist must impose texture in the digital realm, but it appears naturally with actual media.

Third, with the right materials a work of art will last for a very long time. At worst a digital illustration only lasts the longevity of the printed material. This can be as long as a magazine is printed and sold to someone needing fire starter. Or it can last as long as historic prints. But paper yellows and inks fade. Paint pigments fade too, but they last several hundred years before doing so. Also, file formats constantly change, and as programs become outdated, some file formats, and thus works of art, become inaccessible.

Fourth, when dealing with fine art, the artist is hard pressed to identify the original of a digital painting. Is the first print the original? Is the digital file the original? Art historians have argued over questions like that for years with found art and other non-original genres. The difference between found art and digital is that the artist has created a truly original work. The original is merely intangible. I’m sure art theoreticians will enjoy thinking about the question of originality as pertains to digital painting.

Last, authenticity is difficult to establish. The ease of copying other peoples images causes some people to be suspicious about the legitimacy of the artist’s claim to ownership. An artist who creates traditional oil paintings, even if he copies his source images, has a more of a convincing claim than someone who creates digitally and uses no sources. The tangible paint seems to have a credibility that digital media does not have.

So why do I work in digital media? I love the speed, the flexible precision, and the intuitiveness. I can think in Photoshop in a way that I cannot think with other media. I can get details on the computer that I can't get with other mediums. I don't have to wait for paint to dry to send my painting to my clients. So, while I recognize the superiority of traditional media over digital, I will probably never switch back entirely.

Sometimes when out painting plein air, the painting rises to the level of fine art. I feel that this is one of those rare times. I loved going out that morning before dawn. I loosened up by painting the sunrise at 5:45. The sunrise happened so fast, I had only a few minutes to paint it. Then I painted this sketch. The colors in the morning glow danced in the open field and the shadows of the tree. The glow lasts a couple hours, but my painting buddy and I had things to do and couldn't stick around too long. The "mountains" in the background are actually distant buildings. The non-literal interpretation of them worked out better than I imagined.

I needed a painting for an art show, and ran out of time. The day before the show, I drove out to a dock with my painting buddy, John Ball, and painted this in a couple hours. Some of the most interesting experiences happen while out painting. While we were out there, a truckload of guys drove up and inquired into having a smoke under the same bridge. We requested that the do it upwind from us, but they decided against it and drove off. Later they probably enjoyed laughing about my green rubber gloves, smock, and other painting gear.

My grandparents have lived on this farm for most of their lives. My dad grew up here and we kids played in the haymow and fields. I painted this from a little plein air I had painted in the summer. I was having difficulty with hay fever, and almost couldn't see clearly. The half hour plein air turned out so well, that I painted this larger painting for my grandparent's anniversary. The corn is just a few inches high. A storm promises to bless the growing grain with a gentle rain. And the ancient farm overlooks the good land.

By my grandpa's hog barn, they have an abandoned hogshed. They would separate a new mother hog and her piglets from the rest of the hogs for a few weeks for the safety of the piglets. Now that grandpa no longer raises hogs the shed just sits there, unused. Even the old tractor ruts run by the shed, seeming to pass it by.

This painting shows inside my grandpa’s hayloft. As a child, my cousins and I would construct forts in the bales and play all kinds of games. I enjoy the textures and play of light across the bales of hay. Though the hayloft is abandoned like the hogshed and the bales have begun falling apart, the loft still holds the wonder that we kids would feel with each visit. Also, a hayloft is a beautiful place to paint.

For my master's degree I painted this marsh triptych. Every morning for a week, I would drive out to a bridge that overlooked the water and paint the sunrise. No sunrise was the same. The amazing amount of variation in the play of colors over the sky and water awed me everyday. From that experience, I created these three paintings. They signify the unpredictability at the beginning of a brand new day. The left painting stands for a peaceful day, and the far right stands for a day full of adventure. Who knows what a day holds in store for us?

I painted my family’s house while home for Christmas in 2005. The conditions may not have been the best for painting outdoors, but the painting that emerged is a family favorite. We did not actually have a fire going in the wood stove, but my family did not a problem with the liberty I took in adding the wisp of smoke emerging from the stove pipe. We have since moved from the house, so the painting preserves the memory of our beautiful woods and the wonderful snow up north.

This isn't an oil painting. I painted it on my computer from a collection of old family photos and heirlooms. My sister had dried a rose in a vase and the petals had not fallen out. The dead flower was beautiful and provided the inspiration for this. I wanted to express that every life is precious, even those long gone and forgotten. I placed the photographs and heirlooms around the flower in a carefully lighted environment, and then painted from life. The print now hangs in my grandpa's house.

Sketches

2009-11-18T21:30:00.001-06:00

A good sports player needs practice, and so does a good artist. He can get this practice in a number of different ways, but most artists practice figure painting and plein air painting.

Figure painting: I have heard that a good artist should paint one head from life every week. While many good artists currently do not do so, they have done so in the past. The studies from life have given them knowledge in the play of light over three-dimensional features. If an artist does not have an understanding of the human form, he is crippled as an artist.

Over the past six years I have met often with fine artist John Ball for head studies in his garage. The practice is great, and the camaraderie is always wonderful. Because of my constant study, I can paint the human head with confidence. I can get a finished face in a relatively short amount of time: an hour.

2004 - 2.5 hrs.

2005 - 2.5 hrs.

2006 - 2 hrs.

2007 - 1.3 hrs.

2007 - 2 hrs.

2007 - 1.25 hrs.

2008 - 1 hr.

2008 - 2 hr.

2009 - 1 hr.

Plein Air: A French term, en plein air means “in the open air,” and refers to artists who paint the landscape outside, instead of inside their studios with photographs or memory. Because the dramatic change of light over the course of a day, plein airs must be painted within a short amount of time. Historically, collectors have not considered them finished fine art, but recently a market has developed for smaller, less finished works like plein air paintings. The real value with painting en plein air is the technical proficiency of painting fast. An artist must observe correctly and paint carefully in order to preserve the impression of detail in a landscape under a shifting light.

This painting reminds me of some of the Hudson River School painters. I really enjoy the work that they do, and perhaps looking at their work has affected my own work. I hope so.

When my family took a vacation in the Appalachian mountains, I eagerly took my easel with us. The beauty up there is astounding. Because we kept very busy, I was not able to sketch as much as I wanted. However, this sketch at a camp site somewhere in Tennessee gives a small indication of the incredibly beautiful area.

I have painted at Alan's mother's house only a couple times, but I look forward to getting out there in the future. They have some beautiful woods out behind their house, and I have not been able to do justice to it yet!

I loved the way the birds perched on top of the old dock posts. There were several different kinds of bird, and the mix was fascinating. I also liked the way the verticals cut right down the composition. Some paintings are just fun to look at.

As my master's show approached, I needed more art. So I set aside an hour or two to paint whatever I could. So I set up my computer and painted the view out my back window. This needed to get done to finish a group of sketches, and it worked well in the grouping. I love meeting objectives.

I created this special plein air sketch from the cockpit of a two person airplane. A friend of mine took me up while he was getting his pilot's license. The sunset was beautiful. I rested my Wacom tablet on my lap and held my Macbook above it with my left hand. My right hand would paint a few strokes, then hop up to the laptop keyboard to change the brush size, and then hop back down to the tablet again to move color around. It was very exciting! I love the painting, but it cannot fully portray the amazing experience of painting airborne.

Imaginair: A term of my own making, imaginair refers to a landscape that is constructed from memory or the imagination. Every once in a while I will see a sunset or cloud formation that catches my eye, but be unable to set up and paint it immediately. I will make note of the general effect, remembering every detail and color that I can. Later, I will find a good time to paint my impression of what I saw. It may not result in the most incredible art, but the practice keeps the mind sharp . . . and helps me remember fascinating images that I have seen.

On the way home from vacation, we drove through rain in southern Alabama. Whatever people may say about the state, their pine trees look so beautiful obscured by the misty rain against a dusk sky. I tried to remember how everything looked and painted it as soon as I could.

A couple summers ago I traveled by train to visit a friend in El Paso, Texas. The trip through the vast barren Texas landscape struck me as awe-inspiring. This painting, the second of my imaginairs, resulted from the experience. Someday I hope I'll go back, if only for the train trip through God's beautiful creation.

Detail in Illustration

2009-11-18T17:12:00.002-06:00

When I graduated from college, I vaguely recognized that something was wrong with my illustrations and paintings but I could not identify the problem. As I gained professional illustrating experience, I realized the issue: attention to detail. I soon learned how detail adds credibility to an image.

Especially with historic and educational illustration, detail makes or breaks the illustration. With historic illustration, the clothing and the environment indicate the era, and the reader should never wonder when and where the story happens. Textbook illustration, of course, teaches through the pictures, so the pictures need to be well-researched with a lot of visual data.

Detail is difficult for most artists to create. It takes time and thought to produce accurate, appropriate detail. My first detailed illustration took too long to paint, but the next one went much faster. Now detail has become a part of my working method.

If it looks as if I spent too long on this illustration, it’s probably true. I also squeezed just about every toy that I have ever played with or ever wanted to own. The illustration showed a big problem that most kids understood: a messy room. The successive images showed how the boy broke his problem into smaller steps to clean up the mountain of a mess. The detail not only provides an interesting viewing experience, but it also makes the boy's problem very tangible.

This illustration shows how the thylakoid membrane in plant cells help change light energy into stored energy. The detail is necessary so the students understand the process. However, the detail must be managed so the students do not get overwhelmed.

I enjoyed creating this series of birds and plants based on the state birds and state flowers. This small sample shows Nevada, Arizona, and Delaware. Other illustrators contributed to the whole series.

Charts and graphs can become uninteresting to students so detail helps create interesting moments like this.

Some charts, like this one showing the herbivore-carnivore-detrivore food cycle, can be reduced to one interesting image with arrows and a brief explanation.

Not only do scientific illustrations need detail, but historical illustrations also need a significant amount of detail. If historical illustrations do not show real detail, misconceptions can occur. I try to find photos or paintings of famous people’s faces and use their proportions in the illustrations. (To see how I would do this, consult the end of my demo.) I would hope that a historian that studies Helen Keller would recognize her immediately in this illustration. I also researched the furniture in the house to get everything correct.

I wanted to show the conflict between two different worlds in this illustration. The Catholic cross contrasts with the Aztec shield. I rendered this as a traditional pen and ink illustration with a simple color wash.

This story did not have a particular setting. However, based on the names in the story, I set it in ancient Sweden to give the story visual validity.

This is set in a large city in South America, so I had a friend translate "Do not shoplift" into some equivalent Spanish phrase. I hope it matches the rough part of the city and the rough rendering of the painting. Detail does not have to consume the whole painting. Instead, the artist provides just enough detail to establish the believability of his work.

A favorite illustration of mine, above, shows the ancient Israelites traveling to Jerusalem for a yearly festival. Though the style is simple, the precise detail in what is portrayed and the amount of simple detail shows the world at the time of Christ.

Style is About Proportion

2009-11-18T16:24:00.003-06:00

Style is often misunderstood in art. Intelligent artists have a difficult time understanding the term, because it is related to personal concepts like perception and intuition.

Originally the term had more to do with an author's distinctive writing hand than with art genres. One person’s writings could be differentiated from another’s by the differences in their writing styles. The term jumped into painting when people noticed that one artist could be differentiated from another by the small variations in the artist's strokes. So each artist had his own style or way of handling the paint. Style meant something about the individuality of the artist.

Then, two things happened. First, style began referring to a high level of refinement. Some artists brushstrokes looked more graceful or more subtle. Second, art philosophers noticed that different groups of artists in history shared similar characteristics, or a similar styles. Art history, historically, looked like an evolutionary tree with the primitive art at the roots and refined art at the top. To Enlightenment thinkers, Egyptian art paled in comparison to Enlightenment art. The style of the age differed, and as man had progressed through history, the style had gotten better and better, too.

Artist's became self-conscious about the possibility of further refinement or further styles. What would the next level of progress look like? Romantic artists had taken the imitation of reality as far as it had ever been taken, and used their imaginations to create grand masterpieces. (In fact, artists like Fredrick Edwin Church and Bouguereau were later criticized heavily for both representational skills and imagination.) Different artists strove to be that missing link that bridged the gap between the exacting Romantic style and whatever style remained beyond, waiting to be discovered.

In the place of the very refined fine art, a group of less refined artists emerged who emphasized the power of color over the power of representation. Monet had not the representational skills that Bouguereau commanded. Cezanne did not know anatomy like Sargent. The camera had taken over art's role as visual historian, and art theorists argued that detailed representation had ceased to be an important function of art. Artists no longer needed to preserve history visually and thus relied less on reality and more on their particular style. Style ceased to refer to representational refinement, but rather referred to some visual refinement like better use of color. After the impressionists and post-impressionists came a melee that we now call the modern art movement where a wide variety of artistic styles were created. In the modern art movement, style became something theoretical.

In the present post-modern art milieu, style refers to the common proportions shared by a series of artworks. In one cartoon, the eyes are halfway down on the face and are two black dots (like Charlie Brown); in another cartoon the nose is halfway down on the face and the eyes are two giant bubbles that take up most of the space from the nose to the top of the head (like Jon Arbuckle, Garfield’s owner). In one painting the artist uses a lot of texture to imitate the texture of reality; in another painting another artist barely uses any texture at all. One illustrator employs lines to define his shapes; another uses value; still another uses color. The size of a man's facial features, the placement of the features, how much color an artist uses, what colors an artist uses, the relationship of the colors to each other, and many other proportional issues differentiate one style from another.

For more information on different styles that I have used, see my article on A Beka Book Styles.

To illustrate proportion, notice in the family tree illustration above how, though each person looks like a unique personality, each family has a certain look. I made the family on the right to have shorter faces than the family on the left. Each face is an individual expression, but the faces in one family look similar to each other.

Style acts in the same way. The characters within a picture must share certain characteristics, so they look as if they belong. The elements within the painting must share certain characteristics, so they look like they belong. If an illustration looks like an old photo through color use, it be odd for the next illustration in the story to use the colors of a modern advertisement. The proportions of yellow to blue would be off, and the illustrations would look like they didn’t belong together.

This is the first illustration in a series on the heroic exploits of a german shepherd in WWI. To create the look, I used a limited color scheme and kept the amount of detail to a maximum for the small amount of space each illustration occupied.

The next illustration, showing the german shepherd finding his master in a trench.

The last illustration showing the dog at home again, herding the cattle. Though this is the first time I introduced green, the particular shade of green fits with the other colors I have been using in this series.

In these colored pencil illustrations of tadpoles growing into frogs, I used the medium, the colors, and a realistic-yet-cartoony character shape to relate these illustrations together as a whole. Overall, I enjoyed this project most during my time in A Beka Book. The project presented a deadline challenge. Not only did I get it done, but I contributed to the book beyond what had originally been assigned to me.

The next illustration showing the landing stork and some frogs jumping off the fallen log on the other side.

The next illustration showing the tadpoles watching the stork eat a fish. Drawing the water with colored pencil took much longer than the computer would have taken.

The next illustration showing the tadpoles as almost adult frogs with their tails still. At this time I explored any way to play with the illustration. Pictures that show half in the water and half in the air fascinate me.

The last illustration in this batch, showing a frog in mid-hop. I love the awkward flailing limbs of the amphibian in flight.

For the story of Gwen I chose to mimic old pen and watercolor sketches. I kept the illustrations simple and used a limited amount of colors. I also developed a brush in Photoshop that imitated a quill pen that kept running out of ink.

While the water does not fit the illustration style, the rest of the illustration helps keep the illustration in the stylistic family. Sometimes little concessions like this are necessary, but illustration as a whole should not look out of place.

Of course, I looked up the exact Native American group that lived in the area referred to in the story. I made sure the details were as accurate as possible.

This illustration never made it into the book for obvious reasons. I still enjoy the idea of hanging from a tree spinning in the wind. Perhaps some people are disturbed by such treatment of babies, but I imagine that it was cosy.

Notice that each illustration looks unique, like a new work of art, and yet each conforms with the overall style by using the same proportions in anatomy, color and detail rendering. Style refers to the common proportions shared by a series of illustrations.

Biblical Paintings

2009-11-18T15:35:00.002-06:00

During my M.F.A., I felt the strong desire to create a series of Biblical paintings. The series is probably the most difficult art project I have ever faced. However, through the hard work I learned more about my art and more about my faith.

I could not have made it without the care and prayers of my friends and family. I am grateful for the Pensacola Christian College staff, in particular Mr. Joseph Digangi’s encouragement in difficult times, and fine artist Brian Jekel’s and illustrator John Taylor’s skill and expertise that guided me through. I am especially grateful for my family's help and encouragement through my months with very little sleep. Also, I am ever more grateful to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His sustaining power. Making a series of paintings is so insignificant compared with His incredible love and mercy.

For this massive digital project, I wanted to create the appearance of fine oil paintings. I researched and sketched just like normal. However, the paintings were ten times the size of anything that I had ever done on the computer. How could I put ten times the amount of detail into a painting in the same amount of time as normal? Practice, perseverance, and prayer. I had never worked on anything over 100 megabytes, and for these projects the file sizes were easily 5 times that. Some paintings took a half an hour to save. Often I would wait too long before saving and would lose important work in a program crash. This experience would help me in the future when I worked on a project 6+ gigabytes (that's 6000+ megabytes).

As challenging as the technical aspects proved, the real benefit of the project had nothing to do with gained knowledge or skill. The real benefit lay in the viewers who drew inspiration and comfort from the messages within the paintings.

Enoch Translated shows the character hovering between physical existence and spiritual existence—a life after this current life. From the very beginning of Genesis, the Bible shows that this life is not the only existence. This illustration is a fanciful look at what the world and people might have looked like before Noah’s flood, and how a translation between worlds might have looked.

Unfortunately, like closed systems in the famous law of thermodynamics, men tend toward degeneration. Noah’s flood is a harsh example of the results of evil in men’s hearts. The Bible describes how the entire earth was flooded by God because of the detestable acts of humanity. He allowed one man, Noah, to escape with a specially designed ship that floated above the devastation caused by the ravaging waves. Deluge portrays how the powerful, destructive waves might look.

After the Flood, men degenerated again. Humanity invented gods to worship instead of worshipping the great God. They also twisted the practice of sacrificing animals to appease God to the practice of sacrificing their own children.

When God called Abraham audibly, the call was unusual. Usually God works silently as men live their own lives. When God promised Abraham a son at hundred years of age, that was unusual too. But when God told Abraham to sacrifice that son, that was anything but unusual. All the cultures around Abraham worshipped their wooden and stone idols by child sacrifice. Child sacrifice, though a sad practice, was the norm at that time.

In Abraham and Isaac, I imagined the horror of the event as Abraham walked steadily to the altar where he would kill his son to appease his God. However, God did not let Abraham touch Isaac. By setting this example, God showed that He would never require child sacrifice.

Unfortunately, some cultures still practice child sacrifice even today. They need to realize that their child’s death cannot pay for their guilt.

Isaac eventually grew up, married, and had kids, and eventually his descendants were known as the nation of Israel. For several hundred years the Israelites lived in Egypt, but then they moved back to the same country Abraham and Isaac had originally lived in.

I try to find unusual moments to illustrate. In Rahab's Vigil, I took an event that is not specifically mentioned in the Bible. Rahab sheltered the spies from Israel, and in turn they promised protection in the future destruction of her city. This shows Rahab waiting the return of the conquering Israelites. The scarlet rope that she used to save the spies hangs out her window, a sign for the Israelite army to leave her alone.

In Return of the Ark, some Israelite harvesters hear the bawling of the Philistine cows bearing the Ark of the Covenant on a cart. The Ark was the most precious item of worship between the Israelite’s and the God who made heaven and earth. The Israelites had begun to think of the Ark as the object of power and worship and had carried it into battle to guarantee their victory. The tactic did not work. The Israelites had lost the battle, and the Ark had been captured by the Philistines. However, the Philistines discovered that they were being punished by plagues and eventually sent the Ark back.

Really, the story illustrates how we humans try to manipulate God. Just because we have a connection with God does not mean that He will obey our every beck and call. If we harbor hate or evil in our hearts, He has no prerogative to save us. However, He will redeem us, if we are willing.

As generations passed, the Israelites slowly left the God of Abraham and Isaac. The Lord would send prophets, such as Elijah in this painting, to call the Israelites back to Himself. In Fire From Heaven, Elijah has just prayed that God would ignite the bull sacrifice that he had just soaked with water. Earlier in the day the priests of another god had tried to call down fire from their god. Though they screamed and cut themselves all day, the skies had remained silent. The moment Elijah prayed to God for fire, God let forth a dazzling display of the elements, and the fire entirely consumed the altar, sacrifice, and water. Unfortunately, the Israelites did not turn back to God afterwards.

Signs and wonders only last a generation or two at most. A prophet’s work rarely lasted longer than his short unpopular life. However, one Israelite's work has changed the world in incredible ways. Born to a poor couple in Bethlehem under the Roman occupation of Israel, Jesus would do more than show signs and wonders. In fact, he claimed to be God’s son, and to be eternal. Jesus’ unique attribute of being one with God is called the "Hypostatic Union." Heaven in His Eyes tries to capture some of the wonder of that confluence of heaven and earth.

Hath Ears to Hear explores the reactions of the people to Jesus' teachings. The people at Jesus' time did not really know what to think about him. Some thought he was an ancient prophet come back alive. Some thought he was a political leader who would deliver the Israelites from the Roman occupation. The religious leaders in that day caught his steady references to his divinity within his teachings on moral living before God. The tension between his healing miracles, his radical teaching, and his claims to Deity caused a lot of talk in the country. Jesus attracted quite a crowd. Some travelled great distances to see him. Some followed him everywhere. Many heard him, but none understood him.

In this painting, I painted the city of Jerusalem from the side of Golgotha. I was unable to find any paintings or photographs of the city from this side. From topographical maps and my study into Herod's temple, some photos of the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, and other historical references, I created this view of the city.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem portrays the darkness that descended on the city as Jesus died for the sins of the city and for humanity at large. The title for the painting comes from Jesus’ lament: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37)

The mission of Jesus did not end with his death. Instead, historical records indicate that several hundred people saw him ressurrected and heard him teach for several weeks after his death. Mystery at Emmaus explores the surprise of the two followers as they recognize their Savior just as he vanishes. According to the Bible, he sent his Holy Spirit to do his work in each individual believer's heart. Even though the believers long for his physical presence, his Spirit remains to comfort and guide us in our spiritual existence.

Religious Illustration

2009-11-14T12:27:00.001-06:00

The A Beka Book illustrators were finishing the Joyful Life Sunday school curriculum, when I began working there. I enjoy creating art with deep meanings, and really loved working on the Joyful Life curriculum and other Christian materials.

When I create religious art, my process is the same as with any other artwork. I do a lot of historical research to understand how the world looked like at that time, how people dressed, and what cultural customs controlled society. Then I do a lot of compositional sketches to get an original, interesting composition. By that point I have usually chosen a style for the project. The illustrations just become a matter of time and energy after that point.

I actually illustrated as an intern for A Beka Book in January, 2003. During the two weeks that I worked there, I created seven to ten illustrations. I think only this illustration and it's companion illustration survived to be published as part of the Joyful Life curriculum.

The two illustrations are important to me because some religious publications have shied away from addressing any racial issues. A Beka Book, thankfully, embraced the diversity of racial and cultural experience.

My boss grew up in Mexico, and I benefited from his experiences as I created this illustration. I constructed it so the chaos on the left side of the picture contrasted with the family's situation on the right side. After these years, I still like the dog.

Intergenerational relations has become more and more important to me through the past few years. I hope the younger generations get to connect with their older relatives and associates. A lot of accumulated wisdom is disappearing from our culture, and the younger generations often feel lost, without roots, as they approach the age of decision. With this illustration, I tried to emphasize the joy of child, parent, and grandparent interaction.

No collection of my Joyful Life work would be complete without one of my song visuals. The song Little by Little talks about perseverance in climbing mountains, but my song visual applied the message to something kids deal with in their daily lives: cleaning their room. While addressing the serious issue, I squeezed just about every toy that I every played with as a child, and many toys that I wanted from toy catalogs and friend's houses. Just like cleaning a room, difficult projects can be solved with perseverance, one step at a time.

This is a father-son moment between Joseph and Jesus in the carpenter's workshop. I love learning about different cultures, and often people do not consider that ancient Israel was a completely different culture than our own. Not only did they have different technologies (notice the carpenter's tools in the illustration), but they also communicated differently and acted differently in public. I try to work my growing knowledge of the norms of that time and culture into my illustrations.

When creating illustrations for children, many times the illustrator must make the pictures simpler, but not always. Children really are smarter than people give them credit for being. I prefer to test my work on kids if it involves any kind of interaction like in this illustration.

When working on the Growing Up Where Jesus Lived second-grade reader, my coworker John Ball and I collaborated on the above hard-edged style. Sometimes the aesthetic compromises caused problems, such as how to show wind with a hard-edged shape, but simplifying the art helped me grow as an artist.

When creating this epic illustration of the yearly journey to Jerusalem, I researched the area heavily. This shows Herod's temple from the top of the Mount of Olives. The road travels in between the wealthy housing on the right and the cemeteries on the left.

As a parting illustration, I offer this illustration on helping each other. In the story the red-headed girl is scared to help at a local soup kitchen, but through the story she learns to give from her heart and gains a friend. Too often people get scared to reach out in love to help others for fear that people might take advantage of them. I have found a few who will take advantage, but many seem genuinely touched, and I still have valued friends to this day, because I gave.

I post this at Thanksgiving time. While it's good to be thankful, now's a good time to give others something to be thankful for!

A Beka Book Illustration Styles

2009-11-11T21:49:00.004-06:00

When I worked at A Beka Book, I employed a variety of styles. Each story seemed to demand a unique treatment. The color choice, "medium," and level of representation changed depending on the kind of assignment.

Because I use many different styles, I view stylistic variations differently than an artist who has used the same style for his entire career. Some feel that a style is a unique way of working which separates one artist from his competition. I view style more as an aesthetic choice. I try not to make styles in a scientific way, but instead use them intuitively to reflect the mood of the story.

The following illustrations span my 6 years in A Beka Book. They highlight my experiments and successes in the art of stylistic expression.

When I first started, I used colored pencils because, even with my training in acrylic, oil, and other mediums, I could create the illustrations faster with pencils.

After my publisher had their quota of colored pencil illustrations, I tried watercolor with mixed success. Line and wash could be very fast, but I never entirely mastered it.

Then I discovered the computer. I could create the line and wash with a great amount of detail in a relatively short amount of time.

Of course, by minimizing the amount of detail, a clean style could result. This illustration is based on a style that a coworker, John Ball, liked to work in.

Though I enjoyed the speed of the computer, I realized that traditional media had a visual integrity that was missing with the streamlined flat computer art. I began to try to capture some of the vitality of traditional mediums with texture and brush effects. For this illustration, I painted under a pencil sketch, preserving the sketch in the linework and texture.

For this series of illustrations, I tried to make the artwork look like an old watercolor sketch illustration. I did the linework on the computer using a custom brush that lent itself to an older look.

With line and wash, the line defines the artwork, and wash beneath the line can be almost anything, as evidenced by this donkey shaving illustration. For this illustration and its companion illustration, I used edited photographs for the "wash" under the lines. The unique style helped set the story apart as a fun departure from reality.

Medium impossibilities become possible under the guise of digital painting. In this illustration, I tried to mimic pastel under the linework. Practically an impossibility in real life, it works out beautifully in this ode to intergenerational involvement.

I used the same pastel and line style for this illustration, but whereas the previous illustration depended on the linework, this illustration depends on color and value to define the shapes.

Ultimately, I wanted to mimic the look and feel of oil paint. It's great that a fast, forgivable medium can mimic the grand look of some of the great masterpieces of art. The oil-paint appearance creates a professional look with which only photographs can compete.

The "oil technique" can be created even with a normal Photoshop brush, without any texture at all. For the "clock" illustration, I just used color, value, and brushstroke variation to create that slick "oil" look. Illustrators J. C. Leyendecker, Haddon Sundblom, and others employed the same techniques in their real oil illustrations.

As I searched for a faster medium with the visual integrity of fine art, I developed a new technique. The illustration above is the first to use the technique. I created black color fill layer over the white background and into that layer I erased and painted until I had the final drawing. I then added three color adjustment layers to "stain" the drawing, thus colorizing the black fill layer. I worked very hard in this style for a while and most of my work from this era is in the style.

This illustration is more refined in it’s use of the new illustration technique. The style has the potential for quick detail, however I abandoned the style in favor for more traditional looks.

As a parting illustration, this is as close as I ever got to achieving the look of watercolor. The process took too long, so I abandoned the style. Still, what I learned from this illustration helped in later illustrations.

Definitions: Clarity

2009-11-11T20:32:00.003-06:00

The title must be readable and attractive. Characters and situations must be accurate. Period.

Growing up, my siblings and I would bemoan some book covers merely because the blond heroine usually ended up being a brunette or a redhead. The books that had such disparaging illustrations were avoided on that basis, unless the story had some powerful element that overcame our dislike of the illustrations. As I grew older, I realized that many other boys and girls felt the same way. Now when I illustrate a story, I will read the story completely and will often list details from the story for later in the illustration process.

Clarity is a catch-all for the details that signal a finished illustration. Not only should an illustration clearly illustrate the story, but the title should stand out clearly on a cover illustration. The illustration should not look awkward with type. Readers should recognize the important characters immediately. The texture, or lack thereof, should not distract from the illustration. The detail should be well-balanced throughout the picture. Sometimes a change in value or the addition of subtle outlines helps make a picture more clear and finished.

Of course exceptions happen, or time requires a less thorough attention to detail. However, most illustrations should exhibit this clarity.

Definitions: Fine Art

2009-11-11T20:32:00.000-06:00

How can I raise the quality of this illustration?

An illustration with better workmanship will often attract the audience's eye over a poorly crafted picture. Even if an illustrator has a strong initial idea, the execution of that idea determines success of the illustration. In fact some illustrations succeed over others not because they have more thought put into them, but rather because they are better executed. The execution of the illustration validates that illustration to the audience.

A foundation in fine art should never be used as an excuse to override the customer's preference. If a disagreement in taste occurs, it is the illustrator's responsibility to offer both variations for the customer's examination (if time allows). While fine art helps validate the illustration in the reader's mind, there can be taste differences that do not change the illustration's effectiveness.

Because of my fine art education, I look at illustrations differently than most people. I look and see if the composition looks complete with both value and color pattern, and whether the major shapes in the illustration go well with each other. I also know how painterly to be and when to hold back on the texture to preserve the clarity of the illustration. All these subtleties only add strength to what's illustrated.

Definitions: Audience

2009-11-11T20:30:00.001-06:00

Who needs to be attracted to the content the most?

A kindergarten student will probably not understand or be captivated by a technical drawing. Neither will a preteen boy enjoy a book with illustrations geared to preteen girls. A story must capture the audience that it's intended to reach.

Age differentiates the audience. So does geography. So does the surrounding social culture. So does the political atmosphere. So do major events in their lives. Parents who have lost children may look on things differently than parents who have not. By listing the intersecting sectors of society, a target audience emerges.

At times the many factors can confuse illustrators. Why can't we just make pictures? However, knowing how the target audience thinks and what they value can really aid the artist as he creates illustrations that have meaning for the audience. And if an audience finds meaning in an illustration, the story becomes all the more powerful in their eyes.

Definitions: Meaning

2009-11-11T20:29:00.000-06:00

What visuals are most appropriate and interesting within the content?

In the past some illustrators have almost prided themselves in illustrating the forgotten parts of a story. The would turn an obscure reference to some subtle emotion into a full-blown illustration. Sometimes they won awards, sometimes they created artwork that they really liked, but sometimes their illustration had little to do with the real story.

An illustrator should choose points in the story or elements from the concept that make the story or concept more meaningful to the audience. What are the major events within the story? How can the concept be broken up into smaller concepts? What emotions? What events best emphasize the emotions?

As an illustrator I try to create the major emotions in the story with the few illustrations that I have. Emotions create a sense of meaning in the audience. The readers can relate better to the stories because the feel them in the depths of their souls.

Misc. Cover Art

2009-10-28T17:13:00.001-05:00

During the last five years while working on my MFA, I regularly sought to stretch myself by taking on work outside of the school assignments. I generally did one or two extra projects per semester, and the practice helped me grow as an illustrator.

Many of these projects used photographs instead of illustrations, depending on the function of the cover or flier and the amount of time that I had available for production. Whenever I used photographs, I treated them as if they were illustrations. I made sure the overall composition fit with the mood and message that the project needed. Often I would change the photos. Working with design like this has helped me create illustrations that interact with the project design in unique and meaningful ways.

As I have said before, when I create my covers, I keep four things in mind:
Meaning: What visuals are most appropriate and interesting within the content?
Audience: Who needs to be attracted to the content the most?
Fine Art: How can I raise the quality of this cover?
Clarity: The title must be readable and attractive. Characters and situations must be accurate. Period.
If time is a hindering factor, I still try not to scrimp on the above principles. Many may wish to overlook the fine art principle, but a fine cover usually implies quality content, not mediocre content.

A friend of mine asked me to create the cover for her masters audio project. She dramatized the life story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand. The project was well received, and has been a mile-marker in my illustration journey. I studied old pictures of Richard and Sabina, getting models with similar facial structures to pose for the characters. I tried to capture their life struggle in visual form. Through the project I developed a great admiration for the Wurmbrands.

The cover also signaled the end of an experimental style that I had developed. I would create two color layers, a black one and a white one. I would erase and paint in the mask of the top layer to create a monochromatic painting. Then I would use multiple adjustment layers to color the painting in. The style has potential, but can take a long time.

A friend from Africa asked me to create the cover for his interactive DVD, the culmination of his communications masters. For this he provided all the photographs, and I merely played with the design. I wanted to make it look educational and interesting.

A Palestinian friend asked me to create the cover to her communication masters project, an audio documentary on Arab Culture. The most important concept was to illustrate the traditional elements of society being mixed and contrasted with the modern culture. I chose the yellow and blue colors, because those colors are prevalent within the culture, and because they are complementary colors on the RGB color wheel. The effect is very powerful and engaging.

A good friend asked me to create this cover the day before it was due. I worked it in around other projects and made it work. While I wish I could have improved the images, it succeeds to capture the haunting emotion of his drama.

A friend created a documentary on abortion. I emphasized the themes of attack and trauma with the target overlaid on the baby's head. The harsh black, red, and white color scheme accentuates the difficult subject matter in the video.

At the end of the summer of 2006, I took a reasearch trip to New York, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, to investigate the life and art of Eugene Iverd. I knew a little about the man when I started, very little. By the time I was done, I had seen three dozen of his original paintings and poured over records from his life. At the end of the trip, I wrote a paper on him and other forgotten illustrators from the late twenties and early thirties. This was the cover.

In 2006, I made a flier for the Campus Church's single's retreat. The leaders created the theme and I fleshed it out visually.

The back of the flier continued the theme and presented the essential information in an interesting way.

This is the front and back for the 2008 Single's Retreat flier. The front is a composite illustration, meshing together personal photographs and stock photography.

This year I am publishing a portfolio that comes out early in the holiday season. I am using one of my favorite Biblical paintings as the art. If you would like a portfolio, please feel free to contact me at matthewsample2@gmail.com.

A Beka Book Cover Art

2009-10-07T11:30:00.002-05:00

This Wednesday's theme is book covers—specifically covers painted for A Beka Book. I worked in A Beka for 6 years and had the privilege and honor of working on 15 covers for readers and song visuals. I have included 9 reader covers below.

Everyone judges books by their covers, though they know they shouldn't. A book can have a wonderful story or message and be trapped in a cover that does not attract attention or does not attract the right audience. I try to bring wonderful messages to audiences who would want or need to hear them. I try to make covers that do justice to the content.

When I create my covers, I keep four things in mind:
Meaning: What visuals are most appropriate and interesting within the content?
Audience: Who needs to be attracted to the content the most?
Fine Art: How can I raise the quality of this cover?
Clarity: The title must be readable and attractive. Characters and situations must be accurate. Period.
If time is a hindering factor, I still try not to scrimp on the above principles. Many may wish to overlook the fine art principle, but a fine cover usually implies quality content, not mediocre content.

Sometime in the future I will upload several covers and fliers that I have done for friends and events not related to A Beka Book.

I love Song of the Brook's cover. It is the sequel to Secret in the Maple Tree. As I did on that cover, this cover mimics the cartoon characters inside the book. However, I sought to raise the characters (and the Washington state scenery behind them) to a higher aesthetic level. The cartoon style inside the book would not work on the cover, and neither would a photo-realistic painting. Butterflies were an important part of the redemptive story line, so the butterfly was tied to the title with color. The colors were adjusted to be bright, interesting, and evocative of both beauty and adventure. I am very satisfied with how this turned out.

This was my first real cover, I learned a lot with this cover.

Windows to the World is the last cover I worked on and the most challenging. How could I blend a five-point perspective view of the street on the front naturally into a normal-looking three-point perspective on the back? I skewed the perspective to make it work.

I created this in half the time a cover is normally allotted in A Beka. I did it to prove to myself that cover paintings could painted fast. I also really enjoyed working with the grand craggy landscape.

A fascinating book about Mexican migrant workers in Washington state. I hope fifth-grade girls are intrigued by the cover and can't wait to read the whole story.

The illustration for Liberty Tree. In the low-quality jpeg, some abnormalities might appear in the foliage of the tree. Those abnormalities were in the original and helped the title stand out stronger.

I am a Photoshop painter, but for this painting, I experimented with Corel Painter. I really liked the effect similar to thick paint. However, I am most comfortable in Photoshop. Maybe, after years of Painter experience, the differences between the two programs might diminish, but right now I am a Photoshop man.

Much of my work for A Beka was adapting older illustrations to a modern look. The front of the Of People cover is about 40% mine (the non-essential 40%). The back cover is my own work.

Growing Up Where Jesus Lived is another example of older art changed for a modern cover. Title clarity is most important, then comes quality of composition, and afterwards justice to the original illustration's style.

Liftoff

2009-10-03T10:29:00.001-05:00

At the beginning of any journey, I feel an energy in my heart: the anticipation of adventure. This marks the start of my adventures as a freelance illustrator.

I have just been paid for my first completed freelance job. The job was actually pro bono, but they very kindly gave me a gift--something pleasantly unexpected! I am finishing up another illustration job, banners for a new church building in California (a team effort between myself, fine artist Sarah Marina, and church graphic designer Sean Kent), and look forward to moving on to the next item. My digital portfolio is a couple weeks from being finished. I'm hoping to have a mini-demo on it . . . but that might be beyond my present powers. Until then, I will be building up my online portfolio here. Look for uploads on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Someday I will have a full-fledged website, but until then this blog is quite exciting. Look out! There's a wild adventure ahead . . . .