Lessons Learned

I did this for a children's magazine published by the LDS church.  I'm also a member of the church, but that's not why they hired me for the article.  That credit goes to Natalie Malan for sending a letter of recommendation to their art directors on my behalf (Thanks Natalie!).  They hire a lot of very talented artists, so I'm honored to be included.

I learned some useful tidbits doing this, and I pass that knowledge on to you:

• If nobody complains about your unrealistic, made-up lighting, just run with it
• Bright pinkish-purple subtleties do not convert well into CMYK.  Experts conclude that you have to paint the colors and values more carefully so they will convert correctly.  I conclude that I'm going to avoid that end of the spectrum entirely next time.
• If the borders of your painting are boring enough, your art director will never notice that you didn't include bleed for the edge of the page
• If your wife has a baby due around the time your art is due, it's probably better to finish it early than to take a 3-week hiatus and then sloppily finish at the last second.

Twilligt

Twilight wasn't as bad as I expected.  But then, I expected it to be really, really, really, really bad.  Done for the Avalanche Blog.

Babby

For some baby announcements featuring our new daughter.  This was my first attempt with the brush I mentioned in the previous post.

Brains

I had this idea of a mad scientist with a malevolent cupcake for a brain and it evolved into this.

Here's another monster with a different brain for a work friend who wanted posters for her Halloween party and an earlier design for the painting.  I like both of these monsters a lot better than the one I used, but the faces/horns were awkward when I tried to pose him with the scientist.  I was heavily influenced by Todd Harris's designs on these guys.