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.

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.