Nutcracker - Josh

Here's another attempt of a Nutcracker I've been doodling for a while in various past sketches (1, 2, 3).

This is further exploration into a story concept about the Nutcracker from ETA Hoffman's original book.

Super Mario Bros. Theme Park Attraction - by Josh

I've recently started to play around with the 3D software Google Sketchup, trying to find away to incorporate it into illustrations. This is my first test. What I did was create a very basic 3D model in Sketchup. I then took a JPG from a certain angle of the model and painted over it as my bases for an illustration. My goal was to see if I could create a drawing where it would not be blatantly obvious that I used a 3D model.


The drawing is an exterior of a Super Mario Bros. Theme Park Attraction that I made up. I plan to make this a part of a series of drawings where I also explore the interior and the ride itself, which is primarily a motion simulator.


The setting is the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing Service Center. Mario and Luigi have created a plumbing company and they have opened their doors for tours and plumbing recruits. The company guarantee is that they will send a plumber to you not matter what the terrain (land, water, or air). From these headquarters they blast their plumbing vehicles, like cannon balls, from the four large pipes at the top of the building.

Prayer Book Illustrations - Josh

I was commissioned to provide 20 illustrations and a cover piece for an updated publication of The Guild of the Living Rosary of Our Lady and Saint Dominic. I was asked to adapt a particular collection of stain glass windows into simplified illustrations.

Fifteen of the drawings were based on the actual windows (two of which are seen above). The following drawings had to be fabricated to match the same style and look.

I was able to design the cover using this photo.


The book is expected to be published toward the end of the fall. My thanks to Canon David Baumann for providing me this opportunity.

Klash!

At the beginning of summer I (Josh) was hired to create a series of illustrations and designs for a curriculum written for summer camp programs. The program, titled KLASH OF THE KINGDOMS, was created by our extremely creative friend Steve Burrows. Everything I drew was under his detailed guidance. When I was a kid I never went through any kind of program that was this well thought out and richly imaginative. The program was initiated at a camp that Steve and his parents own and manage in Nevada. The camp is called Cowboy's Rest.
This is an illustration I made for promotion materials.

Some banner designs.

Every team has a different shield each taken from the Gospels whenever Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is like ..."

These shields were put on to physical shields, along with being on team T-shirts.

All the shirts included either of these designs.

The program begins with a video telling a story about a mythical land where all these different kingdoms reside.The video was told along with these illuminated style drawings. Kind of like the opening sequences in classic Disney animated films.

These are maps of the mythical land and show the dramatic "before" and "after" change which happens in the story.

The 2nd map was recreated in a full scale painting.

I also created my first drawing of a blue print for a set piece that was built. Below the blue print is my conceptual drawing of how the set would look when painted.

Katie and I went to work at the camp to help with some creative tasks. Katie painted over 50% of the castle wall.

This is how it all turned out. (I did not design this promo pic for the camp, except for the "Klash of the Kingdoms" letters.)

My Class Project - Josh

I’ve been taking a Commercial Illustration course in the evenings since the beginning of February. It’s been really helpful to have something like a class to push me and make me work on my drawing skills. The focus of the class is more on the process of illustration then on the final pieces, so we take a lot of time focusing on the development process. In commercial illustration, the client and/or art director want the artist they hire to keep them well informed on the development of the piece. They don’t like surprises, so the artist will send thumbnails, value comprehensives, color roughs and other areas of refinement so the client can give feedback along with their approval or disapproval every step of the way. I’ll show you some examples of these steps from my first class project.
The assignment was a black and white Anthropomorphic Animal illustration done in the style of a children’s book drawing. Anthropomorphic Animal basically means an animal imitating humans appearance and/or behavior (example: Disney’s Robin Hood). Each student drew three words out of three hats. These words were of an animal, what the animal is and an adjective. From these words we had to create our illustrations. I pulled the words Tattooed, Baboon and Queen.
We started by drawing thumbnails of ideas, and these are what I came up with:
From the feedback and criticism of the class and teacher, I choose a combination of the last two as my final.
From there we had to come up with different value comprehensives (AKA lighting and shadow).

After more feedback I choose the last value drawing for my final piece. The final was drawn using black colored pencil on coquille board. This is the first time I’ve drawn on a coquille board, and I rather liked the texture. The piece did not turn out as good as I hoped, but I was really rushed to finish it after being sick for over two weeks. I basically had two days to draw it in time for the due date.

Aside from taking this course for practice reasons, I’m also using it as material for a mentorship with an animator from Disney. I don’t want to share his name without permission, but I can let you know that he directed most of the episodes of one my favorite cartoon series, Animaniacs! I’ve been running all of my work by him for more valuable feedback and criticism.All in all this has been a good experience and I really hope I can grow from it