Monster Attack!

Alien Brainbot 1 & 2 (stacked)

A year ago I was commissioned by my friend Derek Muscat at Theocy Design to illustrate a pair of "Big Monster Attacks" for decks he was preparing for Drake Snowboards. One image would showcase the "creature" and the other a montage of comic style panels depicting the devastation. I drew up a multitude of sketches for each concept and would have been happy to finalize any one of them. The final artwork was done in ink on heavy paper and coloured digitally. After the job was submitted I took some time to revisit both images, altering the layout, expanding the palette and textures, and adding all the lettering.

Below are my three favourite sketches from the concepts submitted as well as a couple of photos I took along the way.

Sketches | Process | Product

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween |  Poster Art 2002

I painted this one when I was a student at Sheridan College to promote the Illustration programs' Annual Halloween Pub Night. I didn't have much of a plan before I picked up a brush and it kinda shows but still makes me laugh. When I was about to give up on Frank and try a different approach my good friend Adam Hilborn jumped in and brought the piece back to life when he added the Mummy! Thanks Adam!
It's a little out of date, but it was a fun collaboration that not too many folks have seen.  

  

Happy Halloween 2002 | Acrylic Painting

Above is a photograph of the original, before I mucked it up digitally trying to balance the background.  I can remember having a hard time getting a good scan or photograph of the piece back in '02 and even today there's something about the original acrylic that still doesn't translate to digital.  

The Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch | Commission

The Scarlet Witch is an 11"x17" ink drawing, coloured digitally along with some additional hand made textures.  This piece was commissioned by Doug Simpson, manager at Paradise Comics in Toronto and an Avengers super-fan.
  

Scarlet Witch | Inks | Digital Colour  | Sketches

For more than a decade Doug has commissioned drawings of his favourite members of the Marvel Comics super team, including Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-man, The Vision and Hawkeye.  Many of these drawings became promotional material for local comic book conventions.

This is the second Scarlet Witch I've drawn for Doug;)  Thanks for keeping me busy!

Up a Tree

Lion | Personal Work

This proud beast is painted in acrylic on illustration board and measures ~8" x 10".  It is available as a signed giclee print limited to one-hundred units and costs $60+shipping.  It also makes a swell  4.5"x 6" card!

Lion | Sketches | Detail | Wallpaper(1920x1080) 

There are a few more lion sketches leading up to the painting that I'll post as I scan them. 

Also, check out other products featuring this illustration now available at Society6. 

New Work

Tyrannosaurus Rex | Personal Work

Creating a series of Big Lizard paintings has been on my list of personal projects for a long time. Due in no small part to my years hanging around the museum as a kid or the posters that wrapped my bedroom walls growing up. To kick things off I started with the tyrannosaurus because he's the king, and easily the most famous. Check out Portfolio 2 for a larger image of the Tyrannosaurus and expect more dinos in the coming months.

Tyrannosaurus Rex | Process & Detail | acrylic paint on illustration board ~12 x 18"
Fo signed archival prints please contact me directly.  For other prints, products and apparel please visit Society6.

Wedding Invitations

To Have and to Hold | Private Commission

The approach I took to this wedding invitation was inspired by the venue Jamie and Talia had chosen for their big day. The Eglinton Grand is an old theater in Toronto that's been converted into an event hall and restored to its original 1937 grandeur. We thought it would be fun to imitate the sensibilities of a romantic movie poster from the same period.

To Have and to Hold | Process & Detail | ink on watercolour paper 10 x 15"

At the outset I had intended the physical art to be rendered exclusively in ink wash, but after over-working Talia's hair I introduced white acrylic. Once I'd completed the black and white painting I brought it into Photoshop where I colourized the image. This is a technique I've found quite successful at capturing a Technicolor look while retaining the brushstrokes and textures of my painting. With the rendering already done in paint this method of colouring is pretty quick.
The typography on the posters of the 1930's is sometimes the most complex part, often using as many as six different typefaces in a short stack of text. For this I created some original hand lettering and modified existing fonts in other places. Some informational text has been omitted for web.