The latest environment for Stephan Britt’s presence on the Intertubes is truly a stroke of genius. Combining his wonderfully nostalgic style within the framework of a retro Milton Bradley-esque game board motif is the perfect match.
Tag: technique
Kristin Elder
New Mexico based artist Kristin Elder creates watercolor images of elegant beauty with a twist of magical surrealism that really satisfies. More examples of delicate watercolor work can be found on her blog as well.
Charles Addams
The work of Charles Addams was a great influence to my career in illustration. His dark humor and sometimes subtle punch lines captivated me from a very early age. I studied a paperback collection of his cartoons over and over, marveling at the way his mind worked and his use of ink and shading. 25 years ago I was inspired to write and thank him for the huge level of inspiration and how he was instrumental to my path towards illustration. In particular, how mesmerized I was as a child with his rendition of a miner spotlighting Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit with his miner’s lamp. Not expecting a response, I was thrilled to receive a letter promptly the next week, responding to my comments about his work and how it had shaped my career path.
Dear Mr. Phillips: “I enjoyed your letter about your first confrontation with one of my books. If only all reactions could be as rewarding!’
3-D Prints
Just posted in the Etsy shop, a starter collection of prints utilizing a 3-D effect. More fun than regular old 2-D, these print variations sport an extra punch of fun dimensionality! The 3 levels: Color layer on paper, Plexiglass middle topped by a transparent film layer of line art:
Three in the shop to date with more to follow soon: Time Machine (pictured above) Spirit Tiki and Rocket Tiki
Tiki Series
I recently began a series of Tiki images exploring a graphic, limited color approach. Some in the series tend to skirt the outside boundaries of a screen print type of look. I hope to pick up with this series soon to add more since they’re great fun to create. See the special “twofer” price on the series in the Etsy shop.
Steampunk Tales Cover Art
I was approached recently to create a cover for issue #3 of the popular “Steampunk Tales“ collection of stories. Advertised as the first ever electronic pulp fiction magazine published exclusively on iPhone and iPod touch.
Borrowing from the flavor of one of the ongoing stories “The Mask of Tezcatlipoca” by G.D. Falksen, I worked up a tight sketch from some thumbnail explorations and included a font choice for the magazine title. Once approved, I proceeded to create the finish, using Corel’s Painter software. The pencil sketch was scanned and I started with black line work mixed with some scratchboard treatments around the face and grass. All the line work behind the figure was selected with the magic wand tool and I substituted the black with greens and browns to soften the background. Color was than added, below the line work layer and a floral texture was added to the vest. The final step was adding a variety of textures over the entire area with beige and sepia colors to “age” its look and dull down the colors. I used thin line strokes along the left “magazine spine,” the edges and the corners to emulate some dog ears and stress.
The Evolution of a Monkey
Here’s an simplified example of the steps I take to create one of my Steampunk Monkey Nation characters. I scan my pencil sketch and open in Painter. It’s used as a guide for creating the black and white line work with Painter’s Scratchboard tool. Color is applied to a lower layer which shows through the line work since it’s converted to a “Gel” composite layer (something similar to Photoshop’s Darken or Multiply layer attribute.)
Here’s a bit of background on Professor Horatio Sprocketnotch:
Scientist
Brilliant but quite mad mastermind behind of scores of scientific breakthroughs. These include: the creation of the Eye of Radical Hyperbaric Transcendence and Licorice Legs. Pictured holding his greatest creation, the inter-dimensional tsunami egg of destruction, which worked perfectly the first and only time it was activated.