The following pieces are part of a series, created for an upcoming magazine for kids. Though not officially unveiled, the publisher has been kind enough to allow me to show a few of the paintings ahead of the publication’s debut. When the magazine is officially available, I’ll make note here on the blog.

The project began with a call from the client, in which I was given a brief overview of the new venture. A rough outline of the particular story, setting and characters followed, along with the usual details of budget, usage, and timing. The assignment sounded like a lot of fun, especially when we agreed this would be a great opportunity to employ a looser approach to the artwork, something with a nod toward to the graphic novel ethos. The result is a series of paintings that I feel are more intuitive and freshly rendered than some of my other children’s publication work.

As usual, Photoshop and Painter were used to create the paintings. I rendered the color in layers over a base canvas containing a scan of a favorite textured background along with a scan of the original pencil drawing. This allowed me to leave some areas of the paintings unfinished and open to the “canvas” which is most easily seen in the first piece. The line work of the pencil scans is used as an element of the finished illustration as well and helps define various shapes within an overall image.

This was a great, fun project and the illustration style and technique is one I hope to use more often.