30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 21: Bigfoot UFO. It’s my mom’s birthday, so I made her an illustration with two of her favorite subjects: Bigfoot & UFOs. Happy birthday, mom! The truth is out there 🙂 I started this piece in Photoshop using the Wacom...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 20: Kissing Fish. This piece focuses on volume and lighting. I wanted the simple 2D fish illustrations to look like they have some depth. The light rays and transparencies are all vector art in Illustrator. If I were to create this...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 19: Daytime Owl. This is my first vector drawing that started on a digital drawing tablet in Photoshop. I sketched the owl on the Wacom One and brought it into Illustrator. I’m not used to the pen tool workflow with a stylus, so...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 18: Night Owl. This piece was my first exercise using a drawing tablet. I just got a Wacom One tablet and it’s an awesome drawing/sketching experience. To get a feel for the stylus, I used Photoshop. Back to Illustrator...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 17: Retro Bee Poster. I’ve been exploring a bunch of retro/vintage styles and textures. This piece uses a couple of grain textures painted using the freeform gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator. #30DayChallenge #adobeillustrator...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 16: Pappa Polar Bear. It’s my dad’s birthday, so I made him this polar bear illustration. I’ll probably do two more animals in this retro/posterized style. #30DayChallenge #adobeillustrator #drawing #vectorart...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 15: Retro Sea Turtle. I’m digging the retro vibe. So, I’ll probably do a series of 5 or 6 animals in this style. #30DayChallenge #adobeillustrator #drawing #vectorart #illustration Original sea turtle pencil sketch scan...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 14: Retro Hummingbird. I was inspired by some retro posters on Pinterest last night. So, I took an old pencil drawing and turned it into a retro poster illustration. #30DayChallenge #adobeillustrator #drawing #vectorart #illustration...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 13: Noisy Squirrel. This was a fun one. I’m currently focusing on texture in Adobe Illustrator. This piece uses a lot of grain effects with opacity masks. There’s also a paper texture overlay. For the background lines, I...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 12: Friendly Robot. I’m still focusing on the freeform gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator. I’m also using different textures to give the vector art a more organic feel. Special thanks to Bryan Goff from Unsplash for the...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 11: Pigasus. This was another exercise with the width tool and the freeform gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator. I also wanted to incorporate a background. My previous illustrations have looked a little stiff without environments. I...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 10: Pappa Bear Face. This was an exercise using the Freeform Gradient tool in Illustrator. I’m not sure how I feel about freeform gradients. I think the results were nice, but the tool produces unpredictable colors. It takes a...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 9: Fearless Frog. I’m still focusing on light and shadow in Adobe Illustrator. For this illustration, I added a bit more depth to the shadows. I found it helpful to print out the contour lines and do some pencil shading for the...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 8: Hillbilly Hunting Dog. For this illustration, I focused on shadow and highlight without gradients. My past couple of illustrations had weird volume because I was relying on gradients for depth. I think my lighting and coloring are...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 7: Lady Elephant. I’m really happy with the linework/inking. I’m still learning shading and highlight techniques, and I don’t think the volume is quite right. The challenge is getting the highlights, shadows, and...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 6: Crocodile King This one was tough. I don’t really have a system for highlights and shadows in Illustrator. For me, It’s a bit different than Photoshop. I thought the drawing was a bit complex. So, I simplified the...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 5: Alien UFO I drew this alien character a couple of years ago. I tried to build the UFO in Illustrator but had some difficulty with the overlapping lines. The good news is that I’m getting better 🙂 I was able to build...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 4: Soaring Dove I wanted to do something simple and geometric today. I went for a more feminine subject and color scheme – in contrast with the previous pieces. I didn’t have a clear mental picture before I started, but...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 3: GoodFella Fish I went for a more cartoony illustration style with fewer lines and shapes. Today’s challenge was the Width Tool in Adobe Illustrator. In the past, I would have drawn shapes first, and the contour lines would be...
30-Day Illustration Challenge Day 2: Stoic Lion Face I went with a more serious subject today because yesterday was silly. I sketched this lion a few years ago and wanted to do something with a mix of organic lines and geometric shapes. #30DayChallenge...
