Thursday, February 3, 2011

Happy Chinese New Year!



This is a detail from a two-color interior illustration for the Reader's Digest book, The Smartest, Funniest, Dumbest Things Ever Said. I've posted the full 2-page spread on my blog, along with a bit of backstory and several preliminary sketches.

I hope to post a bit more from this project later.

7 comments:

  1. I love these monchromatic illustrations. It seems like everything is so over-rendered these days. It is interesting to see your process sketches.

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  2. Thx Christina! I appreciate it.
    I like keeping things simple and direct, but I really do have to watch every line.

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  3. It's also elegant and peaceful, with great use of line width. Bravo.

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  4. love it! Another great character. Great linework too. It's nice to see some character in the line and texture. It would have been an easy temptation to take this into illustrator and perfect every path. I prefer it this way.

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  5. I love this! The position of his curvy feet makes me laugh. I also enjoyed your blog too.

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  6. Thanks, guys —you're all too kind!

    Oliver:
    Haha! No temptation for me. I "grew up" on FreeHand. I also have a tendency to bristle whenever a client asks me to convert artwork to vectors. Occasionally I'll go straight to vectors, especially if I'm drawing something mechanical-looking.

    Vanessa:
    Thanks! My wife takes yoga, so I made sure to put his feet in the full-lotus position —at least I think I did.
    Two summers ago I had to draw a pitcher in mid-windup. I thought of Daryll the whole time, and what he'd think if I got a detail wrong. It doubled the time I spent on the drawing! :-)

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