Gifts in Return

Just wrapped up this sermon illustration for Church in the Valley, designed to accompany a new message series called "Gifts in Return." The pastor is discussing the gifts we give to God in return for all the amazing gifts he first gave us. The theme ties in nicely with both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so naturally the graphics took on a seasonal look as well.

I started with a shaded pencil drawing and then painted the color and environment within Photoshop.

Vintage Faith

I recently completed design and illustration on this promotional mailer for Fellowship Church of Burbank. They're starting a new message series on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, hoping to sift through the cultural misconceptions and preconceived notions of who Jesus was, and rediscover the "vintage" Jesus as presented in the Bible.

The Pastor at FCB is a really cool, deep-thinking guy; it was a lot of fun to work with him on the project. He gave me a good measure of creative license which was encouraging and a challenge at the same time. The main ideas we hoped to convey were a sense of organic authenticity, community, and "vintageness." "Vintage" can fit a lot of things, from 60's concert posters to 50's advertisements or 40's fruit crate labels, so I researched a bunch of different kinds of vintage references to find aspects that would fit our project. The result, I hope, is an image that feels "Vintage" without necessarily being tied to one specific era or genre.

The series kicks off this Sunday and will be going for a few months. If you're in the area, check it out!

Where You Go, I Will Go

This image was inspired by a difficult yet touching scene witnessed in Africa. A blind woman was begging on the streets of a crowded city with her daughter. Her daughter stayed close by her side, leading her carefully wherever they went.

Illustration-wise, I'm really happy with how this came out! I'd to make more pieces like this, inspired by some of my memories of Africa, and to tell the stories of people who don't have a voice over here.

One concern I have however, is the relationship of form to content - is this comic-book/disney-ish style appropriate for a piece about third world desperation? Does the caricatured style disrespect the subject, or gloss over the seriousness of their hardship? I'd love to see comic/animation artwork begin to tackle reality as well as it does fantasy. Perhaps the fact that this isn't the standard gritty photojournalistic depiction might enable the story of these two to reach a different audience?

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the subject!

So What Now?

This I made a few weeks ago to illustrate a sermon called "So What Now?" about responding to the unexpected changes in life.

Drawing this was a good learning experience, I started out the process with a specific style in mind, one that is only very newly developing for me. After many attempts, I found it stifling to try to inject that style into this picture while it's still immature. Eventually I realized it'd probably be best just to draw the picture without too much attention to style, and let whatever comes naturally for me be the look. That worked much better!

I did a lot of stages in building up the drawing, from thumbnail, to figure wireframes, to a rough sketches, and a final drawing. It was very helpful, so I'll try to make the most of that process in the future, while hopefully streamlining it a bit more with practice.

Another Christmasy pic

Last week was a really good week for illustration! Here is another seasonal picture, my church commissioned it for our Christmas service next month.

Jars of Clay t-shirt contest

DeviantArt was having a t-shirt design contest for my favoritest band in the whole wide world - Jars of Clay, to promote their new Christmas album. I put this entry together at the "eleventh hour" (literally, it was due at 11:59 pm on Saturday and I started executing my idea at 10:40!).

The judges are picking a top 20 this week, if I get in the top 20, I might need some people to vote for me (hint, hint). If not, c'est la vie.

Halloween Characters

Made this for possible entry into a Halloween-themed show.