Big thanks to Sharon Milne and Adobe Press for including me in the awesome new  book, Adobe Master Class Illustrator! Here are some pictures of the inner pages:

The book is mostly a showcase of art, wit several short (2-3 page) tutorials by some of the artists explaining their techniques. I was impressed by the varied selection of artists and work included in the book. It really is an inspiring piece that shows you just how much variety you can get with artwork created totally or mostly in Adobe Illustrator.

You can buy the book at www.adobepress.com/illmaster

Use the coupon code ILLMASTER at checkout to get 35% off!

(I don’t know if there is an expiry on the coupon, so hurry up and get your copy!)

Did this as a sketch at FanExpo. It was the last day and I figured ah to hell with it, I’m drawing something fun and cartoony. Turns out doing fun and cartoony is A) fast B) recognizable and C) generally family friendly. I think this sketch attracted the most attention, and made more than one person think ‘if only I had a Cintiq, I could do that too!’. Which was kind of the point of the demo, so mission accomplished I suppose.

Anyway, fast forward a month and a house move later, and I finally found the time to use this as an excuse to test CS6. Some nice features like the editing on the fly line tool, but the somewhat slower responsiveness of the software is making me stick with CS4. Anyhoos, hope you enjoy the art at least.

Thanks to Angela over at Santa Fe Reporter for working with me on this one! This is the cover for the magazine’s ‘winter guide’ issue. The space at the top is reserved for the masthead. The brief was open so I came up with some ideas involving winter. We both liked the idea of some sort of ice princss, so I married a couple of concepts together and came up with this.

Below are the other sketches I roughed:

(I ended up re-using this one for my own Xmas card.)

This was the reworked sketch:

Some new work for Penthouse. Did these recently for their December erotic fiction piece. It was a fun piece although somewhat challenging since not all that much was happening in the story (a girl meets an old flame at a condo she’s eyeing, they make out in the pad’s outdoor shower). I tried to come up with some ideas that didn’t involve showers, but couldn’t really. The magazine prefers the images to be more direct and less conceptual anyway. The suds were quite fun to figure out, and I think generally it worked out well.

Here’s the spot that accompanied it:

I kinda liked this sketch that didn’t make it (thanks for the anatomy help Vince!), might do it up when I have the time:

Did this some time ago for the video game ‘Adrenalin Misfits’ by Konami. The game is made for the Xbox 360 and works with their Kinect motion control system. The game features some funky animal characters who (from what I gather) compete in various boarding contests. Presumably it’s like Marty’s flying skateboard in Back to the Future 2.

The version above was my final art. The final-final result that is printed is a bit different as some additional effects were added on to the piece.

Big hugs and thanks to Jason at CRP for working with me on this one! It was a lot of fun, and I really hope to work on more game related stuff in the future!

Here’s the final cover version that’s on sale on Amazon. The cover is for the North American market, I think other markets have different art:

Been very busy with work over the last couple of months (at least I think it’s been a couple of months, I’ve sorta lost track of time). Am STILL really busy, which is a good thing all things considered. Am currently working on something for Oxford University Press, as well as several other things.

Anyways, here’s the new stuff that’s been added to the site:

Eating Well – Nourish

For Eating Well magazine, in the new ink brush style. Very happy with it. It’s about the joy of growing and eating your own food. I love food. Even though I don’t eat all that much.

Kayak – Summer in Canada spread

For Kayak’s summer issue featuring Monty Moose.

Know Magazine – Baked Alaska

For Know science magazine for kids. About the discovery of Baked Alaska. More food, strangely.

Worked on this fun article for Seattle Metropolitan some time ago. Apparently there’s so much caffeine in Seattle’s harbor that the fish have elevated caffeine levels. Don’t ask me how or why someone decided to test this on the bay fish…

Illustration in the mag. no, I’m not pimping JW!

The isssue also had an awesome cover!

Some new work for Salon, which is a specialty magazine for the salons and stylists. It was a very fun job where the editors and art directors decided to go all retro-stylin’! I did a bunch of illustrations for their special business issue, so each piece covered a specific business tip like making the most of photo shoots, increasing counter sales and recruiting. I also did a 2 page comic spread covering ‘a day in the life’ of a Toronto stylist who was trailed by a business expert who gave him tips on improving his business day.

This was a delightful project for Pearson I did some time ago (and completely forgot to show it). It’s a zoo that illustrates different kinds of friction (sliding, static… I forget the rest). It was really fun to depict all the different animals and scenarios.

Did this recently for the Alberta Egg Producers. It’s going to be part of a display banner that they’ll be bringing around the province to promote eggs to kids for a healthy lifestyle. We were initially going to a do a large scene of kids doing all sorts of energetic things but unfortunately the time and budget didn’t allow for that. Still, I think we did pretty good with what we had! You can see the final design for the display put together by the art director here.