Here’s another preview to my licensing collections. This one was focused on a Halloween card set and is made up of four different monster foxes. Here we have the monster of Franken-fox and the whole set also contains a vampire, mummy, and a witch. I tried to incorporate a really corny way of saying Happy Halloween that correlated with the characters. I do plan on making these cards and selling the set myself so keep an eye out for those!
Working Class Crocodile Preview - Site Update - 20% off Print Store Promotion
Here is another preview of one of my licensing pieces. This one is called Working Class Crocodiles and is made up of a couple of characters and patterns made up of their accessories. This collection was focused toward a coffee cup and saucer set.
Also, as you have probably noticed, the site has gone through some cosmetic changes. I decided it was about time to give this place an update. The more noticeable changes are the redesigned home page which will eventually have a fourth category for licensing, redone side-bar, updated logo, larger portfolio images, and rewritten "about me" page with an interview I did with Andrew Coyle on his Knofolio site. I also finally figured out how to embed the interactive pieces in the exact place I wanted them.
Finally the print store has received a slight update to match up with the changes of the site and for the next two weeks there is a promotion going on to get 20% off all print purchases. Just enter the promo code: GOMESILLO at check out and the discounts will be applied.
Prehistoric Preview
Lately I've been building up a licensing portfolio mainly focused toward the children's market. Eventually when I have enough pieces I'll add a separate portfolio to the site that includes the main designs, supporting patterns, and product mock ups, but until them I'll be showing previews of them through blog posts. This one was made up with the idea of being used for electronic accessories such as phone and tablet cases, laptop sleeves, etc.
Knofolio Interview
I was recently interviewed by Andrew Coyle. He is a talented designer that has created a site called Knofolio for people to share their art and connect with art teachers and other artists in order to further their work. You can check out his site over at knofolio.net/ and the interview over at:
http://about.knofolio.net/color-and-excitement-interview-with-illustrator-john-gomes/
Listen, Listen
For this assignment we were given a poem by Lillian Moore titled, "Listen!" and had to create an 8" x 10" children's book illustration that incorporated the text within the composition. I thought it would be a fun idea to have her in a chamber of a castle eating mounds and mounds of halloween candy. The question is how exactly did she get so much candy...?
Clothed Figure 3
in Line Drawings, Studies
Here's a collection of my better work from my Clothed Figure 3 class last semester. All of these studies are done with conte crayon on either smooth newsprint or drawing paper.
Ultrasylvania Variant Cover
This is a variant cover being used for Volume 2 of Ultrasylvania. The kickstarter to get the comic printed was just started yesterday and we are more then a quarter of the way there. The version with this variant caver is only limited to 20 comics and 6 of them are already claimed, so hurry over and get yours before they are gone.
You can find the kickstarter here ----> KICKSTARTER
The cover was done completely in Adobe Illustrator and some of the decorative background elements were provided by "Free Vintage Vectors", which can be found at http://www.vectorian.net/download-free-vector-ornaments.html.
Musical Chairs
This assignment was to create a set of 5 icons that combined two types of categories. For example, seafood flavored ice cream, cats as world leaders, or presidential sock puppets. I chose to do music genres and chairs or... Musical Chairs. All the chairs were done in vector with Adobe Illustrator. Can you figure out each chair?
Creature of the Black Lagoon Vector Portrait
For this assignment we had to find a good portrait of a movie monster and recreate it in vector using the pen tool in Illustrator. I chose to do the Gill-man from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" for mine and after about 20 hours of work came out with the portrait below. It seemed almost too fitting to include the Japanese sun pattern behind him being how he could just as easily have come from a Godzilla movie.
Ultrasylvania
Last spring I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be a part of a Comic Collaborative Class to create volume 1 of a comic entitled "Ultrasylvania". This class was led by Jeremy Saliba who acted as our art director, and Brian Schirmer who wrote the comic. Eleven students were hand chosen by these two to illustrate 6-8 pages each of this 75 page graphic novel. The official synopsis of the comic is as follows:
"In the 19th century Europe of ULTRASYLVANIA, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and a certain Egyptian resident don't lurk in the darkness - they're world leaders, struggling to hold their nations together amid assassination plots, romantic betrayals, and political intrigues. That’s the world of our story. The setting. And a couple of the major players. But, it’s about a great many things – love, loss, mistrust, espionage, the murkiness of “truth” – and hope in the face of all of that."
I'm sure most of you who have been following me through Facebook or Twitter are well aware of this project as I have been rattling on about it to help get it printed. It is currently being released as a web-comic over at Ultrasylvania.com and now is currently seeking funding on a site called Kickstarter so we can print physical copies of the book. This Kickstarter site works by offering you rewards (copies of the final comic, original art, etc.) so that you can contribute funding toward getting this book printed. There is a certain funding goal set that we have to meet within 30 days, and you will only be charged once we reach that goal. As of right now the campaign is going very well. We've hit 57% of the funding goal within 6 days, but we still need help making it the rest of the way. We ask for help anyway you can, whether it be by buying a copy of the book or just by sharing the Kickstarter link and getting the word out about the comic. For anyone that has already supported us in any way, THANK YOU!
You can find the Kickstarter campaign at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/955965154/ultrasylvania-the-graphic-novel?ref=category
Barn Owl Watercolor Study
This is a barn owl study I did for my Illustration 2 class.
The Spirit in the Bottle
Here is a cover and a two-page spread for Grimm's Fairy Tales' "The Spirit in the Bottle". Both were first done in watercolor and ink then touched up digitally. For the cover I went with a more comic-like feel, while going for more of a children's book style for the two-page spread.
Clothed Figure 2 Studies
in Charcoal, Line Drawings, Studies
Here are a collection of my better studies from my Clothed Figure 2 class this semester. Each drawing is labeled with how long the study was and they were done in conte crayon, charcoal pencil, and pastel pencils.
Porker
For class we were given five random words and within an hour we had to come up with an idea for a finished illustration. We then had a week to bring it to a finished piece in watercolor. Our five words were pig, clock, mask, tree, and stick and this is the result of my finished illustration. The piece was first rendered with brown ink then I added a few layers of watercolor. I've been playing around with a style more catered to children's books with my watercolors and am really enjoying the results so far.
Natalie Watercolor Portrait
For my Illustration 2 class we needed to simply create a portrait using whatever techniques we liked as long as we used watercolor. Natalie was my model for this portrait and I decided to start out with a fully rendered pencil drawing and then go over it with a few layers of watercolor. I used a smooth sheet of hot press watercolor paper and did the initial drawing on it, sprayed a thin layer of fixative on the drawing to make sure the pencils don't mix with the watercolor, and then applied about 3 layers of watercolor to flush out the correct skin and hair tones. This is the first time I have used this technique and I must say that I am really happy with how it turned out. It's a great way to take fully rendered pencil drawings to a finished state. Below are links to the pencilled version and a shot of the first layer of watercolor.
Excalibur
in Digital
For my Illustration class we were given the assignment to accurately illustrate a line or two from a book so I went with "The Legend of King Arthur and his Knights" by Sir James Knolwes. My exact quote (which I went with the second part of the quote) was... "At that, King Lot ran furiously at him, and smote him down, but rising straightway, and being set on horseback, he drew his sword Excalibur that he had gained by Merlin from the Lady of the Lake, which, shining brightly as the light from thirty torches, dazzled the eyes of his enemies.”
This piece was done completely digital (minus the initial line work) in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. I wanted to go with a graphic feel to this one, while rendering the main figures in the foreground to make them pop out. My love for Alphonse Mucha really seemed to come out with this piece and I really enjoy the mixture of graphic and painterly elements.
Monsters Attack!
We were given an assignment in my Comics 1 class with a vague script for a four panel page depicting a monster attacking and terrorizing a city. This is what I came up with. My monster was my own take on an old Godzilla monster named "Destroyah". I went with his basic design and made him a bit more lizard like and I am pretty content with how he came out. This assignment required a ton of perspective work, which can be a pain at times, but it always turns out looking really nice. This was also our first assignment where we inked our own work and although it turned out well, it really taught me that you need to plan out where your blacks are going in the pencil stages or else it is really easy to start getting lost in the inking stage.
Plugged In
Here is a piece done on video game addiction for my Illustration 1 class. The piece is 8" x 11" and done with a Crow-Quill pen on Bristol board. I'm pretty happy with how this one came out and the more I use the Crow-Quill pen, the more I like it.
Figure Painting Studies
in Oil Painting, Studies
Here are some of the better studies that came out of my Figure Painting class. The three figure studies were six hour poses while the feet study took about three hours. All of these painting were done in oil on board. I'm still having problems with taking photographs of oil paintings without getting some glare so I am open and hoping for any suggestions.
Head Study in Oil
Here is a six hour head study done in my Introduction to Figure Painting class. As the title suggests the study was done in oil on Masonite board. I've been playing around with different surfaces to paint on and board seems to be my favorite for smaller paintings, but when I need a bigger surface, boards start to get pretty expensive. More of these class studies and the last master study I did should be up soon. I'm just figuring out the best way to photograph them and once I do that I'll re shoot all the old paintings I've done. Stay tuned.