The Pirate Queen

This piece got into the Society of Illustrators Student Competition in 2007. My inspiration was a story that my grandfather used to tell my brothers and I about a lady pirate captain called "The Dragon Lady".

This is another that I did using gouache. I really like doing underwater painting. (I don't paint under the surface of water. I paint scenes that would appear underwater.)

Digital Excercise

This is just a digital painting I did one day to get some practice. It was a quick, fun, personal project. My reference was from a photo I took of a penguin at the zoo having a little difficulty making his way down to the water.

Little Red Riding Hood

This is a digital painting I did in my illustration class last spring. The assignment was to paint a beautiful little girl in the context of little red riding hood. I don't paint kids very often, so it was a nice break and I had fun.

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sherlock Holmes

This is one of my favorite classic detective stories. I had been waiting for the chance to illustrate the cover and the BFA project was the perfect opportunity.

On this one, I have divided the jacket to show where the flaps, covers and spine meet and end. It was kind of hard for people to visualize so for the show, I printed each jacket out and wrapped it around a book (or a block of wood that looked like a book) and they looked great. My dad cut the pieces of wood for me and I painted them with pages and covers. People kept trying to open them, not realizing that it wasn't a book at all.

This was my initial idea for the cover. It's a quick value sketch, but it told me what I needed to know. I needed to change my composition.

The Pistol Shot

This was actually a short story about two friends who have a disagreement and duel over it. By the rules of the duel, the first man takes one shot and if he misses the second man takes a shot. That is exactly what happened only the second man decided to save his shot for a later, more spontaeous time. Throughout the next few months, he makes sure the first man knows he is present by attending all the same social events slowly getting his revenge by watching the first man crack under the strain of having him always there.
Out of all six jackets, I enjoyed painting this one the most. I thought the story, composition, lighting and color were all exciting.

This is a small color comp that I did when I figured out my composition.

Nefertiti

This is not a real novel. I thought painting some hieroglyphics would be fun... and it was... for the first 12 hours. The next 38 were okay but the last 20 were killer. That's an exaggeration, but it always seems like those things that we get excited to paint because "it would be fun" turn out to torture us worse than anything anyone else could have come up with.
Nefertiti, the second most famous Egyptian queen, was celebrated for her stunning beauty during and after her life. The experts know little else about her.
I was surprised at the BFA open house how many people expressed that this was their favorite of the covers.

East 43rd street

This was a fun mystery about a private investigator who gets mixed up with a couple of con artists.
I did this painting in about a day and a half. Two days if you include photo shoots. I like the low viewpoint of this one because you feel the mystery a little better. And the eyes of the character are not shown making us wonder about her identity.

Bound

This was a fun one to read. It is a Chinese Cinderella story about a girl named Xing Xing. In the story, Xing Xing befriends a white carp which she believes to be the reincarnation of her dead mother. Later, the stepmother kills the fish and feeds it to the daughters for dinner. Xing Xing isn't very hungry that night. There is also an incident when their pet possum eats the toes of the stepsister and he stepmother smashes the possum with a club until it's guts are smashed all over the inside of the cave.
My favorite part about this jacket is the constellation of a carp in the sky on the back cover.

The Time Machine

This is a cover for The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I wanted to use one point perspective to communicate movement and this was the right book for it. This cover was the beginning of my BFA project and the positive feedback I received after finishing helped me to move forward.

My BFA Show Invitations

This is one of the invitations I distributed for my BFA show. Since most of my illustrations are of mystery and detective stories, we thought this would be appropriate. It was fun to do and I handed them out with little magnifying glasses each with a fingerprint on the glass. So fun.