For illustrations I work in digital.

This enables you to customize one painting to any format, vertical to horizontal, arrange subjects in the painting to accommodate text and adjust the colors of various elements in the painting.

See the samples to your right.

I started this out with a purple background.

Note how as I change background, I am also able to change the color of the beast and the landscape to coordinate with the orange sky.

The beast now has yellow skin and blue-purple fur. The landscape has taken on a brown color to enhance the atmospheric effect, yet the planet and cloud has not changed color.

All these elements are on separate layers that can be individually adjusted.

Then to match the blue sky, I can simply adjust the landscape again.

Here I've adjusted the beast's skin to blue and it's fur to brown.

Probably the most beneficial convenience available to my client is the ability to recompose the illustration to fit virtually any format.

Take note of the vertical composition of the same image.

In traditional media, if you were to attempt to incorporate an image from a horizontally oriented composition into a vertical one, the following would have to occur...

• Elements of the image would either be cropped away, losing key subject matter that enhance the overall message of the image
• or the image would be reduced in size, which in the case of a paperback book cover would lose the impact on thePoint-of-Sale impulse-buying effect that artwork should have on a bookcover
• or a different illustration would have to be commissioned entirely, at cost to the client

But not in my case.

All elements are still included in the illustration. The cost of re-composing my digital illustrations are minial compared to re-commissioning an entirely new illustration.

Not only can elements be arranged to accommodate format, they can also be arranged to accommodate text and barcode.

Had I not previously arranged the artwork in this manner, say if the woman and beast had been more centrally positioned, I could easily have moved them over to one side so the barcode box could be displayed without blocking the beast's face.

If the Art Director preferred the tree on the right be removed, it could be done at the click of a mouse at no more extra cost than resaving the image...maybe $10-$15.

The finished painting, and the cover, are shown here.The original painting had a tree on the island behind the boatmen.

Now for another benefit I've found to my using digital painting.....

IMAGE QUALITY

Because I can work in very large files (this one was 600ppi 8"x10") I can pay attention to detail.

Notice........

• how smooth the transition from light to dark in the skin?
• ...the detail in the highlighting of the lips creating a slightly wet look?
• ...the subtle hint of color in the lips?
• ...the fine hairs blowing across her face?
• ...the subtle reflected light highlighting the underside of her nose?

In a painting these would be course, abstract looking brushstrokes if enlarged.

In digital, these are "detail".

This enables the client to comfortably blow this image up to poster size should he/she need to promote the product for which the illustration was commissioned.

Even the tiniest details, the little pilot operating the spaceship...the fireburst, the reflection in the glass bubble enclosure, can be included in a digital painting.

Compare this detail to the size of the spaceship in the original image. I regularly compose illustrations for use in 8ft x 10ft wallpaper murals (go to The Border Store for some samples). Nearly everything on that page is my work. The larger the image, the more detail I can add.

More samples of my latest digital works are Here

Email Me for prices and availability.