Only two months left!

Can you guys believe that it is already November 1st? Where the heck did this year go? Gosh! It's definitely been a good one though, and I'm still excited to see what the last two months will bring! We have some exciting changes coming up at the Square Carousel Collective soon, including some amazing new, talented artists joining us! I actually just finished up a piece for the collective today that was part of a collaboration with the illustration blog Jazz and Draw.

This has been our second collaborative project since we began in June and we are looking forward to more in the future! In other news, I've been working on another fun project on the side that is pretty close to my heart. For those who don't know, I recently competed in a large online Hunger Games competiton and came in 3rd place. Well when the Games were turned over to new management, I was so pleased when I was asked to be the artist for the new Games! I can't share all of the illustrations with you yet, because they are revealed over time to "tributes" who are competing. Since the second Games have just begun, I can only reveal the opening image of the Cornucopia at the moment.

What I'm really excited to share with you guys though are the muttations I designed! I think it will be interesting to have some creature designs added to my repertoire. I'm also working on an illustration of the "careers" from the Games that I participated in. We were basically the villains of the Games haha, but unfortunately I have to set it to the side for a week or so while I finish up some other work. I also have another watercolor piece I'll be sharing with you all before the week is out, and I'm really excited about it!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Now let the Christmas season begin!

Death of a Tribute (the Pretty Face)

The latest challenge at the Square Carousel Collective was to illustrate your greatest fear. Well I recently competed in a huge online version of the Hunger Games called The Tumblr Games and my death was caused by my greatest fear: SPIDERS! Technically they were thousands of spider "muttations" though for those familiar with the book, and they didn't actually kill me. But because of them, my arch nemesis in the Games, the boy from District 5, was able to stab me through with a spear! UGH! Oh well, I was still in the final three! Haha! Plus, I kind of had it coming because I was kind of the villain of the Games. My district partner was right alongside me the whole time (and she WON! =D) But she wasn't quite as evil and manipulative lol. 


The reason for the title actually, is because I was known as the "prettiest" Tribute in the Games, and I was the boy from District 1. One of the ways I made it so far was that I manipulated and tricked almost everyone in the Games. Over half of the Tributes died either by my hand or by the influence of myself with my District partner. And the first person we betrayed, as we killed her I said "Didn't your mother ever tell you? Never trust a pretty face." And after that "Never trust a pretty face" became the trademark saying for those that died by my hand lol. 


I hope you guys like this piece. It's got quite a different feel than my usual pieces, but I have to say I'm quite pleased with the dark tone I created. I'm very much considering doing a series of illustrations based on the Tumblr Games, since I'm so inspired by the The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Also, this way, the illustrations would be on a much more personal level since I was a part of these "Games". 

Some recent challenge

I'm afraid I've neglected my blog the last couple of weeks guys, so I'll have to apologize for that! Between the sites I'm a member of, commissioned work, and teaching painting lessons, I have been a bit swamped! All of the craziness seems to be dying down a bit now, which is great because I have graduate school apps to start preparing! Anywho, here are some illustrations I've been working on between Square Carousel and Glitter and Graphite!

"Ferocious"

I actually just completed this piece last night, only to find out today that this weeks Illustration Friday challenge is "ferocious"! How fitting! I don't know if I've mentioned it on my blog before, but since reading The Hunger Games trilogy this past spring, I have been absolutely obsessed with these fabulous books! If you have not read them, I suggest you head to your local book store or Amazon.com straight away! Seriously, I have not enjoyed a trilogy so much since probably His Dark Materials.

Anyway, some of you may have seen me talk about this if you follow me on tumblr or are a facebook friend, but out of hundreds of applicants, I was selected to compete in an online version of the Hunger Games called The Tumblr Games. For those who aren't familiar, 12 boys and 12 girls are sent into a huge Arena of some type of wilderness environment and fight to the death; the last tribute standing is victor. In these games, there will be a first, second and third place, and there are currently 6 tributes remaining (myself being one of them). I had the top training score of the boys and the weapon I was known for using was the whip. Though I have yet to use one in the arena, I thought it best to depict my "character" in the form he would be best recognized.

I quickly became the "villain" of these games as I'm very competitive by nature which has made my tribute ruthless and brutal in the Arena. I just love to win I suppose haha. So I chose to depict myself this way for the Glitter and Graphite character design blog "self as villain" challenge and was so pleased that it fits for Illustration Friday's theme this week as well!

I hope you all enjoy it and I really encourage you to check out the books if you haven't already!

Pinkalicious

One of the projects I've been working on lately is for a local theatre that is putting on a production of the musical Pinkalicious, based on the popular children's book. The way the set works is there are three large screens that these images will be projected on around the stage, behind the performers!

With this I tried to keep everything very flat, simple and childlike. I wanted to keep the linework more whimsical and scribbly to really give it the feel as if a children's book is coming to life before your eyes.  There are 9 sets of 3 panels that I completed total for this project. It was a lot of fun to work with, especially since this isn't a style I usually employ in my work. 

Glitter and Graphite!

One thing I have definitely been slacking on in the last year or so has been character design, which actually used to be pretty much my favorite thing! So last week I was talking with my good friend and fellow illustrator, Blythe Russo, and we came up with the idea to start our own character design blog where we give each other a couple of challenges throughout the week to help keep our creative juices flowing, pump up our portfolios and perhaps branch out into a new market! So if you are interested in following along (which I'm sure you are of course, ;) haha) then head over to Glitter and Graphite! We'd also love outside suggestions for characters you might like to see us create or existing characters you'd want to see redesigned in our style!

Poisoned Honey

So the third challenge over at Square Carousel was to illustrate the theme of "Honey". I knew going into it that I absolutely wanted to stay away from the theme of bees or bears or anything of the sort! Especially since my mind kept jumping straight to Winnie the Pooh, haha. So I though on it for a while and it hit me!

When I was 14 or 15 years old and the 5th Harry Potter was released, I can still remember reading the book jacket where the new professor was described to have the personality of “poisoned honey”. That description is one that has really stuck with me over the years because I just thought it was such an interesting way to describe someone. So for this challenge, I ended up whipping out my watercolors (which I enjoyed using again) to complete a little spot illu of how I pictured Delores Umbridge when I read those books. I hope you enjoy it =)

Also, I have a really exciting project that I'm dying to share with y'all but I can't just yet! Stay tuned though!