This was the 3rd cover for the videos. I had a lot of fun with this one and was the second mummy egyptian piece I had done to that point. Again, a lot of this was just made up. I did research some of the glyphics on the back of the wall and found reference for the top of the sarcaphogous. The rest was just imagination. I remember that I was happy with the lighting in this image. The hand is mine. I just held my left hand in position and sketched it out.

This was the 2nd in the series of the video covers. I had a real difficult time with this one. It went through a couple of sketch phases. It really was made up totally. Not realistic in any sense of the word. Reference was real hard to find and when I made the blast chunks darker they just seemed odd. The only part I liked of this image was the blast coming out of the top of the volcano.

This is 1 of 4 covers I did for National Geographic Kids Videos back in 1996 or 1997 I think. I had to really search hard online to find these covers as they have updated the packaging since then. It looks like they only did 3 of the 4 videos. There was one for Tornadoes also. I will try to dig it up and find the art also. I remember making pretty good money on the series and thought that this would be the beginning of me breaking out in my freelance illustration career. More so it ended up probably being the beginning of the end oddly enough.

This was my first big illustration. The piece was a monster, literally. In all I didn't sleep a whole week to finish the deadline. Some people will say an all-nighter, but still get an hour of sleep or something. This was NO sleep for 7 days. I tell you my head felt fuzzy and I was on total auto pilot. It was extremely weird by the 3rd night seeing people go to sleep and then waking. It felt almost sort of "out of body" like. The piece turned out as good as I could do and was a great success for the bowling company. People took to stealing the posters out of bowling alleys. After I turned in the piece, I collapsed in my bed and was sick for about 2 weeks. The body needs sleep.

Another Richmond Braves Piece. Mike Birkbeck. I did this one in about 4 hours I think. Maybe less. All the cards were due that morning and Pep and I had been up all night finishing players. As soon as you finished one, you grabbed the next available player. As time went on the pieces got smaller and faster. This piece was about 5 x 7. Acrylic and colored pencil. Airbrushed in the fade at the top of the sky at the end.

This was a piece for Whitby Pharmaceuticals. Imagery for advertising in overseas region. One of my friends and also member of Pencil Pushers, Pete was the model. The medicine was for gastrointestinal maladies. Gouache, acrylic and colored pencil over gesso.

This was back in College. Alex Bostic, one of my most influential instructors, had taught us a technique for painting a black and white acrylic illustration. This was my second attempt with it. Funny story about the picture. During one summer I worked for a office moving company. We were moving a big company office in D.C. Along with moving, we were in charge of throwing out tons and tons of trash. Part of the trash was old ad photos and negative. Being interested in photography at that time, I kept them from the trash, after clearing first of course. Years later, I was able to use one of those pictures as reference for this illustration.

This piece was one the earlier assignments I did. It was also my first foot in the door to the world of bowling illustration. The assignment was for an AMF Christmas card. Santa coming down the "chimney". I remember stressing over this one big time. The pins were driving me crazy. Having to replicate the logo and type on each one of them. Also doing the AMF logo on the backsplash was a pain to cut out of frisket and keep the edges from bleeding. Oh to have had a computer then. . .

I always thought later in my career, "Oh man, this picture could have been so much better!"

This was my second large poster for Champion's Bowling Company. This was a fun piece to do. Initially I wanted to have it swooping down and only one foot touching the ball. Also wanted to have some scratches on the ball from the talons, but the creative direction wanted more of a traditional "Studio Shot" I looked at some old poster of bowling balls and they would use stuffed animals from a taxidermist. Looked very odd. These posters were a great success for them, but I think the company is no longer around. My memory of this is that even with a mask on, I was blowing my nose and having blue come out a day later. There was a cloud of blue of over the whole studio while I was airbrushing in the sky. The armor on the hawk was inspired by Hajime Sorayama's Robot/Cyborg ladies. I was huge admirer of his technique when first starting to use the airbrush.

Funny thing about Freelance Illustration we found out. If an Art Director did not see a sample of a specific item in your portfolio, they figured you could not hack it. On the other hand, they probably called you for a specific item they saw and figured that was all you did. I luckily snagged my real first big assignment for a bowling company named Champion's Bowling. This however put me as the bowling guy. For awhile there if there was any bowling type of illustration to be done in Richmond, it came my way. This was for AMF and was for the King Cobra ball. Certain clients were uncomfortable with the fact that I was working for all both competitors, but ultimately it seemed, had me do the work, since they did not see anyone else doing it. I remember getting a bowling pin in order to figure out the shape and reflections.

This was a promo piece for the namesake of our Illustration Studio. Pencil Pushers Illustration. We were around for about 9 years. Very hard but fun times. Talk about trial by fire. It was a many nights and holidays at the studio. Took hour naps on the floor during all nighters. One of my longtime and dearest friends, Dave Evans posed for the picture. We used each other as models quite often. In fact Dave was our go to model for several project. He can be seen in medical illustrations, promo pieces, business magazines, and even in a time life book! I have a link to his blog also. He is and illustrator and is studying animation now.

Found this one actually buried in my work misc junk drawer. The actual size of this picture is 4.5 x 9.5 inches. It was part of a poster I was working on for AMF sports. The concept seemed glorious in my head and in thumbnail rough form. Client loved the idea too. The idea was to have the AMF logo, a red triangle, over the whole background of the poster. The logo would be divided up in quadrants, that showcased the different sports AMF was involved with. It was apparent to me halfway through that I had a problem. It was turning out just horrible, so I went over to discuss with the Art Directors. My recollection of what happened after that is foggy. I think it was completed and used, but not entirely a success. On my end, I ended up cutting out pieces of the picture that I liked and throwing away the rest. I should have kept all of it as a reminder that sometimes what looks good in b&w at 5 x7 does not translate well to 30 x 60 in full color.

Oh if only COMMAND Z worked in real life. Posting these old pictures has been kind of therapeutic. Along with some of the pictures that I like, I wanted to post some that I felt were not successful. Sort of a postmortem. This piece was done when I was experimenting with matte medium. I would do the under drawing in colored pencil, then seal it with matte medium. The rest would be additional colored pencil and acrylic paint over the matte medium. I like the luminosity this technique provided. Unfortunately it did not translate well to film or print. This was one of those pictures that you know something is off, but continue all the way to finish, because of the time invested already. I wasn't happy with the face, the shadows, the background or the detailing. I can visualize how it should have been now. Hind sight is 20/20. I resolved a lot of technical issues with this technique after this piece. All in all it served it purpose as a learning tool.

This was my first attempt at trying to really meld several different media types. I remember going into a panic when I sprayed it with matte varnish and it the guache started to speckle up. That is what gave me the idea to pick off the paint around the figure. I would just use a brush with water and brush around the figure or put droplets and pick them off with a paper towel. This picture took a very long time. It was submitted to the Richmond Arts Contest unfinished and won best of show. When I found out, I told the jurors that I was not finished with it and asked to have it back to finish it. They were reluctant, for worry that I would alter it too much. I had to clear how I was going to finish it before the would let me have it back.

This was a piece for a religious giftware company. Not sure of the company name anymore. Funny thing about this one is that the piece was pretty big, 20 x 30 inches approximately, and the company used only a cross shaped portion. Put the cross shape in a frame and put a scripture verse on it. At first I was pretty ticked that I had spent so much time on the excess area that did not get used. Years later I pulled the piece from my dusty portfolio and had it framed for my ex wife. At that point I was happy to have spent the time I did for the whole image.

This was a spec piece I did for a Black History Month calendar. Ultimately they chose other artists, but they were intrigued with the piece enough so to ask for more samples. This was pretty much just a typical pencil and acrylic piece. For awhile I was all about this extreme horizontal format. Just one of those phases I guess.

Mike Mordecai, Richmond Braves Trading card. This is the trading card I spent the most time on. This was about 11 x 14. Lots of pencil work, airbrushing and finishing painting with acrylics.

Last piece for today. This one again was for the Richmond Braves. Eddie Perez, the catcher. Oddly enough, this one was one of the fastest pieces as it was only about 5 x 7 inches. It ended up winning an award in the Beckett Sports Art Gallery and was printed in one of their issues. I was lucky enough to get the issue signed by Eddie Perez before he was called up to the Braves. One of my favorite pieces. I used some of the finest brushes I had ever used on this one.

This is a piece we did to pitch the Richmond Renegades on doing some trading cards of their own. Unfortunately they could not justify it, as their fan support was not there. Some years later when showing this piece, a friend of mine recognized this player as a friend of his. He wanted to buy the piece, but I have a hard time parting with my sports pictures.

Posting some more older work. One of the pieces for the Richmond Braves trading cards. I will miss the Richmond Braves when they leave. Richmond has done it again. I am thoroughly disgusted with the city officials in regards to dropping ball with the Braves.