Vector People

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025Leave a comment

I just finished some work for Positive Promotions.

They had detailed sketches (created in-house) that they wanted me to finish off into vector graphics for an exercise booklet they were doing. They were good sketches. I think, with very little finishing, they could have just used the sketches in the final project. The problem was that the sketches were line drawings, which was not the style they wanted. So, that’s where I came in.

I used their sketches, took the color palette from their samples, and redrew them in the art style that they wanted. Not my usual work, but I think they came out well. And, more importantly, the client was happy.

Created using Adobe Illustrator.

Hockey Stop

January 15, 2025January 21, 20252 Comments

For personal reasons, I needed an image of a hockey stop and I wasn’t happy with the clip art options I was finding in the usual places one finds clipart. So, I made my own in Adobe Illustrator. It’s a little quick and dirty. You might notice that the two skates are just copies of each other, for example. (I really should have drawn a unique second skate at a slightly different angle. And maybe added a shadow.) But it still gets the point across better than the clipart I was finding.

An illustration of the skates of a hockey player performing a hockey stop, with ice spraying.

This image is available on Shutterstock here: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/skaters-hockey-skates-while-they-perform-2571104179

Archaeopteryx

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016Leave a comment

I drew an archaeopteryx today.
Print

What a pretty birdie! 😉

Katie’s Monkey

March 8, 2016March 8, 20162 Comments

Here’s a work in progress for a personal project I’m working on. My daughter wanted a poster of a monkey swinging by its tail from a tree with a banana. I’ve just about got the monkey done, next to tackle the scenery. I’m working in Illustrator because I’m not sure how big she’s going to want me to print it. Vector graphics are infinitely scaleable, unlike raster art. Monkey for Katie

Wordless Comic Strip

June 29, 2014June 29, 2014Leave a comment

I can’t remember if I posted this yet. Another Hart McLeod one for a third grade textbook. This one was supposed to be an intentionally vague, wordless comic strip. The student is supposed to write a story explaining what frightened the stick-man.

1_12 Final So, what do YOU think happened in this strip?

Vacuum Ate Cat

June 28, 2014June 27, 2014Leave a comment

Here’s an illustration for Hart McLeod for a third grade textbook. It goes along with a poem where the vacuum ate the cat.

9_8 Final - Blue

Instructions for Making a Pop-Up Card

June 27, 2014June 27, 2014Leave a comment

Here’s an image illustrating some instructions on how to make a pop-up greeting card. Created for Hart McLeod for a third grade textbook.

2_9 Final

Hidden Picture Image

February 7, 2014February 10, 2014Leave a comment

Here’s a commission I just sent in to Hart McLeod.

Hidden in the image are 12 pictures. They weren’t supposed to be TOO hard to find, so you should be able to spot them. A woman, a man, two girls, one boy, one owl, two rabbits, three turtles, and a frog.

Interesting thing about this project. They told me which hidden elements they wanted to see, but said that the scene was the artist’s choice. I hate that. That means I had to figure out an interesting scene and compose it with no guidance or limits. I love limits. Contrary to what you’d think, I can be so much more creative if I have defined framework to work in. Oh well.

Hidden Picture
Luckily, I pulled out this reference photo from my photo collection and used it as my framework. I took this at the Overland Park Arboretum this fall. There actually is a pond off the frame to the left, but it isn’t to the horizon like in the drawing.
P1110947 500

Chicken or Egg

January 28, 2014January 28, 2014Leave a comment

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

Please note that this is a bit simplified, since it’s doubtful that the distinction between a red jungle fowl and a chicken came about in just one generation. More likely, there were quite a few generations of a long grey area between sorta-a-red-jungle-fowl-sorta-a-chicken before it became obviously the distinct species we now call a chicken. Plus, they think they might have bred them with the grey jungle fowl as well.

Dammit, Jim, I’m an illustrator, not a biologist.

Either way, the egg still came first.