Custom poster design for a friend.

Illustrated in Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop CS5

This is what has been taking up most of my time. Video book illustrations for a start up business of a friend. I’ve done A LOT so far. Over 100. All about bible stories. What a task!

Here’s a favorite image, starting out the tale of Noah and represents the wicked people in the world before the flood.

At a public event, a couple asked for a compilation of all five of their pets. I couldn’t really ask for a better selection. Nearly every cat looked like a character archetype from a cartoon!

And here’s a commission for a police officer from my home town, that upon meeting him, I recognized immediately as the one who visited my elementary school for programs. Also a good drawing subject.

Caricatures make great gifts for the holidays and I always hear from my customers how much joy they get from every time they view them in their home. What better way to gift someone with your own inside joke?

“Draw me in the Captain Morgan pose on a kangaroo, cactus behind me, in the Austrailian Outback with a  saying “I’m a shark, I’m a shark…”

Yes. It has happened.

Caricatures make great retirement gifts and I’ve done quite a few in my career. This one was done with a session with the subject but I can also do these without the person’s knowledge for a surprise!

My day was finally over and all my equipment was packed into my little Mazda and I was driving away down Front Street. Half-way down the street, driving 25 miles an hour, my eye is immediately drawn to a large manillia envelope that looks exactly like the size I sell with my caricatures. And a split second later, my left tires drive right over it! I make a decision to pull over and jog back to see what was inside:

The envelope just has mild road dirt on it. It’s clasps were closed, so it told me the customer at least cared about it and didn’t want to throw it away. Sure enough, there was art by me and one I rather liked!

So I thought to make a blog post about it here and on my Facebook “Neillustrations” group to advertise to whoever lost it. I came home and told my family about and the sheer coincidence of it all. A half hour later, I’m in my office when my wife comes down the stairs talking and laughing with a phone call for me.

It was her! The woman in the picture found an my wife’s phone number on the festival’s website, don’t ask me why, to ask if she could get another caricature and STILL found her way to talking to the person who found her original!

Woofstock was amazing and I’m so happy I could provide portraits to dozens of families and pet owners. Enjoy your caricature, Rene! It’s in the mail. You’re meant to have it!

Customers recognize me by the back of my head…

And this is why I can never take breaks…

Here’s a new caricature for Great Stories 4 Kids, a website offering children’s tales read out loud in video format.

This is Marlene!

I’ll post a link to the website when it’s launched.

Digital caricatures are smooth and high-resolution for printing.

And working with them is very flexible and can be adapted to different things!

Last month, I was comissioned by the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau to illustrate a map of Cumberland County, PA for an ad campaign they came up with. Here’s the final result! The main page has this great animation with the caricature I did of their man-in-the-field promoting the region.

http://www.visitcumberlandvalley.com/index.php

http://www.visitcumberlandvalley.com/wheresjohn

The illustration can also be found the the June issue of Central Penn Magazine! My first, real magazine ad!

The map was inked and colored in Paint Tool SAI with Photoshop here and there. Strangely, my favorite part about this are the roadways and overpasses. My wife thinks I’m weird. Illustration by itself below. Click for full size to see the silly little details.

Ad layout, graphic design, and illustration are copyright Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau 2011. No unauthorized use or reproduction.

Here’s a gift commissioned by someone at the Humane Society of the Harrisburg Area. Betty is one of their dog walkers and they wanted to show their appreciation for all her hard work and commitment to the animals! Caricatures are a great personalized gift to show they deserve something unique!

All I could get was a quick snap shot.