The Chad Frye - Illustration GuySometimes when I sketch, I just start with a nose and see where it goes from there with no preconceived notion of what I am about to draw. Other times the sketch is informed by a curiosity I may have. Such is the case with today’s doodle. I saw pictures of some male lions, and I wondered what they might look like if they started losing their hair and decided to do a combover.
…and I mean that literally! Yes folks, unless this is some kind of an elaborate April Fool’s joke being played on me, the monsters that have lived in the apartment above me for the past three years, four months, five days and 18 hours have finally up and vanished into the misty night air from whence they came.
You may recall these folks. I have mentioned them several times here on my blog, along with the random comment on Facebook and Twitter. Here is a photo I secretly took of them after the first year of sleep deprived nights.
Here’s to all the foot stomping, toilet seat slamming, hammering after 10pm, hour and a half to two hour long showers, two flooding mishaps, music loud enough to understand the lyrics, listening to their movies while trying to watch mine, slumber parties, chalk drawings on my doorstep, bed jumping, Olympic gymnastics practice, track meets in the living room, door slamming, shot-put throwing, bowling, peasant whippings, chains scraping, and I’m pretty sure dragon feeding.
May the new tenants be kind and gentle souls sensitive to those around them.
With all the ads out there lately for the next couple of big costumed caper movies, it seems like none of our imaginary heroes are playing nice with each other anymore. Marvel has their Civil War, and this week, DC has Batman v Superman. Can’t we all just get along?
SPOILER ALERT! I am about to show you how the epic battle begins between the Dark Knight (Ben Affleck – Batfleck) and the Man of Steel (Henry Cavill). Not having seen the actual movie myself is really of no consequence. I KNOW this is what happens, and by refusing to remove their capes, you can only guess the troubles to come…
Quite a few years ago I began drawing what turned out to be over 500 coloring book style pages of accounts from the Bible that became the Generations of Grace Sunday school curriculum. They crafted a three year curriculum for kids where not a single piece of art was used twice in that time, and it was designed for several age groups in the elementary grades so that all the kids in a family would learn the same lesson on their level each Sunday. It was a pretty neat approach.
Two years ago, those behind the curriculum wanted to colorize all my drawings for a new published version of the curriculum they intended to do. Some other artists began coloring them, but with so many drawings and a tight deadline, the task was great. So, I was invited back in to color my art as well, having to now follow the coloring style established by other artists. I managed to get about 20 or so pieces colored in-between other jobs I was working on last year, but to even get those done, I was so glad to get my pal and fellow artist Andy Heckathorne to help me.
Andy would first prep the drawings to prepare them for color, then he would go in and lay in all the flat base colors in Photoshop from his studio in Pennsylvania. He would hand them off to me here in California, and I’d add in all the shading. We were a good team!
All that being said, since this week many thoughts are turned to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross with it being Easter here in the United States, I wanted to share with you the one piece Andy and I colored from that account of Christ’s life – the moment when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus in the garden that led to the Roman soldiers taking Him away to what would eventually be his crucifixion.
If you are interested in this art for your own church, or even for use in your own home, I recommend you check out all the different formats Generations of Grace has to offer for sale on their website. They have teacher lesson books, craft books, activity books, coloring books, and even a family devotional book so the whole family can keep up with the lessons together each day. CLICK HERE to go to their website.
If you would like to see more of my coloring book art from the death and resurrection of Christ account in the Bible, CLICK HERE and you’ll be taken to previous posts here on my blog.
I was saddened to learn of former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s passing yesterday. President Ronald Reagan and Nancy graced the White House with an elegance and charm during their stay in the 1980s. Unlike any United States president in my lifetime did I ever see so many Democrats and Republicans working together and seeming to enjoy each other’s company as much.
I never did meet Mrs. Reagan, but was pleased on one occasion to have met her husband, though he was in the early stages of his Alzheimer’s. Even in that moment well past his presidency, Mr. Reagan cut an imposing figure in person, and had my earned respect for the public office he once held.
The following is a drawing I did a few years ago for President Reagan’s 100th birthday (which you can read by clicking here). I tweaked it a little last night, and felt in light of Mrs. Reagan’s passing (whom I had never drawn), I would post this piece once again of her husband in her honor.
Welcome to the final step-by-step explanation of the Abigail & John Adams illustration that appears in this month’s issue of Clubhouse Magazine. Today we will look at the last digital methods to add some color to the art and to age it a bit.
First, I start with the traditionally painted image, and scan it into Photoshop. The rest of the steps are all completed in that program. Hopefully you have a decent working knowledge of Photoshop for the rest of what you will read to make sense to you. If not, then just enjoy the visual progression!
That’s a pretty austere title, isn’t it? The Making of a President. While I don’t fancy myself a political puppeteer making it possible for certain people to take possession of the Oval Office, I do, from time-to-time, make images of presidents. Today I wish to share with you the methods used to make the illustration of John and Abigail Adams that I posted here yesterday.
First, this started with an idea from Jenny Dillon, the art director of Clubhouse Magazine. She needed an illustration of the Adams family (not the creepy one) in a presidential home looking like they were in love with lots of love letters strewn about them. Specifically, she asked that I make it look like they were taking a selfie as I had done once before with Abraham Lincoln.
The first thing I needed to do was a little research into what John and Abigail looked like when he was the President of the United States. As best as I could decipher, these are what they looked like from old art made of them back in the day.
As I always do, I worked out my initial rough sketch of the shmoopy-faced couple digitally on my Cintique monitor. That is a special computer screen that allows me to draw with an electronic pen (a stylus) right onto the screen. For this, I used the Photoshop program.
First sketches are just that – a first pass. It is the first time artist and art director can see what the possibilities are with the concept. This means there is time for refinement. When I was a young illustrator first starting out, I HATED drawing things more than once. It was a by-product of youthful impatience. I always felt my first drawing was genius. I was stupid. Being able to go back and work on poses, expressions – even the environment – not only gives you a chance to improve the scene technically with a better drawing, but it also gives you reason to think more about the image and perhaps come up with more ideas to make it better.
Upon reflection, the first sketch made our happy couple look like old geezers. This was primarily an article about love between a courting couple in a kid’s magazine. So, I took a second stab at it making Abigail look younger, again based on old art created of her.
Guess what? Now Abby looks young and cute, but in the arms of a creepy old man! Yikes! Even though John was nine years older than Abigail, there was no reason he should look like the age of her grandfather. So, one more pass should do the trick.
By the way, the brown tones and pink I threw in there were just to make it easier to see what is going on in the art since there is so much detail. It doesn’t necessarily mean that will be the final color scheme. You can see I left it out of the last sketch below since by this time all parties involved just needed to see little tweaks to the drawing.
To make John Adams appear younger, I gave him a little more hair on top (perhaps even more than his young portrait showed), darkened his hair, and gave his face more angular features – less rounded. This one was a keeper!
Today, when many thoughts are turned to love, I wanted to share with you a lovey-dovey illustration I created for a children’s magazine.
Clubhouse Magazine, a publication for kids put out by Focus on the Family, hired me last year to illustrate a story they were running in their 2016 February issue about the love between our second United States President John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams. Before he was president, John Adams was a lawyer who courted Miss Abigail Smith, and a big part of their courtship involved written letters. Even their life as a married couple spending time apart from each other in the tumultuous early days of our country included written love letters.
Yes, John Adams is taking a selfie with Abigail surrounded by all their inscribed mush. To some of you, this image may cause you to reflect on a piece I did for President’s Day two years ago of Abraham & Mary Lincoln. (CLICK HERE to see the image in question.) I had sent that out as a greeting card, and the fine folks at Clubhouse Magazine remembered that image when this assignment came up. I was very happy to add to my portfolio of presidential selfies by creating this early American Polaroid just for them!
So, remember, the written word can be a powerful thing, especially when written by hand. I wrote a card that led to a job. John Adams wrote a young lady that led to a wife. Write your loved one a special note today to let them know what you really think of them. Who knows, maybe it will lead you to become president, too!