The pastor at the church I attend in Huntington is in the middle of a sermon series on the book of Jonah. The first week, he invited the children (and anyone else who wanted to) to illustrate some aspect of the book of Jonah. He puts several up during the sermons. Last week there were a couple great ones from a some of the kids - my favorite featured one of the sailors holding Jonah upside down over the edge of the boat with the smiling whale below. Anyway, I thought I’d try my hand at illustrating Jonah and the big fish. I drew the sketch, scanned it in, then colored it in painter. I then took it into Photoshop to add the sky, water, and text. I really like how it came out.

Ta Da! This is my final illustration for class. We could pick any passage from any book and then illustrate it. I created the image in Painter and then took it into Photoshop to add an orange glow to it.  I chose a passage from The Stone Light, the second book in the “Dark Reflections Trilogy” by German author Kai Meyer. It’s a teen fiction series. You can check out his site & learn more about the books here: http://www.kaimeyer.com/

The scene I chose is near the climax of the book, when Merle (in red here) and Junipa (in green) are fleeing Axis Mundi (Hell) and Lord Light on Vermithax’s back. Vermithrax is an obsidian lion that can talk (and fly), but here he is glowing because he has been dipped in something called the Stone Light. Not curious yet? Merle and Vermithrax are on a mission to save the Flowing Queen, whom Merle swallowed in Venice, and defeat the sphinx commanders before they awaken the Son of the Mother. And Junipa, who was blind, can now see into other worlds because her eyes were replaced with shards of magic mirrors. 

This is a great trilogy, even if you are past your teen years. Read it!

More from computer illustration class. This time we were suppose to do an “expressive” self-portrait, and we could use any programs we wanted to. I created mine in Painter and Photoshop (some of the original characters were also created in Illustrator and Maya). It was pretty fun, though I kind of wish the pastel painting over my photo would have turned out a little better. Or I kind of wish maybe I had left it as a photo, with everything else being drawn. Oh well. My professor did say that it reminded her of films where live people are combined with animation. (Think Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, etc.) That made me pretty happy. Those are some of my fav films! Anyway, here’s the image to enjoy: