Welcome to my new website. This is a place where not only can you see my current portfolio, but you can also see things I have created.

I’m hoping to add a lot of things on here, whether it is “portfolio” worthy or not. As they say, “show your work!” I think that seeing the process of designs, illustrations or even photographs is just as interesting as the finished product itself.

I’m still working on the layout of the site, but I think I have it down 90%. Editing the CSS as I go when I find bugs, changing the layout of how the blog-posts display or even pages within the portfolio section. There might even be some options down the line to show some of the things I will end up changing “under-the-hood.”

As an intro to the new site, I want to show an illustration I made of my wife. It started out as a sketch while we were watching TV. I quickly thought that the line-work would look good as a vector, especially with different weights to the line making it look somewhat like a comic.

My proportions are not exact to the source material, but in the end it is a caricature so there are some liberties to the way things look. I scanned in the drawing, threw it into Adobe Illustrator and got to work tracing. I found my new little friend, the width tool, which I have never used until now. It’s been right in front of me all the time but oddly enough I have never seemed to have a need for it. Either way, after how this turned out, I am going to try to use it more often.

One thing I am a stickler for is that images and elements specifically arranged and symmetrical. I think that helped with the illustration, especially when playing with the weight of lines comes into play. After the black and white version, some colour required and since we’re at the beach…

… only fair to have beach colours!

Overall, I’m excited how this turned out. Only after a day did it go from being bored on the couch, to a finished illustration. I might see about what I can do with the hair and different styles I can apply to it, but that will be for another day.