Impression Evergreen

"A Coaching Moment" Colored Pencil Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder barks the game plan to his quarterback before the next series of plays. It's a road game for the Wildcats, at night, in a hostile environment. Colorful words are sometimes exchanged in the heat of battle. It's a coaching moment. The silver helmet gleams from the stadium lights creating interesting shadows across the player's face. A violet and yellow color scheme is complimented by sharp contrasts of dark and light. The focus of this simplified drawing is on the unmistakable man in charge. Bill Snyder has silver hair and wire rimmed glasses but don't let his understated appearance fool you. In reality, this guy is a cold-blooded competitor dishing out defeats, one after the other, to some of the nations best college football teams. Snyder arrived at Manhattan, Kansas in 1989 and took control of college football's losingest program. The meticulous, workaholic demanded consistency

"The World is Yours" Colored Pencil It's a mysterious scene. A man and a woman on a secluded, tropical beach. Turquoise blue water and a clear blue sky serve as a backdrop. Something dramatic is happening. The woman is desperately clutching his leg as if pleading "Please don't go!" We see only the man's back. His attention seems focused on the oil rig platform out in the distance. Why is he clutching a black pistol? It looks like something out of a romance novel. That's because it is! I finished the cover for Tye DiPirro's new book The World is Yours . I'm not exactly sure what the story is about but Tye gave me a description of how he wanted the cover to look. I don't have much experience with book illustration so my strategy was to have everything worked out before I started on the final drawing. I gathered lots of reference material and made several line and color studies. By spending the majority of time on preliminary work I wa

Value and color studies for the romance novel cover An aspiring writer asked me if I would be interested in illustrating a book cover. He said he had just finished writing a novel and was working on getting it published. My first thought was I don't have time . I'm a production artist for a printing company by day but my nights are reserved for more fine artistic pursuits. I guess you could call me a "Sunday Painter". Time is precious but I was curious. I asked him what the book was about. He enthusiastically exclaimed, "It's a Romance Novel!" There was a division between the two sides of my brain and they were battling it out. The logical, left side said, "You can't do it! It's too difficult! Don't leave your comfort zone!" The cool, right side responded, "Chill, bro. We got this. Dude, try something exciting and new. It'll be fun." After the dust cleared, I guess surfer guy won because I accepted the commis