November 08, 2006

90: Where There's Fire

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I almost skipped the week's Illustration Friday theme of smoke. Over the weekend I had grand ambitions to challenge myself further by combining it with Sugar Frosted Goodness's current theme of orange, and set out to draw the General Lee (from The Dukes Of Hazzard), laid waste and smoking from one of the show's signature killer gulch jumps. It got too complicated for my liking and I halted it yesterday. But on the commute home – appropriately enough – I had visions in my head of a phoenix rising from the flames – only in the simple, graphic and geometric way I've done here. The illustration was done near exclusively digital; I only drew a rough pencil outline of the shapes to help guide me when I built individual vector forms in FreeHand. In Photoshop I then filled the shapes with portions of two texture photos I took; one a closup of a fire, the other of creek-bottom sand and sludge.

18 comments:

Michelle said...

Almost synced up again!
Cool graphic. I almost mistook it for the Vormator's current design elements challenge!

Unknown said...

Very nice! I really like the texture on the bird!

Kay Aker said...

So elegant and gorgeous!

Jeope said...

I think it might have been seeing and hearing about the Vormator thing lately that got me thinking about it in this way. I'll have to try it out sometime.

Michelle Lana said...

Cool fire! very nice!

Olivier aubin said...

Ouah very graphic, impressionant! Beautiful work!

Bino

http://portfoliobino.free.fr/

http://binoland.blogspot.com/

Melissa said...

Did you do that because I flew to Phoenix on Tuesday and that inspired you?? ;-)

That illustration might be cookie-worthy.

Alfredotron said...

awesome work man, i really like this style, cheers!

Julie Olson said...

You are very creative and talented! Love the texture and design. I love your pumpkin below and admire the photographic as well as drawing skills. I hope you are thriving in the industry b/c you should be. Best of luck!

Joanna said...

I like the change in style! Your illos were what sparked me to think outside of the box when doing the IF topics. :)

p.s. Thanks for the comment!

flossy-p said...

Clever idea. It'd make a brilliant band logo!

Jules said...

Oooooo, very cool. The shapes are so fluid. Nice one. I like how you are constantly challenging your style and abilities. Good stuff.

Jeremy Townsend (JERT) said...

cool blog, visually beautiful

Zara said...

Beautiful work!

Lauren said...

this is fabulous! Beautiful shapes and textures :)

Mary said...

Nice! I've always liked the symbolism of the Pheonix.

Todd DeWolf said...

Very nice. You are right, Great minds do think alike. Cheers!

Kathy said...

really cool!!! nice effect!! i like the way you've kept the feeling very organic, even though it is done with paths and is super-cripsy-clean - lined. cool.