MontanaFair 2021 Poster Commission

I'm a Perfessional Sometimes

A commission inquiry came out of left field recently, for a project that I couldn’t resist taking on. How often do you get paid to draw dinosaurs enjoying a traveling carnival?? Thomas Carnival has been in business since 1928, so it’s pretty amazing to have been given an opportunity to add some posters to their lineup. Thanks, Andrew!

I burned a few weeks stressing over wanting to ink it with real pens on paper, but my test attempts were all turning out awful (because have I mentioned I’m rusty from taking a year off??) so I switched back to what has apparently become “old faithful” after working on Delegates for 18 months…. digital ink brushes in Paint Tool SAI. The familiarity was a comforting relief. I also got to channel two massive childhood inspirations: James Gurney and his iconic Dinotopia books, as well as Bill Watterson’s comical but expertly-rendered dinosaurs from the Calvin and Hobbes strips. Oh and I guess Jurassic Park too. And a little Land Before Time. My childhood was apparently 100% dinosaurs haha.

Colors from My Illustrations

Art Resources, Color Palettes

This is a bit of a random post, but while I was working on a poster commission recently, I got a little overwhelmed with picking a color palette that was harmonious while still suiting the project. I ended up using coolors.co to help generate some possible ideas. Since then I’ve also created a whole bunch by color picking from previous illustrations of mine, it was interesting to see what color families I tend to favor! Lots of ruddy earths, turquoises, mosses and olives, peaches, dusty roses, and lavenders and lilacs. I seem to avoid strident blues even though they’re growing on me recently, but I always love powdery soft ones or if they’re dark and moody like Indanthrone or a bluish Payne’s Gray.

A lot of them are taken from marker drawings, and since I have some go-to colors there’s some overlap but still nice variation. Some are from watercolor or colored ink, and some pure digital. I thought I’d share them here just because they’re pretty. If you’re looking for some color inspo for your own art, maybe they’ll come in handy?