"Beach Scene"

I created this illustration in Illustrator CS3 and really didn't have any idea of what I was going to create in terms of a vacation scene. As I looked at various images online to brainstorm some ideas, I immediately knew I wanted something playful and child-like.

I thought of a vacation that never ends where you have an entire island to yourself...clean beige sand granules intermixed with eroded minuscule rock crystals, fragrant salty sea water stretching out into the far away milk-chocolate colored mountains in the horizon, arched palm trees that flirt right above your head which provide nurturing shade and curious but fun-inspiring sailboats and beach umbrellas sprinkled about respectively on both water and land.

I am reminded of the times I've visited several artist colonies and towns along the central coast of California. One of my favorite places in that area to go is Cambria near San Simeon. There are great stretches of beach which are literally covered and littered with tons of semi-precious rocks and stones including moonstones. Many stones are jasper, agate and so forth. Collecting these wonderfully little stones for hour after hour is what I consider one of life's simple but highly rewarding pleasures.

I'll have to make a trip back out there someday and this time, I'd like to experiment with some of the rocks I'll collect for jewelry and mosaic tile designs.

"The Kingdom of Passoli"

This illustration was very basic in the beginning. The creatures coming out of the tunnel were made from basic shapes but I found their simple structures to be profound, stimulating looking and rather playful...so I decided to flesh them out further and create a general story concept and design around them. The creatures are called Passolites and they are beings who comprise The Kingdom of Passoli. I thought about putting them into my Pink Laughter Kingdom concept as a warring and mischief-making nation at odds with the inhabitants and towns of Pink Laughter Kingdom, but I might make The Kingdom of Passoli story one of its own.

The design went through various stages and was composed of many layers. It was initially created in Illustrator and then taken into Photoshop.

The initial image looked like this:

"Floraline Metropolis"

This piece was created in Illustrator 10. I wanted to create my own rendition of the color wheel thus I decided to work with a floral theme. This illustration took a long time to create and the piece had many many layers. After the initial design was drawn in Illustrator, I took it over to Photoshop CS to began digital painting and manipulation. The detail (as there is a LOT) of this piece can really be seen and fully appreciated at a larger scale. The original size is 3000 x 3000 pixels.

Several people mentioned that this piece looked like a mandala of some sort and it made them feel a sense of well-being looking at it. I like this interpretation and I'd say there was a dormant objective in this vein of thought when I created the illustration. Nature, reflection, harmony, peace and the power of color and energy (unity) are entities projected amid a stylized metropolitan background.

"The Day Spa"

This illustration was created in Flash CS3.

I wanted to capture a serene and peaceful day spa which hosts a bit of magic realism. It looks to be ordinary in some sense, but it's somewhat offbeat, baroque (warped) and cartoon-like. The implication is this is a completely different dimension that one can escape to emotionally...and once those emotions are tapped into, the The Day Spa becomes a real place to reside in. It's a place where day never ends and tranquility abounds. You can relax in the small pool, hot tub or spread out on the sparkling but warm reflective floors while gazing out of the windows into horizons and horizons of beautiful sky, rich grass and radiant sun.