Hops

Tribute to Ed Hopper. 12'' x 18'' cold press illustration board. pastels. 

Hopper 2.0

Here's some quick snap shots of my current work in progress. It's my rendition of an Edward Hopper self portrait. His attention to geometrical design through light and shadow, and the ability to capture a common day in America are what I enjoy most about his paintings. The composition has been broken down into 5 different parts based on the brim of the hat. Each part will contain different color schemes of warm, cool, complementary, analogous, etc. Cheers!

Shakin' never Stirred

Bond. James Bond.

Watchout for the Boogyman!!!

Happy Halloween! What's Halloween without good ol' Michael Myers?! Decided to dedicate this year's pumpkin carving to him. I really like how it turned out once in the dark.

Into the Archives We Go!

Ok here's some works I did a ways back, and finally archiving. The first is a collage commentating on the cause and effect of the steroid scandal that occurred in Major League Baseball. I enjoyed creating this piece and I believe that any baseball fan could relate the hidden refs throughout the work. The second was a sculpture that reflected the same theme. The combination of a toy bat and drug pills refers to how using performance enhancers allows "athletes" to gain an unfair edge on their opponents like a man among boys. Since we're talking baseball...Go Rays! CHEERS! 

Back to the Future

Busy...Busy...Busy....it's been a while since my last post...The vector self-portrait was done in illustrator over a quick sketch. The second was a movie poster I did a few months ago, and recently touched up and took out the text to allow the image to take over the composition. I'm working on a few new pieces for the upcoming CMYK call for entries in October, props to my pal Dustin for getting into the current issue on stands right now. Other than that I'm working on my new sketchbook, first time I've used a moleskine one, very nice quality and size. Hopefully I can start posting those weekly. And I'm currently updating and touching up my website, adding more works along with the sketchbook section. CHEERS!

Stayin' Sharp

While the jump hunt continues, I've been keeping myself busy with some personal projects along with expanding my knowledge and skills of the digital art world. Now that I have entered the realm of Apple with a macbook, I can play around with the Adobe Creative Suite when I please. These two projects above were tutorials completed in Photoshop with the help of a UK mag called Advanced Photoshop (www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk). It's a really helpful tool to use to practice new techniques. I plan on applying these techniques toward my own work. The question I have is why are all the decent art magazines coming from across the pond? It isn't fun paying 15$ per mag. Also my website (www.matthewgayle.com) is now featured on illustrationmundo ,(www.illustrationmundo.com), which is a site that is dedicated to promoting illustrators.

It is time!

My professional portfolio website is now up and running. The url is http://www.matthewgayle.com/. This was my first go with dreamweaver so updates and modifications will arise from time to time. If you have any comments or suggestions that would improve the site, by all means let me know. The advertising on the top header is only temporary as I search for a secure web host.

EXTRA EXTRA

Well this is it, closing time, crunch time, whatever you want to call it. Only three more weeks left in my collegiate career. Then it's time for reality to kick in. This is the artwork for what my promotional postcard will be. I'm finishing up the design of this card along with my biz card and stationary letterhead. Then it is off to making my own professional site.

Digital Overload!

These are a few of the works I've done in my electronic class. The Halo illustration was done for a magazine cover assignment. The artwork was done in painter while the magazine layout was done in illustrator. Next was just a quick character concept done in painter. I chose to do an adaption of the rock'em sock'em robots with a robot in the boxing ring. The last one is a logo that was done in illustrator as a tutorial to get used to the program.

Global Warming Series Continued...

These are the other two in the global warming series that I am doing. They were both done in nupastels. The first one is depicting the problem that is facing penguins. Their food source of krill is swimming to colder water since water temperature is increasing. This is decreasing the penguins food supply and ends with several starving. So this illustration is showing the adult penguin trying to feed the baby but the krill is swimming away in the current while the water is warming. The second is more straight forward showing the drying environment of the painted turtle. I went more with an abstract and simplified approach for this one. The dried out land shapes are repeated in the shell while the turtle is disappearing into the shadows.

Takeover

The series continues with the arctic fox. The warming climate is allowing the red fox to migrate north into the arctic fox's territory. Since the red fox is twice the size, it is easily taking over the arctic fox habitat. So the illustration is depicting the arctic fox looking back at it's home while the red fox is looking from above. The medium is nupastels.

Quick Render in Painter

This was a speed painting of Gimli from LOTR in Corel Painter 10. This was my first attempt in painter and I enjoy the possibilities that this program offers.

Preliminary work

These are some of the preliminary work for two more illustrations in the global warming series that I am doing. I'll post the finished works once I can get around to scanning them in.

Melting Away

For my portfolio class I'm doing a series of 4 posters that show how animals are being affected by global warming. This one is showing how the polar bear is affected. Polar bears usually swim long distances to catch their food. They depend on ice bergs as a bridge back to their homes, yet they are melting away. This forces polar bears to swim until exhaustion with no rest and risks their chance of drowning. This illustration shows the polar bear sitting on top of the earth while it is melting away from the pollution that is rising. The northern lights in the top background represent the purity of this planet that is fading away. The medium was nupastels.

I challenge you to a duel!

-Experimenting in Adobe Illustrator with live trace and the brush tool. This was a banner done for the 2008 Olympic games being held in Beijing, China. I chose to illustrate the sport of fencing with a technique similar to Martin French.

ABCs Sing with me!

Well here it is...the illustrations for my Wildlife Portraits for an ABC animal book. Overall I'm glad with how they turned out. We were only required to have 4 color spreads but I would like to down the road have the entire book in color. The medium was nupastels. The layout of the book has the alphabet on the left page and the illustration on the right page. So the left page would be Aa alligator with the alligator drawing on the right page. I printed a hard copy that does it justice and the feeling you get when holding it in your hands is overwhelming. Let me what you think!