Blast from the Past #357: Triceratops logo image, airbrushed version

I have posted a couple of different versions of this image I'd drawn for self-promotional purposes, but just recently came across what I think was the final version. I am pretty sure this one was never actually used for anything -- it was just an exercise to see if I could work with an airbrush. -- PL

Blast from the Past #335: Artwork for Spitfire simulator

This is a true blast from the past -- from my own past as an illustrator and from the dark, primitive past of computer graphics and software. It is also one of only a handful of illustrations I ever did with an airbrush -- I never had great skills with it, though I greatly admired people who did.

As I recall, I got this job through a local independent advertising agency whose offices were in a house on Bridge Street in Northampton, thankfully not too far form downtown, so I could ride my bicycle or walk there. The woman who ran the agency gave me this job quite possibly not knowing that I was not that great with the airbrush... or maybe I was good enough for this job in her eyes -- I don't know.

But I do remember that this one was hard to do, and taxed my frisket-cutting skills to the max. I think I had some photo reference or maybe even a model to use to get the rear perspective on the Spitfire airplane. The art was used in advertisements for the Spitfire flight simulator software.

It's interesting to see what passed for "state of the art" in consumer computer graphics back then (this was sometime in the late 1970's or early 1980's). I wonder if that company survived and went on to do bigger things? I have no idea. -- PL

UPDATE 4:46PM 01-11-11: Thanks to commenters FF and Adam Riches, I now know more about this game than I did when I did posted this blog entry this morning... including the fact that, as you can see from this image I plucked from eBay (via the link Adam supplied)...

...the artwork I did was used not only in advertising for the game but on the game's owner's manual as well. Thanks, dudes! -- PL

Blast from the Past #241: Videogame controller illustration, two versions

I believe these were done in the early 1980's, but I'm not sure if I did them for fun or for a job. It was probably the former.

Another example of adaptive reuse, I first used the basic drawing as an experiment with my airbrush, in gray tones.



Later on, I thought it might be fun to try doing a color version of the piece. It's possible that I intended these to be portfolio samples. -- PL

Blast from the Past #239: Dragon's Dentist (two versions)

(Once again, I have the feeling that I have posted an image before, but a quick search of my blog indicates that I am mistaken.)

This is a drawing I did back in 1983. I was inspired to write a children's book story based on this, but never did anything with it.

Here are two versions of the drawing. I probably have a third or fourth somewhere, but these are the only ones I could find right now.

This first one is all black and white inking, using a variety of hatching, cross-hatching and stippling techniques to achieve the desired texture and lighting effects.



The second one is one of my early experiments with airbrushing, and not a very successful one. (That, sadly, was typical of most of my attempts at airbrushing.)



You may note that I must have made copies of the basic inked version prior to doing all of the hatching, cross-hatching ad stippling, so that I would have an "open" version of the drawing on which to try airbrushing. I believe that there is a color variation done over the same "open" inked art. Maybe I'll come across that at some point and add it to this post. -- PL