26 December 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Some work has been set aside this season as I have been busy with family and holiday concerns. I've also been doing a lot of looking for work, including applying to various teaching positions for illustration professors across the country. Nothing back on that yet. But I have been working on a digital painting as a gift for my in-laws. It's based on some photos I took on a winter trip to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho at the beginning of this year. I had painted the mountains quite a while ago and used them as the background for an earlier illustration, but my plan had always been to finish up the painting as a Christmas present. For some reason, it was not so easy to get back into it and the final details were especially taxing. As we all know, that last 5% is sometimes the most difficult.

I worked on at at a size of 11"x14" at about 200 ppi and printed it out  full-size. The final print was done at Staples on their large-format printer and turned out quite nice. I then matted and framed it (although very cheaply). Overall, I liked the final result and I think it was appreciated as a gift. I hope you like it as well; it will have to serve as my Christmas image this year.