RhinoInk If Projects

Illustration Friday - Propagate

2010-02-21T18:31:00.005-05:00

Medium: pen and ink with digital colour

Thou shall not propogate the myth that one size fits all - 'cause it don't! Particularly when it comes to bras.
8/10 women wear the wrong size bra. Larger-breasted women tend to wear bras that are too small, and conversely, smaller-breasted women bras that are too large. Larger women are more likely to have an incorrect bra fit. Plus, most women's breasts are asymmetrical (10% severely), with the left breast being larger in 62%, especially when the breasts are large.
Wearing the wrong bra size can lead to a number of problems, including back pain, restricted breathing, abrasions, breast pain and poor posture.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Confined

2010-01-10T00:13:00.005-05:00

Medium: White Gauche and Graphite on Wallpaper
My intention was to illustrate a woman uncomfortably confined in her clothing. The white rabbit was added as an after thought, inspired by the Showcase movie "Alice" (in Wonderland). Makes for a rather ambiguous image.

Rendering on dark wallpaper is tricky. It's hard to see the difference between black and dark red. I could see the contrast when I held it at arms length but as my nose got closer to the work area I would have to tilt the page so that light reflected off the graphite sheen. It was almost like working the negative.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2009-12-08T21:37:00.002-05:00

Illustration Friday - Crunchy!

2009-12-05T22:50:00.012-05:00

Sweet and Crunchy - Chocolate Dipped Treats
Took me a while to come up with this one. Every time I thought "crunchy" I came up with a close-up mouth chowin' down on a cookie with crumbs coming out. That's not crunchy... that's just gross!
What crunches? hard cookies, chips, pretzels... gravel under foot, hair with too much product, bones!
CRUNCH is kinda gross don'tch think?

Above: actual size of drawing. Boy, it takes a long time to render. It took at least 4 hours for the pair. Medium: graphite / digital colour

Oh! But He's so cute!!!
(and crunchy)
Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Music

2009-11-23T09:14:00.010-05:00

The Pied Piper
Always one of my favorite story characters. He was supposed to be this creepy evil guy, but I always felt sorry for him. It was the greedy, self-serving villagers that were in the wrong.

Lesson: Don't rip of artists that have performed for you a great service.
If it were so easy you'd have done it yourself.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Frozen

2009-10-17T16:47:00.005-04:00

When I'm hot I like a frozen drink.
When I'm frozen I like a hot drink.
(Too bad about the drink umbrella. Went too dark. Oh well. Pretty happy with the rest.)
Medium: coloured pencils
Click to enlarge.

Illustration Friday - Germs

2009-10-03T10:35:00.003-04:00

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Germs were made for sharing. Show them how much you care and lick someone you love today!
Medium: ball point pen

Illustration Friday - Pattern

2009-09-27T20:09:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since I did a good IF project. Man! It takes a lot of time to "render"! Any way, here's my take on pattern: animal skins.
Me thinks this would make a very cool tattoo.

Close-up:

Illustration Friday - Strong II

2009-09-05T14:08:00.004-04:00

"Secret - Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman!"
I just could get this slogan out of my head when it came to this weeks word prompt.
(Arbitrary name - illustration does not depict anyone real.)
Stumbled upon the look of this illustration when I was adding colour in Photoshop. Switched off the line drawing layer to fix a bit of the coloured layer below... and I liked it better!

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Strong I

2009-09-05T13:49:00.010-04:00

Strength of character is defined by our choices.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Magnify

2009-08-30T21:30:00.012-04:00

Thought I'd try something completely random, a "self-portrait" doodle.
One of the things I doodled into my hair was an eagle. While I was doing it I was thinking, "Why? It's not my totem or a passion of mine...". As I was scanning it I had to laugh - Beak!
I like my nose. It shows my Dutch heritage - very Rembrantesque. With great noses comes great responsibility!
It's probably no coincidence that Rhinos became my mascots.

"Roxanne - 20 Somthing Betters" - Steve Martin delivers 20 better nasal slurs in response to a bar brawler calling him "big nose".

Illustration Friday - Caution

2009-08-23T12:29:00.003-04:00

Caution: Contents of Cup may be Hot.
Thank you clumsy lady for suing McDonalds and forcing all hot beverage places to redesign their packaging to include that warning. I don't know how I used to cope before I had that message in front of me to re-enforce awareness to that potential hazard! How many countless lives have you affected by sparing them from sharing in your misfortune?

Illustration Friday - Wrapped

2009-08-14T14:39:00.003-04:00

Figure painting class, 2003. The stage where the model sat was wrapped in sheets. Yep. Painting drapery. Fun.
This was a 2 day (3 hours per class) project. While on my way from the parking lot to the college I happened to glance up and there was a bright red cardinal flitting about in the tree branches over head. Perfect! That's exactly the inspiration I needed to make my painting interesting. Now, instead of a boring man on a boxy stage there was an energy that drew the eye up and around. It's like they are having a conversation.

Illustration Friday - Idle

2009-07-26T09:25:00.006-04:00

Idle hands are the Devil's playground! - a proverb. Meaning... if you don't keep yourself busy doing good, it's easy to find yourself getting into mischief. That's why they invented crafting!

Medium: scraps of fabric stitched to paper with embroidery floss and sequins with digital embellishments.

Illustration Friday - Tango

2009-07-19T00:41:00.007-04:00

Considered doing a couple caricatures for the movie "Tango and Cash" but didn't love any of the photos I found. Couldn't think of anything else clever so illustrated dancers was it. And it seemed like another good excuse to draw rhinos. Why not?

Medium: Graphite drawing digitally layered over photo.
Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Hollow

2009-07-12T20:25:00.005-04:00

My thought process was: hollow > empty words > grandiose promises of opportunity in a business world. I've heard a lot of plans, schemes and bragging when it comes to making it big in the graphics industry. I've learned to take most of this with a grain of salt. Absolutely, it would be great it those plans panned out, but I'm not holding my breath. We make our own opportunities.
This illustration didn't start out as a couple-relationship. I drew the female character with her finger poking through the "O" in promises to demonstrate that she knew his words were hollow. As soon as I did that it obviously became a ring. Run with it!

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Worn

2009-07-02T05:53:00.006-04:00

Worn out nerves as a result of years of customer service.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Drifting

2009-06-20T12:21:00.007-04:00

Wouldn't it be nice to be drifting on a slow moving river.
The sun warming my skin and the water kissing my fingers and toes.
To just close my eyes and let the current carry me away.
Not to have to worry about what to do and what is due.
A feeling of weightlessness.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Adapt

2009-05-31T05:36:00.005-04:00

It's been a month already and I have yet to adapt to these 5:00 a.m. wake up calls.
Everything hurts!
Thought it would be a great idea to pick up a pt job as a gardener at a golf course. It's like a gym membership only I work out three times per week for 8 hours as opposed to just one and I get paid instead of paying membership dues. And I get to be outside and enjoy the sunshine and natural setting.
What I hadn't taken into consideration was all the ground breaking, flower bed preparation was involved on a 36 hole premier golf course! I've done more hoeing in the last 30 days...!

Illustration Friday - Talisman

2009-04-08T17:47:00.007-04:00

Chuck Norris is so tough...
Grizzly bears wear Chuck Norris' nail clippings as talismans around their necks.

• Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas when he goes to sleep.
• When Chuck Norris crosses the street the cars have to look both ways.
• Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.
• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.
• Chuck Norris doesn't wear a watch, he decides what time it is.
• Crop circles are just Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn just needs to lay the #@&! down.
• It only takes Chuck Norris 1 lick to get to the center of a tootsie pop.
• If you have $10, and Chuck Norris has $10... Chuck Norris has more money than you.
Click here for More Chuck Norris Jokes!

Illustration Friday - Subtract

2009-03-19T22:39:00.014-04:00

Another project for the t-shirt company.
I was provided with an image of a woman applying lipstick. I was asked to "subtract" the hand and lipstick so it was just a set of floating lips and plump them up a bit.
The art director also asked for the lips to start to break up as thy were reproduced and reduced in size (scattering of lip images at random sizes).
An interesting challenge when you're working with ink. You can't subtract the black.

Solution: I documented the illustration as I built up the drawing.
I suppose I could have painted it with white on black ground but it wouldn't have the same character.

This one with colour was just for fun. The floating mouth is just a little creepy on it's own. Including the word "hey" adds just enough comic relief to make it comfortable again.

Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd

Illustration Friday - Instinct

2009-02-22T00:57:00.005-05:00

Jane worried.
"He's already seen me waiting for the elevator. I don't want to insult him. If I take the stairs it'll look like I'm avoiding him. He'll think I'm judging."
Just why this strangers opinion mattered so much, she wasn't sure. But something niggled at her and knotted in her gut.
Follow your instinct, Jane.

Illustration Friday - Celebrate

2009-02-14T19:12:00.005-05:00

Celebrate your achievements with gusto!

Illustration Friday - Time

2009-02-08T19:41:00.003-05:00

Medium: pen & ink, digital colour
Time is of the essence!
I've been working with ink lately doing illustration for a series of wildlife t-shirts. I just finished up one of my last assignments an still felt like playing with the materials. (It's nice when work is play.)
Yep, I'm one of those. I don't mean to be... it just sort of happens. I know, it's pure selfishness - if I would just think more of the needs of others I wouldn't so routinely wait until the very last second before heading out. I'm not always late, mostly I'm right on time. But I spend the whole drive going, "I'm late! I'm late! Good heavens, I'm going to be late again!" I know, if I just left 5 minutes earlier I could avoid that commuting stress.
But that would be 5 minutes less time in a day that I don't spend relaxing and essentially being me.

Illustration Friday - Climb

2009-01-24T11:23:00.005-05:00

This climbing duck (gaining altitude) was one of many small gestural sketches I did trying to nail down the impression of ducks taking off. They are for a t-shirt design that features an eagle diving in for the kill. I know - nice. This little image, maybe 2.5 inches actual size, just turned out so perfect I had to claim it for myself.

Below, the ducks are super imposed over photographed textures.
Fire Duck

Ice Duck

Stone Duck

Medium: ink painted with a tooth brush (some modifications with a quill pen) then digitally manipulated.
Original Art © RhinoInk Illustrations Ltd