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Sunday, November 28, 2010

A Textbook (Art) Example

Earlier this year I did a whole pile of illustrations for a textbook series on vehicles and transportation. A WHOLE pile!

AirplaneGroup

All of these vehicles illustrations were done as spots, to be inserted in various places along with text and photos. But to make things a little more interesting for presentation here on my blog, I decided to mock them up as imaginary covers. So don't bother looking for these at the library or in your six year old's knapsack. (I just made 'em up)

TractorsGroup

Normally I don't really love drawing vehicles because, *ahem*, I'm not very good at mechanical objects. But this came by way of a designer friend who specifically asked me to do them and I was looking for a little freelance to do on the weekends and evenings between teaching my classes.

FarmGroup

And as I worked on them, I was so happy with how they were turning out that it actually became quite a fun assignment.

HelicoptersGroup

Believe it or not, all of these vector-looking illustrations were done in Corel Painter. Why? Because I'm not an Illustrator illustrator. I've been using Painter for a few years now and find it quite versatile. I know, I know, I really, really need to learn how to use Illustrator. I've just been, you know... a little busy lately.

TanksGroup

Right now I'm working on another giant batch of vehicles for a new series of textbooks from the same client, so this seemed like the right time to show off the last batch.

FiretrucksGroup

Hope you like 'em! Let me know what you think!

2 comments:

David R. Darrow said...

I have to admit being surprised that these are done in Corel Painter. Not being a Painter painter (I'm more of an Illustrator illustrator), I'm not sure how you got such precise edges and lines with a paint program — one that I associate more with concept art, layering and textured edges.

Would you mind explaining, or linking to an example file with layers still intact?

Adrian Johnson said...

Leif,

These are gorgeous, but I still can't believe these are done in Corel Painter! Wow!