on the go…
Starting 2023, I am consolidating much of the blog activity to my business site at designomatt, where you can continue to find updates on works, projects, and design thoughts.
Darth Vader
I have been working in Adobe Illustrator for a lot more of my recent work. Typically, I will block out most of the illustration in Illustrator and then move to a bitmap program to do much of the detail work. Recently, however, I have been focused on creating...
Captain Jack
I grew up in an golden age of illustration with contemporary idols like Frank Frazetta, John Buscema, and Keith Haring. However, as I attended university, I discovered more historic American illustrators to admire with N.C. Wyeth high on that list of gifted painters...
Joker, revisited
I watched Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight recently and was again captivated by Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. His total committment to the role was evident in every scene - and not that he stole the scene, but merely inhabited them as a reality he shared...
Revenge of the Fifth, 2021
To celebrate Star Wars Sith Day, Revenge of the Fifth, I have a companion piece to yesteday's Princess Leia portrait; a gold-leafed portrait of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren (Ben Solo). This was one of the early pieces I created using gold leaf and is markedly smaller than...
May The Fourth, 2021
May The Fourth be with you! To celebrate this year's Star Wars Day, I have been working on a portrait, icon really, of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa (Skywalker) to commemorate this year's #MayTheFourth.The portrait I began painting earlier this year and have...
Happy Alien Day 2021
Let's celebrate Alien Day with the latest round of rejections for an upcoming project. Printed in Blood is producing a new art book to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of Aliens. Since this is one of my favorite franchises, I submitted several new...
Earth Day 2021
The celebration of Earth Day is always a special time for me, as it is also the anniversary of the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park at The Walt Disney World Resort; a park where I played a small part in the opening day festivities.At the time, I was a...
John Carpenter’s Halloween
Printed in Blood makes some great artbooks filled with visions of illustrations by artists from all over the world. They are currently finalizing the next project, John Carpenter's Halloween to be released later in 2021, and this is one of my illustrations that was...
Tiny Planets
Back in 2011, when I began writing The Elements of Magic, I wanted to include as much immersive material in the iBook as possible and at the same time I was just beginning to create panoramic imagery. As I explored the method of creating these sweeping vistas, I also...
Thor
Portrait of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, God of Thunder, to match my earlier portrait of Tom Hiddleson's Loki, God of Mischief.This print is on a Hahnemühle gloss Baryta paper. The gold leaf adhesive didn't absorb into the paper, so you can see brush strokes of its...
Gold leaf
Further experimentation with the age-old technique of metal, or gold, leaf application to imagery. Using some giclee prints of my recent illustrations as the basis for these tests to combine the ancient with the modern.There are certain considerations to take into...
Loki, redux
I worked up a sketch of Tom Hiddleston as Loki the other day (top image) as a morning warmup. As the sketch was evolving, I thought I might be able to treat this particular idea a little different (bottom image) by incorporating some metal-leaf as a decorative element...
Quorra
Portrait of Olivia Wilde as Quorra, "The Miracle", from Disney's "Tron Legacy" the sequel to 1982 Disney sci-fi classic "Tron".Alt-fan movie poster for the sequel to the classic film using the portrait of Quorra. This image was created using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe...
Matt, Radar Technician
Portrait of Adam Driver posing as Matt, the radar technician for an Undercover Boss skit done while he was hosting Saturday Night Live. For the obvious reasons of my love of all things Star Wars and the fortuitous alias, this will henceforth become my permanent...
Dracula, Bela Lugosi
I can't believe I did not post this painting; I created this last Fall, around Halloween, and apparently forgot to post here on the site. It is a portrait of Bela Lugosi in his career-defining role as Count Dracula from Tod Browning and Karl Freund's 1931 film...
Old Bat Man
Portrait of Michael Keaton as the elder Bruce Wayne - a bit battered and bloody but still effective as the "Old Bat Man"Using the portrait as a base for a couple of alt-fan posters musing about a return of Michael Keaton as an Old Bat Man character, possibly in the...
Kylo Ren
Portrait of Adam Driver as Ben Solo, also known as Kylo Ren, from the Star Wars sequel trilogies episode VII, VIII, and IX.And an alt-fan version poster of Kylo Ben. These illustrations were created using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Corel Painter. Have an...
Ahsoka Tano, revisited
Another portrait of Rosario Dawson as the incomparable Ahsoka Tano from the Disney+ series, "The Mandalorian". I was watching the Disney Gallery episodes about "The Mandalorian" and to hear Dave Filoni discuss his character coming to life on the set of "The...
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