Ken W. Min ~ Illustrator for Hire

Calendar Art

recently took part in a group effort to put together a promotional calendar for the coming new year. each was asked to contribute a black & white piece with the option to add a touch of red. here's my effort:

yeah, it's a different take on the black & white work i've been noodling with of late. it's actually a color piece that i converted on the computer. talking to someone, he suggested i try this approach thinking that it might hold a more interesting look as oppose to the "charcoal" style i had been playing around with. i'm open to viewpoints of which style people like better.

even tho the calendar is part of a promotional campaign, i should have a handful on hand for my own personal usage; to dole out as i please. any interested parties? :)

(that, or a few friends will find i cheaped out on them in the way of christmas gifts this year.)

btw- here's the same piece in it's original color form:

New Arrival

recently did a piece for a couple expecting their first child. they wanted something to use as a banner for their announcement page on a website as well as a card. i was very flattered to contribute to their happy occasion. here's the piece as well as a close up.

 

Troll Bridge

 
i don't think i want to know what the toll is to cross this bridge. he's pretty hairy for a troll. seems like he might be more kin to a "yeti". troll or yeti, i don't think this kid is too happy to be encountering one. 

A Troll in B/W

a dapper troll. or is it a troll? can trolls be tall? or are they generally "vertically-challenged"? anyways, this is, more or less, just for fun.

Like Charcoal

 
 
i feel like i made some kind of break through with this piece. it reminds me of the charcoal drawings i use to do in school, when one could just experiment and try things. hard to believe i did most of this on a computer. no grubby, black stained fingers to try and wash to no avail. the only thing i did traditionally was the ink line drawing.

i'm liking the direction of this look. will see what else i can make with this technique.

Anthropomorphic Sketches

playing around with some animal characters. in b/w.

 

dunno where that mole rat is running off to. i envision him as a musician/composer. so he's probably losing his sheet music. or maybe an accountant. hope that's not my tax return getting lost. :)

A Comic Page in B/W

i'm very fond of comic books, or as they are known today as "graphic novels". for fun, thought i would do a one page story in b/w.

Fears and Nightmares in Black & White

i think i mentioned one time that i have this phobia regarding sharks. i loved sharks as a kid, till i saw the movie Jaws. then i couldn't get the image of a bloodthirsty shark coming at me out of my head, even in a swimming pool. sure, there are no sharks in pools. but tell that to my over-active imagination. especially with my poor eye sight, any blurry figure i saw underwater looked like it could be a shark. nowadays, the only time i can go in the pool is if other people are swimming. i figure my odds of not getting eaten improve with other targets in the water. anyways, i did this first image based on that fear.

with this second image, sometimes i have this re-ccuring dream where i'm being chased or pursued. always trying to get away from something. (not necessarily these strange masked figures but something.) thought it might make for an interesting b/w image.

 

more b/w's to come...

Ken in Black and White

lately i've been dabbling in doing images in black and white. i remember an old teacher of mine and the ideas he put forth. of breaking things down into 3 values- light, a mid tone and dark. if you can think in these terms and strike the right balance, you can make a picture read well and have your important information "pop". (it should also work in color illustrations, but for some reason, it just seems simpler in b/w)

i still have the notes he gave me from way back when:

so trying to keep these principles in mind, i did my first piece. as you can see, i was very deliberate with my value placement. almost to the point of being "stylized" in my approach. but i'm still playing around with the concept. my thought process is still a work in progress :)

 

more to come.

Carousel

i've often wondered if animals ever wanted to take a ride on the carousel.