Illustration for Kayak 42: War With America!

Here is the Illustration I did for the latest issue of Kayak. The Issue deals with the war of 1812 and will be produced in English and in French.

I did this illustration by sketching it out on paper scanning it in to the computer and inking and colouring it in Illustrator. I then added some texture using Photoshop. The Issue will be out in December and will include the work of some very talented Illustrators. Alex Diochon, Fred Curatolo, Jessica Lindsay, and Keith Milne

Kayak Issue #40: Titanic Spread

As I mentioned before I produced a two page spread for the most recent Issue of Kayak.

It is of the two otters (Teeka and Beau) exploring a shipwreck. I had a blast doing this though it does ad a bit of stress to designing the magazine as well as producing illustrations. But the truth of it is, it wasn't going to happen without the pressure. The illustration really didn't come together until I added the bubbles. Once those were added it really said "Hey, we're under water!" Which is great because prior to that the image looked like a bunch of fish with two otters floating in zero gravity.

I did the main illustration in illustrator with some colour correction and texture work in photoshop.

Kayak Otters

These are two characters I developed for Kayak .

They are the new ambassadors of Kayak magazine to Canada's young and impressionable. I chose them because many of our national emblems have been used so many times. We had a Beaver mascot who did not grab the hearts and minds of our readers. We've tried Moose which I am totally against. Not because I dislike moose but because anthropomorphic rendering does not lend itself to such a majestic animal. They always look goofy and ridiculous. They are not. Moose are huge, and I mean huge majestic animals. To round their antlers make them seem sweet and cuddly does a diservice to them, it also makes people more ignorant to the danger they can pose as wild animals. I simply did not want to do to the moose what Disney has done to the Hippo.

I considered the Lynx, raccoons have been done. Then I thought, maybe otters. Playful, river creatures that can stand on their hind legs and lend themselves to looking a bit more like humans and the ability to wear historic costume if need be. I absolutely love the response so far. It ranges from complete acceptance to confusion followed by acceptance. I have yet to meet a person of despises otters. I myself am a big fan of them. Their names are Beau and Teeka and I hope you like them, because you will be seeing a lot more of them in upcoming Kayak issues. My first two page spread in the magazine was done introducing Beau and Teeka. You will find it in the current issue of Kayak due to drop in the mail shortly. It will be on the newsstand in April.