Vector Illustration Wins the Vote!

Ben's Guide 

When the U.S. Government Printing Office decided to rebrand their "Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government" website, the project's design team called on Shawn Finley Studios to illustrate the site with vector art built in Adobe Illustrator. Vector art was a natural fit for the website, allowing the new Ben Franklin character and backgrounds to be easily scaled and employed in web games and animations.

If your next web or print project could use some highly versatile vector art or character designs, call Shawn Finley Studios to get your campaign rolling!

Ben Franklin Character Turnarounds

(TOP IMAGE: Ben's Guide splash page. MIDDLE IMAGE: Ben Franklin character design turnarounds. BOTTOM IMAGE: Screenshot from "Branch -O- Mania" web game.)

"Ben's Guide" is a website aimed at teaching kids about the various functions of the U.S. Government. Check it out here or view more art at shawnfinley.com.

"Villains" – New Works by Shawn Finley at Rotofugi Gallery, Chicago

I recently had the privilege to exhibit my first one man gallery show at Rotofugi Gallery on February 3. It was a snowy Chicago evening, but despite the wintry weather, I enjoyed a very warm reception celebrating with friends, fans and family – many of whom had travelled from out of state to see the show.

The title – and theme – is "Villains", inspired by the bad guys we love to hate from the movies and graphic novels. This show is a rogue's gallery of bad guys (and gals) including stoic gunslingers, smoking hot assassins, scowling pirates, creeping ninjas, desperate ronin and evil kings. Each work is acrylic on canvas, with 18 paintings in total.

Each "Villains" portrait features a graphic, flat character surrounded by a moody abstract expressionist background, combining Pop Art and Abstract Expressionist techniques. Other paintings are "abstract only", adding the feeling of wind, rain, fire and ice to the mix.

Rotofugi Gallery, located on the north side of Chicago, will continue to host the "Villains" exhibit from Feb. 3-25. You can also view the entire show online.

IKEA's LATTJO Activity Book

IKEA recently added another title by Shawn Finley to it's family books section. "LATTJO Activity Book", a coloring book for all ages, features 96 pages of intricate black and white imagery of imaginative creatures and botanical designs. Shawn worked closely with the producers at DreamWorks to illustrate and design this coloring book collection (inspired by the original designs of Maja Sten and Tyra von Zweigbergk.) The book is currently available on IKEA's website, along with "LATTJO Story Cards", illustrated by Shawn Finley and Denise Shimabukuro.

Interior spread from LATTJO Activity Book

Interior spread from LATTJO Activity Book

Interior spread from LATTJO Activity Book

Interior spread from LATTJO Activity Book

Phonics Monster

The New Year is off with a bang with this fun Monster project that made me smile! E-Public, an educational publisher from Korea, approached me about doing a series of book covers for beginning English students. 

Each cover features one of the four monsters (Plop, Turley, Moo, and Volt) who help make learning fun for Kindergarten through 2nd Grade readers. 

Every book also comes with an interactive multi-rom with educational computer games and other extras. Plop, Turley, Moo, and Volt can also be seen in the "Writing Monster" series, illustrated by Shawn Finley Studios in 2014.

IKEA Story Cards

Recently I teamed up fellow illustrator Denise Shimabukuro to create IKEA's "Lattjo Story Cards", a fun family product designed to encourage children and adults to invent creative and original stories.

The project, developed for IKEA by DreamWorks, features 20 wordless story cards with a variety of characters and settings as a fun way of engaging children in personal and unique story telling.

My role was to create a total of 27 detailed digital paintings in a traditional textured "acrylic" style, based on pencil drawings supplied by Denise. I'm very happy with the outcome! "Lattjo Story Cards" can be found on IKEA's site here!

DreamWorks and Dragons

Early in 2014, DreamWorks Animation approached me about illustrating some board books for their new publishing branch, DreamWorks Press. A few months after completing those, I was asked to work on a picture book adaptation of the original "How to Train Your Dragon" movie. It didn't take me long to say "Yes"! 

For those not familiar with the film, "How to Train Your Dragon" tells the story of a young Viking named Hiccup who befriends a rare and powerful dragon.

It was a pleasure to work with Art Director Mike Sund on this title, as well as co-illustrator Denise Shimabukuro. Denise provided the pencil drawings, and I created the final digital paintings. The direction was to create a hand-painted acrylic/gouache look, which I achieved with a variety of Photoshop brushes.

I'm very proud of the final product, a 32 page hardback book released in 2015. 

(Available on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/q9zmt6r).

Searching for Dinosaurs

I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest picture book, Search & Find Dinosaur Fun! by Kidsbooks LLC (2012).

Dinosaur Fun is a fully illustrated, high quality 16 page board book featuring a family of dinosaurs who visit a farm, a museum, the beach, and many other interesting places. 

 

Preschoolers are challenged to find the dinosaurs and other objects within the main images, enhancing their cognitive skills and introducing them to basic words along the way. 

For more information about "Dinosaur Fun" please visit:

 http://www.kidsbooks.com/young-readers/dinosaur-fun