Two Projects from the Last Two Months

Did you know that the first microscope was invented by a Dutchman in the 17th century? It looked something like this:

Core Knowledge Foundation, an elementary school textbook/educational publisher, asked me do these two illustrations in pen and ink (+digital color) to accompany a section in one of their grade books on the human body.

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek designed and made all of the components himself and observed and drew out seemingly all that he could think of with his microscopes. Quite an impressive early scientist. The above illustration is to show a smattering of what he discovered.

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The Highland Neighborhood Association in Austin asked me to redesign and paint their 'Good Neighbor' metal yard sign with full artistic license--so long as the end result wouldn't be confused with a 'for sale' sign:

Austin, TX has a thing for retro signage, so I did what I could to channel that a la Marti. Hopefully I landed a mix between "Hey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and "Good job on keeping the dandelions and fire ants down." It was my first time working on metal, but enamel paint is oil-based so it wasn't much different than regular oils--minus the consistency and fumes. Nothing like venting a room for several hours with a box fan in June in Houston.