My Spoonflower Store

Category Illustration

A collection of my illustrations

From the Archive

I ran into this poster while cleaning up my hard drive. I had forgotten all about it. I know that the idea of books taking you to new places is an old idea but here is my interpretation. Enjoy! Here…

Illustration Friday: Scale

Scale is the smallest dragon in the world. His favorite thing to eat is dandelion blossoms. Life as Scale knows it is about to change. One of his scales can bring wealth beyond dreams to the one who possesses it.…

Creating a RGB Color Pallet that is CMYK Safe

I prefer to work in Adobe Photoshop in RGB Mode. RGB stands the primary colors of light which are Red, Green and Blue. When a book is printed the color mode that is used is CMYK. CMYK stands for Cyan,…

Scratchboard, Linocut Tutorial

Dylan this is for you. I will add to the instructions soon. This is just the beginning of a tutorial you requested. The tutorial is a work in progress. The title of the piece is Sleeping Beauty. The directions assume…

Illustration Friday: Emergency

Many things are Emergencies in out lives. Saving rare species should be one of them. An UnBook of rare Species. This one is so rare I don’t even know what to call it.

Illustration Friday: Missing

Missing is a book to challenge the reader to discover what is missing in the image. It is an Un Book by Scott E. Franson.

Illustration Friday: Moon

RaMoona the Brave: Going where no cow has gone before, is the newest addition to the UnBook collection. Now I know that Mother Goose claims that the cow jumped over the moon, but we all know that the incident in…

Illustration Friday: geeky

Geeky It is official and everyone knows it! You want your child to grow up to be a geek because the geeks make all the money! This is your step by step guide to raising your child to be a…

Illustration Friday: twist

Have you ever noticed that it is always the pickle jar lid that gets stuck? There is a reason! Don’t Twist is a book about the evils of pickles. I hate pickles to put it mildly. I would love to…

Illustration Friday: camouflage

Candy is bound and determined to find out the answer to the mystery. With the help of her camouflage dress and quick thinking she is sure to find the answer. As for the rest of us we will never know…

Illustration Friday: snap

Snap The cold snap came in the evening freezing the duck into the pond. “I should have started flying south sooner” said the duck. But he didn’t and so now we have a story. We all want to know that…

Illustration Friday: communication

Confidential, is the story of a young man sending a love letter in smoke signals. The only problem is that the wrong person received his communication. Will he live happily ever after with his true love? The world will never…

Illustration Friday: gravity

What if? These are the questions that all children ask and want to know the answers to. This Un-Book explores “What if” questions about gravity.

DI: crash

The students have posted to their blogs an image based on the word crash (from Illustration Friday). The students want to improve and would be grateful for any critique. Have fun looking at their images.Alex, Ashley, Audrey, Becca, Brittany L,…

Illustration Friday: crash

My newest un-book was inspired by my son trying to make a paper airplane. Just when he thought he had the perfect airplane the first test flight resulted in a spectacular crash. (I actually think he was trying to crash…

DI: sprout

The students have posted to there blogs an image based on the word Sprout (from Illustration Friday). The students want to improve and would be grateful for any critique. Have fun looking at their images.Alex, Ashley, Audrey, Becca, Brittany L,…

Coloring a scanned line in Photoshop

This is the most re-requested tutorial that I teach in the digital Illustration class. While many of the processes are interesting to try, this process is one that nearly every illustrator will need to use at some point. The result…

Illustration Friday: Sprout

Thump. What was that? I thought to myself. It was a bird, there are feathers on the window. Is the bird dead? I wonder, but I don’t see it and so it must be OK. A bit later in the…

DI: red

The students have posted to there blogs an image based on the word Red (from Illustration Friday). The students want to improve and would be grateful for any critique. Have fun looking at their images.Alex, Becca, Brittany L, Brittany W,…

Illustration Friday: red

The newest Un-Book by Scott E Franson is called Red River, and is the story of blood. Other than that, I don’t know what the story is about. You tell me.

DI: Super Hero

The students have posted to there blogs an image based on the word Super Hero (from Illustration Friday). The students want to improve and would be grateful for any critique. Have fun looking at their images.Alex, Ashley, Audrey, Becca, Brittany…

Illustration Friday: Super Hero

Ben gets stung by a bee and becomes BeeBoy! The story explores his new found powers. Find out how he uses his unusual powers in the newest Un-Book by Scott E Franson, that will never be at a bookstore near…

DI: 80s

The Digital Illustration class is up and running now. The students have posted to there blogs and image based on the word 80s (from Illustration Friday). The students want to improve and would be grateful for any critique. I would…

Illustration Friday: 80s

School Bus: Memoir of a Bus Driver. . . . 89 Bottles of beer on the wall!! 89 bottles of beer . . . The field trip has just begun and the students are only in the 80s. What will…

DI: Illustration Friday

This will be the first week that the digital illustration class will be participating in Illustration Friday. Since we are just getting started and some of the students are just beginning to learn the computer, they can choose how they…

Linear perspective in Adobe Illustrator

Using Adobe Illustrator draw 2 cubes in correct two-point perspective in a room, with cast shadows. Learning to use the pen tool in Illustrator opens many doors in Photoshop and so that is where we will start the digital illustration…

Digital Illustration Class: Day 1

This semester I am teaching a digital illustration class that I have taught many times before. What will be different about this class is that the students will be posting their work along the way. I am really excited to…

Illustration Friday: buzz

Buzz is the newest un-book. I had fun making this image. I am always struggling to keep emotion in my images because of the style. I hope that you like this new character, even if you hate mosquitos.

Adding a Watermark to an image

Step 1: Create 2 layers in Adobe Photoshop. One with your image and one with the desired watermark in black. Step 2: On the layers palette click the effects button at the bottom and select Bevel and Emboss from the…

Illustration Friday: Phoenix

Phoenix, For the Very First Time*, is the newest Un-Book that will never be at a fine bookstore near you. Here is a closeup. * My sincere apologies to Patricia MacLachlan, for using her title Arthur, For the Very First…

Illustration Friday: Peace

Introducing the first Alien to English Un-Book Dictionary that will help you avoid those uncomfortable situations when introducing yourself to the people of a new planet.

How to add texture to a Photoshop brush

This brush stroke is made with the Hard-Round 19 pixles brush. This texture is scanned from a board that I textured with gesso. When the gesso dried, I painted over the complete surface with a thin acrylic wash of black.…

Illustration Friday: Help

This frog doesn’t need any help. In fact, help could be deadly. This new unbook will never be at a bookstore near you.

Illustration Friday: Mask

I Would Rather Be a Weed! is the newest unbook not by Scott E Franson. It will never be at a bookstore near you. I hope this image brings back good memories of Elementary School Theatrical productions.

Illustration Friday: smoke

Smoke: Feline P.I. When you just need to know, Smoke the Feline P.I., is the cat for the job. This is an UnBook not written by Scott E Franson. But you never know, one day when you least expect it…

Illustration Friday: wind2

Wind: The Plight of an Under Wound, Over Weight, Boy Robot. Boy Robot lives in a world where the robots rely on each other to be wound. He has come to the point in his life where fewer and fewer…

Illustration Friday: wind

This weeks UnBook is not a novel about the challenges of fighting forest fires in the western United States with an unforgiving wind.

Illustration Friday: Trouble

The words of my mother rang out in my ears,but I fear I was too late to see. “You can eat the leaves, the sweet green leaves,but beware of the scissor bird tree.” Here is a new book that will…

Illustration Friday: Quiet

Quiet Too Quiet, is this weeks new unBook that will never be at a store near you. Have you ever noticed that when the kids are quiet, it is a blessing, but if they are too quiet, there is a…

Illustration Friday: Phobia

Here is another publication that I did not write. But it is based on my real life phobia. I hated to go to the freezer when I was young because of the fish. Fish that my father caught, froze and…

Illustration Friday: Change

I didn’t write this publication and I am not going to change the baby:) You can see other books that I didn’t write here. More Covers You can see one book that is written & illustrated by Scott E Franson…

Illustration Friday: Farm

Announcing another publication that I didn’t write and will never be at a local store near you. I had fun making the image. I hope that you enjoy it.

Illustration Friday: Safe (again)

SAFE—As before this book is not available and was not written by Scott E Franson. What is different about this new book is that it happened by accident as I was working on a different project. It is also based…

Illustration Friday: Safe

SNOUT is a bedtime story in the great tradition of JAWS. This book was not written or illustrated by Scott E Franson and will never be at a bookstore near you.

Illustration Friday: Run

RUN is the gripping story of a rhino named Rhina and her first sleepover. It will never be at a bookstore near you and was not written by Scott E Franson