Illustration Portfolio
My name is Michael Iannece, I have been a draftsman and painter for 44 years.
The following works are samples of the style I employ most often and how it evolved.
(Please click on images for detailed view)
Above is a charter design that was hand-drawn.
Randomly added a texture to the costume while coloring in Photoshop.
It hit me that by sampling photo pixels (texture) with the clone brush in Photoshop,
I could trick the viewer’s eye into thinking the image was photorealistic,
no matter how fantastical the piece.
Characters in the foreground are pencil-drawings.
The sky, trees, cityscape, original photographs.
Skyscraper in the middle ground is completely fabricated.
I accomplished this by sampling wall textures from various pictures.
Built-out the front facade floor by floor, window by window.
Duplicated the front of the building to create the side view.
As you can see, the texture sampling worked to great effect.
The building has an air of realism.
Continued to refine this process over the following years.
The next two promotional pieces are examples of this evolution.
With the first one, I created a photo collage background from original photos.
Painted the the dead rat with digital brushes in photoshop.
It’s an improvement, but you can still tell that the rat is fabricated.
In the second promo piece, I used a life model for the digital painting.
Added stone texture sampled from rock photos in my personal texture library.
This piece was a breakthrough in terms of seeing the true potential of this process.
Once more, I used an art model for reference,
but this girl does not exist – it is not a photograph.
Televisions and background texture are photo collage.
The skull inside the the television is an original photograph,
re-worked and stylized in Photoshop.
The technique finally came together in this piece.
Child lying in bed does not exist – generated via clone brush.
Nor, does the hunter in the pattern on the sheets, he is a digital painting.
The books and the globe originated from photo reference that I edited in Photoshop.
The dinosaur skull is a photo collage.
Several elements of this piece are taken from public domain photographs.
All combined with hand renderings via digital brushes and the clone stamp.
Similarly, the sex toys, gag, gun, and some elements of the three clowns,
are a mix of original and royalty-free photos.
The rest is completely rendered by hand.
These final pieces are the culmination of years spent refining my style.
Virtually all of the details are fabricated, hand-renderings with digital coloring.
The photo-pixel sampling works to great effect here.
The bullet shells are re-worked photo snippets.
By far, my favorite static illustration to date.
Both Hades and Persephone are completely fabricated.
Frame of the car, leaves, deer, city lights, are altered photos.
The photo-pixel-sampling technique really shines in this illustration.
Particularly on Hades’ forehead, which creates the illusion of actual skin texture.
(Click to spin logo and reveal alternate face)
Personal logo for Shadowmark Media comic books and gifs.
Optical illusion with two faces: Shaman/Death’s Head mask.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Michael P. Iannece