Portrait of a Nephew at Seventeen

I’ve got four nephews. Three on my side of the family and one on Nizzibet’s side. I did a portrait of the one on Nizzibet’s side a few years ago when I sent out a series of postcards to friends and family around the country. He’s grown quite a bit since then and asked me to do an updated version.

He asked me to keep the outfit the same but to have his hands giving the ^^^ sign. I had to ask him to send me a photo of him demonstrating that. I have no idea what it means. If he’s calling for the destruction of Western Civilization don’t tell me.

Once he’d confirmed that I had portrayed his hand signs accurately I inked it up and then sent it to Photoshop for coloring. The white space around his hands was to make it easier for me to add the lettering to his t-shirt.

And there you go. Another young man out to make his mark on the world. And calling for the destruction of Western Civilization. Or something.

JT and the Natives


This is the base drawing for a portrait of Mr. Jon Turner, the man who originally got me doing illustrations for The Black Seal. I didn’t get any reference photos of him when I did contributors’ portraits back in 2004 so he missed out on being featured on the website. A little over two years later I finally got the photos I needed and did a portrait. I’ve no idea if it will ever see print.