Happy Halloween Week From Fian Arroyo Illustration!

Ta dah!!!! Halloween is this week. Love this time of year!!! This is another piece of mine in the "Spooky" show at the ZaPow Gallery here in Asheville, N.C. This piece was modified from an earlier one and resurrected just in time for the big day when a 1000 plus pint sized little vampires, witches, zombies and other candy crazed fiends come pounding at our doors to satisfy their sugar tooth. The Asheville Citizen Times posted a story couple years ago on how my family and I do it up with giant inflatable spiders and a slew of other creepy stuff on our little corner of Weaverville for Halloween. Check it out here.

Have a safe and happy Halloween...and don't let your kids, or yourself, eat all that candy in one night!

Fun Illustrated Map For AAA Magazine By Fian Arroyo

Got my copies this weekend for the AAA Traveler Fall issue with my 2 page spread illustration I posted recently. Thanx AAA for the wonderful opportunity to work with you on this project!!!

So cool to see the end product. I love drawing fun stuff! What's your favorite part of the illustration?
 

Step By Step Art Progression By Fian Arroyo

Here's a step by step progression into how one of my watercolor and ink paintings are created. This piece is called Discovering Truth In Ancient Fables. This was created for myself to sell as a fine art giclee print here in my shop at www.fian.com.

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A photo of my daughter sitting a tree on the Blue ridge Parkway on a misty day, was the inspiration for this painting.

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The original sketchbook doodle for "Discovering Truth In Ancient Fables". It was originally going to be called Beneath, Between & Behind but I wanted a title with a little more to it.

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I scanned the doodle printed it out to size to fit my 12x16 watercolor block which I had covered the reverse side with graphite to trace the drawing onto the paper. The traced drawing on Arches 140 lb. cold press Arches watercolor block.

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Using the original doodle as a guide for the line work I wanted to capture in the final art using my Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen.

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The final ink drawing complete.

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Painting the beginning layer of the tree with watercolor and the background in gouache. I wanted that opaque painted look in the background to get a misty feel.

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More of the tree and starting to get in some vegetation. Drawing and painting the plants is real fun for me…I don't know why but it is.

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The foreground, tree and sky are complete. Now to finish the rest of the critters and tree top.

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Done! Discovering Truth In Ancient Fables ©2014 Fian Arroyo.

How it could looked framed on your wall. Pick up an unframed giclee print for yourself here.

Fun Map Of The Music Highway

Got the OK from the client to show this fun mappish illustration I did for AAA Carolinas for an article called "Cruising Down Music Highway". The top part shows the illustration in its entirety and the bottom part shows blown up sections. Being a guitar player myself it was fun creating this illustration.

What is your favorite part of this map?

Choosing Between Two Troll Illustrations

Two days ago I posted on my personal Facebook page and Facebook illustration page and got a great response regarding which version of The Blue Ridge Mountain Troll I should chose to hang in the "Spooky" themed show at the ZaPow gallery in Asheville N.C. which starts this weekend. I needed to know that afternoon to let the printer know and almost immediately comments were flooding in. So with that in mind, I thought it would be great to see what folks visiting my blog would think. Let me know which one you would choose. Also, you can pick up a print of the one that was chosen here. Thanx!