Update to the Austin Skyline

 

When I finished the Austin skyline back in 2011, the U.S. Courthouse on 5th St. was not yet complete. I had to leave a little hole there, knowing that I'd come back to it in the future. Well, the future is now. The courthouse is complete, and I've dropped it into the illustration.

Before

After

The Austonian

Austonian vector illustration

I've hung around photographers enough to know that the tops of parking garages (or buildings) are the best spots for getting cityscape angles. Downtown Austin has an abundance of good spots. When I found a spot where I could get an unobstructed shot of Austin's tallest building, The Austonian, I knew I had to do an illustration. Most of the illustrations that I've done in this series, however, have been relatively small. I was a little concerned that with such a tall building, I wouldn't be able to get a very detailed photograph. But using Photoshop's lens correction filter and photomerge functions, I was able to stitch together a really good reference photo that was detailed and undistorted. Took me a few weeks to complete this one. [Click to zoom.]

Keeping Busy

Yesterday I took a drive out to Austin's Pennybacker Bridge to take photos because I knew it would make a great illustration. People often ask me how long it takes to do one of these. Usually I don't know what to say because I work on them in shifts, shelving them for weeks and coming back to them when the mood strikes me. Well what you're looking at here took me exactly five hours. I know that because I literally did nothing else when I got home from taking the pictures (no internet at home makes Jeff a bored boy). Here's a zoom: