Cassie and Licorice remembrance Portrait, October 2025

 I digitally painted this as a remembrance for two dogs our family grew to love and adore. The dog in the foreground, Licorice, has passed to the great beyond. The background dog, Cassie, is still kicking.

Compositing reference images

I used two separate photos of the dogs, both taken in a similar setting. I then used AI image generation (XeroGen Forge) to create the green blanket Licorice is lying on.

Vanilla Sky, a Digital Painting

Finished digital painting.

Stats: 

Canvas size: 4200x3300 pixels

Brush: Custom-made paint brush (Krita RGBa)

Program: Krita 

Reference: Photo taken by me

I snapped the reference photo for one of my wife's pet geckos in March of this year. I loved the look, lighting and pose so much, I decided to paint this as an exercise. As I progressed I decided to execute a fully rendered digital painting

Reference Photo of Vanilla Sky

As always using Krita and the custom brushes within the program are amazing. The interactive feel, that balances smudging and applying paint all within the same stroke, feels so natural and intuitive.

Below are a few detail images at 100% zoom.

Detail at 100% zoom

Detail at 100% zoom

Illustration of my Grandpa Thorup

Desire for traditional art project begins

In Early summer this year I felt it was time to get my art studio back up and running. my drawing table had been languishing in the garage for at least 4 years. Every time I pulled the van into the garage I would see it sitting their, gathering dust and cob webs.

For a while it didn't bother me.

Then, Grandpa died, I finished school and that began to change. Sifting through the hundreds of digital images I have taken over the years, I came across a photo I took of my Grandfather at my brother Jacob's wedding in 2005.

I thought to myself, "Ya, know that is a great image of grandpa. If I ever get the chance I would like to take  crack at making an illustration out of this."

Having completed a digital illustration for my wife in spring, my desire to do something traditional had grown. My desire to do something to truly honor my Grandfather's memory had also grown.

I finally set myself to the task

As I cleaned and organized the studio (It was in complete disarray) I became more and more excited. After much shifting, sweeping and chucking, the studio was ready for some good ole fashioned traditional art.

The video below documents over a 3 month period the study sketches and the final Illustration. I hope in some small way I have honored his memory. I hope by the way I live my life over many years, I will honor him for all he tried to teach me.

Here also is a link to the Hi resolution image for any relatives who would like to get a nice print done of the illustration depicted above. Just click on the download icon at the top of the page.
It is of sufficient detail that it can be printed at full size of the original (18x24) 

Squirrel cards

Been a while since I posted. Went through a little slump where I just didn't feel that creative. Hopefully I can produce a nice streak of posts in the next few months.

Today I am showing off a couple quick sketches I did for some small cards. Be sure to click on the image so you can see them in greater detail.

Copyrights Aaron Thorup

I simply cut an 8.5x11 sheet of heavy stock paper in half. Then folded those two pieces in half. On the front I sketched the small illustrations, you see above, in about 30 minutes. Medium was simply a black Bic pen. They were quite enjoyable to produce. Perhaps I should produce a whole line of squirrel themed illustrations and add color. We'll see.