The majority of my projects require that I create a new illustration from scratch, but occasionally a client wants to reuse one of my stock illustrations. That was the case for this project for the book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. The use of existing art presents several advantages for the client: he or she can see before hand exactly what the illustration looks like, it usually costs less, and the art is ready for immediate use.

This illustration project for the book, The Purpose Driven Life began with a phone call from Jim Dobbs, Creative Director at the Saddleback Church in California. Jim explained that he and his creative team had found my web site when doing an Internet search for an illustration to use on the cover of a new book by Rick Warren.

They were looking for an oak tree with its roots extending deep into the ground—the image would symbolize the virtues of strength and stability. They found one of my illustrations of an oak tree that was exactly what they had in mind for the part of the tree above ground, but it needed to have roots. It just so happened that this oak tree was previously done as part of a series of illustrations with the oak tree as the central theme, and as part of the series I had illustrated the roots of an oak tree.

Jim asked me if it was possible to combine the two illustrations. I told him I could.

Proceed to page 2 to follow the process of this illustration.