Keeping it Fresh!!

Hey folks! I am thankful for the many secrets and tips people have shared with me, so I try to give back whenever possible. And I feel I give back plenty with the art I create. But it's more than just art, it's memories. No, I kid. I stumbled across some great resource sites. Check them out. If you're able to support them financially, please do so, they deserve it! As always, I keep stash of resource links below my super talented friends (or friend wish list) links.

http://mediamilitia.com/ - Freebies, Inspiration, Tutorials, Etc
http://www.bashcorpo.dk/ - Textures, brushes, visual awesomeness
http://losttype.com/ - Among the best collection of fonts I've seen
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ - Some more great fonts

All were found via - http://designfestival.com/

Hang a Whale!

On your wall!! I almost forgot to mention, my Shave the Whales design is available on Society 6! Go ahead an purchase one for your loved one here - http://society6.com/product/Shave-the-Whales_Print!

I Pity the Herbivore!

This is another submission I did for a Threadless. I didn't like it as much as the whale, but I thought it was pretty good. Unfortunately, the voting public didn't. :( Wait until the next one! I'll probably post it sometime this week or next.

Behold, the power of the Darth Star!!!!

This one popped into my head as I was working on the balloon sword version. Enjoy!!

The Fierce Weapon of the Dark Lord of the Sith

Hey you need to start somewhere. You're not just going to grant someone a lightsaber just because they win a pod race. You need to EARN IT!!

Shave the Whales

So my wife and I left our corporate jobs (that we loved) to move back home and start our own design studio (more on that later). One of the ways we're hoping to eat is by submitting designs to Threadless since apparel design is something we did for half of our careers. Here is my FIRST design posted. It's doing ok. I'd love to see it get printed so I can wear a fuzzy whale.


You can vote for it here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/393031/Shave_the_Whales

I always hated (not really. They're awesome people) the people at work who would get the design right on their first try. Not me, I have at least 10 versions of each design. Here's where I started off with this design. It was a little too cartoony on, much like my Circo days, and I wanted to challenge myself and get a bit more typographic. All of the lettering on the final piece was hand done.
My wife also submitted a design. It should win based on the name alone. A Light Snack?! That's GOLD!!

You can vote for it here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/393029/A_Light_Snack

Enjoy folks!!

Pur-r-r-rfection!

Hey folks! Happy 2012!! Now that I have a little more down time and super comfy fuzzy slippers, I'm looking to post some more personal stuff. I just remembered I was also going to do a how-to since some have asked about how I do my textures and process. That's next on the to do list. Maybe after a Captain America piece I have waiting in the queue.

Anyways, a while back I did some stylized superhero pieces for Chicago Comic Con. I was recently contacted with a request to do Catwoman. Since she has a jumpsuit, it didn't really fit the model established, so I had to tweak the formula a little but I am still really happy with the outcome, despite not being comfortable drawing semi-realistic people. Enjoy folks!

Hey there buddy!

So one of my buddies at Target asked a couple of his design/illustrator friends (including me) to do an illustration of him for a blog at work. Here's what I was able to cook up. Enjoy!!

I'll be back with some overdue news and hopefully more posts soon!!

It's Been Too Long Without You

Hey folks!!

Sorry for the loooooong overdue update. There's been a TON going on at home/work and another update will soon come on that, but in the mean time, I can finally tell you about project I was stoked to be a part of. In case you haven't heard of StarShipSofa, they are a Hugo Award winning podcast of sci-fi stories, but also have videos, galleries, etc. They put out a 3rd volume of their short stories and I was asked to do a little of what I do. The only direction was to create something that looks like it would go in a comic book from the 50s. Well having a passion for mid-century marketing and having been a package designer AND having a love for sugary cereals that are bad for you, I created this little piece.

Below is the press release from the guys at SSS. Thanks folks!!



StarShipSofa Stories: Volume 3 available from 11/11/11

Featuring stories by: Matthew Sanborn Smith, Gregory Frost, Joe
Haldeman, Dennis M. Lane, Mercurio D. Rivera, Nicola Griffith, Peter
Watts, James Patrick Kelly, Saladin Ahmed, Catherynne M. Valente, Paul
Cornell, Gareth L. Powell, James Morrow, Amy H. Sturgis, Kevin J.
Anderson, Michael Swanwick, Lawrence Santoro, Lavie Tidhar, Frederic
Himebaugh, Aliette de Bodard, Allen Steele, Tad Williams, Jack
McDevitt, Karen Joy Fowler, Will McIntosh, Morgan Sterling Saletta,
David Brin and Adam Troy Castro.

Also featuring art by: Skeet Scienski, Daniel Tozer, Simon Watkins,
Jack Calverley, Timothy Booth, Jerel Dye, Evan Forsch, Patrick McEvoy,
Ben Greene, Mike Dubisch, Thomas Crielly, Bradley W. Schenck, Brian
Thomas Woods, Richard Case, Peter Snejbjerg, Daniele Serra, Graeme
Neil Reid, Mark Zug, Brent Holmes, Ben Wootten, Dave Krummenacher,
Jouni Koponen, Len O’Grady, Steven Thomas, Mud!, David Boyle, David
Malki !, Carly Monardo, Anton Emdin and Greg Broadmore.

Volume 3 available in multiformats from www.starshipsofa.com

Chicago Comic Con Wrap Up!

Hey folks!!

Sorry for the super delayed Comic Con recap. My wife, Melitia, and I had our first table at any sort of nerdy convention and I will say it will not be our last! We sold out of a lot of stuff (sold out of more when we got back to friends - thanks Adam H!) but we did come back with some merch and a lot of learning for next time. Where to begin in terms of recapping. I guess I'll just say I didn't get to walk around as much as I had hoped and we said we wouldn't buy anything but the one thing I did end up buying was Mike Henry's book, FaceBomb Vol. 1. TOTALLY worth the $$$. Only $25, hardcover and he does a small commission sketch in the back of the book. He also has some streaming videos on how he goes about his techniques with great detail. On top of having talent flowing out of his pores, he's an awesome guy. Super genuine.

We had horrible table placement, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We had some awesome table mates such as Justin Currie who couldn't keep people away from his table.

Just down a few people was comic veteran, Hilary Barta. Super awesome guy, uber talented and very complimentary. He's been doing the comic thing for a long time and just oozes talent. I regret not buying any of his stuff. He's done stuff for all of the big boys - Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, etc.

Another table mate was Luke Smarto, a Comic Con veteran. I was surprised to hear he doesn't work in the comic world since his stuff was GREAT! I was able to trade a stuffed Skeletor for an X23 original sketch.

One last artist I wanted to call out was Edmond Lee. Super awesome guy also (do you see a trend here? They're all super awesome). Great talent. He had a lot of this samurai type stuff but his other stuff on his blog is great. He does pretty sweet caricatures as well. It was also his first time and I hope to run into him at another show.

In terms of Comic Con'ers that swung by one that stood out was The Pokemon Gangsta Nerd. Hilarious guy. Super nice. He is a man of many talents and makes You Tube videos of his nerdom. Keep nerdin!

There were a lot of other great people I met and unfortunately I didn't get everybody's name or card. I don't do commissions but had to do one for an awesome lady, Sarah Kramer (thanks! You and your fam/friends were awesome!). She has a sketch book of just Muppet commissions she has her fav artists do. I have a photo but need to get it off my phone. I also met one of the founders of a sweet artist collective/show in San Diego called Trickster. Her name was Anita Coulter. Super awesome person who puppeteers! How awesome?!

I think that's it for now. I have a bad memory so I know I forgot plenty. Hope you enjoyed!