Albino Raven

Super Button Mashers

2012-02-17T10:43:00.002-05:00

Here's a piece I created based on the NES game Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! It's currently featured in the Super Button Mashers art show at the OhNo!Doom arcade and gallery in Chicago.

This is the first time I've been invited to a show at this particular gallery, and after some online digging I managed to find some photos of the opening reception. I have to say that I am extremely proud to have been a part of this event. It looks like opening night was packed, the space is incredible, and the energy and creativity of the featured art is staggering. Seriously, please please check out this online gallery of the show by Flickr user Dejaandyroo, who took tons of photos including the ones I've posted here. Here's one I found of my framed piece:

Sexy Vampire Party

2012-02-10T14:39:00.003-05:00

I entered the Threadless contest for pin-up themed T-shirts with this design, which I call "Sexy Vampire Party." It's up for voting over the next seven days during which I am encouraged to promote it heavily, so please check it out and vote!

Things To Do In LA Interview

2012-02-03T13:34:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week the website Things To Do In LA posted an interview I did for them after they saw my work at Gallery 1988's Adult Swim show. Give it a read, won't you?

Mario World Poster and Shirt

2012-01-27T14:47:00.003-05:00

I'm happy to say that the Ye Olde Mario World shirt and much requested poster are now available!

The poster is 18 x 24 and I can say from personal experience that the posters SpiltReason sell look great.

Buy the shirt here
Buy the poster here

Robert C. Byrd Ornament

2012-01-19T14:17:00.001-05:00

This past Christmas West Virginia artists were invited to make ornaments for the Governor's mansion Christmas tree. I chose to do a caricature in tribute to WV Senator Robert C. Byrd, who died in 2010. I decided it would be fitting to portray him as a cardinal, given that it's our state bird (and because of his last name, of course.)

Byrd was both the longest serving senator and longest serving member of congress in the history of the US. He was beloved in our state because as a powerful government figure he always made sure that WV was not forgotten when it came to government funding or other national issues. If you visit the state this is pretty obvious, as there are tons of buildings, roads, and other landmarks named after him. I attended his public funeral service at the state capitol grounds where I was lucky enough to hear Presidents Obama and Clinton give speeches.

Here's the original drawing I did to use as a guide when making the ornament from wood:

And here's the ornament hanging on the Governor's tree:

This was a great project that I was honored to be a part of, and it's really cool knowing that the ornament will be used for years to come.

New Oly Drawing

2012-01-18T18:54:00.000-05:00

I drew this a week or so ago when I had a rare free day; I wanted to update the image I use for my Facebook artist page.

Adult Swim x Gallery1988

2012-01-16T17:31:00.000-05:00

I want to thank everybody for the great response I've gotten to my pieces for the Adult Swim show, I've had a lot of people reach out to me and it's really been amazing. The photo above was taken by Jonathan Bilski; I really appreciate him sending it along!

One thing I've been asked about quite a bit is prints. It was a bit of a last minute rush followed by a post office delivery miracle, but I was in fact able to get signed editions of the Birdgirl and Venture Bros pieces to the gallery by opening night. So for anybody who is interested you can buy those at the gallery's site:

From Venture With Love print

Sebben & Sebben 2012 Calender print

And here's a great video of opening night:

Space Ghost

2012-01-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

My final piece for the Adult Swim show that opens tonight at Gallery 1988. When I got invited to this show I knew I had to do a Space Ghost piece. Even though it existed long before Adult Swim, it planted the seed for the late night block of adult-audience cartoons to show up years later.

I started watching Space Ghost: Coast to Coast from the very beginning. I was in 5th grade when it started airing, and my best friend at the time would come over on Friday nights and we'd stay up until 11:00 to watch Space Ghost and laugh our heads off. Watching the shows now, it's really interesting to me that I was so into it as a kid. For lack of a more elaborate description, it's just so...strange. It's full of that surreal and random comedy that's just about everywhere now, but at the time there was nothing else even close to it on TV.

I could be wrong, but I really think it spearheaded the current trend of what I call "random" comedy, although I think some shows today take the idea a bit too far. It seems to be a popular opinion these days to hate Family Guy because most of its jokes are unrelated cutaways, but at least they're creative and funny inside those self-contained bubbles. What bugs me with shows now is that it seems there is no creativity put into the jokes at all, they're just a series of random crap that could have been selected by throwing darts. "Uh, lets have a fat guy dressed as a woman, and he goes to an old folks home, but he has a novelty sized salt shaker with a raccoon inside that he's trying to get rid of. Comic genius!"

My best friend and I were the only people I knew of who watched Space Ghost. Between that and the show's premise that you were being patched into a feed from the Ghost Planet by a group of cartoon characters who barely knew how to run their own show, it really felt like you were watching it by accident. You felt like you were seeing something that nobody else knew about and it was awesome. It's very much the same feeling I think most people of my generation had when they discovered Adult Swim for the first time. You probably woke up late one night, unable to get back to sleep, and turned the TV on only to see a milkshake spouting nonsense to a ball of meat. That sense of stumbling upon something really gives a show an underground feel and makes you feel special for having "discovered' it, and to me Space Ghost was the epitome of that feeling.

So I have some great memories of the show. It's something nostalgic for me that unlike, say, Mario Bros or Ninja Turtles, kinda felt like it was my own thing rather than a huge phenomenon.

As for this drawing, there wasn't too much to the idea other than wanting to see the talk show set from a different perspective so that it seemed familiar and yet different. I also wanted to hide a lot of little references here and there, and I think I did a better job of it in this piece than some I've done in the past.

While doing some visual research for this piece I came across this old ad, which I included in the drawing itself:

Interesting how things have changed, huh?

Venture Bros

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

My second piece for Gallery 1988's Adult Swim show. I figured there would be no shortage of Venture Bros drawings but I just couldn't resist.

This started out with only Brock and Molotov because I thought it would be fun to contrast and exaggerate their relative sizes, but as usual I couldn't help myself and I tinkered with it until I had added in some more characters. I really wanted to play up the modern style in this one because, as you can tell from a lot of my work, it's a look that I really love and it's also used on the show quite a bit. I think it would be a lot of fun to wander around the Venture compound...

Sebben & Sebben 2012 Calender

2012-01-06T10:58:00.002-05:00

One of my pieces for the Adult Swim show that opens at this month at Gallery 1988 in LA. I am extremely excited to be a part of this show; it's a dream come true to be involved in something officially sponsored by Adult Swim.

I actually did this Birdgirl pin-up years ago and it immediately came to my mind when I was thinking of pieces I could do. (Birdgirl is from the amazing show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law) When I went back and looked at it, though, it was really obvious that my style had grown and improved quite a bit since I had done that piece. In other words, I felt like it looked too bad to submit. So I reworked it quite a bit and, hopefully, improved it with this new version. I also came up with the calender idea which I thought would be really cool since I could add some other characters in the form of doodles that Harvey had added.

Ye Olde Mario World

2012-01-03T15:59:00.002-05:00

My newest T-shirt design which you can vote on here. It's an old-timey version of the world map from Super Mario World. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun; I really get into stuff with somewhat tedious detail work like this from time to time.

Working on this also took me back to when I was a kid and I really enjoyed going through all the extra materials that came with video games like the boxes and manuals. I used to sit and draw out maps like this for individual levels which I thought was just as much fun as actually playing the game.

I'm thinking this would make a good poster too. Please click on the image to get a much larger and detailed view.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Christmas Day

2011-12-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T15:30:00.000-05:00

The Man himself from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I always loved all the kid's dancing animations.

A little bit of trivia I know, it's very rare to come across a copy of this special that still has the Coca-Cola billboards in the background of the opening shots. (When it originally aired, Coke was ironically the main sponsor of this special about anti-commercialism.) Also, the song that everybody designates as Charlie Brown's theme song, titled "Linus and Lucy," was originally written for and only meant to be used in this special, but it ended up catching on and being associated with the characters.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 23

2011-12-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

Snoopy from A Charlie Brown Christmas and a guest from a movie that many people often forget is Christmas related.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 22

2011-12-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

PigPen and Linus from probably the most famous special of all, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Everybody knows this special inside and out but I'm still surprised every year at just how good it is. I love how all the other kids are so hard on Charlie Brown, it crosses into an area of genuine dislike that I'm not sure would be used in a special made today.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 21

2011-12-21T15:23:00.000-05:00

The Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. If I were pressed to choose a favorite Christmas special, I think the Grinch would have to be it. I used to draw out scenes from it when I was a kid.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 20

2011-12-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

The Heat Miser from The Year Without a Santa Claus.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 19

2011-12-19T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Snow Miser from The Year Without a Santa Claus

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 18

2011-12-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

Kermit from A Muppet Family Christmas, holding a reference to one of my favorite live-action Christmas movies. Can you guess it?

Also check out the new Muppet movie if you haven't already, it's outstanding. It far exceeded my expectations.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 17

2011-12-17T15:14:00.000-05:00

Max and Olive, two dogs wearing antlers from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the somewhat more recent special Olive the Other Reindeer.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 16

2011-12-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite gags from A Muppet Family Christmas where the Swedish Chef wants to cook Big Bird and serve him for Christmas dinner. Also included is a reference to a very famous Christmas movie.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 15

2011-12-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

Bert and Ernie from another one of my all-time Favorites, A Muppet Family Christmas. I understand that the unedited version is hard to come by these days due to rights issues, but the original includes a giant cast of characters from The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock all together in one house. There's even actual puppet versions of the Muppet Babies and a cameo by Jim Henson.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 14

2011-12-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

Scrooge and Tiny Tim from Mickey's Christmas Carol.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 13

2011-12-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

Santa's Little Helper from the very first Simpsons episode ever, where the Simpsons rescue him from a greyhound racetrack just in time for Christmas. He's seen here thinking about his favorite subject.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 12

2011-12-12T14:59:00.000-05:00

Frosty is both his name and favorite food (I'm guessing.) From the Rankin Bass special Frosty the Snowman.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 11

2011-12-11T14:55:00.000-05:00

This may not be from an actual special, but everybody my age remembers the holiday Fruity Pebbles commercial where Barney finally shares some of his cereal with Fred. I know quite a few people who can still recite all of the dialog, even all these years later.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 10

2011-12-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

Garfield and Grandma from A Garfield Christmas. This is one of my favorite specials of all time. It's surprising how genuinely funny and moving it is. I think it deserves to be added into the mix of currently aired Xmas specials.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 9

2011-12-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

Santa from Futurama. Also included is a nod to a famous Christmas movie that isn't always immediately associated with the holidays.

In a really strange move by executives, this depiction of Santa was deemed too scary and the Futurama Christmas episodes were not allowed to be aired until late at night for a little while.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 8

2011-12-08T14:42:00.000-05:00

Stinky from the Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Son of Stimpy," originally titled "Stimpy's First Fart." My grandmother bought me the VHS of this special one year for Christmas. I remember thinking about how unlikely it was that a cartoon character as gross as Stimpy had never farted before.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 7

2011-12-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

A bell from the bells segment of Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 6

2011-12-06T14:37:00.000-05:00

Emmet Otter from Jim Henson's adaption of the children's storybook, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 5

2011-12-05T14:35:00.000-05:00

From South Park, Kyle and his pal Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 4

2011-12-04T14:30:00.000-05:00

Chewbacca, his son Lumpy, and his father Itchy from the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. For those who haven't seen it, yes, those are the actual names of Chewy's family.

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 3

2011-12-03T14:27:00.000-05:00

A California Raisin from Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas. There's also a reference to a live-action Christmas movie that I'm wondering if anyone will get...

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 2

2011-12-02T14:23:00.001-05:00

Hermey and Rudolph from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I love stop motion animation, but does anyone else think that parodies of this special are starting to be a bit overused?

25 Days of Xmas Drawings: Day 1

2011-12-01T14:15:00.000-05:00

Each day in December from now until the 25th I'm going to post a new drawing inspired by the classic Christmas specials I grew up with, so check back every day this month!

First up is the Bumble from the very famous Rankin Bass stop motion classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Keyboard Girl

2011-11-23T17:31:00.001-05:00

Here's a commission I finished not too long ago for a music production studio. They wanted an original pin-up that involved a vintage keyboard synthesizer; beyond that I was given free reign. Luckily I enjoy drawing pin-ups and love the design of vintage electronics (a weird interest, I know, but us designers can find visual interest just about anywhere.)

I'm really happy with the finished result. I did some research on keyboard synthesizers and tried to stay authentic while still playing around with it here and there to give it a fun design.

Robotnik

2011-11-22T19:03:00.001-05:00

Here's my piece for the Sonic Generations art show! Which, as I'm sure you can guess, is an exhibition that pays tribute to the beloved Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. It'll be opening at Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia next month.

Dr. Robotnik was the first character that came to my mind because it bugs me how in later years his name has been changed to Dr. Eggman. I'm not sure if it's one of those deals like in Mario games where Princess Toadstool's name was changed to Peach because that's what it was always intended to be (It was changed by Nintendo of America when the first Mario game was brought over from Japan) but I still like Robotnik better. Not that this piece does anything to make that distinction, hah. I did put the final piece in an oval frame to emphasize his egg-like body, however.

A little Dr. Robotnik trivia, his design was based on Theodore Roosevelt.

Here is the website for the show where you can check out all the other art, and here's the invite:

My buddy Chris Beaumont, founder of Cubeecraft.com, is in charge of the show, so thanks to him for the invite and for putting on what I'm sure will be an awesome show!

Fill Up Your Hearts

2011-11-21T19:46:00.002-05:00

Check out this new Zelda tribute blog called Fill Up Your Hearts. It was started by my friend Chogrin and features art by fellow Autumn Society members. I've got a couple pieces posted there, and all the featured art is seriously outstanding.

The launch of the blog coincides with the release of the latest Zelda Game, Skyward Sword. I was able to pick up a special edition copy today but just by the skin of my teeth. Apparently it is a very limited release; even Amazon is sold out!

Comissioned Piece

2011-11-11T15:44:00.001-05:00

I was commissioned to do this piece by a guy who wanted a present for his girlfriend, and he contacted me since they are both fans of my work. He asked me at just the right time schedule wise, and what can I say, the fact that they are a couple who both like my art was really cool to me. The props are requested references to the video games Street Fighter and Bayonetta respectively, and he wanted me to show off her cool spine tattoo. I'm really glad I could help out with a cool gift!

The Video Dead Apocalypse

2011-11-09T17:41:00.001-05:00

Now that Halloween has come and gone, here's the full three page comic that I contributed to the Halloween edition of the Strange Kids Club magazine, written by Rondal Scott and illustrated by me.

I was almost finished with the whole thing when I had the idea to give myself a live-action cameo. Since I own a power glove, I took a photo of myself putting it on to replace the illustration in the first panel of the the third page.

I forgot that I had done such a clean job on the pencils, so here are those as well in case anyone is interested!

Please Post Bills

2011-11-03T12:27:00.000-04:00

This is my piece for Gallery 1988's Please Post Bills art show, a tribute to Bill Murray. I was initially at a bit of a loss for what to draw because there is an unusually large amount of great Bill Murray artwork out there already, and I knew more awesome work would be created for this show. It was finally my girlfriend who suggested the idea of Bill's characters from Caddy Shack and Fantastic Mr. Fox interacting with each other. I'm not really a huge Caddy Shack fan, and there are so many other Bill Murray movies that I absolutely love, but I thought this was a really clever idea so I went with it.

I also decided to add a bunch of little references to his other movies. In total there are twelve "hidden" references to twelve separate films (including the two already mentioned.) Can you identify them all?

The show opens tonight, here's the official info:

Artmares

2011-10-26T11:00:00.003-04:00

Check out this cool drawing by artist Chase Henderson. For this year's Artmares show he did a series
of self portraits where he's dressed up as local artists for Halloween, and each piece is in the style of that particular artist. In this one he's dressed like...me! I really like the smock with the picture of my face on it (one of my favorite things about old Halloween costumes) as well as the touches that emulate my work, like the background and the signature.

And speaking of Artmares, here's some nice press from my friend Rondal Scott over on FuelYourIllustration.com.

Hallows Eve

2011-10-21T12:12:00.002-04:00

This is my main piece for this year's Artmares show; it's the one I did first and it also took the most time. (Though I'm very happy I was able to play around with all the ideas I had and produce three new works total.)

There's no deeper meaning to this piece other than drawing whatever seemed fun at the time, and adding little elements and design choices as they came to me.

One thing I did while working on this piece was to research the history of Halloween. I found out that originally people carved turnips rather than pumpkins, and they used them as lanterns to go door-to-door on All Saint's Eve asking for gifts in exchange for prayers on All Saint's Day. Pumpkins weren't used until the tradition was brought to America, where they are a native crop and easier to carve since they're larger.

I thought it would be cool to include a turnip lantern, as well as something I remember from my Trick or Treat days, the McDonalds' Halloween pail.

Interesting how some people have deemed Halloween a Satanic holiday when it was originally such a religious affair, huh?

Strange Kids Comix Magazine #2 Update

2011-10-18T12:52:00.003-04:00

Here I am enjoying my Halloween edition of Strange Kids Magazine, which you can order here! Also note issue #1 and the Strange Kid T-shirt, both of which I had a hand in. And that creepy mask is included in the book!

If you're on the fence about ordering a copy here are a handful of reviews:

Freddy In Space - Cool Shit: Strange Kid Comix Magazine #2
The Liberal Dead - Strange Kid Comix Magazine #2
The Bloodsrpayer - Retro Radioactivity: A review of Strange Kid Comix #2
ComicBooked.com - Review, Strange Kid Coimx Magazine #2

When the time is right I'll post the full comic that I contributed to this issue.

Wendigo

2011-10-14T11:46:00.000-04:00

I've been working on my pieces for this years Artmares show and I really wanted to draw some sort of mythological creature that hasn't been done to death. I already drew the mothman once before, so that was pretty much out. I settled on the wendigo, a creature you'll supposedly turn into if you engage in acts of cannibalism. I drew a lot of inspiration from Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. comics' version of the creature, as well as some images I found online. Apparently there was a low budget horror movie made about a wendigo, and in that it had the giant head of a deer. I have no idea if that has any roots whatsoever in the actual wendigo myth, but I really liked the antlers so I used them.

The Artmares reception will be from 6 to 10 pm on Friday, Octrober 28 at the Kanawha Players Theater, 309 Beauregard St, Charleston, WV.

Donald Duck

2011-10-10T19:54:00.001-04:00

For whatever reason I've had the to idea to do a weird drawing of Donald Duck floating in my head for probably a year or two now. Something about the design of early animation characters is just so perfect; it makes you want to do your own take on them even though you know it will never be as good as the original. Also, I recently got to spend a day at Walt Disney World and one of the gift shop items I found were these plush Mickey Mouse dolls that had really weird arbitrary coloring, and I loved them. I eventually found a Minnie, Goofy, and several color variations for Mickey, but no Donald. So I decided to carry the idea over to my drawing and give Donald his own funky palette.

Adventure Time Update

2011-10-07T13:17:00.001-04:00

The Dr. Sketchy Adventure Time session got a nice mention on TheDailyWhat.

And Chase Henderson has put up a ton of pictures from the event which you can check out here on his site. All the photos are great, so give them a look. Plus they have more nudity than the ones I posted earlier in the week! Which may or may not be a good thing depending on if you're reading this from your couch at home or from an office surrounded by coworkers.

Ghost Glen

2011-10-06T18:52:00.000-04:00

A Halloween themed self portrait, just for fun.

Dr. Sketchy's Adventure Time Tribute

2011-10-03T16:24:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned Dr. Sketchy on here before, but I'll explain again for the newbies: Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School is a hybrid figure drawing class and burlesque show, with emphasis on a fun, sexy, and social atmosphere. There are Dr Sketchy branches all over the US and in several countries, and the new branch in my hometown of Charleston, WV has been going strong.

Several months ago Chase Henderson, local artist and the guy in charge of our branch, brought up the idea of doing a session themed after the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. I think it was mostly thrown out there as a silly "wouldn't this be funny?" sort of idea, but I thought it sounded great, so I encouraged him and offered to help.

Chase quickly set to work recruiting models, and it was officially decided that Charleston's September Dr. Sketchy would be an homage to Adventure Time.

I had a blast at the session and I'm sure everyone else did as well. The poses were clever and tied into the show/characters, costumes were accurate (well, I suppose they had to be creative with what the character's skivvies looked like,) props were cool (including a Beemo,) and everyone was excited to participate in the various contests.

Chase took all the photos you see here, showing off the hard work of the models: Molly Tilly as Finn and/or Fiona, Lavender Menace as Princess Bubblegum, and Lita Lane as Marceline.

Here are a couple of my drawings from the evening:

Apparently the main Dr Sketchy branch in NY loved this idea and we wouldn't be surprised to see a few more Adventure Time sessions start popping up across the country.

The Satellite of Love

2011-09-22T15:07:00.002-04:00

A new MST3K inspired shirt design that you can vote on now
over at Splitreason. Please vote kindly!

Cinemassacre covers Shell Shock

2011-09-21T17:10:00.002-04:00

This is really cool and sort of gives me a connection to one of my favorite internet celebrities, the Angy Video Game Nerd. A while ago James Rolfe posted this video of the Shell Shock Ninja Turtles art show that I participated in early this year. The show was in Philadelphia and if I'm not mistaken James is from that area, so it makes sense that it would catch his attention.

Marceline

2011-09-20T18:12:00.003-04:00

Some Adventure Time artwork, just for fun.

Strange Kids Comix Magazine #2

2011-09-16T10:42:00.003-04:00

The second issue of the Strange Kid anthology is up for preorder now! I contributed a three page comic this time around. I don't want to spoil it quite yet, so here's a snippet of one of my favorite panels:

If you missed out on the first one I highly recommend ordering this one. It's really something special to have such unique work from so many amazing artists all in one book.

You can order one here.

The Iconoclastic Dead

2011-09-12T17:28:00.006-04:00

Not long after my first international show is my second, The Iconoclastic Dead, a Dia de los Muertos themed show in Mexico. We were asked to illustrate one of our personal heroes in the muertos style. The person could be living or dead, but not fictitious.

A disclaimer here: I try to keep this blog ONLY about my art, but I saw this piece as a good excuse to express some of my views and why I chose the person I did to illustrate. For that reason, what follows is much more personal than my usual fare. Feel free to skip it if it's not really your thing.

I have a little trouble considering any celebrity a "hero" except in a loose sense. There are tons of famous people whom I admire for what they do, but of course I don't know any of them personally, so for all I know they could in actuality be unsavory individuals in some way. For example, think about all the people who consider(ed) Tiger Woods a hero. You can look up to him as an athlete, but may need to ignore his personal life.

I feel this way because I'm naturally skeptical and tend to scrutinize things before I'm able to commit all the way. Because of that, Penn Jillette seemed like a good choice for my piece since he's a famous skeptic. There's a lot I admire about the guy from what I as a fan can gather about him.

For one thing, he has never drank alcohol. Ever. If you know me, then you know why this alone is enough to push somebody most of the way to hero status in my eyes, but I'll save that long and personal explanation for another time.

The main reason I like Penn is because he thinks. Or maybe I should be more fair and say because he thinks critically. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people do something just because everybody else is doing it, and I mean that in a very broad way. Not just wearing a certain brand of clothing because it's popular, but adopting the core beliefs and opinions of other people without actually questioning them. I'm going to get into some deep territory here, but the persecution of homosexuals is a good example of that. Lots of people hate homosexuals because their religion tells them being gay is wrong. If they would actually think for a second, really, genuinely turn on their brains and think, independently of what the people around them are saying, they would realize that hating people for such a reason is a ghastly thing to do.

But people like to take the easy way out. TV says this thing is popular, so now I like it too. I'm a democrat/republican, so I have to adopt every last belief that goes along with being a member of that party. This commercial says X disease is the number one killer, so I have to buy this product to prevent it. But tomorrow Y disease is somehow also the number one killer, so I have to buy this other product too. It just seems like we are bombarded with so many "facts" every day, mostly from people who want to benefit from us in some way, and rather than being skeptical of that we buy into these things hook, line, and sinker.

I find Penn, and specifically his show Penn & Teller's Bullshit, to be vastly entertaining and encouraging because he questions anything and everything. There's the stuff that you would expect to be questioned, like psychics or hot-button issues like religion, but also things most people wouldn't question, like recycling. The Bullshit episode about recycling is one of my favorites for that very reason. Not everybody recycles, but the vast majority of people agree that it's a good thing to do. I mean, why would somebody be actively against it unless they were just trying to be different for the sake of showing off? But would you believe that recycling is actually bad for the environment? It sounds counter-intuitive to the point of being absurd, but it's true. The reason is because it actually takes more resources to recycle things than it does to make new things from scratch. After all the sorting, transporting, machinery, etc, you've actually done more harm than if you'd just thrown the bottle away and let somebody make a new one. But what about all the non-recycled trash that goes into dumps? There are plans in place to use a percentage of our country the equivalent of a pin point on a map for all our trash over the next several hundred years. And what's more, when a landfill is full it's covered up, turned into a park, and all the gas produced from the decomposing waste is used to power entire cities. The only thing that is actually more efficient to recycle is aluminum. That's why when a bum goes through your trash he keeps your soda cans and not your plastic jug of sour milk.

Now, I'm not anti-environment or anything like that, and I never did the research myself to find out if recycling was bad, but it did always rub me the wrong way. Not because I wanted to destroy the planet, but because people make you feel bad for not doing it. Anything that uses fear-based tactics to get you to do something immediately makes me question it, so I've never been a recycler, even before I saw the show. So if it's really so bad then why do people recycle? Because TV says to, that's why. And TV would never be used to exploit the public for the benefit of an industry or political standpoint, now would it?

Believe it or not I DID intend to write all this stuff when I sat down at my computer. It's not so much that I care where somebody arrives after they question something, just that they question it period. I don't agree with everything I've heard Penn say, I just love the fact that he is willing to question so many things and not care what anybody else thinks. Even for all my skepticism I can't claim that, because I've found that people don't like it when you point out the faults in something they believe in. Like Penn says, a true skeptic doesn't ignore new truths, they demand to be proven wrong.

Strange Kid Hellraiser T-Shirt

2011-09-01T20:08:00.003-04:00

The first ever Strange Kids T-Shirt is now up for sale! It's a design I created for a cross-promotion between Strange Kids Club and 8-Bit Zombie.

You can buy one here.

Shoo, Fly

2011-08-29T20:40:00.003-04:00

Just a silly, ah, ah, drawing, for my, ah girlfriend, ah.

8 Bit Champions Poster

2011-08-25T19:01:00.003-04:00

I'm very excited for the 8 Bit Champions show so I could not have been happier when I was asked to create the poster for it. I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do with this poster, so there was a lot of playing around to figure out what looked best.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and a big part of that is because it's so design-heavy as opposed to just straight illustration which is what I usually do. It's good to know that I can still bust out some graphic design skills when I need to.

For some weird reason I enjoy the visual problem solving of figuring out how a three dimensional object will look when drawn in 2D, (something I first realized when I took some drafting classes in high school,) so I had a lot of fun planning out exactly how all the different planes and angles of this imaginary pixel-shape-thing would fit together. It took a while but was satisfying knowing I completed it by hand.

8 Bit Champions

2011-08-19T11:33:00.004-04:00

Here's my piece for the upcoming 8-Bit Champions show in Paris, France. My first international show! I also designed a poster for the exhibition, so once I reveal that I'll post all the details.

I've been playing a lot of Zelda lately as I unwind in the evenings, so it was the game I chose to illustrate. There's a lot of funny stuff you can point out about Zelda games, and one of my favorites is how there's always an amazing amount of side quests to undertake while you're supposed to be saving the princess from imminent danger. The dialog in the game usually reflects this, with lines like "Hurry, Link, was must head to the next temple! There is no time to waste!" And yet if you want to get a few extra goodies to aid you in that temple you'll need to spend a couple hours at the pond leisurely fishing. All the while Princess Zelda is presumably suffering at the hands of Ganon.

So I tried to illustrate that idea, showing link more interested in finding money than saving the princess. I also tried to work in the fact that it's funny to me how Link goes around breaking stuff in people's houses and stealing what's inside.

Since this is intended to be based on the first Legend of Zelda game, I wanted to stay somewhat true to that visually. (Also the name of the show is 8-Bit Champions and it bugs me when people call any older video game "8-Bit," like Atari and 16-bit era games for example.) I thought it would be cool to make Ganon a giant detailed beast, yet keep true to his simple sprite appearance in the game. Ganon never seems to have a consistent look from game to game, so this was pretty easy to get away with. I also like the more cartoony, Mario-proportioned Link from the first game, (especially as seen in the manual illustrations,) as opposed to the fantasy art-inspired guy that he's become in the later games. So I mixed that original Link a bit with the Windwaker style and put my own spin on it.

Fly safe, little package.

Strange Kids Club T-Shirt

2011-08-16T17:17:00.003-04:00

This is a shirt design I created for a cross promotion with Strange Kids Club and 8 Bit Zombie. Rondal gave me the general idea and I just ran with adding all the crazy stuff in the background. The shirts should be coming in soon, so when the details become available I'll let you know!

Terminator 2

2011-08-11T17:49:00.003-04:00

I'll spare you the business details, but by recommendation my work for Front magazine has led to some work for FHM magazine. They commissioned me to do this piece, and here's hoping they'll send more gigs my way!

The article is an anniversary tribute to Terminator 2. I hadn't seen any of the movies for quite a while so I went back and watched them while I worked on this assignment. Not that anybody needs me to say it, but T2 is easily the highlight of the series. The large graphic above is for a two page opening spread, and I also completed two spot graphics:

I'm particularly happy with the background in the larger drawing; I've never had to draw an apocalyptic cityscape before.

Grabage Pail Kids

2011-08-04T17:35:00.004-04:00

This is my piece for the Garbage Pail Kids' art show that opens early next month at Gallery 1988. As soon as I get all the details I'll be sure to post them here. The show is officially sponsored by GPK and is one of the largest collaborations the brand has ever participated in. I also hear that pieces they like may get to become actual cards!

Artists were asked to look through the fifteen original series of GPK cards and do their own interpretation of their favorite. It was amazingly tough to pick just one card, and even harder to feel like you could improve upon such classic images. I finally settled on Handy Randy because his card was gross in a really creative way. A large chunk of the cards, perhaps even the majority, are variations on puking, so I liked that this was a gross out that I'd never seen or even thought of before.

Here's the original:

The instructions were to keep the pieces in recognizable card format, but part of me feels that I didn't stray far enough away from the original image. I guess I feel like there must be some super creative way to interpret these cards, but they're so gross to begin that it's hard to top. I'm sure there will be a ton of amazing pieces in this show!

Dr. Sketchy Promo Art

2011-08-03T17:05:00.004-04:00

I have about a million projects going on this month and that means lots of new art that has yet to be posted. Before my schedule filled up I was able to take some free time and make this general purpose promotional artwork for the Charleston branch of Dr. Sketchy's burlesque show and figure drawing class. Like I've said in past posts, I think it's awesome that we have such a cool event here so I'm trying to do my part and support it!

Monster Creeps

2011-07-28T16:21:00.004-04:00

This is my piece for the upcoming art show Monster Creeps, a tribute to the films Night of the Creeps & Monster Squad.

I was only vaguely familiar with the movies when I got the invite for the show, though I knew of some friends who had fond childhood memories of Monster Squad. After watching the movies and doing some research I came up with this piece, which will make absolutely no sense to anybody who isn't familiar with the films, hah. (So don't worry if you feel like you can't quite get the joke in this one.) So far the other artwork I've seen for the show has been comprised of amazing group shots and epic posters, so I thought I'd do something a little simpler and lighter in tone.

The show happens Saturday, August 6th at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California. I believe I read that the director, Fred Dekker, will be in attendance and that a screening of Monster Squad will follow the reception.

Trace Cherokee Logo

2011-07-20T18:56:00.007-04:00

On the 29th of this month country music legend and Seth Martin & Friends star Trace Cherokee will be performing live at the V Club in Huntington, opening for bluegrass band The Good Ol' Boys and a Girl.

Trace won't perform on just any dingy old stage, so we're in the process of building him some set pieces, including a large version of this logo I designed. Trace has sort of been the breakout star of our SMaF show and I am incredibly excited that he'll actually be going on in front of a live audience.

For a taste of his music, you can check out this YouTube clip of Trace and the Stenders performing "Mountain Woman" on local talk show Up Late.

Now, to pull back the curtain for a second, and I know this will sound biased since I'm involved in this puppet show and all, but I'm still amazed at how great this song is. I mean, not just as a parody of country music...it's actually a really, really good song. I can listen to it over and over and still be blown away that my friends made it. I can say these things because I bring exactly zero musical talent to the table, and things like this are really the work of Michael Valentine, Ian Nolte, Kyle Quinn, and Bud Carroll and his band.

I've been told that Trace has been writing and practicing for some time now and I can't wait. I mean, when was the last time you walked into a bar and saw a puppet on stage?

You can check out Trace's Twitter here...

and the Facebook event for the show on the 29th is here.

Dr. Sketchy's Update

2011-07-19T20:06:00.003-04:00

Here are some drawings from the last few sessions of the Dr Sketchy figure drawing and burlesque show in Charleston. The image above is from a session themed after our Festivall arts fair. I don't get to draw in a "realistic" style too often so I'm really happy with these considering how out of practice I am. Honestly I think attending Dr. sketchy just once a month has helped me shake some of the rust off.

The most recent session was roller derby themed, featuring girls from Huntington's own Jewel City Rollergirls.

One of the contests was to draw an opponent for the girls to face off against, and since my brain is always full of cartoons I immediately thought of the lummox character from Ren and Stimpy.

This drawing was the first time I made an effort to render the models in a full-on cartoony style. I've wanted to do it at past sessions but when the pose clock is ticking you feel pressure to just draw exactly what you see and get all the shapes on the page. I like the realistic drawings, but this was a fun exercise and I might throw in a couple like this at each session from now on.

Turtles Print

2011-07-14T16:24:00.003-04:00

Ever since I debuted this Ninja Turtles piece for the Shell Shock show I have been getting a ton of requests for a print, so I am very happy to finally offer one!

The print is 11.7" x 16.5" and costs $13.95. You can buy it here at my Splitreason store.

Thanks to everybody for expressing so much interest in this piece!

Crazy 4 Cult: The Book

2011-07-01T16:41:00.003-04:00

The Crazy 4 Cult book is here! This volume collects artwork from the first four years of Gallery 1998's annual cult movie tribute show. It's arguably the most popular show at the country's most popular pop culture gallery.

It's hard to say what this book means to me, both professionally and personally. I know my friends and probably some of you readers out there have heard this story a thousand times, but I feel I need to repeat a variation of it once again:

Not only was I one of the first in my family to go away to college, but I decided to study art. In West Virginia. That doesn't mean it was a bad school by any means, I love this place, but WV is far from being an art hot spot. Most know that art is a hard field to make money in, but I've never wanted to do anything else. I loved my college experience, but the cartoony stuff I did wasn't really considered important by most of my professors. If I wanted to be a successful artist, I had to do the kind of art they wanted me to do, and I would have to move out of the state.

Then I found a book called I am 8-Bit. It was a collection of artwork from Gallery 1988's retro video game themed exhibition. I was in awe of this book. I couldn't believe that all these amazing artists were receiving recognition and getting published for doing artwork based on old video games. It was one of my favorite subjects, but it was also a subject that was mostly taboo in the world of "real" art. The book gave me hope that the work I was doing wasn't a waste of time, but at the same time I felt like I would never be able to break into such a scene. These were art superstars, after all. I mean, they were in a book.

Now, for some crazy reason, I am also in a Gallery 1988 book. Thinking back to the I am 8-Bit book and the events that led to this I really can't believe how cool it is. It feels like I've come full circle, and I could not be happier with how my passion and my career have combined and given me so many amazing opportunities, accomplishments, and experiences. I'm not trying to hype this up as something huge; lots of artists get published every day, of course, and in much greater capacity. I'm just trying to explain how this means a great deal to me personally. And all I had to do was pay for and listen to the advice of experts in my field, then do the opposite.

Now that I have that part out of the way, I need to express how amazing this book is as a collection of artwork. When I attended Crazy4Cult last year I basically wanted a print of everything I saw. Every piece was incredible and all of it very much appealed to my sensibilities, me being the pop culture junkie that I am. Now with this book I own a copy of so many great pieces from artists I've come to be familiar with in the last several years. And for just over $20, that's really a steal. You can order a copy here!

Thanks to everybody who read this far, and to everybody who supports and encourages me by reading this blog!

Front Magazine: Live Like a Pirate

2011-06-30T13:23:00.003-04:00

My latest Front magazine illustration just released stateside in issue 155. As you can see, it's for a feature about how to live like a pirate in your own home!

This has to be one of my favorite pieces I've ever done for Front. Not from a subject standpoint necessarily, but I'm really happy with the quality of illustration. Usually I continue to nitpick my work long after it's completed, but for whatever reason I'm still really satisfied with this one. Here's hoping I can continue do more Front illustrations that are this successful!

Press Links Roundup

2011-06-28T17:05:00.005-04:00

I have a few press links I've accumulated that I need to share, so here they are! Thanks to everybody who alerted me to these and to the sites themselves. It's so cool to see this stuff pop up on the internet; always amazing to me and I always appreciate it.

/Film: Fan Artwork

IGN: T-Shirt of the Day: Great Shelled Dragon

Thrillist: Glen Brogan Tees

/Film: Cool Stuff: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Art Exhibit in Philadelphia

Autumn Society Logos

2011-06-24T10:52:00.003-04:00

A while ago I created some custom banners for the Autumn Society site, and this week I was asked to take the logos from those banners and turn them into one color vector graphics to be used as part of a site redesign.

The official logo for the Philadelphia based Autumn Society is a leaf with an inset liberty bell. The logo on the left is based on Mario Bros 3, with a leaf powerup and racoon tail shadow for the bell, while the one on the right is more of an original creation.

This was just a quick project I completed as I'm getting back into the swing of things after being out of town for a month of mural and FestivALL related activities.

Camp Firewood

2011-06-21T17:22:00.003-04:00

Now at Galley 1988's Venice location is Camp Firewood, an art show that celebrates the tenth anniversary of the film Wet Hot American Summer.

I originally did this piece as part of Gallery 1988's comedians show Is This Thing On? I was told that director David Wain saw it and got really excited to be involved in the WHAS tribute show.

A new edition of 30 signed and numbered prints have been made for the show, and you can buy one here!

Mural Dedication Ceremony

2011-06-16T18:38:00.007-04:00

Today was the official dedication ceremony of my mural. I was nervous because I knew I had to speak in front of a large group of people which included the mayor, so hopefully I did a decent job! Right before the ceremony started I was interviewed six times in quick succession, so I think that helped me loosen up a bit. All three of our local news stations were there, as well as two radio programs and the newspaper.

What was really awesome to me, though, was that so many people showed up. Tons of my friends and their families came by to take part, which really meant a great deal to me. It was the middle of the day so everyone had to take time off from work and and make a special trip to be there; I mean what better gesture could you ask for than that?

Of course I am extremely proud of everything about this project, but I never imagined it would be such a big deal and get the attention of the community in the way it has.

But this...this has to be one of my favorite things of all time. The Bluegrass Kitchen, the restaurant where I painted the mural, had a lunch special today that was the Mural Burrito. I had a menu item named after my artwork. How awesome is that?

A huge thank you to everybody who made it out today.

Beeper

2011-06-15T16:38:00.007-04:00

This Saturday is the annual art parade which marks the beginning of FestivALL, a week long arts festival held in Charleston.

Local NBC affiliate WSAZ has asked people to send in drawings of Beeper, the station's unofficial mascot, so they can use them to decorate a news van for the parade. Since I did a piece featuring Beeper for last year's FestivALL I jumped at the chance to participate. The entry request was primarily aimed at children, of course, but there was no age limit, so who am I to stand idly by and let gradeschoolers have all the fun?

Beeper was the sidekick on Mr. Cartoon, a local children's television program that ran for many years on WSAZ. I did an in depth post about it last year, so you can check out my Mr. Cartoon history lesson if you'd like.

I dropped the drawing off today and as I'm writing this I've been told that it's going to be shown on the 6:00 news this evening, so keep an eye out if you're in the area! And be sure to come to the art parade on Saturday!

StreetWorks 2011

2011-06-13T18:10:00.004-04:00

For the last three years I've participated in the StreetWorks art project organized by East End Main Street. This year's project is the same as the last: local artists have been asked to create designs that will be transferred to bricks, which will then be installed on the east end of Charleston. I chose to do a piece celebrating the Vandalia gathering, an annual celebration of bluegrass music and West Virginian culture that's held on the state capital grounds. I absolutely love bluegrass music, and despite the stereotypes you may have heard about this area it's not as common as you'd think for people my age to like bluegrass, most like the same music that's currently popular in the rest of the country. I tend to think bluegrass requires a little more talent and spirit than a lot of music that's popular today, but that's just my opinion!

Sort of like last year's piece I used a contrast of cityscape and mountains, though this time I included actual Charleston buildings. Also I assume that like last year the brick design will be reduced to one color before it is transferred, so I made a black and white version for that purpose, hence all the halftones and things I used. That way I can still get a wide range of values from a design that's entirely one color.

The original pieces will be auctioned off this weekend, so if you're in the area you should come by! All the info is on the flyer above which you can click for a bigger view.

Exclusive Pizza Box Print

2011-06-10T16:23:00.003-04:00

I'm pleased to say that The Autumn Society's Shell Shock Ninja Turtles tribute show was a huge success! The opening reception was last week, and available for purchase were exclusive sets of prints, stickers, and buttons that came in a sweet custom pizza box. I was asked to contribute a drawing of April Oneil, and as luck would have it I had just finished a piece featuring her anyway. I needed to modify it to match the color specifications of the prints, but that didn't take long. So here's the modified version of my April piece that was available in the pizza box set.

Here's a look at the finished prints and the variety of styles and characters that were included.

And the stack of pizza boxes, ready to find loving homes!

I'm so happy that this turned out to be such a huge show, and I'm really glad I was able to contribute not just my two regular pieces but art for the poster and print set as well.

DK Demolition Co.

2011-06-09T18:09:00.003-04:00

This only makes sense for DK given his skill set. A new shirt design that you can vote on now!

The Finished Mural!

2011-06-08T16:44:00.006-04:00

Here she is in all her glory! After a full of week of painting and sweating it's finally done.

To pick up where my last post left off, you can see that we continued to add one color at a time then stand back and see the results.

Quite a few friends stopped by to help, which was great and of course very appreciated. It made the work pass by much more quickly and everyone did a great job.

Even Trace Cherokee of Seth Martin & Friends lent a hand!

One of the most unexpected aspects of working on this project was all the people who showed support as they passed by. People yelled out compliments, offered to help, honked, and stopped to chat for a bit about the mural. I never would have guessed that so many people would want to express how much they liked the design. And not just complete strangers, but tons of people I knew stopped by as well. Kyle had a theory that if we stayed there long enough we would see everybody we knew in Charleston which wasn't far from the truth. Even people I literally hadn't seen in over ten years stopped by to check it out. I was also interviewed by the local paper and a couple news stations.

We ended up adding the background color last and it really brought the whole piece together. The off-white I picked turned out to be a little too pristine and when it was brushed over the primer it didn't seem to make any sort of difference, so I cautiously decided to mix some yellow in and make a color closer to what I had in mind. I knew I wanted more of a cream color, but I was worried about ruining a $30 gallon of paint.

I would say the toughest obstacle we had to face during the whole process was the heat. It really got to me a few times, and I started to get concerned about things like heatstroke. I figured it was a small possibility, but still something I shouldn't dismiss altogether.

This was an experience unlike anything else I've ever done and I can only hope that this mural will be a part of Charleston for a long, long time.

I need to take some time to thank the people without whom this project wouldn't have been even remotely possible. First, Ric Cavender and East End Main Street for creating opportunities like this for Charleston artists. Second, Keeley and Jon Steele, owners of the Bluegrass Kitchen who not only let me paint giant cartoon characters on the side of their building but made sure I had plenty of free food while I did it. My uncle Harlan, who lent me a much sought-after projector which was the missing link of this project for quite a while. All my friends, family, and the passers by who stopped by to show their support. Dave and Carrie, who gave up their weekend to paint in the blistering heat, and my girlfriend Hillary who picked up a paintbrush on the weekend and stopped by nearly everyday after work to check on how things were going.

But most of all, a huge thanks to my dad and best friend Kyle, who not only worked on this project all week but worked extremely hard. Without them this would not have happened, period. None of us are strangers to painting and planning, but they had the foresight, quick thinking, attitude, and experience a project like this requires. Most importantly, though, was their willingness to put their own lives on hold and offer up a whole week of hard work. There are no two people on the planet I would trust more to help me with something like this, so thanks!

Mural Progress Part 3.5

2011-06-06T20:39:00.003-04:00

Well, I have more mural progress to report but Blogger doesn't seem to be allowing any images to be uploaded due to an error on their end. I apologize for the lack of daily updates, my schedule has been mural, sleep, mural for the last seven days and I haven't had much computer time. I'm pretty beat at the moment, the heat was pretty intense today and working on top of 20 foot scaffolding with the sun blasting at your back all day tends to make you a bit fatigued, heh. So hopefully once I get some rest Blogger will have worked out their kinks and I'll throw up a mega post with the remaining mural progress and info. I have a lot I want to say about this amazing process and experience which was unlike anything I've done before.

Until then!

Mural Progress Part 3

2011-06-03T20:57:00.004-04:00

Day three meant it was finally time to add some color!

This part seems to be the most time consuming but it's also the least strenuous in a lot of ways. Building the scaffolding was a lot of physical work and the planning aspects are mentally taxing, but this is just good old fashioned paint by numbers as we fill in all the shapes.

One of my favorite parts is to stand back after we finish a color and see how the whole thing is taking shape. It's also really cool to be able to walk a couple blocks away and still see it. It's an interesting feeling to have your artwork so prominent and out in the open like that.

I was interviewed by the local paper and a couple news stations throughout the day, and you can read the Daily Mail writeup here.

More tomorrow!

Mural Progress, Part 2

2011-06-02T20:47:00.006-04:00

We've been at the mural for three days now but I'm a bit late posting the progress because I've been at the mural site more than I've been home.

First we, *ahem,* tested the projector.

Then day two started with priming the brick. Measuring out a perfect rectangle that's 19 feet tall takes some work, and we got up around 6 am to beat the crazy heat wave we've been having.

Next we waited for nightfall so we could project the design onto the building and trace it with sharpies, which was the toughest part of the process so far. Not only did we have to work until about 1 am to get it done, but we also had to build a separate scaffolding rig to get the projector high enough and line up the image on the wall perfectly. It's pretty tricky to project an image that's not distorted in any way, so we spent a good deal of time just figuring it out.

My original plan was to project the design in sections, but even though I created a series of registration marks to line everything up it proved too tedious to make multiple projected images match up perfectly. So we sat the projector on its side and did the whole image at once, which I was trying to avoid because I knew making a computer image 19 feet tall would just produce a blurry mess when we got close enough to trace it. To solve this problem we used printouts of the design as reference to make sure we were creating accurate outlines.

It was one heck of a long day! More progress will follow!

Muraling has begun!

2011-05-31T18:23:00.002-04:00

Most of my friends and people in this area already know, but I have been selected to complete a mural in downtown Charleston, WV. As I stated in the proposal for my design, creating a permanent piece of art in the neighborhood where I grew up doodling on construction paper is an amazing honor. I've been planing and designing for months now; you wouldn't believe how much work goes into something like this before you ever even touch a paint brush to a wall.

So today the actual physical work finally began! Luckily I have people who know what they're doing to help me do things like build scaffolding and pressure wash the wall. Take for example Kyle, seen working hard in the photo above. Even though the final design has already been revealed in a local newspaper article, I think I'm going to post the progress online rather than revealing the digital version right away.

We're close to hitting record temerature highs here in town so we have one incredibly hot work day down and several more to go. I really still can't believe I was chosen for this and that I'm going to be able to leave such a huge artistc mark on my home town. Stay tuned for more progress!

New Shirts

2011-05-25T18:56:00.004-04:00

I have two new shirt designs now up for sale! The Zelda inspired fairy shirt and the Mario inspired Bowser shirt. You can buy them here:

Men's Bowser shirt
Women's Bowser shirt

Men's fairy shirt
Women's fairy shirt

April Fools

2011-05-24T18:12:00.002-04:00

Consider this a bonus companion piece to the turtles drawing I posted yesterday. Even though that one took quite a while to finish, once I was done I still had the urge to simplify some of the characters even further. I figured I could throw all the drawings together somehow, and an April pinup turned out to be the answer. Plus even my girlfriend suggested this as an idea for my original piece, so who am I to argue?

Turtle Power!

2011-05-23T18:43:00.003-04:00

Well, here it is! My piece for the Shell Shock TMNT tribute show next week. You'd better believe this was a lot of work! Please click on it for a larger view.

Of course I had to pay homage to the 1989 cartoon, as that was the version I and millions of others were obsessed with in our youth. I tried to include as many key characters and iconic visuals as I could, and threw in some stuff that I remember particularly fondly like the arcade game. (Speaking of which, the title of the piece is "Big Apple, 3 a.m." Some will get it!)

What can you say about the Ninja Turtles that does any justice to how much they took over our lives? It was THE show and had THE toys, everything else was secondary. I really wanted to dig out some of my old turtle drawings from when I was a kid to post along side this, just as a cool reminder of how far I've come with my drawing and yet how little my choice of subject matter has changed. I haven't had a chance to search them out though because they're rumored to be in a remote corner of my parent's attic. However, on my way home from picking up this print I came across a turtle in the middle of my street, so I stopped the car and moved him to save him from becoming road pizza. I suppose that's fitting enough.

Shell Shock!

2011-05-18T17:41:00.005-04:00

On Friday, June 3rd you're invited to attend Shell Shock! a Ninja Turtles art show tribute. All the info is there on the poster so click it for a bigger version!

I was really excited when Chogrin invited me to collaborate on the poster. I was asked to draw Donatello, coincidentally my favorite turtle. The idea was to use the original comics for inspiration, so this is a rare instance where I completed a drawing using only black and white. I've never considered this one of my strong points, but I'm getting better at using solid black areas for shading. The final product is a collaboration between myself, Bobby O'Herlihy, Edwin Vazquez, and Chogrin Munoz.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches on my work for the show.

Dr. Sketchy's

2011-05-17T16:59:00.005-04:00

For the last three months I've been attending something called Dr. Sketchy's anti art school. It's a social art event that's half figure drawing class and half burlesque show. What's not to like, right? It's held once a month and is open to everybody: professional artists, amateurs, and spectators alike. Every session the models dress (or undress) according to a theme, and strike poses that range from one minute to twenty minutes. There are also contests held throughout the night that include things like drawing with your non dominate hand, switching the model's clothes, or adding in extra theme-appropriate characters.

There are Dr. Sketchy's branches all over the country, and I love the fact that we now have one here in Charleston, WV. Our arts community is very active but relatively small, so it's quite a treat to have something here that you'd normally have to go to a larger city to experience. I urge anyone in the area who has yet to attend to stop by sometime. Remember, you're not allowed to complain that there's "nothing to do around here" if you don't support cool stuff like this!

These are just some of my random sketches from the events. I've always liked figure drawing, but it's funny how it seemed like "work" when I was in college and now I go out and do it for fun.

I also want to acknowledge Chase Henderson who is responsible for bringing Dr. Sketchy's to Charleston. I'm sure it has to be a lot of planning and work to organize a monthly event, especially starting it from scratch, so good job! You can check out Charleston's page on the official Dr. Sketchy's site to see photos and get more info about when and where these are happening.

Harvey Pekar in Huntington

2011-05-09T17:47:00.006-04:00

I should preface this post by saying that it doesn't feature any of my artwork, just a cool bit of news. Harvey Pekar's latest book was released and it's all about his time in the city I call home. Titled Huntington, West Virginia: On The Fly, it's my understanding that this may also be his last book since Harvey passed away last year.

For those of you unfamiliar with Huntington, you can watch a movie called We Are Marshall about a famous 1970s plane crash that killed our college's entire football team (the filming of which interrupted quite a few of my classes) or you can watch the first season of chef Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution where he tries to make our city not quite so fat. If those aren't you're thing then you've probably already enjoyed the work of Brad Dourif, Huntington native and voice of the possessed children's doll Chucky, and at one point you may have been up early enough to catch a glimpse of Matt Lauer, who got his start as a news anchor here.

(Also fun fact, it's said that our famous football team plane crash was the inspiration for the deceased football team in Beetlejuice.)

This book details Pekar's trip to Huntington to speak at our book fair, which is where I met him. It also talks about his cameo in a local move called The Comic Book Lady, which is about the owner of Comic World, one of our local comic shops and a downtown Huntington fixture. In fact the owners of Comic World, Shayne and Kathleen, are a significant part of the story since Pekar befriended them and hung around with them quite a bit while he was here.

It was really cool to see my comic shop featured in the pages of a graphic novel, and to actually buy it from two of the book's main characters.

Several years ago when I saw Pekar give his speech at the book fair I had yet to really gain any footholds in the art world and I wasn't positive that I ever would. I knew I was going to keep drawing forever because I love it and I can't imagine not doing it, but all throughout art school I was lead to believe that my cartoony drawings wouldn't get me much of anywhere, and that I needed to focus on either pure graphic design (what my degree is in) or more traditional arts like landscapes, portraits, etc. That's why Harvey's speech was so inspirational to me because he sung the praises of comics and comic art. It's easy for a geek like to me to talk about why I love comics, but here was this guy who was never a big comic nerd, kinda seemed like he could be your grandpa, and yet he believed that you could tell meaningful stores of any type with comics. They didn't have to be all silly and superheroes (not that there's anythingwrong with that) but they can also tell stories just as important as any novel or non-fiction book. It really gave me hope that the kind of art I was interested in wasn't useless.

When you read the story you can tell that Harvey had some preconceived notions about West Virginia, as do most people who aren't familiar with our state, but you can also tell that he was really struck by the kindness shown to him by Shayne, Kathleen, and the other people he encountered here. Not to be insensitive, but to me this book is far cooler, and far more sincere, than any movie that wishes to exploit one of our city's biggest tragedies.

Huntington may pop up in the news from time to time, but usually not for stuff quite as awesome or as relevant to my interests as being included in a Harvey Pekar book, so I'm pretty honored to have the connection. You can pick up a copy of the book here.

Shows This Weekend

2011-05-06T12:26:00.004-04:00

Last night was the opening reception of the 3B Show at Gallery 1988, and the show is getting some good press from places like Fuel Your Illustration and /Film.

And tonight is the opening of the Cubeecraft exhibition at Brave New Worlds in Philly. I'm really proud to be in both of these shows and wish I could be in two (or three) places at once to attend them! Hopefully some pictures of these shows will surface soon and I'll share them here.

Now for a quick plug, my friend Justin has a sketchbook out that you can order here. For a few extra bucks he'll even include a sketch of a character of your choice. How many sketchbooks can boast that as an option?

I also intended to plug the Strange Kids Club anthology but I've just seen that it's sold out! I'm very happy for its success and I hope all who were interested were able to get their hands on one.

Strange Kids Club Antholgy #1

2011-05-04T18:53:00.005-04:00

I received my copy of Strange Kids Club Anthology #1 in the mail this weekend. It's a collection of comics and pinups based on Strange Kid, the mascot for the website of the same name. The artwork inside is amazing and truly embodies the weirdness and nostalgia that Strange Kid is all about.

The vibe of this book really put me in the mind of those 90s MTV cartoons like Liquid Television and The Head. I love it and I'm really proud to have been a part of it!

Oly and Ted Cubees!

2011-05-02T17:26:00.006-04:00

I haven't posted any Cubees for a while, so a little background is in order: Cubees are paper toys that you print and assemble yourself, and unlike most other papercraft models they require no glue or tape. They are the creation of Christopher Beaumont who runs Cubeecraft.com, where you can download hundreds of them for free. I've designed a number of these guys over the last few years and even had my Ernie Cubee featured in papercraft art books. You can find the ones I've designed in the Cubee section of my online portfolio.

Chris has a Cubeecraft show coming up this Friday at Brave New Worlds in Philly, and he had asked me a while ago if I'd like to contribute a new model. So today I'm very excited to reveal these Cubees of my characters Oly and Ted!

The Cubees Chris uses for exhibitions are larger than normal, so the Oly cubee is oversized while the Ted is standard Cubee size, making them proper scale with each other.

The central idea I had was to create a Cubee that was in a different pose than the normal standing position, but I found that was much easier said than done! I've had experience modifying the Cubee template in the past but this was definitely a challenge because of the large scale and inherent difficulty of making a person constructed out of cubes look "natural" in a lying down position. I put quite a bit of work into this seemingly simple design and I am extremely happy with the results.

Standard Cubees are free over on Cubeecraft.com so I will likely make Ted available on my site, but the larger models are more specialized and a bit harder to produce with a typical home printer setup, so kits to make Oly will be on sale at the show this Friday (Ted is included in the kit as well.) Of course there will be plenty more Cubees and kits at the show by Chris and the other contributing artists, so if you live in the Philadelphia area be sure to check it out! You can find more info here.

The Host with the Most

2011-04-29T14:54:00.004-04:00

I have to say that this is the most bizarre assignment I've gotten from Front Magazine, not for the theme of the article but just because of the stuff they asked me to draw. I never thought I'd have to draw a Princess Diana Pac-Man ghost or a girl in a Spongebob mask with a bear trap. Honestly I was a little hesitant to post these without photographic proof that they were for a magazine, hah!

I'm actually pretty proud of my coloring on the second spread, the one with the guy pushing the shopping cart. And this was the first time I was asked to illustrate the title of the article, so I drew all the words that appear on the house in the first spread. I apologize for the language and adult imagery if there's anybody who's offended by that sort of thing.

Are Your Friends Aliens?

2011-04-27T18:41:00.003-04:00

Another illustration I did for Front Magazine, this one featuring aliens in human form. This was a pretty breezy assignment, nothing too unusual, just a lot of referencing photos from movies and TV shows. I believe the note I was given on the background was to make it reminiscent of a Mars Attacks trading card.

I struggle sometimes with drawing people in normal standing poses, I think because my natural tendency is to want to draw strange or cartoony poses. For that reason there are some things here I feel like I would go back and change if I could, but it doesn't bug me too much since this wasn't one of the larger articles.

Oh, I also remember that at first I drew a random building next to Big Ben, then realized that since this is for a UK based magazine I should probably actually get the surrounding skyline correct. What looked fine to me would probably stick out like a sore thumb to people who actually live there, so I found a reference photo from the angle I needed.

Odds and Ends

2011-04-22T11:31:00.005-04:00

I've been busy as usual, mostly working on a unique piece for an upcoming art show, so I'll share that with you soon. In the meantime, here's an awesome gift that my friend Justin got me. You need to be a Hellboy fan to understand why this is so cool.

And here's a gift from my girlfriend in celebration of a large project I'll be starting early next month (the paint can is a hint.) I can't wait to start posting about it.

On an odd note, I have a post from over a year ago that for whatever reason keeps getting spammed over and over. I don't know why that post in particular gets all the spam instead of my entire blog, but I suppose I should be thankful for that. It's about a T-shirt design I did called "Mushroom Kingdom Pizza" which depicts a fake ad for a pizza shop run by the Mario Bros. Check out this latest spam comment it received:

"I had already tasted their pizza.One of my friends bring pizza somedays earlier from Mushroom kingdom pizza. it was not bad at all. "

Oh really? You've eaten pizza from a shop I made up that's run by two video game characters? ...can I have the number? If only all spam was this entertaining.

Strange Kids Club Interview

2011-04-20T19:23:00.002-04:00

An interview with yours truly has been posted over at the Strange Kids Club, so go check it out! Topics include everything from Mayor McCheese to my artwork to a certain puppet show I'm involved with. Thanks to Rondal Scott!

Skadi

2011-04-19T17:55:00.005-04:00

This is a drawing I did of Skadi, a web comic character created by artists Katie Rice and Luke Cormican. I drew this close to two months ago now and I sent it off to Luke just to show my appreciation. I recently got emails back from both of them which was thrilling, and Luke asked if I'd be okay with the drawing being included in a Skadi book that they're planning. How could I say no to an amazing offer like that?

Here's Skadi as rendered by the artists themselves, and you can check out the web comic here. Also, do yourself a favor and check out Katie Rice's blog, her sketches always amaze me.

3D Photos

2011-04-15T15:46:00.003-04:00

I'm in a bit of a holding pattern today while I wait for some info on my next project, so I made this to pass some time.

My friend jokes that whenever I get a new gadget I have to push it to its limits and see what it's capable of, and I guess that's true. Once I had the idea to take pictures of red/blue 3D images with the 3DS' camera I had to try it out, and sure enough it worked. I wanted to make some sort of simple guide on how to do it, so here you go.

The ability to take 3D photos with this thing is amazing to me, I think there are tons of possibilities that have yet to be explored. Like maybe setting up dioramas or even figuring out a way to create and view artificially 3D images and artwork (something like a still frame from an animated 3D movie.) Here's hoping some websites crop up in the future dedicated to this purpose.

3B Poster

2011-04-14T19:21:00.003-04:00

This was posted to the Autumn Society's site a while ago so I neglected to give it an official post here. I created one of three poster designs for the upcoming 3B show, and there are three variations of this one design: the informative version you see here, a postcard, and a poster with less text that will be for sale at the gallery when the show premiers. Right now word is that the ones you can purchase will be limited to an edition of 100.

The 3B show opens on May 5th at Gallery 1988's new Venice location, 214 Pier Avenue in Santa Monica, California.

Ready

2011-04-13T21:04:00.001-04:00

Cool things ahead.

The 3B Show!

2011-04-12T17:25:00.005-04:00

These are my pieces for the Autumn Society and Gallery 1988's 3B Show which features artwork based on Back to the Future, Bill and Ted, and Beetlejuice. The show opens next month and is something of a sequel to last year's 3G Show.

For whatever reason I hit a huge creative block when I was trying to come up with ideas for these. Most of the time I'm working on so many things at once that I've already started thinking about ideas for my next project before I finish my current one, but this time I was absolutely stumped. I think partially the problem was anticipating what other people would be doing and trying to do something different, while also feeling a lot of pressure to create a great piece for Back to the Future, my favorite movie of all time. In the end I tried to just have fun with it and not worry too much, but I can tend to stress about these things. I did decide early on that I wanted to reference Back to the Future 3 since I feel like it doesn't get much attention, and I didn't want to reference Death from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey despite him being one of my favorite parts (I figured a lot of people would probably want to use him in their pieces as well.)

The artwork I've seen for this show looks amazing. As always, I am honored to be in a show with so many great artists at Gallery1988.