The {mostly} Analog Art World

Sweet Astromech Sticker

2012-02-10T19:30:00.001-08:00

Nickelodeon Hates Math

2012-01-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

Wonderful wonderful wonderful! I enjoyed every second of this nerd-fest and give it a hardy hear-hear!

Thank you very lovely and smarty-pants Vi Hart!

Not-So-Fast...

2012-01-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

The crime was perfect, the loot was his. All that remained was the getaway. Planning this heist for months had afforded him the time to fantasize about how he would spend the coming years in luxury across the globe. Hiding in plain sight was so bold it defied logic. The Chaser would never suspect that the criminal of the century would expose himself in such a vulnerable manner. Slow and deliberate had always served the criminal's purpose well, allowing him to keep one step ahead of the police and private security alike. Tunnels and bicycles were his preferred mode of transport, the sky was a new and bold direction. That's why he made a mistake, a costly one. Prepping for flight isn't like spending months digging through the earth, nor is it as direct as stepping onto a two-wheeler and dashing away. Flight takes prep and prep takes time. Without a partner, there's only one resource for that time. He under-estimated his arch-nemesis... and the resourcefulness that would be employed in his capture. His getaway was ruined.

Balloons are a fascinating and undeniably alluring mode of transport. I've never flown in one, but I've certainly fantasized about the idea. It's on my list. I'm sure it'll be a safe, regulated, piloted balloon ride. Maybe at the Albuquerque festival. One thing I'm sure of, my fantasies always include a chair with a bunch of balloons tied to it... one more way life can take my breath away.

The real danger of our chemical world

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

I stole this idea from somewhere several years ago... I just cannot remember where!

Eating The Bear & Being Eaten

2012-01-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

I just read a terrific article over on CNN entitled the Success of Failure. It is rife with cliches of great failures that led to success in writing, manufacturing, technology and the like. Reading it, I had an epiphany regarding an idea I was trying to articulate yesterday. Being afraid.
Our team in the studio was discussing a new direction in dealing with clients. A less task-oriented and more idea-generating-lead-by-pulling-not-by-pushing methodology. I instantly felt a pang of panic that I couldn't explain. I called it fear of failure, of not being able to deliver. I was only partly right.
Failure is vital to creativity, it is the combustion that moves the vehicle. If this all took place in private, I wouldn't have a bit of trouble. In private work, that no one sees, I actually enjoy the false starts and alarmingly bad drawings. It was fear of failure IN PUBLIC that I was feeling, but not a fear of failing to deliver. It is a fear I carry all of the time because it's a necessary part of being truly creative. Nobody nails it first time out of the gate, and if it appears to be a stellar success after the first try, it could have been even better if the concept, drawing, performance had been iterated and improved. I'm not talking about design-by-committee here or playing it safe by adopting an existing idea (that is it's own set of frustrating challenges), I mean raw, pulling-something-out-of-the-dirt making stuff up. The article at CNN mentions a writer's struggle to revise revise revise and it's THAT struggle that I fear and love. It's why the memory of a project is always vastly better than the reality of actually executing the work.
I have learned over the last decade or so that an illustration always gets rendered (drawn) a minimum of 3 times before it goes to final rendering. Laziness will tell you that it can be nailed first round, hubris says it happens in the second. But the Fear knows that you have to fight and die and be reborn through thumbnails, roughs, revising composition, color palette, more composition, loss of message, addition of narrative, redirection... the list goes on, and it's a frustrating and fear-inspiring list. But it is absolutely necessary. It is how great work is made.
That was the fear I was feeling. The self-inflicted, forced frustration of allowing myself to be eaten so that I can understand how the process works. What is masticated? What engergizes, what is fat? How does digestion occur? Then, from the other side of things, informed and battle-hardened, you're ready to eat the bear.

The Joy of The Sun

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Farm Livin' Is The Life For Me... Sort Of.

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

One of my first jobs was mowing lawns with a buddy of mine with which I grew up. Beau was a great business man and in fact, still makes quite a good living in lawn care. Me... less so, I was never much of one for a green thumb. One of the things that made him a good business man was commercial clients. On one of the big jobs we had, we had to rent a tractor with what's known as a bush hog in order to mow a HUGE field. It's that big thing you see behind tractors on the interstate medians. Tractors have an awesome feature where you flip a lever and you can brake either the right or left wheels individually, making for incredibly tight (and dangerous) turns. In my genius thought process, I figured we would make more money if I finished as fast as possible. So, I'd rocket across the field, brake as hard as I could, swing the tractor 180º balancing on one tire and jam it into first gear, racing away the other direction. It was great fun and in fact I became quite good at that delicate balance between awesome success and horrible horrible failure (LOTS of people have lost limbs and lives getting caught in that phenomenally powerful PTO that drives the brush hog). The factory workers who were watching me from the docking bay didn't think so. After a couple of hours of this, Beau showed up and fired me as tractor driver.

Fantastic StarWars Song

2012-01-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

I've really been trying to focus here on my art and keep a consistent thing going, but this was just so amazing and made so very, very happy... I have to share. Listen with sound and stay to the end.

If Charlie Chaplin played Tinkerbell

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Memories from Rome Fall of 2010

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

The week before we traveled to Ghana, we stayed in Rome. It began as a layover to aclimate to the time change so we wouldn't be exhausted in Africa. It turned into a life-changing trip. It was only recently when I mentioned casually that we had wandered the streets, schedule-free for 7 days, that I was made aware of how rare it is to get to see Rome in that way. Rome, like Paris should be savored, digested. Not gulped and slurped. But there is so much to do and travel is expensive, so too often we over-book wherever we go.
It got me to thinking about the wonders that we had so wonderfully enjoyed.

Memories of Rome in the Fall of 2010:

Cool night air
Sleeping in the taxi from the airport to the hotel
Orange sun on Angie's sleeping face
Cobblestones
Ancient, painted wooden doors
Strange door-knockers
Cats in ruins
Strange sounds in the dark
Passionate lovers in the streets
Wine
Noisy fountains
Fall evening in the park
Shady characters causing fear
Electric buses
Audrey Hepburn graphitti
Gelato
The watch-makers shop
The smell of moss
Indian Rose-sellers
Street Musicians
Futball match at Miscellanea
The handsome waiter
Dotti di Poggi (200 yr old art store)
Tie seller at Trevi Foutain
Having too much wine
Love on the balcony
Sunday Morning Church Bells
Breakfast at Hotel Santa Chiara
Spartan Hotel room
Morning Strolls
Being called Harry Potter
Buying print of The Pantheon

Here is a smattering of the pages from the week there. Some decent, some scrawl.

Walking back from the Mouth of Truth, we stopped to rest. Across the street was this 500 year old apartment building.

I made a lot of random notes about the people we met.

Many comments on travel conditions.

One of my favorite things about nice hotels is the breakfast. Mmmmm, the Santa Chiara was no different. One of my favorite things to do when we travel is to pull stickers from public surfaces. The street art scene is so varied when it comes to style and content. But it's pathetically consistent in form (stickers in EVERY city we've been to).

The Galleria Borghese. No photos allowed inside, which is probably why we'd never heard of it until we got there.

I'm not sure how Bill Watterson figures into the trip. But Calvin and Hobbes make an appearance.

More Galleria Borghese subjects and a Swedish sticker.

One of the greatest places to eat was Miscellanea. I have to agree with Lonely Planet here, "... and a dingy, informal atmosphere, with conviviality fueled by reasonably priced beer and cheap dishes and pizzas (€6)." There was a wonderful collection of locals there the night we dined which made for excellent people-watching. Enhanced, mind you, by an marvelous bottle of wine.

Rome wouldn't be what it is without the 30 feet of ruins that lie beneath the entire city. All over town are these huge excavations where archeologists are digging out the past. Largo Argentina was just down the block from our hotel.

An Indian vendor sold some kind of roasted nut as the sun set. He was jacking electricity from a lamp-post nearby.

One of the trip hilights for me was discovering Ditta G. Poggi. An art store that had been open down the street from the Pantheon for 175 years!!!!

Trevi! It was packed all the time, despite being there in the dead of winter (Fall technically).

The sculptures are quite amazing. The water really brings them to life.

These pages are from our last night in the city. We spent it on the Piazza in front of the Pantheon drinking wine and savoring the splendid cuisine. You can see the full spread of pages from Rome if you are so inclined on my flickr feed.

Bobbie Gets a New Mast

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

As a second effort in my series of rendering Emily Richmond's world rounding trip photos, I chose to illustrate the final placement of her repaired mast while on Easter Island (yes, the one with the giant noggin' sculptures and not the one the bunny is from). It's amazing how generous people have been on her travels, not just people through Kickstarter, but the folks she meets along the way. There have been a number of times when she ran into trouble, some very problematic and others less so. Yet, sitting in my comfy chair here in the central United States, I never got the sense that she was on her own despite being in the middle of the largest body of water on the planet.
I'm really having a good time checking in on her progress and am loving her photography. So, look for more of Bobbie and Emily's illustrations to come.

The Wonderful Ed Emberley

2012-01-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

Ed Emberley's work has always been sweetly simple. Children and adults can understand the work and it helps build confidence in one's ability to draw... we can ALL draw after all.
Worth watching, guaranteed!
This made me run out and purchase to of Emberley's books. The only two I could find unfortunately. I would have thought these would still be stocked in B&N or at least a hefty stock at Half Price Books. I had to suffice with the classic Thumbprint Book and Trucks and Trains. I had forgotten how much he packed into these editions and was surprised that they are still great fun to draw even as an adult.

The entire video is behind a pay wall (which, I have found to be well worth the cost) but there is a short introduction they offer for free.

Getting to know Ed

Ed Emberley, Children's Book Illustrator | by Ed Emberley

View this entire course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

Larabanga, Ghana West Africa 2010

2012-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

In 1421, muslims in West Africa built an earthen mosque. It still stands today in Ghana. It is the oldest mosque in the western area of the continent. It is down a looooong, dusty road named Fryfusu-Damongo Rd (which, by the way, you don't want to be caught on at night for fear of bandits). Many people walk along the sandy, rutted road. Some with cattle, some with goats. Some carry logs and water and grass-cutter. At the mosque, little black girls play in the midday sun while the boys smile brilliant smiles, all of them jockeying for attention. The older children shoo the youngsters away as nuisances while they themselves offer they're services as guides, all the while soliciting sponsorships for their local soccer teams.

Anniversary Highlight

2012-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Life isn't about how many breaths you take, it's about how many moments take your breath away. There are a bunch, but nothing compare to the woman with whom I've exclusively shared the last 20 years of my life. She's the cause or at least shared in every single one of the highlights of the last two decades of my life.
We met when a muralist friend of ours asked each of us individually (and a few others) to assist with a large landscape execution. It wasn't until a few years later when she taught me how to airbrush and we went into business together that the sparks started to fly. We both have been making art ever since. I copy her ideas, she copies mine and we work together on nearly every project. This portrait is based on a photo I took of her before we were married in 1992. She was a medical student doing her internship when I popped in with lunch and a camera. I thought it was quite appropriate to render the image on board in ink with an airbrush. The photo of the painting was damaged a while back, but I thought it made the image better. Now that everything is manipulated in photoshop, I particularly love the analog nature of the painting, the photo (shot on film) and the destruction, which was just a little water spilled on a stack of photos.

Happy Anniversary Ange!

87 Honda Accord

2012-01-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

1995, with my '83 olds growing long in the tooth, and the fact that our Isuzu was getting used for my day job as a roofer, we found we were in the market for a new car. Something nice that Angie could drive and in which we could take road trips. My Dad's neighbor had and auto-body shop and would often purchase vehicles that had been totalled and refurbish them. In fact, he had kind of a car lot thing going... which was strange considering the fact that we lived in a neighborhood. It was this same neighbor in fact who, many years before had drunkenly pulled a handgun on two small boys as they played army one evening. Boy, THAT went over well with my parents.
So, we discovered the '87 Honda Accord Hatchback LXI. I was particularly sold on the LXI: power seats, premium stereo and wheels and (best of all) a sunroof! Aaaahhhh the sunroof, the poor man's convertible. To this day, cars without them are far less appealing in my opinion. Sold! We borrowed $3,500 from the bank (which took FOR-EVER to pay back at $6 an hour!) and off we went.
This was the first car we bought together, so it was kind of special in that way. We did a lot of great things in that car and put nearly 80,000 miles on it in the 4 years we drove it. At one point, my Dad and I repainted it because my wife is kind of a reckless driver and had damaged pretty much all of the vertical surfaces. It was soooo beautiful with the new paint job. Then the next week, the very next week, I dropped a ladder squarely on the hood. Because I was mad and I was in a hurry. Haste does indeed make for waste. Eventually, the A/C quit working, which in Texas is about the same as your engine burning out. I remember replacing the CV axels myself in the shade of a big old pecan tree one spring afternoon. We sold it to my brother-in-law who promptly brought it to end-of-life by running into the back of someone driving a great big van. It was a shame to see the poor thing die.

There were a lot of firsts in the old Honda. We got our first cel phone, our first video camera, I created my first commercial illustration, my brother-in-law beat me up for the first time (in fairness to him, it was the last time too!), we sailed for the first time, tried out rollerblades, redecorated... when you are young and in love it feels like everything in your life is for the first time.

Eric Barclay: Striped Cat

2012-01-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Eric Barclay: Striped Cat: Painted instant coffee jar. Matte acrylic on glass/plastic. What a wonderful way to use those beautiful constructs in which our products come. I often lament when tossing an old jar or bottle into the trash. They are so carefully designed and an artist somewhere spent hours and hours tweaking every curve and angle. Then a craftsman creates the tool and die to produce 1000's and 1000's which sadly then go on to populate our ever-growing landfills.
So, Eric Barclay, BRAVO for finding something that turns them into something fun, something useful, something wonderful.

Isuzu Pickup

2011-12-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Shortly after meeting my wife, she bought a brand new 1990 Isuzu pickup. It's one of only two brand new cars that we've ever owned. This is from a series of illustrations I did about our history of vehicle ownership. Each illustration showcases the vehicle and is rich with imagery related to that time of our lives. in this image: an airbrush (how we met) cassette tapes (yeah, mixtapes!), the longed-for firebird emblem (not actually on the hood of said pickup), beer cans in the bed of the truck, and so on and so on.

Bobbie Rounds The World (separated)

2011-12-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

If anyone was ever separated, it's Emily Richmond. She's been sailing around the world for the last few years. The funny thing is, when you read her stories she seems more connected to the world around us than I do and I live in a city of about 7 million!! It's a sizeable journey to say the least. About 25,000 miles as the bird flies... a bit more as the boat floats. She's doing it primarily under wind power (sometimes by choice, sometimes by force). She's making great time and having, literally, the adventure of a lifetime. I like to think I could pull this off, but somehow, I have my doubts (excuse garcon, another latte please!). I highly recommend investigating the journey. She's an amazing and robust young woman who's showing what determination and resourcefulness can accomplish. Naturally, the web makes journeys like this far more social than they used to be and I'm doing what I can to imagine myself in her place. For that alone I thank her! If you have a minute and are so inclined, take a little time and a few dollars and help Emily with her resourcefulness, or spread the word so someone else can watch and smile. She's down to the wire on a Kickstarter project to fund some repairs to her trusty steed (can you call a watercraft a steed?). Check back often, I hope to add to my collection of Emily drawings and stories.

yo-GURT!

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

We went for a walk. In Ghana, it was probably a stroll, but for a fat American, it was like a death march... well, that's exaggeration in the extreme, but it was certainly uncomfortable. We walked a lot in Ghana, everyone does, it's part of why people are so healthy (that and their amazing diet of fish and rice and the fact that NO ONE smokes). But this particular day, we were working in a a Bible education work, sharing the truth about the Bible with complete strangers. It was a LOT of fun in a foreign land. I'd had the idea that I could handle a dress shirt and a tie, just like my friends (locals). After about 45 minutes I knew I'd made a gross error in just how challenging it would be to sally forth in the sun with very little water and being a tad over-dressed. I knew this when I got dizzy and felt like I was about to pass out.
But I muddled through and had some laughs to boot. My life was saved when Gifty and Joe (our guides) recommended we all try some yoGURT! It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!
To this day, I don't think I've experienced anything that came close to the same level of pure, unadulterated refreshment. I had strawberry and I wish I had some now.
These guys are incredible. They have insulated coolers strapped to the front of their bikes (or to the back as one of my buddies pointed out) full of all kinds of frozen delights. They don't ring bells or play music like the ice-cream guy does here in the states. He just cruises around yelling 'Yo-GURT!!'. This particular subject, had a glass and good case strapped to the top of his cooler with what looked like breads in it. I was told they were meat-pies. I don't know what a meat pie is and I'm not sure I'd try one even if it was right out of the oven. There was something about the sweaty. bread-containing box that just did not appeal to me. It might have been even more amazing than the yogurt.

Dino Train

2011-12-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a renewed love for the Muppets, puppetry and dinosaurs. It's funny that adults forget how engaging imagination can be. If only we had more time to sit and dream. We're always busy busy busy taking care of important things and dealing with problems and challenges. This is necessary and even engaging, but nothing compares to thinking and reading and imagining and playing. I believe humans need to play more, particularly adult humans. We are too serious.

Funnily, this drawing isn't too far from the truth. Trains today run on fossil fuels, they pull an infant species in little cars... though I think the participants here appear much happier.

Separated

2011-12-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

There is conjecture that periodically all of the cels in our bodies are replaced. Whether or not this is true, I don't know. It sounds good though. And if in fact that is the case, then wouldn't it be true that we are physically separated from events in our past by the fact that, except for the patterns of memory, we were not there?

TroTro

2011-12-08T11:27:00.001-08:00

In Accra, Ghana last year, I was introduced to a very unique and interesting mode of transport; the TroTro. The name comes from the Ga word tro, which means three cents, which was the amount charged for a ride during colonial days. The name stuck. There are no schedules, or really, apparent organization, but somehow, these ramshackle vans come along at acceptable intervals and the insider, who can interpret the enigmatic hand signals, can tell where the van is headed. For a pitance, you're on an moving. Patience is required. As is comfort with a complete lack of personal space. Our ride on the modified Ford van we were in contained 16 passengers, the doorman, driver and accountant. My friend and I are quite large people and had to pay for two seats, equivalent to about 50¢.
Learn a little more about the TroTro at Ghanaweb!
It was a little more than my poor wife could take and we spent the rest of our time in Ghana by taking taxis. Affordable and private, very nice for a westerner.

Time: An Artist's Greatest Asset

2011-12-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

Time. There's never enough of it. Enough to experience, to absorb. To reconstruct. To share and collaborate. But if you want to create. Really make fun stuff, there's simply no substitute.

This is a Time Machine

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Forward is an inevitability, going back is by choice. This is not a journal. This is not a blog. This is not a sketchbook. It is a Time Machine. I believe this is true for all journal-esque endeavors. The flaw of pop-culture time machines is that they work in two directions (past and future) and they allow interaction and edits. In reality, a time machine can only visit what has happened and it is observer-only.
So, I realized, that it was a simple matter to make my own. It only requires imagination and time. The failure of an artist who works at his journaling is when he starts to make the work for someone else. That personal narrative becomes a personal detailed record of his life. Details long forgotten can be found in the pages of a sketch-journal that will spark memories and imaginings of tremendous depth.
What I'm not sure about is if this format translates for other people. A rabbit hole to another world may be readily identified by the artist who sweated as they dug, but for the casual passersby, it might only be visual noise in the landscape. But, I suppose, not having the answers is what makes it all the more interesting. Everything in life that is fun, enjoyable worth doing is an unknown adventure. Once a thing becomes wrote, it is work and no one wants to do it. Then, I'd say, regardless of wether another human can makes heads or tales of my 40 (to date) sketchbooks, I'll keep on recording so that I for one will have a time machine.
How is yours?

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

What Monster club would be complete without a 5-star bowling chicken, er, rooster? Fowler is known for his strut and his ability to never miss picking up a spare in the pocket.

Fowler got his start in bowling when he was still just a chick. His owner came out one day and found him pecking away at an old bowling ball that had been placed in the pen to keep foxes out of hole in the chicken-wire.

During his brooding stage, he attended Biddy H.S. just so he could join the bowling team and refine his competitive skills as none of the patrons down at Gizzard's Bowlorama would take him one.

Fowler sleeps in an incubator to keep at the top of his game and only eats s specialized diet of organically cultivated grain.

Your only chance to see Fowler outside of league competition is at the Sideshow Monsters Club because he practices at his private bowling alley that travels with him where ever he goes.

The Amazing Cephalopod Cannonball

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

A real freakshow has the trappings of seeing things that you never thought you'd see. The disappointment of many of the images I've seen is that they're really not that unusual. The art advertising them is often far more entertaining. So, I give you the first member of the Misfit Monster Club: The Amazing Cephalopod Cannonball. Way more fun than the human version. I wonder if PETA will get involved?

Tikiman

2011-11-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

Several years ago a colleague of mine had a photo of an aboriginal man hanging on the wall of his office. It inspired this drawing that is native-inspired. Which native? A lot of them really. Some American Indian bits, some Hawaiian, some Mayan... etc. Like a lot of the inked pieces I've been producing lately, it's mostly just drawn for fun.

Squidward Home

2011-11-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

What can I say. Sea-life at play. A swimming elephant, driving zebra and a host of very odd inclusions.

Ducks Amuck

2011-11-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

We had ducks when I was a kid. When I was 6 or 7, my dad brought home 3 yellow furry ducklings. In fact, I remember going with him to Berend Brothers (our local farm outfitter) where they had these crates of chipring yellow fuzballs. '3 Please.' He told the man. The duck-seller proceeded to place our new familial additions in a little cardboard box with holes in it, so we could keep an eye on the little guys of course! The whole ride home, I would peak into the box. The peep-peep-peeping little guys would all cock their heads to see what and who I was, probably wondering where mom went too.
Keeping the ducklings in teh bathtub for the first few days worked fairly well. It turns out that baby ducks are two things: 1. Noisy and 2. Stinky!
So, my Pop chose a spot out at the back of our property under an old mulberry tree. The thinking being that the shade would be a nice place to raise them. Together we assembled a spacious 10x10x6 cage and covered it with chicken wire, to keep our birds in and the predators out. It was dry and dusty but the little guys thrived. They grew so fast in fact that it seemed as though it happened while I watched. As they got older and their tastes widened, we began to realize why the mulberry tree hadn't been as ideal as we had considered. Ducks poop. Everything does. Like any bird, duck poop is messy, but duck poop on feed and mulberries is a whole other category of messy! Still, they were our birds and I loved them. I would sit at school and wonder what they were doing while I was cooped up in the stodgy, boring old classroom. In hindsight, they probably wondered the same thing about me!
While they were still young, I came home from school one day to find one of the little guys lying still on the ground. I poked him with a stick thinking he might just be asleep. But none of my encouragement to wake up made a bit of difference.
"He's dead Mike." My dad told me. "We'll have to bury him."
So, we chose a spot next to the porch, outside the dining room window. Placed his little body in a cardboard box and dug a hole in which to bury him.
Naturally, in the days that followed I'd just sit at dinner and stare out at the fresh dirt, thinking of what death must be like and wondering how come the ground didn't fill up with dead bodies. Did he turn into bones? Would he make a plant grow? Would he become dust, like the Bible said?
After a week, I couldn't take it any more. I rushed home from school and grabbed a shovel. The box was still intact and I was disturbed to find that my little duckling was now a duck-mummy and was throwing a party with a whole box full of bugs! I tossed the whole kit back into the hole it had come out of and pushed the dirt back over. I never got curious about the dead again!

Green Cat - The Smiths

2011-11-11T10:04:00.001-08:00

My wife has been working on this series of cats inspired by George Rodrigue's Blue Dog. She calls them the green cats, though they're not always green. They're always dressed as some musician, which is highly enjoyable to try and recognize.

1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thinking back, I've posted about my first car before. It was the coolest and newest car I could afford. The story in the link tells about how It wasn't technically a 1983. It was both 1982 AND 1983. My Dad found a front-end crashed 83 body with a bent frame. Then he found a 1982 rear-end crashed with a sound frame. We took the front clip (fenders and hood) and the frame from the 82 and built my car. EASILY one of the coolest projects I've ever been involved with. He built a rotisserie-like devise that we lifted the body off with. It is so cool seing a car with engine, wheels and drive-train without the body. I drove that thing with a red front end and a blue body for about 6 months until I had the money to get it painted. Then I blew the engine! Who knew you had to put oil in those things! I got my first ticket in that car... for rolling through a stop sign. Late for school at Austin St and Kell West in Wichita Falls. I should go steal that stop sign! I had my first girlfriend in this car. I went on my first pseudo-dates in this car (I didn't date in high school, but I managed to hang out with a fair share of young ladies!). Actually, the symbolism in this image is pretty deep, unlike my previous couple of editions. For my next drawing show-casing a vehicle, I'll discuss the post-high-school life and death of the good old olds!

Lips Drip Like Honey

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Proverbs chapter 5 tells the tale of a seductive woman who seeks to ensnare an unwitting young man in want of heart (lacking understanding or good motive). I have always loved the phrase 'lips drip like honey'. It's so visceral and appealing. The elephant was inspired by reading my first copy of Gon, the Japanese comic about a dinosaur lost in time who defends the weak. As for the rest, well, per my usual lack of narrative... random ideas. The background pattern started as swords but looks more like feathers to me now.
A lot of these kind of drawings have been inking exercises for me lately. I want to tell stories, but find that I can stay focused long enough (interested?) to flesh out a story to draw. I don't know if it's that I'm too busy or just lazy.

Marvelous Mail

2011-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

Mail. It's too under-appreciated. We marvel at the electronic age and overlook the amazing and low-tech solution that served man for 1000's of years (the hand-delivered message). This mailing label was my attempt to make letters I sent a little more visually appealing. It started as random and non-sequitur drawings on an old piece of label sheet. It will be a shame when we quit using the system that have had in place here in the US since the poly express. This makes me wonder, what was the development of mail like in other countries during the same period as it developed here?

Forget Breakfast, STEAKEFEST!

2011-10-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Psychic Trauma: An upsetting experience precipitated or aggravated by an emotional or mental disorder. There is no handle on the outside of the heart (it can only be opened from within). Steakfest!! The wounds persist.

Yellow-eyed Cafe Patrons

2011-10-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of interesting peeps at the local Cafe de Brazil.

Why I draw, every day, as much as possible

2011-10-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Since I was a kid, I've always loved to draw, when I am alone, when I am with others and especially when I'm not supposed to. As a child, I had an aversion to drawing in formal sessions, until one day, an adult complimented me on the idea. To this day, I have no compunction to drawing in meetings or other places where I 'shouldn't'. So, I was pleased as punch to see an intellectual argument for why we SHOULD be drawing all of the time. My sketchbooks feel less like journals of dead history and more like time machines to me. When I look through the pages of past drawings, I can reconstruct incredibly detailed experiences. I think Sunni Brown explains very clearly here why that is. So, watch and doodle.

Ink Love

2011-10-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

I find more and more that I can get lost with a sheet of bristol and a pen/brush and tub of ink. They never make any sense, but I do enjoy drawing and inking them. The process is magical, even if the results are meh.

2011-10-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with this:

Silence

2011-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

Rome 2010. I love Roman Holiday. It's anything but silent, but as I learned last fall, Rome can have a reverent quality, especially in the Piazza's late at night when the mist has fallen that is truly wonderful. Typically the city has so many stereotypical images that it defies a single one... yet for me, seeing a stenciled portrait of Audrey Hepburn as we passed through empty cobblestone streets late at night summed up the entire city in one image. The first thing I did when I got home was cut my own AH stencil and I try to share it whenever I get a chance.

2011-09-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

I've been working on Ivan Brunetti's Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice for a while now... I pick it up and put it down as I have time. This is just a page of an exercise from week 1. Stream of consciousness drawings. An exercise in iconography if you will.

It's a good workbook. As are many of the exercise-style books that relate to cartooning. Where you get into trouble is when you pick up the how-to-draw sort of books. Now don't get me wrong. There are some great how-to-draw books out there, and I love a lot of them (10 or so on the bookshelf). The issue is when you want to learn how to tell a story or actually cartoon. How-to-draw only gives you construction of an element, which is great. But a book like Brunetti's tells you WHAT element to construct, WHY you should construct it and WHERE to place that element in the panel in order to best tell a story. That is the strength of a good exercise-style book. It gets you into the mindset of what do do.

Which brings me to another point. I am seeing a lot of really well-executed stories out there these days. Well done, composed nicely and well-drawn. But the subject matter is just so worn down or just not interesting that I can't get involved. Something like Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde (a new find for me) really draws me in, in large part because it has so much revelation on matters that I always wondered about. At the top of the Fantagraphics page for Joe Sacco, there is a terrific quote attributed to Art Spiegelman:

"In a world where Photoshop has outed the photograph to be a liar, one can now allow artists to return to their original function — as reporters."

Which I think is really powerful and true. So much of contemporary art in EVERY form is art made for it's own sake, having no connection to any narrative or anything beyond it's own existence (abstract art, I'm looking at you). I know that has it's place. But it feels like every artist feels compelled to create without a connection to anything larger. And that, in my opinion, creates a loss of context for the viewer and thus generates disdain, or worse, apathy.

Sergio Aragonés Funnies

2011-09-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't even know this was coming out! I saw a sketch somewhere of the cover just last week. And it is FUN-NY! I laughed out loud a number of times. What is great is that Mr Aragones has started to do a little auto-bio with this series... really terrific. I'll collect this one religiously.

And if you want to see Sergio as a young man. Greeeeaaaaat stuff. Nobody makes me want to draw as passionately as Sergio Aragonés.

Resistance Entertainment Logo

2011-09-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

Created for a young producer, Caleb Villa. Ultimately used both for static presentations and animated stingers.

Wonderful Pistachios L.O.V.E.

2011-08-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a project I did last summer for Wonderful Pistachios. It was a great concept by Colin Jahn. I modeled 6 master pistachios and textured them using photographic reference. In order to place the pistachios, I tried several approaches, including a dynamics rig out of Lightwave using particals to generate accurate flow. The solution didn't really give me what I wanted. Realizing I had an idea of the flow I wanted to see, I created a point cloud and used Element Move to drag points where I wanted. The falloff was perfect for creating a flow look. Once the points were in place, I used replicators base on a group of the 6 pistachios to populate the scene.
The art director felt like the nuts weren't reading, so we scaled the source up larger than life in order to make them read a bit better.
In the end, it was discovered that an error in communication had me building the file at 8x10, when it was destined for a use as a poster at 30x40 (a bin side found for a while in produce departments). Fortunately, I had managed **most** of the color work and minute nut placement inside Modo, so cranking the resolution up and rerendering solved the problem.
I did have a bit of an education process for my client on this one... the focus here was the pistachio splash, a medium shot at best. That made for interesting times when he came back a few months ago...

The final poster image

One of the master pistachios

Color Texture

Displacement Map

Space Bus

2011-07-19T14:01:00.001-07:00

Last year, my studio was tasked with building a large, sort-of-life-size display to sell salty snacks to kids and moms. We do these with some frequency and they require a tremendous effort to maintain consistency across 15 to 20 different dies that are printed, folded and assembled into a single display. The image here, was included in the gallery, which I thought was cool so I decided to post a few of the individual assets that were created for this poster image.

The Uncanny Valley

2011-07-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

If you work in animation, play video games, watch movies, visit wax or animatronic museums (It's A Small World counts, right?), you know about the uncanny valley. It's that weird feeling you get when you see something that LOOKS real but acts artificially, or looks artificial but moves in a life-like fashion. The Polar Express is a good example of characters that just freak people out because they have such an amazing, life-like quality to the visuals (also see Beowolf, Final Fantasy, etc). This also comes up a lot with many of the humanoid robots people are building these days. I bring this up because there was a terrific post via BoingBoing from UCS San Diego about why our brains are so sensitive about the subject and the specific reasons that we experience the U/C at all. The researcher even did brain scans on subjects watching a set of standard human actions (nodding, drinking water, picking up a piece of paper, etc). They viewed the Human-like android, the same robot stripped of any humanizing qualities (skin, hair, eyeballs, etc) and the person the robot was designed after. It was those brains scans that helped the research team (led by Ayse Pinar Paygin) pinpoint exactly why we don't like the wrong mix of fakery.

It came down to what we as viewers expect. If we see a robot doing robot things, no problem. The same is true of a human doing human things. But, if you have a robot moving like a human (thanks motion capture) or a human moving in a robotic way, then the uncanny valley ensues.
I've always found the subject fascinating and knowing that it is about anticipation I hope will inform my own art.

Etsy Treasury Win!

2011-06-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Good Morning's to all! Head on over to Etsy Dallas to win this terrific treasury. It's one of those comment-and-win-at-random thingies. Which are actually a pretty great idea. It's good for you and the site.
All one need do is comment, post and wait. Sounds like my kind of deal!

More love for Mr. Jake Parker

2011-06-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Agent 44 just keeps knockin' 'em out of the park in my opinion. As an artist, there is nothing sweeter than coming up with an awesome concept and then executing it beautifully, which he seems to do with startling frequency. His latest pieces, which he has produced as prints, are riffs on the Cars world. He hones his skills by producing the regular series of Missile Mouse and has been included in several volumes of the Flight Anthologies. Not to be overlooked however is his concept work on major film productions like Rio, Ice Age and Horton Hears a Who. I don't know what I'm missing, but I'd love to get to the sweet spot that Jake has found.

Your time would be very well spent by perusing his site and his blog. Great work Jake!

See. Be. Draw.: The 5-Minute Creative Process Interview: Danny Gregory

2011-06-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

See. Be. Draw.: The 5-Minute Creative Process Interview: Danny Gregory
Well, I certainly recommend Mr. Gregory's work, but I don't know what happened to the link in this post. Perhaps it will become public again in the future.

M

Concept 101: Andrew Probert

2011-06-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

HOW did I miss ANDREW PROBERT all these years? The guy designed the new Enterprise for ST: The Motion Picture, AIRWOLF!!, ST: The Next Generation and DUH, the guy here!! This one man was responsible for inspiring a great portion of my child and adult-hood. Looking through his new App: Concept 101, I found designs for ships that weren't all that dissimilar from concepts my young mind formed when I was planning my interstellar journeys as a youth. For the record: I still plan interstellar journeys, I'm just leaving the ship design for later.

It's incredible that I've been working as an anonymous commercial artist for more than 10 years and it only dawns on me now that a 'real' person could have been inspired to put these wonderful, time-tested designs on paper. Time-tested is the operative word here. His designs continue to stand the test of time. Styling details may change but good design, when implemented, is simply undeniable.

Andrew Probert
Concept 101

Illustration Friday Entry - 54g {soaked}

2011-05-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

A typical can of Spam is sold in 12 oz (340 g), a 3.5 oz serving (100 g) contains 27 grams of fat. Let's be honest though, how many people do you know (especially Americans) who eat only one serving of ANYTHING. Especially something as delicious as SPAM! Mmmmmmm. Most of us are probably eating 54 grams of fat every time we sit down and eat Spam, which if your like me is Monday, Wednesday and Fronday. Yes, Fronday, the day after Moonday.

Losing-my-mind.

Spam.

Incidentally, we spent Saturday night gallery-walking Dragon street here in Dallas. It was a gorgeous evening for it and there were a lot of tremendous works in the mix. My fav is still The Cameron Gallery where we attended the opening for Carolyn Schlam. Wonderful work, both oil paintings and fused glass. Really, you should take the time to stop by and drink it in. Another wonderful artist was Burton Morris at the Samuel Lyne Gallery. Arguably, his work does not represent well in print, not in the sense of impact you get from seeing in person. They are HUGE and the color is VIVID. Totally pop, but very very enjoyable.

End of Line.

Sideshow Monster's Club

2011-05-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is a character from an idea I’ve been kicking around called the Sideshow Monster’s Club. I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet… but I’m working it out.

She is kind of channeling the dancing Hippos from Fantasia, only without the stellar character design of Preston Blair.

Red Nose Studios - Chris Sickels

2011-05-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Don't Miss His Blog

Gorgeous hand-made puppets, sometimes photographed and sometimes video'd. In any case, Red Nose Studios has a hard to beat aesthetic and a terrific sense of design and humor. Well worth you time to stop by and have a look at some of his processes.

I think it is wonderful how Chris has managed to create a myriad of images covering topics like environmental degradation and wineries to his very own book, all the while strictly maintaining his look. Terrific. Always fresh, but always recognizable.

Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studios

You Are So Tiny

2011-05-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Dashed off in the attic of a bed and breakfast in Jim Thorpe PA, I love drawing my wife while she sleeps... though I must admit, it's not her favorite thing. The text is a dialog, artistically interpreted, between Angie and the son of an artist friend of mine.

The Love and Challenge of Color

2011-05-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Kevin Cross over at Art and Story posted an update today discussing color. He made some terrific points, and in fact Kevin is pretty fantastic at color himself. I've been following the A&S guys for a while and feel confident in recommending their subscription service. The material they offer behind they pay-wall is inspiring and educational.

As someone who struggles to coral digital color, I always pay attention when someone offers tips on how to wrangle the full spectrum available to us into a useful and pleasing scheme. I seem to do much better when I only have an analog set of color to choose from. It's limited and keeps me from going crazy AND helps me keep my saturation down, another problem I often run into when dealing with digital color.

All Images Copyright Kevin Cross

Greenbelt!

2011-05-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

This cacophony of images came as a result of two things: 1) In S Dallas, a historically rough neighborhood, there are a lot of buildings that would make great studios. The proliferation of seedy looking characters makes the idea less than appealing (though financially pretty alluring). My wife suggested we just paint a sign on the side of the building stating that the premises is protected by Chuck Norris... then not even evil spirits could be a threat!
2) Ridiculous MBA thinking. The company I work for is crazy in love with Sigma 6, ISO9000, DeepSpace 9 and any other corporate mumbo jumbo that will give them some way to keep their 6 figure employees busy making real worker's lives miserable. The thought of someone actually holding a greenbelt and being able to kick butt with it seemed like an irony all it's own compared with the pansy boardroom speak of a Six Sigma Greenbelt. Jack Donaghy, you're a wuss!

Art Update & The Excellent Joe Kubert

2011-05-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

Whew! Busy week. I'm struggling at work to illustrate a stadium 20,000 screaming fans, not easy. I turned another year older, spent a few hours with Angie at a life drawing session which was excellent. We also got to attend the DSVC event with Mick Wiggins speaking.

Our model for the ABOSG life drawing session was fantastic. A good model is so important to a successful session. Good poses and the ability to hold them is vital. The class size was good to and the space at Janimation was wonderful. Those guys have a great studio (I'll get some photos up soon).

The DSVC night was a good event with Mick exposing some of his secret methodologies (it's all about papyrus!) and showing a few story ideas that he's never felt compelled to publish. That even was both inspiring and sobering. The inspiration came from Mick's wonderful body of work and candid explanation of his process. The sobering part was the very very real side of the illustration world and how it is a business and a job that we do to keep the lights on and shoes on our feet, despite the fact that we often pine away about longing and art and desire and blah blah blah. So many self-initiated projects (read: unfinished) are started out of love but abandoned out of financial need.

If that's not enough to inspire you, take a few minutes and watch Mr. Kubert talk about his wonderful approach to making comics. His method is being lost and once his generation leaves the scene, everything will be about extensibility and change (dare I say by committee). Quick, get your original art while people still make it. Soon, it will ALL be digital.

Comics Legend Joe Kubert Talks About His Process from The Comic Archive on Vimeo.

In the meantime though, a couple of analog works for you:

A few of my sketches from our life drawing session... 5 minute poses.

The sketch I conned Mick Wiggins into doodling for me in my book (no 37).

A Maudlin Attempt at Storytelling

2011-05-02T13:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a first draft at a short story I wrote a few months back

Earth Bound Misfit, I

DL4143 Last Light

2011-04-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Flying back from New York in January the sky was vivid as we flew away from the city. Incredible color combinations in creation. I worked as fast as I could as they only lasted a few minutes... speaking of that... I think I'll head outside and see what the sunset is like.

I love my Dad

2011-04-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with wooducts and I fell in love with this accidental print. I had smeared some paint in my sketchbook and a few days later was looking for a place to test a print. Now I wish this was 20 x 30 inches... I'd better get started carving the block!

A sense of peace in New York City

2011-04-30T16:42:00.000-07:00

THis was painted waiting for my wonderful wife and her sister to pick out curios in Times Square. It was FREEZING and this smartly dressed old British chap walked in to buy a pair of highly overpriced rubber boots. but his sopping-wet leather loafers told me why... his feet were freezing.
This police van just sitting there truly gave me a sense of peace, which is strange beyond words. An empty vehicle with the word police on it and I feel safer. Weird.

Red Invasion

2011-04-30T14:44:00.001-07:00

Fin Lore

2011-04-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

When Dad took me to look for my first car, I had a clear idea of what I wanted, and so did he. Classic was the word he bandied around. Impala, Thunderbird, Belair. All vehicles that he desperately wanted me to want. Of course, in the late 80's I could only see Euro-styling and was decidedly anti-chrome. When I look back, I think he just wanted me to drive something with fins. In the end, we worked together to rebuild a 1983 Cutlass Supreme. I'm glad we did it together, it was an incredible experience that I still relate to today. Still, in hindsight, I wish I'd agreed to the fins.

My Favorite

2011-04-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

With arrows and rainbows

She pierced my heart.

I was hers...

And she was mine...

Right from the start!

Now here we are,

After all of these years,

And tears...

And fears...

But her heart is a amazing,

Feeling brand new.

Feelinger wonder.

Feelinger strong.

Feelinginger like life is a song.

Art & Love,

They are long,

And time...

...it is short.

She makes the most of it.

Because She's the living

...and loving sort.

Ghanaian Baboon Illo

2011-04-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Fearsome! This began life as a sketch my my trusty journal, I re-inked it, scanned it in and painted it up in Photoshop. Hope You likes it.

And the original inked drawing.

Tsunamis SUCK!

2011-04-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

Nom nom nom... sigh.

Bzzzz Bzzzzz Chomp Chomp

2011-04-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Should I gather wood? Or Honey? Oh, the conflict.

Sketchbook Effusion: For The Glory of The Empire

2011-04-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

Funnily, this piece started as a triptych of portraits, but I had a documentary running in the background about the incessant wars that we humans fight and before long all kinds of bizarre imagery started creeping in... for instance I can't understand is the seahorse kissing the banjo-playing-pig's leg. I should really pay attention more when I draw and paint.

Mixed-Media (Acrylic, Guache, Ink) on Canvas 16 x 20 unwrapped

Pixar and the Cartoon Art Museum

2011-04-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

In 2004, my wife Angie, Greg McCullough (a colleague) and I trekked out to Emeryville, CA out side of San Francisco for a fund-raiser for the Cartoon Art Museum. The evening still stands as one of the highlight of my little life. We were treated to a full tour of the studio, allowed to roam free through most of the common areas and even sample the food and wine from the grill. That was all followed by a great evening of lectures by the likes of Michael Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews and Angus acLane. These guys were fantastically entertaining and educational and the facility was world-class.

Ha! it was only a few weeks ago that my beloved Pixar Studios license plate frame was stolen from my vehicle. That was really a bummer. I loved that thing and was very surprised that it was, in fact, quite rare. In the end, I deduced that it was stolen and the plate cast off. So, if you've got an extra one laying about, I'd be very very happy to take it off of your hands!

It is strange to me that the details of the evening are so vivid now, even 7 years after we originally visited. Greg has long since moved on from the studio at which we worked. Pixar has been sold to Disney but still manages to produce emotionally evocative, meaningful work and I still seem to be waiting for something. But what is it? Probably for everything to be perfect, that's my bane... 10 good ideas a day, but everyone archived for the perfect moment to move on it. My, my. If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is surely it's father.

Enough reminiscing. Here is a link to my notes from that terrific evening those few years ago. I hope they bring you some benefit, or at least a glimpse into the absolute glee that the evening was.

MY PIXAR EVENT NOTES PDF

My Pixar Journal/Sketchbook

Sketchbook Effusion: Japan

2011-04-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Cool! Flickr Slidshows

2011-03-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

I love sharing my sketchbooks and I just learned that I can embed a slideshow of a collection from flickr. That means I don't have to post 100's of images, and you don't have to click through to look at all of them, and I KNOW you want to look at ALL of them. For your amusement.

Metric? We don't need no stinkin' metrics

2011-03-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Making the rounds on the webosphere is the fact that only THREE nations out of 103 continue to use the Standard (English) system of measure. The winning wieners are:

Liberia
Burma (Myanmar)
U.S.A.

All these years, I've lived under the impression that the US was leading the world with standards and their superior use of a system that, though it appears to be MORE complex, is SURELY better than that stinky metric one.

This puts it in perspective don't it.

'Merica! Gotta love it.

Via Geekology, via Gizmodo, via ZMEScience

All via WIKIPEDIA

Hostgator promos

Thank You Scott Adams

2011-03-25T20:50:00.001-07:00

I Love me some Mythbusters

2011-03-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Terrific lecture by Adam Savage on the value of obsession and the marvel that is Mythbusters.

One thing leads to another... a Makerfair lecture by the self-same nutjob.

Wormwood saga kickstarter program

2011-03-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

It seems like of late, I have been posting WAY more links to other artists work than my own... A trend I need to reverse for certain. HOWEVER, in the meantime, check out this excellent opportunity to help an artist to pursue his work full-time on his own terms. It seems like a wonderful opportunity to allow a creator to bring years of work to full fruition.

Mickey meets Tron

2011-03-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Tron made a HUGE comeback with the latest flick and as a fan of both the original and the latest film I was really excited to see a good friend execute a couple of TERRIFIC Disney authorized images along the Tron theme.

Hope you enjoy.

Via Mr Greg McCullough of Artifx studios:

Random Tidbits I'd like to Share

2011-03-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Now THESE are handy to have round: Photoshop Brushes.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

Great quotes:
Every Obstacle presents and opportunity to improve our lives.

People who know what they are doing shouldn't stand in the way of those who do.

The Greatest results in life are usually attained by perseverance and common sense.

Don't follow your dreams, chase them.

Gorgeous Pen and Ink Work

RSA Does it AGAIN! I love these guys:

Japanese Quake

2011-03-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

Holy-shaking-cow! Simply incredible. I just hope my friends in the country (and others affected) are okay and dealing with the aftermath as best they can. My prayers go out to you.

An terrifying photogallery at boingoing.net

Before I die...

2011-03-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

Great public art project in NOLA. I was excited i felt when I read something that I had already done (go to Rome). Update (11/11/11) this project has really gotten some legs. It's propagating all over the world. I would like to install a version of it here in Dallas. Deep Ellum maybe? The State Fair? Hmmmm.

Defender 110

2011-02-27T01:22:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from the analog work means I need to post something digital. Here's a stab at a little project I have been doing over the weekend. It's a Land Rover Defender. This is at a very rough stage, but I've been showing works in progress over at the Luxology forum. Stop by and check it out. Hope you like.

M

Fur Fun with Blue Ortega

2011-02-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

I spent a little time taming my fur skills in modo. Ortega was the result. Hope you dig him. He is a single strip of plolys with hair guides to control fur flow. The legs have two sets of fur, a short dense and a long sparse version. Add google-y eyes and you have Blue Ortega!

Then and Now - Gorgeous

2011-02-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

This is both beautiful and scary. It's a wonderful idea. I wonder how my sisters and I would fare by comparison!
Back To The Future

Visual Thinking by Bob Staake

2011-02-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

Bob Staake on visual thinking and advice to new illustrators
Excerpt from an interview with Thomas James
www.escapefromillustrationisland.com

Spend more time reading, spend more time conceptualizing, understand metaphor, understand allusion, think of your illustration as merely a vehicle, a vehicle for expressing yourself. Express something bigger than illustration, no differently than a trombone or a tuba is a vehicle for expressing your musical sensibilities. The tuba is going to exist but it is going to be lifeless, sitting there unless you apply your lips to it and actually blow through it. It's what's going on in your head that is coming out the other end. View your art as a conduit for ideas. Anyone can draw, anyone can create a pretty picture. There are a lot of pretty things in the world. All you need to do is walk into a book store and look at the children's books and there are a lot of awful things, there are lot of good things too. What are you going to do to make your work stand out. So, my feeling is always, be able to think as a visual person... you won't be able to develop the visual skills to think like a visual problem solver by belaboring over whether or not you are using a 2-ply bristol or a 3-ply bristol or a 2h pencil versus a 4h pencil. These are ridiculous concerns. If you pick up a stick and dip it into ink and you are able to create a line and then draw that way [you are communicating]. These are just ridiculous concerns of artists. Materials and what program to work in, these [concerns] are inconsequential, they have nothing to do with communicating visually with the public, nothing whatsoever. If you start treating your art as an extension of a visual thought process and a language, you will see your work absolutely improve dramatically. You will start to see your work living in a completely different dimension so that it isn't simply decorative and some sort of aesthetic accoutrement to fill up grey space.
[In addition], the best advice I can give in terms of editorial work, which is where most young illustrators start... see yourself as a carnival barker of sorts. Your role whenever I open up that newspaper and see that blast of grey there, you are creating an illustration that is going to grab my eyeballs and I am going to look at it and say, 'what the heck is going on here'! Do not tell the entire story in that illustration. Pique my interest, get me to then go ahead and read the headline and the lead of the story, bring me into it. Hopefully at that point I've been engaged and will go further into the story. But in your roll as an illustrator, you have done a noble act by getting the reader to integrate with that grey copy. At that point, once you've got them, your role is done and you can be happy. At the end of the day, it's a tough thing to do with the glut of information out there, to be able to make people stop and go "Wow!" or "What on earth is going on here. I want to find out more about this."

Illustrated Section

2011-02-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

Dani Jones recently launched the Illustrated Section. A wonderful commerce site showcasing ONLY independent publishers' comics, picture books and other art related publications. It's a terrific site and a great repository for odd items that you would never find in the mainstream.

"Today, comics is one of the very few forms of mass communication in which individual voices still have a chance to be heard." - Scott McCloud

And thanks to the Illustrated Section, this is truer than ever.

Mattias

2011-02-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Cool stuff

Cell Shading Experiment with Particular from Mattias Peresini on Vimeo.

Dancing robots... sweeet!

2011-01-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

You have got to see these idents for T4. If you like dancing or robots and especially if you like DANCING ROBOTS... this is this stuff!

T4 idents from double g studios on Vimeo.

Aaaaand... if you have an interest cartoons or character drawing of any kind, this terrific workup by Tracy Butler will knock your socks off.

Sketchbook Project 2011

2011-01-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

YAYY! I finished my sketchbook... barely in time...

Enjoy a few hilights (my favs) and review the entire sketchbook HERE!

Chickengirl Design: The End! Last Pages of my Sketchbook Project

2011-01-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

As I am on the cusp of submitting my Sketchbook Project book, I was really thrilled to end up on Jannie Ho's blog where in fact she too is about to submit her journal (or has?). Gorgeous, sweet work.

Chickengirl Design: The End! Last Pages of my Sketchbook Project

If you would like to see her ENTIRE sketchbook project.

Zoetrope + Disney = AWESOME

2011-01-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

I tried to find the Studio Ghibli zoetrope which you see briefly in the video... sadly, this was the best I could come up with.

Digital is cool and fine and all, but it's still very very hard to beat a real, tangible thing.

More People I know

2011-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

None of my friends are safe from me when I wield a pen and ink, mostly because I'm so sloppy that I'll spill it on them. Not because I draw anything that looks REMOTELY like them.

In honor of my latest crowd work, two oldies in the same vein. I really feel like my line work has improved since I finished these two.

22x32 — Done after we built our current house of worship (Kingdom Hall) 2007

22x32 — Started in 1997, largely ignored on and off until 2006; friends family and everything

(including my first house!)

Here's a little bonus for you JW readers out there. It's a comic I put together for fun. Unless you're one of Jehovah's Witnesses, it probably won't make any sense... but download and have a look if you like.

People

2011-01-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

A man's wealth is measured in the things he can afford to leave alone. His success, in the relationships he cultivates. Oft overlooked and easily forgotten in our to-busy world, filled with media and social networks that sever rather than unite.
This second piece of ink portraits serves as a happy reminder to me that, indeed, it's about the people.

30x30" Pen and ink on Illustration board

The idea behind these kinds of pieces is to hone my portrait-drawing by quickly capturing a likeness. When I'm feeling in the zone, I'll go straight at the board with pen or brush. If it's a struggle, I'll do a quick pencil sketch and ink over it. Sometimes direct inking works better, other times the sketch/ink combo. And I find that some of my friends are a lot easier to draw than others. Some details below.

Like my first piece in this vein I found my technique changed as I proceeded. Of course the first drawing took 6 years to complete, the one swirled in my studio for about 6 weeks. I did finally get a feel for the Winsor & Newton Series 7 #2 Sable brush while working on this. I am finally beginning to understand why so many people find that brush such an amazing tool.

Doo-Del-Ja-Vu

2011-01-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

Draw, Copy, Repeat. This reminds me of something I've drawn before...

Copying Isn't Theft

2011-01-07T23:58:00.001-08:00

Respect for Nina Paley. She spent years developing a great animated feature on her own, just to get it shut down at distribution because she couldn't afford to clear the rights to an 80 year old tune she used in it. Have to admit, I agree with the concept presented here.

RSAnimate and Ken Robinson Great Stuff!

2011-01-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

Beautiful animation set to a terrific TED talk by Ken Robinson on the problems with our industrialized education:

Extra Ordinary

2011-01-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this wonderful webcomic by Li Chen today totally by accident (trying to figure out how to spell extraordinary). This really reminds me of the way Angie, my wife, thinks and sees the world. I honestly wish I was as shiney in the way I interpret things.

Really really great, I love it.

What does that mean?

2011-01-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I'll be drawing happily along, minding my own business and some unsolicited critique will come my way. If I'm not careful, it bothers me... it wasn't expected after all. But the one question that never rattles me is, 'What does that mean?' I don't think it's related to a poor rendering of a soda can as in, 'Is that a soda can or WHAT?' but rather, an uninitiated viewer looking on as I execute something that really needs a point of reference. Like translating a scribble. Until the thing starts to take on a recognizable form, the onlooker is just baffled.

Then there pieces like this one. even when it's done, it fails to explain itself or why it exists. These are the most fun because more than any other work, they require the viewer to translate it based on their experience.

Hope you enjoy. I sure did.

Resolve: Procrastination

2011-01-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

Aaaahhhhh, my old friend procrastination. Like most ~~artists~~ humans, I struggle epically with that age-old mental-block, procrastination. Why do now what I can do at any time in the future, even when there's not enough time to accomplish the task effectively. So, on my to do list from this point forward: to do it, anything, finish and move on, to quit suffering hangers-on and finish. The pretty special Seth Godin once said, "Done is the engine of more."

Getting Thinks Done - 9x12" ink, guache and watercolor on canson paper
$500,000.00 obo

Self Portrait

2010-12-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

Every artist does it, or at least they should, once a month, a year, a week, a day (maybe too much) a decade: The Self Portrait. Technically, this is a rip off since I just copied a photo by a good friend of my Mr. William Wardy. No my lovely wife wants one of these nifty 8mm lenses that took the original shot.
I hope you dig it. The original is for sale: One Million dollars or best offer.

Getting Things Done

2010-12-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings Programs... or based on my google analytics, Program! And I think I might be the program in question. That's the way it goes though right? No interesting content, no eyeballs, no brains, no input. I just spent the last hour discussing with my my colleague regarding the pros and cons of getting things done, motivation, accountability, the universe and everything.

The final analysis: Not finishing anything diminishes overall performance, much like a SSD or unburned fuel in your engine. Garbage management is very important. Starting a project even with the best of reasons, will become nothing but an anchor if it isn't finished and put away.

I was reading an excellent article yesterday by the very fine Mr. Jake Parker over at Agent44 regarding a talk on creativity. In the discussion he makes the point that he requires 2 things to stay creative: 1) Constraints or limits and 2) Accountability. And honestly, that's missing from my cache of weapons.

Take this image for example:

The Sideshow Monsters Club

This self-initiated project is fun and interesting to me, but despite a page full of thumbnails, a logo and these four illustrations, I don't have any goal or direction for this. So, I'll let it hang on and swirl and distract me until it finally slips from memory enough times that it doesn't come back. That will take years, until then, it will constantly bay at me to do something with it. That's the problem with 10 good ideas and no great ones, they all dilute the pool of creativity.

So, Will Wardy and I made a deal. I'll make a list of 5 currently ongoing projects that I can finish. With a goal, with a deadline, with a set of milestones that I can measure. He'll do the same and we'll hold one another accountable. Please please please stick to this, I have got to get past this funk. Creatively, I am slipping backwards and failing to gain ground. Without projects, I have no resume, no portfolio, no future.

Jake Parker and Missile Mouse Giveaway

2010-12-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hey, here's some free advertising for my good good friend Jake Parker. Why don't you head on over to his site and enter the original art year end giveaway... he's pretty darn cool.

New Book No 34

2010-12-20T16:20:00.000-08:00

Africa quickly filled my 33rd book, Corrosive. As usual the narrative is absent and it is mostly a collection of scribbles. While I prep that for posting, here are few quick images of N34.

Hand woven Kente clothe from Ghana. We bought a few yards to cover books.

XXXIV Page One sans endsheets

From my table at lunch.

This Time for Africa