Captain Gwendolyn Blazar and the Thing From Beyond

When traveling abroad it is generally not advisable to put on any ancient and/or sinister amulets you happen to find laying around.

Glen Raccoon and Professor Maximilian J. Badger's Time Travel Mishap

Accidents happen all the time, fortunately most don't involved being chased down by gladiatorial lions while scrambling to fix your malfunctioning time machine.

Curse of the Tiger Men

I feel like there aren't enough movies about intrepid archaeologist adventures anymore, I think I blame Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In other news you can now purchase the prints of my Nidoran (F) piece from the Poke'mon Battle Royale Show as well as a bunch of other awesome Poke'mon prints from the show here.

Undersea Adventure

I've never been scuba diving and I'm not sure if I'd want to, mostly because of my lingering childhood fear of being held underwater.

I've been in kids illustration mode lately and it's an awful lot of fun.

Nidoran (Female)

Although small, its venomous barbs render this Pokémon dangerous. The female has smaller horns.

Here's my Nidoran (Female) piece for the Light Grey Art Lab's Poke'mon Battle Royale Show which has a ton of the most crazy talented folks participating, I mean just look at these names. If you're around Minneapolis between April 16th and May 11th you should totally check it out. Prints will be availible at the gallery for the very reasonable price of $40

When I was growing up playing Poke'mon Red my favorites were Cubone, Muk, and Nidoran, which I guess are kind of weird choices. It's kind of a shame poison types were always kind of crappy because they're always just so damn cool.

Also just want to put in a word of the Light Grey Art Lab's kickstarter, they're trying to get a professional level print and computer space set up to teach courses to the community and every bit helps.

Secret Garden

I thought I'd share this for a few reasons. First of all I think it might be my first assignment I've received for illustrated type and secondly it's for a client that I'm not entirely sure I am cool enough to be in. A little while back I was contact by the amazing British fashion and culture magazine Spindle to illustrate some type to accompany on of their fashion pictorials.

You can actually see the whole issue here and see my type with the gorgeous photo shoot on page 35.

Just found out that you can now purchase the children's book I illustrated Waiting for James in a Sea of Pink as an ebook through the Meegenius app or website. There's a preview here: http://www.meegenius.com/book/6066/waiting-for-james-in-a-sea-of-pink#
 

I Just Want To Read Comics With You

This is my submission for the Mint Condition show at the LTD Art Gallery is hosting to coincide with Emerald City Comic Con this weekend. If anyone is in Seattle I highly encourage checking the show out since there are some super talented folks involved. The opening is this friday at 7 but the show will be up through April.

I am offering a very affordable limited run of 20 prints of this piece through the gallery if you're so inclined to want to hang one on your wall.

Cave Explorers

Fun Fact: when I was growing up I was a boy scout for a while, and at summer camp there was this giant rock that had a passage through it that was filled with ice even in July. It wasn't really that long and was "officially off limits" but also this weird kind of rite of passage to crawl through it. Also it was sadly lacking in pirate treasure.

In other news I want to put in a plug for the illustration course that I am teaching this summer at Cornish College of the Arts as part of their summer program. Registration is open and you can find out more about it here. So if you know any young artists in the Seattle area looking for something to do this summer this would be a great option and scholarships are available.

Growth and Decay

Here's a fun little project that I'm now able to share with you, a little bit ago I was contact by Elizabeth Goodspeed over at Domestic Etch to contribute to their latest issue, the theme for which was "Growth and Decay".

If you haven't experienced Domestic Etch yet you're in for a treat, it's filled with contributions and interviews from a bunch of folks who's work I really love and even more that I'm happy to be introduced to. Plus right now there's a great issue launch contest going on where you can enter to win a free copy of the issue and a tote bag.

Portland Mercury Cover

Here's something that probably looks a bit familiar. I was contacted a few days ago by Suji Allen over the Portland Mercury to inquire about using my piece from the Ten Paces Monster exchange I did a few months ago with Michelle Romo. I have to say I'm thrilled at how this cover turned out and to have the opportunity to work with the Mercury since I was a huge fan when I lived in Portland.

Spot Artist Extraodinaire

I was recently asked by Cicada Magazine to be the "Spot Artist Extraodinaire" for their latest issue and contribute a full page and a few spots to be dispersed throughout the issue. Though the image appears in black and white in the issue I again created it in color and converted it, just because it's what feels the most natural. I feel like I've done more black and white work in the last month than I have since college. My thanks to John Sanford for being an amazing AD to work with.

Here's the color version:



And the b/w as it appears in the issue:

For the spots I was asked for a few simple sketch book type line drawings and for some reason I almost immediately came to the idea of sideshow folks; Tattooed Woman, Fire Eater, and the Bearded Lady. At some point I think I'd like to revisit these and color them.

Star Fox Crew

Super talented illustrator and fellow MICA alum Jimmy Giegerich is putting together an old school video game zine Bits in Multiples of 8: An 8bit-64bit Video Game Fan Art Zine and this is my Star Fox based submission. Even though I don't really play video games anymore they were a huge part of my childhood,  I still remember that the first game I ever beat was Duck Tales for my nes and I spent days playing Ninja Turtles, Mega Man and Mario 3.


Later I just remember being mesmerized by star fox on the snes, I just couldn't imagine games looking any more awesome and then playing the N64 version in Sears was my introduction to that system. 


Anyways here it is in color:





and the character details:

NYSSSA Poster

Here's something a little bit different, recently I was asked to create a poster promoting the New York State Summer School of the Arts program. I was a little unsure about sharing this on here since it's a little bit out of place amidst my illustration work but it's something that I'm just really passionate about.  As a NYSSSA alum and former staff member it really was the least I could do to give back to such an amazing program. It is such an amazing program that offer an affordable opportunity for young artists and I'm sure that I probably wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't participated.

I know that they are accepting applications know so if you know any young New York state based budding artist types (in both visual and performing arts) point them towards it.

P.S. Look at me all pretending to be a designer and stuff.

Children's Book

So the biggest reason that I dropped off the map for a month and a half is that I was recently hired to illustrate a children's book as part of the MeeGenius! Author Challenge titled Waiting for James in a Sea of Pink by Bethany Telles. You can actually see the whole thing now here.

If you would please take the time to vote for it I would really appreciate it, the top 4 books will be published through the MeeGenius! app but more importantly they will be donating a library of children's books to the school library of the winning author's choice.

I have to say doing a children's book in a month was exhausting but I think I really like the idea of doing more children's books soon.

A New Curve

So this is another recent project that I can share with you, this was the cover for this weeks Fort Worth Weekly to accompany an interior article about traffic circles/roundabouts.  Honestly I'm mostly just glad that I didn't have to draw cars. Thanks to AD Bonnie Mays

Free Culture

Here's a quick piece that I did for the most recent issue of Shameless Magazine to accompany dueling editorials about free culture and media in the digital age. I think this was a good exercise for me to figure out how I work in B/W, which is basically just working in color and then switching it to greyscale and adjusting bits.

I've had a lot of exciting projects in the past month and coming up (hence my disappearance) so expect more soon.

Worst Day

I recently took part in the ten-paces blog's special swap with MICA's Illustration Department and Allan Comport's Junior Concepts class on the theme of Best Day/Worst Day. Each illustrator was paired with a student to exchange sketches with and I was matched up with Sara Jabbari. As an alum I jumped at the chance to contribute and I know that I would have been stoked to have this opportunity when I was a student.


Here is my final for Sara's sketch

and Sara's final for my sketch

Let Them Eat Stake

I just want to say how ashamed I am of that pun, double so since I'm generally pretty anti-pun. I just really wanted to draw some vampire hunting and then that stupid pun stuck in my head.

Wonder Woman 107 Covered

Here's one of those things that I wasn't quite able to share with you yet. After years of meaning to do so I finally managed to pick a cover to do for the Covered blog. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to drawing Wonder Woman but she's kind of great and I love how these old silver age books don't take themselves too seriously.