From Sarasota to New York, for the "Best Of The Breasts"

That's right guys, I have gotten the official notice for my admittance into the "Best of the Breasts" show! Only 17 artists were selected to hang at the Sacred Gallery in New York City and I was lucky enough to included in the top selections. Take a look HERE at a sneak peak of the other pieces coming to New York February 5th to the 25th.

Discover A Muse Hits the Shelf!

That's right guys, the wait is over. Discover A Muse is officially published and on sale. I added a link to the site bellow on the sidebar. So click on over and take a look for yourself. I'm a bit broke at the moment, so maybe i'll ask for it for Christmas haha. May sound sad, but that's my plan... I mean, it IS for a good cause, so lets not forget about that.

First Commercial Gig!

This is my first Published Illustration job that paid! Although I have been fortunate enough to do well with recent charity events such as "Discover A Muse" and the 2010 "TaTa Gala", This has been the first PAYING gig I have gotten published. So if you really love me drop by a Hot Topic this Christmas and pick up a Copy of Wonderland by Sea Of Treachery! Also the Discover A Muse book will be out and on sale soon, so go pitch in and support the cause!

Ambush: Final

It is finished! Finally! I really drug that one out big time... and yes some of you may have noticed that a party member is missing. So what, It's my painting, I can do what I want. And that character was just rubbing me the wrong way the whole time I worked on it. So out she went. Just in time for Illuxcon 2010. Which I am driving to in the morning. 5hrs! by myself...It's gonna feel like days I'm sure.

Ready For The TA TA GALA

Well, after sending it off to be printed on canvas, stretching the print onto a frame than staining the slats and nailing them to the sides of the canvas, I am ready to express ship this sucker to the gallery opening later this week. Talk about a rush job, but the printing of the piece took longer then I was expecting. I would so do it again though. I am really happy with the results. Makes me feel more like a real artist to have it on canvas in my hands that size. Very exciting.

Random Little Logo

  

A Tasty Concept...

Who has heard of Jovoto? I hadn't till recently. I guess it has only been recently that I have gotten into more graphic design stuff, so that may have something to do with it. They are a corporate design contest host. So you go there sign-up and start competing. All of them are for monetary prizes of varying amounts so there is always an incentive. These are my entry slides for the first one I have taken part in. The end goal is to design a concept for a new line of snacks for Kit Kat brand. The entry for this one closes in the next day or so then there is an extra week of voting by peers. It's always fun if you can do something that could make money in your spare time, right?

A Brief Segue into Design

Well after three days of working on my ambush painting I kind of needed a break. SO I decided to re-brand the company Smoothie King instead. Don't ask me how that is a "break" but it was fun. Took me about four days to finish from beginning to end. Sketches for all this started Thursday evening and I finished everything up this evening. Do I still need a break? Nah...well maybe haha. But who doesn't. These shots are only a taste of the full project. Take a HOP over to my site to take a look at the full thing.

A Midnight Ambush: Work In Progress UPDATE

A Midnight Ambush: Work In Progress

Just a little progress shot. I am still unsure as to how much I really wanna light the third party member BUT I'm pretty sure that there is going to be someone on the ground that has noticed them. The best way to play with the shushing motion from the guy int he dark. I have sketches for a character but I am waiting to put them in. There wouldn't be much to them due to the size, but the contrast from the fire should allow for some well established characteristics.

A Little Taste of Everything...

Ok, I said I would post up the new paint but I haven't gotten to far into it just yet. So here is the rough(very rough) sketch I do have done. To follow up with that is a logo "re-design" as a personal project of Lambesis Studios. I thought it would be fun to rework the look of what they had, but since this is something I did for myself you can look up their current logo yourself if your that curious.

Bacon + Eggs 24hr Diner

ALPHADOG HABERDASHERY

More Graphic Design! I have been adding more graphics stuff to my portfolio like a mad man. And I think I need a break. Here is another project I just finished. It's a fictional haberdashery that I thought would be fun to work with. The store concept with revolve around hats and accessories mainly, with a few exceptions for shoes some jackets and bags. I would shop there. But I think I may have actually just created a store I can' afford. There is a few more parts to this collection on the side so if your curious click on over.

Package Design: Savanna Pale Ale

For the past few weeks I have been trying to really invest myself more into the updating of my graphic design portfolio. And for the most part doing so has been a lot of fun. I just finished this as well as a few t-shirt designs and a few other things that are now officially added to my portfolio. Not to mention the list of more things I plan on adding in the coming weeks. This sort of work tends to go quite a bit faster for me then illustration so even though I have sketches for a new piece or two, I am choosing to wait until after I have added all the things I have already planned for. I should get around to cleaning up some rough sketches for those new pieces though.

So illustration aside, what do you think of the Savanna branding/packaging? I kinda love the whole pakaderm family so I like to through them in when I can haha.

TATA GALA: FIN

I just finished this last night, where I stayed up later then I want to admit because I was in the "zone". It's a bad habit that needs to stop. But a question for anyone that feels like answering. How do you feel about the type? Is it good? Bad? Would you like to see me submit it to the gallery with the type on it? Or is it more appropriate to have it typeless? I can't make up my mind.

TATA GALA: 2010

Hey! New project to get crackin on. This is an annual event on its fourth year running called the TATA Gala. A fun and unique gallery show for breasts and about breasts and includes just painting, design and photography. This was brought to my attention last week when Jon Schindehette did a post on ArtOrder about it. Sounds like a fun thing to be apart of so I pulled out the sketchbook and got to work. So far so good, but I am still finding my way through this one.

TATA GALA

Armored Adventurer: FIN

Armored Adventurer: UPDATE 2

So far so good. You may have noticed this one is a tad different haha. I had flipped it while I was working, as is usually a good idea once you reach a certain point, and now I'm thinking it's a stronger composition with him facing this direction. I am still thinking I may try to make its armor a bit more interesting as I continue to flesh things out, but there is always that classic fantasy feeling with that more historic feeling armor.

Armored Adventurer: UPDATE

The Next New Thing

Just a new character shot I am working on. It's really just an opportunity to work on some strong lighting. I'm still messing a but with the shaping of that lighting through the trees in the back, but all the major things are nailed down so I figured I would throw it up.

This Past Week...

This past week I had decided to try to divide my time a bit, by updating and applying to a lengthy list of graphic design studios in the city. Before doing so I needed to really update my GD portfolio a bit. Nothing major, just a few new projects and an updated intro page to my website. Since I had nothing major illustration wise to post from all the work this week, I figured I would go ahead and post these. All three are paintings some of you may remember, they were all school assignments that were intended as use for book covers. Although I know that It isn't my job to add type as an illustrator when working on these sorts of projects in the real world, it doesn't hurt to throw some on and drop these bad boys into my GD portfolio. I still have more GD stuff I want to work add to the book, but after a week of cranking stuff out I'm gonna chill out and sketch over the weekend.

Surviving The Storm: Photo Reference

I'v never bothered posting the photo ref. I'll take for the paintings I work on. Sometimes they'll just be snapshots of arms and hands light however you need them and other times either I or some friends of mine are in costumes head to toe and holding props and well basically acting out the scene in fragments. I'm sure a lot of you already know what I'm talking about, but like I said I never bother posting it. This time I figured I would go ahead and share some shots from one of my most recent pieces. Just if you were curious, just need a laugh. If there are any other pieces of mine you would like to see a reference shot from let me know.

Another great artist that is always posting great original referance is Paolo Rivera. If you don't already know him, check 'em out.

Promotional Work

I really need to get on top of this stuff. And once it starts, it will never stop. If I'm lucky...by the way, if you read this, cross your fingers for me. Or better yet, hire me! Need an illustrator? Let me know what you think.

Current Challenge2: Hook Horror

Just finished this thing this morning. Let me know what you think. It is a tad more "animated" then my typical composition but all in all I feel pretty happy with the outcome. As far as the character of the dwarf and his movement and expressions go I think its working. The toughest part though is that feeling that your looking at a single shot of a much larger story. The deadline for this is tomorrow August 8th. And we shall see how I measure up against my friends over at ArtOrder. Wish me luck!

Discover A Muse: Top 43

I have made it into the top 43 for the Discover A Muse competition! We will see what all come out of this there is talk about gallery shows, posters and books so we will have to wait and see. Regardless of the outcome I would like to give a special thanks to Jon Schindehette and Veronika Kotlajic for organizing the event as well as Irene Gallo (Art Director for Tor/Forge books), Claire Howlett (Editor of ImagineFX Magazine), and Robh Ruppel (Art Director for Naughty Dog Studios) for being the jury for the competition.

Another Wide Angle Shots?

Alright! So I have no idea how many of you out there are on or keep up with Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog ( host of recent Discover a Muse challenge) but they have a current illustration challenge that has been going on for a while. Although I missed the first submission deadline, I was chatting my friend Bernadette over how hers was going when she mentioned that it was still alright to jump in and participate. So here it is! Or here is a shot of where I am so far (still a few scale and value tweaking needed). I got into some serious color comps this evening, but after working all day I figured I would take a break and post a "production shot". More to come once the ball has rolled a little further. If anyone would like to see a step by step post let me know! I'll put one together.

Whats been up?

Ok, so I may have given in and reworked "Surviving The Storm" a little bit. Nothing big, just alot of refining and lighting tweaks. Did it need it? I think so. I'm much happier with it now. But thats the great thing about a personal piece. I can jump in with just a little sketch and see how it goes. Don't get me wrong there is that feeling of confidence that I love when you nail that final sketch and scan it/transfer it to board, that I would never trade for anything. But when your feeling burnt out and you just wanna have fun, sometimes taking a little sketch to finish is the better way to go.

Work In Progress: Surviving The Storm

Well, I'm pretty sure it's all finished But I'm not quite sure yet. I hope you like it. You know that mode your brain gets in where you don't think about anything else then the moment you step away you think, geez I am hungry...and i really need to go to the bathroom. Needless to say there is still a lot of work that needs to get finished still so I better get that other stuff out of the way.

Work In Progress: Surviving The Storm

Ok! So the boat is back...It was just to empty with all that action weighted to the left. Don't worry if those guys look a bit rough though, they are just sketched in right now. I also tried to make the octopus look a bit more "exotic" with some patterning and texture. Make him special! and stuff. Get the final up soon I hope. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Surviving the Storm

Ok, there has been a few changes. The monster went from a squid to an octopus, and the boat got much closer (much slimmer chance of survival). I also decided to ditch the magic being used in the boat. I had originally thought I would have a member of the crew yelling a protection spell, then decided against it. I had magic in the last one so I figured I would try something else. So far I'm pretty happy with it. But there is so much left to do! those "survivors" are just place holders right now. I need to get some reference shots to work from.

A New Post! Surviving the Storm

Hey guys, I am finally all moved in and ready to start some new pieces. Sorry it has taken so long to post something new and get going. This thumb/color study is a bit rough but its one of three i'm starting. I need to get those up as well. Let me know what you all think. I really need to get back on the job. I was going nuts not working on anything!