Jon Sperry Art Blog

Roll Back (The Portland Mercury)

2012-01-21T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here is an editorial piece I did for The Portland Mercury about removing a planned streetcar extension in the Portland area. Click here for the full article.

Church of Skyrim

2011-12-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

I created this for comedian Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, hosts of the excellent video game based podcast The Indoor Kids. They have recently been living in Skyrim, so I made sure to incorporate that into their portrait. I highly recommend giving it a listen. It's available for free download on Chris Hardwick's Nerdist Empire here: http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/the-indoor-kids/

Mauitime Cover

2011-11-20T11:48:00.001-08:00

Cover Art // Art Director: Justin "Scrappers" Morrison

This is a cover piece I did a few weeks ago. It was for the former Art Director of The Portland Mercury, who recently moved to Maui. I had a good amount of creative freedom on this one, which is always fun! Click here for the online story. Below are a few images from the process.

Concept Sketches:

Pencil Art:

Damn You Red Planet!

2011-10-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

I was looking at an older poster image I made and decided to do a related image. These are made by 'inking' into Photoshop. I used a similar color and texture to keep the images related. The planet images are public domain from NASA.

Wordstock Feature - Portland Mercury

2011-10-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Art Director Suji Allen at The Portland Mercury asked if I'd like to do a feature piece for the upcoming Wordstock Festival. The article would need about 10 author portraits with some extra character to them. After a few drafts, I decided on a style that I thought would work well, and some notes on what I'd like to do for each author and proposed it. Suji and the Arts Editor were really into it and had some great additional suggestions. I started with the Charles Yu illo and they were still really into it so I continued with the rest. Heather greatly contributed to these with simple, bold and loose coloring. They liked the look so much, they decided to run one (Zachary Schomburg) on the cover! I always enjoy doing work for the Mercury and it was nice to have a much larger than usual contribution to this issue. Below are the 10 author illustrations.

You can view and read the Portland Mercury article online here.

Find out more about Wordstock here.

Isaac Marion

Diana Abu-Jaber

Steve Almond

Jennifer Egan

Anne Enright

Lauren Oliver

Michael Ondaatje

Zachary Schomburg (also used as cover art)

Daniel Woodrell

Charles Yu

Here are a few photos of the printed paper. It's a great, balanced layout put together by the Merc:

Recent Work Update

2011-09-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy lately. Here is an update of some projects I've worked on recently or that have recently been published:

Frosh Student Guide 2011 Cover // Offbeat // Art Director: Elsa Hahne

This is one of my favorite pieces this year. I loved drawing the giant gumbo dish. It was great working with Elsa on this, she pushed the crab bits larger and larger and I was happy to go along with it. I played with some layer options to get a nice glow to certain areas of the color. I worked with Elsa on the text color and placement to ensure this would work as a good, eye-catching cover.

Beer on the Bayou // Offbeat // Art Director: Elsa Hahne

Another fun piece for Offbeat about one of my favorite subjects, beer! You can read the full article here. This has a lot of good information on the growing craft beer scene in Louisiana. My wife, Heather has begun coloring some of my work and she did an excellent job balancing the hues and adding just the right amount of pop to the right areas of this one.

Queasy Rider // Portland Mercury // Art Director: Suji Allen

Full article here. This one ran in black and white in the paper, but color online. Heather did the color for this one too.

Just Crazy Enough to Die // Portland Mercury // Art Director: Suji Allen

Another quick weekend illustration for the Mercury. Here is the full article online. Suji knew exactly what she was looking for, so this one came together pretty easily.

X-MEN Variant // Comix Gone Rogue // Publisher: Edwin Vazquez

This is a great project I was invited to submit to. Basically, some comic companies released blank covered comic books with just the masthead (presumably for industry signatures or sketches). Edwin distributed these to a variety of great artists (not necessarily mainstream comic artists) to fill in the cover as they see fit. Fun stuff! NSFW - Other variant submissions and more info can be seen here.

Man Signs Dog - Offbeat New Orleans

2011-08-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an editorial illustration I made for an article in Offbeat (New Orleans). You can read the article here. I've done a few pieces for them recently and they are great to work with. Every illo has been music related, which is one of the top subjects I enjoy illustrating.
I did a handfull of sketches for this one. One had an iconic Hendrix pose and another one used his fro to show it was him. I'm glad the A.D. went with this one.
I used a slightly different process with this one and worked from a tight, detailed, pencil drawing instead of my usual brush inks. I wanted to put a lot of detail and textures into the music equipment and I felt the brush line would muddy it up too much. I made some adjustments to the line in Photoshop and colored with a pretty simple, balanced palette. Then added in some doodly marks for extra flare. The end result has a lot of busy lines and direction, but the focal point on the dog and signature is clear.

Philadelphia Weekly Cover

2011-07-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

I illustrated the cover to this week's Philadelphia Weekly!

Here is a larger version of the final without the masthead and text:

Below are a few of the initial sketches I sent to the Art Director. There were a few more edits, tweaks and tighter sketches on the octopus layout (#2). I like how it came together in the end.

Offbeat New Orleans - Wolfman!

2011-07-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration I did Offbeat, a music review publication in New Orleans. It illustrates a part of the article about a particularly lively musician known as Wolfman, testing out his new teeth on a bartenders neck. This was put together with using a layer of ink, watercolor, Photoshop color and texture. You can read the article here: http://offbeat.com/2011/07/01/across-the-bar-music-venue-bartenders/

Buckaroo - Original Art on Etsy

2011-04-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

My Etsy store is open now and I posted my first item. Check it out here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/72055792/buckaroo-original-painting

The Logic of Sex Laws - Portland Mercury

2011-04-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another illustration for the Portland Mercury.

Offbeat

2011-04-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration I did for Offbeat magazine in New Orleans. It's the header to a listing for a jazz festival. Here's their website.

Ball Busters - Willamette Week

2011-03-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

I did this illustration on an article about Smash Putt. It's basically miniature golf + alcohol, which is pretty great in my opinion. I think the article mentions this, but the Portland recipe for success seems to be: Something you enjoyed as a teenager + alcohol. You've got Ground Kontrol - an awesome classic arcade/bar. There are several movie theaters that serve beer and pizza (my favorite is Laurelhurst on Burnside). I think there's also a comic shop that serves beer.. I really can't complain. I wonder if you could legally do Go-carts + beer.. and would you want to?

You can read the article online here: http://wweek.com/portland/article-17269-ball_busters.html

Transformers

2011-03-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Ulises Farinas has been doing some cool stuff for the Transformers comics lately and it got me in the mood to draw a robot in disguise... or at least on his way to being in disguise..

Portland Mercury Editorial Illustrations

2011-03-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few recent editorial illustrations I did for the Portland Mercury. There is a section on their website that has all the images I've done for them, kinda neat: http://www.portlandmercury.com/gyrobase/ImageArchives?by=2431044&section=22100 . Also the Art Director over there, Scrappers, recently did an interview on Escape from Illustration Island, IT'S GREAT STUFF!: http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/2011/03/02/efii-podcast-episode-73-art-director-justin-scrappers-morrison/

2011-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of the drawings I made at a live model session at Hipbone. I went with Tom, he posted a few of his awesome drawings on his blog here.

Bikes, Brews, Banks, Oh My! - Portland Mercury

2011-01-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here are a few spot illustrations I did for the current issue of The Portland Mercury. I like the black and white versions a little more than the color versions.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE WITH COLOR IMAGES ONLINE HERE.

Happy Holidays!!!

2010-12-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

In an effort to be a little more 'green' this year, I've decided to put out our holiday card online as a desktop / mobile device background. Please feel free to click any of the linked images below to open up the correct size ratio for your screen or device and download it or set it as your desktop background or iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch background.

This image was inked with a Pentel brush pen on a sheet of bristol and colored with watercolor. I scanned it into Photoshop to adjust color levels and added some halftone pattern to the shaded areas. The text was laid out in Illustrator and copied into Photoshop as a smart object, then resized as needed.

Thanks to Thomas Pitilli for letting me borrow his scanner. And thanks to Of Zen and Computing for the Photoshop Action Set that made it easier to save out for various screens.

iPhone / iPod Touch

iPad

1024x768

1280x800

1280x1024

1600x1200

1920x1200

2560x1600

Metal for Veterans

2010-11-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is a poster I put together for a group of metal bands playing a benefit show in Boise, ID next weekend. My brother is in the band RipshaW and their album is now available. Give a listen here.

On the process of making this: The skull image was sketched out in pencil using reference from GoMedia. I inked it with a Sumi brush, using a very wet brush for a slightly sloppy flowing effect. Then some dry brush for some details and texture and then some layers of grays for more texture and tone. Then I used a flag image and messed with the layer options in Photoshop until it looked 'right'.

I thought the dogtags would be a nice way to display the band names. I started with low res versions of the band names and a dogtag image from Google images. In Photoshop I created a brushed steel pattern with the dogtag outline and then used some layer options on the band names to give them a 'stamped' look. Once I had the skull and dogtag elements, I brought them into Illustrator and added the requested logos and text. The font was free from dafont.com. Spent some time nudging and tweaking and that's about it.

Cycle of Violence - Portland Mercury

2010-10-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

New editorial illustration for the Portland Mercury! Check out the article here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/cycle-of-violence/Content?oid=2940638

Hellophant

2010-10-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Playing around in Illustrator...

Kicking Our Own Ass - Portland Mercury

2010-09-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration for the latest Portland Mercury. Full article here. I did this character a few months ago, and they had an update on the story that the character worked for - so there ya go!

Hitting the Bricks - Portland Mercury

2010-08-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a new illustration I did for the Portland Mercury out this week. You can read the full article online here.

Checkered Past - Willamette Week

2010-07-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

New Illustration in this week's Willamette Week. You can read the story here.

Trickster Update

2010-07-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

I just got word that the book I contributed to, TRICKSTER, just went into it's second printing.

Also, recently NPR posted this great video of the artwork I did with the author narrating it.

It's a great book with a strong variety of stories and artwork.

Crisis Comes Home - Portland Mercury

2010-06-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a new illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. The article is online here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/crisis-comes-home/Content?oid=2625752

Fixing the Future - Portland Mercury

2010-06-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here's another one I did for the Portland Mercury regarding Oregon's current brokeness. I had a bit of extra time on this one, which was nice. I took some reference shots for the 'pose' and had a little more time to think about the composition. You can read the full article here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/fixing-the-future/Content?oid=2574437

State of Disaster - Willamette Week

2010-06-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of two editorial illustrations I did last week on the subject of Oregon being broke. I love drawing water, so this one came easy. Read the article online here: http://wweek.com/editorial/3630/14097/

RipshaW Band Poster

2010-05-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Shoot the Horses - The Portland Mercury

2010-05-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration I did for the Portland Mercury. They loved the illustration, but decided not to run the article in the end. The Merc posted it on their blog though: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/05/13/best-illustration-we-never-got-to-run

One in Two Million - Willamette Week

2010-05-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a news feature illustration that I did for this week's Willamette Week. It's about a weird case of double road rage. Check it out online here.
This was a same day turnaround job, so I didn't have much time to play with the concept. But I like how it came together, and I think it illustrates the story well.

Space is Cold

2010-04-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

A loose sketchbook comic I did for fun... Maybe I'll continue it.. we'll see.

The Thing Vs. The Thing

2010-04-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

The Thing from "Fantastic Four" Vs. The Thing from "John Carpenter's The Thing". Available as a print on Society 6.

Detective Story

2010-04-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a new illo for Illustration Friday. I wanted a fairly static, graphic image with this one, but it needed some life, so I brought that out with textured lines. The watercolor rain was from another project, but I knew that it was exactly what I wanted there.

Dip - Illustration Friday

2010-04-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

I used a new brush I got for the line work. It's actually a lettering brush, but I wanted to test it out. It was hard to get much variation in line weight out of it. The lines were coming out looking closer to sharpie than brush. I did some lettering testing after I inked this and it looked great. So I will definitely use this again for lettering, but probably only once in a while for inking.. depends on what I'm inking though I guess..

Rock Lee - Inks by Me, Pencils by Gabe Pinto

2010-04-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

My friend Gabe and I were talking about working on a comic project together so we did this experiment. It's his pencils (see below) and I did the inks (see above). I had to lightbox the inks from a printout, since we're on opposite sides of the country.

I used several different brushes to get the right level of detail in parts. Gabe had tight pencils and I usually ink a little loose, so it's somewhere in the middle. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Thing vs. Thing Pencils

2010-04-01T08:21:00.001-07:00

In progress..

Justice Delayed for Willamette Week

2010-03-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a new black and white editorial illustration that appears in this week's Willamette Week. I pitched this as a sketch along with a few other sketches to the Art Director after reading the article. The AD liked this one the best and I agreed that it worked the best with the story. The inks were done with sumi ink and brush. I played with putting some gray into it, but it was working best as a stark black and white final.

Moby Dick Illustration

2010-03-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration I did for a design contest. I've had a thing for drawing waves lately.. I inked this with a sumi brush, which I don't know why I don't ink everything with sumi - it's just awesome. The only thing is, I think larger paper would help to be able to ink the details..

Willamette Week - The China Syndrome

2010-02-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a new illustration I did for this week's Willamette Week. This is the first time I worked with WW, and I'm happy with how it went. Hopefully, I'll work with them again soon. Read the article here: http://wweek.com/editorial/3616/13726/

Portland Mercury - Curiouser and Curiouser

2010-02-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here is an illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. It was a simple one, but I'm happy with how it turned out: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/curiouser-and-curiouser/Content?oid=2264200

Another Crash

2010-02-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

More art for your eyeballs

Loan Shark Hunting

2010-01-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a new illustration for the Portland Mercury. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, and it started with an awesome concept from the AD.

I tried something a little new with this one, I inked it on watercolor paper. Usually I just ink on sketch or bristol paper. It's kinda hard to tell the difference when it's all finished, textured and colored.. but the ink on the paper looked really cool. So yeah, paper does make a difference.

Read the full article here.

Portland Mercury - Houses Not Handcuffs

2009-12-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Here is a new black and white illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. I did the line work with a nib and speedball ink, then filled in the rest of the blacks and did a wash with a sumi brush and sumi ink.

Full article here...

CRC in the Crosshairs

2009-11-29T22:43:00.000-08:00

I did this editorial illustration for an article in the most recent Portland Mercury. This was a combination of pencil, ink wash and digital manipulation and color.

You can see the illustration in context and read the full article by clicking here.

Sketchbook - chase

2009-11-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is a sketchbook sketch that I decided to try some ink experiments on. Not the greatest composition ever, but this was mostly about trying out inking with a nib again. So I used a nib, I believe a Hunt 99, and inked the sketch. I made an effort to ink most of the sketchy lines to give it some texture. The line looks much better than the marker pens (micron, pitt pen, etc.) I usually use. It's nice to be able to get the fine line, but with a little variation in the line weight. I guess that's the point.. I went back after the nib ink was dry and filled in blacks with a sumi brush. Then I went back with watered down ink and did some grays. I like how the slightly rough blacks work with the linework. I like the texture to the grays too, that comes from doing it with a brush rather than Photoshop.. The good thing about Photoshop though is the "undo" command.. but then you don't get cool organic textures and other 'happy accidents'.

Monsta

2009-10-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

I played around with watercolor on this one. The ink I used was water based so I had to do the watercolor on a separate piece of paper - then scan them and put them together in Photoshop. This was a bit of an experiment.. next time I might try doing the watercolor first and a solid ink over the top..

Crash Poster

2009-10-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a sketch I did as a concept for a band poster or flyer.

Tyrannosaurus Ax

2009-09-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a new t-shirt! So, this came about while watching an old slasher movie (The Prowler) while thumbing through an old collection of comics (The War that Time Forgot). I did a full page sketch of a scene that kinda looked like an old grindhouse movie poster or something. I started to ink it (Sumi brush & ink) and realized that the dino itself was much cooler than the whole scene in itself. So I thought it would look best like this on a shirt.

I'm a HUGE FAN!

2009-09-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a piece I did over the weekend. Started off in my sketchbook, inked it with a brush and Sumi ink, scanned it and colored and textured it in Photoshop.

New Art - sketchbook

2009-09-16T23:18:00.001-07:00

A few recent things. The Lloyd City piece is from my sketchbook - a fun little illo with colors and grunge textures in Photoshop. The other thing is a Photoshop brush sketch.. not something I normally do in PS, but I like it.

New Shirt - ROCK!

2009-09-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

Made a new shirt, cuz I can!

RipshaW - Haunted Hollow

2009-09-13T00:38:00.001-07:00

I did this illustration for the metal band RipshaW. Listen to them on their Myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/ripshaw ...ROCK!

I used a new Sumi brush I got a Japanese bookstore. It's been a while since I used a Sumi brush/Sumi ink, so it was a fun change of pace. It worked well for this piece, I was able to easily get the kind of lines I was going for.

Diseasey Fly

2009-08-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Is 'diseasey' a word?.. I don't think so.. but 'Fly' seemed like a boring title. I loosened up a bit for this one. I did a quick sketch and loose inks using a brush pen (The kinda brush pen that uses real ink though, not those crappy foamy brush pens). I have one from Pentel that works well and kinda gives the result of a Sumi brush. Plus I can ink with it while sitting in bed.. always an added bonus. I like the ink work I did on it better than the color treatment. The colors came out alright though. They were done in Photoshop.. I've been meaning to do more coloring with watercolor or acrylics, but didn't get around to it this time. I think I could get some more depth and texture using paint.. next time maybe.

Pizza Party! tshirt

2009-08-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

I finished coloring this shirt tonight and put it up for sale at MySoti! All the cheese drips and sauce splatters were fun to ink. Figuring out the saucy breadstick lettering was really fun too.

New Paintings

2009-08-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

I finished off these two pieces today. They are ink and spray paint on wood panels. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything further with these though.. they were kind of exercises to work out a style for pieces for gallery display. I'm mostly happy with the style, though there's still a few kinks to work out. On the policeman piece, the ink didn't exactly absorb, which made a cool effect, but wasn't exactly what I was shooting for. Since it absorbed fine on the other panel, (sun) I think it was just less absorbent wood. I'll have to keep that in mind when getting substrates again.

Pizza Party - work in progress

2009-08-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

I did the inks for this project today. It's a t-shirt design that I've been working on the last few days. Next step is to scan it and do the colors in Photoshop.

Hi, I'm Jon

2009-08-08T02:10:00.000-07:00

Made this little self-portrait illustration. I made it to fit on a business card, I'll probably print up a few. It'd be a fun little card to hand out to other artists at conventions or wherever.. It also works nicely as my current Facebook icon.

Kids vs. Frogs

2009-08-02T21:24:00.001-07:00

I've been working on a large project, but I felt like inking, so I made this illustration. Someone told me this story from their youth and I thought I could make a nice visual of it.

I inked it all with a size 2 brush and a bit with a Pitt pen. I thought afterward that a size 4 brush may have given a little more looseness, but I'm happy with the result.

Smoke and Fire - Portland Mercury

2009-07-15T20:11:00.001-07:00

I did a new editorial illustration for this week's Portland Mercury. You can read the full article here. The color version is online and the gray version is in print the printed article this week.

I used a few different tools for inking this. It's been a while since I used a nib, but I used a HUNT 99 for most of the line work on the city image. I filled in the blacks and did the line work on the rest of the image with a size 0 sable brush from Rosemary & Co. Also, I added a bit of spray effect for the flame using a toothbrush. Coloring was done in Photoshop.

Space Walk

2009-06-30T23:47:00.000-07:00

I did a new illustration for a t-shirt design. Follow the link to check it out on sale through MySoti.

New Shirt - Sludge

2009-06-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

I made a new shirt and put it on mysoti.com for now. Eventually I'll be selling these shirts separate from mysoti I think, but this works until I get that going.

This was a fun design to make, I penciled, inked and finished it off all today. I used a Rosemary & Co. Series 33 size 0 brush for the linework. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted it to look like in the end, but I did things a little differently with the brushwork. Instead of filling in all the 'black' areas, I outlined the penciled linework, then in Photoshop just filed the inside and subtracted the brushed lines. Working this way made the line weights extra important.

I wasn't sure about the face. Adding it made it look a bit cartoony and leaving it blank made it look more creepy.. but a little less interesting - so I went with the face.

While inking I was thinking a lot about 'process' and I came up with this: "Your process is the answer to the question 'how do I make this look the way I want it to?'" - That may not be the best or fullest explanation, but that's kinda how I think of it.

Rocketman Tshirt!!!

2009-06-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I made this into a shirt design and put it up for sale on mysoti. Check it out: http://www.mysoti.com/mysoti/product/380958

I did this illustration today, thinking of making it a t-shirt.

Digging Up Dirt - Portland Mercury

2009-05-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

I did a new illustration for this week's Portland Mercury. I got to play around with a few inking tools I don't regularly use - to build the textures in the forest scene. I used a size 0 brush, series 33 (from Rosemary & co.) for most of the detail work on the main figure. The trees were built with a combination of toothbrush, old rag and foam brush.

Full article here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/digging-up-dirt/Content?oid=1380377

Money Talks - Portland Mercury

2009-05-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

New illustration for this weeks Portland Mercury. Read the article here.

Stumptown 09

2009-04-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

I went to Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland this weekend. I made the above image as promo card / bookmark.

Happy Birthday Riffer Ripshaw

2009-04-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

My brother's birthday is today. So I drew 20 robots battling for him... it makes sense to me.

Metroid Loves Samus

2009-04-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Been playing Metroid Pinball lately on the DS. Good stuff.

Portland Mercury - Budget Cuts

2009-03-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

I did another illustration for the Portland Mercury out this week. This was a fun one to draw/ink. You can see the illustration in the context of the article here.

Full of Pryde at Floating World Comics

2009-03-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the piece that I am submitting for the 'Full of Pryde' art show at Floating World Comics in Portland, OR. All proceeds go to OHSU. FWC is a great little comic shop and it's owner, Jason Leivian does a great job organizing cool art events. Last year I submitted my THEY LIVE piece to the SUPERTRASH film festival that he helped organize. According to the website, the show opens May 7th. I look forward to seeing all the other pieces!

Baby Card

2009-03-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a baby card I illustrated (and crafted!) for a friend's newborn.

Abstract

2009-02-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Here's an abstract piece I did recently.. hopefully the first in a series.

..and here it is hanging over my messy art area, where it will probably stay until I figure out what else to do with it.

Side B

2009-02-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

So I posted a preview of my submission to this about a month ago. Here is a link to the site. It'll be hitting the shelves early June. It's being distributed through Diamond, so I'll probably post an update once it's in the Previews book.

Portland Mercury - There goes the Neighborhood

2009-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Here is an illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. It was a fun job, and I got to work with the new art director over there. Good deal. Read the full story here.

Litterboxx for Side B Anthology

2009-01-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Here are the first 2 pages of a 6 page comic that I submitted to a music-based comic anthology. It's called 'Side B' -- more info here: http://www.poseurink.com/sideb/ . It should be available sometime this coming summer.

House Poor - Portland Mercury

2008-11-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

Here is another illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. You can read the full article here.

Fall Leaves - High Res Photoshop Brush Set

2008-10-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a set of 10 Photoshop brushes that I made. They are free for use on any projects, though you may not sell, redistribute or host them. They are high resolution and were created in Adobe Photoshop version CS3. They were tested in CS3 and CS2, but may not work in earlier versions of Photoshop. Here is a preview of what they look like:Also, I made a color palette from the fall colors in our backyard that is also in the .zip file.The .zip file contains the .abr brushes file and the .aco color swatches file. Load these to their respective folders in your Presets folder. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

Click here, or right click and select 'save as' to download the .zip file.

Enjoy!

Free Font - Sewer Rat

2008-10-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have created an original font and I'm proud to release it here. This is the first font I have designed so let me know if you have any problems with it. Please send me any feedback you may have.

This version only includes a basic set of all caps A-Z and 0-9. This font is fairly detailed in it's texture, but would work well for high resolution or large work.

I could see this typeface used for grunge, punk, rock, skateboard and other designs along that line. It would also work well as a Halloween font - as it is October...

It is a free font so you may use it in anything, even in designs you sell. You just cannot redistribute this font, or host it on a server.

The font is hosted on my website so click here to download it. Or right click and select 'save as'.

Obama 08 Desktop Wallpaper

2008-10-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here is an Obama poster I put together. I haven't done many desktop wallpapers, this one is sized at 1280 x 1024 so it at least works for my screen. Hope it works for yours.

Under Cover - Portland Mercury

2008-10-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here is another illustration I did for the Portland Mercury this week. This is the gray version of it, which appeared in the printed paper. The color version is in the online article. Here is the article.

Pins and Needles - Portland Mercury

2008-10-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

I did this illustration for a news article in the Portland Mercury. It was a fairly simple concept, so I had some fun with the execution of it. You can read the article on their website here.

Patrol

2008-10-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

I never got WAY into painting, but I've been feeling an urge lately to get more into it. This was done in oil paint on a wood panel. I did some color adjustments and text in Photoshop. For the most part it turned out like I wanted, but I had some trouble controlling the brush/paint. Some research on technique should help future paintings.

Death Music

2008-09-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a new illo from my sketchbook.

Portland Mercury - Red Light

2008-09-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

Another editorial illustration for the merc. Apparently there's a prostitution problem down on 82nd. It was a black and white assignment so I wanted to play with the shadows a bit. It started off as more of a straight forward shot, but I thought a bit of a dramatic angle would help the whole thing, plus it makes it allow the street sign easier. Read the full article here.

Portland Mercury - There Goes the Neighborhood

2008-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here's another illo I did for the Merc. The printed version was in grays, so the web version just has a color overlay on it. Read the full article here.

RipshaW will eat your soul!

2008-09-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Every 10 billion years a force of great power and destruction is born of the earth. The time has come and this force has manifested itself as the power of ROCK! The vessel for which this power is contained is known simply as...

RipshaW

Anyways.. this is my brother's awesome metal band. And this is an awesome t-shirt design I did for him...

rock.

Portland Mercury - Taser Eraser

2008-09-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is probably the most fun I've had with the recent illustrations I've been doing. I had a little trouble getting the layout right, but the inking and finishing was a blast! It kinda makes me dizzy looking at it now. BZZZ!

This issue came out today. You can read the full article here.

Portland Mercury Illustration - Fare Check

2008-08-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here is an illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. It's about how the fares on TriMet (the local public transit system) are going up, without increased service. The concept was presented by the art director, and I did the final draft. You can read the online version of the article here.

R.U.R. - T-shirt Design at Design By Humans

2008-08-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

I liked that drawing in the last post enough to try it out as a T-shirt design. If you like it and want to see it produced, go on over to Design by Humans and vote for it. Here is the direct link: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/25972

R.U.R.'s Recycled Beats

2008-08-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

So originally, this I was working this up for Illustration Friday. But it kind of went in a different direction. The theme was 'routine', but while I mulled that around in my head, at some point it turned into 'repetition'... And while that's a similar theme, I think I ended up fairly removed from the original topic. In the end though I think I came up with a cool piece, and isn't that what really matters when it comes to these free/fun competitions?

Detach - Illustration Friday

2008-08-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with technical illustration a bit lately as well as isometric drawing. And I thought these techniques would work nicely to illustrate the topic of 'detach' for Illustration Friday.

Crazy Ballot

2008-08-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

I did this quick spot illo for the Portland Mercury this week. You can read the full article here.

Space Sailing - Illustration Friday

2008-08-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

An illustration for Illustration Friday. This is what I think a space sail would look like... something like that anyways. Like a big ball of solar panels for energy... might also have mass controls to vary the pull of gravity between planets. I dunno.. makes sense in my head.

RipshaW t-shirt design - in progress

2008-07-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

I'll probably finish this design in the next few days, but I wanted to post the progress on it. After finishing the pencils and doing the inks it will be set up for a one color silkscreen on a t-shirt. Right now I'm thinking white on black for starters, but we'll see when it's done.

Calling Doctor Cheap-o! - Portland Mercury

2008-07-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

This was a quick fun project for THE PORTLAND MERCURY. It's a feature about finding cheap to free healthcare in the Portland area, when you don't have insurance. I had done a little work for the Merc before, but this was my first opportunity to work with the new AD there, Mark Searcy, which went really well.

The issue came out today so run to your nearest Portland, Oregon newsstand and pick one up! (Or just browse the paper on their website...)

Sour - Illustration Friday

2008-07-08T19:04:00.001-07:00

So I used a little different of a process this week, parts of it I liked and others I didn't. I can see that in the end result. I started off with a pencil sketch. I kind of had a loose idea of how I wanted it to look anyways and I pretty much captured that. I think it would've lost a lot more life had I NOT done a pencil sketch. I scanned the sketch and outlined my shapes in illustrator. I think that's where I went wrong. The illustrator shapes are just a little too rigid. Next time I'll remember that and probably hand draw each shape over a lightbox. I took the pieces into photoshop, messed with layer options and threw in some grunge effects. Then cropped it all down. So I liked some of the process, but I should've done it a little more hand drawn and a little less computer aided. But it's done, thats whats important - and I learned from it.

Gravity Bomb

2008-06-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Viewer: Jon, what's a gravity bomb?
Me: I dunno, but I want two. One for up and the other for down.

I guess this is a one page comic. I wonder if there are rules or a definition as to how much content a one-page comic has to contain. "Use the gravity bomb" and then the other guy does... I suppose it falls under the 'Conceptual Product Demonstration' comic genre.

So I did this in my sketchbook, and liked it, so it got a bit of a Photoshop treatment and Voila! Now it's online for the world to see. Enjoy World!

Litterboxx

2008-06-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I've done some real comic pages, but this looks like the project that's going to get me going again. I've been getting more comfortable with my inking approach, so I think these are going to be some really solid pages.

It's for a submission to an anthology called SIDE B, and even though it's not due for a while, I figured I should get going on it... especially since my schedule has been a little unpredictable lately.

These are the thumbs for it. The basic story is theres a band of cats called LITTERBOXX that fly around in an octopus space ship and play music for their fans... and theres a anti-music robot that tries to stop them... but the power of rock is just too strong.

Hoard, Illustration Friday

2008-06-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I enjoyed doing this last week, so I'm going to try to get in the habit of it. The theme this week was 'hoard' and as I started to sort out ideas I kept thinking of the definition for 'horde'.. which is different.. Anyways, I looked it up to be sure.

I did a 3 page comic with this 'piggy-bank-for-a-head-man' character a while ago. It just seemed to fit for this idea. If you're interested check out the comic pages here.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

2008-06-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

I got a nice little surprise in the mail, it's the new comic textbook from all-star cartoonists Matt Madden and Jessica Abel. I was an intern for Matt and Jessica while they were writing it. I did a character construction exercise that they included in the book, which is really cool.

I mostly saw the outlines and some rough drafts, but I could definitely tell this was going to be big. They've really covered the art of comics from all angles in this book. I'll enjoy going through this in depth and I can already tell it's going to be a great resource.

It's published by First Second and available at Amazon (among other places I'm sure).