Man Signs Dog - Offbeat New Orleans

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

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!

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

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

Here's another illustration for the Portland Mercury.

Offbeat

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

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

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

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/

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

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!!!

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

 

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

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

Hellophant

 Playing around in Illustrator...

Kicking Our Own Ass - Portland Mercury

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

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

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

Trickster Update

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

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