Sunday, December 20, 2009

Merry Pagan Hannukah!

Uhhhh, did I cover my bases there? Well Happy Holidays everyone. It's just a happy time of year in my opinion, wheather you're celebrating something or not. It's been a great year for my now wife and I, with our marriage and now honeymoon to New Zealand in a few weeks. Woohoo!
Have fun everyone and we'll see you next year!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Close Your Eyes

Just saw Bebel Gilberto tonight with my wife. She was awesome...kinda like a laid back Alanis Morrisette. It's all Bossa Nova music and oh so lively.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween

Tuna has an affinity for bad movies....sorry. What are you gonna be?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Blog Hiatus

I've been crazy busy lately with work, volunteering, wedding prep, and a very exciting new project that's top secret right now, but I'll chat eventually about it. Not sure how much I'll be sleeping the rest of the month, but hey, I think it'll be worth it. Having said this I've decided to sacrifice the blog for the time being. Be back soon though! Also I'm off to Disneyland in a few weeks. Woohoo! Pirates, Haunted House, I'll see you soon!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Old School


Oh sure, we've been fans since the Jackson 5.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Wanna Be Startin' Something

What's better to combine my two loves (my cat Tuna and Michael Jackson) for a tribute. It's really sad he passed. It eerily mirrored Health Ledger and Elvis. It was the first thing I saw as I exited the plane in Wisconsin. Not the way I was hoping to kick off my birthday, but that's life. Obviously there's a million different things that could be said about the man. Either way, it's generally nicer to remember the good times and the fact that he was human...no matter how bizarre. I think I'll dedicate the rest of this month's blog pics to Michael Jackson inspired images.
Eeeeehee!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Return to Oz


I'm flying back to my homeland of Wisconsin in the morning. If I could find a cheesehead hat to put on Tuna that would be awesome, and I know exactly the look I'd get from her if I did. Anyway I'm going back to celebrate my birthday and go to Summerfest! Always a good time. So until next week, see y'all later!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Waitin' for the Bus

Always some interesting characters at the bus stop...

Friday, June 19, 2009

Into The Light

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, shiny things.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Kiss Your Asteroid Goodbye

Well....there we go, the adventures of Space Kitty.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Just because...

I've been noodling with something else the past few nights that I don't have clear direction on but I'll post it here eventually. In the meantime, here's an older sketch I did with a sharpie marker that might be cool to further develop down the road. Yay, now it's bed time!

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Gorilla Foundation

For about two months now I've been volunteering with the Gorilla Foundation here in the Bay area. It's the home of Koko the female gorilla who can communicate in over 1000 signs of American Sign Language. It's a very special project started by Dr. Penny Patterson while she was working on her doctorate at Stanford University. Anyway, they recently had a bbq for all volunteers as a thank you. One of the fun things we did was an egg toss competition. It came down myself, my wife, and one other pair. We were pretty far apart at that point and Sarah, my wife, threw the egg, and I had to run forward to catch it. The egg was heading straight for my chest area and as I caught it...well, you guessed it, all over me. Good times!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Sleepy Time



I'm looking at my cat thinking "Hey, good idea"

Why So Pixelated?

I was curious how far an image could be pixelated before becoming unrecognizable. I laid each color in here, square by square toying with this thought. Right now it looks like Lego Joker, but still noticeable. It can obviously be pushed a lot further, but that of course wouldn't have been as tortuous to make.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Groovy

I watched 'Drag Me to Hell' tonight......meh, I miss Evil Dead. I've had the pleasure of meeting Bruce Campbell twice, and believe he's a true talent and is highly underrated. Either way, thought I'd throw a quick sketch together of the ol' Evil Dead days. It's a little boring on different levels, but as usual, I'm tired.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Camouflage







I was wondering a lot about Zebras and their black and white patterns. Generally speaking animals are built and given a specific look for a purpose. You'd assume the pattern of the zebra is to help is blend into the grasses and sometimes wooded background, but what about their color. They're primarily in an environment filled with browns and greens, so wouldn't black and white just stand out, and say "Come get me"? Well after playing with many colors for this image and not deciding what to use (so I just posted them all), I realized that it's not the color so much as the stripes and pattern become confusing and make it look more like brush and grass. In the end of course, predators use more than just their sight...especially at night. So keep your eyes peeled Zebras!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Schitty

Well I didn't know where this was going when I started, but here we go...a bird relieving itself in the city. I've unfortunately been under that once or twice.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Pups





Here's a few past samples of work I did with an "unnamed" company recently. It was a really fun project to explore as I worked on it from the ground up.

Peace out!

Friday, May 29, 2009

The Love of My Life



I wouldn't say I'm having an affair or anything, but I just really love peanut butter. All people tell me is how much fat is in it, it's all processed garbage and sugar, blah, blah, blah. I exercise enough to cancel all that out, so you know...shove it. If I ever die under mysterious circumstances and an autopsy is performed, they're going to find that in lieu of water, I'm actually composed of 70% peanut butter. It's SO good. Bananas are a close second, but that's another story...

Thursday, May 28, 2009

One of Those Days

Ever just feel like something's missing? Feel paranoid everyone's laughing at you? Well, sometimes it's true.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Dude

"Everybody hates Hurley"?! No way! Lost has been quite a rollercoaster. In my humble opinion it started off very strong but "lost" steam a bit in the middle seasons (4 in particular). This last season I thought started out weak and got more interesting as it went on. It's definitely built on anticipation and mystery which are its strongest points. I look forward to the final season to see what happens. It's a long time to wait, but lots of time to do 'Lost' art dedications ;)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Buff and Bothered

I had the same expression on my face as I made this Buffalo. My sketch tonight was going to be something entirely different, then I tried something else which I didn't like, then by the time I came up with this I was way too frustrated and tired....but it was a fun way to play with shapes!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A.O.T.D (Animal of the Day) Red Eyed Tree Frog

Just wanted to try a different approach using vector art. Sloppy pointalism/realism/cartoonish/blah.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Madagascar Pissing Cockroach

A little known cousin of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Every animal will have its defense if corned ya know.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Scion

I love my Scion. It takes me anywhere I want.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Book Signing

Tonight I went to a book signing of a former instructor and friend Leuyen Pham, who is a very talented illustrator. She started out as an artist at Dreamworks and now works as a freelance children's book illustrator. Check out her stuff here. So anyways for her latest project, she teamed up with actress Julianne Moore to create two children's books titled Freckleface Strawberry and Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully. Julianne was there too to do a reading of the book and along with Leuyen did a book signing afterward. Both are very nice people and I'm very happy for their successes.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Mommy's Day

Here's what I sent my mom for Mother's Day...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Exhibit C


"To the owner of the black cat,
Your cat has killed two of my birds, and I'd like this to stop. Please keep your cat where it belongs, OFF OF OTHER PEOPLE'S PROPERTY!! I don't want any more of my pets to die.

Thank you"

This was an actual note I received not too long back regarding my dare I say innocent cat Tuna. I was letting her outside during the day while I worked, not only so she'd stop bugging me, but so she could be out enjoying fresh air and a new environment. It was weird, most of the time I'd let her out, she'd just walk straight to backyard garden and go to sleep. Apparently there's more she was up to. Now, there's another black cat a few doors down from us that could be responsible for this, but I have the sneaking suspicion it was Tuna. Unfortunately it was the headless bird corpse I found her gnawing on one day that gave it away. Granted, I don't want my cat killing anyone else's pet, so needless to say we keep her inside now where she finds other things to destroy. I feel like the parent of a criminal who constantly defends their child.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

When will she stop?!

It's a love/kill relationship with my cat...

Monday, May 4, 2009

A.O.T.D. (Animal of the Day) Ostrich

Well I did this quick gesture sketch for an Ostrich painting, and ended up liking it. So yeah....maybe later I'll do a "complete" painting.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Yo Mama...



...gotta glass eye with a fish in it! I heard this line today in an old school rap song, and thought "What imagery."

Friday, May 1, 2009

Everyone's A Comedian

There's said to be hierarchy amongst Emperor Penguins, one that all the others follow, but no one wants to follow you when you're a inconsiderate smart ass.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A.O.T.D. (Animal of the Day) Clown Fish


Thanks to Finding Nemo clown fish have been given some recognition, however there's an interesting fact about them that wasn't included in the movie. They are amongst a select group of animals that has the ability to change its sex. All clown fish are born male, but will change sex in order to become a dominant female of a group.

Monday, April 27, 2009

A.O.T.D. (Animal of the Day) Hyena

Looking similar to dogs, hyenas are more closely related to cats. As the human population continues to grow on Earth, in Africa they come into more contact with them. The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania actually leave their dead to hyenas.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Another Oldies but Goodie

Here's one of my early successes in digital painting when I was starting out with it. I've learned a lot and have come a long with it, but sometimes it's nice to look back and see what's worked along the way too.

A.O.T.D. (Animal of the Day) Lop Eared Rabbit


This is one of those image I had to sort of force myself to stop doing, otherwise I would've just kept "picking" at it forever. It brings up the classic question in creating art "When is a piece actually done?" I actually just try and set a time limit when I create my images for this blog. This falls in line with the fact that I think that art that's too ultra detailed becomes very static and stiff.