Miscellany

One of these days I'm going to have some new art to post here, I really am. As soon as I get a million other things done. In the meantime, here are some miscellaneous things:

1. The Downtown Art Walk last week was a lot of fun once again. This time I walked around a bit more and spent some time perusing some of the galleries, and I realized just how absurdly out of place my illustrations are amidst most of the other work. Of course, that actually makes it more fun. After seeing dozens of oil paintings of horses or art school caliber "abstract installations" of painted bicycle parts hanging from ceilings, no one's expecting to see cereal mascots and dead children, so the reactions are often priceless. Anyway, Jennie posted some pics from the Possum Saloon show here.

2. Last month I helped Tamar with a Reebok ad she was shooting for Metro.pop magazine. She was inspired by my Robot Block Party image and felt the aesthetic would fit perfectly with the, er, colorful shoes. The end result is the second page spread in this month's issue, and it looks really great, especially considering how hideous those shoes are. Click the thumbnail below to see the full sized image over on Tamar's site:



3. Since I've been playing with Facebook a bit recently, I broke down and made a Facebook page. Aside from being a lot easier to update than my in-need-of-renovation portfolio, it will quell the anxiety of those who keep asking me why I don't have a Facebook page. Please add me if you use Facebook, my newborn page is sad and lonely at the moment.

4. I felt guilty making another post without any artwork, so I did this little one-minute doodle:



I like drawing things without thinking much about them, then trying to piece together all the subconscious influences that went into them. In this one I'm reminded of the wonderful Isz from Sam Keith's The Maxx, which I used to love once upon a time. There's also some Piranha Plant in there, and some of the creatures from the great first Oddworld game on Playstation, and some Ankylosaurus from this old dinosaur book that I had when I was a kid, pre-Jurassic Park when bipedal dinosaurs were still depicted standing upright with their tails dragging on the ground. Ah, those were the days.

Possum Saloon Art Show, Again.

So once again I've been extremely busy, as some of you know, but I have some new sketches in the works so there should be some activity around here in the near future.

In the meantime, my friends at the Possum Saloon gallery have turned last month's show into a regular event, which will happen every month starting this Thursday in conjunction with the Downtown LA Artwalk. As before, it'll be an eclectic group of artists displaying work, and some bands and DJs performing as well. It's completely free, and there will even be free wine until it runs out. They asked me once again to include some work, but it was kind of last-minute so I'll only have a few prints up this time. I'm actually not familiar with any of the other artists except Tamar, so it should be interesting. Either way, if you're in the LA area you should definitely come down, the Artwalk is a lot of fun.

Here's the flyer (click to enlarge):

Cereal Mascot Reunion

For some reason this image has been swimming around in my head for a few years now, and finally - after chipping away at it bit by bit over the last couple months - I've brought it to life as a large, absurdly detailed print. It's kind of about the strange, uncomfortable feeling of reuniting with old friends only to find that the magic just isn't there anymore - and in turn, about the melancholy "nothing will ever be as good as it used to be" type of nostalgia, of which I am increasingly fond. And of course, a tribute to the late, great, wood-paneled, shag-carpeted 1970's rec room.

Click to enlarge:



Download the hi-res wallpaper: Standard (4x3) or Widescreen (16x9)

Order the 22" x 17" limited run fine art print

Details: Trix Rabbit, Frankenberry, Count Chocula, Cap'n Crunch, Tony The Tiger

Sometime soon I'll post a detailed step-by-step of how this was put together, for those interested.

In other news, I polished up a couple images to get them print-ready for the Possum Saloon show last week, so now Headache and Miscarriage are available as prints. I'm also now offering smaller 11" x 17" sizes on some of the prints, for those who don't want the full size.

Possum Saloon Art Show

If you're in LA, you should check out the Downtown Art Walk on Thursday (the 10th). An "art walk" sounds lame, I know, but supposedly it's pretty cool, and some friends of mine have asked me to contribute art to a show they're organizing as part of the art walk. Here's the flyer:



There will be art and music and free wine, it should be a good time. I'll be showing a handful of prints from Sketchblog (which will be for sale all nice and framed), and if I can get my new print done in time, I might debut it there.

And just for the sake of including some art in this post, here's an illustration I'd all but forgotten about, that I did five years ago for an article in a remarkably unfunny humor magazine in New York. I don't remember what the article was about - something about a professor losing his mind - but the image turned out pretty good:

(click to enlarge)

We Could Build A Better Robot, If We Only Had Arms

(click to enlarge)



Here's the original sketch, and the outline, and the pre-Photoshop coloring.

Crabwalk

SketchBlog returns! I can't believe it's been over a month since the last post. As some of you know, I've been extremely busy with other projects, but I finally had time for some drawing tonight, and I think I'll be posting on a regular basis again now. So here's a new wallpaper for you:

(click to enlarge)


Right-click to save:
Wallpaper for standard (4x3) monitors
Wallpaper for widescreen (16x9) monitors

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed, there's now a pack of iPhone wallpapers on the wallpaper page (they're sized for the iPhone, but they'll work in other phones).

I'll post new artwork soon! In the meantime, if you're bored, you can enjoy some pictures I took of cheap/awesome alien tourist attractions during a recent stop in Roswell, New Mexico - click the photo for the full gallery:

With Apologies To Cesar Romero

I've been pretty busy lately, but I've been slowly chipping away at a couple different illustrations, which should be showing up here soon. In the meantime though, my friend Ollie once again asked me to draw something for her band, The Oohlas (I did this image for them last year), for a poster/flier for their upcoming LA show with Stellastarr*. And since Ollie encourages me to be as weird as I want, I just couldn't turn her down.

(click to enlarge)



The genesis of this image was a series of text messages which went something like this:

Me: Any particular theme I should run with?
Ollie: Idunno dude, just go crazy, but maybe something Ronettesish.
Me: Ronettesish? Is that defined as "related to or involving the 1960's trio The Ronettes?"
Ollie: Yes. I'm really into them lately.
Me: Okay. So, hypothetically, if aliens with paper Ronettes masks were feeding a sea monkey, which celebrity or historical figure's head would the sea monkey have?
Ollie: Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger.
Me: How about a two-headed sea monkey, with both heads? The two jokers. Sea monkeys have built-in joker hats, it was almost meant to be.
Ollie: Perfect! This is going to be amazing.
Me: I feel kind of guilty for excluding Cesar Romero, but at least now I can call the image "With Apologies To Cesar Romero." It has a great ring to it.
Ollie: You're insane.

Headache

I took a few minutes to clean up my horrendously messy desktop yesterday, and decided I wanted some new wallpapers to decorate it with. Here's the first one, which is probably the result of me playing too much Q-Bert lately:



Right-click to save:
Wallpaper for standard (4x3) monitors
Wallpaper for widescreen (16x9) monitors

Also, FYI - the Presents Opening Children print has sold out (thanks, Digg), and Troublemaker is getting very close, with the Mario print not far behind - in case anyone had been eyeing either of those.

Miscarriage

One thing I've learned about myself from doing Sketchblog is that I actually don't like to just sketch. When I see things in my head they're colorful and very detailed, so sketching them - quickly, without color or detail - just doesn't feel right. When I did this sketch a few months ago, it didn't satisfy me because it was so quick and dirty, while the image in my head was much more elaborate. So, I decided to revisit it, and bring it up to its full creepiness potential:

(click to enlarge)


Here's the process for those interested:

Step 1 (sketch)
Step 2 (base color)
Step 3 (skin texture and lighting)
Step 4 (details)
Step 5 (final)

Leaving Town

Usually when I draw something I have a very specific idea in mind from the beginning. Sometimes, though, I just start doodling and see what happens, and that's where, many hours later, this came from.

There's quite a bit of detail in it, so please, click to enlarge:



This is available as a print.

Detail

Initial sketch

Oh, and here are a couple pretty cool robots that came out while I was sketching.