Sketch Klubb: Houston's hardest crew

Our opening last night was covered by the online arts people at the Houston Chronicle. There's even a video interview with Russell and Rene and a shot of a spread that shows a page of my drawings, pretty cool! Check it out quick!

Random Heads & Stuff 3

Odds and ends from Sketch Klubb. Our show is this Saturday, June 20th at The Joanna. If you are in Houston come by between 7pm and whenever to see what a bunch of weenies we are.

Peter & The Wolf

Another illustration for Stages Repertory Theatre. This production is modernized a little I think (the duck doesn't die in this one). These are always a lot of fun. Inked, scanned then colored in Photoshop.

Days Long Past, No. 21

This is the latest for the DLP sketchbook, drawn while at ComicPalooza (see previous post). This image was found in a stock photo book. Pitt Brush pen and green Copic marker on paper.

ComicPalooza 09

Comicpalooza is the free comic festival held each year here in Houston. I'd never actually been myself because it involves leaving the safety of the "inner loop", but a bud of mine from Scanner Darkly days (Kennon James) asked if I would share a table with him on Artist's Row. Now I've never done something like this before so I didn't know what to expect but it was a lot of fun, and I actually made back my investment too. When I do something like this again I'll be more prepared by having more things to sell. As it was I just put together a couple of Ash Cans to sell. One with monster art and the other with the old photos I like to copy. It was fun just to sit there and draw all day too, but people do have a lot of strange questions.

Stone Soup

Sydney's first grade class put on a production based on the Stone Soup story. I did this quick illustration for the program cover.

Deiselpunk Factory

At least that's what it reminds me of. I especially love the giant analog gauges on the giant wall instrument panel. Can't remember where I found this photo though. Pitt pens and Copic markers on paper.

Two Ladies and a Beach

I haven't been working in my Days Long Past sketchbook lately, trying to remedy that. Pitt pen and watercolor on paper.

ClothesPin-Up

Another weekly challenge at Austin Sketch Squad. Theme: Pinup.

Rabbit Challenge

Weekly challenge at the Austin Sketch Squad blog. Rabbit, bunny, same difference...right?

Lucy & Amelia

A friend commissioned me to make a portrait of her daughters for her husband's birthday. I've never really done that before so I freaked out for a couple of weeks about how I was going to do it, but they were super happy with the results and I am too!

R2-D2

Well it's field trip time again so that means a new paper bag drawing. This time I asked my daughter Sydney (female, age 7), what she wanted on her bag and she said R2-D2. 'Nuff said!

A Picnic At The Park

Here's a fun project I just wrapped up, illustration and design for the annual fundraiser for First Steps Montessori School. It's a picnic themed function being held down at Minute Maid Park in April. I was going for a "Golden Book Vibe" on this one.

Kennon's Collaborative Sketchbook

A bud of mine from "A Scanner Darkly" days started a collaborative sketchbook back in 2006, and I was privileged enough to get a crack at it. The story goes one page at a time in Exquisite Corpse style with each new artist having full reign on what they get to add. Go check out the other participants at Kennon's blog to see the story so far, and also check out his own work while you're there (especially the TMNT work), he's got some awesome stuff!

QFF

This is one of those things that I'm always doing here at work that I'm not supposed to show. I'm not going to name the project or the client, cause last time I did I got "Google Busted" and had to take it down. I was going for a pseudo Dragon Ball kind of look, but I have a hard time escaping my style sometimes. I will say it's for a project to get teens to stop smoking...if that help make a little sense of it.

The Most Important Element

This client wanted an approachable "indie comic" look for the front page of their site. It's an offshoot project from a company that specializes in employment and retention as an extra resource for employees, but with a more fun look than the corporate site. I had to also make the word bubbles and boxes big enough so they could periodically change the copy (so that's why it doesn't fit perfectly). See if you can find my cameo! To check out the live site go to The Most Important Element

A Bright and Happy Christmas

Miss Anne has a small collection of vintage Christmas post cards she's building, so we thought it would be fun to make our own this year. I actually drew the main parts of the card in black ink as separations, then layered and colored it in Photoshop. It was kind of a nutty way to go about it, and to be perfectly honest I'm not sure why I did it that way. Happy New Year!

White Elephant

Every year some friends of ours have a Christmas party with a White Elephant exchange. They always change the theme and this year the task was to bring a work of art either purchased or created, and what says Christmas more than a naked girl? Anyway the art was voted on by poker chips and the highest score got to go first, and I won...which was cool. This piece is about 3" x 4", India Ink on Bristol, and about two hours of work (which if you know me is pretty fast for "anal" me).

Rooby Rooby Roo!

Right now Sydney is really into Scooby Doo, so the theme of her seventh birthday party had to be Scoob and the gang. For the invitation I made her a sixth member of Mystery Inc. The party was back in October and was a blast! She was also Scooby Doo for Halloween!

Rejected Drawings No. 2

The canine mascot for this mystery company was developed in a Hanna-Barbera style (which I'm always dying to do). They were into the idea but the final dog ended up taking a more "Muttley" direction (you know...Wacky Races...snickering dog). I still liked this original version myself.

Rejected Drawings No. 1

And now for something completely different. I'm starting a new subject: client rejected drawings that I like. This little hummingbird fellow didn't make the cut.

Night of the Living Dead, Monster Show 3

I actually created this more than a year ago. I was contacted by some people that were doing a comic adaptation of the movie and wanted me to do a pin-up for it. I don't think the thing ever got off the ground, I'm tired of waiting and I've never posted it on the blog before (although I did bury it into my portfolio site). Since I was completely swamped with work along with the chunk of time Hurricane Ike stole I didn't have any time to make something new for the Monster Show at DOMY this year...so here it is with some color. It's Pitt pen on paper, and I added the red using Dr. Martin's concentrated water color.

The Final Frontier

Here's a little project that I actually finished up over the summer, but just got down to Space Center Houston to take some photos. The Zero G Dinner is the food court area, and they had this giant blank wall, so I talked them into a psuedo-anime style mural to jazz up the place. I inked the original, then colored it in Photoshop at full size and 40 dpi as per the printers instructions. It was still a gig file! The mural is about 23 feet tall and 140 feet wide. The top image is the finished illustration, and the bottom three is the installed work. They are still going to put in some special theater style lighting that will make it pop more. It's not nearly as dark in person as it looks from my digital camera shots.

Days Long Past, No. 14

Based on a photo by Robert Capa of President Harry Truman in an old Life Magazine compilation that was my grandparents. Whenever I would look through that book I was always drawn to this image. Pitt Brush pen and Copic marker.

Days Long Past, No. 13

I like finding images to draw from those sites about abandoned and decaying spaces, and this was inspired by one of those.

Random Heads & Stuff 2

I have been drawing, just not posting...I swear! The end of Summer kicked my rear but I didn't miss a SketchKlubb until last week. These are some random sketch book doodles, I picked up a couple of high school yearbooks from the 30's that are pretty fun to draw from.

Escape With Your Life!

At long last (about one and a half years in the making from initial concepts to actual construction of the box)....our big multimedia health intervention video game for MD Anderson Health Science Center is ready to go. Actually some of you may have seen this post last year for just a day, but the client saw it and asked that I take it down until the project was officially announced. Pretty cool looking, eh? It's called "Escape With Your Life" and it's a real damn video game! That's right folks, we made the entire thing: created the characters, wrote the scripts, animated everything, did all the programming, recorded all the voice-overs in our studio's recording booth (you may recognize such voice talents...me) and built the kiosk (actually three of them). I did all the backgrounds and character design and art, and some of the animation (when I had time). I built the kiosk from scratch out of MDF, it has a real arcade joystick, a touch screen, and a MacMini running on the inside. I created the art for the case and had it output on vinyl and applied it to the case after painting it black. Of course the folks at MD Anderson Health Science Center were involved in all aspects of the project. And even though I wanted to toot our horn, it's all their baby! I'll post some grabs from the game next time.

The Force is Strong in This One

Here is a quick 20 minute (that's quick for me) Luke Skywalker for my nephew Ben's birthday card (he'll be seven). It's also funny but I don't think I've ever drawn Luke before, mostly Stormtroopers. It's about 4"x 5", Pitt pen and blue Copic marker for the Light saber.

7th Annual Luck Of The Draw

Well it's here again, the Luck Of The Draw Art Auction Fundraiser at Diverse Works Art Space. Last year the gallery space was so packed you could barely breathe. It happens tomorrow night so if you are close enough come on down! All the work is smaller than 8.5" x 11" and on paper, you pay for a chance and are given a number (and you could buy more than one number), and when the number is called you have 30 seconds to go get the one you want (unless someone already beat you to it). With 200+ pieces from local artists it's a great opportunity, and a lot of fun!

The Red Bird of Happiness

Whenever Sydney (my 6 year old daughter) can't use her Hello Kitty lunch bag because they have a field trip or something I will do a little drawing for her. This was actually the first time I thought to take a photo before it's gone forever (they never seem to make it back home).

Matt Deckard

A friend is going to write a column for a pub out in LA and asked me to do a portrait for him that will run with his story. And if you hadn't guessed it already he is also a fellow retrophile.

The Giver

This illustration is for Stages Repertory Threatre and their EarlyStages program. The EarlyStages series introduces young audiences to live theatre. I've made probably about eight or so illustrations for them over the past several years, and they are always a blast. This play is adapted from the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. The story has a little Logans Run idea behind it, but it's a great read from anyone twelve and up.

Cash II

Here's another Johnny Cash drawing. I don't have a thing for him, honest! It's just I found a cool photo in an old Rolling Stone while at Antidote Coffee Bar for Sketch Klubb is all. I was really trying to be fast and loose with this one and not overwork it (which is my tendency). And I actually did two drawings in one meet-up, which is also pretty rare for me. Black Pitt Pen on paper.

Roller Girl

Quicky rollergirl at Sketch Klubb on Saturday. Black and blue pitt pens on paper. It is the start of rollerderby season after all!

Mister X

I've always wanted to do a Mister X drawing from the self-titled, watershed '80's comic. It's deco-retro future must have been a big influence on Tim Burton's Batman and Batman the Animated Series. And for some reason I seem to be doing a lot of "search light" drawings lately. Completed in Sketch Club, Pitt Pen on paper.

Days Long Past, No. 12

The reference for this came from my old college textbook the History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall, always a good source of sketching fun. The photo is by Lewis Hine entitled Young Russian Jewess, Ellis Island New York 1905.

Days Long Past, No. 11

This is the latest for the Days Long Past sketchbook. I was referencing an old, publicity still I found online with no title. The file was named Tracy (I don't think it's Spencer Tracy, maybe Dick Tracy?). If you know drop me a line. I drew this at the last Sketch Klubb with ye ol' trusty black and blue Pitt Brush pens.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

This years card for my extraordinary wife Miss Anne. She made me a great present this year, and as soon as she is done "tweaking" it I'll post some pictures (she's just like me in that regard too).

Merry Christmas

For this years card we decided to take one of the vintage photo interpretations I did and add color to it. Different than what I had been doing for past cards, but I always wanted to add some limited color to these (and you can't get any more limited than one). Have a great Holiday Season everyone!

Good 'ol Mom and Apple Pie

This is an illustration for a company called The Grateful Palate an awesome boutique, high end, mail order store that specializes in all kinds of bacon (yummm), plus coffee and a lot more. They also use a really talented graphic designer that puts together the catalogs every year named Beth Elliot. They are more like high end paper samples than any type of catalog I've ever seen! The illustration is going to be used for a special new promotion, but like many of my other projects lately I can't really talk about it right now. Rats. But still go check out the site and if you are a graphic designer request a catalog, you won't be sorry.

Monster Show 2

It's that time of year again for Monster Show 2 at Domy Books here in Houston. My piece this year continues my classic monsters in everyday settings with a female Creature From The Black Lagoon. The show opens Friday, October 26 at 7pm and runs until November 30. Come check it out! I'll be making an appearance in my Lobster Johnson costume of course.

"Beware my claw, for I've come to inflict justice!"

Here is my uber nerd project of all time. I decided about two months ago to put together a Lobster Johnson costume based on Mike Mignola's character from the Hellboy comics for Hallowe'en this year. Here is a photo my wife shot of me in Austin at the Monster Mash show with the Austin Sketch Squad. I've also convinced a photographer friend of mine to do some professional shots that I'll post later.

Fiction?

Monster Mash

Here is the piece I did for the Lowbrow MonsterMash: an Art Extravaganza. The show opens in Austin, Texas on Saturday, October 13th at 7pm and will hang until November 30th. Plenty of beer and a live art event! Surely to be the social event of the season! So come on down to the Lowbrow Emporium at 2708 South Lamar this weekend!

Everyone Needs a Little Cash

Drawing from last weeks Sketch Klubb. I may have to do a series of some of my favorite musicians...in my spare time.

Secret Project # 22

I have so many "Secret Projects" lately it's really hampering my blog updating. Here is something to show that I'll go into more detail later. That's about all I can say.

6th Annual Luck Of The Draw

This was my second year to contribute to Luck Of The Draw at Diverse Works Art Space. More than 200 people crammed the gallery space to vie for a chance to pick a piece of art. All the works had to be smaller than 8.5" x 11" and on paper, you would pay for a chance and be given a number (and you could buy more than one number), and when the number was called you would have 30 seconds to go get the one you want. 207 or so artists contributed at least one piece of art each for this great fundraiser!

J. M. Simpson

Fellow Sketch Klubber David Wang found that you can make yourself a Simpsons character on the movies web site. It got pretty close, but I did have to do a screen grab and tweak it a little more in Photoshop. Doh! www.simpsonsmovie.com

Na na na na na na Batgirl

Latest drawing for Austin Sketch Squad covering the topics of Bats and Heroes.

Days Long Past, No. 10

I haven't done one of these in a while, too busy with other things. It's a hot day in Houston today, maybe this will cool things down a little (at least in my mind).

Iron Man

OK, I'm making up for not drawing all this stuff when I was a kid. Sorry. I cleverly did this drawing for my Austin Sketch Squad blogs cyborg theme and to submit to Michael Cho's Iron Man fan blog at the same time. I hope it gets on!