9th Annual Luck Of The Draw

Time again for the Luck Of The Draw Art Auction Fundraiser at Diverse Works Art Space. I couldn't squeeze it in last year so I made it a point to start early. This year the theme is "The Musical", so I thought I would make the proverbial fat lady, but I think she just turned out mostly super curvey. I couldn't get over there last night but I hope the show was a success!

Pinup for Kyle

One of my students has been working on a comic for Cartooning class in which he has a character who looks very much like me (a lot of them seem to do this for some reason). Anyway, one of our assignments was to work on pinup art and how it is not specifically cheesecake but really just one artists take on another artists character. So, long story short my student Kyle asked me to make a pinup of his two main characters and here is the result. Since the character based on myself is the “sidekick” to the main one I decided to make him the overzealous, gung-ho, annoying type.

Ferdinand the Bull

Here is the latest illustration in my long history of working with Stages Repertory Theatre's kid programming. This spring they are putting on a production of Ferdinand the Bull so I was glad to help. I've been experimenting a lot more with different brushes and textures, and I also decided to just go with the tight pencil this time instead of inking it for a change (I very rarely do that).

Combo Supreme Please!

This little mash-up is for the Austin Sketch Squad gang which I hope and plan on being a little more regular contributing to, especially now that school is almost out. I missed a few themes so to catch up I combined "Gangster", "Disguise", "Robot" and "It Came From Outer Space". I actually think it's fun when I combine themes like that, maybe we should randomly combine topics every time.

Who Arted?

This is just a little 'ol t-shirt design I made for my art department at the high school where I teach. Our department head Lisa S. came up with the tag, I made the art, Drew and Meghan had the shirts made (and of course a shout out to Vickie for team spirit!) They are a school approved shirt so we hope to have every kid in one of these babies. Sketch Klubb fans will probably recognize the "Brap" cloud.

The Idea Fund

This year Sketch Klubb was awarded an Idea Fund Grant. Here is the official spiel: Through the Warhol Foundation Initiative, Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks and Project Row Houses have come together to support art at its source by providing direct grants to artists. The Idea Fund provides cash awards to artist-generated or artist-centered projects that exemplify the unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices that occur outside of the traditional frameworks of support. Basically they are giving up a nice amount of cash, and we are going to put on a more elaborate Nerd Garage Sale this summer. A kind of Flea Market meets Sideshow Freak Carnival show. More details to come on that. Here are some photos from the reception on January 21 at Diversworks Artspace.

SKNY

My art collective had a show at the Texas Firehouse Gallery in New York City on November 21, 2009. I know I posted a sketch earlier about this but I've been uber busy with school, that's my only excuse. You can read more about Sketch Klubb here. 2009 was kind of the year of gallery shows for Sketch Klubb with the Houston, Austin and NYC shows, but we are going to stop those for a while. The best thing about the New York show was just being there with the guys. Here are a few photos from the trip. Good times.

Robot Petrushka

The art teachers in the Alvin ISD High Schools got together and had a secret Santa exchange this year, with everyone picking a theme ahead of time. I got Meghan Anderson and her theme was Robots (very cool!) I have always wanted to do a petrushka doll set and this seemed like the perfect opportunity, so after doing a few little thumbnails in my sketchbook I primed and painted the wooden dolls with that chrome spray paint. Then I painted on the details with a Pitt Brush pen and then sealed it with Crystal Clear. Now I want to make some more!

Happy Holidays!

Here is this years card, and as a first I'm also going to include the process by popular request. First I did a little blue pencil sketch about 3 inches tall, then did a tighter graphite pencil over the top. Scanned that in and enlarged to 8"x10" and tweaked it a little. Printed that out and then inked on hot press Bristol Board and Pitt Pens. Scanned that in and then did all the color in Photoshop (you'll notice that I even changed a few things on the inked art in Photoshop even at that stage). I'm really in to trying to simulate a watercolor look these days, although I still like to do the real thing.

NYC Placemat

Just got back from NYC (more on that later). Here is a little sketch I made on a placemat at a diner close to our gallery. We were right on the East River and I could see the Chrysler Building peeking over the other buildings from where I was sitting.

Evolve Group Show

On Friday and Saturday I was a part of a group show called Evolve at Winter Street Studios here in Houston. It was mostly a bunch of old friends from the long gone Houston Society of Illustrators. It was great seeing everyone again after so many years, and I even made a little cash to boot. That's Sydney in the lower top photo. All photos by Miss Anne.

Drawing At School

I apologize for the lack of posts, but for those who don't know I just started teaching High School Art so I've been rather über busy. I'm teaching mostly Cartooning and Digital Graphics and Animation. It's amazing that they offer stuff like this for kids now days, they really don't have any idea how lucky they are. Every once in a while I'll sit down with them and draw the same project (hopefully more in the future), and here is a little something I did today. Pencil on paper.

Elephant for Lunch

Sydney had a field trip to the Zoo which called for a little art for the lunch. No bag this time though, it had to be in a clear, zip-lock bag (so they can throw them all in the cooler I guess). So option two is a napkin drawing. I think I was channeling a little Suess on this one.

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

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.