Kreativ Blogger Award

Well I'll be! . . .One of my best friends and often mentor: the brilliant Steph Laberis nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award!

It simply made my day! And as per the unwritten bylaws of all things in the vast network of tubes known as the interwebs, this award is a viral one, and must be spread in turn to seven other artists. Then you blurb seven random facts about yourself...

The following artists are artists whom deeply inspire me. Something about the art they make, be it in the content, style, philosophy, or just the aesthetic sensibilities they work by. Something in the details provides me with great motivation, inspiration, and just pleasure. So, without any further ado: I hereby transmit. . .err. . .give this award to seven of my most admired peers in the illustration world.

Bill Robinson Is a friend and wonderful artist. Both prolific, and exceedingly versatile, his work is always an inspiration to me. Everything he creates posses a wonderful tone and style.

Brittney Lee I have the distinguished privilege of actually owning one of this amazing girl's paper sculptures. Brittney is a sweet, and infinitely talented individual.

Andy Ristaino draws with a rubbery quality that bends your view of reality. He is filled quite endlessly with ideas and draws more than nearly anyone I know. He's an awesome dude.

Erin Leong Great friend and a wonderful artist with a bold and distinct style. She's always trying to think of another series to do. And always making beautiful art.

Rosie Sullivan I met Rosie at wondercon a few years back and I fell in love! Her art flows with a life and vivacity all its own, her line work courses with energy, she is a brilliant artist.

Michael Daley Is a curmudgeon. Really though, he's an amazing artist, he can draw anything imaginable, and do it faster than you'd ever dream of. Perhaps one of the hardest working artists I know. Mike D, you're an awesome dude.

Zaruhi Galstian I don't know Zaruhi personally, I just browse her gorgeous artwork! and often. I love her sense of shape, color, and composition.

Seven random facts about yourself

1. I'm a naturalist at heart. The natural world never ceases to excite me. Astronomy, Biology, Cosmology, all of it. I own a microscope and a telescope, and I love using both of them, any chance I get. I'm also a lover of science, logic, and epistemology in general.

2. I've lived in a few places spanning the breadth of this country over the last twenty-five years. I was born in Maine, raised in Virginia, lived for a time in Arizona, and have spent the last seven years of my life in sunny San Francisco California.

3. I love Bulldogs, Pugs, Corgis (really, any dog), But if you are walking an English Bulldog I will have to pet it, this is not optional. :P

4. I love to draw environments, especially rocky cliffs. and trees too. Something about them pulls me considerably.

5. When I was six or so, the steering locked up on my bicycle inciting me to panic and not think to apply the brakes. Thusly: I careened straight into a row of mailboxes. causing the neighbor to holler "shut up you stupid kids" And the story gives my sister endless delight to this day ;).

6. When I was little I wanted to be an artist, astronaut, or paleontologist. I went to school for 3D animation, learned only that I despise trying to make anything in 3D unless it's stone or clay, and decided to be an illustrator instead.

7. ...and to exhaust the "when I was a kid" subject, I wasn't allowed to own a video game system (other than the Game Boy and Gamegear my Dad got me) until I was well into my teens. Oddly enough I work in video games now and love playing them despite me being quite awful at them. Who knew? :P

Cyan Sea

I've had this color scheme in my head for a few months now. And I wanted to actually do something with it. Originally, I had had a dream in which I was walking across this cyan sea on a high, sheer, and magenta land bridge on which there were patches of violet grass. That said, I didn't dream of any blue fauns, but I thought he fit nicely into this. . .Disney Princesses color scheme I farted out of my brain. I think it's safe to say that the next thing I illustrate is going to be horrifyingly violent. . .or maybe just smutty. I don't know, but I feel way too warm and fuzzy after making this. It's weird. :P Honestly I try to see it while keeping in mind the music I listened too through it's entire creation. Basically, LOTS of Animal Collective. I think I had their entire discography on continuous loop. So look at this less as children's book material and more as that one time when you were tripping balls! :P

So, I mentioned Animal Collective had alot to do with how this one came out. I specifically hold this song responsible, it's called: "The Purple Bottle" and it's an adorable love song, easily one of my favorite songs by the band. There's so much going on in it to make it sound the way it does, I kind of like picturing it being played by lots of little creatures in classic cartoon fashion. But there it is, an explanation. :P

Canyons in the Cliffs

These vast fissures carve deep into the cavernous cores of The Pale Mountians. Veiled in clouds and thick with trees, these unfamiliar escarpments stand at the frayed corners of civilization. Nigh inaccessible without the dirigible. Adventure and the unknown await our intrepid travelers, as the last of the cargo vessels fly in to the outpost beacon.

I love exotic couplings of geological features and biospheres that seldom, if ever, occur on Earth. If there is somewhere that looks like this, please do feel free to let me know all about it. I spent alot of time figuring out this piece as I went along. Many different things were going to be on those escarpments. little worked. I didn't want to construct a story for it before hand. I just wanted to make some cool designs and not give a shit if it made any sense. but the other hemisphere of my brain wouldn't stand for it. Finally I worked enough out in my head to continue. I hope I learned my lesson from that. But if you look closely you'll see Eise and Ceile arguing with the aeronauts. . .oh and some fucking awesome llamas grazing in the fields. As per my usual pipeline of insanity: I brought this on in as a sketch into Illustrator, penned in all the major shape and color, and then textured it all in Photoshop.

Die Übermops

What can I say? I love pugs. They're such bizarre things! My roommate's pug does this frequently. We like to call it "The Superpug". When properly spooked, excited, or otherwise bothered: the little bugger releases an obnoxious amount of energy: Approximately 3,850,000 exajoules* in a furious streak of pug. Wrinkles fluttering in the wind, eyes glazed in madness, tail unfurled: Aerodynamics be damned, this pug shreds the very fabric of time and space with his fury. Snot and boogers are instantaneously vaporized as his nasal passages uncoil to force matter through his engine of a carapace. His gaping maw snorts belts of flame. And for just the briefest of moments, he can see. . . forever. At least that's what we think is going on; thanks to the laws of relativity, specifically those concerning pug-time, we cannot fully observe, or even comprehend what Pig Pug truly experiences. Though if my calculations are correct, the above description is accurate. My illustration totally captures this. It's just so awesome you can't see the flaming coils of plasma radiating from his tremendous interdimensional form.

*The amount of solar energy that the Sun bathes the Earth with in a single year.

The Roommates

I probably do these too often, but they're fun! I live with a bunch of friends from my college days, and every once in a while I like to make little caricatures of all of us. I've been getting super shape-crazy lately so I figured I'd try to find some good basic shapes that fit with our head shapes. Here we have it.

Carl Sagan

It was unfortunately, only recently that I discovered Carl Sagan; earlier this same year, in fact. Since, I have watched his famous series: Cosmos, read two or more of his books, and otherwise studied his myriad contributions to space exploration. The man immediately became one of my personal heroes. And the more of his books that I read, I find more hopes and dreams, more appreciations to be held in common between us. The more I read, the more I learn of things I never knew. The man was amazing, and a gift to our time. So needless to say, I have been wanting to pay a humble tribute to him, through the art I make. Here is the sketch for that and the rough vector progress. Not much to show for the moment. But with a little time, I'll have a refined piece with a background. Stay tuned for updates. And remember, we are but a pale blue dot, floating like mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Oh and that apple pie is crumbly. . .but, good. :)

Napping By The Woodstove. & APE

When I was little we had a Bulldog named Arnie, ( The Fun-Hog) And a cat named Zoul. They had grown up together, from puppy and kitten. Needless to say, they not only tolerated one another, they enjoyed each others' Company. Thus, often, when it was cold enough to have a fire in the wood stove the duo could be found curled up with one another next to it, keeping each other warm. They're both gone now, but They still live vividly in my memory.
I made this Saturday night to sell at APE on Sunday but really it's my main submission for Purrcasso! Thanks all for viewing, and a sincere "thank you" to everyone who stopped at my table at APE! I wish I'd had more time to see more of the wonderful work that was there. But at the very least, I got to meet the minds behind two of my favorite webcomics: the awesome Aaron Diaz (Dresden Codak) who drew Carl Sagan for me in he sketchbook. and the wonderful Meredith Gran (Octopus Pie) and a bunch of other really awesome artists. I made a bunch of great trades with awesome people, thank you all!

Urbanite: Jogger

Sorry it's been a while. I've been so busy preparing for the Alternative Press Expo, at which I will be selling my wares this weekend October 17-18! This will be the first convention that I will be selling at. If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should come and check it out! So enough of the plugs. This is the next installment in the urbanite series. San Francisco is heavily populated with joggers. I've even been one of them once upon a time. They stand out from the rest of the Urbanites of the city, you can always pick them out of the crowd. It's that, in fact, that made me want to make this piece. I've always loved the common garb that they wear: It's as if they are actually in uniform. Working towards a common purpose rather than an individual one. But alas, I get abstract. More to come soon guys! Enjoy!

What Started it All

I have been waiting a long time to post these! I am getting a little vear-klempt! (awful!). Well over a year ago at Leap Frog, a small amount of my time was requested in order to produce some background illustrations for the upcoming DVD style guide. Little did I know, that they would quickly become the most delightful projects I have ever been allowed to work on at Leap Frog. Even now, I am hard pressed to think of a project to have me so excited to go to work in the morning. They were my first ever attempts at doing background work, and more importantly they were really my first serious attempts at producing art in Illustrator. Most certainly: making them made me realize that I wanted to set Photoshop aside and become a vector artist. So in a way, these backgrounds, were really my first baby steps with vectors as a medium: setting me upon the path I merrily walk to this day!


So effectively imagine that there's a family of frog-people. with a green dog. This is a concept of their backyard. Featuring a tree house and flower garden for the kids: Leap, Lily and Tad. Also showing their dog: Scout's house.


Here's Lily's bedroom


Tad's Bedroom


Scout's dog house, as seen from inside

And lastly: an interior of their tree house.

All in all, this was tons of fun, and what's really fun is that while this was all originally intended just for use in the style guide for a series of Lion's Gate DVDs, It has since been popping up everywhere in the company, in one form or another. Largely in the web department. Knowing that these illustrations have been so useful is really kind of rewarding. I dunno, they have a really special place in my heart, even though they are kind of too wonky in alot of places. Thanks for reading!

Urbanite: Musician

By God, I think I've actually done something I said I was going to do! I hereby declare this series: Urbanites. This is a schnazzy musician. They tend to dress well and play trumpets... I don't know I'll write a better explanation when it's not 3 o'clock in the goddamn morning... :P But either way, true believers... I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did making him! I'm really having fun making these characters. And stay tuned for the cute jogging girl who wears those stretchy pants. She's the next Urbanite on my list. :}