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. :}

Urbanite: Messenger

Just a random sketch of a likely urbanite in San Francisco. I feel like I see certain archetypes all over the city. and I'd like to eventually catalog all of them. I wanted to try a simpler execution this time. I feel like I've been adding WAY too much detail into my recent stuff.

Urbanite: Hipster

This is the omnipresent and wily Hipster. Obsessed with indie rock, alcohol, and ironic clothing. They're fun though.

More Burr-Dogs!

I'll probably give them both backgrounds when I have the time. I'd like to set the sleeping one in the house I grew up in. They'd always curl up next to our wood stove. so yeah. I like stylizing dogs, I think I'll try to make more breeds as the months go on. I still want to go back to the corgi I did not long ago and change his background, I hate the one he's on now. I also have a pig-pug to finish.

I'm juggling a couple of projects right now, and big deadlines at work. But I am still trying to sketch whenever I find the time. here's a couple of little doodles I did of my Childhood Bromigo: Arnie. He and my sister's cat: "Zoul" grew up from puppy and kitten-hood together, so they were always VERY close. The played together and when they'd sleep, Zoul would curl up under Arnie to stay warm. They're both long gone now. but I still remember them dearly. They made a good duo. I'll probably do some more sketches of the two of em, sooner or later .