The Man and the Bird

Just doodling during downtime =)

Good Vs. Evil

This is just something I was working on a while back that I never got around to posting.  

The idea is that this angel and devil that are always competing with each other to accomplish some sort of task...

Despite all of the devil's efforts, the angel usually comes out on top.  Sort of a "roadrunner/coyote" type of thing...

DUCK Show and Totoro

Now that some of the dust has settled and I've had some time to breathe again, I thought I'd post some of the work from the two galleries I was involved in; the DUCK!!! show (at D-Structure through September) and the Totoro Forest Project, which took place last Saturday at PIXAR.

These are the pieces I submitted for the DUCK gallery (and I hope to post some other work and photos soon)...

...And this is the piece that I submitted to the Totoro Forest Project (unfortunately I don't have a decent photo of it framed, but hopefully I will be able to get one...

BigToe

In light of all the recent buzz about possible bigfoot findings and what have you, I thought I'd revisit an old comic strip character of mine, "BigToe".  He's your typical legendary, elusive, forest dwelling gorilla-man, with the slight distinction of having extremely large... big toes.

Totoro Forest Project Tickets Available Monday 8/11 10:00am Pacific Time!

Many of you have been wondering when and how you can buy tickets for the upcoming Totoro Forest Art Auction Benefit Event to be held here at Pixar on September 6th. Finally we are ready to start selling these online! The first pre-sale will start monday 8/11 at 10am. Here's the options available - Please note that all tickets include the stunning Art of Totoro Forest Book (worth $40)

Forest Friend - 100$ regular admission + book.
Forest Sponsor - 200$ includes admission + book + signed limited edition print
Forest Champion - $300 includes middle VIP live auction seating + book + signed limited edition print + gift certificate to Blowfish Sushi
Forest Hero - $500 includes front VIP live auction seating + book + an original drawing by one of the artists

Tickets will go on sale at this LINK exactly at 10AM Monday! We have a rather limited numbers of tickets so we suggest acting quickly if you want to be part of this event. Remember many of the donating artists will be in attendance, this will be a night to remember!! All the "Totoro inspired" art is up for preview at TotoroForestProject.org. All proceed will be donated to the Totoro Forest Foundation!! Let me know if you have any questions.

Magazine

I just got some copies of my first official magazine illustration mailed to me, and I thought I'd post it up...

I posted the actual illustration a while ago, so to see it just scroll down. 

I'm pretty happy with the printing though -- even the design and typeface of the page next to it works well together.

It's fun to see my work take up a whole page in an actual publication!

Woo hoo!

Extra Extra Read All About it!

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to share some exciting news with you all!
Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa, and Ronnie Del Carmen are heading up a HUGE gallery in September called the Totoro Forest Project, and I was asked by some coworkers to join!!

It is going to be a charity auction, and all the proceeds will go to the National Trust Totoro Forest Foundation, founded by Hayao Miyazaki.

The auction event will be held Saturday, Sept 6 at Pixar Studios, followed by two seperate exhibitions held at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum.

The official website for the gallery is up and running here (although some parts are under construction, so if certain areas don't work, please check back!) :

http://totoroforestproject.org/

It's going to be an AMAZING show featuring approximately 200 of the industry's most amazing artists , so PLEASE check it out.

Details of the event, along with all of the artwork donated for the show are posted (or will be posted) on the website.

Please swing by!

News Team Assemble!!!!!!

(Below is a little detail from the piece I did. To see the full piece check out the website or see it in person at the gallery! ;)

"Through the Looking Glass"

This is an illustration I was commissioned to do for an article titled "Through the Looking Glass" in Lexpert magazine (images shown with permission from Lexpert).  To sum up, the article is about lawyers leaving their big time firms to go work for themselves from home, and the difficult transition from one to the other.  They told me off the bat that they wanted sort of an "Alice in Wonderland/falling down the rabbit hole" feel to the illustration, so I just went from there.

I thought I'd show the stages, which were:

Thumbnails

Rough Sketch

Color Comps

and

Final.

I had a great time working on the illustration.

Hope you enjoy!

Branching Out

These are just some pieces I've been workin on in my off time...

Needed to do something different, and it's been really rewarding to play with some new ideas and themes.

Hope you guys like!

(Below are some sketches I did along the way)

 

Happy St. Patty's!!!

Either a dancing leprechaun,
or a sneak peek at a future version of myself.

Not sure which.

Hulk SMASH!!!!!!

As excited as I am to see someone else take a stab at a Hulk movie,
I still think it woulda been sweet for them to go "Old School Grey" with him...



Oh well. Maybe next time...

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Just a little christmas card art =)

...and another....

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thought I'd celebrate by painting the holiday's new mascot ;)

The Terrible Tentacled Tickler

This is a drawing I did for the latest Fish Barrel (blog) challenge. The topic was "Sailors vs. Sea Monsters". My monster is known by sailors as "The Terrible Tentacled Tickler". It kills it's prey by catching them in it's tentacles, tickling them so they laugh uncontrollably, and then dragging them below the water while they are laughing, thereby drowning said victims. It is a formidable adversary indeed.

*As a side note, I have lately been inspired by the art of Nate Wragg (blog linked at the right), so any resemblance between my work and his is purely out of admiration/exploration.

Happy Halloween!!!

One of my favorite Halloween mascots....

...and just a little "wolf howling at the moon" art for the spooky holiday.

Happy Halloween!!

Oooh Ooooh AAAAh Aaaaah!

Gorilla Drawing.
Just for fun ;)

$1,000 REWARD

I saw a wonderful string of "wanted" posters on the beautiful avalanche blog, and couldn't help but want to do one of my own. I may take one of the characters from this poster and do up one of their own at some point, time permitting.
Hope you like!

Mad Scientist

Here's the latest Fish Barrel Challenge....
The Mad Scientist.

Sorry no color, but I thought I'd go for the old black and white sci-fi/horror movie style.
Hope you like....

Monkeys in Outer Space (SpaceMonkey)

Just a quick doodle in between projects at work. This one was inpired by a monkey painting my friend Scott Watanabe (pavementmouse) did as a Fishbarrel challenge a while back (thanks scott!), and probably also good ol' spaceman spiff...

Colored Dragon

....and I don't mean that in a "racial slur" kinda way. I promise....

As long as I'm posting....

I did this when the little miss sunshine cast won the SAG award, and just never got around to posting it....

so here it is =)

Puff the Magic...

This is my latest for our most recent (dragon) challenge on the Fish Barrel blog--
i'm hoping to get a colored version done at some point, but for now b&w will just have to do...

That one band

Here's a caricature I did of the killers. Not because i'm a huge fan of their music, so to speak, but more because i think they have an interesting look goin on right now that i thought would be fun to draw.

so there it is.

Airport Lady and the Luchadore

Here are two recent sketches i did-
One is just a lady I saw at the airport (done from memory),
and the other is a Luchadore i did for the weekly challenge for the Fish Barrel blog.

Hope you enjoy.
Is the brown getting old yet? ;)

Wednesday Night Sketchy-Sketch

These are just a couple sketchbook pages from Wednesday Night Sketching at Barnes and Noble.
They are unedited, so it's the good, the bad, and the ugly.

i am having fun with some new pens and markers though!....
hope you enjoy.

Chimp drawing no. 2

Ok, so i guess a little explanation for the chimps might not hurt.
The scene I'm doing at work has to do with chimps. To get some good expressions i started looking up chimp photos on google and corbis. The chimp below is "loosely based" on a photo I came across, or inspired by it anyway. The chimp above is actually done directly from a photo that someone took where they actually dressed it up in a suit and tie. I just had to draw it the second i saw it.....
and there you have it.
oh, and there may be more chimps on the way. these guys are really fun......

Chimp

Just 'cuz...

Get Inspired

Every now and then I go through a period when I just feel like the last thing I want to do is draw. Usually during these times, I find that if I try to force it I can't seem to produce anything worth the paper it's drawn on, and I just get more and more discouraged.
I've found that the best thing to do during these times is to get inspired. Look at art books, surf blog sites, look at things that are outside of your own little "box", and before you know it you will be itching to create.
I've recently added some new links to my page, that are not only inspirational in and of themselves, but also contain links upon links of inspirational artists and their work.
In this day and age, this stuff is so easily accessible, all we have to do is sit down at a computer and type in a name. The rest will just bring itself to you.

Oh, and I also added a few newer pieces that were part of my Senior BFA gallery last month.

Steel workin' man

This is a design of john henry done in the style of douglas fraser. More to come....

Drawing at the Airport

I love the airport. It's a good time to find a spot, sit back, pull out the ol' sketchbook and a pen--and do some hardcore spying on people. Here's some people I drew on my last visit to the airport....