NY times Op-ed Challenge: Terrorism Roulette

Here is another challenge I gave myself from the NY Times Op-ed page- this time it was on an article about the recent mail-bombs caught in- transit to the U.S. and how they symbolize us pretty much winning the lottery for about the third or fourth time this year when you consider last year's christmas attack attempt and other failed plots. The article also addresses how the U.S. reacts to attacks, pointing out how we tend to overreact in comparison to our European cousins.

I turned this idea into a sort of "Roulette of Death", with the ball teetering towards the U.S. flag this time around. I also worked on condensing my color choices and line usage. I'll keep working on these, and hopefully you will be able to see them in print sometime soon!

Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale

Like Art? Like Local Artists? Wanna buy that illustration I did of the cards fan in cubland and stick it on your wall? SURE YOU DO. And that's why you should come out to the Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale!

It will be my first year ever participating in the event- and as a special treat/ insane departure from my usual work I am producing a screen printed edition of this illustration I made especially for the event-and, yes, I am considering a year-long project of Robots

(note: final silk screen may lack coffee-esque illo stains. sorry)

There will be a TON of other great artists at the event, from the likes of Dan Zettwoch, Molly Brooks, Scorcha, The FireCracker Press, All Along Press, Sleepy Kitty, etc.!

It's gonna be a great day, and you do not want to miss it! More info HERE.

The Show's up! Come check it out!

Hello Everyone-

"Animals in Suits" Opened this weekend at Starclipper! Below are some photos from the gallery.

Remember- there will be a signing in December!

Recap: Famous Fictional Verses

The show opening was a smashing success! Great work on display by the likes of Dan Zettwoch, Bran Hurtt, Max Vento, etc.

And of course there were a couple of pieces by yours truly:

Purple People Eater: 50 years later. He finally got a job with a rock and roll band!

Rime of the Ancient Mariner: The Albatross. Drawing ships is fun!

Also: Don't forget that Animals in Suits opens this Saturday at StarClipper! I better get over there to hang it...

Animals in Suits: THE SHOW

I am pleased to announce that StarClipper Comics and Games in the Delmar Loop will be displaying pretty much the ENTIRE run of the Animals in Suits blog- in printed form- from November 20th to January 6th, 2011!

I have designed the show to display the printed finals as well as to show my work process. Also- prints of all the animals will be for sale! That's right- you can finally own that Blobfish I drew.

There will be a signing on the 18th of December. I hope to see you all there!

Spot Image: China's Currency Manipulation

Just finished this personal project today- a spot image illustrating this great op-ed article in the New York Times I read awhile back (blame upcoming shows and deadlines for why it took me so long to get around to actually painting this guy).

I started the image the usual way- reading the article. From there I made lists and brainstormed different ways of illustrating it in a concise, eye-catching manner. The article essentially describes how China manipulates its currency, keeping it undervalued so Chinese goods trade more easily on the world marketplace.

Now, China has been portrayed a lot in illustrations lately, and the typical illustration represents China as either a Dragon (I myself am guilty of this) or a Chinese man in a red business suit (or even a disembodied hand wrapped in the Chinese flag). I wrestled with coming up with a different metaphor before finally thinking about those delightful chinese dog-dragons you see at the entrance of several chinese restaurants. The money visual was easy-an overflowing chest our canine friend is trying to keep shut.

From there it was thumbnails, color study, and painting in gouache.

I finished the image up in photoshop and made two versions- one for standalone uses and one for use inserted into the paper or magazine. It was fun getting to use gouache again, and develop a speedier method for getting spots done.

Famous Fictional Verses!

artwork by the epic Dan Zettwoch

Hello Everyone-

Remember that big news I told you about? Well it's coming in waves, and here is the first salvo-

This Friday night is the opening for the "Famous Fictional: Verses!" show at Mad Art Gallery here in St. Louis! Ever since seeing this show last year it has been a dream of mine to participate, and thanks to the invite of curator and friend Dan Zettwoch that dream has become a reality!

The theme is characters from poetry and song. Every illustrator had to do two pieces- my characters of choice were the Flying Purple Eater and the Albatross from Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Here is a preview of both- I'll post each after the show is over but consider this your motivation to head on over to Mad Art this Friday from 7 to 11 pm. Did I mention there will be a pay bar? Full details here.

See you there!

NEW INTERSECTIONS: DOGTOWN

I'm actually on vacation at the moment, but wanted to let you know about this- this is the newest piece for the St. Louis Beacon! If you are ever in St. Louis, be sure to check out Dogtown! Great burgers, great company, great beer, and giant turtles!

Big News ahead, Sketches to keep your Appetite whetted in the meantime

Hey everybody,

I hate blog posts that start with "I know it's been a while" so I'll keep it short and sweet. Stay tuned for some big news coming up- Lots of stuff that I've been working on for along time is coming together and I will have some exciting news for you soon.

In the meantime, I encourage my firends in St. Louis to stop by Starclipper comics next wednesday as we are signing/ selling copies of Spirits of St. Louis!

Alright- since I love pictures more then words- here are sketcbook scans. More to come soon as I finish up these projects!

"Spirits of St. Louis" debuts this weekend!

The longs wait is over! This weekend at Project Comic-Con 2 we are debuting "Spirits of St. Louis" the horror- influenced graphic collection my brother Noah and I produced two stories for. You can find out all the info here.

You can also check out info on the convention here.

Hope to see you all this weekend!

UPDATE: We sold out of the initial run! See you all at the signings!

New "INTERSECTIONS": Downtown St. Louis

Well, it was only a matter of time- I have finally drawn the Arch into one of my illustrations. Got the opportunity to explore a lot of Downtown for this month's piece for the Beacon. Tried using more line and flat color as well- liking the vibrancy so far. Hope you all enjoy!

New Illustration for River Styx

Got the opportunity to make this black and white piece for Literary Magazine River Styx. The story was very interesting and unique- about a female football player who is trying to move on with her life and career. Not too many black and white illustrations come along any more, so it was fun to pretend I was one of those guys working in monotone in the great narrative magazines of the 50s and 60s.

Michael Cera and Jonah Hill

Continuing to work on more editorial portraits here- thought it would be fun to produce double portrait of these two. I have found it interesting to watch as the two have pursued somewhat different roles since their very successful film "SuperBad" last year. In that movie they both portrayed high-schoolers- an age group Cera easily fits into but that Hillis actually far beyond.

Since that film Cera has continued to appear in all of the Apatow-inspired comedies aimed at a college -age crowd while Hill has apparently tried to branch into more matureroles (such as the well-done "Cyrus" earlier this year). I thought it would be fun to do an editorial portrait portraying these diverging careers with Cera acting the youth and Hill trying to be more mature. For fun I'll go through the process.

I started with concepting and thumbnails. This is where most of my illustrations start- with 8-10 thumbs and a lot of brainstorming. From there I just started working on getting the faces right. I had a particularly tricky time drawing Hill- went through 30 iterations or so.

From there I made a rough sketch that I used for color studies. After these I went to a full-color comp on final pencils.

Unusually, I had a last minute change on this one- I just didn't like how the background elements came out so I switched them out at the last minute. I'm much happier with the final version (bottom). I had a lot of fun with this one, and am very happy with how the colors came out.

New Piece for St. Louis Magazine! *EDIT*

Hello Everyone-

Wanted to let you know about this new piece that just got published in St. Louis Magazine- Can't post the large image yet but I can send you to the right location for it. Click here to check it out on the stlmag website. This was a fun project to work on, and offered a different challenge from my typical work.

UPDATE: Here's the illustration!

Julian Assange

I'm working to produce some faster spot illustrations of current events to keep my caricature and critical thinking skills fine tuned. Julian Assange has been in the news a lot lately due to his association with Wikileaks- and that organization's recent involvement in releasing a ton of confidential information from the Afghan War. I want to more of these current event spot illustrations- they offer a fun, quick challenge. Two versions to this one- color for the magazine and grayscale for the comics. Hope you like it!

Comic Preview- Get yourself ready for Halloween!

Howdy folks- I know I promised some sketch pages- and they are coming soon, but I thought you might enjoy seeing a sneak peek of my upcoming story in "St. Louis Spirits" an anthology I contributed to due out this fall, just in time for halloween. You won't be able to get too much of the plot from these, but I thought you might enjoy checking them out.

ICON 6 Recap!

Hello everyone!

I spent last week at the ICON in LA, and had a great time visiting with all the other illustrators and art directors! The weekend was jam-packed- starting out with the road show. Check it out-

I got to share a table with Kyle Webster at the Roadshow! That alone was worth the trip. And then of course there were the speeches- here are some sketches of the speakers- and also a paper-mache Brian Rea that was around for some reason.

Tim Biskup

John Hendrix

Todd Oldham

Gary Taxali

Adam McCauley

Wayne White

DB Dowd

Craig Yoe

Brian Rea?

Jesus De Francisco

Kathy Altieri

I'm working on setting up a new section of contacts on the right to reflect some of the great folks I met. I also took the opportunity to scan some more pages from my sketchbook. They will be posted shortly.