Sean Tiffany Art and Illustration

Looking In The Corner

2012-01-28T17:34:00.003-07:00

Not too much going on today so I thought I'd take a quick photo of a corner of the studio. I'm not really ready to announce anything official yet but I will say, if you look at the pages laying on the ground, you can get a little glimpse of some of the personal stuff I've been working on in my spare time.

OK, back to it. Have a great weekend!

Sifting Through the Sounds

2012-01-27T18:33:00.003-07:00

It's been about three months since I laid down all the instrument tracks for a few OilCan Drive songs I've been working on. Since I finally found myself with a little bit of free time I thought it might be good to go through those tracks and see what I had.

It's a daunting task to go through the ideas I had all those months ago and more than a few times I've wondered, "what the hell was I thinking when I recorded this part?!" It has definitely been an interesting adventure.

I've found that writing songs and making music is kind of like putting together a puzzle. The only difference is in doing music you have to create all the puzzle pieces yourself first. And, some of those puzzle pieces you create don't quite fit. And, if that wasn't bad enough, there's also absolutely no rules when it comes to saying what's right and what is wrong.

Because, in the end, it all yours and yours alone.

It's been a bit scary to revisit this stuff and try and make some sense out of it. And, when I say scary, I mean both the most nervous and most fun I've had all week.

Have a great day.

Kick it On!

2012-01-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I got the illustrations for the client done late last night and slept in pretty late this morning, enjoying my first day off in weeks. It's almost weird going from having a ton of stuff due to having nothing on your plate anymore except personal projects. I almost didn't know what to do with myself today. So, I took it easy, watched a movie, and played some guitar. All in all, a good first day of winding down.

But, on the art and creative side of things, I wanted to let you all know about a new Kickstarter campaign that my friend, Jeff Lafferty, started. He is trying to fund his very own stop motion animated film and you can help out. Take a look at the video below and check out the link. He has some great incentives and, as you can see by the clips in the video, once he gets this movie done it's going to look awesome. I've already donated a bit but I'm sure he could use as much help as he can get. Good luck, Jeff!

Speaking of videos, after I finished up the client work last night I started tackling a project Amber, a friend of mine, asked me to do. Recently a friend of hers passed away. Amber was telling me about this and showed me a video of her friend on YouTube singing and, honestly, her voice was beautiful and blew me away. Amber was pretty shaken up and really wanted to do something so I offered up my skills to make a quick video with photos of her friend in a slide show while she sang. Below is what I came up with using the audio from her friend's YouTube video along with some photos Amber sent to me. It's not much but, even though I didn't know her, I am really sorry she is gone.

And, here is the original video I pulled the song from. With a voice so beautiful I'm really sad this girl is not here with us anymore.

Have a great day and always enjoy your life!

Last in Line

2012-01-25T22:36:00.003-07:00

Alright, this is probably the closest I've cut it since I joined the 365 Club but I am getting this in before midnight so I'm still safe. I feel like the kid in "How to Eat Fried Worms" when he forgets to eat a worm one day, wakes up from his sleep, runs over to his adversary's house, screams at the top of his lungs, and then eats a raw worm.

This is almost exactly like that.

I spent most of the day working on this piece and a few others trying to get them all finished and wrapped up for tomorrow morning. I did all the shading on the figures and then built a background behind them. The piece turned out really big and the final working size was about twenty five inches wide. I shrunk it all down a bit so it would be easier on the client but, wow, I had no idea it would be so big.

I guess that's what I get for drawing most of the characters on separate pages and putting them all together in the line digitally. But, it's all done and everything worked out well.

And now, like the kid who ate the worm, I can sleep soundly tonight, knowing I made all of my deadlines. Phew.

Have a good one.

Back in Line

2012-01-24T19:48:00.003-07:00

I've been stuck at the computer all day scanning art and getting ready to put the finishing touches on this group of people waiting in line.

Most of the flat color has been done and now I just need to create a few logos for the jerseys, start shading everybody, and color and paint the background.

As one of my favorite sayings goes, "The only thing left to do is everything..."

OK, back to it. Have a great day.

Storyboard Colors

2012-01-23T13:20:00.003-07:00

OK, here we go. As promised, here are a few of the storyboards I showed off the other day but now in eye-popping full color!

Again, I did all of these really quickly. From contact by the client and initial explanations of each board to finish was probably less than thirty hours. But, what is nice about doing stuff that quickly is almost all self doubt and second thoughts go right out the window and you're just drawing and coloring as quickly as you can.

It's exhausting but very satisfying at the same time to get things done so quickly. When you lay your head down to sleep it's a very calming sleep and I love it.

Here are a few of the boards I thought turned out particularly well in both drawing and color. I look at stuff like this and think I'm getting better at being fast and good. As I read somewhere long ago, first you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast. I think I'm almost in the third category. Maybe not quite yet but I'm getting there.

And I think these are perfectly fine to put in front of a potential client and show off what kind of concept you have for their ad campaign. I just hope the client and their potential client liked them.

And here is one of my favorite sequences from the whole job. Art wise it's not the most complicated but I love the panel to panel transitions as the kid, obviously not scared by the zombie, prompts the monster into fist bumping him. I was only supposed to do a panel or two for this sequence but I couldn't help dragging it out a bit and having some fun.

Remember that thing I said in an earlier post about working too hard?

Well...maybe...

Have a great day.

Fall In Line

2012-01-22T22:33:00.004-07:00

I've had to spend the day inking a line full of people so I haven't had a chance to get those colored storyboards together that I promised you yesterday. Hopefully I'll get a chance tomorrow to show them off.

For now, I am on the last three people in the line to ink. It's been a long day but, with any luck, I'll get all of these inks wrapped up before I go to bed tonight.

OK, back to it. Have a great day!

Storyboards

2012-01-21T16:55:00.001-07:00

I woke up feeling a bit sick and worn out this morning so I thought it might be best to bring out some old pieces and give everyone a look.

I did these storyboard panels a few months ago for a client in New York City. As usual, the deadline on these was really tight (I was given maybe 30-36 hours to get the whole job complete) but I still wanted to do as good a job as possible.

What I love about doing storyboards like this is that the time is so limited you really have no chance to second guess yourself and you just sit down and draw as fast as you can. I was given the descriptions of these images late on Thursday night and the client needed them done by first thing Saturday morning.

So, I started drawing and inking as fast as I could.

Here are a few photographs of the storyboards from my art table. Some of the panels have pieces here and there that I would later mess around with digitally to make completed images before I sent them off.

And, of course, the black and white images weren't the only things due on Saturday morning. I also had to color each storyboard as well. But, I'll find some of those images and maybe put them up tomorrow.

In the end I think I did around 18-19 final images. Everything turned out great and I hit the deadline with time to spare. They needed the finals by Saturday morning and I think I sent the final emails out around 3am my time here in Colorado.

No problem at all.

Have a great day.

OilCan Drive Trading Card Layouts

2012-01-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy day filled with lunch with friends, catering tasting for the wedding, and then a trip to the movies to go see the new film, Red Tails. All in all a good day but it's left me with little time to write the new blog.

Yesterday I had a local client come over to wrap up a job I was doing for him. I figured it would be easier to sit with him for an hour or so and pick out the fonts and colors he wanted than to go back and forth emailing each other over the next few days.

We wrapped everything up and he left happily with his files. It was still early and I didn't really feel like jumping back over to the art board to draw or ink anything so I started messing around with some designs for the OilCan Drive trading cards I'd like to do.

I know a lot of cards out there are simply the art of each card on the front but I wanted some kind of unifying design on all the cards. So I came up with a border for each card that could unify a whole set while still having different colored edges on each card. Once I did the vertical design I used those same elements to create a horizontal one as well.

Finally I used some of of the old OilCan Drive art I used for some t-shirt designs and put those into each card to see how it all looked.

I think we have a winner with these designs. Now I just have to start drawing, inking, and coloring some card designs. But, you know, one step at a time and all.

Have a great one!

Back To Work

2012-01-19T17:01:00.002-07:00

After messing around a bit the other day with some of my own art it's back to work on the client stuff. I've been finishing up the illustrations for the March issue of Sports Illustrated Kids and, while I always show off the finished illustrations after the magazine comes out, I thought it might be neat to take a behind the scenes look at one of the pieces.

In this illustration, a baseball catcher is making a play for a bunted baseball that then hits the bat where the batter threw it down, making the catcher misjudge his play on the ball.

Originally, when I talked to my art director I asked if the catcher would have his mask on or not. Usually, when I see a catcher make any kind of play in the field the first thing flying off of his face is his mask. So, I figured he'd throw it off and then try and make the play to first to throw the runner out. But, the art director though maybe he'd only have time to pull the mask off his face and it would still be resting on his helmet.

Then, it was decided that he wouldn't have time at all so the mask would probably still be on his face.

Instead of erasing and redrawing all over the original pencil art I decided to create the mask separately and merge the pieces later digitally in the computer. I've found the more erasing I do on a piece of illustration board the tougher it is to ink cleanly on it later. So, I thought it would be easier this way.

The funny thing is, even though I knew the mask would cover a lot of the catcher's face, I still fully inked and finished his face. If you look closely, I even put a little stubble on his face with whiteout which was completely unneeded. It would never even show up in the final piece!

So, why do I do stuff like that? Draw more than is needed and put details in that no one in the world will ever even see? I don't know...I just do.

Once, while I was still doing airbrush painted pieces for Marvel Comics, I was approached by another colorist at a comic book convention and he looked over my work. He noticed I was actually painting in wood grain on parts of an old rotted dock and putting nice deep shadows in the Punisher who was standing on top of it. I was putting whiteout in the water to help convey a sense of a murky ocean where a man was drowning. He looked at all of this and said one thing to me.

"You work too hard. You're putting too much work into this."

Maybe, but it's apparently something I'm still doing to this day. And, if I was really pressed as to why I do it, I guess I would have to answer that I really enjoy doing stuff like this. Putting in extra little touches just for me to enjoy in the art is fun for me.

And, in the end, if it isn't fun, then what's the point?

Have a great day.

Something More Personal

2012-01-18T15:35:00.002-07:00

I found some free time for myself late last night and sat down and sketched out Nicole Baylor, the drummer for OilCan Drive.

While I like the idea behind the piece and love the cute look she is giving there is just something that feels a bit off about the pose. I struggled with it a bit last night in bed while trying to fall asleep (I penciled this sometime between 2am and 3am last night) and I think I finally figured it out.

So, while I like the idea behind this piece I don't like the execution and I'll probably be redrawing it when I get another free minute. But, it was nice to finally find some time to do something for myself and not a client. I think I might be working on my own stuff after the midnight hour more often.

And, I get to show off some behind the scenes artwork that you'd never probably see if it wasn't for this blog. And, to me, that's what a blog should be about. Not just the nice and polished stuff, but also the failed attempts as well.

Have a great day.

Finished Judges

2012-01-17T22:30:00.001-07:00

Whew....the day totally ran away from me so I'm only getting to the blog late tonight. But, in keeping with the 365 Club I know I'd be kicking myself if I let the whole day go without putting a new post up.

Here are a few more images from the Judge commission I've been doing.

All the characters are done and now it's just a matter of sitting down with the client and making these all into useable pieces for the application he is working on. I figured it would be much easier if he just came over and sat down with me and told me what he wanted as we worked on it than do endless revisions through email. That is one advantage of having a client who lives nearby. I can actually have a real life conversation with him while we get what he wants done as opposed to me second guessing every move I make.

So, the art on these are almost done. Now it's on to a few other client projects and then I think I can carve out some free time for my own projects. We'll see how that goes.

But, for now, I am turning off the light above my art table and calling it a night. A quick workout and then I am going to sit and watch a movie.

Have a great night.

The Judge, Live and in Color!

2012-01-16T11:30:00.002-07:00

The inked illustrations of the Judge have been scanned into the computer and the coloring in Photoshop has begun!

I always tend to paint on top of a light green background instead of a plain white one. I find the green is a bit easier on the eyes and I don't fatigue as quickly. It also helps to see any colors that go outside the lines. I've found, on a white background, I can sometimes miss a few errant brush strokes but with the green it never seems to be a problem.

And yes, for those keeping track out there, I still use Photoshop 6.0 to do all of my color work. To some who are on Adobe's Creative Suite 5 or 6 (which includes Photoshop...what...16?) this must seem like I am banging sticks on a rock back in the Stone Age. But, after reading around the web I've found I'm not alone. I've read a few artists who are still stuck on 7.0 and I think I read somewhere that even Adam Hughes still uses either 4.0 or 5.0. So, I guess I am in good company.

For me, if the tool works, why change it?

Have a great day.

Inking The Judge

2012-01-15T17:58:00.002-07:00

The pencils were approved so I started laying some ink down on the Judge characters this weekend.

This is the view from my desk after all was said and done. As you can see I drew the character all over the pages and turned him every which way I could think of to use as much of the paper as possible. I go green and conserve resources in my own unique way here at Plastic Spoon Press art studios.

So, now that the inking is done it's just a matter of scanning these pieces into the computer and laying down some color on him. Then the client and I might need to sit down and figure out the best way to put each of these characters into his layout and what kind of fonts he might want to use.

But, for now, one more step done and closer to completion.

Have a great day.

Jim Lee X-Men Cards

2012-01-14T11:30:00.009-07:00

This came for me in the mail last night. it was one of the Christmas presents I bought for myself.

The last time I bought this box of cards was about twenty years ago. Jim Lee's newest X-Men first issue was breaking all kinds of sales records in the comic book industry and, with card sets being so popular at the time, he was commissioned to do a full set of X-Men cards for Impel Cards.

I had just started working at McNabb Studios as an assistant artist and we were doing comic book card sets ourselves for Comic Images. So I would look at cards like this and learn a lot of things about coloring from them.

This was back in the days before computer art had taken hold and everything like this was painted by hand and with airbrush. Not only was all the black and white art in this set done by Jim Lee but every card was painted by an artist named Paul Mounts.

And, at the time, Paul Mounts was one of my airbrush coloring heroes.

The big difference in how Paul was coloring and how we were coloring cards for Comic Images is that Paul was probably painting each piece at 200% of the printed size and we were painting each card at the same size as the printed piece. Which means we were painting stuff a lot smaller than Paul was and he was able to get some detail into his art that we could never match. But, believe me, I tried.

I even met Paul once back when I was in school at a comic book convention. I'm sure he was amazed anyone even knew who he was (us colorists didn't have much of a fan following back then.) I asked him all sorts of questions and he even gave me a few tips about painting and using the airbrush. I think he stopped and shut up when he could see me taking mental notes and saw the gleam in my eyes as I plotted to take over his job. But, to this day, I am happy he even talked to me and told me the few secrets he did.

So, yeah, these cards were great back when I bought them and helped me a lot when I first started out as an artist. And, as I've been toying with the idea of doing an OilCan Drive set of trading cards this is one of the sets I thought about. Unfortunately, it was one of the things I left behind when I moved from New Jersey to Colorado. And, when I left those things behind, everything got destroyed by a flooded basement. I lost a lot. The only things I still own from that time are the things that fit in my Jeep when I first moved out here.

So, I went on Ebay and found a sealed box of cards someone was selling and threw a bid out there. I won and, last night, I opened up a twenty year old box of cards and felt like a kid again. I know you probably shouldn't open up such a "collector's item" but the joy I felt opening the box, setting it up, ripping open the packs, and making a complete set of cards was well worth any feeling I might have had by owning a sealed box of cards in a closet somewhere.

Seeing these cards again really brought me back to my start as a professional artist and really fired me up. I think that's why I like the idea of doing a set of OilCan Drive cards. Cards are where I started my career and I think it's about time I revisited that part of my life with my own characters.

Of course, I have to finish up a bit of this freelance work first and buy myself some free time but I like the idea. Maybe it's something I'll do this year when I get some free time.

Hey, it's an idea.

Have a great day.

Penciling the Judge, Revisions

2012-01-13T11:30:00.006-07:00

The pencil sketches for the Judge illustrations were sent out to my client and a few revisions came back that were simple enough to take care of. This is why we work in pencil first, kids. It makes doing little changes that much easier and it does help for the client to see what the piece looks like at different stages so they can make sure it's what they really want.

On the first piece, the one where the Judge is yelling through his bull horn, I was asked if I could make him yelling so loudly that his legs were raised up in the air as if he was jumping. Simple enough. I was also asked to make him holding the megaphone by a handle on the bottom. No problem.

On the second piece, where the Judge is being taken away in a straight jacket, I was asked to have the orderly look back at him with a skeptical/puzzled look.

And, on the last piece, where the Judge is spray painting a wall, I was simply asked to make him look a bit more mischievous. By moving his eyebrows just a bit I was able to achieve that with no trouble at all.

Luckily, the other two looked good and no changes had to be made at all.

So, now it's on to inking and coloring. He's getting there...he's not there yet...but he's getting there.

Have a great day!

Penciling the Judge, Part Two

2012-01-12T11:30:00.006-07:00

Here are the last two pencil sketches for the Judge project.

If all goes well I'll get approval on all of these soon and be able to jump over to inking and coloring them and get the whole project wrapped up.

So, in these sketches, in the first one, you can see the Judge giving something the eagle eye with a giant magnifying glass. And, in the second, he's finding the greatest news of the day in a pile of other stories.

This Judge sure does get himself into some interesting situations.

These have been a blast to do and I'm looking forward to finishing them up. It's not often I get to do some great cartoony type characters anymore and doing this guy reminded me how much fun it can be.

OK, back to work. Have a great day!

Penciling the Judge, Part One

2012-01-11T11:30:00.001-07:00

Here are the first three pencil sketches I did of the Judge character I designed earlier this week. There are more to come but I figured I'd show off what I have right now and post the rest as I get them done.

He's a fun little character and his hair is something that's definitely new to me but I'm glad I finally figured it out. And I'm really glad we didn't use the hair I designed on the first go-round. This one looks a lot more like one of those old powdered wigs and works much better.

So, here is the Judge shouting out from the top of a pile of law books, being taken away for his crazy ramblings, and tagging the nearest wall he could find with some spray paint.

Three down, two more to go. Then we'll make sure the client is happy with the way everything looks and, from there, it's a simple matter of inking and coloring and finishing him up.

It's a ways off but it's getting there.

Have a great day!

Bring On The Judge 2

2012-01-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

The initial sketches I did of the Judge needed a few tweaks.

It was decided that the hair I did on him made him a bit too girly so we went with a more traditional English white wig on him. We also kept the idea of the little round glasses hanging off of his nose and opted for the regular eyes as opposed to the little button doll eyes. And we gave him a bigger chin.

So this is the basic idea I'll be working off of for the new illustrations I'll be doing.

Now to put this little Judge into action!

Have a great day!

Chase Cooper 2

2012-01-09T14:28:00.001-07:00

Another project I took on and finished over the holiday was an illustration for the second Chase Cooper cover.

Since the design process of the little guy had already been worked out during the creation of the first cover his second leap into action didn't take nearly as long. And this time around I got to draw him in a bit more of an action pose which was really fun.

The author is now putting the finishing touches on the cover and book and hopefully she'll send me a copy when it's done like she did last time. And, when she does I'll be sure to post it here on the blog so you all can see the finished product.

As for the 365 Club, oops, it looks like I forgot to add Jonathan Lopez to the group. So, at least for readers of my blog, we might have lost Dean but we can now add Jonathan. And, Jonathan is actually doing some great stuff and has pledged to do a new sculpture every day for 365 days. I may have just agreed to blog everyday (my default safety idea is to just take a photo out the window and write one sentence and still get that day's blog in) but to actually be sculpting a new piece every day?! Now that is just crazy and I hope Jonathan can keep it up. You can check out his blog HERE.

I also invited my friend Thom Zahler to join and he has informed me, with the convention schedule he keeps, that he just wouldn't be able to do it. But, he has started his own club, the 4/7 Club, where he plans to write four blog posts a week. And, if that isn't enough for you I'm sure, with his traveling schedule, he'll be in a town near you soon enough so you can tell him in person. I'm adding him to the 365 Club as an honorary part-time member.

I would have also asked my friend Rob Kelly to join the club but that guy has been publishing multiple blogs daily for the past five years. It would be like asking a major league professional baseball player if we wanted to come out in the street with us and play stick ball. He'd just look at us, shake his head, and think, "rookies." A list of Rob's blogs can be found HERE and his major one, The Aquaman Shrine, not only has been daily for the past six years but he also does a regular podcast for it. So, yeah, Rob is the big fish in my little pond. Still, I'm adding his illustration blog to the 365 Club as an honorary member. It might only be updated once or twice a week but he blogs enough other places and his illustration site is definitely in line with the spirit of the club.

Enjoy the blogs, enjoy the art, enjoy the day, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Bring On The Judge

2012-01-08T17:25:00.003-07:00

Here are a few sketches I did for a project involving a Judge character for a client.

I met with him the week before Christmas and we talked about what he needed and, after he explained the whole idea to me, I jumped on board. But, before I did the actual illustrations I wanted to make sure we were both on the same page as to what the character would look like. So, I did these quick sketches to show him what I was thinking and see if he had any ideas of his own.

Now, we wait and see.

And, sadly, Dean had dropped out of the 365 Club. You can read his last post about it HERE. Hopefully he'll continue blogging on his regular site a bit more frequently but I'm sad to see him go after only six days. He was a good man and he will be missed.

And then there were three.

We'll see how the journey goes from here.

The 365 Club

2012-01-07T15:11:00.006-07:00

Here are a few more images from the interior of one of the new Jake Maddox books that are on store shelves now. And again, when I'm dealing with either bike riding or skateboarding, I tend to put the characters in Macbeth shoes. It just always seems right to me.

Recently I've joined a small collective of creative folks in something I call "The 365 Club." It started with my friend Jeff Lafferty being inspired by another friend of his, Dean Croft. Dean had the idea of doing a colored monster sketch everyday and posting it to his blog. He called it 366 Monsters (it is a leap year and all.) Jeff jumped on board and said he'd take up the challenge and do 365 posts of his own this year. Then he threw down the gauntlet and challenged a few of us other creative folks to join him.

Since I'd already done three blogs in three days straight I figured, why not, I'll join in.

The Fabulous Four who have joined in this challenge are listed to the right under The 365 Club header. I'd love it if more people joined and, if you're willing to give it a shot, I'll be happy to add your name to the list. The more the merrier.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do if someone misses a day. Do I give them a grace period or do they get immediately removed from the list? I'm not sure yet. It would be interesting to see if there is one last man standing and how long everyone will last.

As Jeff said, if nothing else, it gives us all something interesting to read every night about what the others are doing. And, I'm all for that.

Have a great day! Only three hundred and fifty eight days to go!

Jake Maddox Wears Macbeth Shoes

2012-01-06T11:32:00.002-07:00

This week I finished up my sixty second book for the Jake Maddox line of sports books for children. Sixty two books! I look at that number now and remember a time when I really wanted to do a children's book and wished someone would give me the chance. And now I've done sixty two of them all for one company.

Here are a few interior shots of one of the books that was recently published called BMX Challenge.

You'd think doing black and white interiors on a book would be easier than doing full color and, while you'd be right, you can see that it's not so easy. Over the years of doing these book interiors each piece has turned into a little gray-scale painting that is sometimes even more challenging than painting in full color. But, it always seems to work out and it's a whole different way of creating a piece than if I had every color in the world on my palette. I've really come to enjoy it.

Another thing on the newly published books I snuck in is that I had a few of the main characters wearing my favorite shoes by a company called Macbeth Footwear. I used to simply put the characters in Chuck Taylors or generic sneakers but I've always really loved the little "M" design on the Macbeth shoes and it seems to fit well when you have a character pedaling bikes or riding skateboards. Plus, it's nice to know that the Macbeth company themselves have seen that I do this from time to time and, instead of getting mad at me or threatening to sue, they really encouraged me to keep doing it and loved that I used their sneakers this way.

Now if I could just get an endorsement deal I'd be all set.

The other cool thing about these books is that I'll be sending signed copies out to a fundraiser for child literacy where the books will be auctioned off and the proceeds will then be used to buy more books for kids in need who can't afford their own. I couldn't say no to such a cause and I hope these books do some good for them and help a few kids out.

OK, back to the drawing board to work up some new stuff. Enjoy your weekend and have a great day!

Sports Illustrated Kids November Illustrations

2012-01-05T12:55:00.004-07:00

As the new year starts up I've begun the next round of illustrations for the Sports Illustrated Kids "What's The Call" article. I did some thumbnails for the new pieces this week and am just waiting back for the go ahead from my awesome art director so I can keep moving forward.

So, while waiting, I thought it might be a great time to show off a few of the illustrations I did for last November's issue.

First off, a baseball player hits a home run but his leg cramps up as he rounds second base and he cannot finish rounding the bases. Is he allowed to be replaced by a pinch runner?

Second, an NFL punter muffs the snap and the ball drops to the ground. Instead of pouncing on the ball and covering it up, he kicks the ball off the ground? Is this legal?

And, last but not least, during a track relay, Runner A prepares to pass of the baton to the Runner B, who is running the anchor leg. As the handoff is made, one of Runner B¹s feet is outside of the exchange zone, though the baton itself is inside the zone. Does this qualify as a legal baton exchange?

You're the official on the field. So, you tell me...

What's the call?

Have a great day!

OilCan Drive Trading Cards

2012-01-04T12:26:00.009-07:00

As busy as I was over the holidays trying to get all of the client work done I did find myself one night, at 3am, sketching out this new OilCan Drive piece of artwork.

The first art job I had coming out of the Kubert school was working as an assistant artist at a studio that specialized in creating comic book trading cards. During that time trading card sets were all the craze and, recently, I've found myself really missing those days.

I did some research and looked around the web for places that can print trading cards and I've found a few that can do some really good cards for not that much money. So, of course, my mind started racing. One of the things I comfort myself with while I am so busy doing client work is all the projects and ideas I want to explore once I have some free time. And, over the years, the idea of doing OilCan Drive trading cards keeps coming back into the forefront of my mind.

So, I did this quick sketch late at night which is 200% the size of a printed trading card. I just wanted to see how it felt to draw a card this size and see what I could come up with. And, it was nice to just sketch something for fun that wasn't for work. I think I need to do that more often.

And, while I'm not sure I'll go ahead with finishing this piece (I didn't like the way Ryan came out too much but I did really like the way both Nicole and Vince came out) it was nice to play a bit.

It's also not the first time I've been thinking about doing a trading card set. If you'll look at this blog post I did over two years ago you'll find I was already trying to figure out a way to package a set of trading cards if I ever get them done.

So, who knows, it may not be the last time we see an OilCan Drive trading card idea. It's just something that I can't get out of my head.

Have a great day!

So Long Lisa CD Cover

2012-01-03T15:00:00.002-07:00

After a few go rounds with the musicians in So Long Lisa it looks like the CD to their debut EP album "Seven Signs You're A Superhero" is done and ready to go to press. Once the album is out I'll be sure to put a link up here to where you can find it.

The art itself wasn't that bad to produce but when it came time to fit all the information that the band wanted onto the CD sleeve something had to give. Originally the lyrics to each song were to be put on the interior sleeve but, with how many words there were and how intricate the background behind those words would be, I feared the type would be so small and cluttered that it would be unreadable.

So we compromised and I simply but the band member's names on the interior sleeve and we called the cover done.

And yes, lest you forgot, that is a room in my house posing as the background for the Irish band. One friend who came over during the holidays mentioned that I look like I live in a house designed by a fourteen year old filled with a big TV, movies, art, posters on the wall, and all sorts of musical gear at every turn.

I've decided to take that as a compliment.

Have a great day!

The Year in Review

2012-01-02T12:45:00.006-07:00

At the start of every year I like to go back and reflect on all the blogger headers I created over the past year. It really is a good indication of how the year has gone and what I want to change in the coming year.

For every blog header I make I'd ideally like to use my own personal art and characters I've created. It's just more "mine" that way. But, more often than not, I find myself running out of days in the month and need to put something new on the blog header so I'll grab whatever art I can. Usually this means some client art I've created that I'm pretty proud of.

So, looking back over the year it looks like I didn't do too badly. Nine out of the twelve headers were from personal pieces (even though I didn't have time to color one of them and I did the December Mr. Mucho piece rather quickly.) Five were from OilCan Drive, two were from Exit 6, one was a pin-up piece, and one was Mr. Mucho.

This January, being so busy, I had to use another client piece of art for the header. So that leaves me only eleven more spots to get it right this year. And, if I want to beat last year's record I can only falter once.

So, hang on, it should be an interesting year!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:41:00.003-07:00

It's 2012! Bring on the robots!

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and that this year is better for you than the last! Here we go!

Finished Robot Girl

2011-12-31T14:33:00.002-07:00

It's been a busy week of finishing up projects to send out to clients on Monday but I found some time to finish up the robot girl and get her painted.

And, not only did I do the piece the client needed but I also finished up my first idea of her and colored that as well. It's been a while since I had a chance to paint a metal person and, I have to say, I really miss it. I first learned to paint metal back in college by studying the work of Sexy Robot artist Hajime Soryama. Just seeing the way he did stuff and having a few things explained to me really helped me understand how metal works on a body. And, what I first learned to do with the airbrush I can now do in the computer with the same idea.

Personally, I loved the way this piece turned out and I wish I could do more cool stuff like this for clients. But, if nothing else, I can always do stuff like this for myself. A character like this might need to be put into the OilCan Drive universe just because I like her so much. We shall see.

And, because I was curious to see how it looked, I did a full black and white image of the robot girl using a zip-a-tone type pattern on her and making the image strictly black and white with no color and no grays, just black lines and dots. I love the way this stuff looks and something about it really speaks to me. It's funny, the more involved I get in doing fully painted pieces and intricate photo realistic backgrounds the more I find myself drawn back to the simple stuff I loved as a kid. Just black and white line art with tones.

I love that look and I think it worked well with this piece of a sexy robot girl.

Have a great New Year's Eve! See you all in the New Year! Be safe!

Inking the Robot Girl

2011-12-27T14:22:00.004-07:00

Since I liked my original pencil sketch of the robot girl and the client wanted a slightly different face on her for the finished version I did something I rarely ever do with client work. I decided to finish both versions.

So, I inked up my original version and then created a separate face that I could then paste on digitally for the final piece. The new face is on a piece of board that has a lot of other images on it including some Sports Illustrated stuff and some work for another client. I figured it was such a small piece of art why put it on a piece of paper all its own when I could fit it on a piece with a bunch of other images.

So now it's on to scanning these two pieces into the computer and adding some color. It's getting there.

Have a great day.

Robot Girl Pencils

2011-12-26T11:28:00.002-07:00

Continuing the work I showed off in this blog post, I did some more detailed pencil sketches of the robot girl for my client.

My original idea was to make her a bit like a Terminator endo-skeleton but that quickly lost out to the idea of making her a sexy female version of C3-Po from Star Wars. I liked the idea of putting plates all over her body but still having all these gears and wires and circuits still peaking out from under her outer shell. I especially liked all the mess of wires and such I did for her brain.

I sent this first sketch off and the feedback I got was that her face looked a little too cute and fun. It was suggested that maybe she have a human face that was made out of metal instead of the original robot face I gave her.

So, I did a quick sketch and came up with a human face I could pop on over her robot face. But, honestly, I love that original face so much I just might go ahead and finish that one as well, just for myself.

The second version has been approved so now it's on to inking her and adding some color. I haven't painted metal in quite a while and I'm really looking forward to doing in Photoshop what I learned to do years ago with an airbrush.

This piece, by far, has been one of my favorite I've worked on in a long time. It's been fun to stretch my creativity and work with a client who trusts the vision I have and let me take it to a satisfying end.

Now, on to the inking and coloring.

Have a great day!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T23:24:00.003-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a nice weekend. As always, here is my favorite Christmas song of all time, Bruce Springsteen's "Pilgrim in the Temple of Love":

And, if the player above doesn't work you can find the original music file HERE.

Merry Christmas!

It's Official

2011-12-24T12:45:00.005-07:00

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! The last few weeks have continued to be busy but the good news is that I'll have a lot of new art to show off once I dig my way out of the pile of work I've found myself in. It's telling that today, on Christmas Eve, I'm still working away trying to get ahead on a few projects before I head out the door and down to Denver.

But, I did find one day off last week and I spent it with Monika going out to do a little shopping. It was the first day we'd had off together in a long time and we decided, since we are getting married next June, to go out and look for a ring. The plan was to get some lunch and then head out of town down to Westminster to look around a few of the bigger diamond suppliers. But, for those of you who live anywhere near me, you know we got a ton of snow dumped on us both Wednesday night and Thursday morning. So, by the time we got out of the house on Thursday the roads were covered in snow and driving down to Westminster wasn't really high on my list of things to want to do.

The roads were so bad I actually got stuck coming out of my garage's driveway. The problem is that once you come out of the garage you take a sharp left turn and then go up a hill. Well, I got half way up the unplowed hill and the tires started spinning. I threw it into four wheel drive but that didn't seem to help at all. I couldn't even back up to the bottom of the small hill to get a jump start. And, even though I was slowly getting up the hill as my wheels spun, I pretty much had myself turned in such a way that I was stuck between the building and the fence to the side with no way to go forward or back. But, with the help of a few guys and a lot of pushing, I got up the hill and out of the neighborhood. Apparently the light on my jeep that says the four wheel drive is engaged simply means the light on my dashboard is working. I don't think I had four wheels going at all. Ah well. We were off.

Because we couldn't head down to one of the bigger diamond whole-salers we decided to see what kind of little shops were around where we were going for lunch. One place, right up the street from the restaurant, looked promising, so we left the jeep and walked over to the small store.

I really enjoyed the place and liked the man who owned it. We looked at a few rings, talked to him, and found one Monika really liked. But, we wanted to check one more seller so we left the store and went to another place across the street. And that place just didn't feel right. It felt very impersonal and not warm at all. After looking at a few rings there we both decided to head back across the street and pull the trigger on the ring Monika really loved.

At the start of our trek Monika was convinced God didn't want us to be married because he had thrown a snow storm in the way of us getting a ring. She wondered why things had to be so hard. But, after finding the ring in this nice little locally owned jewelers I am convinced God had us on the right track all along.

So, here is the engagement ring. And even though Monika was there when I bought it I plan to present it to her tonight at her family's home when we go down to Denver for a Christmas Eve dinner. Hopefully she says yes.

Wish me luck!

Ace Kilroy Kickstarter

2011-12-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of my friends Rob Kelly and Dano O'Connor's Ace Kilroy Kickstarter campaign. So, if you've been thinking about donating any funds, today is your last chance to give a little cash and maybe make a difference in a few of my creative friends lives.

And, even if you don't have any cash to spare, you can still check out the daily Ace Kilroy comic strip they've been running since October 31st HERE. It's a fun story and I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far. I was lucky enough to see a preview of all of the current strips months ago and we're finally almost at the point where I have no idea what is going to happen next. I'm looking forward to seeing some all new stuff and see where the adventure takes us.

And even if Rob and Dan don't make their goal with the Kickstarter campaign I have no doubt that they'll figure something out to keep Ace Kilroy coming for a long time. And that alone is something to be proud of.

I'm very proud of both of these guys.

Robot Girl

2011-12-13T00:46:00.003-07:00

Here is one of the projects I've been working on during the last few weeks. It's an illustration of a robot girl and here is the illustration in the early stages of development.

I did a few preliminary thumbnail sketches to make sure I was getting across the idea that the client wanted and then I did the sketch on the left in light blue non-reproducible pencil. I also showed this to the client to make sure the pose I had done using parts of both thumbnails she liked still looked good.

So far so good and now it's off to give this sexy robot girl some details.

Have a good one.

Playing With Music

2011-12-12T12:18:00.004-07:00

As busy as I've been one of the things I've been reading to take my mind off of how much illustration work I have on my plate right now is a book called "The Art of Mixing."

When I let a professional recording engineer listen to some of my music the advice he gave me was to learn about both compression techniques and how to use EQ. So, I've been reading trying to understand both. And this book really has it all. When I sit and read it at lunch I'm often asked if I am in school for music engineering because this thing is huge and looks like a required reading textbook. I tell people, "no, I just like to learn," and keep on reading.

And not only am I learning more about compression and EQ but this guy also explain in depth about how sound actually works, why EQ works the way it does, and other fun techniques.

On a chapter about reverb techniques and why reverb works the way it does, the author brought up a technique called "preverb." He said it was, by far, the most evil thing in the mixing process that an engineer can do. So, of course, I had to try it.

I took my good friend Adam Trapani's song, Start a Riot, from a demo he did a few years ago, and tried out this evil technique. Basically, you take the track and play it backwards. You then put some reverb on the backwards track and then flip the whole thing back to it's original forward playing state. This way, the reverb is actually coming before the original sound is played. It's used a lot in horror films and it is definitely the way you've heard a ghost or spirit talk in many a horror movie. It's eerie, it fills up some space, and I love it.

As the author says, it's a technique only the Devil could do. Because how could an echo happen BEFORE the sound? It must be the Devil's work.

I also left in a few of the backwards tracks in my final mix, most notably in the start of the song and during the bridge. It's funny how a lot of the sounds in my head that I've been trying to figure out how to create cane be found in these few techniques. Now I have a few more tools in my toolbox for when I go play with the OilCan Drive stuff.

But, for now, back to work. Have a good one and I'll talk to you soon.

Here is the original track, before I messed with it at all:

And here is the mix I did with the preverb and backwards effects:

If you can't see either of the players above you can find the files for the original track HERE and the remixed preverb track HERE.

Falling Off the Planet

2011-12-11T22:46:00.002-07:00

That's about how I've felt these past few weeks. At least when it comes to writing in this blog and doing any kind of personal work. I feel like I've really fallen off the planet and, once I do that for a few days, it always makes it that much harder to start anything up again.

But, this weekend was the first time in a long time that I could see a light at the end of the tunnel and I didn't feel totally overwhelmed by everything. So, that means it must be getting better, right?

Only a few more weeks and I should have everything wrapped up and have some free time to get back to all things OilCan Drive and Exit 6. But, in the mean time, I'll try and post a few pieces of what's been keeping me so busy. All of it has been interesting.

And, I did find some time to play with the GoPro camera this afternoon. I set it up on a tripod on my deck and pointed it west as the sun went down. I set it up to take a photo every five seconds and, after a while, I had over a thousand photos. I plugged those into Windows Movie Maker, sped the whole thing up, added a little music, and you can see the results below.

I'll be back. Have a great day!

Happy December!

2011-12-01T12:17:00.003-07:00

While it looks like this month will be so busy that I won't have time to do my annual Christmas card to send out to friends, family, and clients, I couldn't let the year go by without drawing one of my favorite characters, Mr. Mucho!

For the last few years I've used Mr. Mucho on my holiday cards in a variety of poses and situations. It's always been fun to see what kind of trouble I can get him into every year. So, it made me a bit sad that so much client work has come through in the past few weeks that I wasn't going to have time in my schedule to do much of anything else.

It made me miss my little creation so much that last night, after I got done with the client work for the day, I sat down and did a quick marker sketch of Mr. Mucho and scanned and colored him in the computer. I figured I needed at least something new and festive for the blog if nothing else.

So, here is your yearly dose of Mr. Mucho. He wishes you all a happy holiday season even though you may not be seeing him in your mail box this year. It doesn't mean I don't care any less. It just means that while you're out there getting ready for the holidays I'll be working away, getting everything a little bit more done each day.

Have a great December and happy holidays!

Sports Illustrated Kids October Illustrations

2011-11-30T20:15:00.003-07:00

It has been an incredibly busy last few weeks and, more than once in the last few days, I have felt like I might have bitten off more than I can chew. But, I just keep working along every day and, little by little, things seem to be getting done.

Of course, I did work a little bit on Thanksgiving and I did spend the holiday weekend chained to the art table but I did have some great food that Thursday so I really can't complain.

Ah, the life of a freelance artist where weekends and holidays don't mean much but I always tell myself it's better than digging ditches and I am still amazed I get paid to do something I love so much.

Sorry the blog has suffered in the last week but here are a few illustrations that graced the pages of October's Sports Illustrated Kids magazine. See if you can tell what's going on and let me know what you think the call is.

Have a great day!

Alternate Soccer Cover

2011-11-21T11:46:00.005-07:00

It was a really busy weekend and I spent most of it chained to the drawing table getting multiple projects a little further along on their journey to completion.

But, I didn't want to neglect the blog for too long so here is one of the alternate illustrations I did for the Jake Maddox covers I showed you last week. The kid playing soccer was my first attempt at the the cover before I was told to change it entirely and then to change it again until I finally got to the final piece. I didn't need to ink any of this character but I was messing around one night and I liked him so I laid some ink over him. I guess I didn't like his arms or legs too much because I stopped with inking a head and a torso.

Oh, and the headless basketball figure next to him? The one that was actually used for the cover? Well, when I did my initial illustrations for the covers I was working from provided photo reference and all the characters had their heads looking to the left or right. After I penciled them I was told that they wanted all the characters looking at the viewer. So, instead of erasing a perfectly good head and working over an erased and marred piece of illustration board I simply drew a new head separate from the body and digitally attached it once everything was scanned into the computer. It looks a little creepy here but it all turned out well in the end.

OK, back to work for me. But I thought it would be cool to show off some of the work that didn't quite make the cut.

Have a great day!

Troubles and a New Toy

2011-11-17T12:15:00.004-07:00

On Tuesday night I was working away on the computer I use to do all my artwork and music. After a while I started smelling something that had the odor of burnt plastic. I looked at the computer and hit the whole thing with a little compressed air. Then it smelled like burning bacon.

I walked around to the back of my desk and took a look at the computer from the back. The power source fan was not spinning at all, no air was blowing, and the whole power unit was burning hot to the touch. I shut the computer down. I knew I needed a new power unit but the last one I bought was at the now defunct CompUSA. I didn't know if anyone in town would actually have what I needed on a shelf and I was afraid I'd have to order something online and wait a few days and hope it would serve my needs.

It was too late at night to roam out around town looking for something so I'd have to do it in the morning. Needless to say I didn't sleep to well on Tuesday night.

I woke up early on Wednesday, unable to sleep, and set out to find my computer a new power source. I went to a local electronics shop I'd done some business with and asked if they had what I needed. I didn't think a big box store would have computer parts so I figured a local place might be my best bet. Turns out they didn't sell anything like that anymore but the guy behind the counter suggested Best Buy. I've bought TVs, DVD players, CDs, and DVDs at Best Buy but I didn't know if they had actual useful computer parts. I was a little skeptical but I took a drive over there anyway.

And, what do you know, they had exactly what I needed. Actually, the power unit they had was more than I needed but I was just happy to have something in hand. I was so happy I walked around Best Buy for a bit looking for an item I'd been reading about online for the last few days.

While watching the Amazing Race I noticed they used and were promoting a little video camera called the GoPro HD Hero2. It's one of those cameras that has all sorts of rigs you can build and attach it to helmets, a bike, or even the end of a surfboard. I've never owned a video camera in all of my life. The closest I have is the little webcam built into my laptop computer. The webcam works great but it's hard to run around with a laptop shooting video or suspending it above my art board so I can get some video of myself drawing.

So, feeling good about finding the power source, I bought myself a new toy. I am now the proud owner of a GoPro HD Hero2 camera. I even bought a few accessories for it so I could mount it in different spots. And, what's coolest of all, it lives inside a little plastic case that not only protects it but is water tight up to about 190 feet. I'm not about to go throw it into the pool anytime soon but it's nice to know I can.

After I went to lunch I got back to the studio to fix my computer. While I dealt with emails and phone calls from clients I had my computer on the floor, cover off, and pieces all over the place. I used to be a guy who was scared to even take the cover off of the computer for fear it would shine some holy light on me like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and melt my face off. Now here I was, cover off, ripping out wires and power sources, fingers crossed that when I put it all back together it would work.

And, luckily, everything is now working better than ever.

With the work of the day done it was time to play with my new toy.

I rigged up one of my microphone stands so it now holds the camera as well as one of my vocal mikes. This way, I figure, I can record both audio and video in separate ways and then link them back together in post editing and get the best of both worlds. It took some playing to figure out some of the camera settings but here are a few tests I did with it.

First, using the microphone stand, I mounted the camera above my art desk. Originally I focused and framed the camera on a huge piece I've been working on that is 28"x17". So, when I threw that aside and started drawing on a little 8.5"x11" piece of copier paper I didn't quite have the shot framed right. But, you get the idea. And, if you click through to YouTube to watch this video, it's in 1080 hi def. The music I added is from the Angels and Airwaves' album Love, Part One. It's an instrumental of the song "Hallucinations."

And here is the second video test I did. I mounted the camera to my bike's handlebars and set off. I walked with Monika over to her gym and then took a quick ride around the block. It was a bit too cold to go on my hour long bike ride and I really wanted to see how the camera worked in low light. It turns out, when there is any decent light present like a lamp post, it looks really good. But when there isn't much light it almost goes completely dark. I sped up the video about four times so it wouldn't get too boring. No music on this one but I also muted the sound of me pedaling away.

So, what started out as a day full of not sleeping, being anxious, and feeling nervous, turned into a great day after all. Don't you love it when that happens?

OK, back to work for me. Have a great day!

Soccer Cover Figure

2011-11-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the last cover I did for the latest round of Jake Maddox books and, believe me, it was the one that gave me the most headaches.

For the covers of this round of books I was given some photo mock-ups created by my art director to give me an idea of what he had in mind and how he wanted the figures to look. I went through and penciled all of the figures and did my best to match his ideas. There were a few initial changes that needed to be made and, overall, most of the figures were a go ahead to finish. But not this soccer kid. I made the changes, sent them back in, and was told that no one was really feeling the action. I was sent another photo that everyone agreed was better and I did a new pencil sketch based on that. Nope, no one liked that one either.

So, instead of sending me another photo I was told to do what I thought would look cool. I did a quick pencil sketch and emailed it over. And, what do you know, that was the one that was chosen to go to a finished piece. It took a while but I'm glad I finally got there and I'm happy with the way this guy turned out.

And, while I have finally read the basketball book I did the cover for the other day, I still have yet to read the story about this soccer player. So, I am really hoping I got the feel of this guy right and it works with the interior story of the book.

Hopefully I'll know soon enough.

Have a great day!

Basketball Cover Figure

2011-11-13T15:36:00.002-07:00

Another one of the books I am doing for the Jake Maddox series is a new basketball book. The difference between this cover figure and the two I showed earlier is that, on the other two, I had read the books and already illustrated the interiors. I had already lived with the characters for a bit and had a good feel for them artistically.

This and the next one I am going to show I was asked to illustrate with no idea what the story was about, who the characters were, or what they even looked like.

I never like doing covers this way as I fell the cover should be the last piece you do when you illustrate a book. I feel it should be the best of the interior work and really portray a good sense of what happens in the book. Drawing the cover this way and having the cover be my first stab at the character always feels very backwards to me.

But, there are deadlines to meet and I understand this. I don't have to like it, I just have to do it.

But, I still think the piece came out well and I'm looking forward to starting the interior of the book sometime this week.

Have a great day.

Baseball Cover Figure

2011-11-11T21:28:00.002-07:00

Here is the cover figure I did for the latest Maddox book I just finished.

It's the story of a little league baseball catcher who has lost his mojo and can't seem to throw the ball back to the pitching mound much less throw a base stealer out at second.

Here's hoping he can figure it all out before the next big game!

Have a great weekend!

Football Cover Figure

2011-11-10T21:54:00.003-07:00

As promised earlier this week here is the full color piece I did for one of the newer Maddox books.

Like I said before, since the colors will probably change by the time this piece sees print, I painted this illustration in layers to make it easier for the editors and designers to change my work. There is a layer of color under a layer of shading and, as far as I know, there will be some sort of background behind him.

As to what it will look like when it's all completed I have no idea. But, this is how I would have colored him if it was up to me. We'll have to see what changes on him once the piece sees print early next year.

Have a great day!

Exit 6 Pin-Ups

2011-11-09T20:09:00.002-07:00

Alright, the initial first draft of the Exit 6 book has been completely written. I am taking a quick breather before I take some time to go through everything I have written and make sure it is all written well and makes sense. The last section I had to write about before the first draft was finished was a chapter on all the artists who did pin-ups for me through the books first publication run.

From left to right, top to bottom, the artists who did the above pieces are Dan Eaker, Rob Kelly, Ken Truhan, Dominic Tucci, Jermaine Newman, Craig Patrick, and Dan O'Connor.

It was fun writing pieces on all my old friends who contributed some art to my little book. It also gave me a chance to get online, find some websites, discover what everyone is up to now, and share that information with the readers.

And it was fun to revisit how different artists rendered my characters. Thanks guys for taking the time to do these for me in the first place.

One more little step down and who knows how many more I have left to do before this book is finally a reality...

Have a great day.

Sports Illustrated Kids September Illustrations

2011-11-08T11:54:00.003-07:00

Here are a few more of the illustrations I did for Sports Illustrated Kids magazine a few months ago that were featured in the September issue.

Here is what I was told about each piece:

1) A pitcher throws a pitch. The batter swings and misses, but the catcher misjudges the ball, and it gets stuck in the catcher's facemask. (I'm not really sure what the question is on this one but I did like drawing the movement of both the batter swinging and the catcher getting a ball right in the face...)

2) A women's college lacrosse attackman takes a shot but the ball whizzes by the goal and rolls toward the out-of-bounds line. On a shot out of bounds, the ball is awarded to the person closest to it. Player A outraces Player B, but player B holds her stick out in front of her so that it is closer to the ball than Player A's. Who gets possession?

3) A running back on Team A takes a hand-off and finds an opening in the defense. Just as he is about to cross the goal line, a safety on Team B catches up to him and punches the ball out of his grasp. The ball rolls out of the back of the end zone. Who gets possession and where is the ball placed?

So, if you're the official on the field, what's the call?

Have a great day.

Zip-A-Tone Test

2011-11-06T18:07:00.003-07:00

Here is another quick test I did this weekend.

Last week I was finishing up the latest round of kids book covers for the Jake Maddox sports line of stories. Usually I do full paintings for the covers, create the backgrounds, and turn in a finished piece of art. But, the last time around the art director and editors went through each piece of art I did, warped the backgrounds, and changed every color I painted on every character. Yellows turned to reds, bike colors were changed, you name it.

So, for this round, to make it easier for them to change my art, I was asked to keep the characters in layers of color. This meant I had one layer of flat color and one layer on top of it with the shadows. This way they could just go into the color layer, change the colors, and all the rendering and shadows on the characters would be kept intact.

I am beginning to feel less and less like and artist and more like someone who is simply creating jig-saw puzzle pieces so someone else can put together the puzzle. But, that's not the point of this post.

Anyway, to do a quick zip-a-tone test (making basic gray scale painting into dots of pure black and white to replicate gray) I took the shaded layer and put it through a few tests in Photoshop. Basically what I am trying to do is replicate the old zip-a-tone sheets of tone I used to use back in the days when I did Exit 6. I like it graphically a lot better than a simple gray wash over everything (to me, simply graying everything always turns everything muddy) and I think it turned out well.

Some of the future art I do will look like this but probably not as rendered in the shading with all the dots. But, I still think it was a successful test.

I'll try and find the time to post the full color covers I did last week so you can see what I've been up to. But, I can pretty much guarantee that what I show you here won't look anything like the printed product that will be coming out soon. Oh well...

Have a great day!

Test Page

2011-11-04T16:25:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking about starting a new OilCan Drive comic book story lately. The way I've always been taught to do comic book pages was to draw them at a 10"x15" size and then shrink them down to fit the actual book. But, I've been working at different sizes for so long lately that I thought I might be able to draw a comic book page a little smaller to save some time.

I figured it might be good to do a quick test page to get a feel for how it would be to draw the page at a smaller size. I have been so busy these past few weeks that I just never found time to do it. Until, one night, right before bed, I decided I'd sit down and simply draw out the boxes and see how big a space I was dealing with.

I started drawing and laying out the lines of the page at around 3am. Once I got the layout done I figured, to heck with it, I'm just going to sketch out the page until I am tired. So, with a blue pencil in hand, I started sketching away. And, in about half an hour this is what I came up with.

I shot the photo in color but turned it into a grayscale piece so you could see the drawing a bit easier. I did like the way the drawing felt at this size and sketching out the page gave me an idea of what I might need to change or some of the problems I need to address in the future when I do a page. One of the first problems I saw is that it's been so long since I've done a comic book page is that I didn't leave too much room for word balloons or dialogue. So, I'll need to keep that in mind a bit more when I start drawing actual pages.

And, as far as decisions, after doing this test page I think I will go back to the 10"x15" page size. It will give me more room to draw and, hopefully, will let me draw stuff around the same size but still leave room for dialogue.

But, it was still a good test. And it felt great to sketch out a comic book page again.

Have a great weekend.

New OilCan Drive Piece

2011-11-03T12:23:00.003-06:00

As promised the other day, here are a few photos of the work being done on the newest OilCan Drive piece that I used for the blog header this month.

I didn't do this piece for any real reason in particular other than I hadn't drawn the characters in a while and I simply missed them. It also gave me a chance to look at each character and think of ways I might change little details here and there as I looked at the finished piece. Some things I love but other little things bugged me so this piece helped me sort out some of those problems.

I also gave myself a few free hours yesterday to sit down after lunch at Einstein's Bagels and write a good chunk of the Exit 6 collected book. It felt a little weird to sit there for about three hours in the corner typing away but the people working there like me and came over to chat a few times as I worked. For some reason I have a hard time sitting at home and writing anything of length other than a blog post or an email. So it was nice to sit somewhere else for a while surrounded by people and just write.

The good news is that, because I sat there and gave myself the time to do it, the first draft of the Exit 6 book has been completely written. There is one more part I want to write about the people who did pin-ups for me when the original comics were published but the bulk of the story of how I worked on Exit 6 and what happened after is now complete. It felt good to write those last words and feel like I had completed something of worth in telling my story. Now I just need to go through the whole thing again and fix whatever needs fixing and then give it to someone else to read and see what they think.

But, after counting pages last night, depending on how I format the book, it looks like there will be about 230 pages of art with about 150 pages of the story behind Exit 6. I'm really looking forward to getting all of the writing done so I can get to the fun part of designing the book. But, one step at a time. I felt like yesterday I made a nice giant step.

OK, back to work for me. I have a few pages of a kids book to finish up today.

Have a great day!

Happy November!

2011-11-01T19:02:00.003-06:00

Wow, it's November already. Things have been so busy around here that I honestly can't remember the last time I took a whole day off of work. It's been so busy that I didn't even have time to color the newest OilCan Drive piece I did for the blog header. So, you'll have to live with just seeing some nice line art up there above the blog for the next month.

Tomorrow, when I have a bit more time, I'll show a few more photos and scans of this newest piece. But, for now, it's back to work.

Have a great month!

Ace Kilroy

2011-10-31T01:38:00.005-06:00

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween has been one I've been especially waiting for. And "why is that?" you ask? It's because this Halloween marks the launch date for a project a few old college friends of mine are doing called Ace Kilroy. Two of my good friends, Rob Kelly and Dan O'Connor, guys I met on my first day of art school, have teamed up to do a daily web comic book project and today is the day that the whole thing goes live.

You can check out Ace Kilroy at the main website HERE and the guys have launched a Kickstarter project to try and raise funds for the whole thing HERE.

And, the best thing about the Kickstarter project (well, to me at least)? Because I really liked the project and really wanted in on the fun I offered up my services and I got to do the video promo for the project. Yep, that's right, I believe in the project so much and think so much of these guys that I did both the audio and video for the project just so I could someday say, "yeah, I worked on the project once."

So, go take a look at the website and, if you like what you see, think about helping my friends out in their creative adventure. Oh, and here is the video I did. Enjoy that as well.

Have a great day!

I Need a Hero! Part 8, Finished!

2011-10-30T15:51:00.003-06:00

Well, those of you who chose the fourth Chase Cooper version yesterday as the one that was used were dead on right. Give yourself a prize!

Although, I never thought of the reason Manu gave as to why the logo I designed wasn't used. Manu apparently thinks of things that never even enter my mind. The reason I was given that my logo wasn't used was that it looked like it could easily be confused with an "E" and didn't read enough like a "C". Manu apparently thought it had something to do with the way the dark red background of the "C" looked a little too much like a phallic symbol. Believe me, I wish I was smart enough to be that subversive. I'm just not. ha ha

But, here is the finished version of the illustration and the book that it was used on. Ann Wachtler was kind enough to send me a copy of the book along with a great "Thank You" card last week. The book is now on my pile of things I need to read when I find some free time.

You can find a copy of "Super Power of the Day" HERE and, if you'd like, you can read all about the design of the book and how Ann is marketing the book on her own blog HERE.

It was a fun job and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few books bring.

Have a good one.

I Need a Hero! Part 7

2011-10-29T06:16:00.001-06:00

After getting the inking done I went straight to the computer and started coloring away. There were a few changes and variations made but, at the end of the day, the piece was done and the client was happy.

Now, let's see if you can guess which of these characters made the final cut and made it onto the cover of the finished book.

I'll post the final book tomorrow and we'll see if you guessed right.

Have a great day!

I Need a Hero! Part 6

2011-10-28T00:41:00.001-06:00

With the pencils approved and everything hunky dory I went back to the drawing board and started laying down some ink. It was a pretty straight up inking job and I always love doing these simple kind of characters where I can really play with the thick and thin of the ink lines.

And, while I got the inking done, I also did a color logo of the "C" emblem that would go on his chest. I wasn't sure if the client would like it or not but I really liked the way the 'C' turned into a part of the overall oval emblem.

Next up, a little bit of color.

Have a good one!

I Need a Hero! Part 5

2011-10-27T12:35:00.004-06:00

Boy hero Frankenstein!

Because the client liked a bit of each from the last two attempts I used the head of the second version of our hero and put it on the body of the third version. It fit well but I still missed the head and smile of the third version. Ah well, you can't win them all and when you're working for someone else your first goal is to make them happy.

So, with this version approved it was back to the drawing board to add some ink and go to color.

Progress!

I Need a Hero! Part 4

2011-10-26T02:33:00.004-06:00

With enough changes needed on the previous version of our hero I decided it might be easier to simply go back to square one and start over from scratch.

Using the thumbnail sketch I originally did as a template again I came up with this new penciled version.

Personally, this was, by far, my favorite look of all the pieces I did and I would have been super happy to simply ink him, color him, and have a great piece of artwork done and out the door.

But, while I was getting closer there was a little bit the client liked of this piece and a little bit the client liked of the previous versions. So, I went back to the old piece and did a little Doctor Frankenstein work on both pieces to create the ultimate super hero kid.

I wasn't there yet, but I was getting closer!

I Need a Hero! Part 3

2011-10-25T16:27:00.002-06:00

Even though it was back to the drawing board luckily I still had the original thumbnail to work from. So, I pulled that out of my sketchbook and did this new version of our hero.

The client didn't like the idea of giant manga type eyes so I went completely in the opposite direction and gave him a set of Lil' Orphan Annie button eyes. I really love the look of eyes like this but I had yet to find any client at all who liked the look. That was, until now.

I did a couple of changes at the client's request, making the eyes a bit bigger and giving more definition to his legs (which, thank God, we didn't end up using.)

I even came up with a logo for his chest.

We weren't quite there yet, but we were getting closer than my initial pencil sketch.

More tomorrow!

I Need A Hero! Part 2

2011-10-23T14:33:00.000-06:00

Geez. Alright. Let's try this one more time.

Sorry again. As busy as I said I was last time it got even busier and somehow I went through the exhaustion wall, came full circle, and feel perfectly fine now. So, at least I got that going for me.

Anyway, last time we left the blog I had done a thumbnail sketch for a new client for a superhero kid's book cover. I got the gig and sat down at the board to pencil out the character. This guy is the first thing I came up with.

Unfortunately, he strayed a bit too far away from that initial thumbnail sketch in body type and look. Luckily the client loved that thumbnail so I at least had something concrete to work off of. And, as much as I like this guy, after he was shot down it was, literally, back to the drawing board.

More tomorrow. Have a great day!

I Need a Hero!

2011-10-13T11:46:00.001-06:00

Wow, I actually meant to post this Monday but the week totally got away from me and, before I knew it, I was waking up and it was Thursday.

I started off last weekend totally exhausted and was having those days where, even though your body was up and moving around, your brain hadn't quite caught up. Luckily I took it easy on Sunday and got some rest because this week started off with a bang. I've been juggling penciling a new children's book and doing new designs for the next Sports Illustrated Kids illustrations while mixing the OilCan Drive CD. The days were flying by but things were getting done.

And now it's Thursday.

Anyway, with all the work I've been doing and haven't been able to show off yet I thought it would be a good time to let you in on a project I did a few months ago. I was contacted by a small children's book publisher who was doing a kid's superhero book. They wanted me to do the cover and asked me for a time frame and a price quote. Not only did I send them that information but I also sent them this little thumbnail sketch to show them what I thought the hero and his stance might look like.

Luckily I did that because it helped land me the job.

So, over the next few days I'll share with you the steps I did to finish the illustration and put the job to bed. It did become interesting as you'll find out.

Sorry about the long pause. Have a great day!

The New Deck and Windows

2011-10-07T23:35:00.005-06:00

It's been a bit of a slow day as far as illustration goes so I thought it would be a good time to show off my new windows, deck door, and deck.

Because I bought and live in a condo I am usually at the whim of my local HOA. I knew when I bought the place in 2004 that, at some point before 2012, I'd have to replace the windows of my home. But, back then, in 2004, 2012 seemed so far away I thought I'd either be dead or run out of town by the time that date came along. But, here it is, at the end of 2011, and I am still here. So, before the start of next year, I had to get the windows done. And I figured it was a better project to tackle in late summer/early fall than it would be in the middle of December trying to beat the next snow storm coming along.

And, once I got the windows done, I thought it was about time to do something about my deck. As you can see in the first photo of this post this is what I was working with. This is a photo of my next door neighbor's place and this, while not as bad, is what my outside third floor deck used to look like.

So I called my good friend Jeff over who has a lot more experience building and painting than I do. He is one of my best friends here in Boulder and, not only is he the best all around artist I know, the guy is amazing at home repair. He's just awesome. He took a quick look, told me what I needed to do, and, within a few weeks, got to work. Within a few days he had rebuilt the railing, resided the outside wall, and applied a new coat of paint to everything on the deck.

So, here is how my new deck with my new windows looks now. It's so much nicer than it was before and puts my neighbor's place to shame. And now I can enjoy the view of both the mountains and my own deck when I sit out there. Thank you, Jeff. You're the best!

Sports Illustrated Kids August Illustrations

2011-10-06T21:07:00.005-06:00

I figured it was about time I showed off a few more illustrations from my monthly Sports Illustrated Kids "What's the Call?" articles.

These images were shown in the August issue of the magazine and dealt with a quarterback pitching the football to himself while evading a tackle, an outfielder catching a baseball with his cap, and a tennis player who reaches over the net after a wildly back spinning ball bounces on his side of the court and then back over the net before he hits it.

So, there you go, what do you think the call is?

Have a great day.

Making Music

2011-10-05T15:33:00.003-06:00

The last few days have given me some time to myself while I wait for approval on a few client gigs. So, with some free time I've been working on a few music projects. If all goes well and I can get a few things recorded this afternoon it will mean that all of the instrument parts for the OilCan Drive EP CD will be done and all that will be left to do is vocals, singing, and then mixing and mastering the album. I know, easier said than done but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter all the time.

I did another musical project this week that I figured would be fun to talk about. A friend of mine (who will remain nameless until the project is completed and out there in the world) did a little opening video sequence that he wants to use for a series of videos that shows him working on his various projects. He sent me what he had put together and, after watching it a few times, I could hear the music I thought should accompany the images.

I sent him a quick drum demo of how I thought the whole thing should be broken down and added some band photo images I have in a folder on my computer. Basically I wanted to make sure the look and feel were there before I went on and did the actual music. It looked like this:

We talked on the phone a bit. With the way I structured the drums I could mathematically determine exactly how long each image should be on the screen. I got the OK from him and set about to do the actual music. It was really fun and I felt like an actual composer for a commercial or a film or something. I just wish I could actually get a twenty piece orchestra into my living room and record them live. Of course, I would have no idea how to tell them what I actually wanted to hear. I can't actually write music and I've found that trying to explain to someone what I am actually seeing or hearing in my head never turns out quite so well. But, we make do with what we have. So, in the end, this is the music I came up with for the video:

He called me after I sent it to him and told me he loved it and that he owes me a lunch. So, I am going to consider lunch actual payment and call this my first ever professional gig as a music composer. That'll look good on the resume someday. ha ha.

OK, back to work on OilCan Drive.

Have a great day!

The Final Kodiak

2011-10-02T12:54:00.003-06:00

I got some feedback from my friend about the Kodiak logo late last week. I had to sift through what everyone on the hockey team said and, from what I came away with, I rounded out the top of the bear's head, added some details to his neck, and gave him a few pupils in his eyes. Personally, I liked the idea of the white eyes for the logo but I did want to make everyone happy.

I also started messing around a bit with the lettering for the Kodiak logo and sent my friend a few variations of fonts that I thought might work.

Unfortunately, soon after I sent both these images off I got an email telling me that the team took a vote and decided, for monetary reasons, to keep playing in the old jerseys they've been wearing for a few years. Oh well.

But, not to worry. I never let anything go to waste. I'm sure I'll be using this image somewhere in the near future when I need a logo for a sports team or for a sign in the background. Everything here in the studio, even if it's not used as intended, finds a home.

But, if anyone needs a bear logo I can now sell you one. Cheap.

Have a great day.

Happy October!

2011-10-01T15:59:00.004-06:00

With a new month comes another new blog header. While I had planned to keep the blog headers confined to only original art done by me for the Exit 6 and OilCan Drive projects this month totally got away from me with a mix of client work, helping out friends, and getting some projects done that had nothing to do with illustration.

So, because the major league baseball playoffs started last week I figured it wouldn't be entirely out of place to put a baseball piece I did for Sports Illustrated Kids in the lead spot this month. And, that the player has a nice orange color to his uniform is just a bonus but it does give him that nice autumn October feel.

OK, have a great day. Back to work for me!

Kodiak Hockey Logo - First Pass

2011-09-30T22:04:00.002-06:00

My friend liked the front-on view of the bear logo I did in yesterdays thumbnails. Because he wanted it more graphic than illustrative or cartoony, and because all of a sudden he had a tight deadline, I decided to simply draw over my thumbnail in the computer.

Using mostly the oval marquee tool in Photoshop I started building the curves that made up the bear's face and added detail and double stroked lines here and there. I only built up the left side of the bear's face since I was going for perfect symmetry. Once I got the design and level of detail I liked I copied the left side, flopped it, and had a perfect mirror image of the bear.

But, when I put it all together he seemed a little thin to me so I messed with him a bit and widened the whole piece out. I like the wider version of the logo but we'll have to see what my friend thinks.

And, it's not just him I need to make happy. I have a whole hockey team of guys who I'm sure are going to throw in a few changes here and there. We'll have to see what happens from here.

Have a great day.

Kodiak Hockey Logo

2011-09-29T12:40:00.002-06:00

I was recently asked by a friend of mine who plays in a hockey league in Olympia, WA if I'd design a new logo for his teams new jerseys. It seems, when the team started playing in that league, one of the guys picked up a ton of jerseys off of Ebay for cheap. The jerseys had a bear on the front of them and instead of griping about it the team simply became the Kodiaks.

But now with new members joining and those old jerseys being a bit worn out my friend thought it was time for some new jerseys. And because he knows me and knows I love hockey he asked me if I wouldn't mind helping him out with the design.

After looking at his current logo I sketched out these thumbnail ideas to see what he thought. We both agreed on the idea of the head-on bear growling so now it's time to get going on a more finished illustration and see where things go.

And, if all goes well, I'll be sporting a new Kodiak jersey myself in Boulder, CO while my friend does all the real work skating, getting roughed up, and trying to score goals in Olympia, WA. Seems like a good trade to me.

Have a great day!

Sports Illustrated Kids July Illustrations

2011-09-27T22:16:00.003-06:00

I just finished up the illustrations for the November issue of the Sports Illustrated Kids "What's The Call" article and I realized I haven't shown off any of the previous illustrations in a while. Sorry about that.

So, without further ado, here are the three illustrations I did for the July issue of SIK. My favorite thing about the three of these illustrations is that the football team names were the Wookies versus the Jedi Knights. You just can't beat fun stuff like that.

Enjoy the illustrations and have a great day!

Going Gray

2011-09-25T22:35:00.001-06:00

With the inking out of the way it's now time to scan the art into the computer and paint in the grays.

It's been a really long day so I am going to take a nice long bike ride and then crash. But, long days mean things are getting done. And that's always a good thing.

Have a good one!

Inked!

2011-09-24T22:54:00.002-06:00

My internet connection has been acting up the last couple of days. I woke up on Wednesday to find it randomly going on and off and it stayed that way all day. I'd get about five minutes of time online and then nothing for about half an hour. Then it would come back on for a few minutes before shutting me down again. By Thursday I had gotten used to it and I would watch the little blinking lights on my modem to let me know when I had a connection. Then I would rush to the computer, check my emails, and fire off some correspondence before the connection was dropped again.

I've since had the cable company come out and fix it by replacing the modem. But, I will have to say, it was almost peaceful not having a constant internet companion for a few days. And, you know what, I don't feel like I even missed a thing.

And it gave me some extra free time to get some inking done. So, that was a plus.

Have a great one!

Seven Signs

2011-09-21T23:35:00.001-06:00

The girl for the So Long Lisa CD cover is now colored and done and I've put together a mock up of the cover to show the band. It looks like, while the blue may change, we're going to go with a colored line background so the type stand out a bit easier once the liner notes are done.

Speaking of bands and music, with a little free time on my hands this afternoon I tackled some more of the OilCan Drive music project. It's getting there, slower than I'd like, but it's getting there. Tonight, after recording guitar and bass parts on more than half of a song, I'm still not sure if it's the best sounding thing I've ever done or simply a bunch of noise.

I think I'm doing good but I'm not really sure. Maybe once I listen to it tomorrow I'll be able to tell. I'm hoping, if I can carve out a free hour or two, I can record the acoustic guitar parts of the song tomorrow.

But, for now, I am off to bed. Have a great night!

And Here's the Band!

2011-09-20T14:59:00.002-06:00

After creating the piece of art out of my room yesterday the Irish band, So Long Lisa, requested that, somehow, they be featured in the room as well for the inside of the CD art.

So, using the room I had created, I had the lead singer of the band take a few photos of himself and the boys in various positions. He emailed me the photos and, through the magic of Photoshop, boom, a band from Ireland is now sitting in my room.

I am still waiting on word from the band about the liner notes but once that is done and figured out it should just be a matter of popping that information into the art and template I've created and we can call this piece done.

But, for now, it's back to getting other work going. Who knew becoming a professional freelance illustrator would mean juggling so many things at once?

Have a great day!

Building a Room

2011-09-19T11:40:00.003-06:00

I showed off a piece of art I was working on last week for a band in Ireland. Part of the deal I made for the Angels and Airwaves merchandise in exchange for the Star Wars pin-up also included me helping them out with the art for their first EP album. I already liked the band a lot and had done some work for them before so I was happy to help out.

The idea the band had for the cover of the album, called "Seven Signs You're a Superhero," was to have a girl in a sweatshirt, zipping it up over a t-shirt with the band's Superman like logo on her chest. No problem. I did that art last week and will show you the colored version here soon.

The next thing they wanted was to have her in her bedroom. They wanted a slightly messy room, filled with posters, music gear, and all sorts of stuff. Now, that sounded like a lot of stuff to draw and a lot of work for a few pieces of band merchandise. So I thought about creative ways around me actually having to draw the room. It would simply take too much time. I needed something quick. I needed a ready made room, something I could photograph and turn into art for the background.

Luckily, I have a room just like the one they wanted right in my house.

I moved some stuff around, took out the keyboards that usually line one wall of the room (there are no piano parts in the band's songs so I was asked to take the keyboards out) and made the room just a touch messy. I took a series of photos as I stood at one point in the room and pivoted around, shooting photos from various angles. I then took those photos and sticthed them together in Photoshop.

After a bit of messing around with various filters I filled in some grays, added some textures and, voila, instant art of a messy bedroom with music gear in it.

I'm pretty sure, once I get all the lyrics, copyright info, and liner notes the band wants to put on the EP cover that the background itself will actually be a colored line to make it easier for the type to stand out. But, for now, here it is in glorious black and white.

Of course, once the band saw the room, even though they loved it, they had one more request.

Now the members of the band wanted to be in the room themselves.

Break out the Photoshop. It's time to go back to work.

Have a great day.

The Inking Continues

2011-09-16T18:52:00.003-06:00

The inking on the kid's book continues. It's not done yet, but it's getting there.

Maybe before I go to bed tonight.

We shall see.

Have a great weekend.

The Vacation is Over

2011-09-14T23:48:00.003-06:00

Well, it's a good thing I took the day off yesterday because today the work all started up again. I got the go ahead on a kid's book I penciled last week to start inking so the brush and pens and templates came out and I spent most of the day chained to the art board.

But, it's going along well and I'm really liking the way everything is turning out.

I have more of the same planned tomorrow and probably Friday. I tried to get half of the book done today but, with the premiere of Survivor and the finale of Big Brother, the TV just captured too much of my attention tonight to hit that goal.

So it's up early tomorrow to tackle the book again and get a few more things done.

Now I'm really glad I took it easy yesterday when I had the chance.

Have a good one.

Day Off

2011-09-13T22:23:00.004-06:00

Today I took a long overdue and well deserved day off from doing much of anything at all. I didn't do any art on the computer, didn't chain myself to the drawing board, and didn't even think about playing any kind of music at all.

Instead, I had a late lunch, went to Barnes and Noble and bought a handful of books and magazines, and then came home and took a nap. I watched the end of the movie Minority Report while I ate dinner and then sat back and read most of the night.

Now I am off for my nightly bike ride to listen to some music and figure a few things out. All in all, a very nice day off.

But, the work does continue. Here is a piece of art I did last week for band in Ireland. They are putting out their debut EP album and I've been doing some artwork for the cover. It's coming along and this piece will be the main illustration on the cover. Now I just need to get the background done, get the type and lyrics from the band, and put the whole thing together.

But, I'll get to that tomorrow. For now, it's bike riding time.

Have a great one!

Stars Wars Finished!

2011-09-11T15:55:00.002-06:00

The end of this week has been super busy and I've been dividing my time between doing some client work and doing a lot of audio and video work that I can't talk about quite yet.

But, somewhere in the middle of all that, I found the time to color the Star Wars Han Solo and Princess Leia commission.

Enjoy and have a great rest of the weekend.

Cutest Kitten in the World

2011-09-07T15:02:00.003-06:00

My friend Brian first showed me this video he had made about a month ago. It had taken him an afternoon to put it together and I am still amazed at how great it looks for taking so little time.

So, today, he finally put it up on YouTube so I can share it with the world.

If you're a cat lover, you'll simply love this!

OK, back to work for me. I am penciling a new kid's book and I'm hoping to get it sketched out before I go to bed tomorrow night.

Have a great day!

Star Wars Inked!

2011-09-06T12:38:00.002-06:00

The Star Wars commissioned piece of Han Solo and Princess Leia has now been inked! It's ready to be scanned into the computer for a little color but first I need to tackle a little bit of client work over the next few days before that can happen.

So, for now, enjoy the slick ink lines and get yourself ready for some color!

Have a great day!

Star Wars Penciled

2011-09-04T12:33:00.002-06:00

The Star Wars commissioned piece is moving along and I found some time to get the penciling done a few days ago.

Once again I changed the photo to grayscale because that seems to make it much easier to show off the detail in the work.

Now it's back to the drawing board to throw some ink on the piece and get it into the computer for some color. I'm really enjoying the way it's coming out and I can't wait to see what it looks like once it's finished.

Have a great weekend!

From The Vault - Exit 6 How It Should Have Ended 1999-2000?

2011-09-02T12:33:00.002-06:00

Sometime after I stopped doing Exit 6 and put the story to bed unfinished I had an itch to tell how the story should have ended. I had the idea to skip ahead and simply draw the last chapter of the book. That way I could at least get the story out of my own head and put it to rest with some dignity.

Well, I got one page penciled and that was it.

So, here, in a never before seen piece, is the first page I drew of the "How Exit 6 should have ended" book.

It will definitely be appearing in the collected Exit 6 book where, in the last chapter of that book, I will reveal how I planned to end the story of Exit 6. It has been so long it actually took me a while to remember how it was going to end but once I opened that door in my head the ideas came flooding back to me.

I just hope, for those of you who have been waiting ten years to find out how it ended, aren't disappointed.

And, as I said yesterday, this will be the last of the From The Vault Fridays for a while. It's been fun while it lasted. On to bigger and better things.

Have a great weekend!

Happy September!

2011-09-01T22:22:00.004-06:00

Another month and another new blog header!

After pretty much falling off the face of the planet last month (as it pertains to writing a blog) I'm hoping September will find me a bit more talkative about what is going on. There will be a few changes coming to the blog and I think tomorrow will be the last "From The Vault Friday" for a while. I feel like I've hit the back of the vault and, for now, I don't have many other old pieces I've found that I want to show off. But FTVF did have a great run for a few years and I'm sure I'll find a piece here or there in the coming months that I'll want to show off. So it's not going to be a totally dead idea.

But, until I do find that piece of uncovered treasure at the back of some forgotten portfolio the past is over and I'm looking forward to the future.

Oh, and this month's blog header features Keith and Courtney from Exit 6 again. This piece will be part of the back cover of the (coming soon) collected Exit 6 book.

Have a great September.

Star Wars Commission

2011-08-31T14:17:00.003-06:00

One of the commissions I've been working on while I've had the time this past week is a Star Wars piece for a guy over in Ireland.

After seeing the Angels and Airwaves' (AVA for short) LOVE movie a few weeks ago I began looking online for any merchandise I could find from the band. There were really only a few things I was looking for but I had no luck finding anything really decent. Then, while reading through one of the Angels and Airwaves fan message boards I came across a post from Europe. A guy had a press kit from AVA's first album, We Don't Need To Whisper. It was a CD sampler and a DVD all in one package. That sounded like a pretty cool item to me so I messaged him and asked him how much he was asking for it.

I got a direct email from him to my gmail account. And, funnily enough, the email address and name looked familiar. It turns out that it was Ciaran, a guy I had done some artwork for a few years ago for his band. I did it for fun out of the goodness of my heart and because I liked the music he was doing. It turned out he was the one selling the press kit.

We chatted a bit and he told me he had a lot more Angels and Airwaves merchandise he was trying to sell. He even had an AVA metal wing pin that I have been on the lookout for about five years. I've just never been able to find one because they are so scarce (as he put it, harder to find than hen's teeth.) But, he had one.

He asked me if I had a Star Wars piece he had seen me do a few years ago and if I could send him a copy. If I had it, I would have probably sent it right over. But, I couldn't recall the piece he was talking about (I haven't done too many Star Wars pieces.) So, I made him an offer. I'd do him an original Star Wars piece of the characters of his choosing if he'd send me some AVA merchandise.

Before long we had struck a deal. So, I am getting a ton of Angels and Airwaves stuff and he is getting an original piece of Han Solo and Princess Leia. And, I am also helping his band put together the art for their first EP CD they are recording now.

So, here is the initial sketch for his Star Wars piece. It's in gray scale so the sketch would show up easier but, at this point, it's all still in non-repo blue pencil. I plan on doing the detail penciling soon and sending it off to him to see what he thinks.

Who says good karma never pays off?

Have a great day.

Glowing Lights of Progress

2011-08-30T14:19:00.004-06:00

Well it's been a while but I feel like my vacation from the blog is over and it's time to get back to work in telling you what I've been up to.

Back in February I gave myself a few personal projects that I wanted to complete by the end of summer. I had the best of intentions in trying to get them all done but, with August almost over, I feel like a complete failure because nothing I wanted to get done is completed.

The four projects I gave myself to complete were:
1. An OilCan Drive music CD of four to six songs.
2. A collected Exit 6 book that would compile all the work I did on my self published Exit 6 comic as well as a biography of my life as it pertained to the creation of the comic.
3. A book of the movie style script I wrote for OilCan Drive a few years ago complete with art and a new cover.
4. Start the next OilCan Drive comic book.

But, with summer ending and the client work gearing up again, I find myself with nothing complete and, because of that, I've felt awful and felt the need to be quiet for a while. That's not to say that nothing got done but nothing got finished. But, things are much further along than they were when I started them back in February.

The OilCan Drive music CD is over halfway completed. After a bunch of false starts I finally got into the groove and recording was going along really smoothly. I did hit a snag recently when one song got me bogged down so I put the project on hold so I could recollect my thoughts. I haven't recorded or played anything in a few weeks but I can feel the itch to start recording again. The way I usually know this is that when I want to record and don't have the time I start looking at new music gear to buy. Today I was looking at amp heads and speaker simulators that, together, would run me over two grand. So, I figure it's much easier to just pick up one of my guitars and start working again than to go into debt buying gear I don't need. It's much cheaper that way.

The Exit 6 collected book has all the art scanned into the computer and is ready to be put together. The writing of my biography is almost done and, from what I can gauge, I only have a few more chapters to write before I wrap that all up. I am stuck on a spot somewhere in 2001 where I felt like my life fell apart and changed dramatically. I'm trying to figure out how I want to word this chapter in my life but it is near the end of the story. I have about eighty pages of text written so far and, from what I can estimate, with art and story, the finished book should be about 350 pages.

While the OilCan Drive script book got put way on the back burner and the OilCan Drive comic hasn't even had one page of it drawn yet, I do have a nice structure in my head for the next OilCan Drive adventure. The story is taking shape and the way the books (yes, books...this one will have multiple chapters and not be a single, short story, adventure) are going to be laid out is slowly gelling in my brain. I did sign a quick "promise to start" contract with a few fellow artists saying there is a certain date we would all start drawing our books. That day isn't here yet but it's coming soon and I will start drawing OilCan Drive then.

So, while I do feel like a failure, things are still rolling along. And, it's not like nothing is getting done. It's just taking longer than I thought.

And, over the last few weeks I've been busy as well. Since I last wrote I have done three freelance art jobs, taken on two new commissions from Europe, agreed to do the audio and video for a friends comic book trailer, signed contracts and begun working on the next kid's book, refinanced my existing mortgage, had new windows put into the condo, and had a friend (Jeff, not only is he a great artist but the guy can build a house with his own two hands, Lafferty) tear apart and build me a new deck.

So, it's been busy but my vacation from the blog is over.

Get ready for some new art, new stories, and new music and video projects soon!

Have a great day!

LOVE

2011-08-11T01:15:00.002-06:00

OK, so after five years of waiting, I finally saw the Angels and Airwaves movie, LOVE, in the theater last night.

The movie was playing for one night only on about 500 screens across the country. In my haste to secure seats, the first theater announced even near me is where I bought tickets. I was so excited I didn't know if they would sell out or what, so I just bought them on impulse. I bought them for a theater in Westminster, about twenty minutes away from my house. Little did I know at the time I bought them that if I had waited a week or so I would have found out the movie was actually playing right down the street from me too. Oh well, no big deal, I thought. It's only twenty minutes away and it will be an adventure and it will be fun to bring a few friends and go check this thing out.

Well, I didn't factor in that the movie started at 6pm and, because I live in Boulder, rush hour traffic out of Boulder around 5pm is always a huge mess. I totally forgot about this. I wanted to try and get to the theater around 5:30pm because I knew they were going to show all the short films I've been blogging about the past few days on the big screen and I thought it would be cool to see those in the theater. So, with a mere twenty minute drive in front of us and some traffic ahead, with Monika at the wheel and my friend Jeff in the backseat, we decided to leave Boulder at 4:45 and take back roads to try and avoid the traffic and get there sooner.

We got so turned around and lost and stuck in traffic even on those back roads that when we finally got to the theater it was a minute or so before 6pm, right when the feature movie was starting. Five years of waiting for a movie and I was actually late getting to it.

We met our friends Brian and Ken outside and all rushed in. Brian, Ken, and I walked into the theater while Monika and Jeff went to get drinks. As the three of us walked into the theater the lights were already down and the movie had started. I'd missed the introduction by the film makers and I don't know how much of the movie itself. But, we found seats and I settled in.

Monika and Jeff got into the theater a few minutes later but had already missed the scene below. One of the most epic scenes in the movie and they had missed it. So, Jeff, watch it now...here is what you missed before you came in.

From an epic Civil War battle scene the movie shifted to a man alone in a space station high above Earth. As he goes about his daily routine things start to slowly fall apart. The transmissions he gets from Earth slowly go from constant to few and far between and then, finally, no word at all. Looking at the Earth from space we see the lights of our cities slowly go out and plunge the world into darkness. One man, in a space station high above the world, is the last man left alive.

And then it gets weird.

I don't want to give too much away but it isn't your basic popcorn summer action type of movie. It's mostly about being isolated and how love and human connection are things that we all need as human beings. I loved the music, the feel of the movie, and I absolutely loved the cinematography. As for the story, I'll have to see it again once it comes out on DVD and really get a second look at it to figure it out.

But, for a five year wait, I wasn't disappointed.

More than the movie what impressed me was the way it was made.

After the movie was done the band, Angels and Airwaves, who came up with the concept of the movie, funded it, and scored it, did a live three song set from Boston of some of their most popular songs in brand new, pared down, arrangements. From there the singer and leader of the band, Tom, sat down with the director of the movie, Will, and the film's star, Gunner, and did a little Q&A session about how the film was made.

And that is what impressed and inspired me the most. For a movie that the director made on a small budget of five hundred thousand dollars it contained Civil War battles scenes, space stations, and alien (maybe?) visitors and really looked amazing. He ended up building most of the sets in his parents backyard with maybe one or two friends at a time. All in all, for the majority of the film, the most people working on the it at one time was maybe three or four souls. Sometimes it was just the director and the start of the movie going it alone. And that just impressed the hell out of me. It made me feel like I needed to do more.

After the Q&A the band Angels and Airwaves debuted their new single from the Love 2 album (the first Love album was released a year and a half ago as a free download) that will accompany the film when it makes it's way to DVD later this year.

Overall I really enjoyed the night and enjoyed the hell out of the project. It made me want to do more and create more and do more cool things. And this is coming from a guy who, at any time, is not only working on client work but it also working on a new comic book, writing a book of his life to accompany a collected book of his work, and recording an album of music.

It inspired me. That's the best way to describe what effect the movie had on me.

And, in the end, that's usually what I am looking for. When I go into a book store, watch a movie, or talk to people about projects, usually what I am looking for is inspiration. Inspiration to fire up my creative soul, inspiration to create new projects, and inspiration to finish the projects I have already started.

This movie and project gave me that. So, I say thank you to the director, the cast, and the band who made this movie happen. Thank you.

Now I just have to wait a mere few months until the movie is on DVD and I can be inspired all over again. I can't wait.

Have a great day and enjoy this clip from the starting of the film.

Off to see LOVE

2011-08-10T16:33:00.001-06:00

I am on my way out the door to see LOVE, the movie I've been talking about so much over the last few weeks. I just hope it's good.

Here is the last short movie clip that is sort of a prequel to the movie

OK, I am off. I'll let you all know what I thought about the movie tomorrow.

Have a good one!

Kick Starter

2011-08-09T01:04:00.001-06:00

A lot of friends and I have been discussing the Kickstarter website lately and wondering if it's actually as good as it sounds and if it can actually generate you money to do your own projects.

Well, now one of my friends, Jeff Lafferty, is involved in a Kickstarter project so, hopefully, we'll find out if it works soon enough.

Jeff has teamed up with a few other artists and is providing the artwork for a garage model kit another artist is putting together. They are looking for a total of $4500 to fund the project and I already kicked in a little money myself. With 26 days left and only 4 people contributing it looks like they are already one fifth of the way to their goal.

I really hope they make it.

It would be nice to see someone I know benefit and do some great art at the same time.

Have a good one!

A Few More Videos

2011-08-08T10:02:00.003-06:00

It was a busy weekend and it feels like a lot of my life is up in the air at the moment so, once again, there isn't much illustration work to show. I've still been writing the Exit 6 book as well as working on the music side of the OilCan Drive project but it's hard to really photograph any progress on either of those projects.

Add to that trying to refinance my mortgage, renegotiate a contract, and trying to decide whether I should move my art studio out of the living room and into an actual office outside of the home and it's made for a busy weekend even if I don't have anything to show for it.

But, if you've been reading any of the last few weeks worth of posts to this blog, you know that the movie LOVE is showing this Wednesday night so I have that to look forward to. And, because of that, here are a few more of the band's live videos from Red Bull studios. Not only do they play a few songs but each performance is book ended with a little bit of information about the movie.

OK, back to worrying for me. Have a great day!

Young London

Flight of the Apollo

From The Vault - Exit 6 #2 Interior Pencils 1997

2011-08-05T21:04:00.002-06:00

Continuing the look at the making of Exit 6, here is the penciled version of page eight from issue two.

It's stuff like this I hope to include in the new book I am working on. It's been a long week and a particularly long day but, from looking at the manuscript I am writing, it looks like I only have a few more chapters left in the Exit 6 book.

I'm hoping I can get the first draft done by the end of the weekend.

Have a great day!

More from Love

2011-08-03T12:05:00.002-06:00

Here is the third of four short films that serve as, I guess, a prequel to the LOVE movie showing for one night only next Wednesday. I am really enjoying each of these and trying to figure out how all the stories tie together in the final movie.

Only one more week until I find out!

Have a great day.

Love Hallucinations

A Little More Love

2011-08-02T15:32:00.002-06:00

Things have been busy here but there isn't too much to show for all the work I've been doing. So, I thought, since I can't show you what I'm doing, I can show another video short from the movie, Love, which I am really looking forward to seeing next week.

I still have no idea what the story is about or if it will even make any sense but I love the music and the imagery. I love the way the director, Mark Eaton, uses a camera and the light available to him. It's some very beautiful cinematography from a very young guy who, I think, is very talented.

So, enjoy the video while I get back to work.

Have a great day.

Soul Survivor

Happy August!

2011-08-01T11:54:00.003-06:00

Happy August, everyone! I figured since things have been so busy around here and I haven't been able to draw an original new piece for the blog header this month that I would use some of the cover for the new Exit 6 collected book I've been working on.

I can't wait to get the first draft of the book written and get a little bit closer to getting this thing together and printed. After the years I worked on the book in my twenties and devoting a lot of my extra time to it this year it will be nice to finally have a collected book in my hand.

But, for now, back to work.

Have a great month!

From The Vault - Exit 6 #1 Cover Pencil 1997

2011-07-29T12:34:00.002-06:00

I am nearing the end of writing the first draft of the Exit 6 Collected book. Just a few more chapters and then I can go back over the whole thing and make sure it all makes sense, flows right, and there isn't too much "fat" in there.

So far, I'm pretty happy with the book overall. It took some time to get through a few of the traumatic parts of what happened with the comic. It wasn't easy to go back and live through those events again. And, I had to put together a timeline for some of the parts where I couldn't quite remember what order stuff happened. But, it's getting there. Only a few chapters left.

So, here is the penciled page of the cover of Exit 6 #1 from 1997. This is the one I actually used for the published book. And, if all works out right, this will be in the collected book along with a bunch of other art no one has ever seen.

It's not done yet. But it's getting there.

Have a great weekend!

To The Rescue!

2011-07-27T21:09:00.002-06:00

I've been working most of the week on a super hero kid and I went through a few versions before I came up with something the client liked.

Since the finished version is so radically different from my initial sketch I figure it would be okay to show off where I started from. I like the version we finally settled on but I also like this version as well. It's all a matter of taste.

And, he does make a very cute looking little super hero.

Have a great day!

August 10, Baby!

2011-07-26T00:54:00.000-06:00

Whew....things over the past few days were so busy that I didn't have time to update the blog at all. Not only have I been busy doing client work but I also spent Saturday night heading down to Denver to celebrate a really great friend's birthday. I haven't seen her in over a year so it was great to catch up with her, her boyfriend, her family, and her friends.

While on the way back up to Boulder from Denver I stopped off at the movie theater in Westminster that I reserved my tickets at for the Angels and Airwaves movie "Love" playing for one night on August 10th. I wasn't sure if the ticket kiosk would work at 2:30 in the morning but I swiped my card and got the tickets I ordered with no problem at all.

It feels good to have the tickets in hand and it gives me something fun to look forward to on August 10th. As I've said before, I've been waiting to see this movie since I heard they were working on it over four years ago. I just hope the people I'm dragging along to see it like it. That I'm a little worried about.

Actually, I was so worried about it that I had a dream the night I picked up the tickets of actually going to see the movie. I don't know if the movie was bad or not but the conditions were horrible. The movie was shown in a little white rec room with folding chairs for seats. Tom Delonge and the rest of the band Angels and Airwaves was there to promote the film but he kept stopping the movie and interrupting just to start talking about things. It was really weird and I didn't enjoy it at all.

So, I'm hoping it's a better experience than that.

I did find these two videos to promote the night's event and it just makes me want to see it that much more. So keep your fingers crossed that it's a good film and a fun night. Now I just have to wait a few more weeks.

Sorry for being quiet for so long. This week shouldn't be nearly as busy. Have a great day!

From The Vault - Exit 6 #2 Alternate Cover 1996

2011-07-22T12:23:00.002-06:00

Much like the first issue of Exit 6 that I showed last week, the second issue also had an alternate cover that I didn't use for the printed book.

Looking back I think I chose the cover I did use because I knew the orders for the second book would drop to almost half what the first book did in sales. I was given advice, and it made sense to me at the time, that if I put a sexy pin-up type shot of Courtney wearing next to nothing it would draw more attention than my original idea. Maybe it worked and maybe it didn't but, as an older and wiser man now, I'm sad to say I tried to use sex to sell an issue of Exit 6.

I really like this original cover and I wish I had used it. I love the way Frank looks all menacing and how Keith is protecting a sleeping (or passed out) Courtney. I think it would have made a great finished cover once I inked and painted it.

In the end, yes, the sales matter, but I wish I had taken a different route with the cover of Exit 6 number two and kept things a bit more classy. Yes, the sales matter, but so does the art itself.

And the art lasts a lot longer than those initial sales do.

Have a great weekend.

OilCan Drive T-Shirts

2011-07-21T16:15:00.002-06:00

I just went down to my mailbox and picked up the package containing the new OilCan Drive t-shirts.

I chose to put them all on dark colored t-shirts but now I'm wondering how they might have looked on a basic white tee. I may have to order one or two more in the future.

But, for now, I'm looking forward to giving these things their first wash and softening them up a bit so I can wear them.

Have a great day!

Busy Times

2011-07-20T20:01:00.005-06:00

I've been having one of those weeks where it seems like everyone needs something from me all at once and right at this moment. So it feels like I'm juggling a bit more than usual trying to get everything done.

Amidst the client work this week I'm also trying to get more of the Exit 6 book written as well as more of the OilCan Drive music recorded. And then there are the favors that people ask me to do as well. The music seems to be suffering as I haven't recorded anything in about five days now. I actually spent the weekend trying to fix one of my guitars who's neck got a bit warped in the high humidity we've been having. After fixing it completely wrong I spent another night righting everything and now it's back in playing shape. At the end of the day, though, I just run out of time.

But, things are getting done. Here is a piece I worked on earlier this week that I actually won't be using for the finished piece. So I figured it was safe to show it off.

And, how do I feel when something I pencil isn't going to be used or need some changes? I don't mind at all, actually. It's why I pencil things first before I being inking.

You can always erase a pencil.

Have a great day.

Sketching Away

2011-07-17T16:52:00.003-06:00

I had to do a few revisions on a client's piece of art this weekend after I sent them the initial pencil sketches. The way I drew the batter swinging was asked to be changed a bit so I ended up sketching in a new pose to the right of original sketch.

I got a good idea of the sketch but I ended up sketching away so much in blue pencil that I had to transfer this piece onto a new piece of paper and keep working. Which is good because I ended up shortening his torso a bit in the finished piece so I corrected the proportions when I traced him.

But, I thought this would be an interesting thing to see right in the middle of the process. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done!

Have a good one!