Some New Toys

Since the podcast Jeff and I have been doing has been rolling along so well I took the opportunity to get some new gear for the studio.

I already had the big Shure 55SH microphone as well as a Shure SM57 microphone but the 57 worked so well for the podcast that I picked up two more and a case for all the mics I now have.

So, with three (or four if you count the 55SH) microphones we can now have guests on the podcast here in the studio. Of course, that means I have to talk some friends into coming in but hopefully that won't be too hard.

Plus, any excuse to buy some new music gear is always a good thing for me.

OK, time to do this weeks podcast. Have a great weekend!

Little Bite - Colored!

I found a little extra time today to put the finishing touches on Nicole's business card illustration. As I said yesterday, I don't even know if she needed it in color but I liked the piece too much to leave it in simple black and white.

What I really like about the piece is the way I got the colored background to fade back so the main figures, with their black line, really pop out. That I couldn't have done if I had left it in black and white.

And, because this was a spoof of the old Coppertone sun lotion ads I did an alternate version as well. I'm not sure it would be professional enough to put on a business card but I had to do it anyway. It was just too much fun not to.

So, if you'd like to see the alternate, racier, version, click HERE.

Have a great day.

Coppertone Girl Inked

And here is the inked piece I did of my friend, Nicole, for her OnSite Travel Blog business card.

I emailed it off to her this afternoon and haven't heard anything back yet so I don't know if it needs to be colored or not. But, honestly, I am liking the piece so much that, just between you and me, I already started coloring it. Shhhh....don't tell anyone.

Hopefully I'll get some time to finish it up this week.

Have a great day!

Back To The Drawing Board 2

The new episode of "Back to the Drawing Board," a podcast put together by my friend Jeff Lafferty and I, is now up and ready to be heard.

This week Jeff and I tried to stay on the topic of artistic motivation but ended up talking about a whole bunch of stuff like Star Wars, Drew Struzan, Paranorman, Tank Girl, and why a Yoda Puppet beats a CGI Yoda every time. Still, we talked a lot about why we keep doing what we're doing and it ended up being a great hour of back and forth idea sharing between two old buddies.

So, head on over and have a listen. And, if you have an extra second or two, throw us a comment or ask us a question. It would be great to know someone out there in the world is listening.

You can find the podcast HERE.

Have a great day!

Coppertone Girl

A little while ago a good friend of mine, Nicole Montalto, contacted me to tell me about a new travel blog she had been writing for the OnSITE Travel Blog website. After she had done a few blog posts I guess she was official enough to merit having her own OnSITE business card.

She sent me an email showing me what their on-hand artist had done. She wasn't really too pleased with it so she asked me if I could try my hand at drawing her in some adventurous situation that had to do with her travels. We knocked a few ideas around for a couple of days and then she brought up something about hot springs and maybe having a bear chase her. I took that idea of the bear and substituted it with a little bear cub pulling down her shorts and exposing her bikini bottoms in an homage to the old Coppertone sun tan ads where the little girl had her bikini pulled down by her dog.

It was funny and cute and she loved the idea. The only thing that I wasn't sure about was whether she wanted a regular cartoon of herself or one with a big head, which would make the illustration a bit more in line with the rest of the business cards the company was putting out. She wasn't too keen on the idea of the big head so I did one with a regular head and then drew a bigger head which I could digitally substitute to give her a few options.

In the end, even though she didn't initially like the idea, the big head won out.

I have to admit, it did turn out a lot better than I thought it would.

So, here are the pencil sketches for the two versions. Now it's back to the drawing board to ink the piece up and get it out to have some business cards done.

I hope you're all doing great and I'll talk to you soon!

Maddox Books

The latest round of Jake Maddox books hit my mail box this week. I eagerly ripped open the box and put the last four books on my already stuffed shelf. I'll give a set away to a friend with children and store away the last set so I'll always have a set of two of each books I've done for Stone Arch Books.

Sixty two books done and complete. Not bad, not bad at all.

Have a great weekend!

Back To The Drawing Board

Here is something new I started with my friend Jeff Lafferty last week. Figuring no one in any media field would ever interview us properly we started up our own podcast just to see what would happen.

We sat down in my living room last Saturday, set up the microphones, hit record, and saw what happened. What came out was a really cool talk that had me thinking many times during the recording, "wow, this is going great...I hope everything is recording OK so this isn't a waste." Luckily, once we were done everything was fine.

We decided to call the podcast talk "Back To The Drawing Board" and have tentative plans to try and do it once a week, talk about various subjects, and even have a guest come by and chat every so often.

So, if you'd like to hear a bit about where Jeff and I came from and our plans for where we are going, head on over to the Back To The Drawing Board website and have a listen.

Enjoy and have a great day.