Kodiak Hockey Logo - First Pass

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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.