SCRAPBOOK

Underground

2012-02-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Last week I finished the cover image for The Pitch, Art directed by Ashford Stamper. The piece was about a guy who is building a luxury bomb shelter for the wealthy Americans who want a nice place to survive a nuclear holocaust. Who wouldn't want that kind of contingency. Here were some sketches that missed, But I was pretty happy with them.

Check out the great article by Ben Palosaari. The only Safe Place When the end Comes Underground

The Grey

2012-01-29T11:16:00.001-08:00

I just saw The Grey, this past weekend. And although it wasn't fantastic it's worth the ticket price. If you like The man vs. Beast film genre. This might be the film for you. It is primarily an action film it reaches for some kind of existential exploration of man and his place in the natural world, and most principal to this film is the temporal nature of life itself. If you want to also see some creative uses of airplane liquor bottles and electrical tape it may be the movie for you.

I am a sucker for these films. I spent a good amount of time working in Alaska in the winter on a few television shows. The job required flying around a good amount of the state by plane and by car. Of all the places I visited the area of the state that left the most lasting impression was up above the Arctic Circle north of Fairbanks about 100 miles. There is something staggering beautiful about a place that would take your life so easily if you were to not be prepared or say your car battery died. It's definitely worth the trip.

Book One of Z west is now available

2012-01-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

Just in Time for Valentines Day...My first completed comic book has hit the shelves. As you might imagine from the cover, everything is in the title. The Z is for Zombies and West refers to the Wild West. Z West is a multi-book series about four primary characters in the Texas territory. Due to the barbarism of an army regiment an ancient curse is visited on a small border town. If that isn't exciting enough for you check out the 5 page sample below.

Take a gander at some of the work. If you like it you can order a copy at the link below.

Book 2 is currently in progress. Check back by spring and it should be available for order. And I will try and post samples as I proceed.

Order Book One Here

New Work,Cincinnati Magazine

2012-01-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

I was recently commissioned by Cincinnati magazine to create the above images for a piece by William Powell about Occupy Cincinnati. Art Director, Megan Scherer gave me this great opportunity to depict the Occupy movement. I worked on it while I was visiting my folks over the holiday. The Only draw back was that we were without heat the entire time. Drawing in the cold is harder then I thought.

Armageddon

2011-10-31T15:24:00.000-07:00

I recently was commissioned by Hearst's Popular Mechanics to make an image lampooning some bad Sci-Fi films that were part of a feature rating Sci-Fi films on their implausibility. Armageddon, that late 90's crap sandwich of a film rated the number one worst film. I was asked to highlight some of the film's absurd qualities in an image.

Unfortunately, for research purposes I purchased the film on iTunes. This is tough for me to admit...I now own the film. And in case your wondering, no, it does not get better on the second viewing. It does, however, take the cultural temperature of the time. It's not like we have really matured though. The Michael Bay films of today share the same vapid emptiness and force us to exprience emotional moments with whaling guitars and blaring Aerosmith.

Obviously, I am a fan of Sci-Fi and I will gladly stomach a bad Sci-Fi flick purely for the spectacle and absurdity. Armageddon is not a fun film to watch.

FINAL IMAGE
TIGHT PENCIL

SKETCH

This was the sketch I pushed for the final. It had Bruce Willis reaching out for nuclear war head that was spewing uranuim. While the mounted machine guns on the Rover in the background unloaded it's machine gun. But pop Mechanics thought it was to far of a leap from the film. so we dialed it back to just have Bruce holding the bomb and drifting off into the expance. Maybe less drastic, but fine none the less.

New Work

2011-09-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

It is hard to not be inspired by the headlines these days. The coming election, the European debt crisis, the uprisings in Syria and Libya. There is no shortage of events worth pondering in a visual way. Here are a few recent images.

Rick Perry: The Most Jesusy

After watching the two recent debates it's clear that the leading republican candidate for president, Rick Perry, is fully committed to the social and fiscal conservative agenda. He has presented himself as the frontrunner the religious Right. Christopher Hitchens has a great article on Rick Perry's motives for aligning himself with the Christian voters and questions his authenticity.

Bullets and Blackberrys, The Syrian Riots and the Future of Revolt

It is amazing to watch the "Arab Spring" and see how technology is the ultimate weapon in the revolution. It is still dangerous to fight a regime with a camera vs. a machine gun.

Travel Paintings

2011-04-06T07:59:00.001-07:00

A recent trip to Cabarete' in the Dominican Republic prompted me to make some watercolor paintings and sketches. It was incredibly satisfying to sit and try and capture some aspect of the landscape. The works themselves leave something to be desired, but it has re-invigorated my desire to paint. hopefully I will have some more to show soon.

New Series "Scenes From a film"

2011-03-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is but film noir has had an effect on me. And for some reason those elements are appearing in my images. This is an ink drawing with digital shading. Simple and no frills. I've been told to stop doing the retro 50's art but I need to get it out of my system first. Stay tuned for more. Thanks for looking

Fighting Words

2011-02-28T05:26:00.000-08:00

This image was done way back in January, under the art direction of Len Small for the magazine "Tablet." It accompanied the article, "Fighting Words," by Marjorie Ingall about the difficulty explaining the nuances of the English language and how it pertains to racial slurs.

Spot Images for The Dallas Observer

2011-02-04T05:58:00.001-08:00

These spots were made with the Art Direction of Alexander Flores.

The concept was to spoof a movie poster from the 1950's.

ROYAL CURSE, Page 1 and 2

2010-10-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

"The Royal Curse" p 1 and 2 , a short 9 page story.

SEATTLE WEEKLY COVER, COURTNEY LOVE

2010-09-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

I recently did the cover for the Seattle Weekly. The Art Director had a great idea and wanted to see a few options. There wasn't a huge amount of time to deliver so I had to move fast. I took a few hours to scribble and compose a few options and then I sat down on nice sheet of paper and did tighter roughs of my ideas. I always feel that my roughs should be much tighter but given the time constraints I knew I couldn't ruminate too much and just had to commit to a few image options.

They liked the top left image. so I went straight to a final drawing. I realize now that I could have benefited from doing a tight sketch of the composition before I went to a final drawing. the more time I have to draw a face the more chance I have of getting the likeness. My first pass at the final Sketch made courtney look way to serene. So I went to work trying to give her that Rock'n Roll feel.

The benefit of using a nice 150 pound bristol paper is that you can play with a drawing for a long time. I must of worked on this for an entire day and could still try different eyes and placements.

Here is the Final Art.

MIA ILLUSTRATION

2010-08-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

Inked and digital color final art

Final pencil
Rough Sketch

technorati claim token

2010-08-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

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COLOR TESTS for "The Royal Curse"

2010-08-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

Color options for the martian scene.

New color tests for a short story called "The Royal Curse." The story is told from 3 different points of view and so I need a unique palette for each part of the story. Im favoring the images with less lighting effects and more simple flat color. Im haven't found a winner for the Mars scene. I will keep experimenting.

COLOR PANEL TESTS

2010-07-20T11:55:00.001-07:00

here are some test panels for my project, Zombie West. Im hoping to come up with a template of what a finished panel will look like before I pencil and ink the entire story. Here are a few of the more successful images. although I still think I haven't yet nailed the look .

I am trying to keep it simple, so each image can be colored quickly and try not to have the color compete with the line. I need to keep making test images because it has to look very hot and dusty to really sell the western feel.

2010-07-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

This image is from my sketchbook. I wanted to get back into the habit of making color sketches as a way to stay loose and have some fun. I don't want to worry so much about the concept but just making something that looks interesting and strange. I am going to try and post a color sketch once a week. we'll see if that actually happens.

2010-06-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the Final Cover art, although I feel like it could use a few more hours tweaking. I need to make better text and actually sit down and create it my self rather then use a font. For now the text works.

2009-10-29T09:51:00.002-07:00

This is a pencil sketch for comic book cover I am working on. Hopefully in a week or 2 I will be able to show how it develops and improves maybe with some input from those in the ether.