Illustration Friday-Tango

Update: I've finished the full color version and I think it turned out decent. Check it out!!!

Well, it's been a long time, but I decided to participate in Illustration Friday this week. The topic was "Tango". But instead of drawing a couple dancing the Tango, the first thing I thought of was Dave Tango from SyFy channel's Ghost Hunters. So I did this illustration of Steve Gonsalves (left) and Dave Tango (Right) hunting some ghosts.

This isn't quite finished, as I need to ad color, but I wanted to put something up before the topic changed. Comments Welcome.

Wedding Caricature

Well, I just finished  this caricature for a client, and am going to show it to her on Monday. As I've said before I've never been a fan of caricature style drawing, but I'm starting to find doing these more enjoyable. I've been really lucky so far with fantastic clients who have been really great to work with. Thanks.

New Tattoo

I got a new tattoo, done by the amazing Eric Starr, owner of Arkham Tattoo in Akron Ohio. It's a red winged blackbird, which I designed. If your in the area and want a top notch ink job, Eric or any of his amazing artists can handle it. 

Sick about stolen artwork!

I've made some mistakes in my life, but a positive intention turned and bit me in the ass and regularly pops up so I can't forget an amateur mistake I made a few years ago. (Above, my tattoo. Below, the original artwork in my sketchbook.) 

About 4 years ago I decided to start promoting my artwork online. the idea was that I would promote myself as an illustrator and a custom tattoo designer all at the same time. I had plenty of illustration examples, but only a handful of tattoo designs, which happened to be most of the designs for my own very personal tattoos and a few other things I had done. Well, I didn't have my tattoo designs up for more than a few months when I began getting emails asking permission to use my designs. I was dumbfounded, surely these people meant that they wanted me to design them a tattoo. Wrong. They were asking if they could use the designs as is. I would reply in a friendly manner that the design was my own personal tattoo, but that I could design them something similar for a fee. Most of the time the reply was a sorry and they liked my artwork but no one actually hired me to draw for them. The final straw was when I received an email from a guy in Germany. Who, in very very broken english thanked me for my swallow tattoo design and sent along a photo of his brand new rip-off tattoo. I was furious and took down the tattoo artwork immediately. (unfortunately I don't have the photo any more because I deleted it out of anger.)

Fast forward to today. I still continue to find my tattoo designs online on a regular basis. I will just be searching on google checking out tattoos when BLAM. There it is, one of my designs. Usually on someone's blog or myspace page, but worst of all I recently found 3 of my designs on a foreign tattoo flash website, promoting them as "Free Tattoo Flash Art" They even had the nerve to set it up so you can email yourself your favorite ripped-off artwork so you can easily print it out  and take it to your tattoo artist. The problem is the entire site is German or French (my foreign language knowledge is limited) and there is no email address for me to complain to. I even looked through the source code to see if it was stored there. Nothing. So if you are more knowledgeable than me at finding email addresses please help me find this. Here are the links. (Note: the original artwork had copyrights on them but they were photoshopped out.)

LINK 1, LINK 2, LINK 3

I also just today found someone on Etsy, who is using my Swallow art for necklace designs. I am furious about this and don't even know what to say to her in the email she is making money off of my artwork ARGGGG. I will write to her but I need to cool off first so I don't blow my top completely in the message. Any suggestions of what I should say to her? Here are the links and a couple photos of the stolen art.

LINK 1, LINK 2

Here another example of someone using my image for their own gain. This girl even lives in the same area as me and was using it to promote her photography business on Craigslist. As far as I know she stopped using it after I emailed her.

The other is a professional xtreme skiier who claims to have come up with it himself, but it is clearly badly traced or copied. Here's that link and a pic.

LINK 1

I do know that I made a mistake in believing in the goodness of people and now know that not everyone respects or understands art. Especially tattoo art. Everyone seems to think that the internet is just full of free tattoo artwork and that it can be used with no respect. So The lesson today is, ask your talented tattoo artist to design something for you, and if you just "have to have" that swallow tattoo you found on the internet, at least ask your tattoo artist to alter it so that the original art stays original!

Scene, Space Girl Pinup, and Car Salesmen Monsters!!!

Hello all. I had the opportunity to do a cover for a really cool weekly news magazine for the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction issue, and was very pleased with how it all worked out. The final cover exceeded my expectations and looks super cool with the typography.


I've also just finished another illustration of a retro space girl pinup. I tried really hard to get that old school 1950's pinup style and think that I've nailed it.


Lastly just a couple monsters for ya. At my day job I'm occasionally asked to do some minor illustration, and these were created for an extremely picky auto dealer, who wanted to advertise his "Monster Car Savings Sale". so after other artists created about 8 monsters that he was not happy with they asked me to come up with something. His reference for a monster was Mike Wazowsky from Monsters Inc. So it was pretty obvious he just wanted some monsters that looked like they could be from that movie. So I created 2 that look like slightly sleazy car salesmen. Maybe that's why he didn't end up using them.

"Fight or flight"

Detail view


I finished this tonight and I thought I would upload it immediately instead of putting it off for a few days like I usually do. I'm not sure why this seemed important to me, it's not like very many people if any are actually looking at this blog. It's more like just a place to catalog my art during this part of my life, and not a place to show off my successfully published or popular work like so many other artists blogs. The older I get the better my work seems to get, but it also seems like my chances of being successful as an artist are slipping away. I know I need to buckle down again and work on getting my name into the mainstream somehow, It's just very frustrating sending out hundreds of promo postcards out and never receiving any feedback from them. What I really need is an illustration agent, who will go and find me the work, who has the connections to get my name out. The bad part is, agents like these typically won't take you in until you've had work published. It's a vicious cycle.

As for the above piece... it doesn't have any hidden meaning other than whatever you take from looking at it. I call it "Fight or flight." This idea popped in my head unexpectedly late last year. You know when your minding your own business and then a memory from the past just pops in to say hello? sometime last year I was sitting in my car in a parking lot wasting time before I had to go to work. Outside seagulls were eating some scraps of bread someone had left, when several crows swooped in to claim the food. They bickered and screeched and fought over the largest piece while there were plenty of smaller crumbs to be had. Then one of them grabbed the piece and flew away, two of them followed and a fourth one picked up something that looked like a shiny ribbon or candy wrapper then flew off. I guess this is a good reminder that everything has to fight to survive, let alone succeed.

The Holidays are here.

Well, it's hard to believe Christmas is already here again and I'm scraping ice off my car, wondering why fall was so short.

I've got a couple new pieces here. The first was a commissioned piece for a Christmas Card. I usually can't stand big headed illustrations, but I made sure their faces weren't distorted and demented looking (I can't stand that) like a lot of caricature's I've seen. The second is a piece I did as a gift to some of my family members and friends. It kinda captures the mood of the winters here in Ohio and reminds me that there is no escaping the snow. I've got a couple other projects in the works that I will post soon. Happy Holidays.

Some new work! Finally!

Here are a couple of pieces I've done recently. The first is just something for fun, I wanted to do a fun piece where I could work on some shading techniques and basically have fun. I'm really pleased with this. The second is a caricature that I did for my day job as a graphic artist. I'm not sure how I went from designing newspaper ads in a horrible environment to doing illustrations in a horrible environment, but I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that they have laid off something like half of the employees I work with. I guess it's just best not to tell anyone you have an art talent so that it won't be exploited like mine is starting to be. I don't like it.



On a happier note I've decided that I'm going to do some dabbling in comics again. When I was in high school I was pretty into comics and me and my friend Joe decided to give it a shot. I ended up doing about 2 and half issues and then kinda lost direction with it. Mostly because I was just making it up as I went and it was getting pretty tough to keep the details straight. This time I've got a really great idea and I'm writing every detail down and making an outline before I start. I think that I should be able to tell the story in less than 50 pages. It's not your typical superhero thing either, it's gonna be a bank heist story with an action sci-fi twist. When I'm finished if it's good enough I may try to get it published or at least self publish it. Anyhow, wish me luck.

I am going to try to make more of an effort to post more often on here. But truthfully I'm not sure if anyone reads these anyways.

Illustration Friday: Electricity

It feels like I've been gone from blogging forever, seriously. I am going to try to post more often as I work on new material. So anyhow, here's my entry for this weeks topic "Electricity". I'm not sure where the idea for this came from, but I kept drawing it a lot in my sketchbook and I thought it might look good as a finished piece.

Also below are some other recent projects including my art for a future Guitar Hero Party that I am planning on using for invitations. Also a portrait of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl for my friend Janet, Lastly is my attempt at a logo for my Sisters roller derby team the Gainesville Roller Rebels. Comments are welcome.

SOME NEW ARTWORK etc.....

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, and it's about time I put some new work up, right?

This one was created after playing alot of Guitar Hero 2 on my xbox 360. It is eventually going to be made into a promotional postcard that I can send out to potential clients (and I'll tell ya I've been mailing alot of these type of promos recently and hand addressing all 50-60 of them is no picnic). I really like my alien tentacle slug monster (for obvious reasons...he ROCKS), and I think he may appear in a few more rock poster esqe illustrations.

Here's another one. The idea for this came from reading an article about how major auto dealers are now releasing the next years model much earlier in an attempt to jump start excitement and sales of there newest cars. In fact this year Daimler Chrysler decided to skip the 2007 model of the Viper entirely and just sell the 2008 version instead. So this sleazy salesman is trying to "Sell the car of the future, TODAY! This ones going to be a promo postcard also, but it's missing some type as you may be able to tell by the emptyness of the left top and left bottom sections.

This next one was a commisioned piece by my cousin Erin. Erin has a holistic massage therapy company in California called SELF CENTERED and she was looking for a unique illustration for her new business cards. This piece shows the seven body chakras starting at the top down. The Crown Chakra, The Knowledge Chakra, The Expressive Chakra, The Heart Chakra, The Personality Chakra, The Sexual Chakra and The Root Chakra. (Immpressive that I know these huh? actually I just had to look them up again)

And finally another commisioned piece that a woman from work asked me to work on. It's a gift for a teacher named Manuel Halkais who is a speech and debate teacher at her sons former high school. I was also asked to include the teachers greek heritage and have him speaking at a podium.

I've been doin most of my illustrations digitally and have really improved with my Wacom tablet. I'm missing working with watercolor though and may do some actual painting soon for a change. Hope everyone liked what they saw and I welcome any comments or critiques.

I Spy...A Robot from the Sky

I've been absent from Illustration Friday for awhile now. Life gets crazy from time to time and I tend to lose focus if I don't alot enough time to actually be creative every week. Above is this weeks entry "A Robot from the Sky" and as an added bonus (below) another illustration I finished this week called "Treehouse Factory", which could be a great illustration to accompany an editorial piece about child labor. Comments are welcome!

Illustration Friday: Help

Help unlocking her heart. It's been awhile since I've participated. I didn't create this for this exact topic, but thought it might fit somehow. I spent alot more time on this one and I think it shows. I've also included the various stages of this project. Comments are welcome.

Halloween Trick

Here is a project I was working on for the Black & Orange gallery contest illustrator Penelope Dullaghan has created. (here's a link that you can copy and paste since I'm incompetent and can't create a link): http://penelopeillustration.com/projects/halloween2006/index.html

I thought it would be nice to share my process with this one and show the different stages of completion. Plus a glimpse at my workspace.




Here is my computer workspace. I use a Dual Pentium Imac with a Wacom tablet for all of my digitally colored illustrations.


Here's my drafting table with some of the stuff I use when I work on a project like this. I use Canson Smooth bristol board, Derwent pencils, Micron Pens & Generals Tri-Tip erasers.

Illustration Friday: Quiet (Night Powers)

Well although this wasn't created exactly for this topic, I think it kinda fits. Comments welcome!

Illustration Friday: perfect (MATCH) or "Tough Love" PT2

FOOLED YOU!!! Okay so no new illustration just wanted to spend some extra time finishing last weeks. I know it's lame to post under this weeks topic, but I want to know what people think of the color. Here's another look at some of the details...


Well, here is my post for this week. As you can see it's not yet complete, but I wanted to get it posted while I could. Because I feel like I've been rushing through the Illustration Friday entries the last couple of times and I'm not spending enough time on the color. So check back soon to see the full color version soon!

Ok, I just realized I forgot to link to a static page...Penelope is gonna be mad!!!! Sorry!!!

Illustration Friday: Play

Well here is my extremely late Illustration Friday post. Enjoy! Comments are welcomed!

Untitled Woman (Wacom Practice)

Here's a sketch I did that I decided to ad color to and practice with my Wacom Tablet. It's taking a little time to get used to but I'm pretty pleased with how I'm doing so far. Comments welcomed!

Illustration Friday: Sticky (Bubble Gum)

Here's my entry for this week. I spent last night working on this and finished it up a few minutes ago. This was a fun piece and didn't take me a ton of time. I need to get back to doing IF every week. It sure has given me a great portfolio. Comments are welcomed.

Illustration Friday - Portrait (MI:3)

It just so happens that I am working on a fun project that fits with this weeks Illustration Friday topic. I was thinking about how I need to work on likenesses, because if I want to get hired by some of the magazines I want to work with, I'll need to be able to draw a pretty decent likeness of anyone. I also am a huge movie geek, for the last couple summers I put off seeing all the movies that I wanted to see in the theatre for various reasons and later regreted it and wished I'd made more of an effort. So this summer I've made a promise to myself. I am going to see all of the movies that interest me, in the comfort of the Theatre on their opening weekends. To go along with this I am going to do several illustrations of my favorites after I see them. So here is my first entry for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 which I thought was one of the best spy action movies that I've ever seen. Better than both of the previous installments combined (and I really enjoy the first one alot). Even though it didn't make as much money at the box office as the studios would have liked I really thought it was completly genius, and I can't wait to see what first time director J.J. Abrams (creator of the tv series ALIAS, and LOST) turns out next. I've also already seen Xmen 3 and the DaVinci Code and started my DaVinci Code illustration last night (I've opted not to do xmen3 because I felt it was not as good as it should have been). So in case you were wondering here is my list of not to miss Summer Blockbuster Movies.....

- Mission Impossible 3 (Fantastic Movie 5 out of 5 Stars)

- The DaVinci Code ( 5 of 5 stars. Another great movie, I was afraid that it would be the occasional Ron Howard bomb, but it was pleasently great!

- X men 3 ( 3 of 5 stars. I enjoyed this movie but felt it didn't have as much heart as the 2nd installment. This movie was made for general audiences not fans of the Xmen comics. Unfortunatly too many storylines were smooshed together leaving the best parts of all the stories out. And the scene at beginning with the Sentinals...why even put a scene in with the towering Sentinals if your not going to at least show them in there 90 foot tall glory.

- Cars ( Another Pixar/Disney slam dunk. I'm not worried about this one, it's pretty much guaranteed to be great.

- Nacho Libre ( Comic genius Jack Black plus Napolean Dynamite Director Jared Hess, School of Rock writer Mike White, and genious musician Beck handling the soundtrack...plus the scene in the trailer where Jack Black flexes his but cheeks and it makes the whip cracking sound cracks me up everytime I see it (despite the fact that my girlfriend thinks I'm gay for laughing at it)

- Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift ( This one almost didn't make my list, I loved, loved, loved the first one....and wished the 2nd one could have even been close, So I'm hoping that a new storyline and direction by Justin Lin will help. Just one thing though, why the hell is Lil Bow Wow in this? Shouldn't he be at the babysitter?

- Superman Returns ( I'm gonna get teary eyed seeing this in the theatre... Superman 1 and 2 are amazing and the fact that this isn't a reimagining but a homage to the original is fantastic)

- Pirates of the Caribbean 2 ( Enjoyed the first one, this one looks even cooler with all the squidy tetacle looking pirates)

- A Scanner Darkly ( Richard Linklater's unique animated movie of Philip K. Dick's futuristic story about paranoia and the governments war on drugs.

- Lady in the water ( Probably my favorite director ever, M. Night Shyamalan. Even though I didn't really like the village, Unbreakable has to be one of my all time favorite movies)

- Miami Vice ( Ever heard of a guy named Micheal Mann? Well he directed HEAT and COLLATERAL and alot of people don't know this, but he also created Miami Vice...I think this movie as cheesy as it sounds could be kick ass!)

- Talladega Nights: The ballad of Ricky Bobby (Okay this looks hilarious....Plus this is Will Farrel where he belongs. this movie is brought to you by the same people who did Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy....I love the fact that these comedies have really long drawn out titles!

- Clerks 2 ( Kevin Smith has apparently come up with something really great here. I love the rest of his "Jersy" films and the first Clerks holds a special place in my fat little heart...From what I hear the movie premiered last month at the Cannes Film festival and received a wonderful honor after the credits rolled...an 8 minute standing ovation from the audience...I saw video of this and the audience surrounded Kevin Smith and wife and the actors and clapped for what seemed like forever...and apparently this hardly ever happens either. )

My Business Cards!

TADA...here are my new business cards. I attempted to make them like little works of art and made them 2 sided. I got them printed on 4over4.com and I have to say they did a fantastic job. I left room on the back of the card to write information like price quotes, phone #'s or anything really. I should have my first set of self promo postcards soon..I can't wait to mail em out!