The Fisticuffs of March

Here's the newest Gainesville Roller Rebels bout poster I recently finished. I went for a boxing match theme, I think it turned out great.

SLAM-entines Day!

I was asked to create a bout poster and flyer for the Gainesville Roller Rebels in Gainesville Florida for their first game of the 2010 season. The theme was anti-valentines day. I was free to do pretty much whatever I wanted, which was awesome. If only everyone were as easy to please. I'll also be working on a poster for their second bout as well, look for it soon.

The Holiday Season

Every year I have big artistic ideas for things like christmas cards and different holiday theme pieces to give away as gifts, but always procrastinate until I only have the time to make one. So this year I haven't been in the holiday mood yet so I wanted to make something that wasn't a Christmas theme and wasn't a snow covered scene, so I decided to just draw what I see this winter in the small wooded area next to my apartment. Leafless trees and flying chirping cardinals.

I also have a couple of other project that I just finished, the first is a poster I'm really proud of because it's for my sister's roller derby team in Gainesville Florida the Gainesville Roller Rebels. My sister Ruby Typhoon #77 is Co-Captain of her team and they are planning on using this as a promotional poster to raise money for the many organizations they support. Go GRR!

The last project was a digital color job for my friend and fellow artist Joe Kuzma. Joe provided the B&W art of The Hulk & Wolverine and I provided the color via Photoshop. Turned out pretty great. Nice job Joe!

OUT-OF-THE-BOX gallery show

I'm very proud to be participating in this years Out-of-the-Box Exhibition & Auction. This project was really fun because I got to make something 3 dimensional rather than my usual 2 dimensional work. The piece will be on display at the Summit Art Space gallery in downtown Akron from Oct 29 thru Nov 7. And will then be auctioned off at the Akron Area Arts Alliance (AAAA) awards ceremony on Nov 15. All proceeds will go to AAAA to help with their operating costs.

My box is entitled The Kraken & The Sailboat.

Projects from work...

Here are a few of the different projects I've been working on at my job at the Akron Beacon Journal. Over the last year I've been doing a lot more art related projects for them.

The first is a series of logo and character designs for a new job search related site called Job Jungle.

Also anytime someone has reached so many years of employment at the Beacon Journal they throw a party for them and I usually do a caricature of them to be signed by the staff. Last week I got to do two of them...

Last is a piece, featuring Zippy, the Akron University mascot, high-fiving the Akron Beacon Journal mascot Browser. This will be used on a table setting for a private dinner at the new InfoCision Stadium during an upcoming game.

BLUE MOON #2

Click image to enlarge...

Issue 2 of my new comic BLUE MOON. Comments are welcome.

BLUE MOON - My new comic!!!

Click image to view larger version!

So after attempting to do this for a few years I've finally started what I think could be a really fun project... an online comic book titled "BLUE MOON."

To describe "BLUE MOON", I would say it's an action packed, scary, monster filled, detective mystery, thriller!

It's really an experiment for me too because I wanted to do something that wasn't exactly formatted like a traditional comic book page, but simply a single horizontal panel at a time (Kinda like a widescreen movie). when 3 of these are completed I can combine them and make a traditionally sized comic page (just in case I plan on getting this published or printed some day).

I also am trying a unique approach with this for the writing, because basically I have a really solid outline of the story in my head, but I will be fleshing out some of the details as I go. This will be a good exercise for me because I'm really good at piecing things together to make something great.

Well, I know it's not much today, just one panel, but I promise you are in for a fun out of control ride with "BLUE MOON"!

ABJ Mascot Contest

I did these different characters for a mascot contest they had at work. Basically the sales team split into 4 different groups and came up with these four teams... The Flasher-Roos, The End Zone Warriors, The Beacon Boxers, and the STEALERS. Two of mine were chosen the Warrior and the Boxer.

Vampire VS. Slayer

Here is a new comic book inspired panel. I thought a vampire attacking a vampire slayer would sum up all these warm feeling I've been having towards the show True Blood. My girlfriend told me the guy with the stake reminds her of Ken or Ryu from Street Fighter and David Hasslehoff! Is that funny or what?

I do have a small announcement though. I've been working on a new comic book concept for the past several weeks and am very close to starting it. The comic will be a heist story with a monster twist. I will have a tittle soon. and maybe some concepts. I'm still unsure how I will publish this or if it will be b&w or color. This story is really great so I'm more than likely going to have a ball with this. I attempted to do a comic last year, but the concept and story just weren't coming together. But I'm excited!

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!