Melody of Line

So I'm eating some pizza at a friend's house in Kirkland, WA and I start doodling this pattern on the pizza box. This was right at the start of the big Seattle blizzard in December that's just recently melted away. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when our car tires got stuck in the snow and we had to shove cardboard under them to get out, I couldn't let this little guy go.

Even though you see this style of line a lot on t-shirt prints and Urban Outfitter-esque decor, to drop some history on ya you'll see variations of it in Baroque, Celtic and Islamic art as well as in pinstriping which started in the 50's with Von Dutch (how many people who wear his name know that?). I started really getting the hang of it when I visited the Mucha Museum in Prague back in September last year. I pulled out my sketchbook and sketched, getting a feel for the "melody of line" as Alfons Mucha puts it, from the frames of his beautiful graphic prints. I like to freestyle with it.

Happy Holidays!

Alien Outlander for Pop Euphoria exhibit

A fellow artist Veronica Hebard spotted my alien character design a few posts back and asked if she could display it in her Pop Euphoria exhibit at the Aurora Gallery in Worcester, MA opening Dec. 6th, 2008. So I turned it into the 4th of my 3.5" x 3.5" acrylic on wood block paintings:

*Big hands make characters look mega cool, that goes as far back as Michaelangelo's David.


perfect for home gardens and flower arrangements :P


...and here's a little step by step process on how I got it done:


then I coat it with 5 layers of Krylon acrylic coating spray to give it that protective polished sheen.

Renato the Rock Star

I did this one about a month ago for my creative director, Renato Castilho at NickJr.com since he hooked me up w/ my last two jobs, and is generally an awesome person. Rumor had it he used to be in a Prince cover band where he played Prince, thus the memoir here that I made for him as a thank you gift. The third of my 3.5" x 3.5" acrylic on wood paintings like Blue Moon and Little Devil.

Iraq Benefit - Tshirt Design

A few months ago I did this Tshirt design to benefit Iraqi children who were orphaned as their parents were victims of bombing. It was through an organization who contacted me about it called TakePride.com

This is based on an 8 year old orphan from Baghdad named Basam who's into boxing. I got the idea from this commercial where a bunch of kids were talking about how they wanted to "beat up" cancer, as they made angry faces and swung their fists.

Atomic Joyride from Outer Space - cover

Ah, finished the inner cover for the comic I tried to design the alien for 2 posts ago. Turns out the aliens will have iguana heads, and for this story (of the 6 in the book) they attack a 50's drive-in movie theater (now do you get the pic?).

For this I studied a lot of different Coup de Ville cars from that time, which was fun since I digs the retro style. Originally I drew it pretty plain but found myself drawing it more funky when I turned up my speakers to the Avalanches. I also googled iguanas to discover there are lots of different kinds, so I had to find what I liked about each and make my own.

The final product was done in Flash and took several weeks to put together and polish off. I read the script for the comic written by Sam Moyerman and illustrated by Ian Glaubinger and it's definitely a unique and entertaining story. It'll be published toward the end of April under the title Rise of the Outlanders...look for it at a comic con near you!

Alisha's Tattoo

My first tattoo design! I was flattered that my roommate Alisha let me design her tattoo which she concepted and I illustrated. After a few weeks of sketching the look of the monkey and koala, then tweaking the design and color, we came up with this. The tree is from Paper Mario for Nintendo Wii.

I love that it's pretty far off from what comes to mind when you think "tattoo". I illustrated it in Flash and Irish Jay over at Tattoo Lou's in Selden, NY (Long Island) emblazoned it into Alisha's leg forever. The initials carved into the tree represent her late cousin Mike...so yeah, not to be mistaken for the artist's signature there.