General Theory of Creativity

Bagbog

2012-02-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

This is actually February's "Lesser Legend." I'm redrawing December's, and she'll be along shortly (hopefully).

Some beasts want to eat children,
others take the old,
some feast on the feeble,
and others on the bold.

Some monsters sink mighty cruise ships,
and others burn down towns,
still others laugh and cackle,
and look like malevolent clowns.

Some phantoms lurk under beds,
and others in the woods,
some rob you at knife point,
and make off with your goods.

The worst creatures like to cause pain,
in your joints or in your head,
that’s often much, much crueler
than the ones that make you dead.

But not the shaggy Bagbog,
though as fearsome at its seems,
it does not wish to hurt you,
it has much nicer schemes.

It simply wants your old toys,
forgotten for the new,
it wants to love and care for them,
and watch over them for you.

When I was little, I was one of those kids that got really upset and stressed out when I realized that one of my toy's had gone missing. I think the Bagbog is my attempt to come to grips with that. Much nicer to think that my toy is out there being loved and played with by some benevolent beast.

Boldly into the Future!

2012-02-05T21:10:00.001-08:00

For the last several year, I've made a holiday card to send out to our friends and family. Unfortunately, with the new arrival in the family, and a generally hectic schedule, things got away from me a little bit. So, this year we ended up sending out Happy New Year's cards. I guess, if nothing else, it's one way to have your cards stand apart from the crowd.

The Gobbler

2011-12-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

The second in what I'm planning (read: hoping) will be a 12-part series, the Pumpkin Smasher Basher being the first. These Lesser Legends are a group of seasonal characters who live in the shadows of the Big Guys, like Santa and the Easter Bunny.

And, the poem to go with him:

Gobble, gobble, gobble
On that first Thanksgiving day,
when the Puritans and Indians
did bow their heads to pray;
One ungrateful fellow claimed
he had nothing to be thankful for,
Oh, turkey and gravy he did not like
and even cornucopias were a bore.

Gobble, gobble, gobble
This did not go over well,
and either a witch or wise man
cast a nasty spell;
He grew a beak, could no longer speak
and with feathers from his back,
he was not forever hungry
if only for a snack.

Gobble, gobble, gobble
If it’s your next Thanksgiving meal,
and your favorite course goes a missing,
then the Gobbler’s made his steal;
He lurks and hides in cupboards,
or under the kitchen sink
and hopes to make off with
a little stolen food and drink.

Gobble, gobble, gobble
So let this be a lesson to you and you
best be thankful on Thankgiving,
or the Gobbler will
EAT YOU TOO!

The Pumpkin Smasher Basher

2011-10-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the illustration that I did for the Bureau's Annual Halloween Show at Cafe Racer. This year's theme was "Bad Omens," but I ended up having an idea jump into my head sort of last minute and had to get it out on paper.

Even in my teen years, I never really understood what the appeal of pumpkin smashing was. Taking things that other people (often children, or their parents) cared for and smashing it out of some sort of sense of misdirected rebellion. So, I was amused by the idea of creating a mythical character called the Pumpkin Smasher Basher: A giant pumpkin-headed monster who sneaks up behind pumpkin-smashing youth and -in turn- bashes them of the head with a giant wooden hammer. The poem I wrote to go along with him goes like this:

The Pumpkin Smasher Basher
is a naughty sort of beast,
He sneaks up behind bad children
when they are expecting it the least.

He’s a protector of all pumpkins
and Jack-O-Lanterns too,
He likes to surprise the children
and not just with a “Boo!”

When they lift the pumpkins
to smash them on the ground,
they best check behind themselves
or the Basher’s hammer will go... POUND!

Anyhow, I like the idea, and hope he ends up standing proudly next to the Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Economy of Line revisited

2011-06-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Bureau's "Economy of Line" show, last Friday, was great! Good turn out, and it seemed like both my fellow Bureaucrats and the people visiting the gallery where all having a great time and really enjoying the results.

Early in the evening, the walls are still bear, the artists are hard at work, and people are beginning to trickle in.

As the night goes on, more art goes up!

A couple of hours later, the walls start to fill up, as does the room.

For my part, I ended up drawing underpants. Lot's of underpants. It started with a cartoon of a rabbit in underpants, and moved on to a variety of different creatures, including an alien in underpants... my one sale of the evening.

Studio (206) and Economy of Line

2011-06-01T08:22:00.001-07:00

Recently, I contributed a piece (hint: it's the illustration in the previous entry) to the Gallery (206) Project, and last night the piece had its big opening. A re-purposed phonebooth, each of its 19 glass panels contains and original piece of art by a local artist, and inside, it contains an audio piece in the phone receiver and art by 206 other local artists in the "phonebook."

Crappy cellphone image of the booth, I'll upload better images when I get the chance.

Edit! New photos!
Here I am, standing in the phonebooth. Please, disregard the odd look on my face. Hmmmm...

The phonebook, open to my page. I still want to go back and check out the phonebook again when I have more time. Such a cool piece. I'd love ot have a copy.

Anyhow, it turned out pretty amazing. I only had a little time inside the booth, but looking through the phonebook, both the art and its presentation was excellent. Finger's crossed that project organizer, Todd Jannausch considers making copies of it available for sale, because I'd love a copy to fill through at my leisure.

I'm not sure how long the gallery will be up (or how long it will last when exposed to the roving hordes of Pioneer Square), but try to check it out if you have the chance.

Looking for another opportunity to see my work and see the work of other amazing Seattle-based illustrators? Well, look no further that the Bureau of Drawer's upcoming Economy of Line one-night show. To quote the press release:

UrbanLight Studios and The Bureau of Drawers are proud to announce "Economy Of Line", an all-new, live-drawing event and gallery show running one night only during the Greenwood-Phinney ArtWalk, June 10, from 6pm-10pm.

"Economy of Line" will feature twenty artists from the Seattle-based art collective The Bureau of Drawers creating original art on the spot and before the very eyes of visitors to the Greenwood Collective's UrbanLight Studios. All art will be for sale, and the artists will be working out in the open to meet and greet all attendees. Watch us build a gallery show while you watch - the walls will fill as the night carries on.

Artists participating in the evening include Lillian Beaty, Breanne Boland, Nikki Burch, Sean Closson, Sara DeRosier, Tom Dougherty, Scott Faulkner, Nico Feliciano, Tyler Hill, Justin Ison, Jon Morris, Marc Palm, Sean Robinson, Lawrence Ruelos, Mark Stockbridge, Stevie VanBronkhorst, Tom Van Deusen and Adam Watson.

Join Urbanlight Studios and the Bureau of Drawers during the Greenwood-Phinney Artwalk on June 10 for a night of live drawing like no other!

And here's the poster, designed by fellow Bureaucrat, Calamity Jon Morris:

"Daffy Dervish"

2011-05-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Client: Gallery (206)
Description: Illustration created as my contribution to a collaborative installation art piece.

If you want, you can pretend its some sort of commentary on "East vs. West" or "Religion vs. Popular Culture" or "Old vs. New." But, the reality is that I just sort of thought it would be kick to draw a dervish plowing through a bunch of early Disney knock-offs. "Whirling Dervish" was a term that, when I was younger, used to conjure up the image of the Warner Brothers' Tasmanian Devil. So, it just sort of amused me to draw an actual dervish stepping into that roll.

Anyhow, as I mentioned this will be featured in an installation piece sometime -presumably- later this year. (I'll post more details here, as I know them.) But, I was happy enough with this drawing that I wanted to share it now.

'09 Wine Label: Secret Cellars

2011-03-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

As some of you no doubt know, in addition to illustration and design, I also make my own wine. Which, of course, means that I get to design the labels too. Some of my earlier labels are featured elsewhere on this blog and on my portfolio website. But, I thought I'd share this years label, for the 2009 Secret Cellars Syrah.

The "secret cellars" is a reference to the wine-making room that my dad and I have been building in the back of mine and Sarah's detached garage. It's still a work in progress, but we are happy with how its coming along. The owl is a plastic barn owl, which we've been using as our unofficial mascot since we started making wine in my dad's basement. The wood texture is from one of the walls of the room.

And, for good measure, here's a photo of the whole "family" featuring (from left to right): 2006 Round the World Red, 2007 Ranger Rick Red, 2008 Stella Rose's Stellar Red and the previously mentioned Secret Cellars.

Failed Tales of Romance: Step-By-Step

2011-02-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

A little less than a year ago, I did a "Step-By-Step" entry here, where I walked you all through my process as I created a vector illustration of a dancing woman (read it here). Because I thought that was an interesting exercise, and because I recently did an illustration for a Bureau of Drawers' Valentine's show that had a little less-than-conventional creation process, I thought I'd do another post here today. While my first Step-By-Step was more technical in nature. This one ended up being more of a conceptual exercise. If nothing else, it will help show how each drawing is different, and how drastically process can change from illustration to illustration.

For the the Bureau's "Lovesick" show, which will be showing at Fantagraphics Books through early March, each artist was challenged to create a piece that dealt loosely with the idea of unrequited love. So, with that in mind, I set to work...

Idea #1: St. Valentine
Right out of the chute, I became fixated on the idea of doing some sort of religious icon, that reinterpreted St. Valentine. So, looking at Wikipedia's entry on the saint, I noticed this list of his "attributes":

birds; roses; bishop with a crippled or a child with epilepsy at his feet; bishop with a rooster nearby; bishop refusing to adore an idol; bishop being beheaded; priest bearing a sword; priest holding a sun; priest giving sight to a blind girl[1]

Seeing that, my idea was to create an illustration that incorporated as many of those concepts as I could easily include, but which otherwise ignored a lot of the traditional trappings of Catholic images. Sort of a alternate universe take on St. Valentine. This was the sketch that came out of it:

Now, technically, there was a lot that I liked about this image, but -in a moment of clarity- I realized that A) it was getting too esoteric and B) it really didn't have anything to do with unrequited love. So, back to the drawing board...

Idea #2: I Heart... Ew.
While inking the illustration above, I began to realize that it wasn't working, so in the back of my mind another concept started to roll around. I became more and more obsessed with the idea of taking a traditional Valentine's phrase, and -at the risk of falling into a black hole of puns- give it a twist.

First, I considered the idea "Bee Mind" and was going to draw a picture of a lobotomized bee. But, again, probably too esoteric. Then I started to consider a play on the old "I Heart You." Ewe? Maybe I could do sheep? Or, maybe, ew.

This led to this picture of a little girl (based roughly on my daughter) being grossed out by a floating eye and heart.

Again, there were things I liked about it. But, at the end of the day, while I did like the opportunity to figure out how to draw realistic hearts, I felt like the overall layout wasn't quite working and the idea wasn't quite coming together. Plus, again, not really dealing with unrequited love.

Idea #3: Modern Love
So, this was the next thought process I went through:

Why is love so often unrequited these days? Is it because people are hardened to each other? Is it because today's dating scene is considered so difficult to navigate without being trampled on emotionally? If so, would a traditional cupid have any sort of chance? Or, would cupid need an upgrade? What would a modern day cupid look like?

Perhaps that sounds a little too much like a Sex in the City voice-over, but still thus was born this picture:

Gone is the nearly naked baby, now suited up in military camouflage, a utility vest and foam-dome hat. His dainty bow replaced by a state-of-the-art compound bow. If love is a battlefield, at least he's now equipped for it.

OK, this idea I felt had some wings (sic). But, after thinking about it some more, and a little side-long advice from a fellow Bureaucrat, I began to feel it was to... to... well, obvious. I wanted my piece to be something I felt no one else could create, and there was something a little too close to Hallmark card material for me here.

Idea #4: A Robot Raised My Baby
My next idea was to take the idea of unrequited love, and sort of try to turn it and look at it in a different direction.

What is one of the most pure forms of love? Well, arguably, its the love felt between a parent and newborn child. I suppose one could argue that newborns don't truly know how to love since they are still developing, but anyone who's been a new parent and held their new child knows what I'm talking about. (OK, just work with me here, I'm a father of a 2-year-old with a new baby on the way... so this is just the universe my mind lives in these days. Allow me that conceit.)

If that is the symbol for pure low, what symbolizes the inability to love? Well, if you turn to science fiction, you find an easy answer: Robots. How many science fiction fables hing on robots inability to feel emotions? Lots.

So, if babies represent pure, unconditional love and robots represent the inability to love, then it stood to reason that pairing the two was a good representation of unrequited love. The baby folded into the robot, obviously in love with its robot parent. The robot, meanwhile, is ably nurturing the baby, but -in the end- cannot love it. Which resulted in this drawing:

Again, I liked this drawing and idea. But, I was concerned that it would seem to sentimental. Or, without me there to defend it, would a lot of my thoughts not really be readily apparent or just seem flimsy? Again, it just didn't seem to hold up on its own.

So, with four failed concepts, and only a couple days left to the show, what should I do? Well, in the end, I decided to follow a potentially disastrous plan and...

Idea #5: Combine Them!
What I had in my hands were four flawed concepts for illustrations about love. For failed tales I'd attempted to tell. But, maybe, together they began to tell a bigger and more complete story. Maybe, like an anthology, when put together the sum becomes greater than its parts. The tales cover for each others weaknesses and allow the strengths to shine. That was my concept at least. I'll leave it to you to be the judge because...

I had a cover to draw!

Taking the idea of old school anthology comics, like the ones below, I decided to create a "vintage" comic cover in which each of these four stories would get a small place to live.

Using covers like these as my inspiration. I scanned my four original illustrations, brought them into Illustrator, and assembled them all into one rough piece along with some basic comic cover elements (like the Comic Code stamp) and title text. I deliberately kept this rough, because I knew I'd want to heavily redraw it, but at the same time, wanted a loose guideline to follow. Here's what it looked like up to that point:

Printing this out, I fired up my light table, and began to redraw it. Some portions remained pretty true to the original version (like the robot, baby and St. Valentines), but others changed fairly significantly. The "Ew" got dropped, and the little girl got aged a bit to avoid too many babies on the cover. Meanwhile, cupid got stuck into the middle of an aerial battle scene, poor kid. I also added some background elements, redrew some of the type in more stylized letters (like the inexplicable, yet oddly appropriate "Chinese restaurant"-style type for St. Valentines title).

With it redrawn and inked, I then set out coloring it. Early on, I'd decided that I wanted to use a limited color pallet. Though old comics were my stylistic starting point here, I wanted this to also be its own thing, and not just a homage. So, limiting myself to black, gray, pink and red ink, I eventually ended up here:

And that, framed, is what is now hanging on the wall at Fantagraphics. If you enjoyed reading this, I recommend you stop by there and check it out in person. I generally try to not make excuses for my art, but I do want to qualify the above image by saying that my scanner is dying a long slow death, and I don't think the above scan really does it justice. So, see it in person, if you can. Plus, there's a lot of other great art up by my fellow Bureaucrats.

Anyhow, I hope you did enjoy reading this. I'm not saying this is my most favorite drawing ever, but I do think it will always hold a special place in my heart, since I spent so much time living with it and working through it.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day.

Holiday Card 2010

2011-01-13T10:50:00.001-08:00

This year (or, rather, last years) Holiday Card. Another family picture, based roughly on a photograph taken by my wife, Sarah... with her added in.

Happy Holiday's, everyone!

Empty Bowl

2011-01-06T12:49:00.001-08:00

Apologies for the somewhat blurry phone-photo, but I thought this was worth sharing. Last night me and some of my fellow Bureaucrats took part in the Empty Bowls fundraiser. If you haven't heard about it, basically potters create bowls that other artists then paint. These bowls are then fired, sold to people, and filled with a nice soup dinner, with proceeds going to the Ballard Food Bank. You can read more about it here.

I don't think I've tried painting something that will be fired in a kiln since, like, High School, so who knows how this will turn out (if I see the final results, I'll post them here). Still, a fun evening for a great cause.

ORS 2010 Holiday Card

2010-12-15T12:41:00.001-08:00

Client: Organizational Research Services
Description: Annual card created for the Seattle-based consulting company, Organizational Research Services. Each year, they provide me with a quote, and I create a card which incorporates that quote and a self-created image that ties together with it.

2009 card here.

The Mummified Ghost of Dr. Frankenstein's Vampiric Werewolf Witch from the Black Lagoon

2010-12-15T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is a couple months (and an entire season) late, but here's the illustration I did for the Bureau of Drawers' "Monster"-themed Halloween show at Cafe Racer. I figured that, if one type of monster was scary, combining them all into one mega-monster would be horrifying. Right?

Right?

COMBO #1: The other pieces

2010-10-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I posted one of the four images that I created for the UrbanLight Combo #1 gallery show. Today, I thought it was about time to show off the other three prints, titled ABC, GHI and JKL respectively.

As you've probably correctly guess, these four illustrations are part of a set which spans the entire alphabet. For each, I found a word for each of the three letters (five letters for the last piece) and then constructed an image which incorporates those words. Just because that wasn't heavy-handed each piece is one of the colors of the rainbow.

There will eventually be four more illustrations in this series. Those four illustrations have been draw, and were included in the coloring book in the Combo #1 box, but I haven't colored them yet. I hope to do this sometime in the near future.

Did you miss the Combo #1 Show? Well, that definitely wasn't your last chance to check out some of my art and the art of my fellow Bureaucrats! In fact, this Friday, at Cafe Racer, we will be hosting a special "Monster" themed show: The 1st Annual Monstrous Halloween Art Show!

For this show, I will only have one piece. But, unlike the four pieces in the UrbanLight show, which will all giclee prints, this is will be a hand-drawn and inked piece.

Anyhow, details about the opening are on Dalton's flier above. Hope to see you there!

COMBO #1 show at UrbanLight Studios

2010-09-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight, for one night onle, me and my fellow Bureaucrats will be holding a gallery exhibit at Greenwood's UrbanLight Studio. This show, which will feature a number of pieces of original art as well as live drawing sessions (get an original drawing, for only $1!) is in support of the Bureau of Drawers first group release: Combo #1.

Combo #1 is a veritable grab-bag of original comics and similar pamphlets created by 16 members of the Bureau. You'll be able to buy this little treasure when it makes its debut tonight at our show.

In addition, many members of the Bureau will be showing original art and prints drawn from or inspired by their submissions. I'll be displaying 4 prints, including this images below, entitled DEF:

Here's all the details you'll need to find us!

COMBO #1: Gallery Show and Release Party
Featuring the Bureau of Drawers
Friday, Sept 10
6-10PM
UrbanLight Studios
info@urbanlightstudios.com
8537 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA (206) 913-2834

See you there!

SAM Remix appearance

2010-08-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

To quote myself on Facebook:

Do you like Fun? What about Art? Music? Me? If you answered "yes" to at least one of those things, you should come see me and the Bureau of Drawers at the Olympic Sculpture Garden this Friday. We'll be drawing. Outside. Starting at 8pm. I'll say it again: Fun.

The Bureau of Drawers, including me, will be engaging in some public illustration this Friday at the Olympic Sculpture Garden as part of SAM Remix. I'm really excited that we are part of what should be an exciting night of art and music. The whole line up sounds interesting:

* Houston-based artist Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses his brand new installation for the PACCAR Pavilion
* Enjoy SunTzu Sound’s cosmic blend of urban cultures and organic rhythms.
* Truckasauras rocks the party with an explosive lo-fi live set.
* Seattle Percussion Collective provides a sunset soundtrack to Richard Serra’s "Wake".
* Writer Amber Flame responds to the work of Trenton Doyle Hancock.
* Collaborate with visual artist Mandy Greer using recycled materials.
* Dance under the stars to the global beats of I Heart Shiva.
* Contribute to a massive collaborative comic drawing with the Bureau of Drawers.
* The band Library Science rouses the senses with aural and visual delights.
* Susie Lee presents a dance, music, and digital drawing project.
* Try this spontaneous one-line poetry form derived by Allen Ginsberg from haiku.
* My Favorite Things Tours with artist Jenny Heishman, writer Michael Dylan Welch, Seattle Weekly's Victoria Ellison, art critic Jen Graves and others.

Personally, I have a soft spot for I Heart Shiva, since I first met my wife at Seattle's the Baltic Room, during an I Heart Shiva night. But, the real action will certainly (or at least hopefully) be the collaborative illustration project lead by the Bureau of Drawers, so come check it out!

Dueling Banjo Pig

2010-08-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the illustration that I submitted to the Dueling Banjo Pig website:

Check out some other banjo pigs here.

"Combo #1" teaser image

2010-07-27T12:39:00.001-07:00

The Bureau of Drawers is in the process of producing Combo #1, a "Happy Meal" box filled to the gills with mini-comics and other similar works of illustration. The above image is the cover to my submission, Doctor General Oswald P. Seawall's Book In Which Children May Color (If This Behavior Is To Be Their Inclination), which is sort of a coloring book that's run off its rails a bit.

I dropped it off at the printers (read: Kinkos) this morning, and I'm excited to see the final version. I'm even more excited to check out the other submissions by this talented group of Seattle-based illustrators.

If you are interested, keep your eyes peeled here and on the Bureau's blog too.

Figure Drawing - July 12th

2010-07-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

After two session of figure drawing with a female model, it was a bit of a challenge switching to the more angular shapes of a male model. But, though my initial gesture drawings were a bit uneven, I felt like I'd found my sea-legs by the last couple of poses.

Anyhow, these two images were, I believe, 20 or 30 minute poses.

I think that the symbols on his chest were Egyptian hieroglyphs (if you are wondering), but it was hard to make out at the distance I was sitting.

Looking at these now, it looks sort of like I'm afraid of drawing feet, which isn't the case. Instead, I just have a small, crappy scanner and they were cut off during the scanning process.

Figure Drawing - June 28th

2010-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

When fellow Bureaucrat, Tom, initially told me about the figure drawing group in the International District, he said something to the effect of: "The first time you go, you'll love it. The second time, you'll hate your art." And, I have to say that now I know what he's talking about. While the model provided us with a lot more dynamic poses this time around (owing partially to the fact that she didn't have a sprained ankle like the last model), my own drawings seems more stiff and awkward. Still, I did a couple illustrations that I thought turned out pretty decent.

The first one was, I believe, a 15 minute pose. The second was more like 45 minutes. And, yes, in the first one, the model did wrap a scarf around her head like that.

Personal Portrait

2010-06-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

The illustration group I am part of, Bureau of Drawers, recently started a blog to chronicle and promote our work. Recently, we began posting profiles of all of our members, and several days ago it was my turn, so I created this Hindu-deity-meets-Vitruvian-Man piece. The various arms represent (from upper right, going clockwise) my roll as illustrator, husband, comic collector, traveler, designer and wine-maker, with my daughter, Stella, along for the ride.

The other members of the Bureau are really an amazing group of illustrators, and I feel fortunate to be considered one of there members. So be sure to check out the work of my fellow Bureaucrats.

Milk Maid Icons

2010-06-23T16:02:00.001-07:00

Client: Early Bird Software
Description: Icon set created for an iPhone application which helps working mothers track their breast milk pumping schedules, usage and stash. Learn more here.

Figure Drawing - June 15th

2010-06-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

I recently learned about a new Figure Drawing Group that meets every other Monday in Seattle's International District, and finally got a chance to attend last night. This was my first time drawing from a model since college (so, like, 10 years ago), so it was interesting and challenging to get back into the swing of things.

The session is broken up into three parts: One hour of 5 minute poses, one hour of 10 minute poses, and one hour of 20 minute poses. Below are my three sketches from the final hour.

As you can tell from these drawings, the model had a sprained ankle, so most of the poses she held were in a sitting position. Even at 20 minutes a pose, I still feel like these are just getting the rough details down. I'm hoping to continue to attend the group, so perhaps I'll post more drawings here in the future, and we can watch how my technique (hopefully) progresses.

'Monkey' sketch

2010-04-15T12:45:00.001-07:00

Inspired by the folk story Monkey (also known as A Journey to the West), which I've been reading recently, last night I decided to take a stab at drawing my version of the titular character. In the end, I probably took some artistic liberties with the character's appearance, but I was still pleased with the results.

Monkey!

Recent Sketches - March '10

2010-03-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

In an effort to update this blog more regularly, here are a few sketches I did recently. All of these were at the Wednesday illustration group I've been attending: Friends of the Nib.

Condorman & Gangster Stan Lee star in "The Battle For Neptune"
What started as a caricature of Stan Lee morphed into an elderly gangster, and Disney superhero Condorman appears thanks to some old comics sitting nearby. The illustrator next to me was drawing Neptune... so it only made sense that they'd be fighting over control of it. Right?

An Echidna with a Gatling Gun
The Gatling gun makes more sense if you read up on echidnas. I'm not sure what sort of accent he has, though it doesn't sound like Australian, which would be the logical assumption.

(Oh, and please ignore the fact that I misspelled "Gatlin'" in that drawing. It's probably to my credit that I don't know how to spell firearm names without looking them up online.)

Maxwell Thorton Jr. - Hunting Gent
This chap will hopefully appear in a card game idea I've been playing around with.

Dancing Women: Step-By-Step

2010-03-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

Personally, I've always been interested in blog entries and articles in which artists talk about their process of creating an illustration, logo or design. So, in an effort to give back, I thought I'd take some time, look at a recent illustration and explain a little about how I approach an illustration assignment.

For this project, my client is an online company who will soon be launching a website which sells hand-made jewelry. (Note: I'll include a link to the site, and reveal its name, once the site has gone live, but for now will keep things anonymous, so as not to create undo pressure on the client.) The client had asked for an illustration that could go on the website's landing page depicting a young, fashionable female wearing jewelry. Stylistically, the client was also fond of the "Breezy" illustration I had created for Illustration Friday last year.

So, with these two things in mind, I set about the first step of creating an illustration...

Step 1: Thumbnails
(With all the images in this entry, please click on them to see them larger and in more detail.)

In all honesty, I tend to not be big on thumbnails and roughs. But, they do have their roll, and for this illustration, I felt it was important that I do some initial sketches to try to get the right sense of motion. The central figure in the above scan (if you can make sense of it) was the one that I felt finally hit the mark.

Step 2: Hand Drawing

Using the thumbnail from Step 1 as my guide, I created this illustration. At this point, it still needed some refining, but I sent this to the client for an initial review and to make sure I was on the right track.

Except for a few minor changes, the client approved of this direction overall. So, I created a revised version that addressed the client's feedback as well as a couple problems I had with the drawing. This included making the foreground hand less man-ish, changing her hair so that more of the face was revealed, and making the dress smoother and less frumpy.

After making those revisions, the next step was to scan the illustration, and bring it into Illustrator.

Step 3: Tracing the Hand Drawing
Once I scan my hand-drawn sketch, there are actually several different ways that I approach refining and coloring it based on the eventual look that I want. For some drawings, such as my "Intricate" drawing, I actually bring the illustration into Photoshop and do most of the refining and coloring there. But, for this instance, I decided to work exclusively in Illustrator, to help get the lighter and cleaner look I wanted.

Once scanned and placed in Illustrator, the first step was to trace my sketch. To do so, I place the sketch on one layer, lock it, and work on a second layer with the Pen Tool. Since I didn't want the final illustration to feature many contour outlines, instead of tracing the lines themselves, I focused on tracing what would eventually be individual areas of color.

Also, when tracing my line work, it was important to start with the parts of the drawing which would be in the background, and work my way to the foreground. This helps with keeping things ordered correctly at later stages of my work.

Finally, while tracing, I knew that I'd want to deal with the jewelry separately, and in more detail, so I placed it on a third layer.

At the end of tracing my illustration, I hide the sketch layer, and was left with this...

Sort of a mess, no? Well, I'll fix that quickly.

Step 4: Applying Color

Luckily, in this instance, the client had not one but two defined color palettes to work from. This took away a lot of the heavy lifting for choosing colors for this illustration, and allowed me to focus on applying those colors instead.

Taking each individual color field, and applying a color from the clients palette to it quickly got me to here:

At this point, you can see that I'm not focusing much on detail, just getting the broad color choices down. One of the advantages of working in Illustrator is how easily you can switch colors, if things aren't working (as you'll see shortly). Also, you'll noticed that I'm still not worrying about the jewelry, which I plan on addressing last.

Step 5: Refine and Add Detail
With some basic color choices made, I went back and began making tweaks to the illustration. I didn't like the grey in the shirt, so I changed that to a light blue; and then I began adding gradients to my illustration to give the clothes and hair more form and texture.

Also, you see that I added more detail to the eyes, and face. But still no jewelry... yet.

Step 6: Final Details
Read: Add the jewelry

Early on in the sketching process, to help makes sure that the illustration would reflect the style of jewelry sold on the clients site, I had the client forward on some photos of typical pieces. Then, in creating jewelry for the drawing, I tried me best to duplicate what I saw in the photos.

This process, quite possibly, was similar to creating actual jewelry itself, since I had to create a number of small beads (each composed of layers of gradients) and then "string" them together to create each necklace, earring or bracelet. After adding the jewelry, I realized that the entire illustration was looking too cold, so I switched the background to a warm orange to help give it more life.

Step 7: Review and Revision
Now that I felt like this illustration was presentable and on the homestretch to completion, it was time to let the client review it again. Overall, the client was pleased with how it looked, but had a couple minor tweaks she requested. First, the client was worried that the gradients on the dress made it look too sheer. And, second, she felt that way I had cropped the head was odd and made the image look cut off. Both were fair criticisms, so I set about making changes.

With the top of the head added, and with the dress color switched, I felt the drawing was actually much improved, but the background still wasn't quite working for me. So, I experimented with some different shapes until I found a shape an color I felt help make it more dynamic.

Which, brought me to the final version:

Anyhow, I hope that some of you found this interesting. As I said earlier, there are a number of different ways I approach my drawing, so this is by no means my definitive technique. In fact, I'd argue that creating illustrations is a perpetual learning process and -with each illustration I create- I discover a new technique, style or possibility. That's actually one of the things that makes illustration so interesting and exciting.

Thanks for taking the time to read along! Let me know if you have any questions or comments. It would be great to hear from you.

Volentine's Card

2010-02-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal project
Description: A Valentine's Day card I made for my wife. Generally speaking, one wants to avoid creating cards that link rodents to the concept of love. But, my brain was fixated on the fact that "love" and "vole" were anagrams, so I figured why not run with it. The exterior of the card is above, the interior below.

Penguin sketch

2010-02-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal
Description: Last week, at the illustration group I attend on Wednesday, Friends of the Nib, someone brought a bunch of old Batman 2 trading cards and challenged everyone to draw a picture based on them. At the end of the night, I'd created this pen and ink illustrated tribute to Danny Devito's Pengiun.

Whrrl Society Badges

2010-01-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

Client: Pelago
Project Description: Society Badges for use on Pelago's iPhone "footstreaming" application, Whrrl. Societies featured are (from top to bottom): Brew Pub Society, Comic Book Society, Indie Film Society, Indie Music Society, Nite Owl Society and Sports Bar Society.

Icons needed to be legible and interesting in sizes ranging from 300x300 pixels to 75x75 pixels.

Personal Holiday Card

2010-01-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: This year's family Holiday card. Back after a one year hiatus. Featuring me, my wife and the newest addition (and reason for taking last year off): Stella!

ORS Holiday Card

2009-12-20T09:19:00.001-08:00

Client: Organizational Research Services
Description: Design and illustrate a holiday card for Seattle-based Program Evalution firm, using a pre-chosen inspirational quote.

Childhood (the Forest Car)

2009-11-06T13:52:00.001-08:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: Several weeks ago, I had a friend mention an illustration contest where you had to draw a picture that you thought represented "childhood." For some reason, the first thing that sprang into my mind was a group of old rusted out cars that were in a small woods, out passed a dead-end road near my childhood house. As you might imagine, it was very off-limits to go play on or by these rusted old cars, but occasionally, we'd sneak off and take a look at them anyhow.

I'm pretty sure that I've since missed the contest, but I thought I'd put the image to paper. Needless to say, that kid doesn't look like me, and there were never fairy lights hanging from the surrounding pine trees... but still.

"It Was All A Dream"

2009-10-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Client: (Into) The Fray
Description: Digital photo-collage constructed in Photoshop using roughly a dozen separate photographs.

"Fleeting"

2009-04-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: Submission for Illustration Friday website, for the topic of "Fleeting."

A fleeting glimpse of the rare Blue Stag that inhabits these regions. Local legend has it that if you managed to sneak up on the stag and tie a ribbon, piece of jewelry or prayer flag to its antlers you will receive good fortune for the rest of the year. Birds, always naturally attracted to good luck, tend to follow the stag where ever it goes.

When choosing what to illustrate this week, I wanted to challenge myself and draw an animal, since I tend to gravitate towards human subjects for my illustrations. Then, halfway through drawing it, I remembered I'd already done several other mythical creature drawings. Oh well... besides, I'm pretty sure the Blue Stag is real.

"Subtract"

2009-03-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: Submission for Illustration Friday website, for the topic of "Subtract."

"Subtract" was another tricky word. Especially if you are going to side step math related images, or... um... guillotines or something.

When looking at this, don't think too hard about the Principles of Invisible Paint. I'm sure many of you would argue that, if Invisible Paint were a reality, it probably wouldn't cause people to look like they are breaking apart like Play Doh™. But, you have to admit it would be cool if it did. So, buy some of Dr. Beacon's Amazing Invisible Paint now!

"Legendary"

2009-03-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: Submission for Illustration Friday website, for the topic of "Legendary."

I originally decided to start doing Illustration Friday as a way to avoid just always drawing pictures of knights and ninjas. So, when "Legendary" came up as this weeks word, I have to admit I was a little flustered. In the end, I decided to go with a more modern legendary figure. This also allowed me to tackle another personal illustration fear: Drawing Motorcycles.

Overall, I like how this turned out, though I may pick up this drawing again and work on it some more before adding it to my portfolio, since I ended up being a little rushed for time.

"Intricate"

2009-03-11T12:43:00.001-07:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: Submission for Illustration Friday website, for the topic of "Intricate." Actually, for this illustration, there are two versions that I considered using: The colored one above, and the black and white one featured below. While I thought the black and white one might better highlight the "intricate" part of the picture, I ultimately went with the colorful one, who's pallete was inspired by a photo of dyes in India.

Let me know which you prefer!

"Breezy"

2009-03-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal Project
Project Description: Submission for Illustration Friday website, for the topic of "Breezy."

Animal Paintings

2008-12-17T14:15:00.001-08:00

Client: Personal Project
Description: A series of small paintings I created for my daughter's nursery. Each animal is the favorite animal of either mom, dad, a grandparent, aunt or uncle.

IT Icons

2008-10-24T14:02:00.001-07:00

Client: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Project Description: Update existing set of Internal Technology icons to better match the current foundation brand guidelines. This included changing the illustration style, color scheme, general clarity and creating several new icons.

GCE Grant Map

2008-10-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Client The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Project Description: Informational graphic displaying the distribution of grants given out for the foundation's Grand Challenges Exploration initiative.

Patty Stonesifer Caricatures

2008-08-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

Client: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Project Description: A pair of caricatures of departing CEO, Patty Stonesifer, for use at her going away party.

Commons Icon Set

2008-08-15T14:42:00.001-07:00

Client: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Project Description: Illustrated icon set for use on the foundation's internal website, the Commons.

"Impact News" Illustration

2008-03-24T08:49:00.001-07:00

Client: The Bill and Melinda Gats Foundation
Project Description: Cartoon of a coworker as a new reporter, to be used for an internal event.

Happy Holidays 2007

2007-12-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: The Happy Holiday's card I made for my wife and I to give out this year. I deliberately tried to do something a little different than wat I did the previous two years.

Featured Creatured: Dullahan

2007-12-13T14:47:00.001-08:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: Another in my series of illustrations of mythical creatures featured on my blog, General Admission.

Darjeeling Limited illustration

2007-12-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: Illustration of the three lead characters in the film Darjeeling Limited.

Quilt Pattern Clean Up (before and after)

2007-11-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Client: SuSun Designs
Project Description: The quilt pattern designer provided me with hand drawn diagrams laying out the overall arrangement and dimensions of her pattern. I was then tasked with cleaning up the designs, and reconstructing them in a vector format for the final pattern booklet.

Featured Creatured: Catoblepas

2007-11-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: Another in my series of illustrations of mythical creatures featured on my blog, General Admission.

General Theory of Creativity

2007-11-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Clinet: Personal
Project Description: Personal design and illustration portfolio website: GeneralTheoryofCreativity.com.

Featured Creatured: Barbegazi

2007-10-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: Another in my series of illustrations of mythical creatures featured on my blog, General Admission.

`Round the World Red

2007-10-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

Client: `Round the World Red Wine
Project Description: Wine label design for small family-made wine group. Plane, globe and clouds are from different images, collaged together and recolored.

Featured Creatured: Amphisbaena

2007-10-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal
Project Description:
The first in a series of self-directed illustrations featuring mythical creatures to be featured on my blog: General Admission.

Zumiez Couch Tour

2007-10-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

Client: Zumiez
Project Description:
Working with a designer from Zumiez, and drawing upon the color scheme and designs of vintage postcards, we created a double page ad promoting the "Zumiez 2003 Couch Tour" - a tour of famous skateboarders and snowboarders that would visit six cities in the United States. This ad appeared in a number of major skateboarding and snowboarding magazines, and elements of it were translated into everything from T-shirts and visors to posters and ID badges.

In this project, I worked primarily as the illustrator, but also help with conceptualizing and layout.

Wedding Invites, Programs and Save the Day cards

2007-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal
Project Description: One of the more pleasurable I've had the honor to work on was designing the Invitations, Programs and Save the Day cards for my wedding to my lovely wife, Sarah. Using the green, orange and off-white color scheme we had chosen, I developed a series of cards, invitations and programs which was both sophisticated andfun. The grand finale was definitely the program which featured a crossword puzzle and actvities page.

Beyond designing the programs and other print portions of our wedding, I worked with my wife to carry the same colors and feel through the rest of our wedding occasion. If you are interested, you can see photos here.

Move! Fight! Move! character designs

2007-10-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

Client: Personal
Project Description:
Fifteen character designs for a board game I am developing entitled: Move! Fight! Move! Characters are (from left to right): (Top row) Ninja. Ghost. Cowboy. (Second row) Pirate. Amazon. Monkey. (Third row) Robot. Magician. Psychic. (Fourth Row) Wrestler. Zombie. Alien. (Bottom Row) Bombot. Evil Brain. Evil Clown.

Real.com Redesign

2007-10-18T13:11:00.001-07:00

Client: RealNetworks
Project Description:
Working with a layout developed by another member of my design team, I was charged with implementing the new layout to be tested on Real.com. My job was to take the template and fill the various modules with content and design to make it better match the existing offers on the live version of the page. This page would then be tested against the current live page.

Rhapsody ads for TWICE Magazine

2007-10-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Client: RealNetworks
Project Description:
A copywriter and I were charged with creating a full page print ad for the technology industry magazine TWICE. With only several days to turn the project around, we had to create an ad that encouraged other companies to look into partnering opportunities with RealNetworks' Rhapsody technology. Of the many options that the copywriter and I explored was this personal favorite which was determined to be too "quirky."

The final ad, which appeared in TWICE magazine, was this elegant solution in which we combined a Yin-Yang motif with the Rhapsody play button, logo and the popular Sansa player which was recently released in partnership with RealNetworks.

Holiday Cards

2007-10-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

Client: Personal
Project Description:
A set of two Holiday cards that I made for my wife and I to mail out for the 2005 (top) and 2006 (bottom) holiday season. Cards are hand drawn and computer colored illustrations printed out to fit into fit into standard envelopes with our greetings written on the back.

My Resume

2007-10-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Objective:
I am an experienced Graphic Designer and Illustrator, with 7+ years experience working both independantly and in a online marketing environments. I have worked with project managers, design teams and developers to ensure marketing goals are reached in a creative manner and design standards are maintained. I am also interested in forwarding my career as an illustrator, by developing interesting, entertaining and innovative illustrations to meet your project needs.

Computer Experience:

Advanced: • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe Photoshop • Macromedia Flash

Intermediate: • Adobe InDesign • HTML • Adobe Acrobat • Macromedia Freehand • Homesite • Adobe Pagemaker

Design Experience:

RealNetworks, Seattle, WA
Web Designer, 2003 – 2007
Maintained and improved webpages for Real.com and RealNetworks.com. Worked with Marketing group to advance campaigns for RealPlayer, SuperPass, Rhapsody, Sansa Player and a number of other products and launches. During this time, I gained experience working with Marketing and Development groups, worked with a team of skilled designers, and honed my skills with Photoshop and other programs to create and deliver landing pages, IPMs, HTML emails, print pieces and order paths.

Artsource (now Filter), Seattle, WA
Graphic Artist & Illustrator (contractor), 2000-2003
Worked with a number of clients including Microsoft and RealNetworks. As both a freelance contractor and employee for Artsource, I worked with a wide variety of clients on projects ranging from web pages to illustrations to print pieces for magazines and newspapers. During this time I learned to be flexible when working with a number of different individuals and companies to achieve their goals in a quick and effective manner.

Illustration Experience:

In addition to a number of personal projects, I have worked on illustrations for Zumiez, Ignia LLC, Microsoft, Every Other Weekly, for several weddings, Voicestream, CDE Software, and the rock band the Divorce. Projects have ranged from full-page illustrations, to stock art and T-shirt design.

Education:
Western Washington University, Bellingham WA
BA, Fine Arts with concentrations in Graphic Design and Illustration, 1999