I was contacted by a symphony organizer for the second year in a row to produce a poster for their philharmonic and youth symphonies. Last year I painted sections of various instruments, so this year I felt like I wanted concentrate on just one - in this case a violin. I had painted the instruments in a very representational realistic manner, which, while nothing wrong with that, I realized I was more excited about getting to paint than about what I was actually painting. This time around I incorporated elements that I always love drawing - nature and hand drawn type. Working with these elements helps to keep the piece looking/feeling like something I did, and keeps me interested. I'll be posting the finished piece when it's done.

OK, so now that the holidays are over (read: I got xbox 360 and couldn't stop playing dead rising), I think it might be a little easier to find time to not only draw, but get some of those drawing posted.

For starters, I've been getting into fonts, type . .design, etc. lately and was inclined to design my own font:

I laugh a little cause I started with my name, more or less just doodling, but the more I did, the more serious I became- hence no real rhyme or reason to the letters or order, but an increase in correction and adjustments. There's still a lot to figure out, including glyphs and uppercase, but I'm pleased with how it's coming along. I tried scanning and vectorizing the type in Illustrator (no steamline or Ill. 11.0), but honestly, it's just not the same. Granted, I still have work to do with the paths/line weight, but nothing beats a hand made font. I might go back and redraw using black ink. It'll be easier to scan and vectorize with a truly defined line.

It's not done yet either, but there's the next p.s. illustration.

I still have a lot of work to do on the ship and 'spider boi', but I suppose you get the idea of how it'll look when I'm finished. I have no idea if I'll create a story line for these two, but if nothing else, they've been fun to draw.

First Sketch

Initially, I thought I'd be able to embed larger files, but I guess this is as big as it gets, so, I'll just include details:) At any rate, this is my first sketch entry.

A few weeks again, Moon, my brother, asked me to sketch up a few different trees for a tattoo. Although I really like this tree, I don't think I'm going to ink this in for his tattoo. From what Moon described, the tree should bend a little more to the right - a lil' bonsai-y. Despite not using it for the tattoo, I think I might still use this for either my ABC book (hence the Tt), or a silk screen poster/tshirt - which I've already gotten a request for. I suppose if nothing else, I enjoyed drawing a kick ass tree, wrought from the depths of my imagination.

First blog - w00t!

For starters, I hate all of these fonts. They're killin' me. No Bodoni, Garamond, Goudy Old Style. I'll get over it once I start posting illustrations or design work.

Secondly, I noticed a spell check. I'll probably never use this.

Thirdly, for as much as I hope this blog is popular with friends and/or the internet, I really hope that it keeps me occupied with sketching, searching for new ideas/techniques, and actually finishing some paintings. Well, we'll see what happens.