hot sauce battle

I was eating a chicken taco from Taco Bell at my desk at work the other day and saw that I had an old Del Taco hot sauce packet, so I used that sauce on the second taco and then decided to sketch the sauce packets. I like Del Tacos hot sauce a bit better.

Click to see a larger image

Sketches from the Sketchbook

It has been way to long since I have posted anything on this blog which explains why the visitors to this thing are virtually non existent. So I am posting a few sketches from my sketch book which I am about to finish, there is only 1 page left in it, and then on to a brand new 5x8 moleskin sketchbook whoohoo.

The first sketch was made with a lettering pen and ink, brush and ink and water while watching the 11:00 Simpsons. I drew a quick outline with the lettering pen dipped in non waterproof ink and then during the next commercial break I went over the initial sketch with the brush dipped in ink and let that dry just a bit. After the Simpsons ended I then put a few drops of ink in some water and went back and did a little highlighting around the eyes and hair and added the eyebrows.

click for a larger image

This second sketch I am sure was made during another late nite television show although I can not remember which. I used the lettering pen dipped in ink for the initial sketch and then used the brush dipped in ink to ad some line thickness to certain parts of the sketch.

click for a larger image

For whatever reason I have been into drawing eyes and faces the last few months and using a lettering pen that I have to dip in ink. I am liking the way the pen feels on the paper when I write or draw with this so I may keep at it for a while or at least until I accidentally spill the bottle of ink and make a mess of my desk and carpet.

Hospital chair

I came across this sketch in my sketch book the other day of a chair I sat in at the hospital. I remember sitting there thinking the worst and the best and then thinking if these chairs could talk what kind of happiness and sadness could they speak of. How many people have heard news and sat back down in relief or sat back down to slump over and cry. On this day my news was good. It is not so odd that sitting in a chair in a hospital really gets you thinking.

Cookin up some Wheat Paste

So the other day I was thinking of doing some sort of collage project for a creative outlet. So I then decided to glue it together using the technique used by kindergarteners and street artists alike good old wheat paste. I went to the market to get some flower as I do not bake to much and came home and added some water put it all in a pan and slowly let it boil while stirring in some more water until it got to that nice paint like consistency. So the wheat paste is made and now I need to do something with it. I will post that project when I get around to making something.

Happy New Year

Well another year has come and gone and time continues on at what seems to be a ever faster rate, I must be having a lot of fun. I hope your new year was a good one and that you spent it doing whatever it is that you wanted to do.

Now it is time for those pesky resolutions that get forgotten quicker then your promise to never drink like that again promise. I generally do not make resolutions but this year I am making one that pertains more to my business then personal life and that is to be more diligent about my marketing strategy or almost complete lack there of over the last year. It seems like this is a resounding theme with many of the designers I have been talking to in my network that run their own shop or solo design studio. In a profession in which we help others out with their marketing, branding and advertising we tend to forget to turn that mirror on ourselves and see that we are being neglected. So with that lets give a toast to marketing!

I will make this resolution and that is to a least post once a month and get an Illustration Friday submission in at least once a month, so there you go.

Happy New Year all!

Hats not Shoes

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is "Hats". I have not participated in this in a very long time and need to get back into it as it is a good creative exercise. So this weeks submission was a quick ink sketch and watercolor background scanned into photoshop and then some patterns added to the hat boxes along with a hat in the background for good measure. Look for next weeks submission.



Click for a larger image.

Labor Day with the Stanley Cup

The Holy Grail known as the Stanley Cup made it's way to my sisters house this Labor day weekend and of course we had to have a party. My sister and her husband both work for the Ducks and my Dad and myself have been seat holders since they entered into the league. My sister was given the cup for half of the day because she works in hockey operations for the Ducks.

During the day a steady stream of friends, family, co-workers and other well wishes showed up to eat, drink and of course take their picture with the Cup.

Mike Bolt the keeper of the Cup was there to make sure we kept in line with the rules of the cup, one being you are not allowed to hoist it over your head unless the person whose day it is, is with you and touching the cup, also you could not grab it by the bowl due to the fact through its travels over the summer it had become a little weak.

It was a great day topped off by chilling some Dom Periginon in the Cup and then taking a sip out of the greatest trophy on earth.
For more photos click here flickr


My Dad, Sis and me with the Cup.


Chilling the Champagne


My dad wanting to take the Cup for a spin



Mike (the Cup Keeper) cleaning the Cup, This is the only time he did not wear the white gloves.

It has been a long time

So it has nearly been 5 months since my last update which is crazy cause so much has been going on. First off I headed to Hawaii for a week for a family wedding which doubled as a vacation. It was then off to Cabo San Lucas for our annual ride from the California border down to Cabo. This years ride proved to be quite the adventure as we had to spend the first night in the desert on a mountain due to the inexperience of our newest rider to the group and then a few days later a broken radiator by the same guy which caused us to alter our route and not make it to Loreto. All in all great fun as usual.

In June it was off to the HOW Conference to meet up with some friends and recharge the creative batteries. The Conference was in Atlanta Georgia this year at the Westin Hyatt and was a really good time. I enjoyed all of the sessions I attended and there were some definite standouts such as the Three Dogz session, Steve Gordons session and Danny Gregory's drawing session. During the conference we reconnected with old friends made some new ones and networked with fellow creatives around the country and are looking forward to next years conference in Boston.

After the conference we made our way down to Savannah, a city I have always wanted to visit. Savannah did not disappoint and I want to go back, the town is beautiful and the food and people were great. We took a day and just walked around the whole town and enjoyed the history and beauty of it all. Finally it was off to St. Simons island to stay with friends for the night on their boat before we left the next day to come back home.

During the this time I also managed to do some work and acquire some new business, and will be participating in the IF again. I may post some pictures of my trips in the next week or two. In the meantime here is a quick sketch I drew of the plane ride home.

HIde

Hide is the theme this week over at Illustration Friday. I went with the classic hiding under the bed. As kids we all did this sometimes for fun and games and maybe other times for reasons that were more serious. I did this weeks submission using the old stipple method that many of us may remember from art school. It was fun to do but a bit time consuming even for this rather simple piece. I think it came out alright but then again I have not stippled something in many years. Hope you like and as always please feel free to post your comments.
Thanks.

Communication

So this weeks Illustration Friday is Communication. I am a bit late in submitting but that is fine. So I went with the eyes since the are the window to your soul and people always say I can tell by your eyes. Our eyes communicate a lot without us having to say a word. How many times have you looked into somebody's eyes and could tell what was wrong or what they were thinking. This illustration was made with pen and ink and black pastel stick. Then I scanned the sketch into photoshop and color was added to my scribbled text and to the background. I hope you like it and please feel free to post any comments.

Cool typography piece

You may have already seen this but in case you haven't Justin Cone, editor of Motionographer, teaches a class in time-based typography at SCAD; he's posted a killer piece of work by one of his students, Jarratt Moody. Take a few minutes and check it out, you will not be disappointed.
jarrattmoody Typography piece

Red

So I have not participated in an Illustration Friday in a while but I had some time this week and decided it was time. Red is this weeks theme and for whatever reason this image is what came into my mind. It is a bit darker in content then my previous posts. The image was made with an ink pen and pastel touches then scanned into photoshop, colored and a background added. Please feel free to post any comments.

Who Wants Free Design Work?

So I was told be a friend about this post on craigslist, it is a post from an unknown designer who is expressing his feelings about the value the public seems to put on Graphic Design. Alot of people on craigslist post job opps for designers wanting a great design but wanting it for little or nothing or the promise that it will lead to a whole bunch of new work.

As for the original post it was deleted from craigslist, but I completely agree with this guy. The general public as well as other designers need to start educating themeselves on the worth and value of good design.

Here is the original post.


Every day, there are more and more CL posts seeking "artists" for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.

But what they're NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

To those who are "seeking artists", let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? ...none?

More than likely, you don't know any. Otherwise, you wouldn't be posting on craigslist to find them.

And this is not really a surprise.

In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the "opportunity" to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him "a few bucks" for "materials". What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?

If you answered "yes" to ANY of the above, you're obviously insane. If you answered "no", then kudos to you for living in the real world.

But then tell me... why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?

Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.

A few things you need to know;

1. It is not a "great opportunity" for an artist to have his work seen on your car/'zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a "great opportunity" for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a "student" or "beginner" in an attempt to get work for free. It's ignorant and insulting. They may be "students", but that does not mean they don't deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a "student" once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it's one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their "portfolio". They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It's not compensation. It's their right, and it's a given.

4. Stop thinking that you're giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.

5. Students DO need "experience". But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the "experience" they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother's house when they were seventeen?

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.

6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to "submit work for consideration". They may even be posing as some sort of "contest". These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the "contest", or be "chosen" for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or "spec", work. It's risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.

So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are "spec" gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free... please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you're accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.

A New Year

So we are in a new year and the start of my second year in business, this last year was good and I worked at a very cool ad agency for the last month which was great cause I like to spend money during the holiday season. The new year has started out with some new work coming in and I hope I can keep it going. They say it takes between two to three years to really get a business going. Happy New Year!

Help

So this weeks theme on Illustration Friday is "Help". I have not done one of these in a few weeks as my lack of posting will show but this one hit me and so here you go. Basically it is two hands reaching for each other but I wanted it to be reversable so that you could look at it like a playing card sort of and make either hand the one reaching for help. I drew the hands and the word help and scanned them in and then added a halftone pattern and several different background textures and colors to get a rustic run down feel in photoshop. Hope you guys like it and have a Merry Christmas and Holiday season!

Thanksgiving

This weeks theme over at Illustration Friday is Thanksgiving, so here is my interpretation. It is based on that stereotypical uncle that you may have that eats to much and then undoes his top button and falls asleep on the couch while watching football. This was made with ink, and a wallpaper pattern I found and then put together in photoshop. I hope you enjoy and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

"Clear" head and mind.

Here is the an illustration I made for my first blog post, it is titled "clear". The illustration is for a weekly creative excersize called Illustration Friday it is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators of all skill levels. The idea came after seeing that Ellen DeGeneres commercial where she is meditating and trying to clear her mind. I painted the the background using some water color and then scanned the painting in and found a photo of a women meditating and reduced the photo to just the white parts I wanted and placed that over the painted background. I then added some type and scanned in a bubble I drew and added some type to finish it all off.