tree print

I did this quick tree sketch the other night with the idea of turning it into a block print. Something to occupy my time in between diaper changes. So interesting to see how the character of an image changes from drawing to print. I've really been enjoying the actual act of carving the prints, and am hoping to do more. Here are a couple of my results, one on untreated paper and the other printed atop a blue watercolor wash.

construction paper critters

Where'd the POSTS go? (I DUNNO...)

I haven't done much with a pencil, pen or brush since my son was born, but I have been focusing on making his bedroom a slightly more colorful place. I'll be doing lots of construction paper cutting and glue-ing in the future, (helping him out with the classics- turkey hands, snowflakes, etc...) so I figured I better get some paper-cutting practice under my belt. I came up with some animal faces for his walls, and made a frog, a tiger, a hippo, and a monkey. He enjoys looking at them when he gets his diaper changed. The best thing about the construction paper medium is the cost. You can make just about anything for the low low price of $3.00. Probably less if you shop around. These were a lot of fun, and my son is super-happy with how they turned out (He's not very critical of creativity...I've discovered this is one of the best traits that babies have)






My wife got in on the fun and made a butterfly, along with some wonderful calligraphy for his room. Welcome to the world, Emmett!

Happy Birthday, Aidan!

Foliage sketches

A couple quick foliage studies I did recently. Very challenging, but a lot of fun to try.

An Apple Tree (pencil on big wrinkled paper)

A Hydrangea Bush (gouache on watercolor paper)

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

Here are a couple pieces I'm working on for my class, from the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." Gouache on illustration board, with some lighting and color help courtesy of Photoshop.

The end goal is to have these be two finished pieces of a 32 page storybook. I'm working on sketches and designs for the rest of it now, and if they turn out alright I'll post em up.

Art for The Children's Market

Here are a couple pieces I recently completed for an "Art For The Children's Market" class I have been taking for the past couple months. The first part of the class was mainly about composition and value, and the instructor had us work strictly in black and white.

The Frog, the Mouse, and the Snake

I did this illustration in extra black graphite on watercolor paper, for a story by my instructor, Rollin Thomas. The "Snake" in the title hasn't appeared on the scene yet, but if the frog doesn't get the mouse out of the trap the story won't end too happily.

The Fools of Chelm and the Stupid Carp

An illustration for a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, done in cell vinyl wash on bristol. A great and funny story about the "wise" men of Chelm, who decide to teach a disrespectful fish a lesson by drowing him.

We've been working on other stuff in the class, and I hope to post more soon.

Do you have a question?

Here's a silkscreen I did at The Vera Project a couple of weeks ago, during their 2 hour, Silkscreen 101 Class. The class cost me $15, and was a great way to re-familiarize myself with the silkscreen process. I hadn't done any silkscreen work in over 13 years, so I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. Red wasn't my preferred color for this, but I was lucky enough to have someone give me their ink since I forgot to bring any of my own. Thank you, kind and gracious Vera Project personnel!

Honeymoon at Fire Creek

A story I wrote was published in the Licton Springs Review not too long ago, and I wanted to do an illustration to accompany it. I've been going through some Adobe Illustrator tutorials recently, and wanted to apply the techniques I learned towards some type of digital illustration style. I'd like to work on different styles for this piece, maybe take the Illustrator version and recreate it in a more traditional medium. The more I learn about Illustrator, the more impressed I am.

Bonus illustration by my friend and co-worker Drake, who was kind enough to sketch up his version of an illustration possibility for the story. Hmmmm...what in the world could it POSSIBLY be about?

How I Felt This Afternoon

Better Buy in Bulk...

The phrase popped into my head one day last week, and I wanted to get it down onto paper before I forgot it. India ink on copy paper...colored in Photoshop. I wonder how much giraffes by the gallon would cost?

The Silver Surfer Rides Again

Looking at some older artwork of mine has made me remember how absolutely ape-shit I used to be over superheroes. Spiderman, Daredevil, the Hulk...I loved all those guys. For one reason or another, I moved onto other artistic interests not long after high school, and hadn't drawn a superhero in years. (except Spidey a couple weeks ago, but that doesn't count. He's really just some crochety guy in a Halloween costume...) In an attempt to reconnect with the joys of youth, here's a painting of the Silver Surfer I started working on over the weekend.
The Silver Surfer lived a pretty tormented life. He was trapped in a bubble that surrounded the earth, and was unable to return to his home planet and the woman he loved. Most of the Silver Surfer's time was spent moaning and groaning about how life was unfair, about how he yearned to break free of his earthly prison so he could soar once again throughout the infinite cosmos. When I was a teenager, I ate this stuff UP! Trying to paint the "infinite cosmos" was an excellent exercise for trying out some sponge-painting techniques...this was painted in goauche and acrylic, on illustration board.

Totem, Interrupted

Spent some time over the weekend working on a block print with my friend Christopher. I hadn't done any block printing in almost 17 years (since high school!) and really had fun with it. I'd like to do some more. There's something very satisfying about seeing print after print appear in my basement. It's like I'm stockpiling holiday presents for my entire family. The print started off as the sketch below, with the idea of showing that you can't ALWAYS finish what you start, as the carver of this totem pole has unfortunately discovered.

Spidey Reads The Funnies...(Ketcham study)

Last Friday I told myself I would paint SOMETHING over the weekend, and in order to keep the promise I worked on a study for the Spiderman of 2007.

It felt great to break out with a little bit of color and brush work and spend some quality time off the computer. Ahhh, rough lines!!! This is a goauche wash on bristol paper.

I've been wanting to study the layouts of Hank Ketcham (Dennis the Menace, Half Hitch) for awhile, and used the cartoon below for a heavy dose of composition and inspiration.


Thanks for the lesson, Hank! And if there are any Dennis fans out there who haven't read The Merchant of Dennis, Hank Ketcham's autobiography, it's worth a serious look. Very funny, with wonderful insights and great sketches from a lifetime spent cartooning.

The Freedom of Youth! (part 3)

Here's the last batch of my childhood drawings (at least for the foreseeable future). I'm overdue to get some new stuff up for people to see. Thanks for taking a look at pieces of my very own art history.

Monsters, Knights, and Ninjas

Like every litle boy in history, I was fascinated by dinosaurs, sharks, mutant apes, robots...the list goes on and on. If it had scales, fangs, or laser beams, I was hooked. My monster fascination started off innocently enough, with a very benign version of Godzilla. Look out Tokyo! Godzilla might cuddle you to death.

Things started getting a bit darker when I saw Jaws. I had decided that a good monster needed an appropriate victim. Look at that poor swimmer. So blissfully unaware that an animal the size of the Titanic is about to swallow her whole...I think she could live out a fine life inside that gaping maw. That shark's mouth is bigger than my house! He sure looks bloodthirsty.

These guys weren't really monsters, but maybe I'll see them differently after July 4th. That Transformers movie sure will have a lot of good memories to live up to...

At around the age of eleven or so, I discovered metallic silver markers. More importantly, I discovered the power of blood.


But blood wasn't enough! I learned to draw weapons. Limbs were hacked off, arrows punctured lungs, and shields were a poor defense against the ruthless dragon hordes.

It wasn't long before ninjas took over my imagination. For some reason I imagined that ninjas were on a constant quest for gold, and would battle other ninjas to the death to get it. In order to protect the gold, elaborate booby traps were created, sending many a valiant ninja to an untimely and bloody death...I got really into these drawings, and remember creating cave after cave, each one full of spring-loaded arrows, vicious crocodiles, boiling lava, and poisonous snakes. But I guess the gold was worth it.

As you can see here, my ninja-warfare rendering skills were at their absolute peak. Look at the weapons on that guy. Rocket launcher! Bowie Knife! M-16! Bow and arrow! Throwing stars! Buzz-saw hand! I am sure I drew this not long after seeing a Bruce Lee movie, and I bet I agonized over getting all the weapons exactly right. This looks like a drawing where I was old enough to sweat the details. So much for the freedom of youth!

The Freedom of Youth! (part 2)

Spiderman 3 is currently in theaters, and is breaking all box-office records known to man. Because of this, I thought that now would be a good time to show just how much a kid can do with Spiderman, all without spending a dime. Spiderman was my hero when I was little; for a year or so, I truly believed I was Peter Parker. I bet I've drawn Spiderman over a thousand times...Now I'm not saying these drawings pack the same entertainment value as a $300 million dollar blockbuster, but from what I've heard, they may not be as cringe-inducing as the LATEST escapades of everyone's favorite web-slinger.

Spiderman vs. Rhino!

Look at that agility! Look at that finesse! Spidermans a dynamo!!! But what about Rhino? Rhino isn't a great idea for a super-villian alter ego. A rhino has horns and likes to charge, but its gonna take more than that to be taken seriously as a villian. Don't believe me? Take a look at this guy.

It's a great costume, but I don't think it's gonna strike fear into the hearts of anyone. This guy actually looks more like the Rhino I drew than the real Rhino does! I had a childhood premonition or something. Visions of future comic-cons came to me in my dreams...

Spiderman vs. Stegron!

Stegron didn't get an ounce of the exposure that the Lizard did, but in my opinion, he is the superior lizard-man. A scientist named Victor Stegron injects himself with dinosaur DNA and becomes a walking, talking stegosaurus! Look at those armor plates! That spiked tail! And he has a laser gun! Stegron is a wet-dream of cool! But as you can see, Stegron and his laser gun are no match for Spidey's moves. All it takes is a graceful handspring for Spiderman to evade his deadly blast. Too bad the Triceratop bones don't have the agility of a spider...I'll bet Stegron doesnt even feel guilty destroying the bones of his dinosaur brothers. Now THAT's evil.

Spiderman vs. Hulk!

Two of my favorite characters go head to head! I'm sure I had fun drawing these guys back in the day. They each have so much in common. Peter Parker and Bruce Banner, both gifted scientists, both exposed to radiation...both saddled with great power and great responsibility. There will be a lot of happy people out there if Spidey and the Hulk ever show up in the same movie. Sure, it's happened in comics time and time again, but a movie...well, thats a whole other story, isnt it? Based on the budget for the latest Hulk and Spidey movies, a meeting between the two should only cost half a billion dollars. What does that work out to hourly? Spiderman 3 cost around three hundred million dollars, and runs two hours, twenty minutes...that equates to 15 thousand dollars a minute. I haven't seen the movie, but my guess is there aren't very many 15 thousand dollar minutes in it. If I think about it that way, a ten dollar movie ticket is a bargain. I'm buying 15 thousand dollar minutes for mere pennies! Maybe that will take the sting out of seeing my childhood hero flop around like he's auditioning for the sequel to Dirty Dancing. But then again...aren't some memories supposed to be priceless?

The Freedom of Youth! (part 1)

A friend of mine has been posting drawings from days long past, and he's inspired me to do the same. It’s amazing what you find when you go through the boxes in your basement. I need to give a big thanks to my mother for saving all this stuff. I’m grateful to have it.


Some of the earliest drawings I found (or at least the earliest ones whose subject matter I could recognize) were of sports. My dad's a huge sports fan, which is the only reason I can think of for me to have drawn these. I don’t remember liking sports as a child, but memory is strange. Soccer wasn’t just my favorite sport, it was my favorite THING. Did I like it more than CARTOONS? Did I like it more than CANDY? Apparently so.


Along with soccer, there was football. I drew the Chargers...


I drew the Rams. I still think the Rams have some of the coolest helmets ever...


And of course, growing up in Washington, I drew the Seahawks.
But did you notice I drew them losing? The score is 10-28. A Seahawk is saying, “Rats!” If you can’t even get a little KID to believe in you, you’re a team with problems. Maybe, even way back then - I knew rooting for the Seahawks was a lost cause. I was too young to have my heart broken. That would have to come later, in Super Bowl XL. We wuz robbed!!!


And then I found him. A NEW hero...
Stop and think about how many kids out there grew up drawing Spiderman. Millions? Billions? Kids are STILL drawing Spiderman, just like they did thirty years ago. But who else was drawing this guy?


I haven’t seen him in the headlines, but he looks like quite the villain. I even gave him the oh-so-evil name of NEWTON. Puny mortals, kneel before the power of NEWTON!!! I guess there’s a reason I stopped drawing him. Too bad. His ship was named the FireBolt. How bad-ass is that?



What the heck is this? A bloated thanksgiving turkey? A modern-art jack-o-lantern? No, it’s the ARGO! The coolest spaceship to ever come from a resurrected Japanese naval vessel - Starblazers, the Argo and the Wave Motion Gun will always hold a special place in my heart. Here is the real ARGO, so you can see just how awesome my paper craft skills were back in the day.


What a likeness! I nailed it!