Yeah, it's been a while...

So, I have been doing stuff. Most is in preliminary stages. I have like 4 different concepts for illustrations in various stages.

Anyway, here is a job I did recently for a friend from my high school days. He works on a crew at a power plant in Georgia. I am pretty sure they clean and repair the boilers. He said he wanted a new mascot for his crew, a Boiler Flea to be exact. Apparently the named originated from a talented Hispanic welder named Lemonade. He told the boss that he was getting fleas from the boiler. These things get so hot that it takes about 30-days to cool them down, there is no way an insect is living in there. So he was let go, but his legacy will live on.

Dorn asked me draw a flea and this is what I came up with. It has a little bit of hot rod culture influence, not bad. I included the rough sketch below. I inked it and put it in Illustrator to clean it up. [ink + digital]

It crossed my mind that this may have been an X-file. You know, some prehistoric creature that lies dormant in the coal, only to be awakened by the intense heat of the boiler. Possibly...

Here's to you Lemonade.



Pencil rough:

Everybody want some? I want some too...

My wife just celebrated her birthday yesterday. I procrastinated as usual and put together this card on Monday night. Just trying to get a laugh out of her. Anyway, if you can't read the text, I included it below the illustration. [ink + digital]

I know what you are thinking.
How do fleshy appendages sprout
from a waxed-paper wrapped baked
good? If I told you...you might not eat me,
which could make this Birthday suck. You
can’t have a Birthday without a cake-like
dessert. So let’s try not to get hung up
on my meaty limbs and have a fun
delicious Birthday treat.
Happy Birtdhay!

The power of Christ compels thee.

A couple of weeks ago, my oldest daughter had a nosebleed in the morning. What unfolds next is no exaggeration nor embellishment on the details. I still can’t get the images of that day out of my head.

WARNING: The following story is graphic and gross.

My usual routine in the morning is shower, make lunches for both Ruby and I, brew coffee, eat breakfast, iron shirt and get my ladies up. Jen is first on my route, with Ruby being the next stop and then finally AVA. This particular morning the wife was slow getting out of bed, so I was already in the bathroom messing up my coif. Usually at some point Ruby saunters in to relieve the morning dew collection. So as I am fiddling with my hair, I hear her say, “Man, why is my nose running?” When I look at her, I notice a bit of blood around the nostril rim and some blood on the back of her hand from doing the no-kleenex-snot-wipe.

Alright, no big deal, just a nosebleed. So I use all the information I have gathered in my years of dealing with nosebleeds, which apparently was all wrong. More on this later. I grab a tissue and proceed to apply pressure to the middle part of her nose.

"This should clear up in few minutes, so don't worry Ruby."

10 minutes later, the nose is still bleeding. Actually, more like gushing. I start to panic a bit, Jen is avoiding the situation due to fainting issues with blood, which in turn makes me a bit short with Ruby. She obviously is scared to have blood stream out of her nose and into her mouth and on her lap. Big scarlet red drops are falling just like the few seconds before a summer downpour. The cries of a frightened 6-year old only heighten the mood.

20 minutes later. I say, "I think it may have stopped." Negative. Bleeding comes back with a vengeance. The bleeding snarls at me with a "Fuck you old man, I am taking this one." A huge, snotty clot shoots out her nose. This causes a chain reaction of gagging and a bit of vomit. I am completely beside myself. SCARED. Jen asks if she should call the doctor from her hunched over position on the floor.

"Hell yeah."

Could this get any worse? Can the doctor save the day on this 30-minute bloodletting? The doctor asks her questions and I answer them. I feel the fear fading a bit...maybe it will be all right. Nope. No way, no how.

What happens now is something I don't even think I can begin to convey in words the sheer horror that I witnessed. Or, how completely scared Ruby was at what was the largest amount of blood, bile and phlegm to come out of her mouth. It ran like a crimson river down her chin and chest into her lap. I know I called for Jesus, God and Calgon in that moment. I know the doctor was trying to reel me back in. I know Jen was close to blacking out. I know that my white shirt had miraculously avoided the bloodshed that was taking place in our very little bathroom. I know that Ruby was still sitting on the toilet from her morning pee.

Finally, after an aeon of 45 minutes, the bleeding subsided. The fear is gone, with only a slight hangover of emotional exhaustion. Ruby seems to be okay, but is understandably worried that it will start bleeding again. Jen is able to walk around. And, Ava? Not sure what she was doing this whole time.

Before the phone call ended with the doctor she gave me some tips: Blow your nose to remove clots, as they will often not stop the bleeding and will in turn cause you to swallow massive amounts of blood. Also, pinch the nose shut at the nasal entrance, while leaning forward. If possible, ball up some tissue and shove it in the nose hole as a plug.

I felt like Father Karras after that...well, except for the whole hurling myself out the window bit. I think that may have been a bit of overkill to stop a nosebleed. Yeah, that's right. Fuck you nosebleed, till we meet again.

Nine years...

As I mentioned in my last post, my wife and I just celebrated our 9th anniversary this past weekend. Good food and a delicious big ass beer at Checkers. I always make a card of some sort for my wife for the big three: Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary. I had no idea what I was going to do this year. I then had an idea while in the shower, which seems to be the place where most of my eleventh hour ideas originate.

When I started drawing it, I kind of had the sneaking suspicion that this might make a good sticker for some hippie's rusted out VW. I do not take this as a compliment. No way. This drawing is my technique, but not really my style. Anyway, it was done for love, so that makes it alright in my book. I wanted to watercolor it, but since I procrastinated, I thought I would mess it up in my rush to get it done. I also included my hand written note on the inside in all its embarrassing prose glory. [pencil + ink]

Front:


Inside:

May I probe you?

Not very prepared today, exhausting weekend (Ava's 5th Birthday Party).

Here is an old drawing of a nurse robot. When I am bored, I tend to draw monsters, eyeballs and robots. That is all I really have say this Monday. [ink]

...when pigs fly.

I think I am going to try the Illustration Friday next week. I was little late for this week's topic, which is "Magnify." The goal is to illustrate the given topic for the week, then post it on the site. This is where the flying pig idea came from. I think the H1N1 (Swine Flu) paranoia seems a bit out of hand. I hope that I am not wrong, but my gut is telling me not to fall for this hysteria.

Anyway, the original idea was to have the pig in space, flying away from earth. This was illustrating the magnification of the situation of how fast and far this virus is supposed to spread. In the amount of time I wanted to complete this (one evening), I was not liking how the pig looked in space. I then just focused on the pig solely. It didn't turn out bad. [ink + digital]



The thing that gets me is that normal strains of the flu spread just as fast, and take more lives. Yet the WHO (Haha, not Roger & Crew) does not get involved in those scenarios. I feel like they might not be telling us the whole truth, whether for better or for worse. Maybe I am just not seeing the bigger picture...I am after all, an elitist American.

Partly fishy, with a chance of...

Not sure where this came from. I started with the clouds, then I was like, "What the hell do I put in the clouds?" A fish of course. Ugh. Seemed humorous at the time, like some surreal Python-esque inside joke...not really. I think it came about because of some Magritte visions and a little Edward Lear prose. The latter is enjoyed by my girls immensely. They have this book that my mom gave them filled with animal stories by different authors, mostly predating the 20th century. Most of the stories are complete nonsense and filled with odd, sometimes dark humor. Maybe this is how the fish in the clouds came about... [pencil]

Benny & The Cakes

This is part 2 of the cupcake incident. This was a fun little project. A little slow and frustrating in the beginning as I didn't know what the hell I was going to do. I think it all turned out well in the end. Have fun Ben. [ink + digital]



Here is the front cover of the invitation for Ben's 16th birthday party. For privacy reasons, I am not going to post the inside layout I used the cupcake for:

During the Bush era...

This is an oldie. Long story behind this one. Try to condense it to a cliff notes version:

Commissioned for t-shirt + sob story + no money = screwed Mr. Keith

Oh well, I still had fun doing this. Commentary is on the how the media helped congress and Mr. Bush sell war in Iraq to the people of this great country. I could see through their bullshit from day 1, I just wanted them to shut up. Assholes. [pencil + digital]

Ugh, woke up late...not prepared

I hate waking up late. I am so neurotic about being punctual that if I am not on time, my day is shot to hell from a mental standpoint. I absolutely did not know what to post today, due to the cloud of lateness that is looming over my head. Anyway, here is an invite I did for my niece's first birthday. The original ink drawing was bad, and required a lot of photoshop work on my part. Not even going to post it. This is from my coming out of retirement phase, when the hands were rusty from not drawing. [ink + digital]

I need another tattoo...ASAP

Let's keep the tattoo thing going. This half-sleeve is on my wife's other arm. This was actually commissioned before the tree tattoo featured in yesterday's post. Another bare-knuckled fist fight followed with a kick to the groin type of job. When she let go of the reins, this is what happened. [ink + digital]

Lineart:



Color sleeve (Noted: Her half-sleeve actually has a blue background):



Let it also be noted that I enjoy making my wife happy, most times it is very easy. I don't want my audience to always think it is difficult to work with her.

I want a weeping willow...

The story is, that Jen, my wife, likes to get tattoos. She will ask me to draw something for her. She will give me an idea of what she wants, then I get pissy as I actually start to draw it due to the constraints of her conceptualization. An argument usually ensues due to the fact that I am usually not into what she is asking me to do. Finally, she says to just do whatever and storms off. About an hour later, still keeping her initial concept in mind and me feeling like their is a bit more freedom, I usually come up with something cool that she loves. We never seem to agree on art direction. She is my worse client, but I still lover her immensely. [ink + digital]

Anyway, I did a version where I reversed the art. This is how I would print it, preferably silk screen or wood block:



Here is the version she got tattooed as a half-sleeve:

Eat your pudding, Mr. Land.

"The natives over there are cannibals. They eat liars with the same enthusiasm as they eat honest men." -Captain Nemo.

I remember the first time I saw Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". It was such an epic moment in my childhood. I obsessed relentlessly over the leviathans, especially squids and octopi. My dad had these Time Life animal kingdom books. I would constantly be looking at the marine life one. Always referencing those few pages on squids, so I could draw them just right. The squid battle in the movie was fantastic. Anyway, those times drawing it from reference didn't help me. Which brings us to today's scribble, an inaccurate drawing of a squid. Eventually I would like to get a half-sleeve on my other arm of a battle between man and leviathan. [pencil]



I wanted to be Captain Nemo. His character was so awesome, I always wished he would have come out on top at the end of the movie. The Nautilus would have been my home too.

"There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass. In God's good time." -Captain Nemo

Retirement Plan

I drew these alpacas (cousin to the llama) for a client logo. The logo was a disaster, but at least I got to do some ink work.

After reading about them and physically seeing them, my wife and I decided we would like a little herd of alpacas to tend after when we retire to our little scenic farm. Grow some vegetables and meditate in the meadow with the alpacas. They have their own version "Om."

A train, a train...would you, could you, on a train?

Start with one train:



Next, add a little portrait of one daughter:



Finally, mix it up in Illustrator, and you have one invitation:



[ink + digital]

Oh nos!

Monday morning production meeting scribble: What if Squidbot was not a bio-mechanical organism, but just 100% robot? What if he had a bad memory from his robot-hood? What would it be about? [pencil]

Prehistoric Beaver?

Another scribble that happened on the same press check as Phonebot 8000b. I just started to draw some strokes with my brush pen, this is what came out. Is is a beaver, jungle rat or a wombat? Is it even from this era? Ink and digital.

Nice grille.

This was a concept that only made it to semi-rough stage before they decided to go with another concept that I did. Both ideas gave me some nice illustrations, but I liked this concept more. The drawing below is on step beyond the thumbnail rough.



This is the thumbnail rough:



Here is the concept that they went with:

Phonebot 8000b

This scribble happened while on a press check. They were having problems with one of the plates, so I had some down time while they resolved the issue. Ink.

Still using a cell phone? Tired of being burdened with carrying that awkward device around for human-to-human communication? Blackjaw Industries has the solution for you. Introducing the Phonebot 8000. A personal cyberbetic device that will follow you when you are on the go. Say goodbye to that unsightly bulge in you jumpsuit pocket. Did you ever forget to interface with your personal communication device so it could recharge its engineered protein cells? Phonebot 8000 recharges itself, either by docking in its night station or using the fresh gamma rays from our atmosphere.

Bonus for you hipsters out there, the Phonebot 8000b is styled in a retro fashion that emulates believable 1960s fantasy science fiction. What were they thinking back then, actual "robots" made out of steel and rubber? Oh the kitsch. Order now, and we will also give you a second Phonebot for the female species of the house for half the price. Don't delay, act today.

Ummm, what's that behind your back?

Monday morning production meeting is a prime time for scribbles. I often draw on the back of the production summary sheets. I put my pencil tip on the sheet and see where it takes me. I can tell in the first few lines if it will be something worthwhile. Sometimes the lines and strokes go no where. Sometimes they reveal a story. Most times it is just a scribble. This particular day, it was a story.