Friday, November 04, 2016

TURDUCKITTEN!

I drew this weird shirt for my wonderful pals at Tenth Life. Help the kitties and buy one now before it's gone and digested forever! Early concept development:

First all-vector version:

Lineart:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

LouFest 2016 Poster

I was happy to help out LouFest with this year's Commemorative Poster. They've still got some for sale here. Here's some process stuff, starting with my rough sketches. St. Louis's Forest Park and specifically the (generally over-emphasized) 1904 World's Fair were my initial launching points.



(Note: this green postcard sketch is a reference to one of my stops on the pike at the World's Fair: the exhibit of Beautiful Jim Key)
I ended up combining two of the sketches of above ("Earth Chunk" and "Celestial Map") into this idea:
I was looking this hot cosmic reference...
...ended up going with a more burnt sunset kinda vibe for the color palette :
Vector layout:
Loose drawing:
Final (gigantic) drawing:
Detail:
Seen in the wild:
Thanks LouFest! It was a fun muddy time.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Flying Tiger

I drew this shirt for Flying Tiger Motorcycles here in my old neighborhood of Maplewood. Photo courtesy of their Facebook page. Check 'em out!

Thursday, June 16, 2016

A Bird's Eye View of Forest Park 2015

Congrats to the Missouri History Museum for winning a AASLH Leadership in History Award for two different exhibits in 2015, the Kids' History Clubhouse and the one I helped work on, A Walk in 1875 St. Louis. Above is a drawing I made as a gift for the folks there, an 'updated' version of Compton and Dry's famous Pictorial St. Louis showing the (future) home of the History Museum, Research Center, and some other modern Forest Park stuff. Here was what Forest Park actually looked like in 1875 on the original map, y'know, like an actual forest:
Here's was some reference I used for the modern version:

Here was my initial sketch:
Some initial drawings:

Another plate from the masterpiece that is Pictorial St. Louis showing the tones and textures I was trying to mimic (on a such simpler scale):
Keep up the good work, Missouri History Museum! I'm really excited for the Route 66 exhibit coming up.

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

ABCs of MONSTER TRUCKS!

I just finished this new Monster Truck poster, now up for sale! It's a huge screenprint that is ready to crush all other wimpy prints beneath the weight of purple, silver and fluorescent lime ink. But it's not just rugged (check out that DECKLED edge!), it's also... educational! Here are some notes, sketches and research from the construction of this beast. Early thumbnails:
Here's an old comic from the 3-D issue of Nickelodeon Magazine.
Some hard research:
Layout:
Ink Drawing!
Time to Print:
Some details of the final print:
Special thanks to this guy for suggesting the project. MONSTER TRUCKS!

Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Schlafly Walking Tree Wheat

I helped out with this new beer from my local brewery Schlafly called Walking Tree Wheat. I drew the label, gift box, and a 12 page full-color comic book that comes inside. Here's a bunch of the research, sketches and final illustrations:
We settled on the concept of the 'Walking Tree' and I went full steam ahead.
The label:
The box:
And comic book:
Anyway, check it out! p.s. the beer is delicious.