Family Feud! Melon vs. Gilmore

Here are two paintings I'm showing at this year's Famous Fictional art show at the Mad Art Gallery here in St. Louis. The theme of this year's show is "FAMILY FEUD" and I chose two of my favorite fictional families to make portraits of: The Melons (from Back to School) and The Gilmores (from The Gilmore Girls).


Some sketches and reference:



I settled on "family crest" kind of images based on the blue blood pedigrees of the two families.

I built the original drawings with vectors in Illustrator:

I traced the drawing on to large sheets of foamcore and painting them as precisely as I could, paint-by-number style. Then I cut the shapes out. Actually my lovely wife did all the exacto-ing.

"The Melons at Grand Lakes University". Acrylic, Gold Leaf & White Out on Foam, 32" x 40".
You may remember this cover I drew for the Gilmore Girls graphic novel last year (still waiting for a publisher), so you know I'm a big fan.

I was excited to get to return to the wonderful town of Stars Hollow and the Dragonfly Inn.

Vector drawing:

Finished painting:

"The Gilmores of Stars Hollow". Acrylic, Gold Leaf & White Out on Foam, 32" x 40". The show runs for the remainder of the month of November, so if you're in town be sure to check it out! There are lots of other great family portraits represented.

Cyclopz Halloween Costume

My wife was a Unicorn. This picture was taken at the bowling alley (that's why I'm wearing bowling shoes). Sketch:

Shirtoberfest!

Although I think it's too late to participate in any of the shirt.woot! Shirtoberfest sales, here's a bunch of fall-themed stuff I drew for the festivities anyway. Enjoy!

We combined ideas from sketches #2 and #3 (above) and went through a crazy corn maze to get to the final designs for the frontpage and banner ads. Click to enlarge!

Leftovers for Lunch

Redbird Fever!

In honor of my beloved home team's exhilarating and unlikely quest for an 11th World Series title, here are eleven Cardinals-themed drawings from the archives. There are a lot more where these came from, so we'll just have to win a lot more championships. Let's go you Redbirds!

11. History of the Birds on the Bats print.

10. Tony La Russa, classic rock connoisseur

9. Mets are Pond Scum

8. Amazing Facts and Beyond takes a close look at Fredbird

7. Some shoes I painted

6. Best Fans in Baseball

5. Hollywood Jim Edmonds in a hot tub with Fredbird. 'Nuff said.

4. Mike Shannon 'The Moon Man Speaks" print

3. Page from a comic about the 2004 NLCS (published in Not My Small Diary #13)

2. Bob Gibson painting

1. Year-end illustration of last year's Cards. Glad this year's roller coaster is pointing back to the top!

Get Lost + F(o)und!

We're looking forward to this event on Thursday night (Oct. 6th). Perennial is a really cool local organization and I'm honored to have done the posters 'n tickets 'n stuff for their first big party/fundraiser.

The event will have the usual music and drinks but will feature special a DIY rebuilding/redesigning challenge and other neat upcycling-type activities.

These were my sketches:

We settled on this idea, a sorta county-fair/science-fair theme focussing on the exhibits and process-oriented activities.

I also designed (and silkscreened) some teaser postcards:

These were printed on random bit of chipboard packaging we collected:

I also made some traditional postcards (front and back)...

... as well as the little tickets required for entrance to the event (you have to buy those to see 'em!). Get your tickets here! Hope to see lots of you there! I'll buy you a Perennial Ale. 

Dumpin' Knowledge

Kevin H, Leon Beyond and I have 2 new books available for sale now!

Volume 4 of the collected Amazing Facts & Beyond is called BRAIN DUMP and was compiled and designed by yours truly.

I also screenprinted the covers in day-glo brain pink and dump green. Go buy it for $5 now!


Volume 5 was handled by Kevin and is called FACTUAL HEALING. Go buy it for $5 now!

These are truly Amazing Books... & Beyond.

Fashion Icons

It's Fashion Week in St. Louis and I drew this menagerie of industry icons to be printed on tote bags for the opening of my wife Leslie's new store. Did I leave anybody out???