Timely Facts & Beyond

Hope you haven't missed these recent nuggets ripped from the headlines of knowledge, courtesy of Amazing Facts & Beyond. In this one, Leon Beyond solves St. Louis' recent Smoking Ban.Jerry 'the King' Lawler pile-drove opponents on one of the most expensive Rugs in the Commonwealth of Kentucky:And finally, Leon recaps Top Ten important Dog-Walking related inventions of 2010:

Mary, Mary!

Here are the paintings I showed in November's Famous Fictional Verses! art show. My characters were Mary, Mary (Quite Contrary) and Mary, Mary (Why You Buggin'?).
Sketches & color list:Some reference:My original vector drawings:Vector art converted to outlines and output to tiles for tracing:The idea was to think of these paintings as 6-color prints with flat, fluorescent & metallic color. Key-color mock-ups:First few color layers down:Another couple:Finished paintings:Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Illustration board, 36" x 34".

RFT's 2010 News Quiz

A lot happened in St. Louis this year. Take the Quiz here! Some selected scenes to help you cheat:
Alternate cover sketches:

Styrofoam Santa

Merry Xmas, everybody!

DADT Carnival Sideshow Signage

This is a series of illustrations I did for my friend & colleague Karin Soukup earlier this year as part of the School of Visual Art's Candy Coated Carnival of Controversy (more info on the background & intentions of the project here). She built an incredible/satirical Don't Ask, Don't Tell sideshow tent and these "freak" posters were set in lightboxes mounted to the plywood walls, with bits of my lettering hand-painted around them. Here are all four characters, along with: sketches I did for each, the inked drawing, the final illustration, and associated signage. Enjoy!
Fodder Frank: Private Pete:Mia the Camo-Tattooed Lady:The Great G.I.Joe-Dini:Here are are a couple of photos in the pieces in action, and there are a few more here.Here was a picture I used for inspiration, taken at the Kentucky State Fair midway, c. 1984. That's me in the blue muscle-shirt and my brother in the red batting helmet.