flour

Another Way - 1/23/12

2012-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

New Adventure Time on Monday. This is the last board I did with Bert Youn, and I think it's our best one.
Also this episode features pretty much the only song I've ever written. It's called "Melons".

Thank You - 11/23/11

2011-11-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

New episode tonight. Started out as a normal episode but now it's a special Thanksgiving episode and also might soon be (in slightly edited form) an Oscar nominated short. Fingers crossed.

Also this was the first and only one I've storyboarded by myself, just fyi. I tried pretty hard to tell a syrupy story in an unsyrupy way... it's still pretty syrupy I guess, but I think it came out pretty nice.

Some Recent Drawings

2011-11-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Just a few things. Couple birthday cards etc.

Too Young - 8/8/11

2011-08-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

I'd been penpals with Jesse Moynihan since at least 8 or 9 years ago, ever since I stumbled onto some old issues of Assificado that my brother's roomate had lying around, and felt compelled to get in touch. About a year ago we finally met in person when he (like me a year or so before) dropped everything to move to the west coast and work on Adventure Time.

Anyway, now we're realpals, and we even got to do an episode together too. It was effortless and fun, and came out really great. It's got a real good balance to it; I can watch it over and over and it doesn't get old. A lot of credit for that goes to Justin Roiland too, who voiced the Earl of Lemongrab, and crushed it perfectly.

Anyways, it's called Too Young, and you can check it out on Monday night on Cartoon Network.

(Oh yeah, I almost forgot- Jesse and I made this promo drawing together. He penciled in Peppermint Butler, Cinnamon Bun, Finn and Princess Bubblegum, and I drew the rest and finished it up.)

Runaway Circus

2011-05-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

My old friend Ingrid asked me if I'd like to make a flyer for her circus troupe's upcoming show, "Has Anyone Seen My Stapler". Well yeah, duh! Of course! The best and luckiest part of my trip to Asheville in April was catching their last show, "Portal Party". Check 'em out if you're in the neighborhood. (See their website for date/time, I guess- that's what's eventually gonna go in the big blank word balloon.)

Heat Signature - 4/25/11

2011-04-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all- I'm in the middle of a month of traveling, so I'm just gonna toss these scans up un-fiddled-with (I made a couple of em, cause I didn't like the first one, but now everyone else seems to like it better, so here they both are). But yeah: new Adventure Time, monday night- check it out. Also, a disclaimer, so expectations don't get skewed, this second drawing has almost nothing to do with the actual episode... fun to draw though.

Go With Me - 3/28/11

2011-03-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

"Go With Me", mine and Ako's fifth Adventure Time board, hits the air this upcoming Monday.

I was pretty happy with the little cycle below, but it got cut (though it did get animated, so it's out there somewhere.) Finn used to be belting out a little song in this scene, but that got changed too, which is why his mouth shapes don't fit his words...

Undead Archer

2011-03-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

Been playing around with colored pencils some more:

Gnome Family

2011-03-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

I made this to trade with my pen pal Luke.
It's ink, watercolor and colored pencil.

Guardians of Sunshine - 2/21/11

2011-02-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

Mine and Ako's next episode of Adventure Time, "Guardians of Sunshine" airs on Monday at 8 on Cartoon Network. The middle bit is all CG, and looks fresh, and was all animated by Jacky Ke Jiang. Not too much to say about this one- it's pretty straight forward. It came out nice; I hope y'all dig it.

Her Parents - 1/24/11

2011-01-23T13:58:00.001-08:00

Mine and Ako's next episode of Adventure Time (second one we boarded, third to air) is gonna be on Cartoon Network, Monday at 8. Guest starring Henry Rollins and Laura Silverman as Lady Rainicorn's parents, Bob and Ethel (if I remember right...) I can now say that Henry Rollins sang a song I wrote, but it's the shortest dumbest song ever written, so, y'know. But still. Anyway, I woulda tried harder, but I thought originally it was gonna be sung in Korean, but then it wasn't.

The Other Tarts - 1/3/11

2010-12-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

I'm 90% sure that "The Other Tarts", my second episode of Adventure Time, boarded in collaboration with Ako Castuera, is gonna run at 8:00 on Monday on Cartoon Network. If I'm wrong... well whatever. Anyway, this is actually the third one we boarded, it just got bumped forward for some reason. The second one, "Her Parents", should be on in a couple weeks.

Fellow boarder Rebecca Sugar has been making fantastic little promo drawings for her episodes, which I thought was a great idea, and asked her to do one for mine, but she said I should, so I did:

Stephen Root (Milton from "Office Space") plays a couple roles in this one, including the beaky guy on the right up there. He also recites a weird little poem I wrote near the end of the episode, which was really fun to see.

"Story Telling'"

2010-11-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

"Story Telling", my first for-reals episode of Adventure Time (storyboarded in collaboration with Ako Castuera) is gonna be on Cartoon Network, Monday at 8. Also, it is my television acting debut. I play Mr. Fox. Check it out.

Monster Concepts

2010-08-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a few monster concept highlights from season one of Adventure Time. The demon cat was for Dungeon, and the Crystal Guardian for Tree Trunks. And the wood man eventually became the sign monsters in Tree Trunks. The goblins and the stag demon were for that one too, but didn't get used. I can't remember what the swamp ape was for (possibly Tree Trunks- I guess I was on a roll at the time), but whatever it was, it didn't get used either...

The Duke

2010-07-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here's some of my concept drawings from the Adventure Time episode "The Duke", which aired last week-

I'll put up some assorted Season 1 monster drawings in a couple days-

Also- just F-y'alls-I, I just updated the post previous to this one to include the complete "The Front Door" comic (it was just an excerpt before).

The Front Door (complete)

2010-05-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Issue 8 of my friend Brandon Graham's comic "King City" hit the stands a couple months ago, with a five page bonus story by me in there too. I think it's safe to put the whole thing up here now:

Also recommended for the comics nerds out there: Brandon's livejournal, where he puts up preview pages of his and his friends' new stuff and waxes nostalgic about obscure eurocomics raunch and weird manga from his youth.

Drink 'N Draw

2010-03-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

A few portraits of my coworkers from the Drink 'N Draw night that Pen Ward organizes once a month at The Roost in LA.

Here's Ako, my new storyboarding partner:

Kat Morris, who boards on Regular Show:

And Pen himself, creator of Adventure Time, with a post-it on his chest:

Also, speaking of Adventure Time, the series premiere is April 5th, BUT, there's gonna be two preview segments- one on Thursday March 11th at 8:30 on Cartoon Network, and I think one the following Thursday. Y'all should try to watch the previews to get your first impression, cause they're stronger episodes.

Ice Creatures

2010-02-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a few of my designs from the in-progress Adventure Time episode "What is Life?", along with my original concept sketch for the ice bull.
I think the color on these is a combination of Catherine Simmonds and Nick Jennings.

Future Schlock!

2010-01-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a big dose of celebrity caricatures I just did for Billboard Magazine (art direction via Greg Grabowy). This is also the first time my handwriting has appeared in a national magazine, which actually feels a little weird.

Animation Magazine

2010-01-21T12:28:00.001-08:00

Adventure Time's got the cover story in the new issue of Animation Magazine (that links to the site, but the article's not up there yet.) The cover was drawn by me (the monsters) Phil Rynda (the main characters) and Ghostshrimp (the clouds). I think Nick Jennings colored it, but I can't be bothered to find out for sure.

Also-

2009-12-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

In addition to the comic from yesterday, there's a brief (and very flattering) interview with me up on the Vice site now: check it out.

Mensch

2009-12-20T07:29:00.001-08:00

I've got a new six-page comic up on the Vice site today. It's called "Mensch". Check it out.

Tree Trunks

2009-12-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

Here's some stuff from the episode-in-production "Tree Trunks". The sign monsters were, I believe, colored by Ron Russell, and the brain monster by Catherine Simmonds.

Dragon in Color

2009-11-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the storyboard panels that the design is based on, too, so you can see the whole process. I got to push this one pretty far.

(colored (perfectly) by Nick Jennings)
(board panel (I think) by Sean Jimenez)

Perfect Timing

2009-10-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween, here's some candy zombies and a couple of regular old candy people from "Slumber Party Slaughter"- an episode of Adventure Time that's in the works. I did a ton of these guys (sorta hogged all the fun designs on this episode) and you can see most of 'em over on the show's production blog.

They were colored (quite nicely) by Sandra Calleros, Catherine Simmonds, and our art-director Nick Jennings. And to try to give credit where it's due (even though it's tough to untangle with this stuff) there's a lot of Adam Muto (one of the storyboarders for this episode- he probably deserves more credit than I do for this bunch) in a lot of these and the guy with the candy corn eyes is based very faithfully on a Somvilay Xayaphone drawing.

Adventure Time 6

2009-10-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Couple new designs (I wish I could post more, but I have to wait for them to be officially released via the show's production blog). A dragon (which is, I think, my finest design moment so far. Looks really good in color, too) and a naked wizard (you can see I had him wearing one of those weird porn star belly necklaces, but that got nixed.)

They're both from "Memories of Boom-Boom Mountain", same as the marauders from a couple posts back.

Some New Markers,

2009-10-14T18:02:00.001-07:00

And a new sketchbook:

October 4th: 24 Comics Hour Day

2009-10-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

In celebration of 24 Hour Comics Day (which was the day before) and my birthday (which was the current day), Pen Ward and I decided to each make a 24 page comic. Since we were at a bar, we drew them all on bar napkins, which we have a lot of practice with anyway. Pen's still working on his, but I finished mine up at approximately 1:23 am on the 5th. It's chock full of quadruple in-jokes, and fades a bit toward the end, but here it is:

Adventure Time 5

2009-10-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Phil and I did a ton of airship-riding, rough-housing marauders a couple weeks ago for "Memories of Boom-Boom Mountain", an episode of Adventure Time that's in the works.

All of mine (I think... there were a lot) are below, and you can see some of Phil's over here, on the show's production blog or even more buried somewhere on the Flickr page.

Of Ice and Men

2009-07-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

This one's a few months old. I'm pretty sure I haven't posted it yet. It was for The Common Review.

The Wave

2009-07-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

A new one for ESPN magazine for an article about "the wave".

birthday drawing

2009-05-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

James Baldwin

2009-05-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

From a photo accompanying a New Yorker piece a few months back (with a little bit of Beyonce thrown in).

Adventure Time 4

2009-04-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Some more of my concept sketches posted on the Adventure Time blog:

Favorite Dress

2009-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

sketchbook 02

2009-04-26T15:24:00.001-07:00

Flipmode

2009-04-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Many of the people I paint have either extra facial features or whole extra heads, or both. I've done this as a way of trying (in a maybe too literal way?) to get the figures to express multidimensional emotions. For example, a face with one large smiling mouth and one smaller, less visible, frowning mouth can express hidden fears and reservations within a broader positive feeling.

The trick though, and what really interests me, is including extra features in a face without upsetting the sense of recognition and familiarity within the viewer that is generally evoked by an unmolested image of a human face.

The way I do this is by creating a hierarchy of features - subduing, scaling, or camouflaging duplicate features so that one face becomes dominant and immediately recognizable, while other features or faces are de-emphasized and incorporated and are appreciated only after closer inspection.

As an exercise, in this self portrait I tried to paint two faces, one upside-down and one right-side-up, with the upside-down face concealed as unobtrusively as possible (apart from the overly rosy cheeks) within the right-side-up.

Sketch

2009-04-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Male figure with beard, sweatsocks

2009-04-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Adventure Time 3

2009-04-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more concept sketches from over on the Adventure Time Production Blog.

There's a couple of Marauders, some various little dudes, and a wildlife assortment.

Looking Forward (2)

2009-04-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

Part two:

Adventure Time 2

2009-03-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's some of my rough character/creature sketches that just went up on the Frederator Studios Adventure Time Production blog. There's a few more drawings on their post, plus you can see a lot of Dan "Ghostshrimp" James' nice backgrounds over there. Check it out.

Looking Forward

2009-03-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm about to have a baby in a few weeks and It's got me thinking back on this comic I made, the only one left from my brief comic-making period that I hadn't posted yet. It's about nostalgia and how to channel it into something useful. This is part one:

Cartoon Dream

2009-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

I had a dream last night that took the form of an animated cartoon show. It was basically like watching TV as I slept.

It was a funny show, in the Adult Swim vein. There was a super-villain type of character, an evil warlock or something, who had world domination schemes that the heroes would defeat. The joke about the guy was that in addition to being an evil villain, he also somehow simultaneously was an infant. But the only way this manifested was that occasionally, at the end of a sentence he would make an addendum to highlight his infant perspective. ANYWAYS, I know this is a lot of explanation for a little drawing, but it’s so rare that anything culled from a dream even sort of makes sense that I think it’s worth it.

Purple Woman

2009-03-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

A drawing of a moody brunette.

More Vice

2009-03-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the second comic I've done for the Vice Magazine website. The first one was from back in September.

Hexagon Block Portraits (7)

2009-02-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

This sad little guy was made with the leftovers of the final group of pieces. It's interesting for me to look at how what's essentially the same portrait, only created from progressively fewer resources, begins to degrade more and more with each new version. Sorta like "House of Cosbys".

Hexagon Block Portraits (6)

2009-02-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

After I'd pretty much exhausted the possibilities of my first group of blocks, I decided to make a new set with a focus on depth and volume and less flashy color and brushwork. I limited the colors to get more cohesion in the portraits, and applied the paint in a "relief" method: colors applied in order of darkness - darkest first, lightest last. This avoids implications of directional light sources, which are always dramatic and evocative, but are hard to keep consistent so can be distracting.
I also wanted to see if I could work without relying on the representational blocks, which were such an important part of the first few portraits but were never really part of the original idea behind the project and again, drew so much attention as to be a bit of a distraction.

Hexagon Block Portraits (5)

2009-02-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

The final portrait of the first group of blocks. The eyes work well once again, and hold the piece together pretty well. Otherwise I thought the mouth was nice, with even an implication of skinny little bottom-front teeth.

At this point I was occasionally "cheating" by painting swaths of skin tone or background black onto some blocks. For example I painted a big chunk of yellow onto the block used for the forehead when I couldn't find any other block that fit.

Hexagon Block Portraits (4)

2009-02-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

Because I was making a face the same size and perspective each time, it tended to turn out that a block that was good or bad for one portrait was good or bad for all of them, and I would excitedly use up all the good pieces on the first portrait and the quality would diminish with each one that I made.

I was scraping for good blocks by the time I made this one and the one after, although I think the eyes on this one are pretty nice - sort of weary and melancholy yet gentle and wise.

Adventure Time

2009-02-09T06:28:00.000-08:00

I'll be moving out to Burbank, CA in a couple weeks to start a new gig at Cartoon Network. I'm doing prop and character designs for a new show called Adventure Time.

These drawings are from the design test that sealed the deal:

Hexagon Block Portraits (3)

2009-02-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

The first of a set of three using black backgrounds (hoping for more dramatic depth) and a hexagonal compostion.

Hexagon Block Portraits (2)

2009-01-26T06:54:00.001-08:00

This one was made with the leftover pieces from the first one, so it doesn't really have as much punch. However the nose, left eye, and lips are good examples of the repurposing of both figurative and non-figurative elements to help create an unexpected and expressive face. The eye and nose were purely non-figurative before I placed them in this new context. The lips were a piece of the neck and chin of a conventional face, turned counter-clockwise. Like a lot of the stuff I do that veers a little closer to painterly abstraction than figuration, these ideas are basically amalgams of my father's, Bacon's, and my own ideas.

Also, as in the last one, I've cheated a little by filling in some of that flat blue after-the-fact to help create separation between the figure and the background.

Harvest

2009-01-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

I think I've put this story online and then taken it down twice already, thinking that its publication was imminent... But it hasn't happened yet, and it's getting pretty old and doesn't have much in common with the work I'm gradually accumulating for a new collection, so here it is again, "Harvest":

Hexagon Block Portraits (I)

2009-01-22T08:34:00.001-08:00

A few years back, I was feeling frustrated about how many of my (abstract) paintings were coming out poorly. The process I was using - layering poured house paint in layers of gradually increasing thickness - made it almost impossible to correct mistakes or salvage a painting that had veered in a direction I became unhappy with. I was upset about the waste of time and materials and I began looking for a more flexible method.

I remembered a toy I played with a child. It was a mosaic of wooden cubes that were painted differently on each side, just like this one. I remembered how much I enjoyed exploring different compositions without having to commit to any of them and how the materials could be reused as many times as I liked.

I decided to create a set of blocks for myself, but with more pictorial versatility than the simple colored blocks I'd played with as a child. I chose a hexagonal prism block because its six sides allow more possible combinations (without painting on more than one side of the block) than a square (possibly the most). I grouped a number of the blocks (each about four inches across, I think) into honey-comb arrangements and painted loose, free-form compositions across them, concentrating on getting a variety of colors and shades as well as some areas of illusory depth. The groups were then dispersed and used as pieces to an open-ended puzzle.

In a few cases I painted not an abstract composition on the grouping, but a realistic self portrait, hoping these recognizable elements might act as binding agents for what I expected would otherwise be very loosely representational pictures.

This was right around the time that my friend Maggie gave me the most amazing art book ever, so with my new toys laid out around me on my rug, I set to work on a series of self portraits.

This is the first one.

Pilgrim 3: Distant Screaming

2009-01-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

Here's another (the other) of my full color anthologized short stories, presented in full. This one appeared in Meathaus SOS, which, sadly, seems to be sort of difficult to find (i.e. - it's not on Amazon). But dang, it's a great book, and I'm not just saying that.

And but so if you are interested in getting a copy, you can order it directly from Mr. Chris McDonnell, Meathaus's lead-parachuted CEO.

But anyways-
This story was sort of a reaction to the all-ages story "Farewell, Little Karla" (posted below), which I had just finished. No holds barred in this one:

Farewell, Little Karla

2009-01-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

Inspired by my good buddy Tomer, who just posted a short anthologized comic of his (and his brother's) in its entirety on his blog, I thought I'd do the same.

The following, "Farewell, Little Karla", was originally published in Flight Vol. 4, edited by Kazu Kibuishi. Presented here in it's entirety:

(next I'll post "Pilgrim 3: Distant Screaming" from Meathaus SOS)

Anudder Self Portrait

2008-12-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

Another recent self portrait. More of a sketch than a finished piece, but I thought the face came out nice.

Regular Drawing

2008-12-14T18:41:00.001-08:00

Treated Drawings 2

2008-12-14T16:44:00.001-08:00

Treated Drawings 1

2008-12-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

Take Some Risks

2008-12-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

A self portrait. I did the pencil drawing about a month ago and then felt crummy about being such a narcissist so I put it aside. It's nice, though, to have some finished drawings that I'm not really attached to floating around for when I get in the mood to just paint and not worry about, "will my precious drawing will get ruined in the process?"

No attachment to drawing = Take some risks = Better painting

Hounds

2008-11-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

I made this painting of my girlfriend (the first new addition to my site in a long time) after a weekend trip to my parents' house in CT. The dogs are both based on Danny, the English Setter we got when I was 11 and who's still kicking. I think that makes him 126 in human years or whatever and it really shows, he's a mess. But I remember him as really joyful and energetic and I wanted to portray some of that. As I look at it now, I realize I may have also been paying unconscious tribute to Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" album cover.

Part-time gig

2008-11-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

I put in a few days a week working for a children's mural painter (see also: this post). More and more we're also doing paintings on canvas too. Here's some photos from a series of flowers I did a few months back:

And an in-progress shot:

Red Girl (2)

2008-11-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

EMI's debt

2008-11-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

One for Billboard Magazine about EMI's struggle to get out of debt.

Red Girl (1)

2008-11-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

Charlotte Magazine

2008-11-04T05:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a comics-style illustration for a story about the bond between a group of friends growing older together in North Carolina.

A Colorful Man

2008-11-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Posh Spice

2008-10-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

For King Magazine: Posh Spice hypothetically singing at an upcoming Olympics opening ceremony.

MIM

2008-10-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

This came about when I wanted to make a self portrait that showed the weird way glasses refract light and make it look like the wall behind someone is cutting into their face. A nice likeness, but also a reminder not to overdecorate.

Offensive Line

2008-10-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

A new illustration for ESPN magazine.

Stylized Self Portrait

2008-10-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Some King spots - pt.5

2008-10-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

A couple old King mini-spots. One is a male birth control pill (with a Viagra), the other is a happy vocoder.

Street Fighter 3

2008-10-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

This guy's torso and head really got out of control. I sometimes fall back on the decorative elements (such as stripes, outlines and dots) if the forms aren't coming together with enough depth and drama as I'd like. The legs are much more successful I think.

Don't Spill the Oil

2008-10-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

Street Fighter 2

2008-10-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

The second man-on-wood. Might have gone a little overboard with the decorative marks and outlining, plus I was still working with the not-too-successful "concealer" paint around the figure. Not my favorite but still some nice things happening.

Learning Good Consent

2008-10-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

My good friend Cindy Crabb, who writes the amazing amazing zine "Doris", asked me if I wanted to provide the cover to a new zine she's compiling, which I definitely did.

Street Fighter

2008-10-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

I just decided this guy looks like he's being introduced before a fight in "Street Fighter 2". This is the first of a group of figures on wood that I did a few months back. They're some of the best pieces I've done and a few are on my website. They're done without any sketches or underdrawings. All the line-work is done with paint makers in response to a few layers of mostly loose, free-form areas of acrylic. In the first couple, I used tan paint to cover the paint that ended up beyond the silhouette, but it felt fussy and artificial.

Wuz Entmee Redux

2008-09-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is over on the Vice Magazine website for the moment. If you wanna read about what a "GAY" "shit" "rip off" it is, go check out their comments section!

Also, me good buddy Chris McD has a neat comic up there now too.

Oops

2008-09-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Oops. I posted a pic of this painting in an unfinished state last weej. Since that picture was taken I added the blue background-type area around the figure to define him a little better in the space.

Some King spots - pt.4

2008-09-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

A few sports spots. Up top we've got Tony Parker and Eva Longoria, then there's David Stern, and finally it's Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather

Red Head

2008-09-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Omega-3 Enhanced

2008-09-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

This one was on the cover of the Dining section of the New York Times on Wednesday. The article is about a new (and questionably effective) trend of adding nutrients from one food (anchovies, for example) to another unrelated food (that orange juice you're drinking).

Figure on Board

2008-09-18T19:07:00.001-07:00

monitor self portrait

2008-09-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

This is me sitting in my cubicle at Gem Studio (a storyboarding company no longer in existence) about 5 years ago. I traced my reflection on the monitor in Photoshop. Above me are the fluorescent lights, natch, and those little black rectangles on the windows are outward-facing cardboard American flags.

Self Portrait of Me and Tom

2008-09-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

Of course, its just a double self portrait of me, but the double self portrait takes on an additional meaning if you have an identical twin brother.

Get me out of here!

2008-09-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here's one I'd forgotten about for years... This was a gift for my buddy Farel (and also a submission to the Meathaus collective's one-time-only never-to-be-seen-again mini-comic/sketchbook "Beef Apartment") featuring Sinclair, the main character from Farel's exquisitely crafted comic book series "Pop Gun War".

Big Dreams

2008-09-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Another old comic I made. My favorite. It's based on an actual pattern of dreams I sometimes have (not lately) about giant threatening things that are large enough to be terrifying despite being somehow far away - but the distance causes the terror to be somehow less immediate, more intellectual/reflective than emotional/instinctual.

Pencil versions

2008-09-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the unmodified pencil/ink versions of a few of my recent pieces. Although a lot is gained when the color is eventually added, a little something is always lost too.

OrthAdonis

2008-09-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

Cowboy MBAs

2008-09-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a piece I just finished up for American Way, the American Airlines in-flight magazine.

The article is about college programs specifically for aspiring ranchers (an extraordinarily complex occupation.)

Carried Over

2008-09-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

A little trick I use to add some unexpectedness to a given piece is to, while its in its early stages, wipe off excess paint from a brush or knife I was using to work on a different piece onto it. In this case, the area of red, brown, and blue on the leg was carried over from this painting. Then I added the zigzag and began to respond to the new colors as I continued working.

Some King spots - pt.3

2008-08-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

Part three in the ongoing series. This time, the women of King:

Pictured: Jessica Alba, Cassie, Naomi Campbell, and Paula Abdul.

Smooch

2008-08-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

My figure paintings seems to fall into one of three categories: standing still, dancing, or smooching.

Jono

2008-08-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

An old drawing of my old pal Jono. He was wearing really tight pants long before it was cool, and I'm sure he'll be wearing them long after.

Duress

2008-08-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

Tom and I watched a weird Japanese movie a few months ago that I can't remember the name of. It was about a guy who spurts out grotesque bio-mechanical
cannons from his body when he's under extreme duress. It wasn't a very good movie but it made a big impression on us both. This is based on one of the sadistic bad guys who caused the duress.

Some King spots - pt.2

2008-08-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Since Obama's choice of running mate is looming close, here's my special "Vice President" themed "Some King spots" post...

Seascape

2008-08-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

Some King spots - pt.1

2008-08-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

I think these are the first three spots I did for King Magazine. Must've been about two or three years ago (whenever "Snakes on a Plane" came out). Besides that one we've got "The Pantie Postman" (some kind of pantie-of-the-month club thing), and "The Strip Club Utility Belt."

I'll post some more in the next few days.