Happy Birthday, Zoe!

Zoe's 15! Happy Bday, Zoe! (I think she likes it!)

An Oldie But A Goodie

I've got this one hanging in the shop - but I like it a lot and referenced it to a buddy of mine today so I figured I'd post it for anyone who hasn't seen it. (Meant to post it a while back but guess I didn't!) It was a voting poster I did during my first tour and Real Art and prob my favorite print piece I've done to date. I think it hung in GM buildings in the Dayton area around voting time but I apologize - I don't remember who the client was! (Oh well..)

Hope you like.

NEW! Handmade Custom Wooden Characters

I started making custom wooden characters for friends and family this winter! I'm really happy with how these little guys have turned out. I attach the head and arms with simple small dowel rods so the arms and head can move/turn. For Ryan's - I also included some finer detail with the little tattoos peeking out of his sleeves. I dig these guys a lot and plan on making a bunch more! (Contact me if you would like to have a one-of-a-kind wooden fella made just for you.)

Holiday Cards!

This year at Real Art we took a laid-back approach to the festive season. No crazy websites or high-end print projects... instead we decided to go hand-made and heart-felt with our holiday mailings. Each of us came up with our own messaging and made our own cards and letters to clients and friends. Pretty cool idea! So here's a snapshot I took of some of my favorite ones I made. Simple little "rough" pencil and pen drawings of reindeer on notebook paper spray-mounted to brown paper cards I hand-tore and folded. I liked how they turned out and hopefully our clients will dig them too!

Here's A Reason to Take More Vacation Days!

I took a vacation day and was wandering around the craft store last Thursday looking for some stuff for another project I was working on - and ran across a cool canvas. The concept for this painting hit me as I was standing there in the aisle, so I grabbed it up and rushed home to get started!

(I need to take a random vacation day off work more often... especially if I continue to fill my dwindling "spare time" with painting!)

Acrylic on canvass.

Hope you dig.

Nude From Figure Drawing Class

I've been taking a figure drawing class on Saturday mornings at the Dayton Art Institute this fall, and I love it! It's really helping to open my eyes and expand my abilities across the board as an artist. I'm starting to really see results in all my illustration work - and am noticing a difference in the way I think through a drawing, a design, a tattoo... etc. Here's one of my favorite pieces from my last Saturday morning session.

It's ALIVE!!!!

Rob Anspach always throws one helluva good Halloween bash! And it's become a tradition for him to tap the shoulder of one of his fellow designer pals to create each year's invite postcards and posters! Well... this year I had the privilege of doing so! I figured I'd design this year's invite with the feel of the old horror/suspense comics - and I'm really happy with how it turned out! (I've included my rough sketches below, as well, to show the process I went through to get to the final end-product.)