gifts for the holiday season.

since i'm simply broke and don't care much for purchasing things for people that they probably have no desire for, i figure that sharing my artwork with them is a good way to give a personal gift of sorts. i threw some color at an old sketch of my friend craig and framed it for a small christmas gift ( which i've been told resembles brett michaels and axl rose and i do somewhat agree). i also framed another sketch that i had done at the bakery where i work and thought it would be a nice kiss ass gift for them due to my tardy mishaps as of late. and my favorite of all are two moleskins that i purchased and decorated the covers with permanent stickers of older works. one i am giving to my sister, ray and the other to my great friend tamara j's sister, sarah who has an interest in art. with having difficulty making new work as of late, i'm just recycling past images in various ways, such with these sketchbooks and the tee ideas. i will hopefully be creating something new here shortly.

some stuff man

here are some ideas i've been throwing around, two tee's and a few sketches. i like how the collage photoshop stuff is looking, so i may keep playing around with that. and i have two shirt ideas that i'm playing with, one of which is probably about to be submitted e at this website design by humans. i will put up a link to vote for it once i finish it up and send it in to them. the other with the bird i still need to redesign and render. toodles.

welcome to miami.

i just returned from an entertaining time in miami with my good friends tran nguyen and lyle nagy. we went down there for art basel and other shows including aqua art, where tran had some work on display. we walked through some shady spots on our way to an after party, saw some phenomenal and shit work, and spent some quality time discussing all things considered. i talked to some folks, made a few sketches and put out the vibe among the pretty faces in the crowd. it was overall, a great time had and quite the expensive journey; glad i made it. photographs courtesy of the fabulous tran, i had left my camera back at the hotel.

poster idea.

this is from a sketch that i had done about two months ago for a new poster idea that i had; just wanted to try some things out digitally to give me some ideas of whether to execute the final traditionally or not.

new sketches and such.

i have been sketching nearly everyday for the past few weeks, trying to keep loose. i haven't really tackled any new work since i work somewhere around sixty hours a week. i do have several little personal and favor projects lined up that i need to get under way here, but sketching is one of my favorite things to do, so i always try to find time to fit something in. i recently purchased the voodoo child graphic novel bill sienkiewicz did long over a decade ago, which depicts the life of the legendary jimi hendrix. i also bought a book of sketches that bill did around the same time as the hendrix project, there are plenty of gestural drawings of figures and imaginative ideas that he laid down to help continue building his expressive style. he is certainly in my top five favorite illustrators with one of the most unique approaches of various mixed media applications that really captures his voice as an illustrator. anyhow, i figure that i should just move the pen across the page without too much hesitation and here are a few short drawings that came about in the process. most of these are from within the past month, i threw in a few painterly sketches that i did over top of some pen work of my friend craig, smokey and jimi as well. if anyone sees this, thanks for taking a gander.

buy the slice and t jolly.

i made this for a promotion at the pizza shop i work at. we like to call him stevie slice. i went and had him printed out at poster size two times for shop display (i'd hang out with him if he were real). and this past weekend, it was one of my best friends birthday, miss tamara jolly. here's a quick thing i threw together, which was suppose to be for her birthday card.

takeover uk poster

poster i threw together for pittsburgh based band the takeover uk. i suppose they're gaining some acclaim to fame since they're signed to rykodisc records. i'm not all too crazy about the illustration actually, but as a poster it works well enough. that's it.

poster, labor and delivery.

well, i finally found some work doing some labor for my neighbor at one of his property's and delivering pizzas down in oakmont along the boulevard where my friend craig works. i still have yet to find any commissioned work, but have recently done up a poster for a friend's band called meeting of important people, and i believe they were just recently signed to a national label... so they're good. don't feel much like writing anything else at the moment. peace.

back in the city of champions... and my folks basement.

i've just recently relocated back to pittsburgh in my parents basement, that's about where i'm at right now. my time now is mostly spent looking for creative work and hourly paying gigs; i've yet to get either and i didn't get the internship from tom cody design. so, i just wanted to upload a few sketches from my new york trip and some others i've done since moving home. i also took some awful photographs of some loose pastel/charcoal work of jesus and a broad shoulder model with a disproportional arm and hand. but, since i've been home i've had the opportunity to catch up with some folks, play some puck, catch some kip, and feel sorry for myself. that's about it, enjoy.

home assignments from tom cody.

i was up in new york city not too long ago, i got to see my dear good friend sean, and very briefly met with some folks at a textile/surface design company called tom cody design. here's a sample that i was asked to create based on an existing collection of a boy's surface design. they must have interviewed at least fifteen or so people, so i suppose this was their way of narrowing it down; i think i may have been narrowed out. i may as well throw up a picture my friend sean took while i was visiting her as well, and a pencil portrait that i drew up on the wall of her room that i accented with some blush.

voila.

today is hopefully not the last day of my life.