how I do

I thought it would be interesting to give you all a little behind the scenes look at how I do some of my work. What seemed like the perfect opportunity occurred when I was working on a page I recently completed for my book. I can't show you the whole page, but I've chosen a closeup of the detail of the rug(and kitty coincidently).

First, I work up the final sketch, as follows.

Then I determine what pattern, colors, etc I want to use for each detail. You can see that I decided the rug should be a woven one and sketched in the marks. I also started to play with the colors.

Next, I painted the six different woven rug sections. I had to make them substantially larger than the actual drawing of the rug in order to fit in the detail. Over the acrylic paint I drew the marks with an ultra fine point black Sharpie marker. I then scanned in the painted pieces.

Lastly, I placed the pieces onto the page in Photoshop. I had to manipulate the connecting edges of the straight and curved pieces to give them a seamless appearance. And tada! You have your finished rug.

Everyday Predator

I'm back! I never really went anywhere, I've just been working hard the past year on my children's book trying to get it ready to submit to publishers. But from time to time an occasion rolls around that calls for me to create something unrelated to my book. Such was the case months ago when two of my friends ran off to Vegas and got hitched. This was their wedding present from me.

Most people who know me know that I love Predator. And Alien and Mad Max, etc. But Predator is especially awesome. And I have some big plans for him, when I find the time. This painting is what I hope is just a precursor for some serious awesomeness to come.

Urban Threads

Urban Threads, an online company, asked me to be their feature artist for the month of March. They took my friendly little cupcake design and turned it into a machine embroidery piece that you can buy on their site. Plus, they've posted a nice little bio about me and included links to my sites. Check em' out! Urban Threads

love is fickle

In honor of Valentine's Day, here's a painting I did a few months back.

long fairy tales have a tendency to DRAGON

I'm visually editing my childrens book right now, adding painted elements. So I thought I would share my dragon scales with you. Freshly painted.

venn diagram

A Muppet is a puppet, but a puppet isn't necessarily a Muppet.

so fresh, so clean

This is a wedding present I made for my friends Geoff and Karen recently. Geoff crashed with me one summer in college. I pretty sure the only time I witnessed him do any laundry those few months was the week before Karen came to visit. This smelly sock monkey is in honor of him.

fancy fancy meow

These are portraits I created of my friends' cats; Hoagie and Frenchie. I wanted them to look pretty regal, so I decided to have them resting their paws on red velvet pillows on roman columns. Fancy, ooh la la.

Nestin'

This is a painting I completed last summer/fall. The text tells the story of how I lost one of the ear pieces to my old pair of glasses, and the adventure it may have had.

Nativity

These are some pictures of the shadow box I made as my friend Jasmine's Birthday present. She was born on Christmas day, so she's pretty much Jesus.

I recently completed a series of illustrations for a coloring book. This coloring book is to go along with my friend's actual published book, "Sex Dungeon for Sale!" Congrats Pat Wensink. Check out his website http://www.patrickwensink.com/ and look at the results of the coloring contest! I've posted the illustrations for you here.

Edits

I'm editing my book. I've streamlined the story and replaced some pages. This is the drawing for a new page. Penguins are cool. Get it? Cool, as in awesome, but also as in cold? Yep, I knew I should explain :)

finished

Patrice turns 30

One of my good friends turns 30 next month, and I am creating an illustration for her to use on the invite. Little does she know that it will be a real life painting(not just a digital file in space somewhere) and I'm giving it to her for her birthday. Hahaha (evil laugh)! I've known her now for over a decade. I met her when I was a baby freshman in college at the University of Dayton. Man, times goes by fast.

P.S. I'll put the color image up here when it's finished. Word.

puffersssss

this is another painting i did recently. i have these little dudes hanging in a school in my apartment.

Our Lady

this is one of my new paintings. it took me longer than i anticipated due to the detail involved. its a new take on the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. people get so wrapped in all this twitter, facebook, i phones, pop culture, you name it. so i thought this might be an interesting way to call attention to that. it will be on sale at a silent auction next month.

super talented print maker & designer

my friend's work. AMAZING. period.

joe immen

I hope Crystal reads this

saw this on a t shirt site recently:
OCD: Obsessive Cullen Disorder

funny to me on a few different levels :)

I'm not a player, I just crush a lot.

I got my friend Geoff's wedding invitation. On the envelope he put MacKenzie "Crusher" Haley. This is the same guy who when he lived with me one summer during college, put a baseball bat in my room and told me "this is in case some shit jump off." I had to ask him for a translation. Ohhhh Geoff, I love you. Can't wait to see you and Karen next month.

new painting