Monsters

One of my favorite holidays is without a doubt Halloween. So when this found its way to my desk I was kinda stoked! I would really like to do some character work with this, maybe, if deadlines ever let up and I get a chance to breathe!!

Arthur's Army

Some recent title work I did for one general theme at work. It was a mid-evil, knight, & king sort of theme. Four different games/titles fall under that general umbrella. Here are is the title work for those four names I was given. Havin fun playing with type & characters.

Flight of the Conchords

Well a little while ago Flight of the Conchords held a tour poster design contest open to anyone and everyone. A nice little way to get free designs for themselves - eeeh I dont think Bret & Jemaine would set out to do that. The corporate folks over at HBO on the other hand... But anywhooo it was a theme I enjoyed and figured why not give it a shot!! The winner got their poster printed, signed by the band, framed and sent back to them. I would think for all the money they would be saving by not going to a freelance designer/illustrator they would fly someone out, put them up in a hotel for a night and give them tix to a show. Then give the autograph and frame to the runners up. But on the other hand they were giving their fans a chance to do something cool. Well they held the contest for a month. I worked on this off and on for a couple weeks and pulled an all-nighter to finish it. Got it done. Posted it on their website. Sat patiently, tried to forget about it and waited. Well I made the Final 10! With so many good designs and posters posted I said if I made it that far I would be happy. I did!! You can check out the 10 finalists here: Flight of the Conchords 10 Finalists

Alas I was not the final winner, BUT like I said I was happy to make it as far as I did. Mission accomplished. For my work I got a CD (actually the package design on their CD is really sweet) and a t-shirt (size to be determined by contest holders) - i got a size large. Anyone who knows me personally has to be laughing at that. Im more of a double or triple X kinda guy (for length, not width!!). If they ever visit the midwest Ill print this out and maybe try get it signed by the cast as thats all I really would want for the work.

Kangaroo Court

For work, a couple of a half dozen or so kangaroos for a game "Kangaroo Court"
I get on these kicks where I say to myself "self, your not going to use one damn outline if its the last thing you do." I don't literally say that but I must do it subconsciously. Maybe Im just challenging myself, which is good... sometimes. But my tunnel vision kicks in and i dont dare stray from that path. Going sans outlines can be fun, its a different way of drawing and forces me to really concentrate on shapes, overlapping, etc.. but sometimes, due to color or composition they are just needed to break things up and give separation - but because of that tunnel vision i get, well, there is a reason Im only posting two of these.

Sherron Collins

WOW been a looong time since I have posted here. Basketball season kept me busy! Did another Jayhawk inspired illustration. In the same style as the previous ones, All-Star Vinyl esq. Soo inspired by that line from Upper Deck. The players show attitude, and are oversized, stylized, keep the players likeness AND over emphasize shoes!! Ahhh cant image anything better for D!

Todd Reesing

Well just got done watching the last game of college football for 08-09 season. This illustration was a work in progress, but wanted to get it done after last nights game. The Jayhawks went to back to back bowl games for the first time in the school's history (one of those being an Orange Bowl). We won both of those games lead by this guy. Can't wait until next season and I like doing these illustrations so hope i get to do more especially in the theme of UpperDeck's All Star Vinyls. Big muscles, hands and feet and something that captures the players personality. Todd Reesing is ALWAYS smiling and you can tell he just has fun playing the game. I played with some opacity masks and textures in illustrator on this one (see the jersey and football). Not sure if the jpg translates them well or not but hopin the print out does... as i dig printing these out and maybe getting the player to sign it.

Drunken Pumpkins

Some simple little pumpkins for work I had to do recently. Had fun keep it simple!

Gopher Garage

Third theme for "Critter Cribs"

Vulture Village

Second theme for "Critter Cribs"

Rabbit Ranch

Had to do an animal theme at work. Critter's Cribs was the overall "family" of games. This was one of them. Again no outlines - no black and playing with the blend tool in illustrator.

Good Catch

Symbols done for work with the theme of "Good Catch" -Kinda self explanatory, just playing around again with going sans outlines. Ive also gotten on this kick recently where i go out of my way not to use black. Here i think i used it very sparingly. Im liking the look im getting with this style so far. Seems to be somewhat natural to me, who knows why but when things like that happen you keep with it.

Super Zeros -No Outlines Again

Had to do a series of Super Zeros at work. Basically popular super-heros with a obvious twist. Fatman, TIRE-IRON man, and Incredible BULK. These got pushed back and pushed back but spent some time on them, just trying to do them from start to finish sans black outlines. I actually really liked this method. Felt it was really drawing WITH the computer. I also tried the blend tool alot in illustrator for my shadows and some highlights. That was a little challenging but also liked the result. Who knows may have found something here. Would have liked to have more time but thats usually the motto with things like this at work. All good though, got to try new things and i like promising results.

Mario Chalmers Illustration

Latest illustration I did for my own enjoyment. Had fun with this one as I did with the BRush illustration below. This actually was started before the Rush, just didnt get it done until now.

Box2 Round2

Got revisions on the second version I did of the Box-O-Dough design I posted below. This time they wanted "windows" on the sides. I wanted the front and backs to be the same as the "market" needs no explanation as to what this is for... and seeing how it is played in a bar, the person who sets it up may be somewhat under the influence... well this design allows for a "user error." The only other guideline I had was to leave on side blank for stickers, and to have a "window" on the top. This was fun. Spent some time with this one, but really got inspired by some retro art.

BRUSH close up

spent some time on this one... but i enjoyed it.

BRUSH

Latest illustration I did... for the fun of it.

The Box is Back

Well the first run of the box design I did seemed to go over fairly well. They ran out of them. Rather than re-print the same design they asked that a new design be made, this time however they were pretty specific that they wanted the box to have a jar full of tickets on all three sides. Without boring someone to tears, the short of it is... those tickets shown have been sold out of jar for the past, ooooh I dont know, 80+ years. They became to be known as "jar tickets." Well this box has been, what I assume to be, a revolutionary concept to all - and to help ease into this they wanted the thing to look like a jar. After a few drinks who knows it may fool some. Anyways this was my design... went with that retro feel to it. Kinda like this.

Dude and his Girl - Look Ma, No Outlines!!

In a previous post I showed a character of a customers friend. Well this time I had to do the customer and his girlfriend. This is actually a revamp from the very first character i did of him. That one, and I should post this for pure comedy sake, was done using only a blurry photo taken from someone's cell phone. If i can find it I will have to post as you really have to see this pic to truely appreciate the absurdity of it all. It was quite the moment. However this time I was provided with a much better pic... it was in focus! Hoo-ray!! Anyways here is a random dude and his girlfriend. With this one I set out to NOT use ANY outlines. That dosent usually translate well at work as these are literally shrunk down to .387" x .387" Still though we do posters and flyers so the detail does get seen. I really liked doing this without the outlines and may experiment with it further.

Child Rockettes

Had to do female rockers as babies and/or child like. Found someone who greatly influenced this with his style. He is an amazing character designer. Steve Lambe He had these amazing illustrations of kids the harken back to the golden age books from the 50's - He work def inspired and thought it would be great to carry his influence over to this project. And I just like trying new things. Glad they didnt mind little kid rockers as opposed to babies as the girls characteristics and style and personalities would have been REALLY hard to translate in infant form. The customer requested a Pat Benetar, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. Couldnt use their last names for copyright issues of course.

Dude

Sometimes we get random pics of customers who want to be characterized. This was actually a friend of one of our customers. I often wonder who is even going to know this guy who is about to be put on a game, poster and flyer. Ahh well he was kinda fun to draw.

Gas Station Attendants

Did these guys for work. They wanted gas station attendants shaking people down for money. I wanted the overall theme to the game to have a retro feel to it.

Mermaid

This has been a WIP for the past couple weeks... just got around to finishing. Might just end up in a story Im working on dealing with Circus sideshows. Enjoy

Girls Night Out

Girls Night Out, was a request for just simple girls out on the town. They make look familiar as they are the girls from the Bikini & Martini theme I did below. They have more clothing and are at a club now. The guy is new though. I really enjoyed these past two games. All again with a HEAVY influence from the G-Man himself Glen Hanson. I felt they may be a bit too inspired, not that, that is necessarily a bad thing... but I think its obvious where i drew inspiration from.

Bikinis & Martinis

Got to do some more girls at work. Title: Bikinis & Martinis - at first they were thinking of girls in bikinis shaped like Martini glasses. I sketched one out and it just wasnt working or looking all that well. So we called up the customer to get a little further explanation and see what they had envisioned for this game. Their response was something like "i dunno, we just liked the name, do what you think would look best." Ahh, man I like it when that happens. Freedom!! This customer is VERY VERY picky however, one of those " i dont know what I want until i see it " - they are notorious for changes as well. So I thought about it and decided to put the girls IN the martini glasses as opposed to the girls BEING the martini glasses. Made much more sense to me. Hopefully it will to them as well. I spent some days on this one, sketching, inking and coloring. Would like some more time to maybe had highlights and shadows... but then again i do like the simplicity of them. These were HEAVILY HEAVILY influenced by one of my favorite artists Glen Hanson The guy is truly an artist and amazing at line work, likeness and form. So this was my tribute to him.

Muscle Man

Circus Sideshows was the theme over at Art Jumble a month or so ago. Thought I'd post here as the jpg was sitting on my desktop. This was one of those times where the initial sketch just kinda flowed and was quick and fast, and didnt give me a lot of trouble. I like it when that happens... had a professor at KU once tell me that some of his best work he thought were his doodles and sketches when he was half paying attention and was somewhat semi distracted. This was the case in a sense with this. I was just getting ready to eat lunch, had some music on, flipped over a piece of paper and just tossed this guy on there. Man, its so fun and refreshing when you get something you like out like that. Anyways, I had a good time with this one! Enjoy!

Flea Market

Did this game a few weeks ago. Received the title and a very brief description of what was wanted for symbols. I was really swamped at the time I did these, but thats been the case the past couple of months lately. I liked the way the bugs turned out, dealing with 4 arms, with the request of having them all "filled" or holding something was a bit of a challenge though.

Batman

Latest Art Jumble

Squeals of Fortune

I had to do Pat Sajak and Vanna White as pigs at work last week. It seems to be a common theme here at work. Pigs, pigs, and more pigs. I would have really liked to do more with the shadows, highlights, and lineweight but this was one of a half dozen "rush" jobs I have had this past week.

Dogs Dogs Dogs

I had to do 15 different dogs that were to be in hotdog buns. This turned out to be a little more challenging and fun than I had originally thought.

Lobster

An Art Jumble lobster i recently finished. Theme was "Food comes to life" i guess in this case the food came back to life.