Wisconsin Movie Poster Cover Art

Uploaded with secretsaucestudio.com I just did a quick piece for art director Carolyn Fath about a Wisconsin Film Festival for the cover of ISTHMUS. Here's the end result without the type and graphics in place. I tried to give it a nice blue and violet feeling to capture that blue projected movie light.

PIrate Party for App Development Factory

secretsaucestudio This week I'm working hard on building all the parts for a new creative app for a company in South Korea called the App Development Factory. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks this app will be nearing the finish. It's a lot of work. Basically, it's a story that I've written called "Pirate Party" and there are 5 characters with numerous backgrounds and props, so that when this is done a child can create their own story using all the parts from the original story, but with a range of other props and costumes too. I'll post more as I near the end, but this is a character sheet for one of the characters named "Morgan". He's a boy pirate from the story, but he has a lot of looks.

Solar System Game/Rough Sketch for National Geographic Kids (The First Thing I Do)

Uploaded with SecretSauceStudio I was just assigned this new Funstuff Page to illustrate for Nat Geo Kids again. This time it's a game about a trip through the solar system. So, I thought it might be interesting to show the process I go through to get to my finished work. This is a good example of the type of sketch I turn in to a client right off the bat. Now, I'm waiting for not only the art director to respond, but the sketch has to be circulated and scrutinized by an editorial team for comments to get my second pass before I would ever go to a color stage. I'm absolutely certain that they will have me tweak a bunch of things on this to make it clear as a game, plus there are design elements that clear things up even more. Once I am in the color phase it really comes to life...but that's another post. Coming soon!

Summer Children's Publishing Illustration Promotion

Uploaded with secretsaucestudio.com I'm adding work all the time to my portfolio lately, especially for the work that I love to do for the Children's Publishing Industry, books and all. I have always loved the ice cream man and how he would come down the street like some suburban Willy Wonka, ready to hit you up with icy creamy goodness. I'll always remember the demented music coming out of an old speaker atop the rusty vehicle that sounds warped from age and a curious Doppler Effect as the truck barrels down the street while kids on bicycles chase him down. Ahhhhh Summer! See you all again soon.

Nat Geo Kids! (Halloween in May)

I finished over the past week this Halloween FunStuff spread for National Geographic for Kids. Thought it might be a fun one to post. I know it's a long way off from Halloween, but that's how they plan over at Nat Geo. Good folks over there!

Elton John Illustration for Isthmus

I think that Uncle Eltie would make a great "Dr. Zeus" from "Planet of The Apes". What do you all think? This little illustration was done for art director wünderkind, Carolyn Fath at Isthmus in Wisconsin. I always enjoy her assignments. And she's a pip!

Whitney Houston Vigil at Santa Monica Blvd and Wilshire Blvd

I went to see the small vigil at the Beverly Hilton for Whitney Houston tonight. It was so sad to realize that such a talented singer and artist of her calibre died in this way. There were many touching cards and photos in the group. As you can see there were a few news vans and a cluster of people paying their respects and lighting candles. I live 5 minutes down the road, so I felt compelled to see how fans were coping and leaving their kind regards.

Mad Men Illustration (for Season 5)

I made this new illustration to coincide with the new season of Mad Men coming up on AMC in March. It's about to make the rounds as a postcard and an e-blast too. It would have been fun to do more of the other characters, but I was afraid of how small they would all be on a standard sized post card, so I limited it to the 3. I was hankering to draw Joan too. She's got those great "Ginger Grant-like" features and Marilyn curves. A treat to draw. And, it was a trip back to 1965 too!

In the wee hours over the past few weeks, I've been designing a website for a great gallery in Paso Robles, California called PierceModern Gallery. Check out the site and the gallery, and if you're in Paso Robles I hope you'll go visit the space or go to one of their openings. piercemodern.com

New York Newsday Op Ed Piece on Thanksgiving Day

I had a quick job today for NY Newsday about a large set of funds that various regions of the state would be competing for. I basically ran with an idea the art director had because it seemed to sum the idea up fairly well.

I had this idea for a political Halloween cartoon over the weekend. Here's the fruit of my labor from that. Trick or treat! Happy Halloween, y'all!

Aunt Bertha to The Rescue! (For Nat Geo Kids!)

Aunt Bertha has been resurrected! Yes, my old character is back and driving across the country in a series of games and puzzles for National Geographic Kids and their book division. I missed ole' Bertie. The second image is a mock-up of the cover, but it's gonna have the finished illustration streaking across that cover. A Big Thanks to art director Eva Absher for making the executive decision to use me on this.

I promised to post this new postcard mailer image, so here's how it came out. Nice and colorful. Now, I just have to get this image out to a billion people and spread the word. BOO!!!!!

Halloween Mailer Rough Sketch Before Finish

I always enjoy seeing people's rough sketches before the final art is done, so maybe some of you will be interested in seeing this. I'm currently halfway through this color finish, which I'll post by the end of the week, but I thought I'd blog about the process. My initial concept was of a Drive-in Movie theatre with nothing but monsters watching the scary movie, which was "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers", but then I worried that since this is for a normal-sized postcard, the image was too complex to be appreciated unless it was a larger size and that's too costly for my current budget. So, I did this compartmental layout to showcase images of Halloween. The finish is coming along great so far and I hope it really grabs the people I'm sending it to in this mass mailer and e-blast. Halloween is just a fun holiday and it's probably one of the most effective holidays to take advantage of in my business. Most people think that Christmas is a good time to promote, but I think that right after Thanksgiving art directors, editors, designers, and creative directors are all too distracted as they get ready for their Christmas/Winter break to care about a postcard coming at them and begging for their attention.

Come back by the end of the week and I will have a lush color finish to showcase. It'll be interesting to see them side-by-side and compare how much may have changed.

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Early morning illustration for Alleen Barber about Traffic Networking solutions with current technology in the NYC area. Thank you Miss Barber! Sometimes I like a real fast deadline because it forces me to use limited palettes and work with the time constraints to make my client happy. Of course, I'd rather have a couple of days to noodle on an image, but I enjoy a good double-rush sometimes and Newsday is always good to me.

My "Debt Ceiling" Fall Mailer Illustration

It's the witching hour again...Fall promotion! Since it's August, it's the right time to be e-blasting and mailing out postcard bulk-mailings to garner the attention of art directors who can use my work. The subject that seems to be hot for now is the Debt Ceiling and how all the parties involved really mucked it up because of partisan politics. The people always seem to suffer while Republicans and Democrats refuse to work together or do what is best for the country. I tried to work in the effect of the Tea Party on the process too. It's all very whimsical in this illustration, but the subject is rather contentious. I love "hot button" issues.

The next mailer I plan on doing is for Halloween and it will go out in early September. That one should be a lot of fun.

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Piggies Are Back!

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I'm finally back on track with the work I had done for an e-book at the end of last year for See Here Studios up in San Francisco. Here's one of the possible covers that I'm waiting to see if it is approved or changed. Last year this project got sidetracked at the end of the year so I could meet deadlines for the company I have a temporary day job with. The work I do at this company sucks up a good amount of time and was pretty demanding, so this project got shelved for some months. I'm now back to work on finishing up all the work and will be posting the images here over the next couple of weeks.

Queen of Diamonds Illustration for promotional card for "The Stranger"

I just made an illustration for Aaron Huffman at "the Stranger" up in Seattle to be used as promotion for the newspaper. A bunch of different artists were asked to create cards in their styles to be put together later. Here's my "Queen of Diamonds".

Lampshade Art For The "Enlighten Show"

I made this for the Enlighten Show in Culver City at the Tornado Gallery in late November. I'll post more information as the opening comes closer.

New York Newsday Spot Illustration

A few days ago I did this quick Op Ed piece for NY Newsday about what parents and their kids are doing with the extra week this Summer, before going back to school. I had a more complicated sketch and then the art director said something about "getting the kids out of the parents hair for Summer", and I thought...why don't I just pare it down to that? It turned out to be exactly what he needed for the spot.