Merry Belated Christmas...Shitter was full.

Every year I come up with a Christmas card to illustrate and mail out to friends and family.  I'll get around to posting some from the past sometime soon, but for now I'll focus briefly on this years edition.

National Lampoons Christmas vacation is becoming my favorite Christmas time movie to watch.  I was always a big fan of The Christmas Story, but Chevy and the gang see more airtime during the season and not just on Christmas Eve through Xmas like Ralphie and the crew.

So I decided on drawing the worlds most famous Cousin in-law...Cousin Eddie, portrayed but actor Randy Quaid. 

We all know the famous scene in which Eddie is emptying his RV's septic tank into the storm drain, while while wishing a Merry Christmas and informing everyone that the "Shitter was full."

I wanted to mix it up a little, and have Eddie holding the famous Moose Mug instead of a beer and lost the cigar he is seen chomping on in this particular scene. Trying to keep it classy people!!

I have yet to draw the RV in the background of this sketch yet.

As you can see, I had to find somewhere to include his catchphrase, and had to do it without angering my lovely wife.  So I came up with a silhouette of the moose mug and "Sh*tter was full" tastefully on the back replacing the "i" with a snowflake. 

A Merry Belated Christmas to All!!! and to ALL a Goodnight!!

Ryan Lochte...Jouch!

Jeah.. That's right. I said "jeah" which means I owe Ryan Lochte money now.

I was contacted by the wonderful Jane Fields, art director of Charlotte Magazine and asked to illustrate something for their annual Cracked Crowns article.  Which basically cover a bunch of ridiculous things that happen in Charlotte every year.

The story that caught my eye and thought would be well suited for an illustration was the Ryan Lochte story.
A young female fan of the Olympian gold medalist ran towards him and basically knocked him down. In the fall he injured his MCL and screwed up his training regimen and most likely his ego too.

Here is a rough sketch.

Here is the final painting and the article as it appeared online.

                                                                      Jouch!!!

Shaun White, Utne Reader cover.

OK, Had yet another cover for the good peeps at The Utne Reader. This was for the Jan-Feb 2014 issue, which is still on the stands people!! stop reading this and go buy an issue!!

The topic for the cover had to do with Climate change, and how it's affecting the snowfall in the California mountains. No snow in the mountains makes it bad for skiers, snowboarders and ski-towns in general. However the bigger problem is that, this means less spring melt for the valley adversely affecting everyone in the surrounding areas.

The concept was to have high profile, gold medal snowboarder, Shaun White standing on a barren, dried out mountain, with no snow.  How is he to train for the Sochi Olympics with not a ounce of snow on the mountains?

So I got to work and came up with an approved sketch.

Shaun White had previously cut his trademark "Flaming Carrot" hair, but Utne felt he would be more recognizable if he still had that "do" for the cover.

Plus I had to tweak his expression so that he didn't look too constipated.

final painting

and here is the final cover.

Beware the Bat-Affleck!!

A few months back the comic book world was sent into a panic! Well not the real comic book world...the movie comic book world...and the panic sent the Internet ablaze!!

It was announced that there would be a sequel to the Superman flick "Man of Steel."  This sequel would be titled "Superman vs Batman."

With Christian Bale hanging up the cape, Warner Bros were looking for a new caped crusader.  Little did everyone know at the time but they were looking through J-Lo's garbage heap of ex boyfriends.
C'mon don't act like you don't remember "Ben-ifer"

Yes!! Ben Affleck! The man who crapped on the Daredevil movie, but won an Oscar for directing the movie "Argo."

The Internet lynch mob wanted Affleck to stand down and resign from the flick within seconds of the announcement. Pandemonium set in, and petitions were forged in hopes of kicking Ben out of the tights before he even squeezed into them.

Illustration I did of Affleck being driven out of Gotham by angry Bat-Fans.

C'mon peoples of the intranet...that's right I said intranet...lets take a step back and remember the reaction to Heath Ledger being cast as The Joker... See where I'm going?  So in the meantime put down the torches and pitchforks and let's give Benny boy a chance.  And if he screws up...well...

College Kitchen Nightmares!

I'm going to blame the lack of posts on the Holidays...who am I kidding? I was abducted by Aliens.

OK so enough about that...I don't want to talk about it.

I had another cover illustration for the good folks over at The Utne Reader back in Sept-Oct 2013.
This was quite fun.

The issue itself had several articles dealing with some of the hardships College students have to deal with after they graduate and whatnot. One article in particular had to do with making the most out of a little. Basically how someone on a fixed income can still make amazing, inexpensive meals.
So the concept became having celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen make some kind of exquisite meal consisting of typical College dorm ingredients.

This was fun because I was able to crowbar some goodies in the illustration reminiscent of my own college days..or daze.  I was able to let loose a bit and come up with something pretty cool.

This was the initial sketch, with tons of scribbled notes.  This was approved so I got to work.

Presto! the finished illustration.  I stayed pretty true to the initial sketch, and if you look close, there are quite a few cool details.  This is loosely based on what I can remember of my old dorm room.

It was fun coming up with phony names for the food products, while staying close enough so everyone knew what I was going for.