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.

Willie Nelson and the newborn

3 Months ago I became the proud father of a little baby girl... and while my wife was in labor I was sketching Willie Nelson.
Well not the entire time...
My wife was all set to go into the Hospital, ready to be induced so we could get that beautiful little baby out into the real world.
I had the bags all packed, and was just waiting for my wife to come down the stairs, and out the door we would go.  I checked my email quick before hand and had a wonderful job offer from Christian Williams and the good folks at The Utne Reader.  Another cover, this time featuring Willie Nelson and Mary Louise Parker. The topic...weed...the Governments weed.
Well I knew what I was gonna do that night. Pace back and forth a bunch of times, do the crossword puzzles in those trashy gossip mags my wife gets, and do some sketches of Willie and company. I burned right through the trash crosswords, ashamed of the gossipy knowledge I possess. Next I searched a ton of pics on the good ol' Ipad and a sketching I went.

Hospital Sketch of Willie and Mary Louise Parker

Approved Sketch

Since I couldn't sleep, due to excitement, my wife in horrible pain(cue the epidural) and the nasty ass recliner I was trying to sleep on, I decided to burn the midnight oil.  I turned out a few sketches, the better being the actual basis for the approved cover sketch.

Later that day we welcomed into our lives a little baby girl, Kara. Life has been amazing since she has been here. I have been quite busy ever since.

That being said, maybe you'd like to see the actual cover before I start getting all sentimental.

July August 2013 Utne Reader Cover Art

Ah and now in the background I hear the call of duty...Diaper DOODY.

The Party's Over...for Mitt

Printed image with article.

Sometimes it pays to have a Twitter account. 

 A famous artist once told me "Twitter is awesome, apparently it opens the sky and makes it rain $."

This is true.  This past week artist Leah Tiscione, whom I follow on Twitter contacted me, asking if I would be able to complete a few caricatures for the NY Post. She was slammed with work and wouldn't be able to take the assignment.

I was flabbergasted!! I just love that word.  I've followed Leah's work for a while and was first introduced to her stuff in the greatest book known to man, "The Alphabet of Manliness" by Maddox, a comic book by Maddox and to boot she also does a ton of work for the Post.

First off I was flattered she even acknowledged my existence on Twitter and second that she even considered me to take on this assignment.

Leah put me in touch with Maureen Callahan from the NY Post and I was given the job.

It was a major crunch time job, but I wanted to "get er done!" I wanted to do a good job for Leah( couldn't make her look bad for suggesting me),

Maureen( if I pull this off, it can lead to more work), and myself, because I'm selfish(just kidding).

I pulled an all night'er and was able to complete the job and was happy with the final product.

The subject of the article I was to illustrate for was how Mitt Romney is now the punching bag of his political party for not winning the past election...basically a pinata.

Maureen pretty much laid out everything in front of me and told me what they were looking for.

Initial Sketch, yes Sarah Palin looks like a man and Mitt looks like he had too many botox injections.

Final Approved Illustration. The Mitt pinata being bashed by Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich.

So Thank you Leah for opening up the sky and making it rain money!!!
And thank you Maureen for giving me the opportunity to illustrate for the NY Post!

George Lucas is a rich man

Hey did you hear the news? A few months back, the man behind Star Wars, this dude named George Lucas sold his VHS collection to Mickey Mouse.

Yea I'm told he got a few bucks for them, and guess what...Mickey Mouse is gonna make new moving pictures of the Star Wars.

I drew a  purty pictures of this Lucas fella.  Like to see it? Here it is!

This here is what we call a sketch

I like the way this man wears flannel.