...and finally these.

couple more

More T's

Couple more for ya!

T-Shirts

I have been working in the screen print industry for over four years now and I don't think my friends have ever seen what I do. I have been lucky enough to work for two companies that handle large profile customers such as Disney, Universal, Ron Jon's and such. I don't make shirts for "Larry's Lawn Service". Not that there's anything wrong with that but I really like to draw all the cartoon characters and such. So here are some designs I did for Disney that I liked. I will post more soon.

Nothing Up My Sleeve

Just a quick post tonight. While my wife is medicated and sleeping and my son is being co-operative and sleeping, I found myself with a rare night to myself. So I actually finished a pic that was really just for me out of my sketchbook (yes, the dreaded sketchbook!). The sketch is just ball point pen and wash about one inch square actually. The final was done with a combination of ArtRage and Photoshop. Enjoy!

Lousey Sketchbook!

I don't sketch well. I am a great doodler tho. Long before I ever took an art class I was given advice about carrying a sketchbook. I guess I didn't really get it because I pretty much filled it with drawings of Spider-Man and anything else out of my head that was comic book related. Then I found out I was supposed to "draw from life" in my sketchbooks. How was I supposed to find Spider-Man that way!!?? Even in my four years at Ringling, I was always amazed at my peers and the abilities they had in filling sketchbook after sketchbook with observational drawings and studies. I totally understood the merits of the exercise by this point but I just never got to a level where I felt comfortable with my abilities in this area. To this day I still carry one around but I have come to the understanding that this is not my strong point. It's not that I don't think I draw well, I just use the sketches as exercises to work out problems, to thumbnail, and to basically just jot down visual cues and ideas for me to flesh out later in my studio. I read alot of artist blogs and so many of them post sketch after sketch to the point where I felt I was cheating and not publishing any. So here is a sampler from my current sketchbook. It's a small one so I can fit in into the pocket of my cargo shorts (I live in Florida. I wear shorts ALOT!) and my instrument of choice is a basic ball point pen and a grey tombow marker. No erasing allowed. I figure I might as well push myself a little!

Red letter Day for Mr. C

Philadelphia Business Journal

"The first casualty of the pending merger between the parent companies of TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank of Cherry Hill will be Mr. C. The venerable Commerce mascot, invariably present at bank events, has been handed his walking papers."

I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that. Mind you, I don't currently or have ever banked at Commerce Bank but several years ago at my last place of employment, I was given a picture of their mascot, Mr. C. What a piece of shit.





Apparently, or at least what I was told, was that they were looking to "freshen up the design" of the much loved character and the bank president's wife would wind up being the art director. Great! I did several versions that they accepted and then they would come back and ask for more changes. I finally arrived at a version that everyone seemed happy with. Except Mrs. Bank President. "I don't understand why he has no knees or elbows. How can be possibly bend??" Uh,.......it's a googly-eyed red letter C and you are wondering about it's knees?? Does Mickey Mouse have knees?? I had to add knees. That was the type of crap I got all the time. They would even send back Mr. C art and asked to "make the face more like the other one you did." Um,...... that's the SAME face. I copied and pasted right from the other file. I would literally re-send an unchanged pic for approval and then it would go through. Fun! I drew Mr. C in a variety of settings and outfits before Commerce Bank decided for one reason or another (it was never made clear to me) that someone else would be handling the art now. Fine. I never really made money off of it but it was fun to see my work when I visited family in New Jersey in bank windows and ads. I never got over how the "new person" continued to butcher my art. I would see clippings and pics on the website of Mr. C and would recognise most of the drawing and then have a new hand or arm or what have you. And it NEVER matched the rest of the art. Maybe it was done by the original artist, I don't know. All I know is that with Commerce Bank being bought out I will no longer have to see bastard versions of my work. There was some good stuff too. I spoke to the guy who did the sculpt and to be honest, I wish I had one. I don't remember if the one I posted is the same one I saw before but I seem to remember it being pretty faithful to my work. I also wished I had saved the more pronounced butchering of my work, but alas I had no blog then so I sent them all to the trash. Oh well. See ya Mr. C! It's been a blast!!