new collages

Singalong Falls
Digital Collage
6.5"x10"

Where You Headed?
Digital collage
5.5"x10"

Tra La La, Doot Doot Doo
Digital collage
6.25"x10"

Breakfast Canyon
Digital collage
6.5"x10"

Don't Mind If I Do...
Digital collage
6"x10"

Down by the River
Digital collage
7"x10"

Wow, it's been over three years since my last post!  I did these as examples for a project my computer art students are currently doing.  I was only going to do one, but I was having so much fun with it, I decided to make a whole series of them.

Design for 'Hope'

Yours for Now just finished their second EP, and they are having a Release Party/Possibly Last Show Ever next Friday, November 6th, at Hank's Saloon. It's going to be a fun time, and you will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't go. You'll lie to your grandkids and tell them you were there, and then you will feel terrible for days about lying to your own grandchildren! As you should. Anyway, I did their album art, which you can see below:

COVER

INSERT BOOKLET - FRONT

BAND PORTRAIT (Side note: This was replaced by a lyrics sheet, but I wanted to show you my drawing instead. I'm starved for attention, I know.)

INSERT BOOKLET - BACK

BACK COVER

get off the couch, loser!

click on picture for a better view

please join me at what is bound to be a super-fun show. yours for now are good friends of mine, and they gave me the honor of doing their cover art for their new EP "living in circles". i also did the gig poster above, a'course. so get off your bum and go get your face rocked inside out next saturday!

click on picture for a better view

colonialism sucks, non-violent protest rules

click image for a closer look

Mahatma Ghandi
graphite on paper with digital collage, 5" x 8"

this is for illustration friday's "legendary" theme this week. i'd say he meets the requirements.

i'm not dead. i'm the lion. you're dead.

click image for a closer look

I Hate Jim
graphite and colored pencil on paper with digital coloring, 5" x 8"

here's a new one. can you tell which part of the yellow background is hand-drawn and which part is digital? if you can, you win...um...a sense of self-satisfaction, i guess.

me and the beard

click image for a closer look

Self Portrait with Floral Motif
pen and ink on paper with digital coloring, 5" x 7"

here is a self portrait i made recently. the first version is a simple pen and ink drawing, without the color bits. i made it for my friend mike freiheit's new project, in which he is enlisting several artists to do portraits of jesus. my first sketches were of a truly semitic jesus, as opposed to the anglo-jesuses we see here in the west. but then, while i was working, i happened to see my reflection in a window, and thought, "hey my beard is looking jesusy, i have a shorter haircut (which my research had revealed would probably be more accurate), and i happen to be 33 years old right now. also, i was wearing a hooded sweatshirt at that moment, and i figured it would be a good stand-in for a shepherd's robe of some sort. and maybe it could be read in a "jesus is in all of us" sort of way, as well. i certainly do not mean to say that i am the messiah or anything, so don't look to me for salvation or anything--i'm fresh out at the moment.

i did not draw this on location

click image for a closer look

it's been a while since i've put up anything with scenery. i love doing the portraits, but every now and then i need a change of pace, you know? this drawing was inspired by a photo i came across on the adventure 16 blog, which you can see here.

i'm still working mainly in colored pencil, but lately i've been throwing in a few change-ups here and there (more liberal use of graphite, pen and ink, digital manipulations, etc.)

i've really been pushing to get commissions as of late, putting myself out there as much as i can. i joined hireanillustrator.com, spraygraphic.com, stars-portraits.com, and so forth, in hopes that the right person is going to discover me soon. grad school ain't gonna pay for itself, folks!

repair, reduce, reuse, recycle

click image for a closer look

so we're back to celebrities whom i've seen in person. i saw moby back when i worked at a record store on st. marks place. he came in the store, soon realized that it was crappy, and left. i don't really listen to his music, but i do admire that he is a famous person who actually uses his wealth to help the planet. so i found this picture of him that i drew months ago in my old sketchbook, and saw that i had never colored or posted it. so i, um, colored and posted it.

i think the captain's face came out better (both were colored in photoshop, which i've been practicing), but i really like the background on this one. i used a crayon drawing i had done in my "art in elementary education" class. yay crayola!

there will be boots

click image for a closer look

one of my favorite scenes from "there will be blood" is the one when the derrick blows up and the men are silhouetted against the backdrop of a giant wall of fire. definitely a top 5 movie for me. daniel day-lewis can pretty much do no wrong. he took several years off from acting to make shoes, for pete's sake! how awesome is that?

i would like to have a pair of those shoes, btw, if anyone ever sees them on ebay or something.

o captain, my captain

click image for a closer look

here's a new drawing of my father-in-law, captain richard brandt. i can call him "dad" now, but before we were married, i could only refer to him as "captain" or "sir". it was also a family tradition that any boyfriends/fiancees of the four brandt daughters could not hang their stockings on the mantle at christmas. until we were married into the family, we had to hang our stockings on the bar, with all the family pets.

it's good to have goals.

out late, playing darts

click image for a closer look

so here you go. i decided to try coloring in photoshop (see previous post). s'okay. i think i learned a few things, anyhoo.

i don't remember who won

click image for a closer look

also, we took turns. i decided to blend two photos together to make one image, because i liked the variation of the arm positions. julia's mid-air dart is actually visible in the original photo(!), but i had to make up the one that i'm throwing. i'm trying to decide whether i should draw in the bar/background, add color, or just leave it alone.

i've actually been toying with coloring it in photoshop, which could be good or bad. since i'm kind of self-taught in that arena, i don't really know (or maybe remember is the better word) the "proper" way to color in photoshop. i've just sort of experimented my way through the features, for the most part. it might be interesting to see how it would turn out.