Brave Sunterrainean Circus Mouse

Well, I actually created this as a part of Illustration Friday's "brave" theme for last week as well as for Monday Artday's theme of "circus"... also last week. So it's late on both counts. But, I feel it could also apply to this week's IF theme of "subterranean".

Life Of Pi

This is a little late for the Illustration Friday topic of "adrift", but I'm super pleased with it so I need to share it. Anyone who's read it will instantly recognize this as coming from Yann Martel's awfully good book The Life Of Pi. I really wanted to capture the uneasy truce between the characters.

Got Mud?

This is both my response to the Illustration Friday theme of "muddy", as well as a kids t-shirt design for my new Zazzle store - check it out here!

New Self Portrait for 2010

I made this for something to have on the back of my promotional postcards. I toyed with the idea of just repeating whatever was on the front and just washing it out, but that didn't really add anything to the design. If I'm going to shell out for 2 sided printing, I might as well make it worthwhile and add a bit of interest, and part of promotion is selling myself as a brand so why not just blatantly sell myself?

I'm quite pleased with the end result will post my finished design once done. This image also dovetails nicely with this weeks Illustration Friday theme of "focused". So total bonus!

Clumsy

Here's my submission for the Illustration Friday theme of clumsy. I hate when people talk on their phones and drive... unless of course I'm the one doing it.

Wilderness

I was trying to figure out something to do for a promotional piece, and since I've been remiss at doing any Illustration Friday themes for a while, that's naturally where I turned. Above you'll see the result.

A nice thing about being in Edmonton is having a taste of city life with some beautiful nature pretty nearby. My wife and I took off to Jasper for some snowboarding over the holidays and we've been enough times that we're starting to take things like gorgeous mountain scenery and having to navigate around big horn sheep wandering around the road for granted. So I guess that's what this piece is about.

They look like big, good, strong hands. Don't they?

My first thought for the Illustration Friday topic of "crunchy" was the Rockbiter from Neverending Story. My first sketch was him happily munching on some rocks, but then I realized that I much better remember him sad and waiting for death after (spoiler alert) he's failed to save his friends from The Nothing. So that's what I went with because I thought it'd be far more interesting.

This has now made me nostalgic for the film, so I think I'll be getting it at the library this week. Especially as *gasp* my wife has never seen it! Although it probably won't hold up and I'll totally ruin my view of the film. Ah well.

Entangled

My under-the-wire submission for the Illustration Friday theme of "entangled". I haven't drawn any superhero stuff in a while. Maybe it has to do with me reading tons of Batman comics recently - wrong universe, but still...

If you're wondering to yourself "why Electro, he's super lame?", my answer to you is: because he's super lame. I couldn't resist drawing the ridiculous outfit of his. How does he get through doorways with that thing!?!

Unbalanced

I had two ideas for this weeks Illustration Friday topic of "unbalanced". The above one, and another similar idea with a fat kid on one end and a skinny kid stuck in the air on the other. I liked both ideas, but went with emotional impact over humor... so unlike me.

Twitter Brain

(Above is the original, below the revised)

I think this recently completed image fits nicely with this week's Illustration Friday theme of "blur". I see people who are so lightning fast texting on their keypads t blows my mind. When I was in high school we took typing on electric typewriters, these days I'm sure they must use iphones.

Mostly though, this piece is about my fear that Twitter will make our civilization dumb by limiting any introspection to 140 characters. That being said, CLICK HERE if you'd like to follow me on Twitter!

Fast Little Butterfly/Art From The Unknown

This is partly inspired by this weeks Illustration Friday topic of "fast", partly by having just reread Life of Pi, and partly for a 2010 (year of the tiger) desktop calendar I'm working on as a promotional piece. I think it will also work nicely as an art print.

Speaking of art prints, I had a really good time at Art From The Unknown, sold a few prints, and also exchanged prints with Karen Bishop who's super nice, has a cool accent, and does some really awesome watercolours. Exchanging artwork is great because I'm a bit of a collector, but have limited funds. I'm wondering if there should be some sort of collective site where pieces could be offered up for trade. I think that would be sweet - somebody do that and let me know.

Below is a revision to the calendar based on some feedback that I got from the folks over at the HOW forum, and Illustration Mundo Forum.

Frozen

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic of "Frozen", although this little Inuit girl seems fairly cozy all snuggled up in her parka.

A followup to the earlier Illustration Friday topic of "magnify". I've turned it into a bit of a story, scroll down to see the stunning conclusion to The Case of the Very Chewed Shoes (dundundun!)

I like this kid, he's turning into a cross between Indiana Jones and Sam Spade. I haven't named him yet - any suggestions?

Trick Or Treat

This piece is in response to the Iluustration Friday topic of "welcome", and also because I can't wait for Halloween. It's definitely one of the best times of the year. It also seems everything I do these days is brown. Hmmm.

Magnify

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's topic of "magnify". I did it as a promotional piece, and ended up creating a story around it as you can gleam from the concept sketches I've included.

The sketches are done with Col-Erase pencils. I got this from my animation friends who seem to always use the blue ones (I think if they use anything else they get kicked out of the club). I like them because I can start the sketch with a lighter colour and refine it with subsequently darker colours. This is good for me because my first attempts almost always suck so I save both paper, and the time it would take to start from zero. Hooray!

A Cautionary Tale

A caution-ary tale: if a group of sword wielding nihilists are demanding the scant amount of money you have in your wallet, it might be best to give it to them (regardless of the fact that you watched your buddies die face down in the muck).

So as you can see my Lebowski triptych is now complete, and I aim to have them printed this week! I think Donny was the hardest one due to his lack of affectations such as any kind of glasses or facial hair. Plus Buscemi a pretty weird looking dude.

Sometimes, there's a man...

Here's piece #2 in my Big Lebowski series, and is also doubling as my response to this weeks Illustration Friday topic as The Dude is wrapped in his signature robe. I don't know what next weeks topic will be, but I'll stretch it any way I have to in order to make it fit Donny, my third piece in the series. You can see my first piece featuring Walter in the post below. All of these will be turned into prints so fire me off an email if you're interested and I'll contact you once they're available for purchase.

Also, anyone who's thinking of drawing a Persian rug might want to reconsider - it's a pain in the tuchus, you know, in the parlance of our times.

Shut the F up Donnie!

I've been meaning to do a Big Lebowski series for a while now and was actual going to do a Dude portrait for Illustration Friday's topic of "Idle" a couple weeks back but I didn't have the time. But then this weeks topic of "Impatience" called to mind Walter's constant impatience with Donnie.

This is one of my favourite things that I've ever done. It took forever, but I'm pretty passionate about The Big Lebowski and so wanted to do it service. I'll continue the series into a triptich that I'll turn into prints for an art show that I might be a part of this October so watch for The Dude and Donnie coming soon!

Theatre

This is my ad hock submission for the Illustration Friday theme of "Theater". It's something I was working on already, and it almost fits the theme. But since I'm busy/lazy, I think it'll do.

Fleeting

This weekend the weather finally warmed up and the snow is all melted. So like any good Canadian my first instinct was to find a patio where I could enjoy the sunshine and sip a beverage.

I was also inspired to do this image for the Illustration Friday weekly topic of "Fleeting" as I know how quickly it'll be winter again, so ya gotta enjoy it while you can.