Pitch Black Video - "The Bride"

As I look towards the future in this new year, I found a relic from my past and thought I'd share. From the Autumn of 1999 to late 2005/early 2006 ( I can't remember the exact date when we officially called it a day), I was the guitarist and one of the vocalists for a band called Pitch Black. We started off as what I guess could be classified as a horror-punk band and ended up as a post-punk band. We always just claimed to play "The Modern Sound", which was a nod to the mod culture I am enamored with. Being in Pitch Black was one of the best times of my life! The band break-up was even amicable & we are all still friends. Something I've found to be rare in other bands I've been in. By the end of our run, we had recorded a split EP with The Enemies for Lookout! Records, 2 LPs for Revelation Records, and a 7" EP for Cheetah's Records. We also did a bunch of touring with a lot of great bands throughout North America.

This video is from a track off our self-titled debut LP on Revelation Records called "The Bride". This song also made it to a couple skateboard videos and clips of it were played on a couple skate contests that ran on ESPN at the time. The video was produced by a friend of mine, Mark Yang, in the motion picture department while we were both attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This video was part of a class project for him. I think that's why there are so many techniques used and why some of them come off as a bit silly, but I think he needed to show the teacher he had learned everything that was taught. Mark was a super rad guy who was as enthusiastic about Rock-n-Roll as I am. After we graduated, he had to go back to his native Tawain and I am sorry to say that we lost contact after that. I hope he's doing well! Lastly, I hope you all dig the video and maybe even get a chuckle out of what I used to do before becoming a cartoonist.

My friend Melissa just sent me this photo taken about 9 years ago. That's my old band, Pitch Black, playing a show on my old stomping grounds at 924 Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, CA.

UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION!

After the recent mishap with Blogger losing a bunch of images, I have to reconstruct this blog. Its a complete bum out, but I'm going to take this forced opportunity to play around with it and get rid of some of the clutter I feel that I was beginning to accumulate. It may take a while to complete since I have very little time to spare right now. Thanks to everyone who follows the blog and for your patience!

Sometimes I'm a DJ...

For those in Portland, OR, I will be DJing ( yep I hate the term “spinning” ) all the most awesome tunes from from my favorite era of skateboarding. I’ll be playing a cornucopia of hardcore punk rock, thrash, and anything else that was the perfect soundtrack for bombing a hill, doing a frontside boneless over a hip, doing slappy grinds at the local curb, and flipping up the bill on your hat.

Come get rad!

Sketch Card: Door-To-Door Salesman

Here's another sketch card. This one was done using a Pentel Brush Pen, a Copic Sketch Marker, and Crayola Colored Pencils.

Sketch Card: Lewis in the City

Here's a sketch card I did using the Pentel Brush Pen and a Copic Sketch Marker. I might do a mini-comic about this character sometime in the future.

The Happy Couple

 I just finished this illustration from a pencil sketch and thumbnail sketch, done on my iPhone, that I drew last week at an Illustration Club I'm involved with.

The sketches.

Garbage From Art School: Self Portrait on Skate Deck

Here's another embarrassing piece from art school. I was obviously still way into the horror thing that comprised most of my early freelance gigs. In art school, students are asked to create self portrait after self portrait. (Hey... worked for Rembrandt!). So as I go through my student work, please excuse the amount of pictures you will be seeing of me. I'm not a narcissist, I swear!

This is acrylic & collage on a very water damaged 1980s Sword & Skull Skateboard Deck by Powell Peralta. Painted in 2002. This piece is now in the private collection of my Mother.

Old Salt - Final Version!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who lent a critical eye to the first two versions of this illustration! I got a lot of great suggestions and you can see some of them employed in this version.

This is going to be my final pass at "Old Salt". I'm much happier with it than the previous versions which can be seen here and here. The water was originally a problem for me. I had to remind myself that the new style I'm working on is in a "Cartoon Modern" style. So, I took a design approach to the water. I think it fits the style I'm going for much better and gives the water much more life than it had previously.

At first I wasn't sold on the idea of putting anything additional into the background, but I thought I'd explore it anyway by putting land and a lighthouse in the distance (per the suggestion of a couple comments). I could always take it out if I didn't like it. As it turns out, this was a great suggestion and I think it really helped the piece come together.

I originally colored this illustration with a monochromatic, almost black & white, color scheme is because I wanted to it to feel older than a current illustration. After I had redone the water and added the background, I was fairly happy with the piece. But... it didn't feel "vintage" enough. So, I added a grungy paper texture to it. That sold this piece for me and now I feel confident calling it done.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out with critiques and suggestions! I totally appreciate it!!!

Sneak Peek: Monkey Mod Comic Panel

If you've been listening to Art & Story, you've no doubt heard Mark Rudolph and I talk about a story for a comic anthology (Tales of Hot Rod Horror Vol.2) that we are working on. The comic we are working on will feature one of Mark's characters and my character Monkey Mod. This is a story we've been kicking around for a little while now and, with this upcoming comic anthology, we've been presented with the opportunity to do it, use our own characters, get paid for it, and retain our rights as creators. Dream come true? You betcha!

Today I thought I'd share a sneak peek of one of the panels from this comic. Its a small sneak peek and doesn't give anything away. But, I wanted to show it to sneak peek the newer, more cartoony look of Monkey Mod. I had been wanting to redesign him for some time now and this anthology story gave me the opportunity to do that now too.

Introducing Artie Slammo!

Ladies and Gentlemen... I'd like to introduce you to Artie Slammo.

Artie Slammo is a pseudonym that I had planned to work under to do pretty girl pin-up illustration. What has happened is that Slammo is starting to take on a life of his own. Slammo is not only an artist, he is an Adventure-Illustrator, bon vivant, and world traveler.

Artie Slammo has his own website and updates will be starting soon. You can follow him through Google Connect, on his site, to see the updates as they happen or follow him on Twitter.

In closing, and in his own words, " I'm putting the needle on the Hi*Fi while laying down sweet inky lines to bring you the most way-out chicks ever committed to paper."

Garbage From Art School: Self Portrait

Today, I found a treasure trove of old work I did in art school on a disc. I'm going to be going through it and posting many of those images for better or worse. It should be interesting to see where I was then as compared to where I am now.

For starters, here is a self portrait I did in a heads & hands class on black paper with a white CarbOthello pencil. I believe this is from 1999.

Check out the robustness of my hair. It wasn't showing signs of falling out yet.

Ah, those were the days...

Old Salt - Revisited

Here is a repost of my illustration titled "Old Salt". I wasn't exactly happy with the way the water came out on the first version, so I decided to go back into it again. I'm hoping to make this piece portfolio worthy and the water seemed like it was holding it back. Constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks!

Marvel's Super Hero Squad

Now that the NDA is over, I thought I'd share a couple pieces I illustrated last year, for a children's card game, for The Marvel Super Hero Squad property. I played the role of the inker and/or colorist on most of the cards I had a hand in completing, but these two are all mine. I particularly had fun working on The Thing.

These images are © and ™ Marvel Entertainment.

Old Salt

Here's another new illustration for my newly styled portfolio. For this one, I wanted to try to do two things I haven't done much of. The first thing was to do a subtle monochromatic color scheme, almost black & white. I'm fairly happy with how that turned out. The second thing I wanted to try was water. I think I did it well enough for the purpose of this illustration, but I probably have a lot more to learn about rendering water.

Big Illustration Party Time in iTunes Top 10!

I'm usually not one to subscribe to popularity contests. However,  I was sent an email today that pointed me to the iTunes list of top design podcasts and Big Illustration Party Time is number 9 in the top 10.

The biggest thing this highlights for me is that BIPT did in fact have awesome listeners and we never should have gone away in the first place. I missed doing the show and I missed interacting with all the listeners. I'm glad to be back!

Thanks everyone!!!

Big Illustration Party Time

I'm stoked to announce that the podcast, Big Illustration Party Time,  I used to co-host, with my friend Joshua Kemble, is coming back! Big Illustration Party Time has a new URL and we are redoing the show notes for past episodes to make them as current as possible. This will take some time to do, but that ain't gonna stop us from doing new episodes! As a matter of fact, we are hoping to have a new episode posted by February 22, 2011.

If you listened to the show in the past or might have just discovered it, you can contact us at www.illustrationparty@gmail.com with your questions or comments. We'll read them on the air, so please include your URL so we can give you proper credit. Heck... if you wanna send us an MP3, that'd be super cool! We'll play those too.

T.V. Party

I'm still plugging away, working on a new style for my portfolio. So, I'm finding ways to create assignments for myself and this illustration came about from playing a bit of word association so to speak.

I ran across a photo of some punks sitting outside on an old couch watching as punks and riot cops were battling in the streets of Hanover, Germany. That image made me think of Black Flag's song T.V. Party since the punks in the photo looked as if they could be watching television.

The photo that inspired this illustration by timphotos24

I liked the idea of the punks watching T.V. outside, but I wanted to put them in a more positive setting than a riot. I'm currently living in the Pacific Northwest, so, a forest seemed like a good place to use as the back drop for this illustration. Plus, I felt that this would add interest to the piece as a forest doesn't seem like a common place to watch television.

Lastly, some of the lyrics from the Black Flag song are, " We've got nothing better to do, than watch T.V. and have a couple of brews..." One of the markets I plan on pursuing with my new portfolio is children's books. Therefore, I shouldn't have these young punks drinking beer... hmmm... ah yes! Juice boxes, healthy delicious juice! So, that was the final element to tie this illustration together.

Recycling - "Buzz and Franky"

The new one.

The old one.

It pays to keep old work around. As I've been working on my new portfolio and following the new direction my illustration has taken, I've been creating assignments for myself. I want my new works to be super fun, so today I thought I'd take the opportunity to simply create in the spirit of play. That's when I came across a quick inked-sketch I did around this time last year. After seeing this sketch again, I thought, "Man, this'll be fun to redo." So, what you see here is the new version of that recycled sketch. For those who may not know, the subject is Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. from one of my favorite 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons called Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles.

Dai Kaiju Rock City

I've been diligently working on a new portfolio to reflect the new direction, influenced by the "cartoon modern" style,  that my illustration has been taking. Here is a piece I just finished that may or may not make it to my portfolio. I'll know better after I've done some more.

Click the image for a larger view.