Kylie Koyote at Dr. Sketchy's

What would make an artist brave snow, ice, frigid temperatures, steep hills and almost certain death?! Why Kylie Koyote at Dr. Sketchy's of course!

Apparently others got the word too as it was a packed house, and well worth the effort on everyone's part.  Ms. Koyote had a tough night of work job due to the freezing temperature onstage, but handled it with amazing poise, class and a smile.  Her Cowgirls & Indians theme was a lot of fun, culminating with a spectacular rainbow-colored native ensamble that was just too much fun to draw.

Check out her Facebook fan page for updates on where you can see her perform in the Seattle area and around the world!

Figure Drawing

I try to get to a figure drawing session at least once a week, but I always forget to post my stuff.  So I'm going to play a little catch up by posting some work from the last couple of months.

This model had pile of tendril-like hair which was a lot of fun to draw.

Photo/Copy

Here is another bit of practice to get the hang of painting in Photoshop. Since I have struggled with this in the past I decided to start removing variables to make the process easier to get a handle on.

I started with a blank screen rather than an analog pencil sketch, and chose to do a side-by-side copy from photo reference so I would have fewer variables to worry about.  To simplify further, I also chose a vintage black and white still so color issues would also not be a factor. Reducing choices and variables was a great way to get to know the tool, and make it much less daunting of an experience.

Using this brush set courtesy of Min Hyuk Yum was very helpful.  The first brush in the set worked tremendously well as a pencil, and for the first time I felt comfortable sketching in Photoshop.

All in all I think it was a very positive step in the right direction.

The reference I used was this beautiful photo by Gordon H. Coster from the 1930's.

The Shanghai Pearl

At my monthly sojourn to Dr. Sketchy's Seattle a little while back, I was lucky enough to draw The Shanghai Pearl, one of the top performers in the burlesque scene.  Her costumes and poses were wonderful but my favorite thing was her amazing facial expressions. She always knows how to add fun to a pose.

A fantastic addition to the stage was Seattle rope maker and bondage guru Twisted Monk (possibly NSFW).  He tied Pearl into some great poses and added a lot of personality to the stage as well.

Thanks also to Lydia McLane for making it all happen, and Ernie Von Schmaltz for providing the fun atmosphere and pelvic thrusts. It was certainly one of my favorite sessions in quite some time.

Off-Season Maintenance

Here is a short promo that I created for the Tacoma Rainiers Baseball team.  They came to me with a rough concept and I rewrote the gags, directed the shoot, cut the video, worked the audio and built all the graphics. 

I tried to keep it simple and focus on a single gag or situation in each short. They were a lot of fun to shoot and yes, there will be more, so stay tuned.

HD version is available:  It's just like Avatar ... but with a reindeer and a ladder.

OU1 App Launches

After about six months of keeping this under my hat through development and beta testing, I'm happy to let you all know about a recent project I was lucky enough to be involved with.

The new app OU1 is a simple way to keep track of social currency (drinks, lunch, dinner) between friends and is also a fun way to invite a friend out.  It's now available free in the iTunes App store and was also featured on Lifehacker yesterday.

I created initial concepts and interface designs along with the logo and icons.  Benjamin Borowski and the skilled developers over at Typeoneerror Studios took my designs, polished them up and made them functional in the real world.

The project was brought to me by another group of talented folks known as Big Machine In The Sky. It was nice working with a group of guys who were very open to trying a variety of angles in the concept stage, but dialed in quickly to a clear vision of what the final solution should be.

Below is the final concept design before production followed by some initial concepts. You can see we went some interesting directions with the interface and you can also see some of the initial logo concept in there as well.

If you have an iPhone pick up OU1 now, it's free!

FMC Group Inc. Logo Design

Above is a logo I created for an agriculture and energy firm out of Colorado. The aforementioned items are represented by the corn and the oil derrick, but I also wanted to imply industry as a whole, thus the gear. It helps bring all the elements together and subtly doubles as a sun.

SCREAMIN' SKULL

Having some fun and trying out some new brushes in Photoshop.  Sketching with a tablet is a little strange but it's getting easier.

Gas Station Collector Cards Proposal

This ad was created for a sponsorship proposal for a local chain of service stations. The depicted cards would be broken into a collector card on the left and a small key chain fob on the right.  Each would have a bar code on the reverse for use at the filling stations for discounts.

Promotion concept, design and execution were all carried out by me.

Baseball in Black and Gray

Recently I did a photo shoot with a few of the Tacoma Rainiers players showcasing their tattoos.  I thought it would be a cool side of the guys that the fans don't usually get to see.  I lit and shot the guys myself and did the final layout and design. Included in the shoot were Mike Mangini, Dan Cortes, Chaz Roe and Royce Ring.  They were totally game for everything and lot of fun to shoot.  The article appeared in the Rainiers nightly game program/magazine "The Dirt".

The Circus is in Town

I designed this ad for the circus that will be appearing at our ballpark this week.  I wanted to create something with a classic feel, but didn't really want to glamorize the whole thing.

This morning, when pulling into work, I saw an elephant eating some hay under a canopy next to its trailer.  It was a cool thing to surprise you on a Monday morning.  These are really awesome creatures and so impressive to see in real life. It does make me sad though that I saw it that way and not in the wild.

I based this piece on the vintage poster below. I digitally painted my elephant in Photoshop and the layout was completed in InDesign. 

Wiggy Stardust

 

With work and other projects lately it has been tough to find time to do any life drawing.  Well, the stunning Wiggy Stardust was just the right model to get my brain back in the drawing mood, courtesy of good ol' Dr. Sketchy's.  

I have to give tremendous props to Wiggy for her costume choices and poses.  Her classical Greek ensemble was a very pleasant surprise and was a cool change of pace from the usual burlesque fare.  

If you would like to see Wiggy for yourself (and I highly suggest you do), she and the always stellar Stripped Screw Burlesque crew, will be playing at the Rendezvous in Seattle this weekend. You can find all the details and buy tickets here.

Complete Part 2 - 100th Post!

Above is my very first Cast Drawing for my Classical Art Online course.  It was a major challenge working in charcoal, a completely foreign medium to me, but in the end the skills I learned during the process were worth it.  Thanks as always to my instructor Aaron for pushing me and forcing me not to take the easy road to complete this thing.  It was certainly a tough one, but I am looking forward the next.

On a side note this is my 100th blog post!  Not as many as I might like, but a milestone nonetheless and I think this cast drawing a a nice way to mark it.  A big step forward in my skill level and work process. Here's to a lot more art in the future!

Complete

Above is a Charles Bargue copy I completed in pencil a few months ago as part of my Classical Art Online course. Thanks as always to my instructor Aaron for pushing me to improve every day.

Kat Von D

Sketch, from a photo, of Kat Von D I did last night while watching a movie.  It's nice to get back in that relaxing groove after almost two months of non-stop work. 

Like Bunnies!

After designing this shirt for a mad, Easter weekend pub crawl in Seattle, I received so many positive comments I decided to put it up for sale. Bring a smile to your Sunday school teacher's face with this shirt.  Customize color, cut and shirt quality to make it your very own!


Click Here to get yours!

Dr. Sketchy's For The Win!

 

Sunday I attended a packed session of Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School featuring the amazing Polly Wood as our model for the day.  Polly was lovely and fun and gave us some incredible poses to draw (one almost resulting in her passing out)!

I worked with some compressed charcoal sticks that I am finally getting the hang of, yielding some positive results in the second half of the session.  I was happy that a few sketches were able to capture some of the beauty and energy of our model, and was shocked when one was selected for a prize at the end of the night.  Being picked by Polly and our host Ernie Von Schmaltz (who stated on the mic my drawings were "fucking awesome") was very cool, especially with all the other talent in the room.

Big thanks to Polly Wood, Ernie, the rest of the Seattle Dr. Sketchy's crew and all the inspiring artists for making it such a great evening.  

My Favorite Sketch of the night (15 min)

The big winner! (20 min)

Icons

Recently created a set of icons for the Tacoma Rainiers' new stadium.  I wanted something that felt clean and new but still had a classic a vibe. I was inspired by the classic WPA National Parks posters from the 1930's and by artist and designer Michael Schwab. Each piece was hand sketched, then rendered in Adobe Illustrator.