Happy Holidays!

Last winter was the first year that we made a holiday card for friends and family, so if this year didn't go fast enough... it's already that time again, so here is the holiday card my wife Crystal and I are sending around this year. We hope you all have a great holiday season!

M. Sasek Tirbute Painting

This is a tribute piece I did based on the phenominal artwork of Miroslav Sasek. Sasek is easily one of my favorite artists of all time, and when I was asked to create a piece of artwork inspired by my favorite literary figure for this blog created by Steven Gettis I knew exactly who I would pay tribute to. If you haven't seen Sasek's work ( posted below )




I suggest you check it out. The bulk of his work can be seen in the books he illustrated as he traveled the many cities and regions of the world. The title's are a no brainer "This is San Francisco" for example illustartes his trip and all the people and locations he visited in San Francisco. The paintings are beautiful to say the least. For me his work is the perfect blend of cartoon characature, architechture, ladscape and life drawing.

As for the tibute piece I did, rather than picking a city or a place to illustrate him in, I thought it would be best to put him on top of the world, drawing eveything everywhere.

If you are interested in buying any of Miroslav Sasek's books check them out here

Happy Halloween - Hostile Trolls

Happy Halloween everyone! So this seems to be the perfect combination: halloween and hostile trolls. The character design challange over the past two weeks has been hostile trolls. Given the time of year, it seemed like a perfect oppurtunity to cross some boundries, throw taste out the window, and possibly see how some trolls would interact with some trick out treaters.

Other hostile trolls from my good troll friend:

Austin Madsion

The Ancient Book of Sex and Science

Don Shank
Gouache on Watercolor Paper
7.5" x 15"

Update Time! Don, Scott, Lou and Myself ar busy working away on our latest installment of the Ancient Book Series, "The Ancient Book of Sex and Science." Above is the great cover graphic designed by Don Shank and below is a rough Photoshop mock up of how the new book will look. More details on a release date and Gallery Show / Book Release to come. As for now check out the other guys blogs for a sneak peek at some of the great artwork being done for this book.

Mr. Political

So as we all know, the race for president is really heating up. For me, as much as I love political caricatures and cartoons I've never really inserted any politics into my own art work. However, the more I have become wrapped up in he current election, I began to think it might be fun to play a little with some political cartoons. For me I have always loved the charming characters that Roger Hargreaves created for his Mr. Men and Little Miss Series (as seen below). The thing I love most about his style is he has combined such a simple idea with a simple design, and they just work together perfectly. So I thought it would be fun to take the current people involved in the election and politics and blend them with the style that Hargreaves worked in, to create a little series of my own completely inspired by Hargreaves fantastic characters and people in politics. Anyways, here are the first two in my little series of Mr. and Misses Politics. Above we have Mr. Change and Mr. McSame, based off the two presidential candidates. The style has been a blast to work in, and I'll post more all the way up to the election.



Just above : Roger Hargreaves work

Far Above : My work digital 8" x 10"

Commission Work

So over the past year I have been doing more and more commission work and it's been such a blast. So I thought I would slowly post some of the commission pieces I have done. While most of the pieces I have done aren't Yeti related, I thought I'd post a few here to get started. Below are a couple of pieces I did a while back...


This one ( Above ) takes place deep in the dangerous arctic swamps. In these hostile frigid swamps lives the "Arctic Swamp Clops!" Slow moving, but extremely aggressive and irritable. However he his vulnerable to sharp objects like frozen branches and large ice picks.





This one ( Above ) had a bit of a cute story behind it. There is a little girl in Detroit who goes by the nickname "Yeti" and her younger brothers name is Griffin, so a painting for the family with a little Yeti and her Snow Griffin buddy.

I have a bunch more that I'll continue to post in the future.

Both pieces are acrylic / gouache / collage

!Coming Soon! The BEST day of my life!

In the coming weeks I will be blessed and officially sworn in as the luckiest guy in the universe. I'm going to be getting married to the love of my life, my best friend, and favorite person in the whole world. I hate to gush and brag, but when times like these give you so much joy and happiness, I find it hard to hold back my true feelings. Crystal you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, you are my source of joy, laughter, love and inspiration, and I can't tell you how happy I am to be spending the rest of my life with you. Our day is soon on it's way and I can't hardly wait.

These are some of our engagement pictures taken by our inspiring photographer Jeff Newsom. He's hands down my favorite photographer, his blog will only convince you all even more so.

Yeti Vs. Sas Two Pieces Left

Sorry these paintings have already sold.

There are only two pieces left from the show I recently was involved in down in LA, and they can be your's if you'd like. Each piece is 9 x 13" and is Acrylic and Collage and is framed and ready to hang. Email me or comment with your email if you are interested in either or both of the pieces. These will ship anywhere should you be near or far.

Comic-Con 2008 Print Set

THE ANCIENT BOOK OF SEX AND SCIENCE

At this year's San Diego Comic-Con Scott Morse will be selling an exclusive set of 4 individual prints ( one print by each artist ) all limited to 50 signed and numbered copies in promotion of our next Ancient Book which is on track to debut at next year.

The book will again be by Don Shank, Scott Morse, Lou Romano, and myself. The prints are on high quality fine art paper and will run $50 for all four images together in a set. There are only 50 sets, and while these images won't appear in the book they are exclusive to this print set!

Below is my image in the print set. Just a little space station sneak peek!


Lou's, Don's, and Scott's ( Respectively )


Find Scott's booth (4800) at the Comic-Con here...

My Totoro

Here is my donation into the auction for the Totoro Forest Project. We were asked to illustrate what our very own Totoro would be. For me I grew up in the hot central valley in California, where for those of you familiar with that area in the state, there really aren't any lush thriving forests. So with that being said, my summers were spent climbing old trees and playing in the fields out behind my home on the edge of town. So for me, my Totoro has always been a form of a tree spirit, made up of all leaves, sticks, branches and twigs.

16" x 7"

Acrylic and Collage

LA Art Show this Saturday Night

Yeti's and Sasquatches and remote controlled cyborg Narwhals oh my! This coming Saturday night, the 21st of June, I'll be showing some new pieces of mine at the Art and Mayhem Gallery in Glendale, CA. Also showing new pieces that night will be my good friend Devo and Dave Wasson. So come and check out the show if your in the LA area on Saturday night. Check the flyer below for the address info.

Above is one of the pieces I'll be showing. A top secret Yeti Lair, barried deep in a glacier somewhere in the oceans surrounding Antarctica. A prefect location to test out his lethal new remote controlled blood thirsty cyborg Narwhals, not a good place to find yourself tied up.

9" x 13 1/2"

Acrylic and Paper - Cut Out

Art Show in LA

On June 21st I'll be in an art show at the Art and mayhem art Gallery in Glendale, CA. I'll be showing with a couple of great artists, my good buddy Devo, and Dave Wasson. The show will start at 6:00pm and go for several hours with all artists attending with original artwork for sale, as well as some prints, comics and some puppets. For the address, just check the flyer posted above. As for the pieces I'll be showing, they will be a collection of Dracula ( see painting above ) and some of his buddies "The Mummy", and "The Wolfman" going out on the town (local village) for some drinks and some good times. I will also be showing a few new paintings of some kick ass battles between my favorite sworn enemies Yeti and Sasquatch! So come and check out the show opening if you are in the LA area the night of the 21st.

Painting Above

"Thirsty"

6" x 10" Acrylic and Paper Cut-Out

Waiting for the Bus

The past couple of months have been crazy as I have mentioned in some of my previous posts before. I'm gearing up for an art show in LA this coming June (details coming soon) and I have been doing a bunch of commission work which has been great. Which is what leads me into this post, this is a commission piece that I just finished and had been working on for a while. It's actually the biggest painting I've ever done, it's a whole 4 feet wide by almost 2 feet tall. While this piece was huge, it was a blast to work on. As for the subject matter, the only thing better than drawing monsters and businessmen, is getting to put them in the same painting! Below is the painting (Shrunken down of course) and I also included a close up view of the monster.

48" x 18" Acrylic and Paper Cut-Out

Something from the pile

So I've been doing some digging through some of my old work recently an came across this one I did a while back. I've always loved drawing monsters and the kids they want to eat, and this piece is no exception.

8" x 12" Pen and Ink and Digital

Muir Woods

So this weekend my fiancee thought it would be a good idea if I took a break from drawing and painting 24/7 and spent some time outdoors for a change. So Crystal and I set out to explore Muir Woods. For those of you who don't live around the San Francisco area or haven't heard of Muir Woods, it's a forest / park north of the city near the town of Marin. Anyways, it was awesome to say the least, we had a great time and it was exactly what I needed to get a great break. The funny thing is, is that the bulk of these pictures were taken before we even got to the park, we had to park so far away that as we were walking to the park, we came across a small trail / path off the side of the road and thought we'd have a look. It seemed like the kind of place we'd come across David the Gnome and some Trolls, just a little too nice and fanciful. Anyways, here are some of the pics, just no gnomes. Sorry about that.


Crystal leading me down a lovely Thomas Kinkade-esqe path to certain death


Some nice flowers


Still smiling about leading me into a Thomas Kinkade forest of pain


The best view of me


Probably one of the only pictures taken inside the Muir Woods park


My favorite picture of the day!

Monster Bubble Bath

So this is a commission piece that I did a few weeks back. It was for someone who loves to read, and so when you like to read the only thing better than reading one book, is two, three or four books. Anyways I've been doing lot's of commission work recently and it's been fun so I'll be posting more that I've been doing over the past couple of months.

7" x 12" Acrylic and Paper Cut-Out

Opposites Attract

One of my favorite ideas to play off of when I'm sketching is the concept of extreme opposites. It always gets me laughing and wanting to push the limits as far as I can. This one is pretty tame just playing with the idea of a cute and sexy girl waiting for a bus and a creepy guy who likes looking at cute and sexy girls while waiting for hopefully the same bus. I'm not sure where this guy is, probably bar tending at a bowling alley or hanging around a college campus, but I would love to meet him, as for the girl, I know exactly where she is, which means I should probably apologize to my fiancee Crystal for drawing her into this situation, however it's so much fun, that I'll just have to apologize again because there will definitely be more!

My Little Miss Perfect

One of the best things about having your fiancee as your best friend is when you're at home after work, you always have your favotite person around to hang out with. However, when playing guitar hero with your same favorite, things can get competative. My fiancee Crystal and I are hooked to this plastic guitar shredding game and it's awesome! And since we both too want to be awesome, when it comes to battling, the gloves come off. We both really enjoy the old little Miss and Mr. series ( sorry but I'm terrible with names, and can't remember the guys name who created all these little characters ) anyways, we both love his work and those little characters always remind me of her, so I thought I would make one special for Crystal and all her awesome guitar hero playing skills. I had such a blast making this cute little sour character for her, and everytime I see this drawing it just reminds me of how I love how competitive we get, and how I love how much fun we have playing those little plastic guitars.

Waiting at the Bus Stop

So my apologies for the extreme lack of posts this new year, things have been so busy for me, that all the stuff I've been wanting to show, I've been working on. As I finish stuff, I'll be posting it, so basically the flood gates are about to open. As for the drawings, here are a few rough designs I did for a project I'm currently in the middle of. There is something fun about drawing un-attractive 50's era businessmen. They can be out of shape, hung-over, un-organized and strung out, yet they are still appealing. I feel like I could draw thousands of these guys, and I probably will, so If it's dead beat dads or creepy office co-workers your looking for, I'll supply them here!

Justin Wright

All Photographs taken by Debbie Coleman

This past week has been such a hard week for so many of us. We lost an amazing friend and a wonderful animation talent. I met Justin almost 6 years ago when we were both freshmen at Cal Arts. Before I even knew his name I knew of him as "The Pixar Guy." He had the shirts, the hats, the posters, he had everything. He had been a PA at the studio before he came to school and it seemed like his only goal in life was to return to the studio, only as a story artist not a PA. He had such a vibrant and contagious personality, if you weren't laughing with him about something stupid, you were probably arguing with him over something far more stupid. We went through animation school together, and than after school we both ended up at Pixar working together. When I look back at my time with Justin there are all sorts of memories that stand out.

One in particular was getting to work together on the end credits sequence for Ratatouille. We needed people to animate on the credits, but because animation was so slamed, we couldn't have hardly any help from the animators at the studio who had 2-D expirience with the exception of a few. So Teddy and I had to recruit some other people who we new had animation experience. Since I had a bunch of my friends from Cal Arts who were working at the studio at the time, I had plenty of guys I knew could animate and would have a blast doing so. One of those animators was a story intern at the time, my friend from school Justin Wright. Since we had gone to school together and been in the trenches together during film time at Cal Arts, I knew the guy could animate and he did a great job. It was so fun to share the experience of doing 2-D at Pixar with him. It felt like Cal Arts all over again, crazy deadlines, too much animation to do, only now the stakes were too high to really understand at the time, so we all just enjoyed the hell out of that time. In the credits, Justin animated the Rat doing the cannon ball into the ranch dressing, and all the lovely rats at the food hair saloon. I've included abouve some photos of him working on the credits that were taken by the amazing Debbie Coleman ( the in house amazing photographer here at the studio.)

The other great memory that I have of Justin came about 2 and a half years ago. Everyone who knew him knew that his biggest dream and goal in life was to work at Pixar. And when I left before my last year at school to come up here and work, Justin was one of the first people to call me and congratulate me on getting the dream job. I just thought that said so much about his character, that he could see someone else get what he had always wanted, but that he was such an amazing person, that he could put his dreams aside to put someone else before him. That type of attitude will stay with me forever and I have Justin to thank for teaching me to have that type of positive, caring , and inspirational attitude towards everyone I come across. Even though we know you are close by, we will miss you so much.

Future Project

So I have been working on so many side projects that I haven't had time to put anything up for a while so sorry for that. Anyways here is a rough color study of two characters from an up coming side project I'm working on, I'll post more when I have more.

Cereal Killers

So just before the break I was asked to be in this great book "Cereal Killers". I'm sure many of you are familiar with the great work that's being done for this book, but for those of you who don't here is the scoop. Doktor Viktor Von Kreep is assembling this great book which features a whole assortment of awesome artists illustrating spooky versions of some of their favorite cereal boxes.

For mine I wanted to do a fun sort of homage to the "Frostyo's" cereals from the past. So I came up with "Abominable Frost Bites." I just love the designs of their boxes and thought it would be fun to play with some of the visual ideas and text that they were using. I also tried to play with the balance of flat limited color, with some texture where needed.

The work that people are doing is really fun and inspiring, here is the link to the Blog that Viktor has set up featuring many of these pieces. Cereal Killers