Come Home Soon

Here is another commission painting I recently finished. This is a concept that's been kicking around in my head for some time now, in fact, I had originally intended to include this idea in the Ancient Book of Sex and Science, but thought the horizontal format wouldn't work to well with the book format we used. Anyways, since we'll all be living and working in space sometime in the next few years, I thought I'd explore the concept of how in the future, one might try to distract their lover into coming home early from work.

Come Home Soon
19" x 15"
Acrylic & Paper Collage
2010

Intergalactic Dance Party

Here is another commissioned painting I finished a little while back. The theme for this piece was to showcase the retro dance moves known as the "Batusi" in a painting in what ever way I wanted to. So, seeing as how the "Batusi" was popular back in the 60's, I thought I'd explore a Sci-Fi / GoGo Dancer concept for this piece. Ultimately I ended up with one sweet intergalactic Batusi dance party. My guess is these Astronaut GoGo Dancers were looking for a nice planet or asteroid to practice their space dance moves on, and while doing so, they encountered some aliens looking to bust-a-move too.


Just above is a small comp I did to help plan the colors and textures for the piece. The Aliens suits are made with Aluminum Foil collage while and the GoGo Dancers space dresses are collaged from Glitter Ribbon. To mix those two elements, with other paper collage elements and acrylic paint was a fun challenge, and in the end, really added some fun texture and depth to the original piece.

Intergalactic Dance Party
11" x 17"
Acrylic / Paper Collage / Aluminum Foil / Glitter Ribbon
2010

Mini Comp Painting
4" x 4"
Acrylic / Paper Collage / Aluminum Foil / Glitter Ribbon
2010

Process : Dinosaur Train

Started the piece out with this little thumbnail sketch. At this stage I'm mostly thinking of shape, concept and composition, so I keep things really rough to maintain a simple, easy read.



Next I cut the illustration board to size, tape off the edges, and lay down the base color for the background.



Next I painted the base color for the main ground. If I can't find the exact color I'm looking for in paper collage, I'll paint the color I need on water color paper, then cut it to fit the BG. That's what I did in this case to make the hill.



Next, before I cut out and glued the train tracks to the base hill, I painted the rocks in that are usually below train tracks. Then I glued on the paper collage train tracks and added two more levels of hills with more acrylic paint on watercolor paper.



Next, it was time to begin laying in the different levels of flowers and plants. I cut these out of Acrylic on water color paper and magazine pages. I then did a light color wash over the hills to darken them a bit, and to add a little more blue to them. Plus I painted in the small flowers covering the hill the train will be on.



This is just a photo I took of the collection of paper scraps I gathered to begin to construct the train and the dinosaurs ridding in the train.



beginning to glue and lay out the shapes for the train.



Next, adding more detail to the train, adding in the sun, and a little hobo snake friend cruising through the grass, maybe looking to hitch a ride.



Next, a combination of painting in the various Dinosaurs on the BG with Acrylic paint and some paper collage elements, while adding more bits and pieces of detail to the train.



Almost done, adding on the eyes and various detail to each of the dinosaurs like hankerchiefs, conductor hats, and smiles.

Lastly, the finished piece. I added the little boy last. He was also a combo of Acrylic paint on the Background and paper collage elements. Added in the birds, the train bell, and smoke coming from the trains engine.



The piece above was done as a commission a little while back for a little kids room. The little guy loves Dinosaurs and Trains (who could have guessed right?)

When I was growing up, I LOVED Dinosaurs, so getting the chance to paint some Dino art for a new fan of Dinosaurs was really fun for me, I had a blast with this painting. I also documented a bit of my process on this one, below are a few scans and photos I took in various stages of completing the piece.

Dinosaur Train
8" x 12"
Acrylic & Paper Collage
2010

Space Swingers - Commission Piece

A few months ago I was asked if I could create a piece much like a previous painting I had done before, it's not something I usually do, but it's always fun to riff on something you may have already done, just to see what you can do to build of a pre-existing concept. So I revisited a piece I did for the "Ancient Book of Sex and Science", the piece was titled "Space Quickie" you can see it HERE on my blog. Basically I ended up just trying to build off of the concept of some people enjoying some sexy time in Space. So above you can see the finished painting, it's a space ship full of astronaut swingers celebrating the discovery of a new alien planet, unfortunately, the alien that they landed their rocket ship on was not invited to the celebration. And he doesn't seem to be too pleased about it!

Space Swingers
10" x 20"
Acrylic and Paper Collage
2010

Two Paths - Commission Piece

Well, I'm swamped with all types of work right now, so I thougth I'd take a quick moment to post one of the more recent commission pieces I've finished. This particular piece was inspired by a poem. The poem describes the choices we all have in life, and in many ways, how some of our desicions can be simplified down into the option of choosing between two different paths to follow.

Two Paths
9" x 15"
Acrylic 7 Paper Collage
2010

Adventures in Autumn - Commision Painting

Here is a painting I did a little while back as a commissioned piece for a little boy's room. I believe it was a present for the little guys 1st birthday, and all I can say is this has to be the first painting I've ever done for anyones first birthday, really cool. When he learns to talk I'll have to ask him what he thinks, and even then, there is a pretty good chance he may just giggle, burp, or drool, which I'll gladly take any of those as a compliment.

Adventures in Autumn
Acrylic and Collage
10" x 17"
2009

Commission Painting

Here is another commission painting I recently finished. The concept was of course a Yeti bar, but one thing I thought would be fun with this piece was if all the patrons at the bar were either Yeti's or frozen climbers/campers that had been found in the snow. In the piece there is obviously a shortage of frozen co-eds in and around the mountains, so one of the Yeti's was stuck having a drink with a frozen dude. Really fun piece to work on, and one of the bigger ones I've painted in a while.

I'm always taking new requests, just email me if you are interested.

"Having a Couple of Cold Ones"
Acrylic and Collage
26" x 8"

The Convict & The Violin

So I'm currently swamped in a ton of projects both big and small, so I thought I'd post something from a little while back. Last year I did this painting as a commission for someone who wanted me to create a piece inspired from a poem they loved. The poem was centered around the meeting of a convict and a young violinist in a train station who both share a common love for music.

10" x 20"
Acrylic / Gouache / Collage

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

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

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!

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!

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.

Yeti Vs. Sasquatch

I did this Yeti vs. Sasquatch painting a few months back as a commissioned piece. It was fun to simplify and stylize the idea of these two characters and their two different worlds getting ready to go head to head. The battle hasn't happend yet so I can't say who wins, although I was told a long time ago to never bet against a Yeti.

13" x 20" Acrylic / Gouache / Paper-Cut Out

King Sized Development Art

So About a year ago my friend from Cal Arts Devin Roth was developing a show idea for TV and he asked me to do a piece to help sell the style of the show. Anyways, unfortunately the show wasn't picked up but I had a blast doing some bits of design work here and there for Devin. Here's the main character, stopping to check out this vista with a castle off in the distance.