Kit Fox

Kit Fox is a little guy I created for the Kern County Tourism department. Shown are a few images of him doing some adventurous things around the county. I kind of based the look on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. I went with a simple character drawing and backgrounds that looked kind of hand painted.



And here is the wooden seal a little larger…

Visitor’s Guide Cover

Here is the new cover for the 2010 Kern County Visitor’s guide. Hot off the presses.

Wolf Mother

Just finished this piece called Wolf Mother.
Not too much to say about it except I felt like
drawing some wolves, but didn’t want a picture of just
two wolves sitting there, so….

The Carpathian

New poster for the Carpathian, the ship the 19XX calls home. The ship is based on a few real life airships, including the USS Los Angeles, the USS Macon, the Graf Zeppelin, and the Hindenburg. I have incorporated some different elements from each one and added some new ones.

19XX

It’s a 09/09/09, and that means another project. This time it’s big! I’m doing a webcomic called 19XX. Here is a movie poster from the 19XX world, head on over to www.the19XX.com to read the first comic. If I get some regular readers then I will update it regularly, I’m thinking every two weeks would be a good pace for me. What do you think?

Vintage Postcard

The Oildale 100th anniversary, Yee-Ha!
I was very excited to do a historical design for this important occasion, but my excitement was quickly tempered by a stack of rules that was thrust upon me for the things they wanted to show and didn’t show. Then some small legal tension developed between our department and another government organization that was trying to charge us royalties on an old photograph. After a long talk about what things government can copyright and what things they can’t they decided that we didn’t have to pay any royalties at all..
I was very close to dusting off my old media law book, very close.
OK, the Card on top is the first one I did, but the client deemed it too fancy. So the card on the bottom is he one the client approved, far less schmancy, but less rewarding I think. The black border is just the bleed area.

I’m particularly proud of my Indian Head Penny, which bears the year 1909, the year of Oildale’s founding and the last year before the switch to the Lincoln Head Penny. Coincidence? I think not.

Ravenrabbit

I was once again inspired by the book covers by publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who published Jules Verne’s works in the 1800’s. Ever single cover I have seen has been amazing, and filled with detail. I also incorporated some astrological symbols; symbols being another thing I am obsessed with.

The Message

I know I’ve seen tattoos coming alive before, and there’s that Atmosphere song, “the girl with the tattoos on her hands”, but I still had to draw it.  The tattoos were fun to draw, and it didn’t take as long as I thought it would.  I wanted her reaching for something, and I chose a cell phone.  It’s as if someone just sent her a really painful message, and she’s so emotional, angry, or whatever that her tattoos start coming to life, maybe to protect her.  That would be cool.

Drown

In the most recent Illustration magazine there is a great article on Sandy Kossin, a great artist who epitomizes 60’s and 70’s illustration.  I wanted to try to capture not only his color palette but also his brush strokes.  I know it’s not perfect but I really like Kossin’s style and I hope I can better emulate it in future works.  The concept I had in my head for a long time, I just never got around to drawing it.  Some guy is tied to weights, being drowned, but he is close enough to the surface so that it looks like he just might make it.  There are two guys rowing off in a boat, maybe they put him there, or maybe they are just two passing fisherman who would save the drowning man if he would just get to the surface.

Night of the Hunter

Ok I took the name from the awesome 1955 movie with Robert Mitchum.  The picture has nothing really to do with that movie, I just liked the title.  This picture has the hunter spirit descending on suburbia holding his kill in his arms.  The Elk’s head is still alive in death, and his antlers are moving with birds, ribbons and bells, I was picturing the epic forest stag from Princess Mononoke.  Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed, so they tell me.  I liked the idea of magical spiritual nature, meeting the kind of suburbia that you would find in any American state.  The rows of houses start to look like cages, but they are still beautiful.