pencilbomb

Colonel Skull

2012-01-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

Cock

2011-12-29T09:50:00.001-08:00

uglicute painting #2

2011-11-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

ink brush & watercolor on paper.

Cardinal

2011-11-03T06:53:00.001-07:00

Here's another watercolor I did.

vinyl

2011-10-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

painted my basement turntable over the weekend.

this was a bit of an experiment.. I just got some new colors of pigmas and wanted to give em a try. I really like the way the red lines work with the watercolor on the web part of this painting.

Lets go Cardinals!!!!!

2011-10-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Bottlerocket Flyer

2011-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Turned the album artwork I did into a flyer.
Go to this show. It will be fun.

Penny Farthing Badge

2011-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

I did this watercolor painting & turned it into a t-shirt design for the Threadless Atrium x Chrome contest.

here's some process pics that I took while I was painting.

you can vote HERE if you'd like.

Go Cards!

2011-09-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple Cardinals themed projects I created.

I painted a pink flamingo & modeled some clay to make this garden cardinal. don't rip me off please. ha!

This is a tee design that I did a while ago for my friends in The Haddonfields.
Zombie Cardinal!

Eaten Back To Life

2011-09-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Did this album cover for some old dear friends of mine.

Pop Punk about zombies!

woodblock poster

2011-03-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

I finished up the awesome class that I took at Firecracker Press last night. I got my posters all inked & printed up! So happy with how they turned out... Photoshop can't even come close to replicating the actual texture that these guys have. I just love that 'noise'.

Here's a shot of the carved block on the press.

And here's a shot of the first couple of proofs!

Don't miss this show. Its gonna be fun.

Buffalo Plaid

2011-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

vote here.

hand carved

2011-02-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a preview of a hand-carved woodblock plate for a poster that i'm currently working on. This is a project that I'm in the middle of for a printmaking class at Firecracker Press that I'm taking. I get access to all of their vintage printing presses during the class!! So awesome! I'll post more pics as I get it finished up. cheers.

show flyer

2010-10-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

been a while since i've posted anything. my bad. honestly, its probably going to stay this way until the end of the semester or if somehow 5 more hours get added to the day. been busy hanging with family, traveling out of the country, teaching, and making fires in my backyard. priorities, ya know.
here's a little something i did for this stl show coming up. go see these bands.
The Dopamines (OH), Banner Pilot (MN), Humanoids, & The Wifflers

LEATHERFACE!

2010-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

did the flyer art for this show coming up that i'm fuckin' excited about! helped screenprint this beast the other night... look forward to limited signed & numbered prints of this for sale on fancy colored paper in the near future. you all should really head over to NO IDEA! and pick up the new Leatherface & Young Livers. highly recommended. Now, its off to vegas for punk rock bowling for the weekend!!

madballs

2010-04-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

little project for a friend's baseball team. had fun ripping off the Cardinals script lettering on this one.
sketch & vector below.

My students rule!

2010-04-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

below is a collaborative poster that my students completed this semester as part of my 'illustrative lettering' project. each student contributed a letter that they created. the letters were then combined to make the final poster design. the basic concept is that if you only read the RED areas of the design it reads HELP HAITI... and when both colors are read together, you get HELP SAVE HUMANITY.

a hand-pulled screenprinted signed & numbered edition of 50 posters is now for sale at www.thehaitiposterproject.com. (direct link to our poster is HERE) all proceeds from poster sales will be donated to doctors without borders.

click the image below for a larger view. some really fantastic detailing in there. really proud of my students!

Travel, Travel, Travel

2010-03-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

seems like I've been out of town for a month straight!
I was in Vegas for 4 days, back home for 5, and then off to Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Donguan, Shenzhen, Xiamen, & Shanghai.
too little time spent exploring the cities and too much time spent sitting in airports, on planes, trains, subways, buses, taxis, & in cars. good trip, nonetheless.... quite the experience, as always. makes you really appreciate being home though.

think something must have been lost in translation for this 'ass' store.

stencil numbers

2010-02-03T10:01:00.001-08:00

created these vector numbers for a project by manipulating a picture i took of an actual stencil on a canvas military bag from the 1940's.

some Logo work

2010-01-29T14:16:00.001-08:00

very happy with how this came out.
1- my illustrator art. 2- cotton embroidery. 3- metal buckle. 4- felt applique.

BEER!

2010-01-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Batch #1 of my home brew!!! very fun and simple to do. took about 3 weeks to go through the whole fermenting process. my lagers are ready to enjoy. serve chilled.

check out that hand lettering on those labels! works pretty nicely with that futura bold if you ask me.
*and yes, i know that is a bite on some old Carhartt lettering.

next batch, i'm going to try a stout. wish me luck!

vintage varsity lettering

2010-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

sketch. 2nd sketch. vector clean up. final. cheers.

cool stuff

2010-01-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

if you feel bad for missing my birthday last weekend, you can buy me pretty much anything from the three potato four shop to make up for it. wow... so much goodness in there.

ornate

2010-01-08T11:36:00.001-08:00

some adobe illustrator work. clickin' that mouse.

Penny Farthing

2009-10-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

victorian girl. victorian pattern. victorian bike. click for a close up.

another one

2009-10-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

this blog is getting heavy in the lettering dept. i'm cool with that, but i'll try to get some design & illustration stuff up here next.

quality outfitters

2009-10-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

some lettering that was not used.

tickets still available

2009-09-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

pick up your copy or four at IHATEPUNKROCK. had fun drawing this one. printed versions turned out nicely too!

stupid

2009-09-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

some stuff

2009-08-14T12:11:00.001-07:00

so, this blog has been super slow lately...
i have really cut down on the freelance work that i was doing... plus, i have been mostly focusing on designing accessories (hats, bags, belts) at the full time instead of graphics for tees... which is equally fun to work on, but, i feel quite boring to post on here. most likely this lack of posting will only get worse as the illustration class that i am teaching in the evenings starts in a week and a half. gonna be weird being on the other side of things.... don't feel like its been that long since i was in college myself. wonder if i'll have any "students" older than me?

above a two i did recently. really into simple gritty type lately.

biten

2009-07-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

here's an old one.

REPRINT

2009-07-08T05:41:00.001-07:00

my out of stock tee design was just reprinted over at DBH. go pick one up if you'd like.

Asia 2009

2009-05-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

been slacking on posting these pics. it was an amazing trip! Super, Super busy... but amazing. Tokyo was so cool. Hong Kong was great but time was short and time was even shorter in Shanghai. It was a 2 week trip and meetings packed into a week. WAY too much time on a plane and in airports, taxis, and on mass transits instead of out experiencing. still, QUITE THE EXPERIENCE!

brain damage

2009-04-25T13:23:00.001-07:00

been kinda crazy around here. sorry for the lack of posts this month. lots of exciting things on the horizon that i will post about in the near future. excited about a bunch of stuff going on right now. the first of which happens this thursday. i'm heading out on what i'm calling "the great asia trip of oh-nine". flying out to Tokyo for a couple of days. SERIOUSLY! how did i get so lucky?! then off to Hong Kong for a couple days of meetings. then up to Shanghai for more meetings. then back to the good ole u.s. of a. i feel extremely fortunate for this opportunity. pics and stories of the trip will be posted soon.

did this design a while back. kind of feels fitting to post right now. cheers!
photoshop sketch-

brush pen lines and photoshop color-

vintage sport lettering

2009-04-23T08:19:00.001-07:00

1. sketch. 2. vector over template. 3. finished. click for close up.

Drooler

2009-03-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

for pacsun. inspired by this pic i took of my brother.

Kings of Leon competition

2009-03-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

entered this design in a t-shirt competition over at Design By Humans. votes and comments appreciated.

a bicycle rant

2009-03-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

so... the weekend in st. louis was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! which meant i spent as much time as possible outside enjoying it. i went on 4 bike rides this weekend... and got yelled at by douchebags in passing cars on 3 of those rides. 3 out of 4 rides. and today i got icecream or something along those lines thrown at me. i don't get it. why do some people in cars feel obligated to do this? are they protecting "their" road? share the fucking road, assholes. seriously.

Fallen Phoenix

2009-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

design for Pac Sun. this was printed on the back of a shirt with a supporting graphic on the front.
1. Pencil & Digital rough sketch.

2. Inked Lines.

3. Final w/ photoshop color.

converse stencil

2009-02-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

spray paint on paper and photoshop finish.

back from sin city. had a great time!... but its good to be away from the lights and back to living slow at home.

more redneck fishing

2009-02-17T06:37:00.001-08:00

here's a couple more fishing humor t-shirt designs that i recently finished up. not sure when all of these will be hitting the shelves (or if they will be). these are fun to do every once in a while. not really my cup of tea... but i still enjoy the process of creating them nonetheless.
i'm off to Vegas tomorrow for work. i see its going to get down in the 20's again in st. louis, looks like i'll be getting to the desert sun (and sin) just in time!

chuck

2009-02-14T17:57:00.000-08:00

chuck you. everybody and their mother have made parodies of shepard fairey's obama poster.

fired up

2009-02-13T07:18:00.001-08:00

new youth tee design. had fun drawing the flames.

pop art chucks

2009-02-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

tee design for converse. was trying to get some color into the men's line instead of the one-color stuff that i usually do for them. printed big full front.

Addicted to Fishing

2009-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

worked on something a little different here for this post.

1. pencil sketch: ... with a little rough photoshopping. just trying to get the idea where i want it.

2. pencil rough: scanned in to work off of in photoshop for the final.

3. scales: scale pattern created and distorted in illustrator over a placed jpg of the above rough. will be used and further modified in photoshop in the next step.

4. photoshop black & white: just some photoshop work here with a wacom tablet.

5. photoshop color: coloring over the black & white. keeping everything in layers to make production separations easier

6. final design: added some top high lights, shadows, color tweaks, and "fishing lines" to fish and added some type.

this should be popping up in a store this spring... maybe.

my basement just got a whole lot cooler

2009-01-31T13:13:00.000-08:00

broken skateboards ceiling treatment and a ping pong table.
if anyone has any skateboards that they would like to donate to the cause of filling the entire ceiling or if anyone thinks that they can take me on in ping pong, get ahold of me.

9 Bullets

2009-01-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

My new favorite website. Discovering new music rules! I've been going out and buying just about everything that gets the "Essential Listening" review. Thanks for the empty pockets... and full ipod, NineBullets.net.

double vision

2009-01-14T02:57:00.000-08:00

a little different approach to this one. went straight from pencils to photoshop instead of inking it first.

atom brain

2009-01-07T16:51:00.001-08:00

i was listening to a lot of Roky Erickson (solo stuff mainly, but also the 13th Floor Elevators) around the time i made this. so good.
1. actually did just a digital sketch for this in photoshop (over top of a pic i took of myself making a stupid face) 2. inked lines (have i mentioned how much i love pigma brush pens) 3. final colored piece.

heartbreaker

2009-01-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

finished design. inked lines. sketch.

headcase

2009-01-02T08:17:00.001-08:00

happy 2009! 08 has been quite a year! ready to get this new one up and running!

sometimes when designing i have to do funny stuff... like dressing up in a suit in my basement all alone and taking pictures. my neighbors must think i'm a weirdo.

All American Rejects

2008-12-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

I got an email out of the blue a while back to do some designs for The All American Rejects merch to sell in support of their new album. I don't really listen to them but was stoked nontheless at the opportunity. Here is the design that I did for them.
This ended up being printed on a black hoody. if you see this, you should buy it and send me a pic of you wearing it. I'll put together something nice for you.

Here are some alternate designs that they ended up not going with:

this one below is my personal favorite. Too bad it wasn't picked up.

some type

2008-12-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

some hand drawn, some modified from fonts, some good, some not so much. none used.

budweiser brown crest

2008-11-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

did this art a long time back (actually, in november of 2006) and just now saw it on the budshop website for sale. forgot about doing it until i was browsing and happened to notice it.

this was one of the first crest/heraldry/vine-y/whatever designs that i did. can tell now looking back on this one that i was still trying to figure it out and experiment. drawing that stuff was so time consuming. glad to see that trend isn't as big as it once was.

fest 7

2008-11-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

my favorite holiday. guys extended weekend roadtrip to g-ville.

highlights:
-jack daniels distillery has a bear problem.
-atlanta, night #1. special thanks to jeremy & tamara for showing us a good time and giving us a place to crash!
-1982 prefest show... young livers. wow. so good.
-cold 5 star and yuengling for breakfast.
-nothington. best of fest.
-all my new english friends
-pissing next to a guy wearing tights (happy halloween)
-sparks
-moss trees
-atlanta night #2. leatherface & tiltwheel at the drunken unicorn.
-getting home in time to vote. election night felt magical. so proud to be american.

ART SHOW!

2008-11-10T16:12:00.001-08:00

so, i have this piece in a group gallery opening on november 22nd in st. petersburg, florida. i'm pretty fucking excited about it. the list of artists involved is STACKED and i feel honored (and a little out of place) to be included. the show it pretty unique in how its set up... you can check out more info about it HERE. you can also buy/pre order my art screened on a tee for 18 bones at THIS LINK.

here's some process shots of my art-
1. pencil sketch

2. brush pen line work. did something different with this design... inked it on good paper- not just taped-together ripped, folded cheap copy paper like usual. i am going to put some watercolor swashes on it and actually make something finished outside of the computer. i'll post the finished painting/drawing/inking/whatever as soon as i get it together.

3. finished art. ready to be screenprinted for you. wink, wink.

i just want to say that I LOVE THIS CONCEPT for a gallery. screw art-elitist. screw expensive shit that hangs on walls (i mean, if you can work that hustle as an "artist", good for you) i just think its time to make art fun again. and affordable. this is going to be a party.

Shady Hoody

2008-10-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

a fun project. available at pacsun. this hoody is crazy. i just drew the graphics (i did not design the cut-n-sew of the piece) but the garment has a face mask and cap visor built into it. crazy kids.

click pics for larger views.

revival tour

2008-10-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

revival tour road trip to louisville.
austin lucas + tim barry + ben nichols + chuck ragan

amazing. if this tour comes anywhere near you- go to it.

taped

2008-10-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

this one was printed w/ some high density inks and looks like it could actually be peeled off of the tee. great job was done on the production side.

rip

2008-08-22T13:54:00.001-07:00

i'm off to vegas on monday... tradeshow season.

hula

2008-08-01T05:59:00.001-07:00

sometimes i think that i just make designs as an excuse to hand draw lettering.

got chucks

2008-07-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

China!

2008-07-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

some pics from the trip.

what an amazing experience!!!!!

totalled pole

2008-07-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

i'm back from china. pictures of the trip soon to come... but first this..... which should be popping up on a shirt at PacSun soon.
sketch. inked scan. final photoshop color.

proud of this one.

boston last week...

2008-06-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

...then off to China for the rest of June.

GRILLZ

2008-06-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

just finished up some freelance and got motivated with the little extra free time i had to submit this design in the contest over at design by humans. vote if ya like HERE.

couple of my shirts

2008-06-06T05:22:00.000-07:00

some older stuff that just now popped up on www.pacsun.com. i'm assuming these are on the shelves at some stores as well.

more to come.

busy, busy, busy

2008-05-31T13:03:00.001-07:00

i just wanted to profess my love for Pigma Brush Pens. they make it easy to get the best line quality. the only downfall is that the tips are pretty delicate and I tend to draw heavy-handed, so i ruin a bunch when i'm busy. i now buy them in bulk at www.misterart.com so its a little easier to toss them when i tear one up.

the actual art that these created will be posted as soon as the product hits the shelves. i'm super excited about it!

the revision game

2008-05-21T06:34:00.001-07:00

not as fun as it sounds.

as much as i was frustrated by the process... i'm equally happy with the final outcome.

a tip for illustrators and designers just starting out:
KEEP YOUR FILES IN AS MANY LAYERS AS YOU CAN.

viva las vegas

2008-05-19T09:57:00.001-07:00

highlights:
random high fives/jello shots at the mgm pool
kicking ass at a new york new york blackjack table
cab driver quote "fuck you, cockhead"
the double down
nun-chuck microphones
bacon martini
adam, "are you having the salmon or the fish?"
adam + red wine = awesomeness
long cab lines + old guy making fun of adam = "dude, your wife is hot"
i don't know how some one can sleep like that
CONGRATS RON & ANGIE!!!! thanks for giving us all a reason to party!!

pacsun graffiti cap

2008-05-14T05:29:00.000-07:00

did this pattern and design some time ago. should be in a pacsun store at a mall near you or at their online shop. here's my mock up art and pics of the product.

guitar crest

2008-04-30T14:11:00.001-07:00

busy, busy, busy with lots of art. i've been traveling like a mad man as well- seems like i was out of town every week in april.

this is a new one for budweiser. should be available on a tee sometime soon.

here's the photoshop/planning sketch

sharpie drawing + photoshop coloring = the final graphic

at a Wal-Mart near you

2008-04-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

these 4 tee designs/illustrations of mine recently hit the shelves in the fishing section at wal-mart stores. just my contribution to their spring line. its kind of overwhelming the shear number of shirts that wal-mart can buy on a single design. be on the look-out for my hunting humor designs in the fall.

old soles for sale

2008-04-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

posted the art for this sometime ago but its now available at converse.com. here's the link if you're interested.

coastal edge

2008-03-17T17:55:00.001-07:00

here's a design with some hand drawn type and simple palm trees i did for bud light... and the printed shirt on the cover of their spring catalog.

bood lust

2008-03-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

some progress pics and the final design. this should be available printed on a tee from UNIQUE INK in the near future.

damn, i should be a hand model.

contest winner

2008-03-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

DesignByHumans just printed a design that i submitted to their contest. pretty damn excited about it! you can check out the design (or buy one, *wink, *wink) at the link HERE.

1980's inspired graphics

2008-03-03T18:16:00.001-08:00

some designs/illustrations i did for PacSun's private label. i had so much fun working on these. more designs to come soon that are along the same lines as these.

infamous cap

2008-02-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

its tough to post the caps that i do the art for on here since it takes so long for sampling and production (for example, i did the below art back in July)... but every once in a while i'll run across one online that i did and decide to throw it up on this blog. this one was done for tilly's. always a pleasure to work with them.
below are some screenshots of my illustrator art and pics of the production cap from their website.

converse is rock-and-roll

2008-02-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

another one of mine available at converse.com

Converse Splatter

2008-01-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

here's a new design i did for ladies available at CONVERSE.COM

plaid trucker cap

2008-01-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

pics from my initial art to pics of the final production cap. this should be on the shelves at a Pac Sun store near you... or at pacsun.com.

sketchy redneck character

2008-01-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

1. pencil idea sketch. 2. digital sketch. 3. ink. 4. digital color.

buckwild

2007-12-19T12:28:00.001-08:00

here's some progress screenshots. don't really get to draw a lot of this detailed full color shit (or work with the customers that want it) too much anymore... as tedious as it is to create, it was a nice change of pace.

texas justice

2007-12-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

been super busy (as usual, it seems). just finished up A SHITLOAD of work. can't post just yet, but i can tell you that it is totally radical and was a blast to work on. waiting on checks to come in the mail sucks... especially when i want to buy my family and friends sweet christmas gifts. also, me and my dad have started work on finishing off part of my basement. i will have a pretty damn nice design/illustration studio when its all said and done. lots of work between now and then though. look for progress pics soon. i finished this design up recently. i want to do more stuff for bands that rock. these guys rock, check em out.

guitar skull

2007-11-02T07:47:00.001-07:00

got this request after some one saw my converse chucks skull.

redneck character dump

2007-10-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

here's some old characters that i drew up some time ago... probably 2 or 3 years ago. one of these just recently resurfaced in a t-shirt design for wal-mart.

rock-n-roll

2007-10-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

stencil looks

2007-10-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

stencil work process

2007-10-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

i'll be posting more from this series of graphics in the near future... but first here's the process.

1. initial sketch- pencil on paper.

2. inking- scanned sketch as grayscale. changed to blue in photoshop and printed out. inked directly on top of the printout and rescanned as rgb.

3. dropped blue channel & adjusted contrast using curves leaving only my cleaned up ink lines. manipulated lines to look like spraypaint- involving dissolve layers, smudge tool, filters- including spatter, gaussian blur, unsharp mask, clouds, ect., quick masks, brush tool... pretty normal photoshop tricks.

4. the inevitable revise. repositioned and resized the halo (and the branding... which i've removed for this post-- but i gotta give another shout out to house industries for their flyer fonts collection)

this was my welcome-back-to-the-midwest project

2007-09-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

i don't think this design could get any brighter or bigger. -- just what the customer wanted.

front:

back:

ps. that's also some hand-drawn script... not a font. on a redneck-pleasing level, i'm pretty proud of the way it turned out.

long time. no post

2007-08-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

... been busy/crazy with work, going to weddings, & moving from california to st. louis. its good to be back. feels like home again. i'll try to post more regularly. below is yet another skull for ya.

i love doing art for converse.

skull bandana cap

2007-06-28T08:14:00.001-07:00

more work with patterns.

so...

2007-06-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

i had this meeting today for a pretty substantial future project. walk in and say hello to everyone and one of the guys i'm meeting with is wearing a shirt that i did the art for some time back for an unrelated project. i'm not sure, but i have a feeling this new project might go pretty well.

the tattoo still trumps everything, but that was still pretty cool.

bling, blang

2007-06-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

the 1980's called. they want their colors back.

i post TOO many skulls

2007-05-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

scroll through previous entries to see the original version of the below.

this is revision #1.... "can you make the skull look happy?.... and the colors duller?"

this is revision #2...."it needs to be a little more happier... and maybe not so pronounced...."

... final outcome: design dropped. sometimes dealing with brands is frustrating... but the successes seem to make up for the failures.

been busy traveling again. i'll try and post pics of the adventure sometime soon.

spotted

2007-05-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

some tee graphics that i did a while back have resurfaced on the cover of a summer catalog and on the bicep of some guy. its always a good feeling to know that some one liked your art enough to use it for additional purposes.

boston

2007-05-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

... what a cool city.

splattered

2007-04-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

i did this some time back... but i think its finally ok to post it now. just another take on an image of a skull.

KKJ

2007-04-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

this is a project that I did for friends of mine that are about to get married.... their wedding monogram. Sometimes it take a lot of scribbling to come up with something that I am satisfied with. K-K-J are some hard letters to work with in that order! and the fact that i didn't really know what a wedding monogram was supposed to be before i started didn't really help the process flow too quickly either.

Can't wait to see everyone in May! Congrats Jeff and Katelyn!!!