Zombieow

And to wrap up 2009, here's a little comic I created.

It features zombies and cats.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Or, Happy Mew Year!

GRINDER Poster Printing

Here's a little video I took to document the screen printing of my Grinder poster. It was a lot easier working with a team than doing everything solo! Much thanks to my friends that helped out.

See you all at Grinder! January 9th at Nitetown, downtown.

Heroes & Outlaws

Finishing up the LaLouisiane illustration series (the fourth of four illustrations representing various new and interesting courses at UL Lafayette) is an image representing the class "Heroes & Outlaws," which goes into detail about various notable historic figures. Two characters that fit the bill immediately were Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp, so I thought it'd be fun to put them in the same illustration. And plus, babies are fun!

Please note that Wyatt Earp probably never held a Billy the Baby. So please don't go fact-checking on Wikipedia ( because I surely didn't)! Ignorance is comedic bliss.

El Lunchador

Ladies and gentlemen, our next contender is a formidable figure, especially around noon. I introduce to you "EL LUNCHADOR."

I really don't have much else to contribute to this in the way of descriptive accompaniment. This guy just illustrates how my mind works, and that I'll dedicate hours upon hours of work for a single, glorious pun.

Ah, life!

Dirty Posters

Here's the aftermath of screen printing the Dirty Jokes comedy show poster. Though it was a learning experience (I messed up a few times), I did manage to get a very good number of prints done out of the fifty pages I had on which to print.

Also, RIP undershirt.

So, I think I'll declare this a success. We'll see if people like 'em enough to buy 'em at the show.

:crosses cramped fingers:

The Mighty King Kyrn!

Here's my second entry under my Side Stitch comic series, which explores the fun and adventurous world of design. Every BBR employee has a turn at writing a blog from the office, but I figured it'd be fun to do a comic for mine. Thusly, Side Stitch was born.

This episode displays the dangerous of poor typography. "Kerning" is a typographic term that means "adjusting the space between letters in a word." So, to "kern" something means to correctly space the letters in a word. Once someone points out how a word is SUPPOSED to look, you'll start to notice imperfections in signs and advertisements all around your town. Not EVERYONE cares about typography, believe it or not.

And those people feel the wrath of 7-ton gorilla fists.

The Grinding Process

I thought it'd be a good idea to post the development of this latest Grinder poster, in case anyone was interested.


Here it is actually after the second day of drawing. I didn't think to take pictures of the daily stages until several monkeys were penned. I didn't plan the entire poster out in pencil. Instead, I would just draw each monkey as I came to an open space, matching the available area with whatever random monkey pose that I could imagine.

Hamlet Monkey and Boombox Monkey were early favs.



Third stage. More monkeys! Probably about 6 hours of art right here. Gotta love Gravedigging Monkey and Cowboy Monkey.



Fourth stage. MORE MONKEYS. This is around the 10 hour mark. Disco Monkey, Mad Scientist Monkey, Ninja & Pirate Monkeys! SO MANY MONKEYS.



Fifth stage. 14 hours. Zombie Monkey is my absolute favorite.



Sixth and final stage of inking. I think I logged about 20 hours total on this illustration. Because I love drawing silly things and I love GRINDER. Poor organ grinder man!

The final artwork is very close to what is shown here, except I rotated a monkey slightly and shifted the bottom section about a quarter inch to the left.

Anyway, there you have it. You can almost see my mind working through the poster. The NEXT stage is actual screen printing it. As a matter of fact, I just received the burned screens today. I'll get started on printing this weekend! Expect more pictures.

Historic Costume

Here is the third of four illustrations done for an article in LaLouisiane magazine for interesting new courses at UL Lafayette. This course, Historic Costume, discusses and displays the costumes and period dress over many eras throughout history.

I thought I'd have a little fun and draw a modern girl in a Victorian outfit. I don't think England had cell phones back then, right? Nah. Japan, on the other hand, probably did.

Back to the Grind(er)

The next Lafayette Grinder rockin' kick-butt event is scheduled for January 9th. Yes, this upcoming January 9th. Which is great news, since we've been wanting to put on another Grinder for over a year now.

Live art.
Live music.
Live local artist showing and selling their lively works.

Two drum sets going simultaneously. The local Sketchgroup crew doing live art. It's mad fun.

We're doing several fun promo items/posters/flyers. I illustrated this poster specifically to be a one-color screenprint to be sold at the event. I spent a lot of time on it and I do love how it came out.

Ohhh, it's going to be a fun time. I'll post more info about the event as it becomes concrete.

See you there, hopefully!

I Am Not A Book

Shakespeare in Politics
Though it is tough to imagine ol' Will entangled the mess of modern politics, it definitely isn't impossible. Besides looking rather dapper in a suit and tie, Shakespeare certainly knew how to play the game. Politics are embroiled deep within the plots and subtext of many of his works (I just threw the world "embroiled" in there. Hope it fits.).

Enough, in sooth, to warrant an entire class on the subject. Continuing with the LaLouisiane-commissioned illustration series (first mentioned in the post below this one), here is an image representing the class "Shakespeare in Politics."

Shakespeare looks comfy in the classic Nixon pose, don't you think?

Color of the Blues

I was commissioned by LaLouisiane magazine to do a series of four illustrations. Each illustration would represent a new course being offered by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The magazine selected a few of the new/interesting courses to which students have taken a shine.

The one above is for The Color of the Blues, which covers the influences of Blues music across our culture. I would have loved to have taken that course!

Featured above is Robert Johnson making a little pact with a certain character of ill repute.

Follow Your Appetite!

It's always fun when I get to illustrate things for work. This tasty treat was for BBR's Media & Vendor Breakfast, where we treat business associates to a nice breakfast to thank them for all their hard work. And so I was told to design a self-mailing piece for the occassion, and could do whatever I wanted.

So, naturally, I drew a pied-piper-ish chef leading an assortment of bipedal breakfast items. The bacon flute was a spontaneous, yet deliciously perfect, last-minute addition.

I experimented with a different illustration style to match the concept. I didn't think that contour lines and such would inspire the whimsical fun that the flat color shapes provide. I originally drew everything in black ink, scanned everything, and then colorized the different pieces in Photoshop. It was quite fun. But now I'm hungry.

Dirty Jokes

Last week, my friend Zach asked me if I would like to design a poster/flyer for an upcoming comedy show featuring himself and another one of my friends, Tim. I said yes, of course, and was then elated to hear the name of the show:

"Dirty Jokes with Tim Landry and Zach Broussard"

Within two minutes I had the concept and rough illustration in my head. I'll let you play with the image/wordplay. I decided that I wanted to make this a one-color screenprint, so I went ahead and ordered some screenprinting supplies. Finally taking that plunge.

So what you see above is basically a comp of what the final printed poster will look like. The ink will be black-brown on top of a gray-tan-green paper stock (I'm doing everything possible to give it a "dirty" feel). The posters will be about 10x19 inches. They actually won't have the distressed edges; that's just for the web promotion.

Quite a fun project, wouldn't you say? If you'll be around Lafayette on December 26, come check out the show. They are funny dudes!

Ogre the Top

A couple weeks ago at Sketchgroup I decided that it was high-time to get into the Howloween spirit. (NOTE: "Howloween" is the monster name for our Halloween.) So this illustration leaked out of my pen. Monsters are usually known to feed on unsuspecting humans, but for one night out of the year their tastes turn to the sweet offerings of Halloween candy. Now, if acquiring candy happens to involve consuming a Trick-or-Treater or two, then so be it.

You know, maybe since everyone is in costume, they don't really view it as eating "humans." You know? Kind of like if you go around a forest in hunting season dressed as a deer. You're kind of asking for it. I guess Trick-or-Treaters should wear fluorescent orange vests over their costumes to alert the monsters to their presence.

Anyway, so the demon-spawn ogre here has just procured a plastic jack-o-lantern full off sugary goodness. He squats on a nearby car to enjoy his delectables. Earlier in the night, he happened upon a entire bag of Circus Peanuts, which threw him into a terrible rage. Luckily, one of his monster cohorts plugged an entire caramel apple into his mouth, which soothed his bloodrage. Disaster averted, Howloween continued with surprisingly little ruckus.

I'll let the ogre naming rights go to you. First come, first serve. Be creative!

Scootjitsu

Let me start off by saying that I hate drawing vehicles. I have never, EVER been good at it. My cars always come out looking like they belong in the '70s. Maybe I should try using reference photos sometime.

Surprisingly, I found myself drawing this during Sketchgroup a few weeks ago. Maybe because my friend Matt (who was sitting across from me) has a scooter. Maybe because of the show FLCL. Maybe because I felt like drawing a girl on a rocket-powered scooter. Who knows. I actually like how the scooter came out, though!

The rest (ninjas) just kind of came about just now when I was coloring in Photoshop. I was trying to incorporate some background, and the blob I drew sort of looked like a ninja, so I just went with it.

It has a certain Kill Billian vibe to it, eh? Ah well. An interesting experiment!

Zero-G(olf)

Space, where no man has golfed before.

Or, at least that is what I thought when I started drawing this. And then, as the illustration neared completion, I thought "You know, someone has to have drawn this before."

Which led to a quick Google search. Which led to me discovering that astronaut Alan Shepard had actually played golf on the Moon. Well, crap. Golfstronauts.

You know, I think deep down I had known this. And last week's Illustration Friday theme, "Infinite," triggered this image in my head. And I just didn't connect the two. Unfortunately, this is not an original concept, haha. And also unfortunately, I missed the deadline to submit the illustration!

And yet, fortunately, I have thought of a pun for it:

What's an astronaut's favorite golf club?
A hyper-driver.

Ehhh??? EH??? Yeah, buddy.

Also, check out this new and fun astronaughty comic: Loneliest Astronauts

Birdwatching, Pt. 2

Andrew Bird will be playing this Saturday (October 3) at Tipitina's in New Orleans. I've had my ticket for months. And this drawing has been done for months. Unfortunately, I've just gotten around to finishing it. Though I won't have time to print this out, the least I can do is post it online.

I'll state again that Mr. Bird is my favorite musician and was my inspiration to buy a violin and start learning how to play it. That instrument is quite a noble beast.

If you haven't heard any music by him, I implore you to check some out. His earlier works are very old-school jazzy, while his newer albums have drifted farther from that, into more of his own genre of violin, guitar and quirk rock. I'm not sure "rock" is the term to use. Eh, why not? Listen to Fake Palindromes and tell me it doesn't rock. I dare you.

Lookin' Sharp!

Edward Scissorhands was on TV last weekend and I just happened to catch the ending. I thought "You know, I should eventually do an illustration of ol' Eddie." So when Sketchgroup came around, I finally got around to drawing the character.

I gave him a leather hoodie because he's so emo. I also thought he kind of looks like Ben Linus from LOST. Yeah? Hahaha.

I always loved the parts of the movie where you can see on Eddie's face the love for making art with his hands. Sculpting hedges and trimming hair were acts of beauty for him. If life gives you scissors-for-hands, make lemonade!

Side Stitch - A Design Comedy

Working at BBR Creative means that I get a chance to write a blog once every so often and post it on the blog portion of our site. When initially concepting what I wanted to do for my blog, I figured that I would draw something and then write about it. Just to promote being creative in your free time, as well as at work.

Since I recently drew a silly comic and liked how it turned out, I decided that I'd draw a comic for my blog. Of course, I had to make it relate to my job in some sense. It couldn't just be a comic about cats having a party or something.

And so Side Stitch was born. "Side stitching" being a rather low-cost binding technique where you just put a booklet or group of pages together and staple near an edge to hold it together. It also, of course, is a play on "stitch in your side."

The premier comic features a supervillain holding the world's logos ransom. He imposes his demands upon the League of Extraordinary Advertisers & Desigers (LEAD), who quickly shoot down his dastardly plot.

I'll hopefully be doing a Side Stitch comic each time my turn to blog comes around. Be on the lookout for more!

Click the thumbnail above to open the comic at actual size.

Jarrahnimo!

Sorry, but saying "West Sayidddddddd!" cracks me up. It was one of the LOST catchphrases that I mentioned in the Locke post below.

Anyway, here's "Take no prisoners" Sayid Jarrah. Well, I guess that isn't entirely accurate because he needs to get information out of someone. You can see that he has his handy-dandy toolbox with him. Complete with pliers and whatnot. All the items an "inquisitor" needs.

For those of you who are scratching your heads, Sayid is a character on the TV show LOST. He was a former soldier in Iraq (for the Republic Gaurd) and was made to draw answers out of prisoners by any means necessary. You'd think all of that military training would come in handy on the island, what with all the Hostiles, Others, mercenaries, smoke monsters and whatnot, but it seems like Sayid is always getting caught or bested somehow. Dude can't catch a break. You land on an island and then mysterious people start threatening you? How's that for a warm welcome?

And do you remember when he was all in love with Shannon? THAT was weird!

Locke & Load

I remember, at some point in time around Season 2 of LOST, a group of us were at our usual Wednesday night LOST meet-&-watch, and I suggested that each of the show's characters should have their own catch-phrases. For example, Jack would say something extremely corny like "You just got JACKED UP!" after he'd punch an Other or something. And Locke would say "Locke and load!" before heading off into the wilderness. You know, things of that nature.

Anyway, here's the first in the LOST illustration series: John Locke. I always figured he was superhumanly strong to carry around boars, especially since he isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. Right? Boars MUST weigh a ton.

I've always been a Locke supporter, even when people started to complain about him in Seasons 2 & 3. His character has gone through so much! He's so top-tier! He and Ben are my two favorites; it is perfect that they are so tied together.

Illustrated here is Season One Locke. Complete with dinner!

Speed Typist

This illustration was done over a year ago at one of our Drink & Draw, aka Sketchgroup, sessions. The joke is that the rabbit is a speed typist. You may not be able to read what he's working on, but you can rest assured that it's all bunny jargon. Carrots and lettuce and hopping and such.

I'm working on a few illustrations right now but I'm not really close to posting anything. Since it might be a few days before I have anything new ready, I can post a couple of older illustrations that haven't seen the internet's bright lights yet. Enjoy!

Rhino Noir

I'm sure you want an explanation, right? BRB, I need to heat up some pasta.

OK, well my friend Meg recently went up to Portland for vacation. While there, she went on a wine tour and visited the Portland Zoo. After hearing about these two happenings, I asked if they took place simultaneously. To which she replied "That'd make a great cartoon!" The scene that I thumbnailed of was her stumbling drunkenly into a rhino pen and demanding more wine.

And I haven't drawn a full-page comic since that STAR WARLY one I posted a while back. I actually drew that years ago in college. Probably five or six years ago! So it was time for another. And since this seemed like a good opportunity for puns, I went ahead with it.

So this was the result. Hope you get some laughs out of it. This took like twelve hours to do! (I'm a r00kie @ comic art, still.)

Flatterpus & Vanitee

A few weeks ago at Sketchgroup, Kody came up with this character called Flatterpus, would be ulta-suave and go around complimenting people. "That's a nice blouse."

Last week I had a brainflash when another character popped into my head. Vanitee, the self-absorbed manatee, would be the perfect compliment to the Flatterpus. Other characters would talk to her, and she'd just respond with "AREN'T I LOVELY TODAY?" or something along those lines.

I'm pretty sure I'll eventually get around to making a comic about these two. That'll be something!

Old School Wrap

Here's my latest shirt design. It was originally supposed to be for the last Illustration Friday theme, "Wrapping," but I missed the deadline. It's alright, since I wanted to make it into a sweet shirt anyway.

Meet T-Mummy. He is the oldest-school rapper on record. Though his lyrics are often unintelligible to the living, he was very popular amongst the Undead. There were a few deranged necromancers who were avid supports of his, so you COULD say that he literally had a cult following.

T-Mummy never did a gig without his ceremonial backwards hedjet and golden sundial necklace. And he always flashed the "M" hand gestures. You can guess why.

I'll let everyone know when Threadless puts it up for voting/scoring, in case you want to help support the design.

Thanks! Word to ya mummy.

Illustration Friday - Impatience

James Brown was known by many names. The Godfather of Soul comes to mind as one of them, for sure. And The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz, as well, eh? He did love to dance for his audiences.

You may be asking yourself "Yes he did, but why is he your subject for this week's theme, Impatience?"

Well, if you think about it, Mr. Brown's exclamations were rather insistent. And demanding. And constant.

SAY IT NOW! Get up offa that thing! Follow me! Unhhh! I need it! HELP me! Do it to me! I NEEEED IT! HEY! PLAY IT! Put it where it's at now(???)! HO! Unh! HO! HAH- Watch me now! DO IT WITH THE GOOD FOOT. Come on, get it AH UNH!

Etc.

You get the idea. All these exclamations, so little time for you to execute them before the next musical command hits you. You just can't say no, but sometimes you can't keep up. Sometimes he seems a little impatient with us, doesn't he?

Never thought of it that way, did you? That's why I'm the hardest working man in showburtz!

See, in this illustration, a flashy move caused Mr. Brown to get his tie caught between locked knees, preventing him from continuing to spray the funk all over the crowd. And yet his cries of "HELP ME! UNNHH!" only excited the audience even more. This went on for ten minutes before a band member remedied the situation.

Illustration Friday - Modify

I've gone ahead and taken liberties with cowboy folklore to bring you a modified form of rodeo. Kind of Harry-Potter-meets-Tombstone, don't you think?

This was a quick illo done at our local weekly Drink & Draw Sketchgroup. I was in a magic-mood that night. The illustration of Snape, posted below this entry, was also done that night.

Severe Severus

A little HP never hurt anyone.

Here's my illo of Severus Snape, my favorite HP character.

"Sectumsempra!"

I can't really think of much else to say. I saw relatively little Harry Potter cosplay or displays at the San Diego Comic-Con last week, but I did recently see some sweet artwork that inspired my own round of HP fan-art. I have YET to go see the new movie. Hopefully that will be remedied this weekend, eh?

Bigheads are Better Than None, Con-clusion

Sorry for the absence in posting, guys. I've been away on vaycay! Yes, that's right. I went to the San Diego Comic-Con, 2009. Or, SDCC09, if you are in-the-know and stuff.

But I am back! And I just finished posting all photographs of the craziness on my Facebook page. That was quite a task. The trip itself was the most exhausting "vacation" ever! But well worth it. You don't get to see Spock in person everyday, do you?

Anyway, here's how Bighead turned out:



Quite the spectacle, he is! Since I was in San Diego during the actual costume party that Bighead was built for, I arranged for him to attend in my stead. It was reported that he behaved himself, which is a pleasant surprise!

Those are pipe cleaner "hairs." For the pupils, I actually cut open Googly Eyes and taped the black plastic pupil disks to the eye whites. They are movable, so I can make him look in different directions if I wanted!

Thanks again to Meg for helping bring this cranky cartoon character to fruition!

Bigheads are Better Than None, Pt. 2

Continuing the creation of an animated legend, I bought some spray gesso and went to town on Ed Bighead.

Here's some gesso action for you:



Now, at this point Ed was being extra grumpy, so I made him some spaghetti and meatballs:



You can tell that he wasn't pleased. I had even diced up onions and bellpeppers to put in the meat. With my own special mix of spices. AND sauteed mushrooms!

Well, determined to take Ed's crankiness down a notch, I whipped out some carrot soufflé!



Sheesh! What does it take to appease this guy? Well, I obviously wasn't doing the trick with my cooking, despite my best efforts. Then I realized that he probably just wanted to be painted.

So, I began the painting! Phase 1: Green In The Face



Phase 2: Sinking Ships



At the moment he's drying. But I need to apply the pipe cleaners and purchase some more google-eyes! Updates to come.

Illustration Friday - Hollow

This is why you should be wary upon entering strange hollows that lie between crooked mountains:

Ruff Furstew wasn't your conventional ogre. Nah, he was a bit more special.

You see, when he was a wee 'gre, a swab (that's the term I'll used to describe a group of rabbits) of rabid rabbits swarmed his village. Ruff, situated safely in his high-chair during his daily midnight feeding, was the sole ogre survivor.

From then on (well not exactly at that time, since he was still a baby 'gre), Ruff swore to rid his hollow of any bouncy, fluffy creatures. Tales of Ruff Furstew soon traveled far into lands beyond his own. Apparently those rabbits had earned quite a reputation. Should they crave another encounter, Furstew will be ready.

It's safe to say that Easter never comes to this hallowed hollow.

Gimme a T! (REX!)

Cheera the Cheerasaur
One wouldn't think of dinosaurs as sulky, depressed animals, right? Well, come to find out, a good chunk of the dino population actually lived their lives moping and wallowing around, looking forlorn and sighing a whole lot. Suprising? Well, you would too if you didn't have air conditioning.

One dinosaur, however, took it upon herself to instill cheer into the large hearts of all fellow dinosaurs. She donned a pep-squad uniform and ran about hooting and hollering for cheer's sake. Not satisfied with mere smiles, Cheera the Cheerasaur demanded that the dino-crowd chant along with her:

"We are the dinos,
Chompa-doozy hidy-ho's!
Smile if you saurus,
Wakka-floozy piggy-toes!

When you see us coming 'round:
Don't stomp,
Don't shake,
Don't run us down.
Or we'll stomp-shake-run you out of town!

Make-ya wanna do-uh CHEER!
Skippy flippy happy CHEER!
Slippy slidey never FEAR,
Cheerasaurus ever NEAR!"

The Death of Ivan Ilyichstration

For anyone wondering "Where is Burt's weekly Illustration Friday post?", it is over at my other site, Booksketch.

Which, if you haven't been there yet, is a site where anyone is welcome to post their own illustrations based off of literature they have read. So, if you have a favorite book and picture your favorite character a certain way, you can illustrate and post and write your own thoughts.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Bigheads are Better Than None

I was recently invited to an upcoming themed birthday party. It shall be monumentally epic. I'm told there shall even be "B"-themed snacks!

All attendees have to dress as something that starts with the letter "B."

So, this morning, my friend Meg and I put our normal-sized heads together and brainstormed that I should go as Ed Bighead, a la the amazing old-school Nickelodeon show Rocko's Modern Life.

So I did some very quick fashion/costume design sketches:



The costume will require chicken wire, paper mache, paint and vast amounts of nerdiness. The paper mache head will have sections carved out so that it can rest on my shoulders. This is going to be nuts.

Illustration Friday - Worn

"Home, Feet, Home"

I figured there would be a lot of entries this week that featured shoes and old people. So I figured I'd double-up and combine the too.

Remember the Little Old Lady that lived in a shoe? She had so much debt that she didn't know what to do. And once all of her kids moved out into their own shoes (with their own financial and arch support), our LOL (Little Old Lady) was left pretty much on her own. To tack on some more brutal sadness, her expenses eventually overtook her meager income, which led to the bank foreclosing on her Shoe. Her soul as worn as her sole, she threw up her hands and gave up.

Walking away barefooted, she vowed to start a new chapter in her life. She'd try to put her best foot forward, and to not step in any of life's droppings. She would tread where she wished and wouldn't be heel to anyone.

Possessions packed partially in shoe boxes, and partially in her oversized purse, LOL moved to Kalamazoo and became Mayor.

Burtday 2009

If you aren't familiar with Burtday (June 29) tradition, you should know that every year for my birthday I order a Cookie Cake and incorporate some silly graphic/message on it. One year I did "Happy Birthday, Manuel". Another year I requested "IM N UR BDAY EETING UR CAEKS!" (with picture of cat licking paw). And, of course, "I HAS A BURTDAY," with a Lolrus wearing a Lolhat.

This year I decided to do something different. I had a blank cake (blank except for the border) ordered and requested icing on the side. I then illustrated my own Burtday Cookie Cake. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be; I survived three icing accidents. My rug was not so lucky, however. Damned icing squeeze-tubes!

Anyway, I got a kick out of it. As did my friends who attended my last-minute bowling party:



I actually cranked out this graphic in ten minutes and posted it on Facebook about thirty minutes before the bowling started, hahaha. Thanks to everyone who came out! :D

Oh, and here is the general promo image for my pretend 26-day Burtday Blowout:


Haha, I had a lot of fun designing these super-quick, super-silly graphics!

Spidertot

Spidertot,
Spidertot,
Makes sweet eyes,
Prime-time slot.

Change a diaper,
Any size,
Forget me not-
Attract flies.

Lookout–
Here crawls the Spidertot.

:music:

Is he soft?
Smooth as silk.
Drinking radio-
active milk.

Can he eat
Solid food?
His bib says
"Chomp Chomp Dude."

Hey there-
Waddles the Spidertot!

Illustration Friday - Drifting

Click click.
Type type.
File file.
Driffffft.

Stamp stamp.
Break break.
Sip sip.
Driffffft.

Look look.
Up up.
There there.
Drift.

One theme I keep going back to is that of how oppressive some jobs can be. Working long hours with little creative flow can stifle a person. I'm sure some wish they could stick their heads in the cool, cool clouds.

As a designer/illustrator, I get to create things on a daily basis. Our creative team thrives in those cool, cool, clouds. It's not an escape. It's home!

Illustration Friday - Unfold

Straining his smallish mind and flexing his biggish muscles, Krogar decided he would play his hand, after all.

The card dealer wisely let him unfold, and finished the round with a nervous tic.

"Three-of-a-Kind beats your High Three." said the dealer.

RIP Harold "Palmy" Palmetto
He dealt to the best;
Is now laid to rest.
It was in the cards.

Deep Sea, Deep Space

Here's my latest t-shirt design. It's actually been completed for a while; I just haven't been able to comp it up on a shirt until now.

The shirt concept is a logistical nightmare: having a drive-by high-five between an astronaut and a scuba diver. But once they figured it out, the high-five was totally necessary.

I spec'd it to be glittery gold and silver ink on a black shirt. Black for deep space AND deep sea. Two blacks for the price of one shirt.

Let me know what you think! I'll submit it to Threadless soon and keep everyone posted on when the scoring starts.

Here's a detail shot: