Death Startled

It's always fun to draw things from the Star Wars universe. Always.

My mom recently commissioned me to do a drawing for one of her friends' kids. She said that "He almost likes Star Wars as much as you do!" Which is not plausible, I assure you. I mean, did HE draw a Star Wars comic with an ORLY owl cameo? DID HE? No, he most certainly did not.

But anyway, since he listed Vader as his favorite character, I drew him (which I'll post soon). As an added bonus, I thought I'd throw in the Death Star in the back ground. So I did that, too. But I also wanted to add a little humor to the drawings, so I modified them for my own purposes (mwuhahaha).

I'd like to think of the second Death Star in this way: It was a huge prank that the Rebels weren't patient enough to let be sprung. I mean, surely the Rebels were expecting another world-destroying ray, right? Imagine the LOOK on their faces when the giant "BANG" sign would have popped out! A literally huge prank, stretching a thousand or so miles. But nooooo, they had to cut it short.

Oh, man! Admiral Ackbar could have shouted "IT'S A PRANK!" That would have been great.

The Creole Trinity

With all the excitement of getting one of my shirt designs printed, I forgot to upload the art to my blog! So here it is, my first shirt printed with Dirty Coast, a t-shirt & poster printing shop in New Orleans, La.

If you aren't familiar with the cooking practices of Southern Louisiana, know that we love our cooking "trinity," which consists of onion, bell pepper and celery. They go into many a cajun/creole dish. Garlic is definitely a close runner up. I personally use garlic more than celery, haha.

Anyway, Dirty Coast asked if I'd like to do a shirt design based on "We Believe in the Trinity," and feature the onion, bell pepper and celery. So this is what I came up with. Cooking IS religious to many down here, you know.

Here's a link to the shirt on the Dirty Coast shop page: Believe in the Trinity

Bon appétit!

GROSSery Shopping

The theme for this week's Sketchgroup was "Snooty Zombies," as put forth by yours truly. I was already drawing the snooty zombie when someone asked what the theme would be. That's usually how it happens, hahaha.

If you don't have one where you live, there's a fancy-pants grocery store called The Fresh Market, where the shoppers are gently caressed by classical music as they wander the aisles in a trance. The trance is mostly caused by sticker shock. Those quality ingredients are ASPENSIVE!

Don't get me wrong, I love the place. They have some AWESOME gourmet hummus. And cakes! And fresh everything, as their name displays. So I figure if there was an undead grocery industry out there, this place would attract the mid-to-upper class zombies. Right?

It would also attract packs of wild, masterless dogs.

GeronimYO-HOOOOOO!

Another random creation from our Drink & Draw Sketchgroup. The theme last Wednesday was "sky." The theme two nights ago was "snooty zombies," which I proposed. I just scanned that drawing, so you should be seeing it up here soon!

Also, I bet this pirate won't be putting his bootypack so close to his parachutes next time. IF THERE IS A NEXT TIME! I mean, he may land on a haystack, a fun-jump or a kraken, for all we know.

Save the Gulf Walrus

This is the second shirt design I've done for Dirty Coast, out of New Orleans. The creative director, Blake, contacted me with the idea "Save the Gulf Walrus," and this is what I popped out of my head. Quite a fun piece to illustrate!

If you aren't familiar with the story, apparently some oil companies released a report right after the Gulf oil leak that stated that the walrus was among the species in danger from the disaster. Well, since there aren't any walruses (walri?) in the Gulf, I guess those companies have some oily egg on their collective face.

Isn't that chubby gryphon adorable? I think he's part weenie dog. Yay, Weenie Gryphon!

The initial response was that they really liked how the art looks. I'll keep you guys posted as to if/when it gets printed.

I have a few more illustrations that I'll be posting soon! :D

The Construction Porker

Aka, Sunny, With a Chance of MeatClouds.

This illustration was a product of the Lafayette Drink & Draw (Sketchgroup) random creation process. There wasn't a theme, so I just let my mind wander. I guess I was kind of hungry? Hungry for what, I have no idea.

:cue Ren & Stimpy's lummox, screaming "MEATTTT!":

Anyway, I had drawn the construction worker (and his meal) by the end of the night. After I scanned and colored it, I felt that something was missing. I had him sitting in that vertical format, just being all hungry, with the vast expanse of sky above his hard hat. Then it hit me, as if I were slapped by a porkchop. MeatClouds.

There are surprisingly few MeatClouds. You may say "Where's the meatballs?" But meatballs just like a cloud puff. And all steaks pretty much look the same. A meaty slice of pizza would just look like a triangle. Boudin looks like sausage. Meat pies just look like normal pies. Chicken nuggets look like meatballs, which look like ordinary cloud puffs. Boring ol' non-meaty cloud puffs.

So what you have here is the cream of the meat crop. I tried making "MeatClouds" into a trend on Twitter, but I'm no where important enough. If ONLY I could get Lindsay Lohan to mention it!

Brass Bed - Gramophone Shirt

My friends in Brass Bed asked me to come up with a shirt design! They wanted to have something for the release party of their second album, Melt White, which is coming up on Sept. 10th. That's going to be a super-fun show. Great music, too. Check 'em out!

I did a few thumbnails of different concepts based on the initial thoughts they gave me. They all lit on this direction, which was a horse pulling a giant gramophone; here's the final product. It was a really fun project to accept, and as an added bonus, I stocked up on a few ideas for future illustrations. Woooo!

BURST!

EEEK! Sorry for the lack of posts. Been working on a lot of freelance illustrations. Wooo! OK, so this is a new shirt design that I just submitted to Threadless. Scoring is going on RIGHT AS I TYPE.

It's a fun speech bubble made out of comic onomatopoeias. Wouldn't this be totally fun to wear? WOULDN'T IT? You're right, it totallllly would.

:D

If you'd like, please help it get printed by voting and commenting on the Threadless submissions page.
Here's the link:



Thanks ever so much, friends! OH, and please feel free to leave comments here as well :D

Name that Toon

One of my coworkers is in a chorus called "Sweet Adelines", who put on a performance every now and then. This year they are having a Broadway show-tunes theme, and I was asked to illustrate a cover for their program. A small, fun piece with a lot of creative freedom. This is the kind of freelance stuff that an illustrator just lovessssss.

Actually I'm sure freelance illustrators love all work. Since I usually just do things like this for fun, it's nice to actually get paid to draw silly things!

eNews is Good News

I was asked to whip up an illustration for one of BBR's HTML emails. The subject is about helping others realize how to effectively communicate eNews through html emails and blogs and stuff like that. I think. I actually wasn't given the article to read. I was just told to "do an illustration about eNews."

So, here you go! An envelope/keyboard. Yayyyy digital mail providing eNews, amirite?!?!

It's always fun to do illustration at work. :D