Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody! 
This year my wife and I went as The Rocketeer and Ripley from "Aliens." My helmet, rocket pack and jacket were made from scratch. Nicole's Pulse Rifle was made from a Spatcave kit that I put together and then she painted it. 
Hope you like 'em. We had a blast putting them together!
Find more photos of the costumes here! 

"His Girl Friday" Mini Munnys

If you’re a newspaper designer, there’s a chance you might be at the Society for News Design conference in St. Louis right now (I’m not though). If you are, be sure and check out the SND Foundation silent auction for my custom painted Mini Munnys based on “His Girl Friday.” They’re paired up with a copy of the movie and a poster/print supplied by my co-worker Colin Smith. Happy bidding! 

Ron Swanson and Mrs. Slocombe

These two big-haired characters with stern looks were my submissions to this month's Planet-Pulp Ha-Ha Sitcom Show.
First up is Ron Swanson from one of my favorite shows "Parks and Recreation." I just had to draw that fine head of hair he has as well as his bacon-covered turkey leg the Ron fondly calls "The Swanson."

Next up is Mrs. Slocombe from the classic BBC series "Are You Being Served?". I grew up watching the series on PBS and always thought she was a fantastic character, especially with her constant supply of brightly colored hair dye. Pretty sure at the time though I didn't get all the double entendres with the discussions about "Her Pussy." If you've never seen the show and have no idea what I'm talking about — be sure and watch the video at the bottom.

Be sure and check out tons of more fantastic art from amazing artists over at Planet-Pulp!

Star Wars Blu-ray illustration

Today's Salt Lake Tribune Technology page that I designed and illustrated was a fun one. It was for an article about the changes George Lucas has made to the upcoming Star Wars Blu-ray. I decided to go with a combined Circus Poster/classic Star Wars feel with it, hence the shiny chrome frame around the article and pictures. I decided to do drawings of characters and Lucas to tie the package together and throw a little humor into it. 


You can read Vince Horiuchi's article where he interviewed a couple of 501st Legion members and a special effects artist about the changes here. 

The Fourth Doctor

I have to admit, I'm totally not up to snuff when it comes to Doctor Who. I've really been meaning to catch up on the new series, but have only seen a couple of episodes here and there. If anyone would like to give me the DVD's for Christmas, I certainly wouldn't turn it down. ;-)

But as a kid I vividly remember watching Tom Baker as Doctor Who on PBS. I remember being attracted to it's weirdness — it was unlike any other show I watched at the time. I was  mostly fascinated with the robot dog K-9 and the odd facial expressions Baker could make. I especially remember watching a Doctor Who episode (and playing with my Darth Vader figure) when I lost my first tooth in a motel while on vacation.

So with that, here is my tribute piece to the fourth Doctor and K-9.

Wichita Falls Zombie Crawl & 5K poster

Drawing zombies for a Halloween 5K? How could I say "No"?! That's why I recently illustrated and designed a poster for the Zombie Crawl and 5K that will take place October 29th in my old stopping grounds of Wichita Falls, TX.

The subject matter was right up my alley and I had a blast doing it. Many of the zombies in the poster were modeled after a few family members and friends, and a couple of pop culture characters thrown in for good measure (HINT: one is a famous archaeologist, one is his "God damn partner," and the other boldly goes where no zombie has gone before). Click on it a couple of times to zoom in and see them better.

The event is for all ages and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross. For more info on signing up for the event, visit their website at www.getinfected.org or visit their Facebook page!

Playing catch up

Wow, I didn't mean to neglect the blog for this long, really I didn't. So here's a few quick updates of notable things I've done over the last couple of months. Well, not quite everything. I'll save a couple for their own posts soon.
Most recently, I did a couple of travel posters for Planet-Pulp's August Travel Poster Show. One was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the other for Darkwing Duck's hometown of St. Canard. I was really surprised by how popular the Temple of Doom piece was. Got lots of play on Tumblr sites and even made it onto Slashfilm's Page 2 column! 

Also recently I did a massive illustration and design for The Salt Lake Tribune's Friday Mix section. Critic Sean P. Means did a story on top 10 essential made in Utah movies and the illustration that accompanied it featured icons representing 28 movies made (or partially made) in Utah. Readers wrote in their guesses as to what movies they are to win a prize. How many can you guess? (Click on it for a closer look!)

Oh, back in July for Planet-Pulp's G.I. JOE show, I did a Lady Jaye pin-up as my entry. Or as I used to call her when I was little "Lady Jane." Sometimes I still do call her that accidentally. Old habits die hard…

Well that's all for now. I've got a few more things I've done — including something I did way back in May but forgot about — but I'll show them off later!

Raiders progress shots

I originally thought I would do a very long post with a lot of progress shots that I took while making my Raiders painting. Then I figured it would just be easier to put it all in a short video. The video will only appear here. Enjoy!

Raiders painting finally finished!

I finally finished my Raiders of the Lost Ark painting last Thursday! After I finished the painting I took photos then added text via Illustrator and Photoshop to give it that vintage serial movie poster feel. It made it's debut Friday over at Planet-Pulp. 
Very soon, I'll do another post with progress shots. It feels really good to finish it and I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out. 

Planet-Pulp Ripley piece

This month's theme over at Planet-Pulp is "The Super Action Hero Show," showcasing works based on favorite heroes and heroines of '80s action movies. First thing that came to mind was one of my favorite movie characters Ellen Ripley from "Aliens." 

Head on over to Planet-Pulp to check out what other artists have done, including re-imagined posters of '80s action classics!

Raiders of the Lost Ark painting update

Well it's certainly been a while since I first told you about this project, hasn't it? Unfortunately life and other projects had to be dealt with first and I really didn't get going on finishing the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" painting until late April. 

If you look at the pics from the first post, you can see that I've pretty much decided to redo just about everything. Right now the only parts of the original that remain are Indy with the boulder and Belloq's fedora.
First I'm just painting the black and gray tones, then I'll add color layering a series of thinned acrylics.

My goal is to have the painting finished by June 12, 2011 — which is "Raiders'" 30th anniversary. Gonna have to take some time off from it though, so I may have to blow that date, but darn it I'm still gonna try to make it! May just have to shoot for it being done in the "month" of "Raiders'" anniversary. We will see!

Bossk Planet-Pulp submission

I was recently invited to join Planet-Pulp, an awesome site comprised of some insanely talented artists, many whom I look at in awe for inspiration on a daily basis. Every month, they pick a theme and the artists contribute their interpretation of the theme to that month's "gallery." The site is run by uber talented artists Jayson Weidel and Adam Limbert.
This month's theme is "Star Wars" so I decided to finally do that Bossk drawing that's been dancing around in my head for a while. I like to think of it as a quiet moment of reflection for Bossk, but more than likely he's just scouting for Wookies to hunt. 
I'm really looking forward to contributing to the rest of Planet-Pulp's shows. In the mean time, please keep checking the blog every so often for new and amazing artwork and follow them on twitter! Also, check out their archives for past shows like the Pixar one —  blow you away!

Summer Movie Preview trading cards

God how I love the old movie trading cards of the late '70s and '80s. I love how simple they were, the little logos they would put on the cards and the very cheesy captions they would use to describe what was going on the picture. 
With that little bit of nostalgia in mind, I used it to create trading cards of this year's crop of summer movies to illustrate The Salt Lake Tribune's annual Summer Movie Preview Guide.


Below is the cover. Click on it for a better look:

Just had to throw in a nod to one of my favorite artists Darwyn Cooke with the New Frontier Green Lantern action figure! There was a 6 x 3 ad on the bottom of it, but for this I cropped it off because it was pretty damn ugly.


And here's the gargantuan list of all the summer movies. I was fortunate enough to get a full color double truck this year. That made me extremely happy:

Again, click on it to see it larger.
If you would like to read Sean P. Mean's stories for the summer movie guide, click here.


It was a lot of work making the cards, but since it was such a geeky thing to do, I had a blast doing it.
Here are a few of my favs that I did. They are sized down to trading card size so feel free to click, save and print them out on a nice card stock for yourself. Collect them all! 

Oh, and by the way, the card numbers on the Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Super 8, Rise of the Apes, Cars 2, and X-Men cards are Easter Eggs. I tip my hat to anyone who can figure out all of them!

In This Week cover — Spring Arts Preview

Had a lot of fun designing and illustrating the cover for In This Week's Spring Arts Preview. There will be a lot of Shakespeare going on this spring so we decided to stick with that theme. 

Pin of Art 2011

It's that time of year again — The Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Utah are holding another Pin of Art auction benefiting their wonderful organization. For those that don't know, they auction off retired bowling pins that have been painted and decorated by several artists from across the country. All the proceeds for this auction go directly to BBBS of Utah.
I outdid myself this year with my entry "The Art of Adoration." It took me the better part of my spare time in February to make it and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.
If you are interested in bidding on it or any of the other pins up for auction, go here to find out more about each one. The auction starts on them today (March 11) and concludes March 18. Good luck and happy bidding!
Here are several shots of my bowling pin, featuring a love struck robot wooing a space cadet with his artwork. My apologies, I didn't do a lot of behind the scenes photos for it, but if you'd like to learn about my process check out my blog entry about last years piece.

I did the Space Cadet's arms out of Sculpey and the Robot's arms out of dowel rods and PVC pipe connectors. 

Sundance Film Festival Illustrations

For this year's Sundance Film Festival tab put out by The Salt Lake Tribune, my boss Colin Smith came up with a fun theme that would play right to my style. The idea was to make the Sundance survival guide look and feel like it came from the "Duck and Cover" era of the '50s and '60s.
Through my boss' art direction and design, the theme is brilliantly carried all the way through with articles supported by a lot of illustrations I did for it. I don't have PDF's of the pages just yet, but I'll post them as soon as I do.
In the mean time, here's a few of the illustrations I did for the section. It was a blast to help put together.


Here is the cover illustration I did with Festival Man atop a pile of the poor folks that didn't read the Survival Guide: 

And here is the final cover with Colin Smith's type treatment:

Below is Mr. Reel and Miss Direction. They gave tips on how to survive the festival throughout the guide.

And of course the main reason locals go to Sundance is to see celebrities. Because, you know, it's not like there's films to watch or anything like that there. *sarcasm*
On our celebrity watch page, I created a few portraits based on celebs that are expected to be a the festival. I decided to make them slightly more realistic than the rest of the illustrations so they would be recognizable at a small printed size. 

Paul Rudd

Zoey Deschanel

Rob Lowe

Jeremy Piven 

Emily Mortimer

Elizabeth Banks

Toby Maguire

There's a lot more stuff I did for the guide too. One I get PDF's, I'll do another post about it.