Breckenridge Brewery Laser Etch

wood mural additions for the Brewery's Blake Street Pub. I previewed the sketch process in earlier posts and they are included here as well, those sketches were utilized to laser etch the image onto the reclaimed wood used in the remodel design at Blake Street.
I had the help of Stereo Abstract and the great folks at Club Workshop to get these laser etched with the barrel imagery. Those etched wood pieces were then seamed into the entire image in four sections. These were a lot of fun to see the process from sketch to finished three-dimensional  piece. The process photos are of the laser etch in progress, the finished works connected and displayed as a pair in studio, and the finished wood pieces anchored in place at Breck.
I will be adding some acrylic washes and glazes to the moustache and lips tomorrow and will post the final photos then. A special thanks to my main man Harrison for the assistance and Lisa at Breck. I know my July posts were less in numbers, but more work is soon to come. Thanks for stopping in to see the final touches on these works. 

The Sharpest Rides Lettering Mural

is a recent client piece for The Sharpest Rides, that was a big task, and turned out really clean. Here are some progress photos and final photos of the 100 ft letters. The process was a more concise one in which I utilized three stencils, "A", "S", and "R" to create all the font variations. By doing so I cut down on the working time, but also allowed for some more creative fun with the cadence and placement of each letter. I felt a more sign-painter approach would ensure that a one-tone font would be clean and correct, rather than a matter of wasting time on the lift and trying to measure cadence on the fly. It was all done by eye and general mural placement techniques. I did however do a great deal of prep and pre-measuring based on my prior knowledge of the TSR lot. For the ninth mural addition to the TSR collection, this piece is big and bold, and most defenitely lets patrons know what TSR is all about. A special thanks to Kevin, Hugo, Juan, and everyone else at the Sharpest Rides, look for more client projects soon. Thanks for dropping in. 

Cicada Sings, Shiva and more

concept sketches for some paintings and personal pieces in the works. These are the daily sketches from yesterday, and I somewhat stretched across the board, from lettering, to concept, to more concise roughs. I found a really nice cicada specimen and have been aiming to set it in resin soon, all mostly from memory,a lot of fun, and yes he is missing two legs. It's a rough!, more client and personal work tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by for a weekend sketch post. 

Blown Covers Cats and Dogs Submissions

was last week's Blown Covers theme, and it also marked the contest transitioning from weekly to monthly. I will keep this post short, had fun with the submissions, and found another concept that I enjoyed enough to put down some watercolor layers for. Hope you enjoy, and venture on over to the links to see the winners and runner-ups, hear about the reasoning behind the transition, and the perseverance from Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman to continue the contest amongst their already busy schedules at the New Yorker. Special thanks to them and hope to continue to create ideas for every theme.

Cats and Dogs Winner and Runners-Up

200 Cats and Dog Cartoons

Derrick Rose Windy City Commission

is a new painting in aerosol, commissioned by Wayne Applehans, for his son Sam's 16th birthday, and what an honor to create for such an event! Without further ado, here is a break down of the process, and the initial sketches and color studies. We began with concepts surrounding a piece and or mural w Derrick Rose, and it quickly developed into a dynamic and challenging piece. The challenge being the size, and time limit I had to create the work. At 4' x 5', a full figure with extra background elements can be difficult enough w spraypaint, but with a three day deadline, now were talking! 

I began the piece by transferring a loose pencil drawing, and from the process photos you can see I began working opaque section by section until I am at the final stages of the portrait. Which almost always takes about the same time to complete, as the entire piece itself. This particular portrait ended up being 8inches by 7 inches, and I have provided some close-up shots of this area as well for your viewing pleasure. The other obstacle is that D Rose is a specimen of anatomy, and young athleticism, which I wanted to make sure played through, even with the stylized caricaturization. With that in mind I pushed the limits of what I can do with aerosol at this scale and the results are above par.  

All of the secondary elements have been pushed back in terms of edges, and finish, such as the uniform, street hoop, and the city skyline to add more pop to the focus of the D Rose and the throw-down gesture. The inclusion of the ball aflame, is an homage to old school video games and streetball, and to add some fantastical flavor to the overall flow and dynamics of the composition. 

Was truly a pleasure and an honor to work on this piece, and to see everyone's faces light up when the painting was unveiled at the studio! A special thanks to Boxcar Gallery for the recommendation, and to Wayne, his wife Michelle, and of course to Sam, hope the piece stays with you for years, and we all know D Rose will be back with a vengeance, reports say he is already off crutches. Thanks to you all on Blogger for the support, and I hope you continue to stop in. More tomorrow. 

The Dark Knight Rises 150 Ft Mural

is an amazing look into the painting of large scale advertisements, still created by muralists. A very rare sight to see anymore, but this team of artists completed this mural in 5 days. I saw this blogged by Arnie Fenner at Muddy Colors, about a post that Irene Gallo, art director at Tor Books placed today. Being fairly experienced as a large scale painter, this is incredibly inspiring and the best news to come out about the Dark Knight today, considering all the negativity that could be talked about. But that is not for this post, this is a glimpse into one of the most highly constructive and technical jobs out there, creating building size murals for what is arguably the best comic/movie adaptation ever. The other point to make about these paintings is that they aren't created in studio, and installed, they are created the old-fashioned way, the artists put up with turbulent weather, use classic techniques, and work on rigging as a team to create these paintings. The main artist behind these creations is Dan Cohen, and the team from Art FX Murals.  All images courtesy of Irene Gallo and the Tor Books Blog. 

Please take a trip over to the links to read Irene's first hand experience w Dan and the mural creation and the insane schedule of completing this work in a week. I hope this brings you great positivity today, and my best goes out to everyone from my hometown of Aurora, the Dark Knight will still rise. More later, or in tomorrows post.