Gutter Kids progress

for the upcoming group show in August is moving right along. Here is my first rough for "Infa Delton" my terrorist, jihad themed piece for the Garbage Pail Kids homage show. I thought for awhile on the wordplay and rhyming styles of GPK cards from the past and found myself with this fun concept. Not only did I want to keep the theme current, but I wanted the wordplay to be creative and applicable to the character. I am utilizing some elements of the existing GPK joker card and making it completely my own. The rough will go through a few more transitions before being paint ready, but I am getting excited to sling paint on this now! Thanks for stopping in to view the posts and I will have more on this project and many more soon.

Mayday! Mayday! A Blog Post!

 Hello Blogger, I sincerely apologize for this month long lapse in posts but things have been a little crazy on my end. I am going to post about a fun project I have just completed with Nick O'Sullivan from Brothers BBQ. He is getting back into the racing circuit, and I had the honor of creating a custom crest and helmet design for him. Utilizing an Arai Helmet/Troy Lee Designs template and my sketches I built the artwork in Adobe Illustrator for sendoff to print. Had a great deal of fun creating custom animals and elements for the crest, and creating a streamline design for the overall helmet that says fast, and badass. The O'Sullivan crest was completely custom made, and I have included the concept sketches for these steps as well. I am excited to see the printed and clearcoated helmet and will post photos of the final print when the helmet is complete. Look for more in a later post, and check the website(www.deltondemarestarts.com) updates have been in progress, more to come soon. Thanks for bearing with me Blogger, stay tuned.

Yojimbo Falls On Deck 8

This post is the release of a new illustration created for On Deck 8, a group show/auction that raises money to build skateparks in Montana. The Montana Skate Park Association has hosted this show for eight years strong, and this was my first opportunity to show with the Brink Gallery, and OD8 in Missoula. I was honored to make the trip last year with my wonderful girlfriend Alicia, who was showing in OD7 for the first time. The city of Missoula and the Brink Gallery are very cool, and I hope to make the trip again this year, but it is not entirely set in stone. Visit the links above for more info on past On Deck shows, and more about our first trip to Missoula.

My painting "Yojimbo Falls" was inspired from my love for The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I have been working on a series of concepts destined for future paintings, and I saw OD8 as a perfect opportunity to release the first in the series. Originally a Stan Sakai creation, Usagi Yojimbo was a samurai rabbit who was introduced into TMNT not long after it was created (could be wrong) and my favorite character in the series, maybe a close second to Donatello, but who is asking. 

The painting was created quickly, but with all the preparation in place was a smooth movement to the finish. I have posted the colors studies which greatly helped with the final painting, the knowledge of how I wanted to set up the overall palette and complimentary color sped up the final rendering significantly. I utilized some new techniques, and combined them with others I know and am comfortable with. I am quite happy with the final illustration and have a print release coming up, more info on that soon, you can see the format on the bottom image.  

The skatedeck is available for purchase through the Brink Gallery, and comes with a large portion of the cost being donated to help build more skateparks in Montana! I couldn't think of a better win-win situation, getting original artwork and in the process supporting creative and individual endeavors. So take a trip to the links and bid on "Yojimbo Falls" or any of the other great decks for On Deck 8. DO IT! 

Thanks as always to everyone who follows and looks at the posts, I appreciate the support. More posts next month. 

Character Design in Progress

for new projects and paintings. In addition I will be using one of these concepts for a group show coming in May. As a kid I absolutely loved TMNT, and on saturday mornings can remember a tractor beam effect on my brain that had me entranced with these characters. I have been itching to do some TMNT inspired works, and my opportunity to realize this idea has finally arrived. Working concepts for characters that have always been an inspiration is a great tool for me to explore concept design and push myself to install originality in the figures, so far I think it is successful. So look for more info on these works very soon, and more on upcoming and ongoing projects. Thanks for stopping in, more posts coming this week. 

Art of Records 2 Mega-Sean

was my second time showing at the Art of Records curated by Dunn the Signtologist. Here is the initial sketch and the final painting as it was displayed at the opening, and some process and detail shots. I was also asked to take a photo with the work by the Westword photographer, so you get a sense of scale for the painting. I chose to re-create Sean Price Monkey Barz in a more realistic manner than the original cover art by Romeo and Raphael Tangal. Sean Price is among my favorite artists and one who constantly has hand made cover artwork, so it made complete sense to re-envision this particular cover art. Completed in acrylic on wood, at the scale of the original vinyl, this painting was time consuming and gratifying to complete in this fashion. Many more amazing works were created for the show, take a trip to the Denver Solution to see more. You can view my first Art of Records piece by clinking on the link here. Thanks for stopping in to view the work, more posts this coming week on current projects. 

Project progress

is being made on the new cover art, and here is the latest. Digital color ways to give me and the client a feel for the overall palette, and the basis for the painting tones. I also have changed the final layout and added a few elements. Excited to start slinging some paint on board with this one so keep an eye out for those posts. The few light shapes in the focal area are a hint of the rendering process I will utilize for the entire painting. Thanks for stopping in to view the work, more on many projects in future posts. 

New Project in the works

 for an upcoming cover art project. I have been working through the roughs and getting the line drawings seamed up and ready for color studies. The last post was the beginning stages of these concepts, and here are the next layers on those characters and an initial layout. The story and basis for this project will be made known in later posts so stay tuned for that. Having a lot of fun with these line drawings and putting more personality and emotion into the individual characters. Thanks as always for stopping in, look for more on this project in future posts. 

Alright Alright a post already

I realize I have been slacking on getting posts out to you all, but I assure you it is because I have

been creating wonderful things to share with you. One of those things is an upcoming project that I can only share some rough sketches for now. I have been doing a lot of greyscale roughs using markers in the sketchbook, so here are a few for you. More info on upcoming and past shows, as well as new projects in future posts, bear with me. Thanks for stopping by.

Afro Predator 303/Indy Ink

collabo decks are finished and I have them in hand, but I don't quite have the post ready, so in the meantime 

here are the stickers that are coming off soon, more info on both in a future post. Check both Indy Ink and 303 sites for more info.  Thanks for stopping by, excited to share the final deck illustration. 

Brothers BBQ Labels Finished

and have been printed and bottled with the new design and illustrations. This project was some time in the making, and with the collaborative effort of myself and Daniel Castillo we knocked this project out of the park. Dan spearheaded all the design,layout, and final label production with superb results! You may notice that there are extra illustrations that do not adorn the labels, why is this you ask? Well during the course of the project I had worked up final illustrations when the client decided to omit a few of them. Sometimes in the professional world you have to bite the bullet and work through it. I think that the labels still would have a benefit from the "regional" character additions, but in the end the main focus is on the "family owned, Colorado grown" aspect of Brothers BBQ. Each sauce and its flavor are inspired by their distinct regional origins, this being my inspiration for creating the other "Q" characters. I will most likely find a use for these guys, most likely for promotional and marketing use, aimed at Brothers BBQ and other print clients. So in the long run it was extra work, but work that is not completely obsolete, there is always an end game for final artwork, that's the way I look at it. Visit a "Q" near you for the new bottles and labels, or "Homeslabs" and thanks for stopping in to view the work. More to come in future posts.