Saturday, December 18, 2010

In the Know







My latest submission to threadless.com.  My previous one wasn't accepted, not surprised really, they don't allow that kind of theme.  This one is more their taste- I hope.  I'll let you know.
12-21-10 UPDATE: Nope it was rejected as well, I'm 0-3.

Friday, November 26, 2010

F U Money






I'm a fan of business & finance and I spent way too much time reading about them.  One day last week I was reading one of my favorite business blogs and came across the phrase "F U Money".  I had to laugh, everyone knows that saying but I hadn't heard it in a while.  Then I thought to myself: How funny would it be if that was a tee shirt logo?  Seeing as I design tee shirts for a living it made perfect sense.  Here's what I came up with.  The first two ideas are from my sketchbook, the last three are from illustrator & photoshop of the finished work.  I submitted it to threadless.com as well.  Don't know if the artwork is too mature for them but I thought the logo was too clever to let pass.  Hopefully they accept it, I'll let you know.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Tuff Love-Step 1




OK here's my latest idea for a threadless.com submission.  I think I might do this as is in black & white
on a white or grey heather shirt.  Then may be add some color and put it on a pink shirt.  I want to show the whole process on my blog before I put it up for submission.  That might be my new order of things.  This way I can view comments and go back; change it, look at it, revise it, whatever.  Sometimes I find myself battling what I call "tired eye syndrome".  Meaning that you look at a piece of art for so long you just get sick of it and lose all critical perspective about it.  It's hard to step back, remove yourself and see it with a "fresh eye."  Hopefully this way, this blog- will help.





Saturday, September 18, 2010

New York City, the $20 Bill Eater




Here's my finished New York City, the $20 Bill Eater tee.  Now onto my other ideas for threadless.com
(& me)  I think my sense of humor might be a little too edgy for them but I'm going to keep trying.  Back to my sketchbook for more ideas!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Threadless tees- six colors


My first Threadless submission on 6 colors.  The "official" way is on Heather Grey.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

1st Threadless submit- NYC the $20 Bill Eater











My first threadless.com submit.  It took a while but I finally did it.  From top to bottom pictures you have the grey heather tee shirt, the detail of the artwork and my sketchbook drawing from where it all started.  I came up with this idea 6 years ago but never knew about threadless or blogspot (probably weren't around then)  to showcase it.  I reworked the drawing, scanned it, and completed it in adobe illustrator for final artwork.  I have more pictures to show on different color shirts but I thought grey looked best so that's what I went with.  What do you think?






Saturday, July 17, 2010

JET




As a huge fan of the group JET, this drawing just came into my head and I had to do it.  If anyone from the group or their management sees this, please contact me.  I want to do your next album cover.  Yeah I'm dreaming but it never hurts to ask.  



Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sketches from many moons ago










Looking at old pages of my sketchbook today and I came across these.  Two of the three are still "hot button" issues today- Border Security & The Bear Market.  The Email vs. Snail Mail is an old idea but I don't get to draw snails that often so I couldn't resist.  I also did a drawing about car alarms but lately I'm working on a line of tee shirts for my threadless account.  Threadless.com - that is.  Very cool site.  If you're an artist, it's a must register site IMHO.  I'll be posting pictures of those designs as well, just need more time to get them all together.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Mike'd Up




As I've written before in this blog, I'm a big sports fan.  For years I've listened to sports radio 660 WFAN in New York.  Even though he comes across as a pompous, know-it-all jerk, my favorite talk show host is Mike Francesa.  He's New York's #1 and he'll be the first to tell you that. He hangs up on stupid callers and bludgeons the Mets and Jets which really cracks me up.  He has a long litany of regular callers: Ira from Staten Island, Mike from Montclair, Al from White Plains, Joe D and others but my favorite is Yankee die-hard, Lisa from Whitestone.  She comes across as someone who watches every Yankee game while pacing, smoking Pall Malls & drinking scotch.  But hey, that's just me.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

TMZ, the CIA & Uncle Sam




TMZ amazes me, they really do.  They get all the stories and they never seem to be wrong.  We need their sources in the CIA.  It could help the world.  Uncle Sam has always been one of my favorite characters to draw- not when he takes my money- but to draw.  Lately he needs some help so I drew him a new want ad for the 21st century. 

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Spring Tee Shirts



These are my latest pieces of tee shirt artwork for Spring 2011.  All are a combination of screen prints, appliques & embroideries.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Big, Bad Wolf, The Hollywoods & Build Your America!





I have alot to scan but I want to include my latest work first from my sketchbook.  The Big, Bad Wolf dressing up as debt is scarier than usual.  My latest comic strip idea is "The Hollywoods".  Need to work on more characters but it's a start.  "Build Your America" just started out as a doodle that morphed into a little spot illustration.  Reminds me of those old 1940's posters with some Russian constructivism mixed in.  A happy accident I call this drawing.  By the way, all my sketches are done with Micron drawing pens- I haven't used a pencil in years.  Don't like the feel of them.  I do love these pens.  Would be lost without them.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Cpl. Blake Miller, Sgt. Mike McGuire & a very Happy Birthday to Chuck Norris




A friend of mine, knowing my affinity of New York Post headlines, pointed out a good one from last week to me.  I think it was about Tiger.  Shocker.  It got me thinking: Whatever became of my favorite NY Post cover person?  Cpl. Blake Miller.  You know the photo.  It was taken by L.A. Times reporter Luis Sinco.  It appeared on the cover of the NY Post in Nov. 2004 with the headline: "SMOKIN'  Marlboro Men kick butt in Fallujah".  Things have not been good for Cpl. Miller over the last six years.
But that picture of him just stays with me.  The same way Eddie Adams' picture in Saigon 1968 does.  Same with Joe Rosenthal's picture at Iwo Jima in 1945.  A slight segue here, I love the NFL and read Peter King's Monday Morning QB every week.  About five years ago he came across Sgt. Mike McGuire in his hometown of St. Louis, he's a IED hunter, real life "The Hurt Locker" guys.  In a strange way I feel like I know him a little bit.  He's served something like four tours in Iraq and this fall he's leading his platoon to Afghanistan.  He's the first thing I look for in Peter's column every week, and judging by the reader response I know I'm not alone (Just this week alone MMQB readers raised almost $200K to the USO for Sgt. McGuire's platoon and six others.  Peter King wants to raise enough money to outfit the other 194 platoons in Afghanistan & Iraq.  Check out USO.org or SI.com- Peter King's column for the link)  As for some lighter fare, it was Chuck Norris' birthday this week- March 10th.
I sent this sketch to Google hoping they'd use it for their logo on Mr. Norris' day.  They didn't.  So I'm sharing it with you.  What do you think?  Should I draw more Chuck Norris?  Let me know.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Megan Fox, Domino's Pizza & Chuck Norris



Well, needless to say I work with some characters.  Artists usually are.  From the top to bottom: "More Robots -Less Megan Fox" stems from a co-worker who loves the Transformers, but not the acting abilities of one Megan Fox.  It's become sort of a catch phrase around the office.  Speaking of my office, one day last April (it was the first warm day of the year) we went out for pizza at Dominos.  Me & my co-workers ran into the above drawn "characters" who were just smitten by them.  They left me alone for the most part but, I knew I was outnumbered. However, my art room mates fended for themselves just fine.  And lastly, anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge Chuck Norris nut.  I can rattle off Chuck Norris facts almost as fast as Chuck fires his Uzi.  This is me dreaming of one day being just a fraction of the man Chuck Norris is.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Fashion Portfolio







This assignment started before Harry Potter was "Harry Potter".  Before there was a movie, a second book or even a style guide -this project took off.  The whole art department had to read the first Harry book and come back with what we thought.  This is what I came up with for Quddich, magic wands & the cloak of invisibility. If I remember correctly nothing came of our entire presentation but such is the garment industry.  I still remember it fondly- no guidelines, no restrictions; read the book and come back with what you think.  Wish more projects were like this.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Simpsons Tee Shirt Project




Sketches for a tee shirt/boxer company.  After I watched a few episodes of "The Simpsons" I came up with these ideas for a line.  Must admit, I'm not a Simpsons fan (I live for "Family Guy") but I did enjoy the ones that I saw.  Unfortunately this project didn't go anywhere.  Such is the life of freelance.  Too bad, I remember it being a very cool company.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Aesop's fables








































The Fox & the Crow (top)

The Lion, Bear & Hare (bottom)







Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year to All

Welcome to my blog, over the next year or two- I hope to expand my digital media presence by uploading my artwork over the years. Everything from college and before, to my current work and sketchbooks. After being pushed by my co-workers for months I'm finally ready to take on this project. I t should be fun. I was inspired to show my art in this format by a few artists I discovered on a "LOST" fan website- thought it looked great in this way. I hope to duplicate it.
Keep reading, I have a lot to scan, photograph, etc., etc.