A Tiny Narwhal

Here's a piece for the Small Stuff 5 show comin' up:

The Narwhal and the Water-Resistant Walkman
Ink and Watercolor

I'll post some more artwork when the show opens.

New Bear and Bird Website!

A little while back Amanda from the Bear and Bird gallery asked if I would like to do some artwork for their new website. They have such a cool gallery and I have had so much fun doing artwork for them that there was no way I could say no!

(I tried to pay respect to some of the other really cool artwork people have done for the gallery in those little picture frames.)

Amanda only wanted a piece or two and she was totally cool with whatever ideas I came up with. I guess I went a little crazy.




My goal was to show the characters in fun situations and establish their friendship but still leave them open for other people to explore too. I guess it would be like giving little snapshots of their lives but still leaving the viewer wanting to see more.

It got to a point were I couldn't decide which ones to finish in color so I sent Amanda all of the roughs and let her pick her top four.





I also did a black and white stamp for them and before I sent all of the originals out I threw a little watercolor on it.



I had so much fun with this! I'm glad there were deadlines because I could have just kept going. So check out their new website when you get a chance!

Now I guess I should start working on my own banner...

"Heroes vs. Villains" Micro Show

The Disney folks are doing a cool micro show with artwork of heroes on one wall and villains on the other wall facing them. Whatever side has the most pieces wins!

Ink wash, before adding color.

They were kind enough to invite me so here is my contribution...

Marc Moreau, Wrestler of the Deep
Ink and Watercolor

Should be a good show! Hopefully they'll post some of the images on their blog.

Mary Blair Tribute

If you haven't heard of illostribute you should totally check it out. Toby Thane Neighbors has created a very inspirational blog and right now he has a tribute to Mary Blair! It's pretty awesome. I was totally excited when he asked me to do a piece for it.

Young Mary Robinson
Ink and Watercolor

I have to admit I struggled with this piece but at the end of the day it was a great learning experience. It also gave me an excuse to play around with gouache again.

Brothers Grimm

UPDATE: Bear and Bird Gallery had a great show a little while back and I had a ton of fun doing some pieces for it. A huge thank you to everyone who bought my pieces! You are too kind. You can still see artwork from all of the amazing artists who contributed by clicking here.

Here is a closer look at some of the pieces I did.

Seven Ravens
Ink and Watercolor

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
Ink and Watercolor

I also made a thumbnail beat board for the entire story of Hansel and Gretel!

Hansel and Gretel
Ink and Watercolor

The process of making this piece was an awesome experience. After a few failed attempts I ended up getting a huge piece of plywood, soaking the paper overnight, pressing the paper against the board with a roller and getting a little out of hand with a staple gun. I was done taking chances.

The inking stage.
(note the few thousand staples)

I have been lucky enough to work on a couple beat boards for movies and shows but never an entire story. Kind of intimidating. I just stayed as close to the text as possible and only added a few subtle background elements.

Finished color.
(the plywood ended up being a great workspace!)

At around 28" wide I think this is the largest piece of art I've ever made. Yet somehow I still managed to turn it in to a ton of little pieces! Good times.

Away In The Woods...

In a couple of weeks the Bear and Bird gallery is hosting a show based on Brothers Grimm. I can't tell you how excited I was to be in the show! It was also a great excuse to reread the stories. The storytelling really is amazing! I especially liked seeing the differences and similarities with modern storytelling. Even back then it was all about characters and choices. If you haven't read any of the stories in a while I would highly recommend it!

The Wren and the Bear
Ink and Watercolor

My approach for most of the artwork I did was to make you wonder what happened to get the characters in the situation or wonder what is going to happen next. Hopefully those questions inspire you to pick up a book and read the stories again.

Watch Out Death Dude!
Ink and Watercolor

Watch Out Death Dude! is from the story The Messengers of Death. It's a piece that is a bit of a tangent from the rest of the story but I loved the visuals of how the story opens. Even if you just go back and read the first couple of paragraphs I think it's totally worth it!

Brother and Sister
Ink and Watercolor

Brother and Sister was a lot of fun to do and I tried to put a few subtleties in with this piece. One of the things I wanted to hint at was the brother keeping watch for his sister just to play against their relationship at the end of the story. I also thought it would be fun to get a deer somewhere in this piece to foreshadow things to come.



I'll post some more pieces when it gets closer to the opening. Stay tuned!

Edward Scissorhands show this weekend!

Seb Mesnard has set up a really cool blog to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Edward Scissorhands. Tons of really talented and inspiring artists have submitted artwork, I was very flattered he asked me to join the mix. Here's a link in case you haven't seen it yet: click here for the Scissorhands blog.

Now Nucleus Gallery is hosting a show of the original artwork from that blog this weekend! Here's the piece I did:

BFF's
Ink and Watercolor
3.5" x 5.5"

And even more cool news! I just found out my piece is gonna be the original artwork raffle prize! Here's a link to their blog for more details: click here for the Nucleus blog.

Hope to see you there!