Link vs. Dark Link

Just a little doodle from last night. Maybe I'll get time to complete it one day?

I grew up with just an NES that belonged to my older brother. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was the 2nd Zelda game, and a side-scroller. Apparently not many people like it compared to any other Zelda game. That’s fine, but hey, I liked it.  It’s the first appearance of Link’s shadowy counterpart. As a really little kid, I thought this was an incredible thing!  I thought WOW, plot twist. You went through all of this fighting, this silent warrior who needs to save the world, and you now have to take on YOURSELF. Are you good enough to fight a mirror version of yourself?! HE KNOWS ALL YOUR MOVES. AHHH!

As an adult that’s made art and animations for games, a second thought has occurred to me: HOW BRILLIANT! This character has all of the same animations as the Player, LOOK AT HOW MUCH TIME IS SAVED. …Sad. I know.

Society 6 - Free shipping!

Until Midnight - PST March 17th! Get free shipping on all of my Society 6 prints by clicking that image or clicking here!

Beasts & Beats - Savage Beast

Forgot to post this! Whoops! New piece for an upcoming show!

Beasts and Beats Show 

Saturday 3/9

9pm at San Francisco Public Works

Awesome DJs playing music

$3 Dark 'n Stormy drinks 'til 10:30pm! 

Sailor Moon - Reboot

The ever-popular Sailor Moon is getting a reboot series this year - figured I'd do an illustration to celebrate. Also: warning of a fandom rave below.

Truth be told, I first saw commercials for Sailor Moon's dolls when I was about 11 years old, so my interest was piqued from the tidbits of animation they showed. And then discovered it was on extremely early in the morning before going to elementary school. I became obsessed with it because it had that wonderful story-line that we the viewer (or reader, in some cases) can easily put ourselves in. Reminiscent of Spider-Man for guys, or for more broader, recent references to all: Harry Potter.

It got dark, fast. There were certainly hilarious things about it that I can think are absol-freakin-lutely crazy like a masked man in a tuxedo/cape combo that spouted lines of random poetry whenever he arrived to the scene.  But for the most part, it was about an average, everyday person, suddenly being thrown into something that no matter what, they had to deal with the situation that required insurmountable determination and bravery. They were given this great power and responsibility. It just screams coming of age/adolescence, and going forth into adulthood.

But for me, as a kid, all I wanted was to get to age 14, which was how old Sailor Moon was, and just hope and pray that a weird cat with a crescent moon was going to hop through my window and change my life forever. I wanted the cool costumes, and the flashy transformation sequences, and the powerful abilities (that you had to shout aloud). I just didn't think about the realistic consequences.  I mean, the thing about this girl was she wasn't incredible in any way. She failed tests, made awful tasting food, tripped over her own feet, cried when she scraped her knees, and didn't look where she was going so she ran into telephone poles, and so on. I mean, this was the savior of the world, she was given this immense responsibility. It shows at one point that she didn't even want it anymore but she turns around and steps up to the challenge to continue taking up the helm, because she has to do it.
When I got past age 14, I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want that cat to come through my window.  Adolescence already has so many extras added on to make life so troublesome. ...As an adult, I still want that flashy transformation sequence and attack though.

Happy Singles Awareness Day! - 2013

So many pictures pop up about love and adoration or someone's misery at being single during this holiday of ..love.  Here's my 'Unconventional' Valentine's Day illustration for 2013.

Have you ever debated on sending a letter to someone you haven't spoken to in years? Has it been a long time? A decade?  Perhaps you should send them a letter.

 Would you rather regret sliding that postcard off into the mail, or going each year of your life regretting that you never sent it at all? This doesn't even need to be a scorned lover or anything, it could simply be a friend you've lost touch with!

Happy (Early!) Year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year, all! I cranked this guy out real fast on Thursday. Figured I'd post today because who checks blogs and things on the weekend?! Hope you all have a great year, and according to the Chinese, the year of Snake is meant for steady progress and attention to detail.  Sounds good to me!

Snow Animation, anyone?

(click the image to view animation)

Here's some more animation for you guys, I'm obviously just having fun here. If you live in Brooklyn, make sure you go to the upcoming Bottleneck Gallery show where this piece will be featured (but obviously not animated haha)

Poor Edward

I realized I posted this on my tumblr and not my blog! Here we go:

So. The first image here is a terrible/unfinished illustration of Edward Scissorhands. It’s terrible because I had become extremely lazy in my composition and dynamic layouts. There’s no real great way for the eye to travel around the image. Hell, it sort of skirts off to one side and then you get confused and just try going around the image again.  If you ever need a refresher on making better compositions, I highly recommend delving into Andrew Loomis’s Creative Illustration book. Huge thank you to Kali Ciesemier for pointing this out on her blog.

He has something called Informal Subdivision. This consists of drawing diagonal and straight lines across a paper in your own way to try and make a space division unequal and more interesting. I created one of my own to test this out.

I then sketched something out on top of it, using the lines as a guide to help place everything in the space.

And lastly, a (hopefully) better illustration is the result. Huzzah!

Edward Scissorhands version 2.0 will be mailed off to Brooklyn’s Bottleneck Gallery for their Favorite Film Couples/Valentine’s Day show which debuts February 15th.

MOO Cards!

 I was contacted by Dan Sharp of MOO to try out some of their products a few weeks ago. They have a variety of stickers, postcards, business cards, greeting cards, and more that you can customize to however you like.  You might know them for their half-sized mini-business cards. I'll be honest, whenever I saw those things at events, social meet-ups, or conventions, I kept thinking those things are so freakin' small. I will seriously lose all of them.What is this MOO company thinking?!  So maybe that product isn't for me.   BUT: I didn't realize they had so many other awesome products available!

As an illustrator, I'm a stickler for custom cards and promotional postcard mailers (at least I think it's still awesome to receive postcards in the mail), even with all the technology we have at our hands these days.

So! I decided to give it a go and got myself some round stickers(http://us.moo.com/products/stickers/) as my return-mailing address (because not many people have round return-mail address stickers, right?) as well as one-sided postcards to put into an envelope(http://us.moo.com/products/postcards.html).  (enjoy my weird floral chair cushion in these photos)

Upon receiving my package, I have to say I really loved the package design everything came in. It was a really, really nice surprise. So many places I've ordered from I'll get my postcards or products just shoved into a box with a crumpled bit of paper for 'cushioning.' MOO actually has little cardboard envelopes for all of your orders, neatly labelled so I can grab them off my supplies shelf without freaking out about "Where the heck did I put it." ALSO, them being in 'lil envelopes means I can safely slide them out of the way when I need to get something else off the shelf vs. just a stack of cards that just falls everywhere (I swear I'm somewhat organized and not a slob-DON'T JUDGE ME).

 The stickers are great, really crisp even on small text (and they gave me a few free random ones woo!). You can actually customize these stickers to have multiple images or words on them in one order. I chose all of the same color for consistency and branding but if you wanted multiple kinds of designs, the option's there!

The postcards came in really nice, vibrant colors, good card stock too (I'm using my Neverending Story piece and Failure/Moth/Butterfly piece). I personally prefer a sturdier card stock but I'm insane and like my stuff cardboard stiff; this is just a personal preference of mine. Honestly, if it were a harder card stock, the colors would get diminished, I'm sure. This worked out in my favor - so, really great colors, there's gloss on one side which I don't normally do, but again, the designs came out nice and sharp so I really can't complain!

Backsides of the cards are matte for writing out messages on them which is nice not to have cards that my pen runs all over or doesn't adhere and grip. No issue with these. I did have the option to make double-sided cards but chose not to this time around.

So now I have my two promo-mailer cards stuffed into my own vellum envelopes, with my bad-ass rounded return-mailer stickers. MOO definitely made my stuff look more snazzy and the prices are decent.  I'll be sending these guys out in hopes of getting some new clientele for freelance illustration!

A Storm Too Soon

New 2-page-spread illustration I created for Rhode Island Monthly magazine's February issue. This accompanied an article about two shipwrecks about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina - one ship from Rhode Island by the name The Flying Colours. 

Really enjoyed working on this imagery with thanks to Carolyn Marsden for working with me.