Some Stuff

I haven't had the time to do much commissioned work, but I was able to fit this one in. This was for some friends that used it as their Christmas card this year. I've never considered myself very good a catching peoples likenesses, but I think they turned out very recognizable.


I love to tinker and figure out how things work, I also have fasination with old things. I love old cars and have owned quite a few, but I just don't have the time or space to deal with one now. So I've been messing around with old bicycles when I have a chance. Earlier in the year I was part of a build off contest at Rat Rod Bikes (check out the forum there are lots of cool bikes and cool people). For the contest I volunteered to do a drawing of the winners bike. This is what I came up with.

I actually ended up coming in second place and here are a couple shots of the bike I put together. The bike is a 1962 Schwinn with tons of antique and customized parts..

Carolers

This is the sketch for this years Christmas card. Still have to make a few adjustments before I go to paint, but it's close.

Alice in Bomberland

I've been waiting for a little while to post this up. They now have a website up about the game so it should be safe to post about it here. I did nine character illustration for the game 'Alice in Bomberland' that will soon be coming out for the iphone, and is published by Sonic Boom. Originally it was a simple game and the artwork was just sort of an added bonus to get to each level. We picked out the characters that they wanted for the game, and then I was given a lot freedom to add the weapons and what not. After some sketching we came to the conclusion that it was funniest to have very classical characters in crazy situations. Eventually the game changed quite a bit (for the better), and now the artwork is used to tell the story. Also the weapons of on each stage are based off of the illustrations. The backgrounds for the levels were done by Alan Song, and the visual artist from Braid did the playable Alice.

I had a chance a couple weeks ago to actually play the game and it is a ton of fun. It gets super crazy and there are tons of surprises and power ups. There are somewhere along the lines of 48 levels. This was super fun to work on and a big thanks to everyone at Sonic Boom. An especially big thanks to Chris DeLeon for getting me involved in this and letting me run wild! Thanks Chris!

You can see the official website at www.aliceinbomberland.com
On the site you can even download some of the images!
This video show you what the game play is like. The illustrations I did are used before you actually go into the levels. Also the logo you for the game you see at the end of the video was designed by my brother!

August Highlights

This month in Highlights magazine I have a couple illustrations for a short story called 'Rocket Man' written by Marilyn Phifer. This was a very cute story and the illustrations were super fun to do.

You always lose a little something when it's printed on newsprint type of paper so here's a scan of the original.

Utah

You know you've been bad about updating your blog when people start to mention it in the comments, lol. So thanks Chris and Dusty for keeping me on task, sometimes I need a little push to get things done.

Kasidy and I got back from a short vacation to visit family in Utah. We had a great time and it was exactly what I needed. I had a couple of projects that I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere on, and now I feel really motivated.

We had a great time with both of our families just hanging out and eating more food in a week than we usually do in a month. My parents rented out a old school house that has been converted into an inn near Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. All my brothers, sisters, and their kids came. I think in total there were somewhere around 24 people. Lava has a little river that you can rent tubes and ride down it. It was a blast but we had our share of injuries. The rocks in the river are lava rocks (imagine that) and are super rough if you touch them. Kasidy got the skin taken off both her knees and elbow, my brother cracked a rib, and both my mom and another brother lost their glasses in the river. Good times.

It's funny because when I first moved out of Utah I thought I'd never move back, but every time I visit I feel the pull to go back getting stronger. I miss family, mountains, the crazy cloud formations, and even the snow. I guess we'll see what the future holds.

These are couple photos I took from my parents backyard.


This is the peek that is directly behind their house. I don't remember the name anymore but I'm sure my dad would know it.

This is just to the left of the above picture. The arrow is pointing to what locally was reffered to as 'Bats Cave'. At night when you are in the cave bats circle around outside wanting to come in but not willing to because of the fire. It's a cave that is about twenty feet up a cliff. One person would have to climb up and then tie a big rope around a rock so everyone else could get in. Next time I go to Utah I'll hike up there and get some pictures of the inside.

Heat and high moutains make for some serious N. C. Wyeth type cloud formations.


I promise that I will get some actual art posted in the next couple of days.

Cricket & Spider

A couple months ago I did some illustrations for both Cricket and Spider magazines, and they just came out in the May/June issue. These were really fun jobs and the people were great to work with. It's funny that both stories revolved around a similar character (a grumpy old guy).

The Spider illustrations were for a poem called 'Mr. Ollie Odenhofer' by Monica Gudlewski. Please excuse the image quality. I haven't gotten the originals back yet so I just took a snapshot of the magazines.



The Cricket illustrations were for a tall Tale called 'Making Do' by Joan E. McCarthy.


Many thanks go out to Sue and Karen for involving me in these projects.

The Big Cheese

I did this drawing for a friend in trade for some vintage bicycle parts.



To warm up this morning I did a quick colored version in Photoshop.