Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Velocipede Entry on Facebook

Hi folks!

I have an entry for a Tron contest that, if I win, will get tons of cool swag.  Here's the link

And here's the design.  I think it is really cool.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Derby 166- Commodore Capybara

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog.  Well, I've got good cause. I just co-edited a massive re-edit of a Physiological Psychology textbook, so look for a link here for that. Took 6 months. Then, I taught a lot of summer school. Now fall semester's in full swing.  I gave up on the 365, but at least I'm still drawing.  Here's my new entry for the derby- because I think capybaras are cute.

Voting link here.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Working for a living

Another week, another derby entry. This one is based on the CITY derby, which was one of the first derbies as well (15 or so).  But I get to use an old element, the pigeon.  VOTING HERE.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Derby 153- Romeyolk and Juliegg


My Shakespeare entry.  First all-photoshop design too, if you don't count the original pen/ink sketch.  I think it came out fine, but I had all sorts of trouble with the layers since I didn't start with them layered (colored the sketch, then realized my mistake). Oops.  Lesson learned.

Vote here: http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=43406

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

DEVOlving DNA tie

I have a shirt in the derby fog this week!  It's an extra special derby too, with the winner being selected by DEVO to be a shirt for them, AND get a lot of cool swag (devo jumpsuits, and travel/tickets to one of their shows).  Please support HERE!!!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I'm a bill looking for a job...

This week's Derby is job shirts, and I must admit that I'm having a bit of an artist's block on doing a design. This is the only thing I came up with, so here it is...

Friday, June 4, 2010

Derby 150- Ceti United


Ceti United won the championship in 2454. This is in the style of many european shirts where the major symbol is on a shield. I figured an alien-looking soccer ball would be the best image to use. Five colors on black. Vote if you like it by clicking on the image. Thanks!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Pandas for Peace


Another week, another 4-5 hours down the tubes. But what I came up with is a level above my normal stuff.  Here I sketched out a panda hippie with some very '60s era lettering and color scheme.  May have gone a bit overboard with the halftoning, but I think it fits. Surprisingly it is only 6 colors- white, two greens, yellow, and two pink tones.  If you like it, VOTE HERE.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Another shirt derby entry

This one flies against almost 150 derbies of rules and bans. But it's still funny. Back a few years ago, shirt.woot.com opened its doors and derbies. There were no rules- anything went. I didn't enter a derby until 3, but if I did, this is what I would have done.

Votes appreciated, before it's rejected.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Two shirts on current derby

Hi folks. Haven't updated the blog, mostly because I don't think people are looking at it anymore. But in case you do come back, I have two shirts up for votes- one is a silly slogan shirt, and the other is an ode to the classic came Dig Dug.  I like the latter a bit more because I had to draw it, but the former is clever.

Please vote if you got them!

Vote here for Slaw and Order


Vote Here for Prairie Dog versus Dig Dug

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

03/09 Solar Party

This is a sketch originally meant as a design for an earth day daily, but it never got done. When the shirt derby contest came around, I totally forgot about this concept idea, and was too busy to get something done anyway. Oh well.  Hopefully I will be able to finish this for either a future daily idea or possibly replace earth with some other planet (like pluto) to submit on the anniversary of the planet in question's discovery. The word Amish was not part of the concept, and was something I had already written on the paper.  Note- on the design, I had Pluto being in time out in the corner while the rest of the planets ate cake! Bad Pluto!

03/08 Little crab character

This is a concept for a helmet crab. Didn't know where it was going, but I thought it was cute. It is really fun when you are in a class, and doodle something in the margins. I decided to post this since it was one of my more special sketches.  Dunno if I could do anything shirty with it, but I scanned it just in case.

03/07 Random Elements

Sketching to see what will come about, this was for the derby about books.  I was trying to design a bunch of small elements to make a tic tac toe/chess game of classic drama books versus monster horror villains books IE- to kill a mockingbird, dracula, portrait of dorian gray, moby dick, scarlet letter, turning of the screw, scarlet pimpernell, catcher in the rye...

03/06 Colored monkey

It's a monkey theme!  Just can't get away from drawing those. This is my attempt to do a colored design for livetracing color in an attempt to make a more realistic chimp/squirrel monkey. As you can see, I was planning on putting a hat on him, but never got that far. This is part of a concept of a vertical line of monkeys on a rope, with a happy shark waiting underneath.

Enjoy!

03/05 Catching up on MSCE- bad monkey!

Okay, I'm going to TRY to catch up on MSCE, even though I am approximately 2 months behind!  So I will be posting a bunch of sketches today in an attempt to get viewership back up and get some useful comments.  Here's something I drew at around that time while in a meeting.  People were senselessly arguing about petty stuff, so I drew a monkey.  And the caption came naturally. Enjoy!


Tuesday, May 4, 2010

05/04 Spring showers

Here's another woot shirt entry. On cranberry since I like the color contrast between the blue drops and the shirt color. Vote if you got 'em! I need all I can get!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

How OLEDs work

It's been a long time since I updated this, and even longer since I had a MSCE post. But work's been kicking me in the butt, and finally I got some time to do a really good design.  This is my answer to where OLEDs come from... from luminescent insects!

Please vote if you got 'em here!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

04/06 Tofuman!

My second design for the derby, late of course. Tofu as a superhero. I like it, and hope it gets some last-minute votes.  Vote here if you like it and are a shirt.woot voter! Thanks!

04/05 PhySycho

My first derby entry this week. Trying to channel Jhonen Vasquez and Comic Noir. First attempt to make a design out of a negative space as if I scratched the design out from a black wax sheet and printed it using white ink.  Please vote at shirt.woot if you like it!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone gets a chance to spend time with family today...

Sunday, March 28, 2010

03/29 Surprise! Snake!

I've been a very bad, very busy boy. It's been almost 3 weeks since my last post. I could come up with excuses, but they'd be hollow ones. I've failed. But I can save it.  here's a new design for shirt woot's derby.

My first derby in 2 weeks. Please vote for Surprise! Snake! Great for kids!

Monday, March 15, 2010

03/04 Cupcake

Cupcake!  Must be from all the ones I ate while in NYC. Yums!

03/03 Chickendeer

Playing around with the tablet again.

03/15 design for msce 03/02 The Plugz

I realize it is 3/15. I've got a lot of catching up to do. But here's an attempt to get a day back.  My shirt.woot design this week is for "the plugz"- a band from the '80s who did Reel Ten and some other really cool songs from Repo Man.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

03/01 A random dwarf

Wasn't sure if this looks like a dwarf, or a dude in a sock hat, but I was going for a dwarf. Of course, dunno what it really is.

02/28 Another robo

Again, doodling, this time enough free time to ink it properly.  I'm afraid to try to do more on this because if I tried the body, I'd screw it up.  But I like the look of what I got done so far.

Monday, March 1, 2010

02/27 Alienface

Sketched this during 24. Started out looking really cool, then as the mouth evolved, it all of a sudden reminded me of something from the Simpsons.  Figures.

02/26 Flapper

Aborted concept for the current derby. Tried a flapper girl.Just couldn't get an idea how to fit it onto a shirt without it looking ugly.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

02/25 Simply Irresistible

This week's derby is vintage.  It took me a while to get a good sketch I could vintage. Here's what I came up with- an ode to '80s fashion and Nagel without pandering to Nagel. I still need to slightly distress the design, but I'm thinking just some cracks in the white ink should do it rather than lots of splots of wear.  It's based on the sketch I just posted... EDIT 2/26- tweaked the graphics a bit to lower the ears. Also color the hair more.

02/23 Basis of Simply Irresistible

Okay, I'm gonna stop lying to myself. I may not get caught up. But I'm trying.  Here's an ink sketch I did a while ago. I cleaned it up a ton and I am using it as a basis for my shirt.woot design for this week's derby, and I figured this way I fill out a day and get closer to being caught up!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

02/22 Revision of parking lot

I got tired of almost getting clobbered every time I went into work. Problem was the lot was designed so that everyone was ducking in and out of side lanes. So I redesigned it to turn all the aisles 90 degrees and angle the spots.  Voila. More parking spots, better flow, and if they do it, less accidents!

It's not a shirt design or a cartoon or something else for a shirt, but it is cool that the University's taking me seriously with this...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

02/21 Pig in a Pickle

Yes. A pig in a pickle. Did you expect something else?

02/20 Robot

I have to admit- this isn't even close to being decent. It's actually not very good. But I needed to at least attempt to do something this week, so here it is. While I generally like the concept, I'm not happy with the treads or the details. But perhaps sometime soon I can fix the quick pass with the tablet with something looking better.

Friday, February 19, 2010

02/19 Running for MS research

Just subbed this as a weekly contest entry at Good Joe. I hope it is well received!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

02/18 How the cow really jumped over the moon

This is my shirt.woot design. Although I'm not terribly happy with the moon, I love the cow's expression, which just kind of happened during the tablet time.  Feel free to comment on what it looks liks and whether I should modify it before derby time...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

02/16 YMCA Hope

This is my submission for the GoodJoe YMCA contest.  I tried to make it sweet, and although I'm not good at people, I thought it came out really well. The skyline I think was a good touch to make it more than just a heart on a shirt. I hope at the very least I get some comments about how I could improve it. Four colors on cream shirt.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

02/15 Insane Clown Posturing

Was watching 24, and I started doodling on a pad of paper. Just started with circles, and this evolved. I think it's a weird cross between a drugged-out clown and Bill Clinton.  Wonder if I can make it into anything other than a funky drawing...

Sunday, February 14, 2010

02/14 Pencil sketch of woman who doesn't exist

Was working on eyes the other day for a tiger zodiac shirt.woot entry that never got finished. Started drawing human eyes on a slip of paper, and I liked it so much i kept going. Wonder if there's someone out there that looks like this... Hopefully if so, she's got a better developed nose :)

Okay, almost caught up!

02/13 Black and White study of pile of crap.


Was hoping for inspiration by dumping a keyring, clock, slinkie jr and a pen on the table and attempting to see if something organically would come out of randomness. Nope. Looks like the objects.  Maybe I can tweak in Illustrator...

02/12 Funky apple


First painting done in quite a while. I just can't stand curves or fruit that looks like it's supposed to. So this is a funky attempt at using acrylics. One note, don't bend the paper after it dries. I lost a little of the grays as it flaked off between coats. Oops.

02/11 Robotic raptor

ORiginally this was called "rode runner" and the basis for a poem about the futility of the Coyote versus the Road Runner. IE- the reason the road runner always won was that he didn't obey the traditional biological or physical laws because he was in actuality a robot.  The turbines in his neck helped him run so fast, and his bionic eyes and loevred plates helped him stop on a dime. I have been tinkering on this for over two decades, soon it will get a proper tablet-ing...

Just so you don't think I'm fibbing about the two decades, here's the ORIGINAL sketch, dated 1989.

02/10 Heartflower

Okay, I cheated. This is for Valentines day but since I'm very behind, this will have to suffice as my entry for the 10th. P'raps I'll try to get caught up with my MSCE today, after I go get my DW something for today's day.  And despite the derby theme of a few weeks ago, this is totally new as of today.

Friday, February 12, 2010

02/09 Iiwi

This is an improvement on a derby I entered a while ago. I love this Hawaiian honeycreeper, the iiwi. It's got a very metallic song, and is very pretty. Also, it's one of the few native birds that have shown some resistance to the avian pox and malaria that has decimated the island group of birds. Why? The Hawaiian island chain is the most isolated land mass on the planet- 2500 miles from the nearest continent. Which means the birds have developed in isolation from any disease-carrying mosquitoes for eons, and therefore do not have antibodies against them. So most are extinct now.  But this bird is plentiful enough that it probably will survive.

Maybe I'll sub this as a good joe, since improving bird conservation on Hawaii is one of my big career goals.

02/08 Doggone Gator



Now I'm a week behind, and I don't know if I can catch up. So I sketched something real quick in the hopes I can trickle back into creative mode. Just had a very depressing meeting where I learned that our new Governor has thrown out all the contracts and is about to place the onus on balancing the budget on those people least able to deal with it- the working men and women of the state. Nevermind corporate managers are getting huge bonuses, it's the state teachers that are the root of all that is evil in our state.

Sigh.

Have a hot dog, gator.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Double-take derby #8 is tomorrow.

I am happy to report that a shirt I made is up for re-votes in the next double-take derby.  I am linking the image now, but will replace it with a voting link tomorrow when the new derby goes live.

I'm so excited to get my butt kicked by draxxx and tgentry! :)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

02/07 Cafe Verve

Again playing with the Intuos3 Tablet. This time making a fake cafe shirt for perhaps a startup coffee joint.  I like fancy type, so this is fun stuff. Plus I liked the idea of having the coffee smiling happily, with steam coming up.  The pale orange words are drop-shadowed, as is the saucer. This ended up being 5 colors, but if I eliminated the dark blue saucer for something more neutral like black, it'd be down to 4.  Don't know if I'd ever get a job as a graphic artist, but it's fun acting like I could :)

02/06 Pet Blame Game

This is a sketch that I was never happy with, but decided to give it a try with the tablet.  It's two pets, who are blaming each other for breaking a bottle (or other breakable object).  Obviously, the hamster is blaming the bird. Not sure if I should have colored the liquid, and I wasn't really counting woot-allowed 6 colored inks, but I was having fun. Despite being on a shirt woot template for color, it's never been submitted anywhere. Maybe someday.