With one more week until the big gallery show in London, I decided the self portrait on my bio page needed an overhaul. I’m not one to toot my own horn (I hire immigrant laborers to do that. Dutch flugelhorn quintet, pay them in mayonnaise), but I think I did a heck of a job capturing my rather striking visage. The enigmatic expression, chiseled features. Talk about a work of art, right?

Didn’t do such a bad job with the guy in the cardigan, either.

In other news, those of you with iPhones may be interested in following me on Instagram, the fun photo-sharing app. You should also follow me on Pinterest, especially if you like illustration and macaroni and cheese recipes.

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

The final piece of the puzzle before I head to London for my class’s gallery show at Foyles Bookstore. For the book cover, I wanted to strike a vintage chord without going too far overboard. I’m no Saul Bass. More of a Saul Guppy.

I also wanted to introduce Melvin himself, give a sense of his personality before the story even begins. Hey! What a fun-loving, musical goat! Who’s also ambidextrous! Huh. Okay.

For the strictly-hypothetical published version of the book, I hope to have the purple area of the tuxedo cut out, exposing a small part of a completely purple and velvety hardbound cover beneath. I’d also hope the sunburst design surrounding the tux would be stamped in gold foil, and that the book itself would be sprayed with some sort of consumeristic pheromone that would force anyone within a 10-foot radius to buy a copy. As long as we’re in the realm of the hypothetical here.

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Late last night, after spending a few days recovering from my big MA hand in and acquiring the world’s wussiest cold (if colds are jazz, I’ve come down with Kenny G), I realized I hadn’t done any actual work in days. So I gave myself three hours to draw something, and lo, this is what I came up with.

I put a bunch of splotches of dark blue and brown down first, then waited for the splotches to tell me what to do. Same method of creation used for this fella, this guy and these dudes. From now on, I’m letting splotches guide all future decisions. If it something doesn’t pass the splotch test, I don’t do it. And I’m going to be really tyrannical about splotch divination, too. A regular Splotch Test Monster.

Ah, good to be back.

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

[click for larger image]

Two days ago, the final assignments for my MA were submitted to my professors. After a year and a half of dedicated study and work, I’m left torn between being super excited about finishing, and feeling a little lost. I have been wanting to get an MA in illustration ever since I left my undergrad, and have spent the last seven years researching programs, applying to them, and saving towards tuition. All that work and dreaming, to have it all over. Feels bittersweet.

Also feels like Heimliching out a half-chewed wad of broccoli. After 70+ hours a week in my suffocating studio, I can breathe again! I can go outside! I… I can walk! I CAN WALK!

And I can finally go birdwatching again!

And eat out!

And play games!

So much to do!

Then why the heck am I on the computer? ADIOS!

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Just in time for Christmas, here’s the final version of the sketch I posted a few weeks back. I’m sure many of you can empathize with the condition these goats have found themselves in. Just wish I had the foresight to give one of the goats a canister of pepper spray.

Initially, the goats were to be surrounded by logos for the various stores they patronized, but I found the logos cluttered up the page too much (plus, I wasn’t a huge fan of how they turned out). If the book ever gets published, I’ll instead include them as a pattern for the front endpapers, with Melvin’s favorite album covers patterning the back endpapers. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak.

Here, Melvin’s adoration of music is introduced, as we see him experiencing a transcendent moment listening to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.” You can tell it’s Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” because I got the score online and reproduced it (almost faithfully) on the scroll of notation enveloping Mel. Beyond that, there are 13 other musical references and/or puns on this page.

How many can you spot?

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Anyway, the above is what I came up with. I know, I know. It’s a little abstruse. Allow me to unpack it for you: heedlessly leaping into a self-luminous picturebook will result in your being book-pooped out a wizard. Got that? No? Oh, well maybe that’s why it didn’t get picked.

I also created a little number for the back of the cover to act as a solemn warning for anyone irresponsible enough to leave their self-luminous wizard-pooping books lying around.

More like Man’s Best FIEND! Haha! Aaaaahaha.

…

Ludwig van Beefhoven! Squeal Diamond! Baaaaaahhhhhdfinger!

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Given I basically only had a name to work from, and that it was one of the last things I’d ever do for the company, I decided to go a bit over-the-top with the art. And by over-the-top, I mean I blindly charged beret-first into the gaseous cloud of the arty farty.

Essentially, this piece is an exploration of the phenomenon of anthropomorphism. Here, the professor considers a butterfly that has lighted upon his book. The title of the book, A Sound of Thunder, is a short story by Ray Bradbury (or, I guess in this case, Ray Bradbirdy) in which a time traveler accidentally changes the course of history by stepping on a prehistoric butterfly . The implication: even the most minor change to universe’s history could have resulted in another species gaining the evolutionary upper-hand instead of humans. Think about it.

“A Sound of Thunder” also refers to the noise your head made when I blew your mind just then.

So many layers.

—————-

Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

All the images in this post (except the header), © Copyright Her Interactive, Inc.

Given that I submitted the design back in February, I had a long time to build buzz for the shirt before its unveiling. So, I worked to create a massive equality gap between the richest Americans and the poorest. Then, I fostered discontent among the 99% of Americans who are seeing their income shrink while the wealth of the affluent increases. Lastly, I encouraged the 99% to occupy Wall Street and express their anger using the image of Guy Fawkes, who just happens to appear on my shirt.

PAWNS! YOU’RE ALL PAWNS IN MY GAME! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now buy a shirt! And try to buy it today while it’s discounted!

Oh, and the above is a blog-worthy version of the design with slightly different colors. The actual shirt design looks like this: