Urban Meyer Quick Sketch

Quick sketch of Urban Meyer, who yesterday stepped down from the Gators head coaching job. Experimented with a ink line type of drawing with three tones for the head. Boy did we Gators do a 180 in the wrong direction this season. In an overall odd year for college football where all the perennial powerhouses finished as duds, here's hoping that next year brings a successful start to a new era of Gator football.

Frank Drebin

A sketch tribute I did yesteray to one of my favorite characters and movie lines of ALL time. Thanks for the laughs Mr. Leslie Nielsen, you will be missed.

Wayne Rooney Quick Sketch

Just started messing around tonight with a little bust sketch of presently troubled and consistently benched Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney. After a few layers of basic line and color info, it turned out pretty interesting I think. In other news my ESPN Premier League fantasy team did very well today...woohoo!

On Display at Starbucks in Jacksonville

Currently showing at Starbucks in the trendy San Marco district of Jacksonville is my "Aesop Revisited" series. Since San Marco is a historic district, this particular Starbucks has this old existing brick wall inside that works in great contrast to the rest of the modern, hip look that a Starbucks normally has. The works will be up until the end of July. Each painting is 16" x 20" and done with acrylic on illustration board.

Orlando Weekly Cover

This illustration was developed for the cover of Orlando Weekly with the main story pertaining to the future of outgoing Orange County mayor Rich Crotty and the humorous possible career paths for him moving ahead.

And speaking of Orlando, I went to EPCOT this past weekend for the first time in a while and noticed they updated many of the rides to keep up with modern technology (which makes sense considering the park is supposed to be dedicated to technological advancement and cultural showcase). I remember way back when Spaceship Earth, aka the big golf ball, used to show the "future" at the end of the ride by showing two kids from different continents communicating on a video screen conference of some sort. Who knew the "future" was so imminent??

Happy Fourth of July 2010

Did this little doodle for fun. Acrylic with pencil, 5x7. Also, while you're feeling patriotic today please enjoy this crazy rendition of The Stars and Stripes Forever played out on a single guitar by Chet Atkins. It was originally arranged by a Guy van Duser and I imagine there's only a small percent of super adept guitarists that can play it with such articulation. It's got the melody, bassline, even the very recognizable piccolo part. John Philip Sousa, are you seeing this??

Palette Preview

Here's the palette from a group of four illustrations I just finished. These were cut from side strips of my board where I just sort of tested out colors, but in the end I thought they made for some pretty interesting patterns in themselves.

Pensacola Independent News Cover

Thanks to Samantha Crooke over at the Pensacola Independent News for giving me the opportunity to take on the cover for the annual "rant" issue. It was very open ended, so I had a lot of liberty with coming up with a concept. With most ranting these days done anonymously through the internet, I came up with a sketch that reflected that while also using references to the local, white-sanded Gulf beach and the oil spill that is currently affecting that region. The issue is on stands this week.

On Display at the Taipei MRT

Currently on display in the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system in Taipei, Taiwan is my "Subway Phone Courtesy" poster (see a few posts below for the poster image.) It is on display with the other winners of the 2010 poster contest at the underground Zhongxiao Fuxing station on the blue line near the center of the city. I like to think it is doing it's part to remind everyone about train etiquette, for my goal was to do an image that could be universally understood by anyone of any age and nationality without relying on Chinese text to get the message across.

More photos to come later hopefully...

Survivor Russell's Hat Is On Fire

And why is his hat blazing other than the fact that Sandra threw it in the fire? Well, he's peeved...and he should be.

While watching tonight's Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains finale I sketched this image of the infamous Russell, who in my opinion is one of the more entertaining for tv contestants they've put on the show. Every Survivor finale tribal council sore losers are in full force, taking their moment on the stand often to berate those who outsmarted them with lots of overly dramatic and patronizing statements (ex. Sue "dying of thirst" monologue, Marcus's "winning at life, that is" laugher, Corinne's "crying over dead pops" speech, etc.) I like to think that the producers purposely direct them to be more confrontational then they might normally be to make for good tv, but Russell had some great moments this season that genuinely must've eaten away at the ego of beaten contestants.

Is Sandra the "best ever" as she proclaimed? Not by a long shot. Going two for two certainly seems like a statistical argument, but let's be real here there's so many styles of play and unpredictable factors in Survivor it is impossible to call one out as the best. It's like saying one guy is the BEST ever at blackjack.

Russell is justified in being peeved by the format of the show...but the show is also designed so weasels like Russell don't win, and that's a good thing too. This is just another instance where a coattail rider rode to the end and then was voted winner basically for being the one who didn't outsmart the jury and make them look like fools on national television. CBS knowing that Sandra was the winner would've edited more Sandra footage to justify her being a winning player, but the fact that they didn't include much must indicate that they didn't have any to work with to begin with. I guess the whole laying low thing is considered a "strategy" too technically, but that's a pretty loose term in this case and an insult to players like Parvati, Boston Rob, JT, and Russell who take the term "strategy" to different levels. If anyone of these final three, Parv was the most deserving to win.

It was a slightly anti-climactic ending to otherwise probably the most entertaining season of Survivor ever!

Animal House Midnight Movie Poster

Be on the lookout for the May issue of EU Jacksonville for this promo for a late night showing of "Animal House" at Jacksonville's 5 Points Theatre. I had a lot of fun with reinterpreting the iconic John Belushi aka "Bluto" Blutarsky in a humorous, contemporary style apart from the ubiquitous "College" sweater image of him. Printed posters should also appear around town so keep your eye out for those as well. I had never actually seen "Animal House" prior to doing the sketches for this assignment but having seen it now I can see why it certainly has cemented its place in American pop culture, essentially setting precedents for college party genre movies that are made even still today.

Taipei Subway (MRT) Poster Contest

Even though this news is a few weeks old, I'm happy to say my entry for the Taipei MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) poster contest was a winning finalist. The contest was to illustrate one of eight different rules of subway courtesy or safety (ex. giving up your seat to the elderly, refraining from smoking or eating, etc.) with the only parameters being a size requirement. I worked on the "using cel phones tactfully" category because it's a personal peeve of mine. Using animals prevalent in Asian folklore I tried to make an image that appealed to the masses, yet didn't appear overtly preachy in tone.

Having been born in Taipei, Taiwan it's fun to be able to now have my art go on display there.

2010 Final Four

We can be pretty certain the NCAA and CBS are banking on a Duke vs. Michigan State final, but will Butler or West Virginia have a say in the matter?

Acrylic with charcoal pencil.

Michael Moore

Weathering the Storm

Parvati's Manipulative Smile

...was the topic of a lot of airtime on tonight's episode of Survivor and seems to be drawing a lot of ire from tribe mates including the Black Widow and Dragonslayer. I always try to give people benefit of the doubt knowing that reality tv can edit anyone to look likeable or not, but I gotta admit it's very obnoxious so yea, I'm with you on this one Dragonslayer...

Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino

Get OFF my lawn...

Vancouver 2010 Sketches

The American skated excellently, the Russian and his quad were robbed, and the rock star of skating stole the show with his post-skate crown of roses. Olympic figure skating never fails to produce drama and memorable moments and this year's men's competition Cold War certainly lived up to its billing.

A 10 minute digital sketch. Evan Lysacek, Evgeni Plushenko, and Johnny Weir.

Boston Rob Spaces Out for a Moment

On tonight's episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Boston Rob seemed to have had an unconscious, out of body, and hallucinating experience. With as much time as these folk spend out in the jungle, I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more often...

Getting the axe tonight was tough gal Stephanie in an awkward and confrontational tribal council. Let's not miss the bigger picture here though. As if Episode 1 wasn't edited already to make her look like a tough gal dislocating her shoulder and popping it back in place, it was late revealed by behind-the-sceners that she in fact did so, and THEN returned to the wrestling challenge. For some reason they edited it so it appeared the dislocation sidelined her for the rest of the match. Tough gal indeed!

Quick sketch...digital.

Lane Kiffin Napalms Tennessee

Here's a VERY quick illustration based off a Chris Low ESPN.com article where he writes:

"Let's face it: For all Kiffin's talk about leaving Tennessee in better shape than he found it, the reality is that he absolutely napalmed the place.

At last count, he had one more win at Tennessee than he did secondary violations, and he left behind an NCAA cloud that's still hovering."

At least the other so-called traitors to their players such as Rich Rodriguez or Brian Kelly actually improved their programs before skipping out of town on the greenback. And now what's this about Kiffin wrecking the Lexus leased to him by the University? This has to get the all-time award for most unintentional yet accurate use of symbolism ever to describe a coaching tenure.

All I'm hoping for out of this is a Tennessee-USC bowl game matchup or something next year. Now THAT would be entertaining.