David Beckham Retires

Hard to believe today was the last game of Beckham's 20-year playing career - end of an era no doubt.  It's rare to see an athlete transcend pop culture beyond galactic standards, while actually being a significantly, relevant player.  And when you look at clips of MLS from 2007 before Beck's arrival there were just a handful of amateurish-looking teams playing in paltry college stadiums or vacant, oversized NFL arenas with depressing, faded yardage lines.  It was fun, but not many people took it seriously.  Investors, sponsors, casual American fans, and foreign players just kind of wrote it off as minor league in a major way.  To say Beckham had nothing to do with the rapid growth and global interest in MLS over the next five years would be delusional.

It's fun to be able to say I saw him play live once - when the Galaxy played here in New England back in 2011.  To commemorate his last official professional game, I did this quick portrait today.

Orlando Weekly Cover: May 2013

For the cover illustration in this issue of Orlando Weekly, I was asked to bring to life a simple concept: a headshot of a really excited guy with paint splattered on one side of his face and a mini golf course on the other. There's really a whole slew of ways one could go about illustrating that, so as you might imagine I had some fun with this one.

"FRINGE" refers to The Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival which is a "14-day-festival that is founded on the concept of offering 100% unjuried, 100% uncensored, 100% accessible theatre, music, dance, and art to all types and ages where 100% of the box office ticket sales go directly back to the artists within The Fringe. The Orlando Fringe is the longest running Fringe Festival in the United States, celebrating 22 years as “Orlando’s most unique cultural experience”.

(special thanks to Nathan F'in Smith for snapping this pic for me down in Orlando)

NBA Playoffs 2013

Some drawings while watching the playoffs...stay tuned, I'm probably going to do some other teams.

Clint Dempsey: USA vs. Costa Rica

In one of the strangest soccer matches I think I've ever seen, the USA played Costa Rica last night in Denver in a World Cup Qualifier in a freakin' BLIZZARD.  It wasn't so bad at the beginning but the it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing with no end in sight to the point where a lot of the players were sporting inadvertent snow afros.  Fortunately Dempsey scored early off an Altidore shot rebound before it got ridiculous because by the second half it looked like the ball was barely even rolling across the field. I did up this little sketch today to commemorate the game.

The Jay Cutler Emotions Guide

Something that came to mind as I was watching last night's Lions vs. Bears Monday Night Football game on ESPN (while simultaneously watching the presidential debate)...

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan

Just started sketching around and experimenting today with some mark making using Shad Khan, the new owner of my hometown Jacksonville Jaguars, as the subject matter. I had just read the Forbes article about him, his background and his commitment and vision for the team moving forward. I can certainly admire someone who's life story is essentially based on not taking the easy way out and building up things from nothing, and the Jaguars are definitely the place to do that. Jacksonville has all the ingredients to be an internationally recognized city and sports franchise, but in terms of sports mediocre season after mediocre season has just deterred any of that from happening.

In the illustration I gave him an appearance of optimism - the same optimism I share about our team and what it can do for the progress of city that I grew up in.

Euro 2012 Spain Sketches

Did some quick sketches of some of Spain's football/soccer players while watching the Euro 2012 game today vs. France. These are some of the more high profile guys (Xabi Alonso, Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas, Iker Casillas, Fernando Torres) but it'd be fun to draw out the rest of the team and complete the set.

By the strangest and coolest coincidence ever, we saw these guys when they were staying in Providence in Spring 2011 while staying in the same hotel as them during RISD's graduation weekend. Of course they obliterated the US team in an exhibition in Foxboro, but we got all kinds of good pictures with the players in and around the Providence Mall during that week.

Dog Portrait Commission: Miles Davis

Just finished this portrait commission of a great dane from Pensacola, Florida named Miles Davis. Based on the reference pictures he seemed to be a combination of stoic, chill, and slightly goofy humorous - all of which I tried to simultaneously translate over into the illustrated portrait. The features that stood out the most to me were the nice gray markings (especially the patch around the gleaming blue-greenish eye and the big triangle on his back), the spotty pink nose, and the stark, simple black collar that seemed to be a really nice punctuation mark on his overall appearance. The Notre Dame football prop is a reference to his owners, who I am told are ND alumni.

"What an Irritating Gift!"

New illustration appearing in this month's Odyssey Magazine for an article entitled "What an Irritating Gift! Thank You, Dear!" The story, by Nick D'Alto, talks about the birth of pearls through a process of irritation and layering. The setting for the story called for a charming dinner setting where a young marine biologist uses a chocolate covered cherry to explain the process that a oyster goes through once an irritant is introduced within its shell.

My Table Magazine: Houston Culinary Awards Issue

I had the honor of being asked to illustrate this month's cover for Houston's My Table Magazine celebrating the 2011 Houston Culinary Awards and recognizing the seven Chef of the Year nominees (Mark Cox, Anita Jaisinghani, Randy Evans, Hugo Ortega, David Denis, Ryan Pera, and Marco Wiles.) Launched in June 1994, My Table is a critical guide to dining out – and dining well – in the greater Houston area. Special thanks to the great editorial staff at My Table for helping me put together this fun assignment.

For the past four issues I've also been having fun as the regular contributing illustrator on the magazine's "Tasting the Town" segment where one single food item is ordered and compared through various local restaurants. Previous featured items were calamari, Vietnamese iced coffee, garlic, and Asian steamed dumplings. Keep track of future issues of My Table to see what other delicious items will be featured!

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??

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.