The Funky Fish Book - 2nd Printing!

So The Funky Fish Book is back!

210 pages of fishy love, mostly black & white with 6 color plates. Super cool.

And to jump start pre-sales while it's at the printers I will, once again, be giving away 10 ORIGINAL, FREE fish drawings that actually appear in the book itself to the first 10 sold. What a deal!

The first print run flew off the shelves and I hope the 2nd run does as well.

The books are $15 + $5 S&H ($25 total). I can do overseas orders but please email me to discuss.

Octopus Sculpture - WIP 1

So I have a spot above the TV in the living room about 5' x 3' that needs filling and have had an idea to do an octopus sculpture for awhile now to fill it. I have a propensity towards octopi so it makes perfect sense. So after much mental deliberation I actually got down to working on it. This is my rough sketch to get my basic shapes down. I didn't do much work on the tentacles in the rough as I'll just let them take their shape as I sculpt. I had an old sculpture in the garage that I was doing nothing with and had a pretty good form already so I sawed it in half and recycled it to get the form I have now. This sculpture should go relatively fast, as unlike my other sculptures, isn't covered in 1000+ scales.

Splinter Pinup - Rough

So I'm working on another TMNT pinup. This time I chose to do Splinter. At first I was leaning towards the typical "zen" pose for Splinter but after numerous roughs I realized I wanted to show him kicking some ass and what better bad guys for Splinter to be fighting than some Mousers.

Knights of the Dinner Table - cover

A fun job I did a month or two ago, a cover for the Knights of the Dinner table RPG magazine.

One of my fish has found a good home.

It seems one of my fish has found a good, safe home. This makes me happy.

Thanks for sharing Kimberly.

TMNT short - "One's Shadow"

So this came out last month I believe so I figure it's okay to post the final pages. Pencils by me, inks and letters by Eric Talbot.

Creepy Dude 2

Wednesday sketching.

Got together last night with a few pals to do some sketching. Here's the result.

I'll be doing a print of the cowboy, I really like how he came out. He fits perfectly in a 8x20 frame.

Creepy Dude

30 minute warm-up sketch.

Gen Con was awesome, we had a great time. It was good to go and not have to worry about a table and just play all weekend. I'm still recovering. Pictures forthcoming.

Mermaid sketch

Big Beautiful Wonder Woman

Here's a collaborative effort between myself and Jeremy Mohler. I did the linework and he threw down some awesome colors. It was for the BBWW Wonder Woman blog and thanks go out to Jamar, who runs the blog, for the kind words.

Also we've started sketching again and have tried to get a somewhat weekly thing going with some of the artists around town. We met at Flightpath last Thursday night and I doodled this page. It was cool to get out and do some drawing.

So Gen Con is this weekend and I'm looking forward to some R&R. I don't have a table this year so some buddies and I are just going to play (Starcraft 2 here I come!). Should be a fun weekend.

TMNT & an extemely cute baby.

Tales of the TMNT #48 is on stands now and it contains the short story I did the pencils for. Here's the first page of the story. Penciled by me, inked by lord of the ink, Eric Talbot. I'm really pleased with how it came out. Groovy to see the inks and lettering to finish it off. So go grab ya a copy or two.

And now for something completely different, a picture of my relatively new (almost two months old) niece Isabel. Is she freakin' cute or what?

Branching out.

A little watercolor sketch I did last weekend that seemed to fit the post's title.

So I have been wanting to get a bit more exposure to some other communities and genres so I have gotten up a DeviantArt page here and also subscribed to Picture Book here (you can also click on the banner to the right). We'll see how those go. Thanks go out to Jeremy and Andi for the subtle and not-so-subtle nudges. Thanks guys.

On another note, it's been a month since my buddy Jeremy rented out my extra room and it's been going really well. It's really cool to have another artist around and we have been bouncing ideas and critiques off one another all month. Good times.

I'm back.

Well theoretically, anyway.
My blog has been sadly neglected as of late and I am going to try and remedy that. I recently completed a huge slew of concept work which I can't post due to NDA's and have gotten back to doing some freelance illustration work of which (most) I can post.
Last weekend was the liveart show benefited KOOP and it was a lot of fun. Some cool artists and cool bands and hey, anyplace that sells PBR tallboys is an instant hit with me. I did four pieces total and I sold two so it was a success as far as I was concerned.
Lots of fun.

This one sold very quickly.

This is one sold before I was finished. It seems the nice lady that bought this one had bought another one from my last liveart show. I received a creepy question from a complete stranger while drawing this one.*

I knew this one was coming home with me (which it did) but it was fun.

I had an idea for this one before the show. Not exactly how I had pictured it but oh well. Maybe next time.

Thanks go out to Chris "Uncle Staple" Nicholas of Staple! fame and Kevin Peake for setting up the liveart stuff. Thanks guys.
So onto some more illustration. I was happy to FINALLY finish Captain Bogg & Salty's Frogg Island this week. I took way too long on this but honestly, it was a very intimidating job but I finally just put my head down and piled through it. It's for their new album entitled "Frogg Island" (I think). I was thrilled to hear the album pre-mixed and man, these guys have lifted their own bar. It's awesome. If you haven't heard any of their music, you really should. They kick much ass and if you're able to see them live, do yourself a favor and do it. You can see their badass video for their song "Pieces of 8ight" here.

If you really want to see a huge copy of the map click here.
Well I promise to post more art in the near future. I hope the five of you that check the blog are still with me.

*Creepy question when asked by a lady old enough to be your mom who you don't know while pointing to the naked lady you're currently drawing: "Does drawing this turn you on?"

Suh-weet! I won an award.

What this means can be seen here. Thanks so much Andi!
So in other news I've been busy with a lot of work that I can't post, NDA's and all that. So not a lot of art to post unfortunately. I'm ready for this week to be behind me because I'm really bummed I'm not going to San Diego Comic Con this year and I'm sick of every artist but me it seems posting "I'm about to get on a plane to San Diego, see everyone there!" or "Man I'm stoked to get to San Diego this year!" etc... It really sucks for those of us not going. Next year!
So that being said, I'll be attending a "We're not going to San Diego, let's all hang out and commiserate together" party at Austin Books this Friday and will be doing a live art show on Sunday to benefit KOOP

So if you're in the Austin area this week, come on out and say howdy (and say how much fun you're having even though we're not in San Diego).

Only In Dreams

For those in the Austin area, the group show "Only In Dreams" will be up all through July at the Flightpath Coffee House with the opening happening this Saturday from 7-9. So if you're in the area go check it out.

Fish Tank

Hope everyone had a great 4th weekend! I had way too much fun and am still recovering.
I have been super busy with work and have been doing tons of concept work. Unfortunatley most is under NDA's so, consequently, nothing I can post. I felt like my blog has been sadly neglected. Lately I've been in a complete funk and haven't felt very artistic and not very inspired. I tried working on a new sculpture but lost my impetus quickly. I hoped the weekend off with friends would recharge the batteries. I just got some new art supplies I ordered in the mail so I'm excited to try those out. I have had a hankering to get away from the computer a bit and actually put paint to paper... I also REALLY miss reading (I have been reading a lot of historical stuff lately but no fiction) and after catching one of the movies in the hotel room over the weekend I decided to read all the Harry Potter books from beginning to end. I started the first one yesterday.

*Update: Those of you who ordered fish books, they're out the door and you should be getting those soon along with your original art. Because of a complete snafu with the printer, I was only able to fill pre-orders and I'm not sure if I'll be printing more. So those who got books may have gotten the only ones. The printer really dropped the ball and I am more than disappointed that the whole process didn't happen as I had hoped and expected. I have looked into other options to get them printed but right now it looks unlikely. Bummer.

WEGS : PIRATES!

The linework for the cover to WEGS: Pirates.

The Sea Hags of Penzantium

One of a group of illustrations I'm currently working on for the WEGS Pirate RPG. I really like the way they came out. I may have to color them up and put them on my business cards or something.

Wee Cowboy.