Chades: Choose Your Own Drawing Adventure

The caption is as follows:

"Once there was a pink kitten who made a deal with the devil so he could avenge the death of his parents."

I was thinking of an anti-super hero in the vein of Spawn.

Visit Austin's site to see more Pink Kittens.

I was going to draw a background and a grand battle ensuing but low and behold times was again a factor to consider.

Book Writing

So I have a new adventure I have been pursuing. I recently started writing books with my 3 year-old son Griffin. My mother was a school teacher and it was her idea. We usually find a picture, ask Griffin questions about the picture and he fills in the blanks, which make the story. It is very fun and I highly recommend trying it sometime.

Yesterday I asked him if he would prefer writing a story based on drawings I made, or write a story and have me draw pictures based on what he wrote. He wanted me to draw pictures based on what he wrote. We both like robots so I asked him if he would like to write a story about robots. He agreed and this is how it went:




Me: What is the robots name?

Griffin: The robots name is Rent-Bob.








Me: What does the robot do?

Griffin: He is a fisherman.


Me: How does he catch the fish?

Griffin: He uses a fishing pole.

Me: What kind of fish does he catch?

Griffin: He catches pink fish.



Me: Where does he fish?

Griffin: He fishes in a book.


















Here is a picture of the Author to go along with the back cover of the book.







To be honest, since I heard about Griffin's diagnoses, I have been less than inspired to draw. Maybe this will be the spark to get me back on the drawing wagon, so to speak. If any of you, out there in the blogging world, would be inspired to illustrate a short Griffin story, let me know and I will send you a story that you can illustrate too. It can be loose, it can be sloppy, and it can be awesome in it's simplicity.

I will admit, I have been playing with this character design for a few weeks now. There is a story I have been writing with my sister that will have a robot character in it. This was a good excuse to practice using the robot in scenes and different poses.

I used drawing paper, pencil (with no eraser), and crayon. Crayon is an interesting media but can be frustrating when working at a small scale; this book is about 4.5 inches x 4.5 inches. Next time I try my hand using crayons I will do so at a larger scale.

T-shirt ACC Stormwater

Stop standing there idle, help those animals express their frustration.

7/20/09 Update of original art to make all parties happy.




Here is a job I recently finished. It is for the Athens/Clarke County Stormwater department. They needed a t-shirt for their new hot-line. It was requested to illustrate the design to look like a graphic novel. This is my attempt. Tell me what you think.

This is a 5 color screen-print on a light blue t-shirt. I added an updated version July 17th so you can take a look at the half-tones.

Griffin Day 5k: T-shirt

I have not posted in a long time and for a good reason. My 3 year-old son was diagnosed with Leukemia ALL on May 20th. We are blessed to see our son, Griffin, responding well to the treatments on a medical level. This type of Leukemia has 80-90% cure which is great. That said, he has not been himself and he is currently in a lot of pain.

We were in the hospital for over a week and I have been transitioning back into work. The only free time I have is when I sit with Griffin to comfort him. I cannot draw while I do this but I can read, and I have read four books since this whole thing started: The Shack, The Wizard of Oz, The Sun Also Rises and Dune. I will probably not get into posting often for awhile: this also means I will not be visiting my favorite bloggers very ofter either. I have not forgotten all of you.

The t-shirt designs, above, are for a benefit for my son. A friend of ours had the bright idea of putting on a 5k run to benefit Griffin and our family. We are making a day out it with a raffle, potluck, and music in the evening. These shirts will be given to the runners and will be available for purchase by the general public. If you are able to be in the Athens, GA. area July 18th please come by: Let me know in your comments and I will get you more information. If you like the shirt and you want to get one/support us please let me know.

About the design: Griffin's favorite color is purple, hence the purple shirt. I wanted to graphically show cancer cells (red crabs) intermingled with white blood cells (yellow rounded stars) and have the cancer cells disappear across the design. It's all very symbolic and hopeful. To top it off, who does not like looking at a picture of my son Griffin.


Update: To purchase t-shirts and/or register for the 5k go to

http://griffin5k.blogspot.com

Eric Clapton

Recently I was humbled to be to have the opportunity to designs a concert t-shirt for Eric Clapton. This kind of opportunity does not come up very often and frankly, I honored just be able to take part. Clapton is a music legend, and in my opinion, he is be admired for staying relevant and rocking for so many years.

I have been doing some freelance design for a screen-printing company for which I used to work full-time. Pretty much all the t-shirt designs seen on my blog are from work I have done for this company. When I got the call that we would be submitting designs to Clapton's management I was ecstatic. The only direction they gave was not use Clapton's face or an image of a guitar. So here is the best of what I came up with in a two day dead-line.

Sound Cloud: The concept was to combine psychedelic art with modern design.
Rasta Clapton: The idea here was to capitalize on one of Clapton's best known hits; his remake of the Bob Marley classic "I Shot the Sheriff."
Clapton Monument: He is so monumental in the history of rock that I thought it only fitting.

I am still waiting on what Clapton's people think. In the interim, please let me know your thoughts. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

IF Poise: T-shirt Submissions

In these recently created designs, and the designs from the previous two post, I have been trying to create compositions with a great degree of poise.

Poise from Webster's- 1: a stably balanced state : equilibrium poise between widely divergent impulses — F. R. Leavis>2 a: easy self-possessed assurance of manner : gracious tact in coping or handling.

"Odd Bird"

"Type-Writer"

"Super 80's"

"Tape Vomit"

"The End" based on the real ending of The Watchmen.

I have not been posting lately because I have been fervently working on some t-shirt designs. These, along with the previous two posts, are some of the submissions I have made to a start-up company called "Transmission." I am very excited about the prospects of this company.

Please let me know what you think about the designs: Would you were them? Which is your favorite? Do any of them rub you the wrong way? Do they have poise?