Star Wars Valentine's Day Card featuring Lando Calrissian

HOT OFF the PRESSES!

Another Cheesy Star Wars Card guaranteed to Delight
This time it's for Valentine's Day!
The sexy Baron Administrator of Cloud City has a message for your significant other.
"You've Lando'ed in My Heart"

Guaranteed to make any Star Wars fan's heart un-carbonite/melt.

Outer envelope has a stamped "A long time ago, on a holiday far, far away...

Folded (Vertical 4 1/4" x 5 1/2")
Clay coated 12 pt. premium card stock

Interior left - Cloud City silhouette


Lando Fun Fact:
He won Cloud City in a game of sabaac. Here's how it went down:

After spending several months on Cloud City gambling at the fancy casinos there, Calrissian played a game of sabacc against the Baron Administrator of the facility, a man named Dominic Raynor, after his success at gambling had caught the eye of the administrator. Little did he know that Ymile, the consort of Dominic Raynor, had helped him win with a skifter disguised as a pendant, but when a thief tried to steal her pendant, Calrissian seized him and returned the pendant to her, dubbing her his "Lady Luck." Calrissian quickly found himself in a very high stakes game, with millions of credits and his Cobra on the line, which he lost. However, this was revealed to be due to the actions of a furious enemy of Calrissian's, Barpotomous Drebble, who had planted a skifter in the deck to throw the game to Raynor, in a form of revenge on Calrissian for the gambler's winning large sums of money from Drebble. Raynor ordered Drebble removed, but refused to discount the game. Because an anonymous benefactor then advanced Calrissian five million credits, the gambler bet four million and his lot on Nar Shaddaa against Raynor's administrator's post, and won not only his ship back, but the whole game and became the new Baron Administrator of Cloud City. In doing so, he also had the aid of Ymile, who helped tilt the game toward Calrissian with her pendant even though she was with Raynor, since she wanted to leave and see the galaxy. The unknown benefactor turned out to be Cloud City's cyborg liaison, Lobot, who had obtained the credits from the pooled funds of thousands of Ugnaught workers, in order to ensure Raynor's departure.^[41] Though Calrissian's methods for taking the reins of the city were considered unorthodox, his new position was confirmed by a vote of both the governing bodies of Cloud City, which had done nothing to stop his game against Raynor.

Audio Link
Vader tells Lando where he can shove it.







Cards are available through my Etsy account.

Click HERE to visit my store.

Extremely Limited supply.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Quint from Jaws Portrait

JAWS is a perfect movie. Quint is one of my favorite characters of film. Robert Shaw gives such an all-time performance. He died only a couple years after it was released. What a shame, seems like he was just hitting his stride. That monologue he gives about the USS Indianapolis is so chilling, even just reading it gave me goosebumps. It was written by John Milius (Director of Conan the Barbarian/Red Dawn, writer of Apocalypse Now), uncredited.

"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail fin. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark will go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb."

There's a limited edition 13x19" print (with text "The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.") is available through my Etsy shop. Snatch one up quick!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91666302/quint-from-jaws-limited-edition-gilcee

Dr. Suess & The Wonderful World of Illo Confidential!

This is the first in a new series of portraits I am doing entitled “Influences”, honoring all of the great artists that have inspired my work and imagination throughout my lifetime so far. They’ve all touched me in a really positive & deep way, and this is my sincere and humble attempt to say thank you.

The group includes writers, illustrators, video game creators, animators, painters, puppeteers, comic book artists and film directors, some of them many of these things rolled into one. So far I have 16 portraits lined up, and will release a new one each week or so for the next couple months. The list may grow, there are so many!

At the culmination of this collection, I will be launching a website showcasing the imagery of a fantastic new world I’ve created full of monsters, heroes and villains, all of which are somehow inspired by their work.

I’ll be releasing the portraits in a ‘round about chronological order from when I was initally introduced their work, so first up is Theodore Geisel aka Dr. Suess! I remember his books at a very young age, my parents reading them to me, then me flipping through them, absorbing them, soaking up the buoyant world and wondering where it was. I remember splashing fish, and green eggs, bursts of color and lively lines. Suess was there before me was me, pointing the way towards childhood and beyond.

I’m doing this series digitally in a sketchier, more impressionistic & loose/ painterly style, which hopefully infuses them with more of a sense of playfulness. I hope you enjoy! I’m really looking forward to doing them all.

On another note, I want to announce that I was recently asked to be part of a new collective of award winning illustrators called Illo Confidential! It's really great, full of very talented and savvy illustrators, way more established than I am. I'm thrilled to be part of it.

Check out all the excellent work @ http://www.illoconfidential.com Follow us on FB & Twitter!

Ipad Beach/TV Monster Editorial Illustrations

Focusing on more non-portraiture/likeness related imagery lately. Above is an updated couple panels from the Art Brut comic "Sealand" I did a while back - a vision of 21st century beach goers, enjoying the sun, sand and... holding an Ipad, watching a movie. Plus, a grandiose under the sea castle where the beach couple goes to escape the troubles of the world.

Below is my imagining what is a little dog's perspective of television must be like -Scary! They don't understand... It must seem like a loud, seething beast sometimes.

Illustrations for Time Out Chicago - The 8 Reasons Why Obama Will Win in 2012

Did these for Time Out Chicago around Thanksgiving, finally getting around to posting something more in-depth with process and details. Was busy/holiday craziness! etc. Had a blast doing it, twisting our prez into a numerical pretzels. I made the procession of numbers into a dance, a ballet, as he takes off his blazer and rolls up his sleeves, burstingly confident at his re-election chances next year. I think he will. Romney just ain't all that, kinda phony to me. We'll see... Hoping to get more political work this year, would love to do more Obama illustrations. Props to Stephanie over at Time Out Chicago for coming up with a super fun & cool concept!

Below is a peak into my process.

Behold my reference files (lots), then the slop that I start with (cute, but yikes!), and the fancy refinement that follows.

Happy Birthday David Bowie

James Bond SKYFALL Poster - Process and Details

In early December I started experimenting with a new clean line style. Did a Carl Jung portrait for my father in law, really like the result, very freeing, I see a lot of possibilities.

Decided to use this style for a Superpunch James Bond art contest, depicting the new movie SKYFALL (Nov. 2012) directed by Sam Mendes, and loved the result. Will still do more rendered illustrations but am going to go in this direction for a bit. Plan to doing a bunch of movie posters this year, stay tuned!

Below is a bunch of process of process and detail shots.

Ralph Fiennes, good guy or baddie? The new M, perhaps?

The new Bond girl, Bérénice Marlohe.

Ben Whishaw, the new Q!

Naomi Harris, featuring her "28 Days Later" haircut

DENCH

Dame Judi Dench, that is!

Daniel Craig

Here's a screenshot of all my related files and reference.

11x17" Gicléee PRINTS now available through my Etsy shop HERE.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/93632213/james-bond-skyfall-poster-giclee

Portrait of Tommy Mekam

Here's a portrait I did of Tommy Mekam for my mom-in-law Sandy for Xmas. Sandy used to take my wife and sis-in-law to his restaurant on 57th St. when they were kids. They'd eat dinner and listen to Tommy sing. They think she had a total crush on him.

Kids & A Starfleet Captain!

Here are some portraits of kids I recently completed, plus a certain balding Captain of the USS Enterprise. Taking on more private commissions if you're interested. Check out COBBLE HILL PORTRAITS for more info.