SKRILLEX/Atomic Dubstep/Dinobot Illustration

Meet Skrillex, the divisive, grammy-nominated DJ. Watch chicks “shufflin”, the crowd going wild. The Dubstep scene is taking over with atomic sounds! Done as a gift for my brother Andrew, who’s riding atop the emerald robo-pterodactyl. Hop on yours today and check out the scene. Oh yes, that is indeed SWOOP of the Dinobots! Michael Bay, are you listening?

Jim Henson, The Upper Echleaon of Fantasticness

Jim Henson. The upper echelon of fantastic-ness, a legendary man. This portrait I did reminds me of Treebeard from The Lord of the Rings. Kind of a odd comparison, but to me it rings true. He’s rooted in my generation like a great ancient oak, forever there. The Muppet Show and Sesame Street were centerpieces to my childhood, an amazing place to go and learn, to wonder about the world. The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth, total masterpieces, brought his talents to a darker, cinematic world, that was the beginning of a new brilliant strain of his work that he would have continued to explore. It really pisses me off that he’s gone, died so young, only 54!, he should be alive today. We missed out on all that he would have done. Computers look over and gave us some cool stuff but I miss the hand craftedness and human sensitivity that he brought to the table. I think the we all could use his warmth right now, in the light and shadows of the real world.

This is the 5th in a series of portraits I am doing entitled “Influences”, honoring all of the great artists that have inspired my work and imagination growing up. They’ve all touched me to the core, and this is my way of saying thanks and honoring their role in the creative universe. 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 20 portraits lined up, and will release a new one each week or so for the next couple months. At the culmination of this collection, I will be launching a new website showcasing the world I’ve created inspired by their works. A fantastic & dangerous place, full of funky creature-folk, shrill despots, fantastical beasts, militant chancellors, innocent souls & magical beings. Stay tuned!

Time Out New York - Book Clubs

I have an illustration in this week’s Time Out New York, The Spring Preview Issue. It’s for an article about various Book Clubs in the metro area, good stuff. I love the Greenlight Bookstore especially. I did some work for Time Out Chicago a couple months ago and had been trying to get in my town’s issue for a while now. Cheers Adam! Went with a looser, more linear & playful style for this assignment, think it has lots of potential. I had a blast doing it, especially the Moby Dick scene within a scene.

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Creator of GODZILLA

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Creator of GODZILLA. I remember as a kid watching a commercial for what was Godzilla vs. Mothra and seeing Mothra in creepy larva form crawling down the street spewing webs and being blown away. Then I heard Godzilla’s roar and saw him for the first time. My jaw hit the floor, it was love at first sight, I was hooked. Tanaka created Godzilla in 1954 in an effort to illustrate the terror Japanese felt after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but that changed in the mid 60s. This was during his “friendly look” phase when he became the “hero of the world”, fighting off The Smog Monster, King Ghidora, Gigan etc. punching em out Ali-style, doing victory dances, throwing off attitude, hanging on Monster Island, raising his son. I love the whole man in suit genre, has so much more character and soulful realism then most CGI effects. Yeah, it looks fake, but then again so does CGI. Realism wasn’t the point though, the point was to make it look cool, and Godzilla was most def cool. Thank you Tanaka and the whole Toho crew for giving us GODZILLA, King of ALL Monsters!

Whereas the first three entries in this series where well known creators with plenty of reference to choose from, this small, grainy photo is the only picture of Tanaka out there that I could find, despite all my deep googling and reference hunting. Cropping/enlarging around his face only made it blurrier and grainier, not a lot of visual info to go on. So I instead I focused on illustrating my opinion of his essence, The Mob Boss/Master Creator from Planet X!

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This is the 4th in a series of portraits I am doing entitled “Influences”, honoring all of the great artists that have inspired my work and imagination growing up. (1. Suess, 2. Sendak, 3. Disney) They’ve all touched me to the core, and this is my way of saying 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 20 portraits lined up, and will release a new one each week or so for the next couple months. At the culmination of this collection, I will be launching a new website showcasing the world I’ve created inspired by their works. A fantastic & dangerous place, full of funky creature-folk, shrill despots, fantastical beasts, militant chancellors, innocent souls & magical beings. Stay tuned!

Walt Disney, Uncle Walt.

Walt Disney! Uncle Walt. The first movie I ever saw in the theaters was a re-release of Pinocchio, one of the best, if not the best, animated movies of all time. I found the ending, with Pleasure Island and then with Monstro, to be absolutely terrifying, and amazing. Today I just find it to be amazing, and terrifying. There is a jaw dropping amount of brilliance and artistry in every frame. Walt led those artists, cracked the whip, built a white castle, created an empire. I grew up on Disney, all of Disney – the movies (animated & live action), the cartoons, tv shows, loved all the characters, played in the Magic Kingdom, ate Tonga Toast at the Polynesian Hotel, rode the monorail, freaked out at Space Mountain, took pictures with Captain Hook. It’s in our blood now, fused into our DNA, part of our thinking. Disney changed what was possible. The world is a better, cooler, more imaginative place because of him.

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This is the 3rd in a series of portraits I am doing called “Influences”, honoring all of the great artists that have inspired my work and imagination growing up. They’ve all touched me to the core, and this is my way of saying 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. At the culmination of this collection, I will be launching a new website showcasing the world I’ve created inspired by their works. A fantastic & dangerous place, full of funky creature-folk, shrill despots, fantastical beasts, militant chancellors, magical beings and innocent souls. Stay tuned!

Maurice Sendak, The Monster King

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was THE book of my childhood. It’s perfect. The concept of running away to a island full of monsters, then becoming their king! was like crack to my young brain, still is for that matter. But all of his books are cool and interesting, they still draw me in. There’s an honesty to them that sets them apart. Plus his artistry is just the best, so unique in style and sure of itself. The way he infuses his drawings and characters with life, be it a bear or a baby or a wild thing, is just magic. Sendak is indeed a wizard, the gold standard. Here’s to you, Monster King. I am happily under your spell, and will be forever.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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