New Illuuussstttrrrrrraaaaaaaaationnnnnn

Howdy,
This is an illustration for Sproute Creative and will be used as a promo piece for their zombie-fearing clientele.
There are a handful of illustration/design subjects that are universally created with joy. Zombies has to be one of these subjects, along with Dinosaurs, old-timey baseball, boxers(human), abraham lincoln era figures, and anything with tentacles. So, thank you Constantina for the assignment! Zombie inspired by Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and the Handsome Furs.http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/handsome-furs.jpg

20 years of trading fair in Minnesota!

The Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition is celebrating their 20th Anniversary in November and will be having quite the party to prove it. Here is a link to their site http://mnfairtradecoalition.org/ that will explain what they do better than I.

I originally had the poster being even more farmcentric, which is a direct result of spending time looking at Grant Wood's artwork, not to be confused with Hugh Grant. Learning that most members of the mnftc are industrial and union based I took a landscape approach and included as many areas of potential members as possible.

That's A Wrap!

Early Times Whiskey, who makes the whiskey for the famed Mint Julep concoction every year for the Kentucky Derby has an annual contest for one lucky artist to get their work on the mixed drink bottlewrap. A couple of months had gone by when a rep for the marketing company behind the contest called. However, the grand prize/honor was not to be mine, as I was informed that my illustration was considered but not ultimately chosen... I suppose that would make my horse the one in 2nd or 3rd!

Either way, it was fun to have to color everything by hand, they had a no digital rule, which was kind of refreshing. Everything is in ink and watercolor.

Illustration of a certain popular t.v. program

Certainly has been awhile since my last post. I have been working on building the new studio at 1032 Blair(I will post pictures soon). This post is of a self promo piece I did and will send to Ad Agencies, the reference is just too obvious to resist. I finished this guy last year and have sat on it for too long. I hope that Madmen hasn't jumped the shark yet.

Illustration Friday

This is a record for the Illustratin' blog. 2 posts within one week. Anyways, this post is an illustration for the illustration community website www.illustrationfriday.com where a topic is given every Friday and artists illustrate the topic. This week's word is "warning". You get extra credit if you can find the hunter.

Coffee shop drawings

This week I'm posting some drawings that I found in some of my sketchbooks, all were done at coffee houses in St. Paul or Minneapolis. Finding a place with good lighting is key. Also important is to successfully draw total strangers without looking like a creep. I haven't been confronted yet or asked to leave any establishments either, which is good. Most recently while waiting for work to be done on my car I waited and had coffee at a nearby Perkins and wow what a gold mine! Lot's of engaged customers with good natural lighting. Either way I hope to post more coffee shop drawings in the future. 

                                                                           

Savannah

Being that Valentine's Day is right around the corner I'm posting a drawing that I did for my wife. It was actually a Christmas present but since it was an image referencing our honeymoon it seems to be appropriate.

Savannah is an ideal romantic getaway and an even more ideal romantic artist getaway. The buildings/trees/people are all great subjects. I suppose that is why they have the largest Art School in the country there. I can't wait to go back there, hopefully during springtime.

Even though I don't usually do new year's resolutions. Even though it's 28 days late I would like to make posting on this blog (regularly) my 2011 resolution.

What better way to start by sharing the artwork that went into my 2010 highlight. Getting married to Jamie. A lot of work went into our wedding and as Jamie is working full-time and going to grad school I got to do much of the planning. The most exciting part which was the invitations, rsvps, directions, and save the dates.

I seemed to reference a lot of the artwork for Sleeping Beauty, which we had been watching around that time, for the save the date. I wanted to include the city of St. Paul as much as possible, as the skyline makes it into the save the date, and takes up most of the envelope with the directions that I hand drew.