Happy Haunting!

Here's a Holiday postcard I created for the Disney fan site, D23. They put together a clever advent calendar on their site (D23.com) where over 20 Disney artists got to create their own holiday tribute to their Disney character or characters of choice. I love Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and have watched it over and over since it was released in theaters so I chose Jack Skellington for my piece. For the style, I was inspired by the 'scratchy' etched style that Burton would use in his illustrations. It's so very unique to him and for me, it's the only way Jack looks like himself in illustration form. I hope you like the piece and have a wonderful holiday season. Cheers!

Gettin' Fashionable!

Recently, I was fortunate enough to help out on a collaboration between Disney and Barney's on their Electric Holiday campaign. My contribution included creating the travel poster that appears at the beginning of an animated short, playing in the windows of Barney's New York store during the holiday season. Being a HUGE fan of travel posters, I had a blast combining the vintage travel aesthetic with a 'fashion-y' version of Daisy Duck. The result ended up being this poster, which you can get in postcard form at Barney's stores. As an added bonus, Air France was also involved in the campaign and I got to add their logo onto the poster, giving that official touch. This project was definitely a fun one which combined a couple of things I really love doing. Hopefully I get to do more of them in the future!

The Future is Now!

When I lived in London a few years ago, I looked forward to getting Shortlist magazine every thursday before I hopped onto the tube to go to work. It was a great read - covering everything from sports, to gadgets, to films and television. Even after I got to the office, my thursdays were much less productive as I found myself reading the articles instead of concentrating on work. It was a nice surprise to be contacted by the creative team at Shortlist a few weeks ago to illustrate the cover for their tech issue. There was no way i could say no after all the relaxing thursdays they provided me when I lived in the city. Hopefully the issue I got to work on will find its way into the hands of someone like me, who was too drunk by thursday and needed something interesting to keep him awake on that long train ride headed to the workplace. You are a life-saver Shortlist!

Brak!

Taking an occasional break from your day job is essential in order to clear your mind and return with fresh & exciting ideas. When I take breaks from the office job, well, I still find myself creating even more art for galleries and stuff. Okay, let me get more specific here. I'm talking more about the posters I design during the day, and the additional ones created for galleries and magazines in my free time. After years of working in that two-dimesional, rectangular format, I really look forward to trying different mediums and breaking out of the box, if you will. Sculpting is that something that feels just as creatively challenging as designing a poster, but completely different and freeing at the same time. For the Adult Swim tribute show at Gallery 1988, I broke out the Magic-Sculpt, carving tools, and paint to create my very own Brak tiki mask!


After dabbling with Super-Sculpey for years to create little sculpts of random stuff, I was turned on to Magic-Sculpt which is more of a resin. The beauty of it is that it's a lot more durable than Sculpey. Unfortunately, it hardens on its own in a few hours which leaves you a lot less time to perfect your sculpture. But after a while, you just learn to work quickly and plan out what you're gonna be able to sculpt realistically in that short amount of time.


I start with a quick sketch and then build a rough 'skeleton' with foam and a glue gun. The resin gets really heavy, really fast, so the foam helps to keep the overall weight of the sculpture a lot more manageable.


The resin is then mixed and sculpted directly onto the foam. I'll work on one section at a time such as the forehead, brows, and eyes and let it harden before i go onto other parts. Believe me, I'd rather carve a tiki mask out of actually wood, but I suck with saws and would probably cut a finger or two off, so resin is the safer option for me. After the sculpt is complete, I'll airbrush the base coat of paint then add in the detail touches with a brush. Those are bamboo shoots that make up his headdress.

That's a quick summary of my sculpting process. I really do find myself feeling like a kid playing with Play-Doh on a project like this. It definitely is a nice change of pace from the 2-dimensional work. And no, there wasn't any particular reason why I made Brak into a tiki god other than I thought it was random and funny. See, I'm not as conceptually heavy as you may think ;)

Ok, now back to the poster thing....