More prints!!

In addition to the series of travel posters, I found a few older prints that I had created for Gallery 1988 that are also now on sale on their site: www.gallery1988.com. Unfortunately, Hill Valley 1 and Duck Hunt are no longer available.

Fly with Tanner Airlines!

All the prints from my solo show (15 in all) are now available at gallery1988.com. Happy Travels!

It's show time!

Let me dust this crazy blog off! I haven't posted in forever because I've been hard at work on a solo show which debuts this June at Gallery1988 in Los Angeles. When the fine folks at the gallery approached me a few years ago for a show, I never really could fathom committing to one because: A) my day job saps up too much creative energy (in a good way) rendering me sleepy after 6pm, and B) I just didn't have any exciting ideas that I could sustain over a series of pieces. Over the past few years, I've been fortunate enough to travel to a number of cool places around the globe. I would always have my sketchbook in hand to capture what I saw and write down funny observations I noticed about each place that was uniquely theirs. Whether it be some food everyone went crazy over, or an iconic something that everyone took pictures of, I'd either jot it down or do some weird sketch of what I witnessed. A few years ago, at one of Gallery1988's Crazy4Cult shows I had created a 'travel poster' based on my favorite movie of all time 'Back to the Future'. I've also gotten to create travels posters at Disney for films like Up and Cars - and for characters like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and the rest of the gang. The graphic designer in me loves the structure and typography of these types of posters and the illustrator in me loves drawing each element within them. When it came to coming up with an idea that could work as a series for a solo show, my travel sketchbooks and all the travel posters I had created for other things came to mind. Instead of creating film-inspired posters, like the Back to the Future one, I decided to use the actual cities I visited. Cities new to me like Hong Kong, Paris, Barcelona, and London - and ones that were very familiar to me like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and San Diego. Hopefully everyone who either lives in these cities or has visited them will relate to the humor i tried to convey with each one. The show starts June 28th at Gallery1988 East in Los Angeles and runs through July 20th. I hope to see you there!

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....

Long Live the King

Being creatively inspired and motivated each day is one of the greatest things about working in the same environment with other artists . I'm lucky enough to work with people who love collaborating and energizing the rest of the group by initiating fun personal projects that are a nice break from our daily duties.

Eric Hutchison, a fellow artist at Disney came up with a cool idea to create our own stylized piece based on one of Disney's famous villains. These interpretive pieces would eventually go into a hallway gallery on campus which showcased each artists' take on a familiar foe. I chose Scar from The Lion King.

Since I LOVE combining imagery and typography, you can probably guess what I chose to do. That's right, another movie poster (yawn!). My take on The Lion King is from Scar's standpoint, as the one who will do anything to be king. Therefore the tone is a lot darker as Scar's presence looms over the kingdom.

A project like this, which really has no limitations and reflects our own personal style is always exciting. Seeing where the other artists took their chosen villain was really inspirational. Although we all work in the same office on a lot of the same projects, we definitely keep our own individual aesthetic and personalities going. Hopefully we get to do more of these in the future.

Happy Holidays Everybody!!

Every December for the last 10 years or so, I've created a holiday card for everyone at the office. What started out as a silly joke, featuring a gingerbread man eating parts of other ones, has gotten progressively worse over time. The reaction I get from coworkers is usually an 'Oh no..' as I hand it to them, an uncomfortable look at the card, then a 'What's wrong with you???' reply. Some may say that I've been this twisted all along, but I'd like to believe that they've gotten worse as I've gotten older and my dementia kicks in.

I find creating the cards to be my favorite project all year. I enjoy the challenge of squeezing even more sickness outta this brain and it's one of the only things I get to do that doesn't involve clients, art directors, buyers, and movie studios...wait, I enjoy those challenges too. Okay, I'll admit, I think I love working on these things so much because of that precious moment when I show my grandma the card, she takes a look and realizes that her grandson is an idiot, then she smiles uncomfortably and hands it back to me. I'll say "But grandma, I made it for you!", then she'll just pat me on the head and roll away. I live for those moments!

Have a happy holidays everybody!

D23 Interviews Me!

The Disney fan site, D23, recently visited me at work for an interview. They quizzed me about everything - from my creative process to what my favorite Disney films are. If you read all the way through, you'll basically feel like you spent way too much time with me!

Check out the interview here.

Total Garbage!!

UPDATE: The 'Eerie Eric' painting is now on sale HERE.


As a kid, there wasn't anything as cool to me as baseball cards, comic books, action figures, Mexican candy and Garbage Pail Kids. They really did define childhood and when I see any of those things, I'm instantly brought back to those days. I think the combination of the Mexican candy and GPK cards really affected my brain and shaped the twisted sense of humor that I have now.

Gallery 1988 had the awesome idea to ask a bunch of artists to re-interpret their favorite Garbage Pail Kids. I always liked the werewolf know as 'Eerie Eric' for obvious reasons so I chose to work on him. Instead of working digitally and doing the prints I usually do, I decided to pick up a paintbrush and acrylics and do it old school just like they would have in the 80's. I found painting to be such a nice & relaxing change. When I think about it, I'm in front of the computer pretty much all week, so breaking away was a good thing. With my version of 'Eerie Eric', I paid homage to the original by using the same elements such as the moon, the trees, the bats, and his bone. I changed it up a bit by giving him a tuxedo shirt, a little bat bow tie, and more of a distinguished gentleman type of attitude. That's the part of me that I added. I'm not necessarily as suave, but I try. The painting itself is 8" by 10" and is painted on oak. My friend Mike helped shred the frame and I got the bronze nameplate from a trophy shop.

Be sure to check out the show if you can. It starts September 2nd.

Tiki Stitch Meet Lava Stitch

One of the projects I've worked on in the past that gets the most "Hey do you have any more of those???" is the Tiki Stitch that Mindstyle released a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I think that one sold out. Fortunately, they released a 2nd "Lava" version that I finally got to see at this years San Diego Comic-con. "Lava" Stitch is an exact replica as far as size and detail, the only difference is that's he's painted this crazy lava rock black. He looks a bit more menacing, in a Darth Vader sorta way which I like. You can get this devilish guy over at Action Figure Express.

Propaganda Time!!

Wired posted the 1st look at a series that was assembled under as much secrecy as a S.H.E.I.L.D. operation. Captain America: The First Avenger flies into theaters in the states this week, just in time for the annual San Diego Comic-con. Mondo, who has a booth for the very first time at said convention, will release these at some point, as well as a wicked vintage set by Olly Moss, and an insane one-sheet by Tyler Stout. I truly admire the work of both artists, so it really is amazing to be included in this series.

This is also a ridiculously awesome project for me. My brother, my cousin Jeff, and I started collecting comics when we were grade school kids and have been attending the con for almost 20 years. After flipping through all the Marvel books, I'd try my best to draw all the different characters - from the Avengers - to Spidey - to the X-Men. It was definitely a goal to work on these characters one day so when this project came about, I actually reverted into a total fanboy. I really never thought I'd get the opportunity and I really hope I made the most of it. It really is a childhood dream fulfilled.

Visit the Mondo booth #433 if you can make in to the Con. The Captain pieces are priced at $80 for the set of two 18-inch-by-24-inch screen prints that will be sold in a limited edition of 220.

McFly for Sale!

A HUGE thanks to everyone who traveled to Gallery 1988 for the Crazy4Cult opening. It's always cool to see that show come together and enjoy the different interpretations of all the cult films. For those of you unable to make it, the show is now online at Gallery 1988. And you can also purchase my 'In George We Trust' print HERE.

The Crazy4Cult book is also available (that's me holding it) on their site. It collects work from the previous 4 shows and is a pretty wicked read if you ask me.

In George We Trust!

Another summer means another Crazy 4 Cult show at Gallery 1988. In my most unoriginal move ever, I paid tribute to the same exact film I did last year, Back to the Future. Yes, I LOVE the movie that much!

While watching it for the 257th time, something hit me. After George McFly knocks out Biff and dances with Lorraine at the prom, a couple next to them insists that the now-popular George runs for class president. I thought to myself "would George actually run??", which led to "if he did, what the heck would his campaign poster look like????". And that's where this little poster idea was born.

In my mind, George would never look as confident and as comfortable as Barack Obama might in the Shepard Fairey poster. Nope, he would look as if the photographer yelled "Say Cheese!!" while he was fixated on cheerleaders practicing at the other end of the gym. His hair would be straying all over the place because he had just run to the shoot after being 20 minutes late. The quote, which Marty took from Doc and relayed to George while they were hanging clothes, would still be fresh in his mind. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I think way too much about this stuff.

With so many cult films to choose from, I swear my BTTF kick is probably done after this and I'll come up with something fresh next year. Oh wait, I suddenly have the urge to create something Biff-related. Say hi to your mom for me!

'In George We Trust' measures 18" by 24" and is a 3-color silkscreen print from D&L Screenprinting. It's a signed & numbered edition of 200 and will be sold starting Friday, July 8th at the gallery. I hope to see ya there!