I’m really glad to have the new site up and running. Updating the site is a lot easier when I’m happy with how it looks (not to mention that it functions perfectly, which is always a plus).

I had planned to do another video blog, but I got two great contracts a few days after my last update. I was invited to do a Threadless Select shirt and I had an offer to do a shirt for Oddica. Both of these were cool in that I got to dictate the subject matter and do my own thing. Oddica offered some poignant art direction and made the whole thing much better, too. I love when the people I’m working with get my concept and I’m happier when they have input that makes it better.

If you haven’t been to Oddica, go. Just the other day, as I got a vegan hummus wrap from my daily lunch stop, the employee behind the counter offered me a free sandwich, ’cause, “You always come in with the coolest shirts. You can have my daily sandwich.” He broke his jaw not long before and couldn’t eat it anyway. Protein shakes and soup, for him, I guess. Ouch.

However, Oddica = free lunch. You can’t beat that with a stick.

I’m usually a black pocket-tee sorta guy, but one of the advantages of doing a lot of tee designs this past year has been the freebies. I haven’t bought a shirt in about six months. Well, except for a few Herbivore items, but I’m doing work for them now, too. The magazine/shop is for a cause I believe in, and I offered to do some stuff pro bono, but they insisted I at least take store credit. That’s fine with me. They have a bunch of awesome vegan cookbooks and gear. I’m eying my recycled bicycle inner-tube belt as I type this. Really rad.

Anyhow, I wanted to post some progress shots for the Threadless Select shirt, which was the first thing on my daunting list of freelance.

Well, I finally made a more official video than my previous YouTube or Brightcove efforts. This new format is going to be hosted here and will be available for download as a Quicktime .mov file. That’s how most these video blogs are doing it, right? I’ll retroactively change it to an .m4v file if that’s preferred.

The audio isn’t the best, but I think it’s not bad considering I was using the built-in mic on my iMac. Expect the production values to be better in the future. This was a fun experiment and I’ll definitely be doing it pretty regularly. If there is anything you want me to specifically address, let me know!

I’d suggest downloading the file rather than attempting to stream it. She’s a bit big at around 65mb, but is high res and a great video quality:

I’ll replace this generic, placeholder download image with an iTunes subscription logo as soon as I get that setup.

Detail of Metalman Project submission. Full image here.

While compiling a few prominent pieces for inclusion in my portfolio (I’ve only got about half the eventual work I want to be displayed up at the moment), it became pretty obvious that I have a penchant for super-saturated, retina searing hues layered with volumetric lines as halftones (the stuff that conjures images of Charles Burns - I swear, I hadn’t seen his stuff before a friend sent a copy of Black Hole to me).

That being said, I still want to try and distance myself, a bit, or at least get a few more tools under my belt, so I’m not a one trick pony (or labeled derivative, not that there haven’t been tons of examples of this sort of shading in the halls of history, ’cause there are). I’ve done some digital painting and, while it doesn’t turn out bad, linework is still my first love, so it was natural to try some hatching instead of some mixing.

The first attempts at something like this come in the forms of a colored version of the Metalman piece in my portfolio (see above) and a cheesy, joke “seal” I slap on friend request approvals on the popular social networking sites (see below).

In the former, rather than stack patches of halftoned colors, I used solids inside of the linework and then applied a Photoshop filter to achieve the old, newsprint comic look. In the latter, I used a basket-weave-like hatch that I’ve seen used elsewhere but can’t place the name of and the most common forms of crosshatching and feathering.

That’s the giant, cheesy self-portrait ripe for use on social networking sites. I’ve got an account with most the usual suspects: Virb, MySpace, Livejournal, Flickr.

While I like the outcome, it feels a little more sterile than my other work. What do y’all think? This’ll definitely require more tinkering.

This site may be new, but I’m an old hat when it comes to blogging. Nearly all three years of my first attempts at drawing and subsequent career as an illustrator have been chronicled on my previous site, Penguinx.org.

To all the old faces returning, thanks for sticking around and following me over. Nothing makes me happier than receiving your comments and email. This format will be a bit of a change for you, but I’ll get into that shortly.

To the new readers, coming over to see my portfolio and getting sideswiped with a blog, expect to see regular vidcasts of my working process, tutorials, finished works, comics, and the occasional personal aside.

This blog will have video content and aim to be a lot more instructional as well as conversational. I get a lot of queries as to my process, and, being self taught, I can appreciate how helpful the open exchange of information in the community can be.

I’m extremely transparent about my process and wholly encourage you to ask questions, request tutorials, and participate in expanding mutual knowledge.