Happy Alien T-Shirt

I have at-shirt design up for voting on Threadless.com! I'd appreciate a vote if you can spare a few mins! :)

Check it out!

The Doctor Is In!

I'm working on a cartoon/caricature of the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, and I thought I'd share my progress so far!

Sketch Up!

I've been teaching myself to use Google Sketch Up this week, and below is one of my first models, which I plan to build up into a UFO for another project I have going. The program isn't all that hard to use, but there are some differences. Even so, I'm having fun; even my daughter wants to download a copy to play with!

Part of what inspired me to check this our was the DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics, where it is mentioned, as well as Chris Oatley's Artcast, a podcast by a Disney employee about all things illustration. Chris didn't mention Sketch Up specificially, but in his most recent podcast, he talked at length about understanding the form of what you are drawing, from all angles. Being that I don't have access to real UFO (does anyone?), I thought creating one in Sketch Up was the next best thing!

So, here is the result, so far! I'll be working some more on this as I go through, but I really love the idea of having 3D models available for spacecraft as well as other things; something I feel of great use to all artists!

Relay T-shirt

Front

Back

Here's the design I did for this year's Relay for Life benefit, an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society to encourage assistance in the cure for cancer. This is the entry for my company; in case you hadn't guessed, this year's theme is Hollywood!

Shock the Monkey!

I'm working on some digital sketches for a new project; here's a monkey character I've just started!

Colbert Complete

I've finished the digital version of the Colbert sketch I posted the other week. I'd love to hear your comments on it!

2011 Relay for Life T-Shirt

My work sponsors the annual "Relay for Life", an event dedicated to finding a cure for cancer, among other things. Each year there is a theme, and this year it's "Hollywood" or "Hollyrelay" if you prefer! Here's some of my initial sketches for our logo:

Work in Progress: He Is America!

I've been inspired by the work of cartoon/caricature artist Tom Richmond lately. Those of us who are a little bit older recognize his style from Mad Magazine. He's written a excellent series of blog posts/tutorials on drawing caricatures, with a book soon to follow. If you are interested in this style of work, I highly recommend checking out his blog and getting his book when it's published!

This inspired me to do the drawing up above, who I hope you recognize as Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. It's the first caricature I've done in a long, long time, and, after around 5 or more sketches, this is where I arrived. My next steps will be to re-create it digitally in Illustrator, my software of choice. I'm also thinking I may do that one as a tutorial, but I'm not sure if I want to go the screenshot or video routes with that...if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

2011 Portfolio Design Launched!

This weekend, while I wasn't crying about the Steelers loss, I finally finished my portfolio update for 2011! Well, ok, not totally finished, as I've yet to complete my contact form, but for the most part, the design is done, so now it's all just filling in content!

I have to be honest, I've agonized over this for quite some time. I've done a lot of reading on portfolio design from many, many sources, and here is where I landed:

JEG Creations Portfolio Site

It looks a bit funky on IE7, mainly the navigation buttons, but otherwise, it appears to be cross-browser functional. If you see otherwise, please let me know, and I'll work on fixing it!

I'm also interested in hearing from other artists out there; any comments or suggestions? I'm constantly in self-improvement mode, so I welcome any constructive criticism.

A Fresh Start

I've been away from blogging for quite some time now. I've decided to spend my time doing paying work and re-vamping my portfolio website, the latter of which I'm just about ready to launch! From here forward, I'm going to post at least once a week to give updated on what sort of work I'm doing or whatever else I feel will be helpful at a given time. For now, I still have some work to do, so I'm going to get back to it!