Pony Anarchy Profile

Some of my work was featured in Pony Anarchy’s 5th issue.
Thanks Kristie Webster, I had a blast with the Q&A :)

Go directly to my profile here.

Phone Drawings

I started reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 this week. It’s a good read, but much too large to carry around. This has left me with nothing to do on the subway, so I got a stylus for my iPhone and have been drawing up quick color studies and sketches for a few minutes each day. The quality of brushstrokes (and ability to export sketches as layered PSD files) is pretty remarkable.
Here are some sketches of bowls, gourds, mummy hands, and suitcases.

Coconut or gourd or crystal or…

Suitcase

Bowl and feathers

Plants

Mummy hand

Hand and glove

I just returned to Toronto from my solo show in Savannah. I’ll post a bunch of photos/drawings from the opening in a few days :)

Sketchbooks and Korean Subways

I’ve been drawing in a small sketchbook for a few minutes before bed each night. Here are some samples from the last couple of days.
I’m going to make this a daily exercise. Sketching consistently first thing in the morning is the next step.

Batman's Dog

Levitation Sketch

Also, my Asobi Seksu tour poster is now on display throughout select Korean cities. Here’s a photo of Hongdae Subway station

Hongdae Station - Photo from SuperColorSuper

Thanks again, SuperColorSuper! It looks great :)

Woodcut Print

I recently printed a new woodcut at my friend Gideon Näf’s studio. These, along with some brand new prints/shirts, will be available for purchase once my redesigned website is online :)

The original drawing was scanned, edited, then etched onto masonite by Toronto Laser Services. They did a great job. I love how the clouds and mountains turned out.

Etched masonite :)

Asobi Seksu Poster

My good friends at SuperColorSuper are putting on a lot of shows in April/May, including No Age, Blonde Redhead, PG Lost and Asobi Seksu. I’ve been a fan of Asobi Seksu for a few years and was really flattered when they asked me to create a graphic for their upcoming shows in Korea.

I wanted to keep it really simple, blue, red, and white. Nevertheless, see if you can spot the 2 or 3 references to Japanese restaurants, bars and video games (in honor of Yuki Chikudate, the band’s singer :)

Asobi Seksu will be in Busan on May 11th, and Seoul on May 12th.

Watercolor Sketches

As promised, here are a couple of watercolor sketches from February.
My buddy Justin Labine is one of the best artists I know, and is giving me quick lessons in exchange for building him a quick website. I’ll post the link to his work once it’s ready. Hopefully you like it as much as I do :)

Sum 41 and Upcoming Shows

While backing up all of my digital files from 2012 so far, I stumbled across some images that I’ve neglected to upload.

.

.

These are some graphics that I made for Sum 41 a while back, for their Screaming Bloody Murder release.

March 9th is OCAD’s 2012 Alumni Exhibition, at which I’ll be showing a print. It’s at the Gladstone Hotel, so come by and have a drink or two or ten with me.

March 24th is the 9th Toronto Timeraiser, in The Distillery District. The Timeraiser committee always do such a great job, and I’m incredibly flattered to be chosen again. It’s a fantastic event, so grab your tickets asap!

My friend, and awesome artist, JP King created the Free Paper last autumn, and graciously printed one of my drawings in it (bottom right). Check out his work, it’s really good!

Last but not least, here’s a photo of my friend Lee’s baby wearing a onesie with cobras and dall sheep that I drew. Cool baby.

I’m on a 20 minute break from work while typing this. Currently I’m working on a portrait of Billy Corgan, so it’s really tough to concentrate while listening to some of my fav music from the last 20 years. Sorry if this is a crummy entry. Watercolor sketches will be uploaded this week, and they’re kinda cool (I swear!).

Superbowl Commercial illustrations

I was contacted by Toronto’s The Vanity to create keyframe illustrations for Bud Light’s Superbowl 46 commercial starring LMFAO.
The story is that LMFAO are playing halftime at the Supewrbowl, but end up at a seedy bar instead. After a phonecall from Madonna, they become animations and teleport to the halftime show, all while promoting Shazam’s offer of 1 million free song downloads.

Unfortunately the animated sequences were cut prior to final release, but here are some stills from the commercial.

Animation 1 - Main Frame

Animation 2 - Shazam transformation

Animation 2 - Bud Light transition

LMFAO - Guide to Party Rocking infographic

The Vanity are a really great post-production company, and I had a blast working with them. Many thanks to Tami Noa Levy, Sean Cochrane, and Steph Pennington at The Vanity. Keep up all the great work!

New Illustrations

Here’s a peek at a couple of the illustrations for my solo show this April, which will act as a side story to the main drawings. There will be approx 26 pieces in total (most of which are definitely not-really-done-but-sort-of-getting-there).

.

.

Oh man. Sorry these last couple of entries are really short. I have more to say, but I’ve cut back on smoking this month (from 14/day to 3/day). Overall it’s a great decision. In the long run I’ll thank my 26-year-old self for it. I’m even slowly substituting smoking with good habits and productivity..

..but every 70 minutes or so, every synapse and receptor in my brain turns into this:

.

Spin Galactic

A couple of weeks ago, Mike Echlin and I installed die-cut vinyls of our ping pong themed illustrations at Spin Galactic in Toronto. We’ve been working with this really cool removable vinyl for just over a year now, and it’s great to have a sample showcase on the walls of a place we regularly frequent.
.

.

.

.

.

.

Here’s a link to some of our vinyl samples that are available for purchase – CTY Vinyls

Thanks to The Baitshop for the great print quality, Ryan and Carrie at Spin Toronto, and to everyone for their continued support and contributions :)

Sorry this post is so rushed. I got my record player working and have been slamming to King Crimson all day. Slow, moody slamming.

1 LOVE T.O. – Feature

Thanks to Bryan Brock at 1 LOVE T.O. for featuring a few of my drawings. I really appreciate it. Keep up all the great work!

1 LOVE T.O. Feature :)

.

OTM Zine Interview

Last month I was approached by Aimée Legault and Tara Bartolini to do a feature on my work for the Winter 2011 issue of OTM Zine. I love the stuff they’ve done in the past and am very flattered to be included in the current issue.

Hermann & Audrey’s Jalani Morgan took all of the portrait photos. They look great, despite the fact that I can’t really smile and definitely can’t take direction.

OTM ZINE INTERVIEW

A special thank you goes out to Rebecca Burton for conducting a great interview, and for dealing with my rambling answers.

The images below are collaborative photo-illustrations that Jalani and I worked on (and are also a taste of some things to come :)

1

2

3

4

Behind the scenes