New Poster, "Playing with the Boys"

This is a poster that I created for the Harrah's Casino "Night at Harrah's" advertising campaign that was canvassing for a local artist to create an image for a 90 by 90 foot space on a Main St. building side. The winner, in addition to the huge canvas that would be viewed by thousands of people on a daily basis, would win $10,000! That's a lot of money, and I'm sure that I would spend it wisely. There were just over 50 entries, and sadly, the top ten were very dissapointing to me. Seven of ten of them were images that I could have pulled from a stock illustration book. I don't want to be too bitter, so I won't go into detail. I would like to think that there is a reason that I haven't won a contest yet. I'm happy for the winner, a girl that I didn't know. Winning the contest sure made her night. Anyway, I designed an art deco piece to fit with the feel of our new down town. "Playing with the Boys" depicts a young woman and several meanings. She is the center of attention to not only us as the viewers on Main Street, but also the audience of gentlemen who have come to watch, impressed by her play. With her large stack of chips, we can assume that she is doing well at the table making her even more attractive on this night. Lastly, I subtly placed two kings around an ace on the table. With those boys on the table and the smirk on her face, we can only wonder what boys she might be hiding in her hand. In all, I designed this poster with an attractive style that would be appeal to all, making this game of intellect and chance a glamorous game, but not too intimidating. The attire of the characters evokes a nighttime feel: a night out. The suits and her sleek dress remind me of New Year's with a warm glow from the lights. The woman paying more attention to her cards then her visitors, exudes confidence in every aspect of her play.

Introducing Ireland

This past semester, I've been working on my thesis film, "A Very Hairy Christmas," with two classmates, Regina Weller and Kevin Howdeshell. This is the father character, Ireland, who is dressed in his work overalls ready to hang the Christmas lights on the trees of his small town set in the late 1940's. Thanks to the knowledgable people at Shadowmachine Films, with whom I interned for along with Regina and Kevin, I have learned the basics of stop motion puppet building. Ireland is some evidence of what I learned out there in L.A. If you are unfamiliar, Shadowmachine Films is the studio resposible for creating Robot Chicken, the show that I helped with, and Moral Orel, both aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

School is so close, I smell it already.

I'm here right now in St. Louis visiting Kevin's family and peeps. L.A.'s got nothin on this heat. It's been over 100 for the past week, and that's not even including the humidity which brings it up to a nice, healthy 107 or so. The two of us are driving back to K.C. tomorrow. The dorms are calling us. Then school starts on the 27th. I'm looking forward to the new begining: reorganizing my room, starting a new animation, my printmaking elective, seeing good friends again, getting back into my capoeira routine--which we have a 45 minute show in the ethnic festival in Loose Park this upcoming Sunday. This will be my first show since I had to cut back capoeira for L.A. I've missed it so much! So at this performance, we'll have Afro-Brazilian dancing, maculele (a fight dance with machettes or sticks, it's a crowd favorite), Brazilian music, and capoeira.
We'll here are some more sketches from the zoo.

Leaving L.A.

It's so sad leaving L.A., but Kansas City is calling, and so are my parents. This summer was absolutely fabulous, and I'm missing everybody already.
As for the images, these are some sculpts that I did during last semester, and a sketch from a trip to the zoo. The doll on his back is a capoeira character that I designed with the intention of using him in an illustration doing a jumping kick. His name is Peru, meaning turkey in Portugeuse. It's a tradition in capoeira to give nicknames to people when they recieve their first belt. The other character is Alejandro who is the star in my junior year animation. He's quite the handsome young hero, ready to sweep any woman off of her tush. The gorilla is from a day at the zoo with my sketchbook.

It's about time

This is my first blog entry. Yeah, for me! I'll start off with some older work. These are illustrations from the last two years while I've been at school. The figure was from a sophomore drawing class. I had just learned of Egon Shiele and studied his loose and exaggerated figures. If the drawing reflects that, is another thing. The Secret Police comic cover was done for a character design class. The Secret Police is a group that I created with the help of a classmate, Ian Gamble. They are entities that watch mischivious children like an extra set of eyes for parents. They are responsible for cluing parents in on their children's secrets. Oh, and my beloved American Royal Barbeque Contest poster, that was never seen by the public. It lost the very sad and dissapointing race to be the poster chosen to advertise this anual event. The judges thought that the chicken looked too much like Bart Simpson. Oh, those judges. They get me everytime.