Chicago Theater

I was asked to illustrate a Chicago landmark for a company card. I took a picture of the building during the day and then went back at night. I tried to convey a mood and ended up romanticizing the building a bit.

I have walked past this building so many times - I was amazed by the colors and beauty of the overall design when I was referencing the photos. I was very pleased with this -- I hope to do a few more landmarks this year since this one was such a pleasure to work on. Can't go wrong with something so classic!
Medium: acrylic with colored pencil on bristol board

Christmas Hydrant

I actually created a Holiday Card this year...kinda silly, but those that know me get it. Maybe next time I will actually acheive mailing them? (I had a weird cold that threw me off schedule!)

The fun part was painting small, playing with color, experimenting a bit and enjoying some of the "mistakes" that come from working organically.
Medium: acrylic paint and color pencil on bristol board.

Belmont Mural Project

I participated in a community mural project last month. The mural is a collaboration between neighborhood groups and the Chicago Public Art Group. Lead (awesome/amazing) artists are Tracy Van Duinen and Todd Osborne. They were kind enough to give me prime real estate within the mural to paint a bird. The bird is roughly 4ft x 5.5ft. It is the first bird that you see when turning left onto Belmont from LSD. The last picture is a photo I took from the bike path -- boaters, feel free to HOLLA!!

Branding a Wedding

I was commissioned to design a label for a very customized wedding. The couple wanted me to illustrate blooming roses arranged in the shape of a heart to fit a 2" x 2" sticker that would be placed on the gift for the guests (a cookie with a recipe specifically created for the couple by a chef). In an effort to not let it look like clip-art, after a few versions I settled on one blooming rose in the shape of a rose. Due to the small size, I finalized it as vector art. A few days before the wedding the groom wanted a JPG formatted for a slide show -- when I arrived at the reception two very large projector screens greeted me with my design -- VERY COOL!! I was very pleased that an illustration made for such a small format could hold its own when projected (the beautiful room dressed up in red and gold helped as well).

King For A Day

Nothing wrong with being King For A Day! I inked the monster, however, I do plan on building the city (inside the monsters mouth) in Illustrator. I am not solid on how I want the buildings to look just yet, so the development will be smoother tweaking it digitally.

Inspired Art - Charity Art Project

Above is an illustration I created for a charity art project called the Inspired Art Project. It is a 16x20 inch mixed media piece (marker | ink | colored pencil). The Inspired Art Project enlisted local artists to create and donate original works, inspired by original poetry written by the youth of America SCORES Chicago’s after school program. The artwork will be showing October 14-19th, 2010 at the South Halsted Gallery (1825 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL).
*Details regarding the auction and purchasing the artwork will be announced soon on the Inspired Art Blog.

The poem I chose is below. It was so simple that I had to find a way to complicate things. My interpretation of the poem stemmed from me pretending the poet, K. LeCalvion wrote the poem as a coded description of a creature he bumped into. The character turned out a bit quirky, but I wanted to stay away from a literal interpretation as much as possible.

To See

The sky is sunny
It’s a nice day to explore
To see the deer running past
To see the colorful fish in the stream
To see the snakes slither past
To see the bears eat honey
To see the monkeys swing in the trees

LeCalvion K., age 9
Washington Irving Elementary

Quirky Bird - Complete!

Quirky Bird has been on my shelf for a while...FINALLY I had a chance to get around to it. I am open to tweaking the colors later on and having one or two different versions, but the line work will stay the same. I added stylized elements that would give this piece the same off-beat feeling as Crazy Frog -- however, I neutralized the colors on the bird for a more bittersweet melancholy expression. Bittersweet it is!