America's Funniest Home Videos

This is my piece for Gallery 1988's We Made Them Do It art show, which opens tonight in LA.

Gallery 1988 kick-started a trend when they opened in 2004, and this show is their commentary on the flood of pop culture galleries and shows that have sprung up across the country over the last decade. The idea was for artists to take an outlandish or obscure piece of media they thought they'd never see an artistic tribute to, and make it a reality.

I chose Americas Funniest Home Videos, which I think fits the theme perfectly. I don't know why, but I just got this image in my head of Bob Saget looking very serious and distressed right before going out on stage to become the goofy and bad-joke-cracking host we remember him being. It just struck me as really funny to think about the serious and/or human side of such a silly and family-friendly childhood show.

In keeping with the theme of the show, the title of the piece is "You Might Be a Star Tonight," which sounds like it's going for some sort of serious message, but is actually just a line from the show's theme song.

Geek & Sundry Comic Con Artwork

If you're lucky enough to be at Comic Con right now or through the rest of the weekend then you can pick up one of these prints for FREE at the Geek & Sundry lounge at Jolt'n Joe's. I'm not sure what the specifics of their availability are, but I am so excited that I was asked to make this piece for fans to have signed by Felicia Day.

Here are a few photos of Felicia signing them, from the Geek & Sundry Facebook page:

Sharknado!

It's been the talk of the town, and now you can own some Sharknado prints if you're heading to the San Diego Comic Con this week. The prints are an official collaboration between Gallery 1988 and the SyFy network. (I know, spell check, I'm sorry, but they changed the name to have Ys, there's nothing I can do.) I'm pretty excited to be a part of this cultural phenomenon in some small way. There are three prints available, and above is the one I contributed.

I watched the movie before starting on the drawing, and while my friends and I are no strangers to seeking out the worst and most obscure movies to enjoy, I have to say that Sharknado was a unique experience. I think that's mainly because it's a low budget movie that is very purposefully silly and over-the-top. At first that may sound obvious, but in my experience these kinds of movies are either one or the other, meaning that they are either: A) very low budget but a genuine attempt at serious film making, or B) regular budget with intentional silliness that may try to parody low budget. Both types usually create unintentional humor, which is why they make for fun watching with friends.

Anyway, that's probably way too much analysis. Enjoy some cool artwork at Comic Con, and if you feel like it, mail a poor, east-coast dwelling artist any extra convention exclusives you may get!

Gallery 1988 Show: Player Two

As a kid I often found myself playing video games as player 2, usually either because the other kid was older or because I was (and am) pretty shy and non-assertive. Because of that I still to this day have a fondness for Luigi, the ultimate second player character. One of my favorites of the newer Mario games is Super Mario 3D Land, where they bring back the famous Tanooki suit power-up. If you play as Luigi in that game, however, the suit is not the familiar raccoon but rather a fox instead. For whatever reason I thought this was just about the coolest thing ever; I think because I'm such a Nintendo nerd and I'm fascinated by the design of Mario games. So here is my tribute to player two which comes to you in 2013, Nintendo's official Year of Luigi.

I should note that my show has closed now, and boy did that month go fast. But you can still buy prints from it at the Gallery1988 online store!

Gallery 1988 Show: Samwise the Badass

I'm a big fan of The Lord of the Rings films and books, and I've always wanted to take a crack at drawing Gollum. He's my favorite because he's not allied with the good guys or the bad guys, yet still plays a huge part in the story.

When I saw Return of the King for the first time I really enjoyed what a good job they did with the ending. It's a tall order to make three, three-hour-long movies and have the whole thing lead up to a ring being thrown in a lava pit rather than having a huge battle with big bad guy himself, but they pulled off in spades, and it's one of my favorite movie endings of all time. The music, the red glow of the color palette; it's all so great. I'm also big on science fiction and fantasy universes having their own rules, and I love the fact that the ring becomes too heavy for Frodo, and even though Sam can't carry it on his own, he can carry Frodo while Frodo has the ring. Kind of like how the Hulk can pick up Thor while he's holding his hammer, but not the hammer itself (and this post has probably just become to nerdy for its own good, so I digress...)

My show is up through June 22, so if you are in the LA area please stop by Gallery 1988 East! You can purchase prints of all the pieces at the Gallery's online store.

Gallery 1988 Show: Gotham City ComiCon

I was especially happy with this this piece because I felt like it was a simple idea that I personally hadn't seen done before: a flyer for a comic convention in a fictional city filled with actual super heroes and villains. It presented me with some unique challenges in terms of taking characters who already wear costumes, having them dress up as different characters, and yet still be recognizable as who they are. My biggest worry was that they would come off as just regular costumed convention-goers rather than the actual Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. I think the idea comes off well, though, with a lot of credit probably going to Ivy's green skin.

As far as choosing the costumes, I figured Harley wouldn't dream of dressing up as anyone other than Mr. J; Indy seemed like a good fit for Catwoman given the whip and love of treasure, and probably the biggest "ah-ha!" moment of the whole piece was when I figured out a creative way to make Ivy look like a Mario Bros piranha plant. I see a lot of girls at conventions now who have made these extremely clever hybrid costumes that combine the visuals of a specific character with normal clothes (I think the most prevalent idea is dresses that look like the Daleks from Dr. Who,) so I would love to see somebody actually try this piranha plant hair thing in real life.

My show is up through June 22, so if you are in the LA area please stop by Gallery 1988 East! You can purchase prints of all the pieces at the Gallery's online store.

Gallery 1988 Show: Codex

This piece is based on the character Codex from Felicia Day's web series The Guild. My girlfriend introduced me to the show, and she also deserves credit for giving me the idea for this piece when I was coming up with new stuff to include in my gallery show.

I know Codex doesn't usually carry a sword, and I knew going in that including the incorrect weapon might get me in hot water with fans, but I really thought it would be cool to emphasize the battle aspect of the MMORPG video games the series pays homage to; just to depict the character in bit of a different way. (If you look closely, I included her usual staff as an engraving on the sword as nod to the fact that, yes, the sword was on purpose, haha)

Also, there's this:

Felicia Day loved it and is framing one to hang in her office! This is just about the biggest compliment for this piece I could ever imagine, and an amazing thrill. A big thanks goes out to Felicia and her assistant Annie!

My show is up through June 22, so if you are in the LA area please stop by Gallery 1988 East! You can purchase prints of all the pieces at the Gallery's online store.