Gone are the days...

Gone are the days the atomic structure could walk freely. What's it mean? I don't know... This one literally just kinda popped in my head; color, style, and all. But, more interaction between loose digital ink lines and clean vectors. Also using the 2/3rds rule, balancing the negative space above. A bit of illustration and graphic design.

The birth of a thought.

This is an older digital work I did back around 2017 or so. I always liked this one and the simple loose style. Actually, this may even be a bit older now that I think about it, It was done on my old first generation iPad with some free paint software I downloaded. Pulled it back up on the computer today and added a little digital noise to break up the flatness. Love the thick round loose black line work.

You are in some sort of flux.

You are in some sort of flux. Something that constantly changes. Feel like I'm in a major flux now. Digital scribble done in Photoshop, using mainly stock flat brushes.

GO - ride or die, you are born to fly

GO - ride or die, you are born to fly... and other positive stuff. I think I just start scribbling, like with this skull; and I'm not sure where I want to go with it, so I just start adding stuff. Played with this one a couple time just layering elements and textures over each other. Kinda like how the "go" button in black balances all the crap on the right side. I wonder if people will try to click it? 😁

Easter 2024 - Peace

May this Easter Day bring you much Peace, Joy, & Love!

You disappoint me rat.

Did this one last night, this was a lot of fun. Just looked over at my cat and this image started giving birth in my head. Hated it at first when I started with the cat's head, but keep on with it and I think it turned out pretty cool. It's the art you start and don't like that you end up loving if you keep going.

Endure & Live

One of my most favorite places on earth is downtown Frankenmuth, Michigan. It's a small little antique German Bavarian tourist spot; very quaint, very cheesy, but to me, very relaxing. I don't know why, I'm a dork... Frankenmuth is about an hour away from where I live and I will go there about once a year with the family. Every time we visit, we always eat at Zehnder's Restaurant. Well, over the years going with my kids, nieces & nephews; they would always order the children's ice cream for desert, which would come with a beautiful little vibrant colored plastic animal (as seen above in the third picture). Well, from many visits over the years, I have quite the collection of the little critters, and I love them. For some weird reason, they are all animals and then mermaids (of course my favorite, duh!). Anyway, not to drag this out, I was taking photos of some of the mermaid ones I had and messing around to do something artsy and the above self love, motivational image occurred. Be good to yourself.

If your interested to know more about Zehnder's Restaurant you can visit their website here: https://www.zehnders.com/zehnders-restaurant/

Power Play

So there was an art contest here in Detroit, for our beloved Red Wings. The theme was "Power Play". Big cash prize, winning art to be put in a corporate suite at the stadium, and so on, and so on...I'm not a big sports fan, but I know art and I need money! I've won big contests before thinking way outside the box and not doing what is obvious or expected. But this time it just didn't pan out, my art piece didn't even place. The winning art, it was good, but it was also what you would expect. But it's ok, actually doing this exercise grounded me, and taught me many lessons that I needed to be re-taught. 1. Think through your production process. I decided and visualized this in my head as very clean and graphic. So I used spray paint to create this, which needs masks. I was rushing and on a tight budget so I just told myself I would use paper prints and wing the offsets and overlaps of each color. I also haven't done this type of masking and painting in years, so I was rusty, the paper was too thin and buckled up when loaded with heavy paint, and I was way off on aligning colors to butt up cleanly. A lot of mistakes. 2. Know your audience. The judges were corporate executives and sports fans, they are not gonna overthink art or creative abstraction (think players on ice, local Detroit landmark icons). 3. Politics. Don't put a determined cartoon face on our logo, what is creative license? 4. Maybe they just didn't like it? Either way, I learned some lessons and will be a wiser artist the next time I enter a contest.

First pic is the digital concept. The second pic is the finished painted piece (24" x 30" spray paint and acrylic on wood panel). Third pic is some production shots.

Pillcandy

Not sure why I call this pill candy, should have been "walking with death" or something. More experimenting with styles, tight vectors with loose digital paint. I literally just threw this logo together without much thought just to get some vectors to play with, and I love it! funny how that sometimes just works. Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop.

IIIrd i

Recently have been going through a bunch of my old thumbnail sketches and doodles, I have years worth of these scribbled thoughts that I always tell myself that I will refine or do something more with. This is one little section of a sketch from about 2016 that I always liked and wanted to do more with. I don't think I have ever used purple in one of my illustrations before, but that is how it's always been seen in my head. Not sure I love it, but here it is.

Don't die on me.

Repost of this older illustration, I was always pretty happy how this one turned out.

Bird Dreams

More messing around in Photoshop in the middle of the night. Foreground is flat colors with simple round brush, background is flat colors using a dry flat oil brush.

gro24

Wishing everyone much growth, love, & peace in 2024.

Lorem ipsum

 Pain itself...

Endure

ENDURE. A digital study I did last night, Messing around with style, texture, type, & color. I like where this is going, any thoughts?

M-10 Speed Fest & Death Race

Had the vector skull art already from years ago and came across it again the other day, wanted to update the art and create some new stuff with it. Also, I always wanted to do some type of art or t-shirt of a mock M-10 race event (M-10, The Lodge Fwy). A freeway in Detroit that everyone drives insanely like it's some kind of death race. I drove it for way to many years. You can also check out these designs on other merchandise in my shop here.

All we have is now.

I am always just trying to live in the moment... right here, right now. 

Stop reading this... This is just a sketch from the other day.

King Sushi

 Something new...

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams

Just messing around with more vector art and Illustrator.