Jamie Huntsman

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T09:36:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone - I just got back from the 4-night Phish run in Miami and we had a blast! It's a little difficult to come back from the warm Miami sun into the snow and cold over Pittsburgh, but, we'll get through it (how many more months until spring?)

While in Miami, I participated in Mock Show - a wonderful poster and art show held at the Hyatt Regency Miami. The Mock Show was awesome and good times were had by all. While there, I released my new print - "Happy New Year". Wanted to let my blog readers know that I have held a few back for those of you who couldn't make it to Miami or to the Mock Show. They are now available on my website in a very limited quantity.

Here's the specs
Happy New Year
Edition :50 signed and numbered
Stock: 400 gram Fine Art Paper
Colors: Giclee full color print
Size: 15"x22"
Price: $40 + shipping

Please click here to purchase

Thank you to all those who already purchased the print. I think you will really love it. I am so happy with how the colors and the details came out. Thank you also to my printer Jonathan Lamb (Like Minded Productions)

Illustration Friday - "Frozen"

2009-10-16T10:06:00.003-04:00

Hey All - here's my contribution to Illustration Friday this week. It just so happens that I have fitting Illustrations two weeks in a row. I know that these are probably supposed to be new illustrations, but, hey, if I already have something complete - then, why not post it.
Enjoy!
Jamie

Halloween Commemorative Poster

2009-10-14T08:47:00.003-04:00

Hey there! Just wanted to post this new work which I did in commemoration of the upcoming Phish Halloween Festival in Indio, CA. It's my not-so-subtle omage (is that right?) to the gory prank that got Trey kicked out of college. If you haven't heard the story, Trey sent a lambs heart and a human hand to his friend through the mail with a note saying "I've got to hand it to you, you've got heart" - pretty crazy! These are not on sale yet, but, will be soon. I am printing a Glicee on 310 gram fine art paper in an edition of 31 only! Make sure you sign up for my newsletter to be alerted to the onsale date.

A big thank you to Jonathan Lamb of Like Minded Productions who is printing this piece for me. Thanks Jon!

Illustration Friday - Flying

2009-10-09T08:57:00.003-04:00

Haven't posted in my blog for a while. I have been in the process of updating my portfolio. But, saw this topic for Illustration Friday and I actually have an Illustration that fits - so, here it is.

Black and Gold Fish now available

2009-06-03T13:18:00.002-04:00

Well, the boys are back and I was so pumped up after hearing the Hampton shows that I decided to celebrate by learning a new skill. What you see here is my first ever hand screen printed poster. You can read below to see how I got to the final product.

Here's the specs
Edition 40 signed and numbered
Colors - 3 screen printed inks
Paper - French 80# cover white speckletone
Size - 12"x24.5"

$35 + Shipping - Limit 2 per person/address

Go here to purchase

Adventures in Screenprinting - Episode 6: IT'S FINISHED!!!

2009-06-01T10:57:00.003-04:00

There it is! It's done. I spent all day Sunday printing. ALL DAY. And it's finally a reality. Finally printed.
I learned a lot. Seriously, I made a lot of rookie mistakes that I won't make again. A lot of my mistakes had to do with registration, going back to the output of the transparencies. Actually - i think it's going to be pretty important for me to find somewhere that will print a large transparency for me so I can get the registration correct. Another rookie mistake, including too much of the wrong kind of detail in my image. I got a lot of detail that needed to be lined up perfectly to come out correctly, and since I'm still learning how to correctly and consistently register my art, it didn't always come out perfect. I think If I would have set the art up differently, I could have achieved what I was going for.

So, I printed 60 and ended up with 40 keepers. So, the edition specs are as follows:

Burgettstown, PA 06.18.09 - 40 Hand printed posters, Signed and numbered, printed on French White Speckletone 80# cover, 3 colors, 12"x24.5"

Here's some photos of the prints drying...

Thanks so much for following along. I hope you learned something and enjoyed the process.I will be selling these prints through my website shortly, so sign up for my newsletter to get the info on when and where to purchase. Also, I will be including a discount code for all my newsletter subscribers.

Adventures in Screenprinting - Episode 5: One Step Closer

2009-05-31T09:58:00.002-04:00

After my setback on Thursday, I was a little discouraged, but, I have come too far to quit now. So, I went to my local Utrecht store and picked up some different emulsion. Their screenprinting section is small, but, they carry the basics. So, I picked up a big bottle of Speedball photo emulsion and Diazo. I've used this product in the past with a small amount of success, so, I felt comfortable with using it again.

I wanted to go for overkill on the darkness of the room that I covered the screens in, so I chose a room that had no windows - as opposed to the way I did it last time, in my basement with very little light - this room had NO LIGHT...I mean, I lit a candle to work by. I should probably order a yellow safety light to work by, but, i'm impatient and couldn't wait...so, I'll do that next time. the room I used was at my husband's funeral home next door (the flower room, where florists can deliver flowers without traipsing all through the building).

So after spilling about half of my photo emulsion because I couldn't see what I was doing, I finally got a really nice even coat of emulsion on the screens. I let them dry with the print side down, propped up by flower stands on the corners. I made sure that I used a thinner coat of emulsion this time - I think that was part of my problem.

The screens were dry very quickly...so, of course I wanted to get them burnt asap - I didn't know how long my light-tight room was going to stay that way - someone my open the door and turn the lights on inadvertently and expose my screens. I brought them home, covered in a black table cloth and exposed the first one. I let it cook for about 13 minutes. I then brought it outside to wash it off with the power washer...I held my breath. after several passes with the power washer - SUCCESS!!!

A wonderful stencil - even better than i thought it would come out - I really got a lot of detail to show up. I was so happy!!! There was only one little hiccup...I had a very minor blow-out around the "A" in PA - the emulsion is still there, it just bubbled off the screen...so, I'm going to have to figure out a way to secure that before I print. But, other than that, no problems. All three screens came out beautifully.

Here's some photos of my beautiful screens.

Adventures in Screenprinting - Episode 4: DISASTER!

2009-05-29T17:13:00.002-04:00

well, it was bound to happen. I was bound to get tripped up somewhere. I covered my screens with the photo emulsion on Wednesday. I set them up in a box laying horizontally, as per the instructions. I made sure the box was light-tight, no light was getting in this sucker. I let them dry overnight and then took one out at a time to try and burn the stencil onto the screen with my exposure unit. Well, I must have done something wrong because not one of the screens worked. Not one. I carefully followed all instructions (and since this isn't really the first time I've done this, I kinda knew what to expect) but, no, when I went to wash them out, the stenciled part would not wash out - it was as if the entire screen got exposed (although I could see the stencil in the emulsion) So, not sure what happened - maybe they did get exposed prematurely, maybe I am using the wrong photo emulsion, maybe I put it on too thick, maybe my transparencies are not opaque enough (I did use a big piece of glass to make sure they were touching the screen, so contact isn't an issue).

So, I'm going to try another type of photo emulsion. I'm going with Speedball - I've used it in the past, and it's worked out fine for me. I'm using speedball ink, so what the heck, right?

I was afraid of the reclaimation of the screens. Thought that wouldn't work out either- but, it seems to be OK. I just removed the emulsion, and the screens are back to pristine white. So, that makes me happy - atleast that worked out, and I can try again this weekend.

So, any suggestions???

Adventures in Screenprinting - Episode 3: Everything Arrived!

2009-05-27T12:54:00.002-04:00

Well, it's about a week since I ordered all my supplies and I'm happy to report that everything arrived - although not everything arrived safely.

the paper and the ink arrived on the same day -

but, the paper had some damage to the corner...

it's OK though, I am going to cut that portion off - I can get three posters out of one sheet with about 4" at the bottom and on one side that is excess...I still wasn't happy about the damage. other than that, the paper is beautiful. Lovely French Speckletone White - I would have gone for another color, but, the white will really work best with what I'm doing.

The other supplies didn't arrive until Tuesday - so, I had to wait, and waste a nice long weekend. Oh well.

All this stuff arrived in one huge box, with a TON of packing peanuts. Seriously, I thought I was missing stuff because I couldn't find things lost in the packing peanuts. I hate those things.

So, now I have everything...I also went to Kinko's yesterday to get transparencies made of the artwork. They couldn't print a big transparency, so I had to settle for tiling on 8.5"x11" sheets. But, of course, they didn't follow my directions and forgot the overlap. So, I had to call them and tell them to do it again, the right way...which meant another trip out to pick them up. I'm just glad I didn't have to argue with them about charging me.

It took forever to piece the transparencies together

(don't want to show you too much of the image just yet)

I hope it works...If anyone knows where I can print big transparencies, please let me know.

Next episode...how do you use a scoopcoater?

Adventures in Screenprinting - Episode 2: Shopping

2009-05-19T15:39:00.004-04:00

After putting together my table, I realized I need a lot more supplies than the ones I already gathered. I need screens, emulsion, ink, paper, squeegies, emulsion remover, an exposure unit, etc. So, where does a fledgling screenprinter go to get all this stuff...and more importantly, how much will all this cost? I'm sure I made some mistakes, but, this is what I ordered, why I ordered what I did, where I got it and how much it cost me.

Supplies - I went to silkscreeningsupplies.com - this is a great site for EVERYTHING screenprinting. Although, as with most screenprinting stuff, it's more or less centered around printing t-shirts rather than printing on flatstock. There's a ton of educational videos and lots of descriptions on this site. It will tell you what emulsion you should use with what inks. Here's what I bought...

SCREENS - Aluminum 23x31" 156 White Mesh $32.56 each (x3)$97.68 - I went with Aluminum rather than wood, even though they are more expensive. The reason I did that is because in the long run, these will last a lot longer, and if I take care of them, I will be able to use them for a long time to come. Wood tends to warp - especially since you will be getting them very wet when you wash the screens out, etc. so, the Aluminum, in my mind, was the way to go. As far as size goes - I am planning on my first print being 12x22" - they had a screen that was 20"x24" that I initially going to get, but, a 20"x24" screen is only actually 18"x22" of screen area and you want to make sure that there is plenty of breathing room around the screen. The next bigger size from 20x24" was 23"x31" - a big jump - but, Now, I know that I will have ample room to print. I went with a 156 threadcount to be sure to get the detail that I want.

CCI SWR Water Resist Dual Cure Emulsion Quart $27.77 I plan on using non-toxic water based opaque ink to print, so I had to find an emulsion that would stand up to the water based ink.

CC ER80 Emulsion/Stencil Remover Concentrate (Makes 1 Gallon!), $14.00 So, once I'm done with the screens, I will want to reclaim them. I had to get this emulsion remover to do the job.

Emulsion Scoop Coater 19 Inches, $19.00 One I reclaim the screen and want to use it again, I will use this scoop coater to help me place an even film of emulsion on the screen.

Screen Exposure Stand, $49.95 This is kind of a budget exposure stand, and I'm taking a gamble that it can be modified to fit the screens I purchased. It seems to be made out of PVC pipe, and should be able to be modified easily.

Screen Tape 2" Wide Low Adhesive $3.80 Not sure if this was needed, but, I think that This tape will not leave a residue on the screen.

Squeegee By The Inch 14" $16.80 This is a crucial instrument in screen printing...but, we will see if I got the right one.

Water Based Screen Opener and Cleaner For Water Based Inks $4.95 This was recommended to me by the operator I spoke to. He said that if I am printing with waterbased inks, they tend to dry quickly, and perhaps clog the screen. This will clean it out.

A few tips - I got free shipping because my order was over $100 and I found a coupon online (RetailMeNot.com) for 10% off. Grand total $210.55

PAPER
3076 by French Paper Company/French Paper
Speckletone Starch White
Brand: Speckletone
Paper Type: Cover
Size: 26 x 40
Weight: 80
Packaging: 100

Subtotal: $98.50
Shipping:$25.95

Purchase Total: $124.45

I purchased 100 sheets of 26" x 40" paper because in the end, I can get 300 sheets of paper out of it and even though it's more than I need for this initial print it was cheaper per unit (once I cut it into 3's) than the smaller sheets. More money upfront (and and extra $10 for shipping) but, I think worth it in the long run

Ink
While there are inks on the silkscreeningsupplies.com, I haven't used any of them in the past. I'm not really familar with them, so I opted to purchase my ink through Dick Blick.com. I purchased one quart of White, one of Black and 2 8oz. of medium yellow - Speedball Opaque screenprinting poster ink - for a total of 43.66 - with shipping and tax added the grand total is $56.83.

So, all in - my supplies, what the table cost me, etc...Grand total $471.48

The art is done, I'm just waiting for the supplies to arrive.

Be sure you sign up for my newsletter - once these babies roll off the press, I'm going to put them on sale through my newsletter first. Since the editions will be really low, you'll want to be the first to know that they are available. Plus, I'm going to give a special discount to newsletter subscribers only.

See you next episode.

Adventures in Screenprinting Episode 1 : My Vacuum Table Sucks

2009-05-18T15:38:00.005-04:00

What is a vacuum table?, you may ask - it's a table with a shop vac attached to create a light suction to hold a piece of paper secure so it's easier to screen print. That's right - I am one step closer to screen printing my own posters!

I am so excited! It's been a long held dream of mine to produce and print my own posters. However, that dream has been put on the back burner as of late (the last couple of years actually) while I have been building my design business. One of my goals for this year was to actually get started gathering supplies I needed, giving myself the education I needed and build a proper place to print. So, I spent the majority of a rainy Saturday gluing and screwing together pieces of plywood to create a wonderful vacuum table. A quick credit - the table plans are from Andy Mac a printing guru over at Gigposters.com - you have to be a premium member to access his plans, so, i'm not going to give away his secrets here - just show my progress in photos.

All my materials...ready to go. It took me a while to get to this stage. my biggest hang-up was getting all the wood cut since I don't have a table saw. Special thanks to my Step-brother Tyson for giving me a hand with that.

wow! drilling all those holes! that was the most tedious part...I thought my arm would fall off. By the way, for those of you who have these plans. I didn't laminate the Formica onto the plywood, I actually cut up an old countertop that was in my garage.

The underbelly

The hingeclamp base

i had no idea what a blind mounting screw was before this.

Boring the holes for the carriage bolts was a pain. literally - I had to boar a 1 5/8" hole though a counter top and a piece of plywood. My drill hated me so much that it spun the wood around and smacked it into my shin. ouch.

I wanted to show how the hinge clamp asssembly fit together - it actually floats so you can move it back and forth when you are registering the screen. I didn't get that from the directions.

The finished table complete with the little shop vac I bought to go with it. ($23 at walmart)The copper pipe arching over the top will be a counterbalance for the screen (so the screen doesn't smack down on your print when you lift it up - or more to the point, so you don't have to prop it up with you head)

All in - creating the table cost me aprox $79 - it would have been more except my folks covered the cost of the plywood ($30) and I was able to cut up an old countertop saving me the cost of the Formica - (could be as much as $50 for a sheet)

Next entry - ordering supplies.
Since this is the first time I will be printing my own posters with a semi-pro screen printing press, I would love it if you followed along. I hope to post my enter process from building the table to pulling the first print.

Let me know you're here by posting a comment. talk soon!

Illustration Friday - "Pale"

2009-01-16T10:02:00.003-05:00

enjoy - and if you do, consider signing up for my newsletter.

President Elect Obama - Lava Lamp

2009-01-13T09:32:00.004-05:00

There are a lot of artists producing posters and paintings to commemorate the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama. My contribution to this flurry of capitalism is the design of Lava Lamp's new Collector's Edition resin lamp featuring a cameo portrait of the 44th President of the United States of America. Lava Lite, LLC is producing this lamp in limited quantities - so make sure you get your hands on one. These lamps are sure to be one of those unique souvenirs of an historic time in our nation's history. In 75 years, what piece of Americana will your grandchildren take to the Antiques Roadshow?...a Victory plate? - HA! a poster? - pishaw...The Commemorative Lava Lamp - that's where it's at.

You can read all about it here - Lava Lite website

As an Edit - the Chicago NBC affiliate did a quick little blurb on the lamp...you can view it here - but, you need to be using Internet Explorer - if you are using another browser, it's around 14:00 or so.

Illustration Friday - "Contained"

2009-01-09T15:19:00.002-05:00

Enjoy

Happy New Year - Now Get Back to Work!

2009-01-05T12:12:00.002-05:00

Well, it's the first, for real work day of 2009. I literally had to psych myself up last night before I went to sleep so that waking up today and getting back to work wouldn't be a problem after the last two weeks of down time. Actually, truth be told, I didn't have all that much time off. I worked through the last two week sporadically, but, when I wasn't working, I had somewhere to be, or there was something to clean, or some party or get together to attend, etc. So, you could say that the last few weeks haven't exactly been restful.

One thing I have been concentrating on is my marketing plan for 2009. - I am all about the products from Marketing-Mentor.com. Ilise Benum and Peleg Top have written a great book about marketing and pricing for designers - Aptly titled "The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing" I read this book and then also purchased their 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar which I think will be very helpful for me with a few slight modifications and additions specific for my business. I will be following COLLEEN WAINWRIGHT, a.k.a. "the communicatrix," on her blog http://www.virgoguidetomarketing.com/ as she follows the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar. I would also like to post my experiences using this system as well. Hopfully within a few months, I can report some improvements in my business.

HeadCount Needed a New Logo and a New Look for 2008

2008-11-19T14:08:00.008-05:00

As some of you may know, I am the Art Director for the non-partisan voter registration organization HeadCount. We are a grassroots organization that reaches out to potential voters at concert and festivals. Well, we just wrapped up our big 2008 Election Year push, and we couldn't have been happier with the results our collective efforts have yielded.

My contributions to the group ranged from behind the scenes administration duties, as well as being on the front lines registering voters at local (and not so local) concerts and festivals. But, my year started out with the huge task of establishing the visual branding for HeadCount's field operations and also re-vamping our corporate logo.

Changing and established logo for any organization is a daunting task. It normally takes months of research, and back and forth with a committee of decision makers before something pleasing to everyone is agreed upon. Unfortunately, we didn't have that kind of time - it was the beginning of 2008, arguably the most important time in HeadCount's short history. We needed something immediately. So, I decided to break the logo project into two parts. Part one would happen immediately and would be a change to satisfy the requirements and the objectives decided upon by myself and the rest of the Executive Committee. It wouldn't be a complete overhaul, but, more of a tweaking of the design of the logo. The second part, which has yet to happen (and in fact must be reviewed to re-evaluate its necessity) would be a complete overhaul of the logo and visual branding.

The major objectives were to
1. Make the logo more universal
2. Make it more acceptable to our corporate partners
3. To increase the readability of the logo both from a distance and in small print.
4. We also needed several versions of the logo to be used in various applications where a full color logo with icon cannot go.

Since I didn't have time for a major overhaul, I needed to meet those objectives while still keeping the same basic logo structure. We didn't want anyone to say "Hey, you guys changed your logo!"

As you can see from the example of the "Old Logo" to the right, the broken letters make it hard to read. It was also unclear what was behind the wordmark (are those people, or paint blobs?) and the paint splatter below the wordmark made it hard for the logo to fit universally into multiple applications.

In the example of the "New Logo" to the right, you can see that the biggest change is that the lettering has been cleaned up significantly making it more readable. However, it still holds the same basic structure that the old lettering did. The people in the background have become more defined and the paint spatter below the wordmark was removed, making it easier for the logo to fit into more applications - tucked nicely in a corner, at the bottom of a document, or even as a headline without difficult negative space to contend with. You can also see from the alternate examples below how the lettering was cleaned up even further - these were used in application where we could only use one color for printing or where the logo would appear very small. Also, you can see examples of the wordmark only logos that were created for various applications. These were used throughout the year mostly when we knew we would have limited space, and we wanted to maximize the impact of our name.

Once the changes to the logo were accepted, I was able to move on to the visual branding of our field operations. The look of the field signage needed to be bright, eye catching, dynamic, and unique while also speaking to the nature of what we do (namely, registering voters). You can see in the photo of a complete booth set up below what our field signage looked like. The use of the font "American Typewriter" was picked up from the new logo, giving a cohesive look to our branding. The colors and graphical elements remained consistent throughout all the collateral I designed. A style sheet outlining all the graphical elements, fonts, colors and logos as well as how to use them was also created for use by any other designers we hired down the road, or for outside agencies to follow.

All in all, the visual branding scheme was a success. We looked incredibly professional in the field thanks to our cohesive look. The new logo was a great success as well, having be used not only on our own site, but, also on our corporate and band partners sites - everyone from Magic Hat Brewery to Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson used our new logo to promote our partnership.

Over the 2008 Election year, we registered over 105,000 voters, activated over 40 teams in major U.S. cities and had a presence at more than 1000 concerts. We also created a documentary (which you can view here), recorded radio PSA's with Jack Johnson, Jeff Tweedy, Bob Weir, Jim James and others, and teamed up with Oxfam America to produce a voter guide that was distributed to over 10,000 potential voters. To see a re-cap of all the great things HeadCount did this year, or if you need to register to vote for next time please visit HeadCount.org.

Page 430!

2008-11-17T15:15:00.006-05:00

Hey Everyone! It's finally here. The Directory of Illustration #25. You can view my ad on page 430. You can see my portfolio on my Directory of Illustrators page as well as at my website.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Directory of Illustrators, it's a giant, beautiful hardbound book featuring full page ads from some of the best Illustrators working today. The book is sent to art buyers, art directors, etc. throughout the country.

This is my first year as an advertiser in the Directory of Illustrators. I'm hearing good things about the book, and the results that Illustrators have from the advertisement, so, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will pay off. The one thing about it is that I created this ad so long ago. I have definitely created some other illustrations I would have rather featured. But, alas, too late to put into my print ad. But, all-in-all, I'm happy with it, and I have an electronic portfolio that I can constantly update.

So, please check back often for updates to my portfolio - both on the Directory of Illustrators page and here at bittersweetcreations.com

AOD New Years Eve Poster

2008-11-06T13:05:00.002-05:00

New poster I just finished for Assembly of Dust to promote their NYE run.

Monitor Monsters and Memos are here!!! Get your's FREE!

2008-10-16T12:33:00.004-04:00

I am very proud to announce the availability of the very first collection of Monitor Monsters & Memos. "What are Monitor Monsters & Memos?" you ask? Good Question. Monitor Monsters are desktop decorations; illustrative characters to spruce up your workspace. See the dragon above.

Monitor Memos are companions to Monitor Monsters. They are quick reference guides at eye level you can post around your workspace. Need a quick calendar without having to dig through your day planner? Use the Monitor Memos version. Need to know where to find stock photos? Monitor Memos. Want to know when the new Star Trek movie opens? Monitor Memos!

Every month will bring a new Monitor Monster & Memo collection - this month is the Blue Desk Dragon Collection - featuring a 2009 calendar, Stock Photo Site reference (a companion to my article "Review from a Designer's Point of View: Stock Photo Sites") and 2009 "Movies I Can't Wait to See!" guide.

So, how do you get this WONDERFUL set (as well as the article "Review from a Designer's Point of View: Stock Photo Sites") Just sign up for my newsletter mailing list, and I will send you a link where you can download both gifts FOR FREE!!!

Review From a Designer's Point of View - Stock Photo Sites

2008-10-16T12:26:00.004-04:00

There are so many stock photo sites out there - each one specializing in something different. Check out my new article, "Review From a Designer's Point of View - Stock Photography Sites" by signing up for my newsletter mailing list - the green box on the right.

In this article, I give my review on the 11 stock photo sites I rely on to get my projects done - the pros and cons of each, what you can expect to pay, and special features of each.

Sign up now to get this article FREE, and you will also get Monitor Monsters & Memos FREE - this month's collection includes a companion quick reference card to the article to display at your desk.

Should Some People Not Vote?

2008-10-10T09:01:00.003-04:00

I was just sent a link to a 20/20 piece that will air tonight. It features HeadCount - the voter registration organization I am a part of - registering voters at Camp Bisco. John Stossel asks - "Should Some People Not Vote?" - after interviewing some of the newly registered voters. Now, after years of watching John Stossel I know that he is usually tongue in cheek in his approach to his rantings, but, I think this one may have been a little harsh against registering voters who may not know how many senators we have...John, give ME a break. As a representative of HeadCount, I feel like it's our duty to give the people who want to register an opportunity to register, not give them a civics test. That being said, it is important to be educated before you vote. That's why HeadCount has tons of resources on it's website to help educate you once you are registered. I really wish they would have put that into the story.

Anyway, here's the link - 20/20 video

EyeCandy coming together - Sign up now!

2008-10-07T13:03:00.007-04:00

Hey! I have been working hard on all my projects, but, what I want to talk about today is my upcoming newsletter, EyeCandy. The very first issue is about to come out very shortly, and I would love to have you on the mailing list.

If you like what you see here, please sign up for my monthly newsletter, EyeCandy (you can do so by putting your email address into the green box on the side). It's going to be full of great and informative articles, videos that show how I do what I do (like the upcoming Artie Lange painting video - see below for final illustration), sneak peeks of new projects, case studies detailing the creative process and a monthly givaway of some great art!

I mentioned Givaways, didn't I? Well, if you sign up before the first issue comes out you can be entered in a drawing to win 5 posters from me! So, make sure you sign up for EyeCandy TODAY!!! Hope to see you on the list.

Artie Lange - Digital Portrait

2008-10-03T16:34:00.003-04:00

Here's a digital painting I am making into a video. You will be able to see how I painted this portrait of the great Artie Lange from the Howard Stern Show - Subscribe to my monthly newsletter - EyeCandy - to see the video first.

PHISH IS BACK!!!

2008-10-01T16:01:00.006-04:00

Woo Hoo! What a great day! I can't believe it - Phish announced they are going to play 3 shows in Hampton VA. It's a wonderful birthday gift! To celebrate, I am posting this sketch of Trey from my wonderful Moleskine sketchbook. Enjoy.

on another note...I am in the process of creating a digital painting video. Stay tuned. This should be up soon.

See you in Hampton

It is now under my domain.

2008-09-27T15:44:00.004-04:00

changed my blog to appear under my own domain name...I'm becoming quite good at all this internet marketing stuff...let's hope it pays off and I get some illustration jobs from it. Basically I'm using this post as a test, because it's not really straightforward how to do all this stuff. You read something that says "do this and do that" but, it never tells you how to do any of it. It's like they assume that everyone already knows how to run a website and optimize it for google searches. I'm an Illustrator, an artist, not a web guru...

once I figure this all out, I promise that I will take the time to tell you all how I did it. Until then, I'm still plugging away.