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This weekend I worked another illustration for MadAtoms, this time about a hypothetical Wal-Mart drinking game. Given that I neither drink alcohol or shop at Wal-Mart (well, I went there a few years ago, during a quest to get my friend a haircut), it would seem to be a topic I know little about. But I think it worked out decently nevertheless, thanks to several iconic features of Wal-Mart that seem to thrive within the American psyche.

The fun thing about illustrations made for web use only is the ability to use any colors I want–I never have to worry that the bright bright red is going to get watered down and muddy in the CMYK process, or that the neon purple isn’t going to pop.

I think mostly, I just wanted to draw someone in those weird greeter vests.

(click to see full-size version)

A little something for MadAtoms.com. Loads of fun! It’s to accompany an article about a woman who holds petty grudges against her old school mates.

My favorite part is, again, the balloon:

I have a new print for sale at my shop, ROXINATION.BIGCARTEL.COM

It’s a diptych, actually, and it’s screenprinted! Each panel is 5″x7″ and you can get both of them for only $8, + s&h.

For those of you who might not recognize him, these depict a very suave fellow known only as “the Spy.” His high-tech gadgets give him the ability to fade into to invisibility, leaving only a puff of cigarette smoke and a vanishing roguish grin behind.

Various rad techniques were used to make this print, including a cool hand-made gradient, and printing (gasp!) BLACK INK on BLACK PAPER. egads!

So please, if you like what you see, consider purchasing it. It’s not every day you can come across a pair of two cool little handmade screenprints for so cheap!

(click for large version)

I might have been able to work on this longer, but I decided to cut to the chase and show it to anyone else in the world, since I tend to be extremely private with illustrations in progress.

You may ask, “Why does that guy look so bummed even though he has an experimental military jetpack, a Super-Soaker, and obviously just made it rain Benjamins? Did somebody die?? Jeez.” The answer is no; nobody died. But I guess sometimes I wonder why he is nevertheless very depressed, too.

Here’s a detail:

And Paul Gauguin’s Riders on the Beach.

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Adulthood is much like a gargantuan two-headed slobbering beast with frizzy hair, exuding a rattling putrid and moist breath from its twin maws. Or maybe it’s just an enormous mutant poodle who’s as aware of your plight as it is of the thin hair stuck to one of its four eyeballs (if you’ve never owned a dog, that means “not at all.”) Either way it’s got foot-long teeth I don’t want to be around.

Febroary 2010 is finally here!

Ah, to be young, in love, and in space.

Febroary. the month that was rife with problems preventing me from getting it done. All things considered, though, I’m very happy with it. If you were unable to tell, these two fine men are in a spaceship/space station, and they are bros (much thanks to the men who modeled for the reference picture, who are literally bros).

On a more work related note, today at work the other artists and I finally got around to having a roughly hour-long drawing session, in which the four of us would model briefly for the other ones to draw. Seeing as we draw/paint digitally all day, it seemed like in everyone’s best interest to exercise our traditional media hands and life drawing eyes. What’s astounding is how you never realize how miserable you were when you haven’t drawn for yourself for a while–until you actually start up again and you are suddenly incredibly happy and at ease.

I got two nice 15 minute drawings from the session, of two of the very talented guys I work with; Anthony Macbain and Stephen Bliss.

Anthony enjoys needlepoint and Swiffering his apartment on Friday nights

Stephen’s hobbies include drinking tea, eating Marmite, and other painfully British things

That blob on the arm rest is supposed to be an iPhone I neglected to render, and the Union Jack on Stephen’s shirt is pure embellishment.

Manuary 2010!

(click to see full calendar!)

Nothing better first thing (heh. heh.) in a New Year than some pop culture beefcake.

Don’t worry, I made room for the beefcake fictional sociopaths too:

So it’s about a week late for the start of the month, but I finally got it done (despite such petty distractions like Thanksgiving and work)

Here for the last month of the year is Hot Motorcycle Guy:

(click here to view full size!)

It seems to be a long-standing tradition to have pinup calendars of sexy women dressed in a skimpy bikini at least a decade out of style, perhaps straddling an equally unattractive motorcycle. I will have none of this. Behold, my appropriately dressed but rakishly handsome blue guy on a 1930’s vintage motorcycle (this particular model is made up but strongly inspired by a Royal Enfield model). He is lovingly sized for your printing pleasure, or as a wallpaper perhaps if you happen to have a widescreen computer monitor.

Lesson learned: For next month, start a lot earlier than the last week of the current month.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah forever!

(Click here for full size)

As you may or may not know, work takes up a lot of my time. It’s a little difficult to set rigid standards for myself when it comes to drawing outside of work (you know, what people do for fun I think) so I’ve become determined to draw one really low-pressure personal illustration per month. It keeps me loose, keeps me happy, and lets me draw manly men any damn I want to. So what better time to kick it off than during my favorite months, Manvember, the Only Month Whose Name Can Be Conveniently Transformed Into A Manly Pun.

I’ve been fascinated by images of men and their dogs for a while, so I came up with this. I made it a calendar so I could have something to look at while I work. Not the most exciting of reasons, but there you are. It’s still somewhat a work in progress, but I haven’t been able to upload the work I’ve done on it since I saved this version.

I’m not sure what I’m doing for next month yet, but I doodled this on my spare time and was fond of his comically tiny legs.

Let’s hope I’m actually able to finish December’s before December starts.

Seriously, they totally do.

Probably the only drawing I’ve done in the recent past about tanks that doesn’t actually have a tank in it. I would have drawn it beneath him, but that’s not right for the format of Rand Renfrow’s silkscreened zine, Test Everything. The theme for this issue is REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES.

(see a larger version here)

If the tank reference is unclear, he is a Russian tank driver from WWII. His tank driver’s hat totally says so. I hope it gets chosen, because I was really hoping to be able to have a screen printed version of this.

It was a fun post-vacation holy-shit-it’s-already-september drawing.