Santa Clarita's newspaper, The Signal, is redesigning their logo, and they asked me for a new take on their current eagle.  Here's what I came up with... they wanted the eagle soaring overhead.  The design needed to be simple, in order to read clearly both small and large.  The actual file is vectorized, which means that it can be blown up without pixel problems... for signs/bill-boards/trucks etc.  The original drawing was ink on paper.  The stars were added in Photoshop, and then it was "live-traced" in Illustrator and colored.

Early character design for another story in development.   Rough on the left; more finished on the right.  The ability to work more than one way is important...  the drawings in the previous post might be dynamic, but I'm also aware that they don't make people feel fuzzy.  "Appeal" as an artistic tool is powerful in its own right.  I'm going to color this little rhino up soon.

Pastel study from life.

Here is a series I did for Stephen Heller who, at the time, was the Senior Art Director at the NY Times.  I was a second year art student when I made the drawings!  I get a kick out of the raw energy in these.  So did he.  The final selection of the drawing published isn't shown below.  Actually, few people have seen the drawings below, until now (ha, with my enormous blog following of 2).  I guess I should say that they were previously unavailable to be seen... until now.

My son (who is almost 3), Henry, has decided that he wants to fly the space shuttle.  I am going to do a few more of these, I think...  maybe make Ruthie (his baby sister) an adorable alien.

I occasionally design landscapes.  The multi-acre property below is the largest I've worked on to date - and the conceptual was a great deal of hard work.  The design process is time consuming (and includes the exercise of field measuring the property).  There is much to consider; a good landscape balances the asthetic desires of the owners, existing views, maintenance issues, the watering requirements and eventual growth habits of the plant material, construction material call-outs,  inter-site accesibility and movement, existing architectural elements... etc.

If you're wondering "what's what," in terms of plant material, that's because this is just a conceptual.  The final planting plan was submitted seperately.  Special thanks to Michael McDonnell for his help picking out the right pallette!

I make a living as a project manager for the unique construction firm Landscape Development, Inc.   Check out some of our more recent projects!   My team has successfully run between 30-40 million dollars of landscape installation over the past five years.

While most of my time is dedicated toward construction management, I get tapped occasionally for in-house artwork and marketing material. Recently LDI formed its Custom Gardens division geared toward high-end residential estates.  I created the following ad, which appeared in luxe. and  FINE magazines.






















Here is a smattering of other corporate art done for LDI... each has a story of its own, but I will save you the pain and simply allow you to enjoy (or at least view) the images themselves.

A few years ago, as a newly recruited landscape construction manager for one of the largest firms in CA, if not the nation, I was provided the opportunity (since I do not come from a landscaping background) to attend the Landscape Design program at CSUN. I learned much from that program, including (but not limited to) landscape design conceptualization, irrigation, plant identification, construction materials, and estimating.

These pieces were part of the coursework. They are to-scale cross sections of a fountain area I designed.

Front and back of business cards I designed for Bucky Guido's Cockfighting Salsa...

Sigh... my hero.

Love poppin' this portrait between the cartoon roosters... I want to be able to work in as many ways as possible.

Fact is, its been too long since I updated my blogfolio.  Too busy!   

Recently, I was asked by a friend to create a salsa logo for his new company.  Thought I'd share. That, my friends, is a menacing looking rooster.  I'd buy his goods, if I were you.

This precious little guy is my son, Henry. Like most toddlers he's pretty much impossible to draw when he's awake. Dad has to sneak in and sketch quietly.

This is Sharpie marker - a favorite of mine.



And a couple of pencil sketches... warming up.

Charcoal on paper.

Dance King

Ink, charcoal, colored pencil on bond.

Where I grew up there were literally miles of horse trails surrounding and running through the forest around our neighborhood. We roared through on our bikes - it was a great deal of fun!

The panel below is looooong in real life. It is about 14" high & and runs easily 8' across.

Why is Clint Eastwood so cool? Man, I love this movie.

Cloak Lifedrawing

Nude

Dozer/Clearcut Pan

Frankenape

My Dog & Me

Cityscape

Painting Of Kit

Oil On Canvas 2' x 3'

Foxhall Layout

This is the house I grew up in.

Teamed up with Peter Ko, who is also from CalArts, on this strange sequence. He is a tremendous draftsman.

Big Dude With Gun For Arm...

O.K., occasionally I sit down and doodle - and create something completely useless and fun that nobody asked me to make. I have an enormous backlog of work nobody has ever seen because of this.

This happened to be on top of the pile.

More to come when time allows.