PICKLED

Johnny is starting to put it together.......

2011-12-28T09:00:00.002-07:00

A very Happy 1st Birthday to my son!!!!!

2011-08-26T06:30:00.001-06:00

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We want to wish my son, John Thomas Gray III, a Happy very 1st Birthday today!!!!!
We have enjoyed watching you grow into the cute little man you are today.

We love you.

Mom and Dad

Snapper Inspired

2011-04-10T11:30:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Rie Tanabe asked me if I would be able to donate a piece of art to a fundraiser for the people affected by the Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan. Of course I was willing to donate something, but I didn't really have any of my art that I thought would be appropriate for this type of event........ So I sat down at the drawing table, and over the next couple of days I painted this fish. This painting is inspired by the art of "Gyotaku" (Japanese fish prints).

So, if you are in the New York area on April 16th, take some time out of your evening and support a great fundraiser.

ARTS & CRAFTS FUNDRAISER for Japan
By NIHONGOchannel
HELP!!!
EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI RELIEF

New York Hana-no-kai and NIHONGOchannel present an
ARTS & CRAFTS FUNDRAISER for Japan

Come support relief efforts for Japan. Enjoy an evening of creative fundraising among friends, artists and lovely kimono models.

Shop the gallery and crafts market, mingle at the bar, have fun!

• Art and photography by talented professionals
• Handmade crafts and jewelry by local artisans
• Picture-taking with kimono models
• Complementary hors d’oeuvres
• Cash bar

Confirmed Participating Artists:

Stu Alden http://inkloungegallery.com/
Reiko Aoki　http://www.reikoaoki-ny.com/
Aiko Brody
Jessica De Soria http://www.citizensofdesign.com/
Orlando Emmanuelli http://www.emmanuelli.us/
Todd Fleming http://www.sasquatchdesign.com/
Tonia Fleming http://www.toniabonnell.com/
Ulla Florholmen http://www.thebrooklyndesignco.com/
Emily Furr
Jack Gray http://pickleddrawings.blogspot.com/
Pifuka Hardt
Ado Hino (Kiffa International)　http://www.adokiffa.com/
Yuval Hoshen
Stevyn Ilewellyn http://www.sirenarts.com/
Ishizumi Art Fans http://www.shizumifan.com/
Gary Issacs http://garyisaacs.com/
Mizue Jin
Maho Kino http://www.mahokino.com/
Vi Luong
Kyoko Miyashita
Drew Morrison http://www.drewmorrison.com/
Azumi Nishizawa
Kazushige Nitta　http://www.kazustudio.com/
Matt Panuska http://www.mattpanuska.com/
Ria Shibayama
Nigel Sielegar www.corsedesignfactory.com
Sumi
Kiyomi Yamagishi　http://www.kiyomiyamagishi.com/
Lance Wyman http://www.lancewyman.com/

and more…

One hundred percent of proceeds from admission and gallery sales, fifty percent of bar sales, plus a percent of craft shop sales will go toward the New York Japanese-American Lions Club Fund.

Admission $5. Your additional generosity is graciously appreciated.
This event is cash only.

Questions? Contact: askme@octopusrocket.com
- New York Hana-no-kai is a group of people who study under Kimono Master Ms. Hisako Kasuya.
- NIHONGOchannel (NIHONGOchannel.com) is a company that offers a diversity of services relating to Japan such as translation, Japanese lessons, language/cultural exchange, networking events and parties.

Event sponsored by The Lowell Hotel New York

John Thomas Gray III

2010-08-26T16:00:00.000-06:00

Born: August 26, 2010 2:00pm
Weight: 8 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 21 1/2 inches

Thank You Bear

2010-08-12T06:00:00.003-06:00

This is based on one of Preston Blairs's famous drawings...........

Pencil

Inks

Color

Stand Up Bear

2010-08-10T06:00:00.002-06:00

Pencils

Inks

Color

The creation of a very special Baby Shower invitation..........

2010-06-30T12:00:00.001-06:00

1. Sketch of the idea........

2. Rough layout........

3. Pencils........

4. Inks........

5. Paint background..........

6. Photoshop work.......

6. Final image.......

Enjoy,

Jack

Bonzo, Boston, Boston

2010-06-06T11:00:00.000-06:00

Bostons X 2

2010-06-02T07:30:00.001-06:00

Bostons X 2

2010-06-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

Boston x 3

2010-03-31T06:00:00.000-06:00

Lazy Sunday Afternoon......

2010-03-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

Please, play with me.........

2010-03-23T11:00:00.000-06:00

Have a Nice #@*%'n Day...........

2010-01-19T13:00:00.001-07:00

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White Tiger

2009-06-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Pencils
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Inks, Computer Color
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Grrrrrrrr!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

Happy Pickled New Year!!!!!

2009-01-01T09:00:00.001-07:00

I thought I would start this year with a little poem......

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シュワッチ!!!

2008-11-10T09:30:00.001-07:00

Ultraman
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Here is another quick exercise for me. I am working on simplifying the brush strokes to imply detail without going overboard on rendering...... not sure if I am quite there yet.

Enjoy,

Jack

Are you ready for some football?

2008-11-09T10:00:00.001-07:00

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Here is a quick sketch done in Painter X based on a photo. I am not really sure where I was going or what I was trying to do with this..... I think I was trying to capture a certain amount of energy visually and yet keep the mark making under control. Not sure if I achieved that, but it was a good lesson and I definitely took something away from making this image.

Enjoy,

Jack

Coors Portrait

2008-11-09T09:00:00.003-07:00

Adolf Coors (1847-1929)
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I was archiving some of the old files on my work computer the other day, and I stumbled upon some old imagery of the Coors Brewing Company. I have acquired many historic photos over the years for numerous jobs and assignments that I have worked on. The one image that really stood out and peaked my interest was the photo of Adolf Coors himself. I have always wanted to do something with this image. I have always been fascinated by the look of the man, his clothing, attitude and the style the photo was taken.

I thought that this would be an excellent image to try out my newly learned skills in Corel Painter X. This image took about 2 days to complete. I started off by painting the image in a neutral grey-scale. I then took the image into Photoshop and started isolating the image and adding color. I am pretty happy with the likeness and the mood of the painting itself.
I have gone back and forth on whether I have made Adolf look to serious in the portrait. Sometime in the future, I might have to revisit this image and adjust the color and soften the detail around his eyes to make this portrait a little more personable.

Enjoy,

Jack

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T00:00:00.003-06:00

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This was painted to celebrate my favorite holiday of the year.

Boo,

Jack

STILL LIFE?

2008-10-30T07:00:00.002-06:00

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As you can see with the image above, I have finally painted a still life. I have not attempted to draw or paint one of these since my days in college. I found a nice simple shot on the internet and did this simple attempt. I have always been an illustrator/cartoonist at heart and I seemed to feel that the idea of a making a still life was not as interesting as creating a portrait, or a caricature, or illustrating the storytelling devices on the comic book page. To me, creating a still life was a good exercise in value and composition. That was it. This was the type of exercise that was thrown at the eager college student when he really wanted to draw or paint something that was exciting, sexy or scary.... I was never taught or had in the back of my mind that a still life could be taken to level to be a wonderful work of art. In art history, I saw so many slides of bowls of fruit, drapery and glasses of wine, that I think I was "over exposed" to the beauty and art that can be achieved when creating a still life. This is a good example where focus and education, influence you where you end up taking your art.

In college, I had illustrator/cartoonist so stuck in my brain, that I never deviated away from that path. Fortunately, I have made a really good career with those skills...... Now, because I am in such a deadline oriented profession, I have not taken the time to concentrate on the other avenues outside of what I do. I am proud to say that I have finally recognized this and am now working to change it.

I have been really inspired as of late, since I discovered that one of my old High School friends, Christopher Thornock has been keeping a blog about his art. Chris and I used to draw a lot together and I have been really amazed by what I have been seeing and reading. I do remember Chis as an excellent drawer, but the subject matter he drew was very different when compared to what he is creating now. Please go to his blog and see what he has been painting. I am sure you will walk away as amazed and inspired as I have been.

Enjoy,

Jack

P.S. I kept this painting in the Halloween theme by throwing something a little extra in the composition.

ME........

2008-10-28T23:00:00.001-06:00

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I finally decided to attempt another self-portrait...... This image is based on a photo that I took last night with a flashlight as my only source of light. This was completely rendered in neutrals and then colored in Photoshop. I have always thought that a self-portrait can be very self-indulgent, but since the intent of a self-portrait is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the artist, they can be fun and interesting to do. I do like the moodiness of this image and I feel that it is very appropriate for this time of year with Halloween being only three days away.
Maybe, I will try a more light-hearted version when it is time for Christmas.

Boo!

Jack

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

2008-10-26T12:00:00.005-06:00

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I started another illustration this morning and I thought that I would show a detail of where I am with it so far........ This part of the image might change once I get around to solving the illustration as a whole. I am really happy so far with the expressiveness of the marks and tone of the image. It is interesting to illustrate these images in a neutral tone and then doing the color work in Photoshop as a separate layer. This allows me to have greater control of the image and adjust where necessary. This technique is very similar to layering with glazes when doing a traditional painting. I will try and update this image as I go along (if I don't get bored with it first.......).

Here is the updated image.

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I was really surprised where this illustration ended up. I knew I was going to create a zombie, but I wasn't really sure what kind. I guess it is alright that I ended up with a female zombie still in her bathrobe. I am guessing she became one of the walking dead sometime after breakfast, before the kids almost made it to school.

Happy Halloween,

Jack

KAWS x PUSHEAD x GRAY

2008-10-25T16:00:00.000-06:00

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Here is another illustration to keep with the Halloween theme. This morning I decided to break in my brand new Wacom tablet and paint the head of the lovely Kaws x Pushead companion. I have visited this same toy before, but this is the first time I have done a painting of it. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, but it amazes me how much more I have to learn and practice when it comes to all of the possibilities that a Wacom tablet has to offer.

Enjoy,

Jack

Skullwing

2008-10-22T21:00:00.002-06:00

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Keeping in the spirit of Halloween, here is an illustration of a skull. This skull is not your everyday skull, it is actually the head of a "Skullwing", a Japanese vinyl fight figure toy. This illustration really started out as a quick exercise in laying down values, but it ended up becoming more realized than I originally planned.

Enjoy,

Jack

London After Midnight (1927)

2008-10-21T00:00:00.002-06:00

Mr. Smiley
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Here is a companion illustration to the "Frankenstein Monster" I painted last week. This is the vampire character played by Lon Chaney Sr. from the lost silent film "London After Midnight".
I thought that it would be fun to keep a Halloween theme with my illustrations until the end of the month.

Enjoy,

Jack

Happy Birthday Dauber!!!!

2008-10-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

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Sorry, that it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been busy for me....... Work, finding a new truck, work and life in general have really taken me over....

Today is my Boston Terrier Dauber's 8th birthday. When I finally decided to find a dog to join my family, I was going back and forth between a Bulldog, Boston Terrier and a Pug. I am very fascinated by the "flat" face characteristic that all of these breeds have. I did a lot of research into which dog would be the best for me. I finally settled on the Boston Terrier breed since the breeding of these dogs has the least amount of hereditary problems and that they are too damn cute.

I then decided to name my little guy "Dauber".

dauber: n.
1. The act or a stroke of daubing.
2. A soft adhesive coating material such as plaster, grease, or mud.
3. Matter daubed on.
4. A crude, amateurish painting or picture.

Dauber really has been a very big part of my life for the past 7 years. Although I don't get to see him during the week as much as I would like, the weekends are always fun and full of games of fetch and tag. Dayber has a birthday coming up this month and there will definitely be a party for him of some sort. It will include a brand new frisbee for him to chew on.

Recently, I have been messing around with the program Corel Painter X. This morning I decided to "daub" out a pic of my little guy. You can see the results above. This image probably took about 30-45 minutes to do. So far this painting program has been pretty cool, but I do have a long way to go before I know it as well as I know Photoshop. I will forever be a Photoshop guy, but I am sure that this program will crossover well into that platform.

Enjoy,

Jack

Frankenstein (1931)

2008-10-16T22:00:00.004-06:00

The Monster
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This was done to celebrate my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween.

15 days and counting.........

Enjoy,

Jack

Vinyl Fight Figure Sketches

2008-09-19T10:00:00.011-06:00

Ghostfighter
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Skullwing
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These sketches were done when I was heavily collecting Japanese vinyl figures. Now that I have stopped collecting them, I seem to have a lot more money in my bank account.

Enjoy,

Jack

R.I.P.

2008-08-29T15:00:00.007-06:00

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I just found out from the insurance company that the Tacoma is a total loss.......... the vehicle is on its way to the big scrap heap in the sky.

I am really sad.....

:(

OUCH..........

2008-08-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

While driving home from work last night, I was unfortunately involved in a 4 car accident. Traffic was a little heavier on the side streets due to all of the DNC road closures. I was hit from behind by an older model truck traveling around 45 mph. The collision caused a chain reaction, and ended up hitting the car in front of me. The car I hit ended up hitting the car in front of him. Fortunately, no one was severely injured and all of the crumple zones on all of the vehicles did what they were supposed to do.

I still feel a little banged up today.... thank goodness I was wearing a seat belt or I think things could have been much worse........

Below are the pics of the accident I took with my cell phone.

I sure hope my truck can be fixed..... I really love that truck.

Jack

OBAMA and the DNC

2008-08-26T17:00:00.001-06:00

Since the DNC is in town and those overly popular Obama "Change" campaign posters are hanging on every wall and light pole, I thought I would offer up a version of my own..........

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After working on this, I kind of wish that I was working as a political cartoonist again. There is always so much material to draw from when the DNC and RNC are going on. It actually makes it really easy to do your job.

Remember, if you want Socialism and Taxes. Vote Obama in '08

Enjoy,

Jack

I am officially old today.........

2008-08-06T12:00:00.013-06:00

Sorry, no art today...... I have to apologize that it has been a while since I posted. I have been so busy with other things in my life that this blog fell off of my list of the important things that I need to do.

Today, I turn 40 and I am now officially old. If I live to be 80 years old, I have now lived half of my life...... pretty depressing, if you look at everything as being half empty........ when I was a kid I sure didn't picture turning 40 years old to be like how I feel right now. I imagined that I would be more "grown up" and having a more "mature" outlook at life. What is weird is that I still feel like I am 18 years old and ready to take on the world..........

Below are some pictures from when I was a baby. My Mother did an excellent job saving all of my baby pictures, cards and clothes for me. I always enjoy looking through all of that stuff. It is interesting to think about what I remember about that stuff. Is what I remember what actually happened? or is what I remember what someone told as I was growing up?

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The card that was attached to my basket in the baby room at the hospital. I really like the illustration on this card. Very well done.

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This photo was taken by the hospital photographer on the day after I was born.

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This picture of the family was taken 9 days after I was born at 1100 South Farifax in Denver. Look at how pretty my Mom is (look at that tan!), and how handsome my Dad is, and how cute my Sister is......... I wonder why I was crying with all of these beautiful people around me....... maybe it was gas......

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I believe that this photo was taken at my Grammy's house in October of 1968. That is my sister I am sitting with. I think this was the last time we actually smiled at each other.... or maybe I am smiling because I had gas...... :)

I guess you are only as old as you feel, and today I sure don't feel like I turned 40....

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

ROAD KILL RACCOON

2008-06-30T12:30:00.002-06:00

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Back in November 2007, I was contacted by an old friend/client to come up with a design for a new line of pet toys he was considering manufacturing. There were a number of animals that they were interested in making, but it was decided that the Raccoon image would be the best animal to sell into the investors.

I was very excited to work on this project since this is definitely the type of drawing that is perfect for me to do. After penciling a few rough ideas, I decided to do one sketch comprising all of the different options that this toy would have.

I really hoped that this pet toy line would have been realized. Unfortunately, the investors weren't very keen on the idea of a line of "Road Kill" pet toys and the idea ended there.

Enjoy,

Jack

Coors Surfboard

2008-06-30T10:30:00.000-06:00

Art Director's comp:

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Final illustration:

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A few months back I illustrated this image for the Coors surfboard promotion. This illustration was a little easier than some of the other illustrations I have done in the past. All of the work putting together the concept, sketches, and style guides were all ready decided upon before I was hired to illustrate. This makes it easier for me since I do not have to do all of the grunt work before I am able to start on the illustration. My Art Director did an excellent job pulling this together and selling this visual to the client.

This illustration has a little bit of traditional drawing and computer. This file ended up being quite large with a whole lot of layers.

I am pretty happy with the final look of this illustration. I think it does a pretty good job bringing to life what had been sold to the client.

Unfortunately, I have yet to see one of these boards in person........

Enjoy,

Jack

Retouched

2008-06-20T16:30:00.002-06:00

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During the downtime between all of the creative projects I am working on, I still make a strong effort to practice and expand my artistic skills. I have really been interested in image manipulation lately. I am always looking for good images to practice on. I like this type of work since there is no deadline and it helps me get better with my everyday work.

The image above is a random image I found on the internet and I thought it would be a good exercise in photo restoration. I really enjoyed the challenges this photo presented to me. After a couple hours of work, I think that I have taken the image as far as I could without losing the "look and feel" of the original photograph.

Enjoy,

Jack

Friday Morning Scribble........

2008-06-20T07:00:00.003-06:00

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I haven't had a chance to post anything interesting lately due to my heavy workload and my lack of inspiration. Lately, I have been exhausting all of my creative juices on my projects at work and it has really been taking a toll on my personal work.

My regular morning ritual is to make coffee, listen to news radio over the internet and check all of my favorite blogs and news websites. I then try and do a couple of warm up drawings to prepare me for my day...... since I have been feeling so uninspired artwise lately, I have been having trouble with the warm up drawings, so I have been forcing myself to sketch wherever and whenever I can.

Today's scribble was drawn on the glass surface of my computer desk. Nothing that impressive, but it was a small step towards chipping away at that huge wall that has been blocking my creativity.

Enjoy,

Jack

Thursday Afternoon Sketch

2008-05-22T14:00:00.003-06:00

GARASTIMPY
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I have been working really hard on a couple of different photo retouch assignments and I decided I needed to take a break and this drawing was the result of my time well spent.

So, since I seem to be only working in photoshop as of late, and not doing much traditional drawing. I have been trying to sketch as much as possible so my drawing skills do not become rusty.

The sketch above was inspired by the Japanese Ultraman character "Garamon", and the wonderful Spumco character, "Stimpy". I have been revisiting all of those old Ren and Stimpy cartoons that I enjoyed so much while I was in college. It is amazing that they still inspire me today just as much as they did way back then.

If you are at all interested in Garamon, please check out Michael Nordstom's blog Garamania!.
It is a great source of well researched info and pictures for all things Garamon.

Joy,

Jack

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

2008-05-19T07:00:00.002-06:00

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Today's meeting was something about new procedures, iChat, and we have a lot of work so everyone needs to put forth 110%......

.......... the really important thing I got out of today's meeting was this sketch.

Enjoy,

Jack

Friday Afternoon Pickled Sketch

2008-05-16T20:00:00.002-06:00

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I had another informative meeting today..........

.......... this sketch was the result of all of that information.

Jack

Friday Morning Pickled Sketch

2008-05-16T07:30:00.001-06:00

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I sketched during today's morning meeting....... I drew a couple of shapes and the drawing evolved from there.

Enjoy,

Jack

Inquest Magazine illustrations

2008-05-10T05:00:00.009-06:00

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I was cleaning out some old files today and stumbled upon these four illustrations. These were done for Inquest gaming magazine for a feature called "What If? Far Side of Magic" back in 2002. Basically I was asked to illustrate the Inquest staff's ideas for their own Magic the Gathering gaming cards. The image above has the original rough sketches that I sent in for approval on the left, on the right you will see I had to make a few changes for the final illustrations.

Here is a list of the descriptions I was given when I was asked to do the illustrations:

1. There’s a card called Thriss, Nantuko Primus (I’ll send it to you). This is a powerful praying mantiss type creature. We’re turning it into: Priss, Nantuko Crossdresser. Illo has a Thriss-like creature wearing pink ballerina dress, lipstick, a purse etc... looking very feminine.

2. There’s a card called Border Patrol (I could send it but it’s not a
useful reference). We’re turning it into: Mexican Border Patrol. Illo has
two guys in sombreros sleeping next to a fence, wall or gate of some kind. A huge dragon is walking right by.

3. There are several cards depicting a class of creatures called Treefolk. They’re big humanoid trees (I have a great reference I can send). Our card is Inbred Treefolk. Illo has two of these tree creatures wearing ratty overalls, buck teeth, one has a banjo, etc… Basically treefolk meets hillbillies.

4. There’s a card called Nantuko Monastery. Our take on it is called Nantuko Mensroom. Illo is of three bathroom stalls with only the feet of the creatures visible. One set of feet belongs to an elephant, one to a skeleton and one to a Cephalid (I’ll send a reference but basically a four-tentacled squid). There’s some graffiti on the outside of the stalls but on the door of the middle stall there’s a big red circle with a line through the middle (the international road symbol for prohibited) with the word Spelljacking in the middle.

These illustrations were really fun for me to do. Since I have never really been much of a painter, I decided that I would do very tight pencil renderings of the images and then simulate a "painted" look by coloring them in Photoshop. I think that the look and feel of these illustrations came out very unique and was able to pass as an actual illustration used for these gaming cards.

Unfortunately, this ended up being one of the last jobs I did for Wizard Magazine (and their sister publications), before I moved on to pursue my short career in Law Enforcement full time.

Enjoy,

Jack

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

2008-05-05T17:00:00.010-06:00

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While cleaning up my studio this morning and dealing with the pain from my sinus surgery that I had on Friday, I came across my Father's Senior High School photo and thought that I would sit down and see if I could draw a decent likeness of him...... It has always been a real challenge for me to capture a likeness and draw a decent portrait. It is even harder for me when I know the person and I am trying to capture a likeness that does the person justice and does not offend them. I always put too much pressure on myself when drawing people that I know and love. That pressure takes all of the fun out of drawing portraits and because of that I do not draw them very often.
Recently, I have decided to make a conscious effort to draw more portraits and not worry about who I am drawing and just focus on the basic fundamentals of structure and form when I am drawing a portrait. If the basic fundamentals are there, a likeness should not be hard to achieve.
This drawing of my Father represents my first step in this direction.... Although I did not capture a dead on likeness, it was good practice and can only lead towards getting better. I am planning on updating the blog on my progress as I attempt to do more portrait drawing in the future.

Enjoy,

Jack

Pickle Flavored Slurpee

2008-05-03T07:30:00.001-06:00

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The Dallas division of the company I work for was having a submission contest for some really cool prizes over at the Slurpee website. They were about to launch phase 2 of the new and improved Slurpee web site and needed new content. So they put out a company wide call for creatives to contribute content to the site so that it did not look bare.
There were all kind of categories you could contribute to such as: "The Spoon Straw", "Brain Freeze", "Slurpee Drinking", "Slurpee and Granny", "Your Special Mix", etc........ The entries could be anything from photos, video and even poetry.

I contributed the lovely drawing above to the "Suggest a Flava" category. I of course had to suggest a "Pickle" flavor.

Enjoy,

Jack

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

2008-04-21T23:00:00.007-06:00

I got the urge to sketch during today's morning meeting, so I drew this..... I just penciled some random circles and then started cross hatching. I was not really sure what I was drawing.........

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...... then I added some color..........

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Enjoy,

Jack

WOLVERINE ON THE CRAPPER

2008-04-18T21:00:00.000-06:00

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Here are the original pencil and ink drawings of Wolverine on the Crapper I created for Wizard Magazine. I really haven't thought about this version of the drawing for quite a long time, I really wasn't sure if I had still kept this art in my archives. So, tonight I decided to do a little digging around in my art pile to see if I could find it. After about a half-an-hour of searching, I was able to find both the pencil drawing and the ink drawing......

When I drew this version of Wolverine, I was so sure that Wizard was going to use it, I went from pencils to inks and then to color without getting editorial approval. To my amazement, Wizard wanted something completely different, a more calm, exhausted and worn out from taking a dump Wolverine..... I was a little disappointed that they did not want to use this version because I thought this version had a little more humor and action in it.... reluctantly, I went back to the drawing board and came up with the version you see in the "Wizard Magazine #200" post below.

Enjoy,

Jack

Great Review on Scud the Disposable Assassin #23

2008-04-17T10:00:00.000-06:00

Another great review by Michael Goldberg from "Criticize This". Michael always seems to give a well informed and educated opinion about what he reviews.

Enjoy,

Jack

Wizard Magazine #200

2008-04-15T21:00:00.007-06:00

Many years ago..... about 1998 or 1999, I was hired to illustrate various comic illustrations for Wizard Magazine. I was usually called upon to illustrate the more "humorous" comic illustrations to run with their articles or features, I was also called upon to illustrate a lot of Pokemon characters (let me tell you, there were a lot of them) for their sister magazine "IN Power".

A couple of months ago, I was contacted and interviewed by Wizard Magazine for a feature they were going to be running in their 200th issue. This feature was about the best artwork they had ever commissioned for their magazine. I was honored to have three of my illustrations choosen for the feature. Below are the three images that they picked.
Also, pictured below is the Kevin Smith illustration with glasses that I had originally submitted first to Wizard. I thought that the image with the glasses captured the likeness more than without the glasses. But the editors at Wizard disagreed, and I was directed to remove the glasses for the article.

I have talked about the "Wolverine on the Crapper" and the "Bugs and Homer" boxing illustration in my past blog postings, so I won't go into detail about those here.....

I really miss doing those illustrations for Wizard Magazine, I had a great time drawing the popular characters in many odd and funny situations. I am also very proud of the fact that I am one of the few that has actually gotten paid for drawing Wolverine taking a shit.

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Enjoy,

Jack

Scud the Disposable Assassin #21 and #23

2008-04-09T15:00:00.004-06:00

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Now appearing at a comic book store near you are issues #21 (2nd printing) and #23 of Scud the Disposable Assassin. I contributed the cover art for the 2nd printing of issue #21 and also contributed a pin-up for issue #23.

The black and white illustration was completed first. Rob Schrab asked if I would be interested in doing a pin-up for one of the new issues, and I was more than happy to provide an illustration. When I came up with the idea, I wanted to somehow create an image that incorporated the feeling I get from looking at all of the old "Ultraman" pictures and television episodes. I was also very aware of Rob's affection towards Ultraman and his favorites being the episodes that are dubbed. Taking all of that into consideration, I thought that I would do the illustration in sort of a movie-poster style using an iconic pose for Scud that was pure Ultraman and then working in my Cheerleader character that has been with Scud in all of the illustrations that I have done of him so far. I also asked my wife to translate things like "sureality just got funky", "Scud the Disposable Assassin" into Japanese. She said it would be difficult to get an exact translation, but she would give me something that would be very close to the same meaning.

About a month after I sent the image to Rob, he asked if I would be willing to create a color version that would be used for the cover of the 2nd printing of issue #21. I got to work, colorized the image and did some re-illustration on parts of the image. I also wanted to make sure that we kept all of the Japanese text on the image. I thought that it would be "authentic" to keep that kind of thing intact in the image.

So, after all of that work...... both of the images are still basically the same thing, the only differences are:
.....One illustration is in black and white and the other illustration is in color.
.....I changed the color illustration by replacing my "Cheerleader" girl character with Rob's character "Black Octopus". (The thought behind this was that would give the cover image more relevance to what was going on in the series.)
.....Adding the large Japanese version of the Scud logo behind Scud.

I had a lot of fun illustrating this. It suddenly hit me that it has been over 10 years since I was working in comics industry full time. Once I started working in advertising industry, I really haven't had the time to do comic work. It was really nice to do something like this again and the best part was getting to work with Rob again. As Rob said, "it was great to get the band back together".

Thanks again for the opportunity Rob!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

P.S. I just finished working with Rob doing the design for the Scud the Disposable Assassin Omnibus, "The Whole Shebang!". The book is going to be beautiful and I promise that you will not be disappointed. Make sure you buy both the softcover and hardcover versions that will be coming out in June 2008 (hopefully in time for the San Diego Comic Con) from Image comics. This is going to be one GIGANTIC book containing all 24 Scud issues, Drywall: Unzipped and Black Octopus: Sexy Genius.

Also, I have been fortunate to see the ending of the Scud series. I just have to say that Rob has written a wonderful ending that will definitely satisfy the most die-hard Scud fans. It will even tug at your heart strings while you are reading it. Definitely a great ending to a great series.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2008-02-14T17:30:00.004-07:00

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I was working on a Charmin toilet paper project today and I got inspired to draw one of those cuddly Charmin bears. So, in honor of this wonderful day, I came up with this sketch.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Jack

(In case you are wondering, I had a real hard time not drawing bumps all over this bear......)

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOT WHEELERS CLUB

2008-02-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been spending a lot of my time (and my money) on a hobby that takes me back to the time when I was a child growing up in Littleton, Colorado. There were many things that I was interested in as a kid, Godzilla, monster movies, comic books, Godzilla, my Mongoose BMX bike, skateboarding, Godzilla, and last but not least Hot Wheels. For some reason those little die-cast cars have found a place back in my life after more than 30 years. I haven't really figured out why my interest has gone back to collecting these little cars. Maybe it is those memories I still have from when I was a child..... or maybe it is the thrill of the hunt to find those rare and hard to find cars..... or maybe it is just the aesthetics of the die-cast cars..... or maybe I am in some sort of mid-life crisis.....

Anyway, due to this passion I have for collecting these little cars, I decided to search the internet to see if there were any other collectors here in Colorado that share this same addictive hobby. That search led me to the Rocky Mountain Hot Wheelers Club web page. I found out that they had meetings once a month, usually on the third Saturday. One weekend in June I decided to attend just one of the meetings and enjoyed it so much that I have been a member since. The club is run by a great bunch of guys and it has been a great place to meet others that share the same interest in the cars as I do, and to learn more about the hobby of collecting and the history of all of the Hot Wheels cars.

Six months after I had joined the club, the Club decided that they needed to re-design the existing Club logo and decided to make it into a contest for all of the club members. The original logo was an adaptation of the actual Hot Wheels logo, the logo had the same design of the very famous Hot Wheels logo but changed the letters that were inside of the flame to read "Hot Wheelers" instead of "Hot Wheels". I guess Mattel wasn't very happy with this design of the club logo and asked them to quit using it.

I thought that it might be fun to enter the logo design contest and create a new logo for the club. This wasn't as easy as I thought that it was going to be. First, I had to figure out a design that would be dynamic and be elegant at the same time. I knew that there was going to be a "Wheel" somewhere in the design, but I wasn't quite sure where. And I knew that I wanted to have some pin-striping incorporated into the design. I also wanted to see if I could add some "action" or "motion" to different elements of the design. I sat down with a ball point pen, pencil and the back of an envelope and I started sketching.

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Once I got a good feeling for the visual and figured out what would go where, I took my very rough sketch and scanned it into the computer and started to refine the ideas that I had put down on paper. I thought the best and cleanest way to do this was create the logo in Adobe Illustrator. I thought about doing the color for this logo in Photoshop, but Photoshop can be very limiting since the image is rasterized. That makes it difficult especially if this logo might be used on anything from a 5x3 banner, to a small sticker due what happens when the pixels in a rasterized image are scaled to a large or very small size. I really needed the logo artwork to hold up for all of the uses it might be needed for.

Below is what I came up for the final versions of the logo. I wanted to come up with something that was unique but still looked like it had a fun Hot Rod influence. I am really pleased with how this design came out.

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Out of the ten other entries that were submitted for the contest, I was fortunate enough to have been selected the winner of the logo design contest. I had a real great time designing and illustrating this logo. It was really nice to get to work on a project that brought back a lot of the memories of when I was young and happy collecting all of those little cars.

Enjoy,

Jack

Also, if you collect Hot Wheels, live in the Denver area and would be interested in joining the RMHWC, please reply to this thread and I will get you information on how to join, or you can visit the direct link on the right-hand side of this page.

Coors Light Northwestern Region Newspaper Ads

2008-01-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

I apologize that it has been a while since I last posted here, I have STILL been dealing with getting my wisdom teeth removed and this horrible sinus infection...... It looks like I am finally on the road to recovery.

I was archiving some images on my computer last week and I ran across these ads I had created for Coors Light. These ads ran last year in newspapers in the Northwestern region of the United States. These newspapers are very similar to the Colorado based newspaper "Westword".

I was art directed to illustrate these ads with a looser drawing style and to try and capture the energy that is present at a rock concert and the energy and the experience while snowboarding. All of these ads presented a challenge for me since they were all going to run in a few different newspapers at different sizes and formats. I had to illustrate all of the elements separately and then combine them together in Photoshop. Doing this makes it easier to move the elements around to create a stronger design and to communicate the idea in the best possible way given the size and format restrictions.

Enjoy,

Jack

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WISDOM TEETH

2007-12-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

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It has been almost two months since my last post and I have a few good reasons why this has happened.

First, I finally went in and had my wisdom teeth removed after many years of my dentist suggesting me to do so. Let me tell you that it was probably one of the most uncomfortable and painful things I have ever done........ I had three impacted teeth and one tooth that had erupted. I ended up with dry sockets and there wasn't a pain medicine that could take that pain away. After 2 weeks of having the procedure done, my mouth still hurts, but seems to have gotten a little bit better.

Second, I am leaving for Japan on the 26th of December so I have been getting ready for that. There are so many things that need to be done before you go on a trip out of the country..... itinerary, gifts for family, scheduling transportation (train, bus, etc.), coordinating time with family and friends........ It can get a little overwhelming.

Third, all of this is happening right before Christmas and I still need to buy presents, send out Christmas cards, etc........

So, I apologize for not updating the blog as much as I should.

I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season this year!!!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

GO COLORADO ROCKIES!!!!

2007-10-25T13:00:00.000-06:00

You may or may not know that the Colorado Rockies baseball team made it to the World Series this year. I can't say that I have been the most avid baseball fan of all time, but I do enjoy watching a game now and then, especially when I can go to the stadium to see a game live and in person. Since this is the first time the Rockies have made it to the World Series, this is the only thing you hear about on Radio, Television and in the Newspaper. The tickets to the World Series games here in Denver are the hottest ticket in town...... (don't get me started on what I went through trying to obtain 4 tickets, and how disappointing the final result was........)

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Which brings me to the picture that is posted above. During the last week in August, my Uncle Mac, my Father and I went down to Florida to visit my Aunt and Uncle at their home in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a very nice trip. One of the many highlights of the trip was going with all of the family to a Marlins and Braves baseball game. It was fun to see both teams play in Dolphins Stadium.

At the bottom of the third inning, I was lucky enough to catch a foul ball that was hit by the Marlins left fielder, J. Willingham. I was sending a text message to my wife when I heard a "crack" of the bat, I looked up and saw a ball coming straight at me. I stood up with cell phone in hand, and caught the ball.

Since I usually post about my art on this blog, I decided to put my photoshop skills to the test on this picture of me that was taken right after I caught the baseball. I experimented with a few new techniques to make something look "distressed" and old.

I think the final result came out pretty well.

Enjoy,

Jack

COORS SNOW POSTER CAMPAIGN

2007-10-10T15:00:00.000-06:00

This years Coors snow program was very challenging for me, but at the same time, it was very fulfilling for me to work on. I was given the task of illustrating three posters depicting the "Legendary" aspects of Coors Banquet. The illustration style was to be based on the technique and style of the Kaiju illustrations I created back in January. I think there is a similarity in the style and technique, but since I ended up drawing everything and not using any photography, there is a definite difference in the look and feel of the illustrations.

When I am given an assignment for an illustration, the Art Director usually provides me a comp, some reference images and what written copy will be needed on the art. I then proceed to the pencil stage, where I will do some initial sketches of what I have in mind for the illustration. I then show this to the Art Director for approval.

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It was quite a daunting task to get these illustrations approved by the Coors legal department due to the subject matter. (no Joe Camel here....) But after a few changes and color tweaks, they were approved.

This Coors Snow Poster Campaign was entered into this years Art Directors Club of Denver Annual Show competition and was fortunate enough to be awarded three times.

1. Gold - for Illustration
2. Gold - for Design: (collateral design - posters - campaign)
3. Silver - for Print Advertising: (collateral - posters - campaign)

Also, the snowboards I illustrated for this campaign were recognized with a Bronze - for Print Advertising (consumer magazine - color full page or spread - campaign).

Enjoy,

Jack

San Diego Comic-Con, Rob Schrab, Scud the Disposable Assassin, and Me.

2007-09-06T09:30:00.000-06:00

I was able to meet up with the artist and creator of Scud the Disposable Assassin Rob Schrab, while he was signing autographs and promoting Scud at the San Diego Comic-Con this year. It was really great to hang out with him again after almost 10 years.

Don't forget to keep on the lookout for the Scud the Disposable Assassin Omnibus, coming soon to a store near you!!!!

Jack

CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER UPDATE

2007-08-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I was finally able to take some pics of the actual completed poster. I hope these photos give a hint as to what I was trying to explain about it in my previous Creative Circus Poster entry.

Enjoy,

Jack

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CREATIVE CIRCUS ART SHOW

2007-08-24T15:30:00.000-06:00

Here is a few pics of my sculpture entries for the Creative Circus art show that was held this past couple of weeks here at my work. This was the first time I have displayed most of my sculpts all together in one place. I think that they all look pretty good together..... I just wish I would have been able to have the sculpts in the back raised up on a higher surface instead of being on the same level as the sculpts in front.

Enjoy,

Jack

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CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER

2007-08-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Flashback to 2003...... When I decided to get back into creating art for a living, I was hired by an marketing/ad agency to fulfill their needs of an illustrator/designer. For the past 4 years this agency has been a very fun and unique place for me to work.There have been many fun benefits that the agency offers their employees. One of those fun benefits is the Creative Circus. This event has been an almost a yearly event since I started working here.

This year's Creative Circus will be held on Thursday, August 23rd. This year, as tradition has had it, there are four categories, a talent show, culinary cook-off, art show, and side show acts. Each year the agency also has a Poster Design contest that is open for all employees to participate in. This contest is usually pretty open to what ever you want to create. I always enjoy participating in this kind of stuff, especially if I have the time to do so.

In 2004, I decided to give this Poster Design contest a try and came up with the idea below. I was trying to do an illustration that had the same kind of perception like the skits that happened on the television show "Three's Company".

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Unfortunately, this one didn't go over too well with our HR department and was not approved........ I didn't think that it was that bad, HR did think it was funny but they did not want to take a chance of offending anyone.

Since my first Poster did not get approved, I decided I was not going go down without a fight, so I came up with another design that you see below.

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I seem to have a really soft spot in my heart for this clown character, I always seem to end up illustrating him somewhere whether I am doodling or creating a new personal work. This clown originally started as a sculpture I did for a series of hot rod shifter knobs I planned on creating and marketing. This poster was approved by HR but the PM that was in charge of this job, was a little scared of what the meaning behind it was and decided to keep it hidden in his office instead of hanging it somewhere in the building. My experience with this project seemed to get worse and worse and put a bad taste in my mouth. I decided to take a beak from this kind of participation here at work and focused my efforts somewhere else.

Fast forward to 2007, I have a better personal outlook on the Poster Design Contest this year and I decided to participate since I was sure that I would be able to make the time. I had a more complex idea this time and had a good time trying to solve the problems of design, illustration and engineering.

This all started with a sketch on the back of an envelope....

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Then I took to sketching the idea on post-it notes and cut out paper....

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I finally came up with a design I was really happy with and it included all of the techniques (textures, pin-striping, and cross hatching) that I seem to really enjoy working with when I am creating my illustrations.

I also wanted to do something a little more to this years poster design that the ones I created before didn't have...... movement. I contacted our Merchandise Department and was able to get a small motor that would make it possible for parts of my poster design to rotate.

The task now for me was to take my sketches to a completed design in 3 days. (Of course I procrastinated till the very last minute to put this thing together.)

The image below is of the back layer of my design. I really like how this turned out and I really thought of just turning this in as the design. There was something happening here visually that I really liked.

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Next, I created the part of my design that was going to have the movement. I knew early on that I wanted to have a kind of "hypno-disc" somewhere on the poster. I originally intended to have 4 of these discs spinning at once, but decided that it would be too much work for this silly poster and settled for just one spinning disc.

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I then illustrated my Pickled Clown "Corky" to finish off the design. I really enjoy drawing this guy..... and since he was on the last two posters I illustrated, I would have felt bad if I did not include him on this design. The ".....I'm cold...." word balloon is an inside joke about an incident that happened while I was in Junior High School.....

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Below is the completed design sans the movement. I will try and update the blog with some actual photos of the completed three-dimensional piece soon.

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Enjoy,

Jack

SCUD SDCC POSTER

2007-07-17T16:00:00.000-06:00

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Well, I finally finished setting up the Scud Poster art for the San Diego Comic-Con. Rob Schrab had asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would be interested in putting together a poster for him using the artwork I colored for the SCUD Omni-Book. I was very excited to be able to work on this project and be able to bring it to life. Rob and I went back and forth with a few different ideas for the look, size and where exactly the copy should be placed. I think that it turned out nice. The hardest part of making this poster was having to scale the original colored image up in size (without losing any of the picture quality) in order to fit the proportions of the 18"x24" poster.

I will not be able to make it out to the San Diego Comic-Con this year to get a copy of this poster for myself...... I had some last minute work get in the way.....

Anyway, if you are reading this and you are going to go to the San Diego Comic-Con this year, be sure to find Rob and tell him hello for me..... (and get a poster for me...... autographed....... if you don't mind....... please......)

Here is Rob Schrab's schedule at Comic-Con:

IMAGE BOOTH
Booth: #2729
Sat: 1:00-1:55
Sun. 11:00-12:00

and

SHOCKER TOYS
Booth: #4517
Sat: 4:00-5:00
Sun:12:30 -1:30

He will be GIVING AWAY Scud posters and selling sketches and DVDs. He will also have a sneak peek at Scud 21!!!!

Then check out the "The Sarah Silverman Program" PANEL with Rob and the cast.
Room: 6cdef
Sat: 7:45-8:45PM

Enjoy,

Jack

HOOTERS 5

2007-06-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

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The May/June issue of Hooters Magazine is finally out and on the newsstands, this one has slipped under my radar....... I haven't even seen a printed sample yet. So, that means it is time to present the final Coors Light ad illustrated by me. Still following the same theme as the four ads I had drawn before, I think I had the best time illustrating this one. The girl was really fun to draw and I really enjoyed coming up with the design and look of the background....... even though I was a little difficult doing a little research to find out all of the international names for beer (thank goodness for the internet).

I am kind of sad that this is the last ad of the series. Hopefully there will be another campaign like this next year. It is really refreshing to be able to create this kind of work, it is so much different than all of the other ad campaigns I usually work on.

Please remember to always buy Coors products.

Enjoy,

Jack

COORS LIGHT MIRROR

2007-06-16T21:00:00.000-06:00

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Here is a Colorado Avalanche hockey player illustration I did for Coors Light last year. This illustration ended up being used for a two level, 33"w x 20"h mirror. This was an interesting job for me to work on since I have never created the final production art for a two level mirror before. The bottom level of the mirror was a "mirror-like" material with the hockey arena and Coors Light logo printed on it. The top level will be a clear acrylic material with the hockey player, puck and the Avalanche logo printed on it. It was a little challenging for me to figure out how to isolate the specific parts of the illustration and to create a convincing "3-dimensional" look from a 2-dimensional illustration. After I figured out what would be seperated out for each of the individual levels, I needed to create a white plate for the top level so that the art would not be transparent where the white or lighter areas would be printed. In the end, I was really happy about how this illustration turned out.

Unfortunately, I have never seen this hanging in a bar or liquor store. I really have tried to get one of these mirrors for myself, but have not had any luck........ (I haven't even seen one show up on ebay). I did get to see the prototype mirror and I was very impressed with the production on this piece.

Please remember to always buy Coors products.

Enjoy,

Jack

DAUBER

2007-05-28T18:00:00.000-06:00

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Here is my Boston Terrier, Dauber, looking very happy and satisfied after playing a crazy game of fetch. We had a really good time running around the backyard on this Memorial Day holiday.

I love my dog,

Jack

PICKLED BART

2007-05-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

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I have been so busy lately..... my job has been kicking my butt and I really have not been that motivated to post here on the blog. I have felt that if I have any extra time, I should apply it elsewhere, somewhere more constructive. So, I have been drawing, sculpting, reading, selling off my Japanese kaiju toys on ebay and starting to collect Hot Wheels again. I didn't realize how much I missed collecting those little cars.

I used the Pickled Bart image up above for practicing my coloring skills and image manipulation using the Wacom Tablet. The more I use the tablet the more I am starting to feel comfortable with it. I am still not up to the level where I can actually draw on the computer with it, but I am starting to realize the some of the benefits it has for my day to day work.

My wife and I are starting to think about going to Japan in December. We need to resolve a few things (money, time away from work, and money) before we buy the tickets, but it looks like we are 90% sure that we will go. This trip should be very exciting for us, it will be our first trip back since we got married, it will be during New Year's holiday, and my wife's sister-in-law is pregnant and her projected due date to deliver the baby is while we will be there visiting.

I am going to try and post here on the blog a little more often, my wife has been kicking my butt with post counts on her blog..... and she won't let me forget it.

Enjoy,

Jack

PICKLED SIGNATURE

2007-05-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

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After I updated the header for this blog, I became curious as to what my signature would look like "Pickled". The image above is the final result.

This also marks my first attempt at computer coloring with a Wacom tablet.

Coloring this with a tablet was a very humbling experience for me, and it showed me that I have a lot to learn...........

Jack

PICKLED HEADER

2007-04-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

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I finally decided to update the header for the blog. The old header image was made from parts of the sketchbook that I published back in 2005. The new header was drawn with a very "Big Daddy Roth" style in mind. I drew the logo three times before I finally settled on the one that you see at the top of this page.

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Comparing the final version to the old header, I like that the letters are a lot more organic and they create a visual of what "Pickled" really is.

Enjoy,

Jack

SCUD: The Disposable Assassin

2007-04-05T14:00:00.000-06:00

Back in 1993, before I started working professionally in the comic book industry, I made my first of many trips out to the San Diego Comic-Con. I had spent a couple months preparing my very amateur portfolio so I could hand it off to prospective comic book companies at the convention. I had an agenda of comic book publishers and artists that I wanted to meet. One of those publishers was Fireman Press, the publisher of Scud: The Disposable Assasin. I didn't really have any idea how big of a publisher Fireman Press was, but I figured if they were able to put out a book they might have a position for me. So, I dropped off my portfolio with someone at their booth and I went about my day meeting with all of the other people on my list.
The next day I decided to go back to the Fireman Press booth to see if I could meet the artist of Scud, Rob Schrab. Fortunately, he was there and I was able to talk him into doing a sketch of Scud for me. I paid him $20.00 and he told me to come back later to pick up the sketch. I stopped by a couple hours later and waiting for me was a beautiful sketch of Scud leaping off of the page. Rob really liked the sketch he had done and asked if I would send him a copy of the drawing. I quickly ran over to the Kinkos which was located in the lobby of the convention center, made a copy and brought it back to their booth. Rob seemed pleased that I got him a copy and that was the last I saw of the Fireman Press guys during the convention. The sketch that Rob did for me eventually was turned into the Scud poster "It's Cool to be a Robot".
About 2 months later, I got a call from Rob Schrab asking if I would be interested in doing a pin-up for an upcoming issue of Scud. I was very excited and honored to have been asked. This was a very exciting time for me in my comic art career, all of the companies that I had met with started to contact me and offer me work.

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The image above is the first pin-up that I did for Scud. It appeared in Scud #8. I came up with the idea while I was working at my one night a week job at the local comic shop. I scribbled the idea on the back of Chick-filet napkin.

A couple months later I was asked if I would like to color the 2nd printing of Scud #1. Scud was primarily a black and white book with color covers. Rob wanted to provide the fans a little something extra by adding color to the 2nd printing. Rob provided me the color guides, and my coloring assistant Eric Wiese and I got to work. We had to remove all of the zip-a-tone from the pages in order to do the coloring, so there was a lot of prep time with the 27 page book. We had a real good time working on this project and we were very happy with the final product.

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The image above is the pin-up I provided for the color reprint. This is the first appearance of the "Cheerleader" character that I always seemed to draw in the pin-ups I did for Fireman Press.

Next up on my plate from Fireman Press was to color "Drywall: Unzipped!". At this time in my life, I had just been offered a full time position at Chaos! Comics and was in transition between closing down my coloring studio and moving to the Chaos! compound in Scottsdale, AZ. I had lost my coloring assistant Eric Wiese to the world of animation, so I ended up coloring this book by myself. Half the book was colored in Denver, and the other half of the book was colored down in Scottsdale.

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The image above is the pin-up I provided for the Drywall issue. I was really happy how this one turned out. Drywall is one of my favorite characters of the Scud universe. I had a great time coming up with an image to draw of Drywall and my cheerleader character together.

After Drywall, I was asked if I would be willing to draw "The Drywall and Oswald Show", a two issue mini-series. At first it looked as if I would have been able to draw the series, but it ended up that my obligations at Chaos! made it impossible to do the book. Fortunately, they were able to get Trent Kaniuga, the artist and creator of the comic "Creed" to draw the book.

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The image above is the only page I was able to pencil for the book. They used these pencils as "teaser" art to solicit the series.

With my workload at Chaos! my time became very limited and I was only able to work on covers and pin-ups for Fireman Press.

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The image above is from the cover of "The Drywall and Oswald Show" #2. Rob provided me a color guide and the direction of "make it look like the beginning of the Scooby Doo cartoon".

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The image above was for "Tales from the Vending Machine" #5. The art is by Jorge Pacheco the color is by me. If I remember correctly, he was an artist for the "Garfield" comic strip.

It has been about 10 years since I have talked to Rob and the Fireman Press crew. Rob had moved from Milwaukee and the chores of writing and drawing Scud to Hollywood to focus on his career of being a famous writer and director of television and movies. About two months ago, I noticed an announcement on the comic news website "Newsarama" that stated that Rob had decided to finally finish the Scud story by writing and drawing issue #21, the final issue of the series. I immediately sent Rob an email to see if he needed a colorist for the cover. He responded saying that he hoped to do the coloring himself..... but it would be fun to "get the band back together".
Currently, Rob is writing and directing the "The Sarah Silverman Program" for Comedy Central. So, his busy schedule was not going to permit him to color the cover image and I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Rob asking if I was still interested in doing the color. My answer was a big YES!

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The images above are a "before and after" of the cover art for the new "Scud OMNI-BOOK". Rob did a very kick ass job on the black and white art giving me a wonderful structure to apply my color work. This new Scud book will reprint and collect the first 20 issues of the Scud series, it will also include the brand new issue #21!!! it should also have a reprinting of the Drywall: Unzipped! issue in black and white.
Look for the new and exciting Scud OMNI-BOOK this summer, coming to you from Image Comics.

For more information, please go to Rob Schrab's website:
Rob Schrab

HOOTERS 4

2007-03-30T13:00:00.000-06:00

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The March/April issue of Hooters Magazine is out on the stands. So, that means another advertisement for Coors Light drawn by me. I really enjoyed working on this illustration. Parts of it were challenging, but overall it was a good time. This ad is my favorite so far, because the woman in the illustration is loosely based on my wife. I didn't use any photo reference or try to capture a likeness of her, I think it is the attitude and pose is what reminds me of her so much. I am also fond of the colors in this one. This is the only ad so far that the background colors didn't follow the "cold cues" of Coors Light.

There was a little trouble when this ad was printed, somewhere between sending the disc off to the printer and being published in the actual magazine, the headline, legal, and Mt. Icon dissapeared and failed to show up on the printed piece. Not really sure how that happened .......

The image above is how it should have looked in the magazine.

Please remember to always buy Coors products.

Enjoy,

Jack

PICKLED SKUMBO

2007-03-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

I had posted back in August 2006 that I had been invited to create a custom Skumbo vinyl toy for the custom toy show "HIJACKED" (Because Homage is Just a Fancy Word for Stealing): Custom Skumbo Show out in Long Beach, CA. Well, over 9 months have passed and the show has not happened yet. I became a little worried and contacted the curator........ Thankfully, the curator was kind enough to send my little guy back to me.

Originally, the curator asked us if we would only post teaser pics and not the full image shots of the Skumbo. Now that I have my little guy back in my possession and since I will not be part of this particular custom show anymore, here are some pics of my finished custom Skumbo.

Here is the little guy before customization:

Concept sketch:

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In progress:

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Finished pics:

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This guy is still up for sale. If interested, please leave me a comment. I will get back to you a.s.a.p.

I have been bitten by the custom toy bug again and have three different custom toys in the works. Stay tuned, I will be posting some images soon.

Jack

HEDORAH (ヘドラ)

2007-03-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

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Here is another one of my "toy illustrations" of my favorite kaiju "Hedorah" (ヘドラ), he is from the 1971 Toho film "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (titled Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster here in the U.S.). The monster was named for hedoro (ヘドロ), the Japanese word for sludge, vomit, slime or chemical ooze.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have always liked the concept of the character. The idea of a kaiju that spit acid, was a layered shapeless mass that was brought to earth by a meteor and lived off of industrial pollution was brilliant. This movie was made at a time before all of this talk of global warming, carbon footprints, etc. It was a psychedelic Godzilla movie that had a political message: save the earth from mankind's excesses.

Enjoy,

Jack

HOOTERS 3

2007-02-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

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The February issue of Hooters Magazine is out on the newsstands, that means it is time for another Coors Light ad drawn by yours truly. This illustration was a challenge for me because I really had no idea what I was going to do. I knew that the girl was going to be blonde, and the winner of a beauty pageant, but that was about it. I went back and forth on whether I should make her a "dingy" blonde or if I should go for a more straight forward approach. I decided on the latter...... although the way I drew her head to the side does make her look a little air headed, but I thought that the pose was cute. I kind of based her pose on an old calender pin-up drawn by the legendary George Petty.

Comparing all of the ads I have drawn so far, I really had a good time creating the background for this piece. I had originally created the backround in a purple hue, to contrast with the yellow in her hair, but the powers that be felt that the background did not look "cold" enough and I had to change it to the "cold" blue color. I also really like the textures and the painted "masked" look of all the other girl contestants. I am really glad that I have the opportunity and freedom to experiment in the backgrounds of these ads. I really enjoy creating the contrasting textures, colors and elements of the foreground and background. In a very strange way, I am reminding myself of the look and feel of the artist Maurice Noble when I create these ads.

Please remember to always buy Coors products.

Enjoy,

Jack

2006 COORS LTD. EDITION SNOWBOARDS

2007-02-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

original sketches
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final board illustration #1
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final board illustration #2
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Well, my two snowboard designs are finally out and available for you to WIN at your local pub, tavern or bar near you. I concepted and illustrated both of these designs for the 2006 Coors snow program.These were a lot of fun and a challenge for me to do. I have worked on many of the past Coors snowboard designs, but this was the first time I was able to go from my concept to final illustration. My Art Director on the project was out of the office for a week because his wife was having a baby. I was asked to step in and take on the dual roles of Art Director and Illustrator.

We had originally went after "Studio No.1" (Shepard Fairey) to do all of the illustration for the 2006 Coors snow campaign and my only responsibility would have been setting up all of the art and making sure that it would fit all of the different dimensions for the POS, Merch, and Perm elements that we had sold to the client. Due to some very long legal issues and really bad timing, plus diabetes and an eye with a busted blood vessel (long story....), I ended up with the responsibility of illustrating the snow program with a now terribly tight deadline.........

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Above is the original version of the "Ram" snowboard before all of the client changes. For some reason I really like the look of this board compared to the final version. I like the organic look, the choice of colors, and the technique in which I rendered the art. I still think the "Ram" board is nice, I am just partial to the original concept.

So, after many long hours of design, illustration, and client revisions, we ended up with some really cool art and a very successful program. Let's hope that the snow program next year goes a little smoother, but is equally as successful.

Please remember to always buy Coors products.

Jack

Gamera

2007-01-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

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When I was younger I remember I ate, breathed, drank and did everything movie monsters. If it was scary or creepy, I was really into it. It is really amazing how much of my thoughts and everyday life were consumed by them at that time. I remember walking over to the local drugstore "Davis Drug" every weekend to either buy a "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine or to buy a pack of the 1973 "You'll Die Laughing (AKA: Creature Feature)" trading cards produced by Topps. These magazines and trading cards provided me hours of entertainment and drawing inspiration, and probably helped set the course for my career path in comic illustration and sculpting.

I can remember when I was younger that I would always check the TV guide to see what monster movies would be on television that week. I would mark the ones with a pen that I would be interested in seeing and take the TV guide to my parents and ask permission to watch them ahead of time. My folks would usually let me watch them as long as I had done a good job with my homework, chores and that I didn't talk back too much. I always hoped that movies would be on either Friday or Saturday, so it would be easier to get permission to stay up late to watch them.

Some of the old movies that I remember seeing and have really strong memories of are "Angry Red Planet", "Godzilla", "War of the Gargantuas", "Earth vs. Flying Saucers", and "Gamera". These movies appeared regularly on "Creature Feature" a television show that was devoted to showing only scary movies. It was broadcast here in Denver back in the early 1970's. I guess I have been nostalgic lately, the only inspiration I seem to get is from looking at the monsters from my youth.

The illustration above is of the kaiju toy "Gamera: Defender of the Earth" made by Bandai in 1996. This particular Gamera toy was given to me by my old boss Brian Pulido (bankrupt Chaos! comics Publisher) as a Christmas gift. I created this illustration with a little photography, traditional drawing and Photoshop.

Enjoy,

Jack

Kaws x Pushead x da Vinci x Gray

2007-01-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

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After a very long time of hunting, searching, and ebay watching, I was able to secure the ever elusive bronze Kaws x Pushead Companion. To celebrate, I decided to do an illustration. It is based on the "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci.

I have been having a good time doing these "Toy Illustrations", I hope I can find time to do more.

Enjoy,

Jack

GOJIRA

2007-01-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

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I have had Japanese kaiju on the brain lately. It seems that every spare moment that I have I am thinking about kaiju, doing sketches of kaiju, and even taking pictures of kaiju. This illustration of Godzilla is the result of too much spare time and a combination of photography, drawing and Photoshop. I took a picture of my manager's "Wide Spread Panic Godzilla" (That is what she calls it, not sure why.....) and then the illustration just took off on it's own. I did set out to see if I could make a vinyl toy come to life in an illustration, but that is about as much thought that I had put into it. I think that the end result turned out pretty nice.

I have always loved Godzilla, especially the very first movie that was directed by Ishiro Honda in 1954. It is really amazing how much this movie affected me as a child. I can remember dreaming of visiting Japan so I could see where Godzilla lives. I wanted to walk in his footsteps, visit Monster Island and see the shores where he came out of the ocean. I was going to make sure when I visited Japan for the first time, I was going to visit those places and realize those childhood dreams.

During my first trip to Japan, my wife and I were riding the "Shinkansen" or bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto to visit her Aunt and Uncle. When we arrived in Kyoto, we stepped off the train and the first thing I see is this HUGE wall poster:

I asked my wife to translate and she tells me that it is an announcement that there will be a show for Godzilla celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Daimaru department store at Tokyo Station. Thankfully we would be traveling back up to Tokyo before the show ended.

So, we spend time in Kyoto and Hiroshima and I had a wonderful time getting to meet all of my wife's family. But deep in the back of my mind there was the thought that I would finally get to see Godzilla in person.

We say goodbye to my wife's family and we travel back up to Tokyo station on the Shinkansen. We exited the train and walked over to the Daimaru department store. We had to stand in line to purchase a ticket, which I didn't mind because I was so excited to see this show. Once we got in the front door, there was a long hallway that had all of the Godzilla movie posters hanging in chronological order and a brief history next to each poster on how that "Gojira" (that is what the Japanese call him) movie was conceived. After looking at all of the posters, I turn the corner and the hallway opened up into this very large room where there are all of the props and rubber monster suits on display from almost all of the Gojira movies. I was in heaven...........I walked very slowly from one display to the next, taking pictures and observing as much as I could.

It was an unbelievable moment for me. I got to be that little kid again.......

I want to thank my wife for putting up with me on that day. I don't really think she knew how excited I was to see this and how important this moment was to me.

Thank you Pecochan, for helping to make a little kid's dream come true.

Jack

Pickled Christmas

2006-12-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

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MUSHIBA KAIBUTSU

2006-12-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

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I thought I would share a pic of my new project "MUSHIBA KAIBUTSU" or "CAVITY MONSTER".

Sculpted out of Super Sculpey and a few hours of TLC. I plan on making molds and trying to produce a few more of this character than just the "one-of-a-kind" sculpts I usually do.

I will update the blog with in-progress pics as I get the various parts of his body finished.

Jack

HOOTERS 2

2006-12-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

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The Holiday issue of Hooters Magazine has just come off the press and into your local Convenience stores. This is the second ad I have drawn in this series. I am not really sure how many of these I will be illustrating... At this moment, I know there are at least two more to come. One is already finished and I will be starting the next one this coming week and hopefully finish before Christmas break. I have been able to illustrate these ads about 2 months ahead of publication deadline. This has been nice for me because I am not being forced to have to get the illustration completed in an unreasonable amount of time. I actually get to take some time and do a reasonably good job. Which is a very rare thing in this business.........
On this illustration, I had fun experimenting with the way the background interacted with the foreground image. Making marks that helped define certain elements while also helping with the composition. When I was presented with the concept of the ad, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for the backgound... but I knew that it needed to convey a more organic feel than doing something that was a computer effect. I need to still convey that "hand done" quality even though I do all of the work on the computer and I also need to make sure that the background does not overpower the foreground image.
The only direction I ever really get from Coors Light when I do these ads is that I need to convey a sense of cold throughout the illustration. I mainly try and do that with the hue of the overall image. I could illustrate "is it cold in here? " visual cues in the illustration but then there would be major problems getting the illustration approved by our legal department.

Please remember to always drink Coors products.

Jack

On another note, it is hard for me to believe that I have been posting to this blog for just over a year now......... 39 total posts over 365 days. That is 0.10685 posts a day.......not a very good ratio over the course of a year...... I guess I am looking at the quality of posts not the quantity to make this a successful blog..... yeah, that's it.

Missing Doughboy......... FOUND!

2006-10-26T01:00:00.000-06:00

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UPDATE: After 22 days of being lost, Pandane Kaibutsukun has been found!

I just got an email from el maz, the curator of the "Yeast Infection" show:

guess what man?
the freakin doughboy showed up TODAY at my post office box!
i figure that will make your day man. all is well in the world, and your piece is still in it's excellent packaging(double boxed).

I am happy and now I can sleep well.

Jack

Missing Doughboy

2006-10-23T23:30:00.000-06:00

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I have very sad news to report today.... 19 days ago I mailed out my custom Pillsbury Doughboy to a P.O. Box in Los Angeles for the "Yeast Infection" show. Well, the show curator "el maz" sent me an email letting me know that he had not received it yet. Remember, this was 19 days ago........... so, it looks like the USPS has lost my "Pandane Kaibutsukun" custom Pillsbury Doughboy. When asked, the Post Office stated that they have no idea where the package is......... Thankfully, I did insure him........ but the process to claim the insurance value is complicated and a pain in the ass.

Hopefully, he is sitting around somewhere at the Post Office waiting to be found..... If not, I hope who ever received him has given him a good home and appreciates all of the time and effort put into him.

Please come home Pandane Kaibutsukun, you have a family that misses you.

Jack

HOOTERS

2006-10-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

Well, the Sep/Oct issue of Hooters Magazine has hit the newstands and inside there is a little ole' Coors Light ad that was illustrated by me. This has really been a good project for me to work on since it lets me revisit a drawing style that I have not done since my comic book days (a little less than 10 years ago).

I really think the premise of the ads is quite unique. The imagery is very reminiscent of the old "Playboy" style of cartoon but it is illustrated in little more contemporary style. Please keep an eye out for future issues of Hooters Magazine as there will be a series of ads drawn by me in this same "pin up" style.

And remember......... always drink Coors products.

(click on image to enlarge)

Enjoy,

Jack

PANDANE KAIBUTSUKUN is up on eBay!!!!

2006-10-09T12:00:00.000-06:00

The Yeast Infection Show has started on eBay and all of the entries look really nice. Everyone brought so much to the table with this toy. It is probably one of the best custom shows I have seen in such a long time.

A big thanks to El Maz for making this show happen.

You can check out the show at the following link:

YEAST INFECTION

Or you can check out my custom directly here:

PANDANE KAIBUTSUKUN

Oh yeah...... here is a drawing for today.......

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Thanks,

Jack

PANDANE KAIBUTSUKUN

2006-09-09T04:00:00.000-06:00

Thirty-four days have passed and I am finally able to post something here. I guess I could post small insignificant crap everyday, but would it be worth doing? Would it be worth reading? I have thought about doing a daily or even weekly sketch. Just post an image, no text.... nothing but a drawing..... we will see if that happens..... it might be fun to do....... maybe....

Again, time is my enemy and I am losing the battle. I get myself involved in all of these projects and it never leaves me time for much else. Not that it is a bad thing..... it just does not give me the opportunity to update my blog with strong content that would be interesting to read and to look at....

Everything in my life has been going really well since I got married. A lot of people ask me if I feel different, and I have to honestly say..... "Yes, a little bit". Not much has changed as far as our day-to-day life, but there is a strong feeling that is very new to me and it is hard to place my finger on it to describe it...... I guess I could describe the feeling as "Overwhelming Responsibility ". What does that mean exactly? There are a lot of levels to it, and I am not really awake enough at 4:30 am on Saturday to go into specifics. Besides, this blog is to talk about my art not this drama stuff......

Lets get to the ART.

I have been working really hard over the past couple of weeks to get my custom Pillsbury Doughboy finished in time for the "Yeast Infection" online show and auction that takes place on the 6th of October.

I had a hard time trying to figure out what I exactly wanted to do with this custom. When I was looking at the Doughboy's design the biggest problem for me was trying to figure out something to do with the chef's hat. It seemed to be always in the way with the ideas I came up with. I thought about cutting it off.... but that would have taken the look of the custom farther from the original toy than I wanted to go.

Here is the sketch I decided to use for the sculpt:

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In-progress pics:

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Once the initial sculpt is finished and put in the oven, I started to think about paint. I originally thought about going with a green color for this guy but I felt that had been done so many times with monsters, especially Japanese kaiju. So I went with the same color scheme as I did with the custom Skumbo I did awhile back..... (They look like they are related if you put them next to each other).

The final Piece:

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This is how he would look if he was 250 feet tall......

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Now that I look at the final piece I guess I must have been subconciously inspired by Matango. Because the similarities are very close....... Since I had to use the chef's hat, the custom ended up looking like a big mutant mushroom. Although Pandane Kaibutsukun has a giant brain and not a mushroom cap for a head.........

Remember, PANDANE KAIBUTSUKUN is for an online show and auction..... As much as it pains me to write this...... he will be for sale. So, please bid high and bid often. I don't usually sell my customs, so please give him a good home. I will be posting an auction link once the "Yeast Infection" auctions get rolling.

Next up on my plate is working on a custom 9" Bud for the The Bomb Project show that is happening in Denton, TX from Nov. 18th - Dec. 2nd. I haven't really figured out what I am going to do yet..... but I am sure it will have bumps all over it.

Jack

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

2006-08-06T12:00:00.000-06:00

Well, I am officially another year older......... I can already feel my back stiffening and my arthritis kicking in. :(

I have still been very busy with creating my vinyl customs. I just finished a custom SKUMBO for the "HIJACKED" (Because Homage is Just a Fancy Word for Stealing): Custom Skumbo Show.

Here is a teaser pic of my custom SKUMBO........

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This little guy will be available for sale at the show. So please bid high and bid often.

This show is going to boast a plethora of talent!

Here is the OFFICIAL list so far:
Squidboy
Doktor A
Wavedog
Josh Novak
Phuek
James Mayle
John Madrid
Bilbetsovic
John Gray
Raoul Desoto
Jeff Stephens
Jason Kochis
LASH
Roy Vento
Ryan Crippen
Adrian Pena
Edzepln
Lee Gajda
Ryan Hungerford
Motorbot
Wesley Groenewoud
Jessie Hernandez
Dear Earthling
Atomika
Joe Grady
Akiro
Kathie Olivas
Peskimo
Elizabeth Berdann
KANO
Erick Scarecrow
Kenn Munk
Jason Jacenko
Itch
UPSO
Voltaire
WRD~ONE
Lunartik
Jeremyville
Setone
Triclops
Blinky Escalante
Devius
Matt Connelly
Dragoncypher
Damion Silver
Playskewl
Nakanari
Jermaine Rogers
Rene Delgado
MCA
Morpheus
Emek
Frank Kozik
and some surprise guests...

I am not sure yet where and when the show will take place. Please keep checking back here at the blog as I will update the information about the show as I get it.

enjoy,

Jack

I GOT MARRIED!!!

2006-07-19T22:00:00.000-06:00

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I am happy to announce that on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006, I got married to the most beautiful and wonderful woman in the world. It was a nice day of family, food, wine and a Judge driving an old pick-up truck. We had a beautiful wedding and a very small reception up in Boulder.

I will be posting more pics as I start to sort through the many photos that were taken on that very special day.

Please enjoy this one picture for now.

Jack

CUSTOM TOY SHOW PICS FROM KITCHENS' INK TATTOO

2006-07-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

The custom toy show opening on Friday, July 7th was a night of rain, lots of cool people and even more rain.............

Here is a front door view of the right side of the gallery, my sculpted heads are on top of the black bookshelf in their glass domes. The curator of the show Desoto is just to the right of the bookshelf with the white shirt and the demonic eyes.

Here are many of Desoto's customs. I am so impressed with Desoto's work, he cranks out the high quality customs like a well oiled artistic machine.

Here is my good friend Ryan Philbrick and I checking out the "MADBALL" inspired customs I did for the show.

Ryan and I again.... pondering if it will continue raining for the rest of the evening. (look at how wet our shoulders are.)

A big thanks to Desoto for letting me enter some of my pieces into his show. It was a great showing in a great space with some great artists.

Please check out his website:

galleriedesoto

Enjoy,

Jack

"FOLLOW THE MUNNY" SHOW PICS

2006-06-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

"BIG TOP"

"RUNNY"

"ME" (not Jesus)

"FIANCE"

These pics are from the opening night of "Follow the Munny" at Capsule Gallery. (isn't it amazing how much the flash from the camera can ruin your pictures?) It was a really great show with a lot of really great entries. I was very impressed with the level of art that was at this show. It is truly amazing that Denver actually has a vinyl scene, albeit a little one...... but at least there is actually something going on here.
Friday (July 14th) there will be a "Closing" of the show. (My little guys finally get to come home from a long vacation at the Capsule.) There will be fun and activities for all. If you happen to live in the Denver area, the "Closing" of the Follow the Munny show will be the place to be on Friday night. The "Closing" will start around and 7:00 pm and is located at:

Capsule Gallery
554 Santa Fe
Denver, CO
80204

Try and stop by and say "HI" if you are in the area.

Jack

Ride the Rockies

2006-06-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

Well I just returned from 6 days of bicycle riding here in the Rocky Mountains. It was a beautiful and enjoyable ride through the southern part of Colorado. Here is the route that we took this year:

CORTEZ TO CANYON CITY
419 Miles‚ June 18 - 23, 2006
SATURDAY, JUNE 17
Cortez - Registration

SUNDAY, JUNE 18 CORTEZ TO DURANGO
48 MILES - 3,600 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
U.S. 160 east from Cortez to Durango

MONDAY, JUNE 19 DURANGO TO PAGOSA SPRINGS
87 MILES - 4,300 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
La Plata County Road 240 northeast from Durango to La Plata County Road 501
La Plata County Road 501 south to Bayfield
La Plata County Road 521 south to Colorado 151
Colorado 151 east to U.S. 160
U.S. 160 east to Pagosa Springs

TUESDAY, JUNE 20 PAGOSA SPRINGS TO CHAMA, N.M.
50 MILES - 3,800 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
U.S. 160 east from Pagosa Springs to U.S. 84
U.S. 84 southeast to New Mexico 17
New Mexico 17 north to Chama

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 CHAMA, N.M. TO ALAMOSA
83 MILES - 3,200 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
Cumbres Pass - 10,022 feet
La Manga Pass - 10,230 feet
New Mexico 17 north from Chama to Colorado 17
Colorado 17 northeast to U.S. 285
U.S. 285 north through Antonito
Conejos and Alamosa County Roads north and east to U.S. 285 (3 miles south of Alamosa)
U.S. 285 north to Alamosa

THURSDAY, JUNE 22 ALAMOSA TO SALIDA
84 MILES - 1,600 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
Poncha Pass - 9,020 feet
Colorado 17 north from Alamosa to U.S. 285
U.S. 285 north to Poncha Springs
Chaffee County Road 120 east to Salida

FRIDAY, JUNE 23 SALIDA TO CANYON CITY
67 MILES - 1,900 FEET ELEVATION GAIN
U.S. 50 east from Salida to Parkdale
Fremont County Road 3 south to Fremont County Road 3A
Fremont County Road 3A east and north over Royal Gorge Bridge to U.S. 50
U.S. 50 east to Canyon City

The hardest days for me were the first and last day. About three weeks earlier I had a crash while I was on a training ride and screwed up my knee. I decided that it would be best to rest and heal before the ride so I would be able to make the 419 mile trip. Although my knee hurt for most of this journey I had the most problems on the first and last day. I think this happened because of all of the climbing we had to do. Plus, since I did not do any training for three weeks before the ride, I wasn't in as great of shape as I could have been.

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The picture above is of Scott Quinn and I making muscles at one of the many aid stations along the Ride the Rockies route.

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The picture above is of my real good friend and favorite art director extrordinaire Nate Craner and I after we crossed the finish line. Don't we look relieved? On this day we were able to ride 24 miles in less than 50 minutes. A new record for me...... :)

I haven't posted any of my drawings on the blog in quite a while due to my laziness and lack of motivation...... Here is a PICKLED pic to satisfy my need to show this stuff.

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This was one of the centerfold images I did for my little sketchbook that I published a couple of months ago.

Enjoy.

Jack

BIG TOP the PICKLED CLOWN

2006-05-26T07:00:00.000-06:00

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I have created my second Munny for the "Munny Show" coming up in June at Capsule Gallery. I have always had a strange attraction to the imagery of clowns and they always seem to show up in my two dimensional work. For this Munny I decided to see if I could pull off one of my drawings of "Pickled Clowns" in three dimensions. Overall I am happy with how he turned out........ of course there are some things I would like to change but I am not sure if it would make him any better, or as they say in the beer advertising industry, "would the change really sell any more beer?"

As I did with my first Munny, I again applied Super Sculpy to the vinyl, sculpted the clay and baked it in the oven. Although this time I ran into a problem....... I had sculpted the head while it was setting on an aluminum post. I then proceeded to place the head in the oven at 275 degrees while the head was still on the aluminum post. I didn't think about the vinyl getting soft and stretching....... well the head got soft and stretched over the post and broke apart some of the sculpting I did....... it was a mess and a pain to fix.

I had more fun painting this than I usually do with my other sculpts. I really liked drawing the tattoos and trying to give the flesh that pasty "alive" look. I really didn't have any problems or set backs during the painting process except for when I was painting his hat. The gloss I used to cover and protect the hat would not dry. It remained "tacky" for a couple of days. (I think I just used a really old can of gloss.) I ended up coating it with an acrylic gloss and that seemed to do the trick.

I originally planned on having him wear underwear. I thought that if I made them dirty it would give him an even more creepy factor. As the figure started to develop I found that if he was to wear underwear it would end up covering too much of his belly and belly button and his butt. I put too much time in sculpting those areas that I needed to come up with something a little more revealing. So I decided on the black jock strap..... I think that this solves the problem well and still has the creepy factor.

I don't think that I will be making another "Clown" themed sculpt for awhile. I seem to have gotten it out of my system.

Remember, if you happen to live in the Denver area, the Munny show runs from June 9th through July 14th at:

Capsule Gallery
554 Santa Fe
Denver, CO
80204

Please come by and say "HI", it should be a really fun and interesting show.

On another note, I have to apologize that it has been almost a month since I have updated this blog...... again, I have been so busy that I just have not had the time. Work has been very busy. Freelance has been even busier.... I have been working on a majority of new clients and not on the same old "Original" stuff. It has been fun but I have to get in a different creative frame of mind when working on these new projects. My training for "Ride the Rockies" has not been going as well as I would like. With being as busy as I have with work and freelance assignments, I also crashed my bike a couple of weeks ago and I went down hard on my knee and it is killing me. I went down so hard that I cracked my knee cap. That has really put a dent in my training. I am able to bend it now with a little pain so I should be able to get back to riding. This weekend I have two very long back to back rides. It will be interesting to see how well I do.

Next on my plate for my vinyl customs is "Skumbo", Tristan Eaton's latest vinyl toy creation for Kidrobot..... this is for a top secret art show that will be coming up in the next couple of months. I am going to try and take photos in stages as I create this guy and post them here. Hopefully I can remember to do this while I am invololved in the creative process. I seem to get so involved that I forget to document.

Enjoy,

Jack

MUNNY

2006-04-28T00:00:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been over a month since I have posted.......... No excuse except for being really busy. I have been overwhelmed at work, training for "Ride the Rockies", being overwhelmed at work, getting ready for our wedding, being overwhelmed at work, doing illustrations for snowboards..... (did I say being overwhelmed at work?) You get the picture......

I have been able to squeeze in some of my non-existent time to create a sculpt for the "MUNNY" art show that is being put on by Capsule Gallery and the only vinyl store here in Denver, Plastic Chapel.

For those of you who do not know a Munny is a "do it yourself toy". You buy a blank vinyl toy and it is up to you to create anything you like. Many artists have created amazing works of art with these. I thought I would try and see what I could come up with..........

First, I started with a sketch:

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Then after a couple of weeks....... not a whole couple of weeks, just a few hours here and there over that time period. I basically used the sketch as my guide and started placing clay on the vinyl and started forming the bumps and lumps and giving him shape. I really was not sure what would happen to the vinyl when I applied the clay to it...... Would it stick? Would it eat through the vinyl? Was I going to be able to cook the clay with out melting the vinyl?.... Since I was not sure of these answers I decided to just go for it and start sculpting him and worry about the unknown once I got to those stages in the process.

I was surprised that I did not have any problems putting the clay on the vinyl. I then finished sculpting, I baked the clay, sanded it till it was smooth, primed the surface and then airbrushed the final color. I really think that he turned out nice for my first try at this type of thing.

Here are a few pics of the final piece.

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If you happen to live in the Denver area, the Munny show runs from June 9th through July 14th at:

Capsule Gallery
554 Santa Fe
Denver, CO
80204

Please come by and say "HI", it should be a really fun and interesting show.

Enjoy.

Jack

Daruma

2006-03-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

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I have been very interested with the idea of thought that goes with the Daruma doll. The Daruma doll is a hollow and round Japanese wish doll that has no arms and legs. The most common color is red, but you can also find them in yellow, green, and white. The Daruma has a face with a moustache and beard, but its eyes are a solid white. Some dolls have written characters on the cheeks describing the kind of wish or desire the owner has in mind, such as protection of loved ones. The surname of the owner may be written on the chin.
You can find Daruma dolls at Japanese Buddhist temples where they can be purchased. You usually own one daruma at a time.

When making a wish you use black ink to fill in a single circular eye. If the wish comes true, the second eye is then filled in. Until the wish comes true, the daruma is displayed in a high place in the person's home.

If the daruma doll was purchased within a temple, the owner can take it back to the temple to burn it. Dolls purchased at a temple are often marked for identification by the temple. Most temples will not burn dolls that do not bear the temple's identifying mark. Burning usually happens at the end of the year. The burning is a purification ritual to let kami know that the wisher did not give up on the wish, but is another path to make it come true.
The daruma doll maintains balance and will remain centered. Even when it is tilted either side it will regain the balance. (Kind of like a Weeble that wobbles, but does not fall down) The implication of this is spiritual and symbolic.

I have been very interested in creating a sculpture based on the Daruma. The images from my sketchbook above reflect what has been going on in my mind as I approach making this come to life in my Pickled style of sculpting.

It has been a really long time since I have posted here (for those of wondering, I am o.k.)........ It is amazing that I am still having to catch up on work and all things that are social in my life right now since I got back from Japan over a month ago. From having to work on Coors Convention art to trying to figure out a date for our wedding. Needless to say, I have been very overwhelmed.

I have been listing a lot of my collectible stuff on eBay lately. Now that I am engaged to be married, I really need to grow up and get rid of the toys and comic books that I have collected over the past 20+ years. (I think I might have a couple future college educations sitting in storage and my closet.) It is time for me to clean up, but I have not lost the urge and the desire to collect. I have set a rule for myself that I will not buy anything larger than 5 inches in size. And yes, I have already started obsessing over and collecting something that matches that criteria. I will speak about that more in a future post here on the blog, maybe even show some pics of all that I have accumulated so far.

Jack

More Engagement Photos

2006-02-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Akiko's Aunt and Uncle that live in Kyoto sent us some more photos of the night I proposed. I was really glad that they sent these to us. It is really nice to have some sort of documentation of that special night. I think that these photos speak for themselves.

Jack

On a change of subject..........

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Here is the final version of the "square" that I was working on for the internal project at work. I also included a .jpeg of the original sketch so you can get an idea of how I translate a sketch into a sculpture.

I got Engaged!!!

2006-02-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

I would like to announce that while I was in Japan, I asked my girlfriend to marry me. (She said YES!) So, I am now officially engaged. I am glad that I have found that special someone that I can love, cherish and spend the rest of my life with.

The picture above was taken a few minutes after I "popped" the question. My girlfriend was totally surprised and had no clue what was going on. In fact, I had already asked her Father for his blessing and permission, talked to my Parents and got their blessing and permission and secured the engagement ring a couple months before it was time to leave on our trip. I decided to ask my girlfriend on February 4th, since all of her family would be together for the dinner the night before her brother was to get married. Originally, I had planned to ask my girlfriend on the 11th of February, the last night I was going to be in Japan. Since we were going to be in Japan for her brother's wedding, I did not want to take away any of the attention and celebration surrounding that special event. I felt that the 11th would be far enough away and that it would not compete with that special day. I was very happy that even though I did ask her earlier than planned, there was no competition and it was nice that we were able to share and celebrate with the rest of the family a wedding and an engagement.

Here I am on the train with a box of wonderful Hiroshima cakes. They were very tasty. There is one thing you will notice about Japan when you go there and visit, there is never a shortage of cute characters and bean cakes.

Here I am in front of the CHAX COLONY store in downtown Osaka. For those of you who do not know, CHAX COLONY is a toy store where you can buy all things "GLOOMY BEAR". GLOOMY BEAR was created by the Japanese artist "Mori Chack". The design of the Gloomy Bear character is a combination of cuteness and violence. I have been very infatuated with the character since the very first time I saw him. When I found out that there was a store dedicated to Gloomy Bear in Osaka, I knew it was a place that I had to go and visit. Since we were staying in Kyoto it was only a half an hour train ride to Osaka. I was determined to try and find the store. After walking a couple of blocks we found it, it sure was a wonderful place to visit. I saw so many cool and interesting things. Mori Chack is a genius when it comes to his character design and the marketing of it. I spent way too much money in that store. Just look at the size of the bag I am holding........

Gloomy Bear

Did I mention that it was very cold in Japan? This is a picture of two very cold individuals......

Jack

Japan..... Here I come!!!

2006-02-01T19:00:00.001-07:00

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I just finished packing and I am off to my parent's house. I will stay there tonight. From there we will leave for our early flight tomorrow morning to San Francisco. We have a one hour layover in San Fran, then we fly for 10 hours to Tokyo. I am not looking forward to the long flight. Last time I went to Japan, I could not sleep on the plane at all..... I just sat there and read and watched very boring movies..... I could not even get inspired to draw. I guess I was nervous with anticipation. This time I plan on drawing.... not sure what, but I will draw something.

I will say that I am very excited to see Japan again. There are some really cool things that will be happening on this trip. I get to go to a Japanese wedding, I will see my girlfriend's family again.... I could just go on and on.

I am going to try and update the blog while I am in Japan. I am not sure how much computer access I will have. My girlfriend will have her laptop with us but I don't know when or if I will be able to use it....... If I don't update while I am in Japan, I will do a nice long post about the trip when I get back here to Colorado.

I am also very excited that my Mother is going along on the trip. This is her first time out of the country so it will be interesting to see her reactions to the different culture. It will be good to have some Mother and Son time.

The image up above is a sculpture I did about a year ago. This was right after I did my Kabuki horse sculpture. I really like the Japanese theme combined with some sort of animal. This obviously is a rhino, and he is a sumo wrestler in his "Dress" uniform. Not sure why I did this, but I think it turned out nice.

Trip to Japan countdown: less than 24 hours

Jack

Pickled Mickey

2006-01-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

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Today I am busy working on my "sculpture" for the Senior Management presentation. It seems to be going well..... I am baking it in the oven as I type this. I thought that I would take a break and share this fun website:

www.everybodyneeds2drawmickeyonce.com

I found this site through my buddy Eric Wiese's blog. Eric had posted a Mickey on his blog, which he had drawn for this website. I thought that I would join in on the fun. There are some pretty cool interpretations of Mickey posted there.

Trip to Japan countdown: 4 days

Jack

ADDY Award Winner!

2006-01-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

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The images above, illustrated by yours truly, are just a few of the POS elements from the surf project I worked on at the end of 2005. This was the first project I got when I came back to Integer from my short working stint at another advertising agency. The images are a combination of photography, vector art and photoshop. These were created for a regional program for the electronic point of sale (ePOS) our company creates and provides for our client. This campaign just won a Silver ADDY Award! This winning entry will be forwarded on to the national ADDY Award competition.

The AAF: American Advertising Federation accepts entries for the ADDY awards once a year. The ADDY awards are unique among all advertising creative competitions. It is the only competition that includes three rigorous levels of judging:

Entries are first judged at a local level through competitions organized by more than 200 ad clubs affiliated with the AAF.

Local winners then advance to 14 regional competitions.

Finally, regional winners advance to the national/international finals.

It is nice to see all of our hard work pay off.

I want to say congratulations to my team.

Trip to Japan countdown: 7 days

Jack

Clown of Clay

2006-01-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

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It has been 12 days since my last update........... I have not been able to find the time to post here with content I can be proud of. I have been thinking of just posting an image every other day and let the art speak for itself....... just an idea.

Trip to Japan countdown: 14 days

Work has been busy as usual. I have been working very hard on some illustrations for an internal project for my company. Once these things get printed I will post the images.

I have been avoiding working on another internal project for my company. Our senior management proposed that each person that works at the company will be allowed a 12 inch x 12 inch wooden square to draw on and express their own individuality. These will then be hung on an inner wall that goes throughout the inside of the building. They approached five employees to finish their "square" and do a presentation to the senior management team. I am one of the lucky five. I have not figured out why I was chosen as one of those five........

I decided that I would create a sculpture or I guess in this case I would be creating a "relief". I have been having a hard time getting motivated to work on the project because I know how much work lies ahead of me to get this piece to the level I feel it needs to be at. I have told myself that I will be devoting this next whole weekend to completing this project. If the weather stays like it is (cold and snowy), I don't think that I will have any problem getting this finished.

Since this post has been about sculpture, I thought I would share an image of a sculpture that I completed a couple of months ago. For some reason I really enjoy drawing and sculpting clowns. I am not sure why....... I have never had any weird episodes with a clown.

Enjoy,

Jack

Pickled Betty Boop

2006-01-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

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Trip to Japan countdown: 26 days

It seems like it is taking forever for the days to go by............

Work this week has been busy, but not too overwhelming. I worked on an illustration of a basketball player for for one of my clients. I think that the illustration turned out really well. The only problem was that the client seemed to think that the BB player looked a little too ethnic......... So, I had to change some facial features and illustrate some hair on his head. This wasn't a problem for me to do.... but was it really necessary? Is that adjustment really going to sell more of my clients product? For me to be able to do these types of changes I have to always remind myself that the client is always right.

I have also been keeping myself busy at work with an internal illustration project. This has been really fun for me to do. It is letting me illustrate in my comic book style once again. It has been over 6 years since I really have drawn in this style. I haven't really had any problems with remembering how to do it, I have just had problems with my speed. I can remember I could knock out a full page illustration in about a day. (pencil, ink and color) Now it is taking me almost three days to do the same type of illustration. I should have started these in my "Pickled" style and I would be able to get them done a lot faster.

The illustration above is of the classic animated character Betty Boop. She appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. With her overt sexuality, Betty was a hit with theater-goers, and despite having been toned down in the 1930s, she remains popular today for this portrayal of sexuality. Her her first appearance was on August 9, 1930 in the animated cartoon Dizzy Dishes, that was the sixth installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon series. Betty was designed by Grim Natwick. Grim was an animator that worked at Walt Disney's and Ub Iwerks' studios. Grim is credited with being the one responsible for creating the character, which he modeled after Helen Kane, a famous singer and actress at Paramount Pictures, the studio that distributed Fleischer's cartoons.

I think that this is one of my favorite Pickled Drawings.

Enjoy,

Jack

Happy New Year!

2006-01-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

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I have been back at work for a total of 2 days now and thankfully it has been very uneventful. The hardest thing I have had to do besides getting to work on time is changing a legal line on an illustration that I did of Winnie the Pooh for P&G. I had a lot of back and forth between legal and art director and account service to figure out if a period needed to be added to the end of the mandatory line. Disney legal sent it to us without the period, copyediting wanted to add the period......... I had no source to make the corrections. It is amazing how a simple thing like a punctuation mark can be made extremely difficult.

I have 29 days before I leave for Japan. I am getting more and more excited everyday. My friends Ryan Philbrick and Rie Speer just got back from their visit to Japan and gave me some ideas of things that I should try and do to document this trip. I hope that I can keep up with all of the things we are going to do while we are in Japan. Since this will be my Mothers first trip to Japan, I want to be able to document this well for her so she can have a really fun and lasting memory of her "adventure to Japan".

The illustration above is another one that I did for Wizard Magazine back in 1999. I felt that it would be appropriate to post since today has started out to be a rather blah day for me. If I remember correctly, this was when Wolverines claws had turned to bone and there was rumor that he was going to get back the adamantium that covered them. One of the ways Wizard proposed is that he would do this was by eating "adamantium burritos". I look back at this stuff and I am amazed that I really liked drawing this fanboy type illustration.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Jack

Pickled Chuck

2005-12-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

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My Christmas/New Years break has been a good and very restful time for me. It has given me time to reflect on this past year and I must say it has been a very good year for me. That is not saying that it has had some bad parts........ I would say that 99% of the year for me was good. I have an amazing girlfriend, a fantastic family and fabulous friends to thank for that. I am very appreciative for all that I have. I hope that the next year will bring me all that is wonderful and more. Here is to a Happy New Year!!!!

In exactly 34 days I will be on my way to Japan. I am very excited to visit there again. I really enjoy getting to see Akiko's family. It is a real treat for me. They are always so nice to me (even when they don't understand me being a vegetarian). Also, I think that I have been able to save enough money so that while I am on my trip I will not have to worry about being too poor.

The image above came to me when I started to think about all of the early cartoon influences I have had in my life. I thought that I would try and illustrate all of those influences in my "Pickled" style. Charles M. Shulz's cartoon strip "Peanuts" was the first image that I wanted to draw. My parents introduced "Charlie Brown" and the "Peanuts Gang" to me very early in my life. I think that I was around 16 months old when I went to Malibu Beach, California with my parents to visit my Uncle George and my Aunt Kay when I first noticed Charlie Brown's dog "Snoopy". My Parents told me that my Uncle had a stuffed toy of Snoopy that I would not leave alone. I would drag him around everywhere by the neck, even through the sand on the beach of Malibu. I believe that over the years my Mother had to repair Snoopy's neck on many occassions. I also remember my Parents buying me numerous book collections of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang before I even knew how to read. The Peanuts Gang was very important in my life and still is to this day. I love taking time and re-reading those comic strips from years past with my old stuffed toy Snoopy. I enjoy reading them just as much or maybe even more than when I read them as a child. It is amazing how timeless that comic strip can be.

I haven't taken the time to illustrate any more more of my early influences in my Pickled style. But when I do I think the next one up will be "B.C." by Johnny Hart.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy Birthday Wendy!!!!

Jack

PICKLED

Johnny is starting to put it together.......

A very Happy 1st Birthday to my son!!!!!

Snapper Inspired

John Thomas Gray III

Thank You Bear

Stand Up Bear

The creation of a very special Baby Shower invitation..........

Bonzo, Boston, Boston

Bostons X 2

Bostons X 2

Boston x 3

Lazy Sunday Afternoon......

Please, play with me.........

Have a Nice #@*%'n Day...........

White Tiger

Happy Pickled New Year!!!!!

シュワッチ!!!

Are you ready for some football?

Coors Portrait

Happy Halloween!

STILL LIFE?

ME........

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

KAWS x PUSHEAD x GRAY

Skullwing

London After Midnight (1927)

Happy Birthday Dauber!!!!

Frankenstein (1931)

Vinyl Fight Figure Sketches

R.I.P.

OUCH..........

OBAMA and the DNC

I am officially old today.........

ROAD KILL RACCOON

Coors Surfboard

Retouched

Friday Morning Scribble........

Thursday Afternoon Sketch

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

Friday Afternoon Pickled Sketch

Friday Morning Pickled Sketch

Inquest Magazine illustrations

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

Pickle Flavored Slurpee

Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

WOLVERINE ON THE CRAPPER

Great Review on Scud the Disposable Assassin #23

Wizard Magazine #200

Scud the Disposable Assassin #21 and #23

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOT WHEELERS CLUB

Coors Light Northwestern Region Newspaper Ads

WISDOM TEETH

GO COLORADO ROCKIES!!!!

COORS SNOW POSTER CAMPAIGN

San Diego Comic-Con, Rob Schrab, Scud the Disposable Assassin, and Me.

CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER *UPDATE*

CREATIVE CIRCUS ART SHOW

CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER

SCUD SDCC POSTER

HOOTERS 5

COORS LIGHT MIRROR

DAUBER

PICKLED BART

PICKLED SIGNATURE

PICKLED HEADER

SCUD: The Disposable Assassin

HOOTERS 4

PICKLED SKUMBO

HEDORAH (ヘドラ)

HOOTERS 3

2006 COORS LTD. EDITION SNOWBOARDS

Gamera

Kaws x Pushead x da Vinci x Gray

GOJIRA

Pickled Christmas

MUSHIBA KAIBUTSU

HOOTERS 2

Missing Doughboy......... FOUND!

CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER UPDATE