Wilsonic Illustration

Totally Extreme

2012-01-24T22:36:00.000-08:00

Kali

2012-01-24T22:34:00.001-08:00

Who is Sloth Man?

2012-01-23T23:09:00.000-08:00

This is Sloth Man.

This is Sloth Man slicing some fresh pow pow.

This is Sloth Man catching some gnarly air.

This is Sloth Man hanging with the Snow Bunnies back at the Lodge.

Now you know a little about Sloth Man.

Body

2012-01-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

Beard

2012-01-15T08:40:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday and I need to shave!

To Be A Pharaoh

2012-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Going to Work

2012-01-14T14:55:00.001-08:00

Gun Doodles

2012-01-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

Lion

2012-01-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I've been working directly in ink with no pencil under drawing lately. I love the spontaneous results I get.

2012

2012-01-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

2011 is over and 2012 has begun. It's time for me to look back a little and reflect on where I've been, and what I've accomplished. First off, I blogged more in 2011 than ever before! Which means I made more drawings, paintings, and designs in 2011 than any other time in my life. That is quite the accomplishment for me. Woohoo! Yet, unfortunately blogging my images has not reaped in the riches and the acclaim I had hoped. In fact, besides making my work available for viewing to family and friends I'm unsure if anyone beyond my small circle is actually looking at my work. I can only hope they are.
I hear about alot of people joining facebook, promoting themselves on Esty, and networking on Linkedin, but I see very few people finding jobs and success with those avenues. I'm beginning to suspect that social media is trying to do too much. Or people are expecting too much from internet networking sites. Perhaps it shouldn't be used as a way to find work. Maybe it's only worth is posting snarky comments and embarrassing photos.

The internet is so huge with so many people promoting and posting that it is unrealistic to expect much. For an internet site to be any good it needs to be supported with good ol' fashioned hand shaking and friend making. Nothing, not even facebook, can replace face to face real world interaction. Especially for a working artist. Art is something that should be seen live, in person. So one of my goals for 2012 is to get out to and be more social. Meet people, make friends, and develop relationships. I can post all the images in the world but until someone has seen my face, and heard my voice I don't think I am going to get very far.

It's time to get out of our social media caves people! Take the digital blinders off!

So what is my blog good for? Well it gets me working, and that's what its all about. Things that get me drawing and painting. The blog gives me something to shoot for, even if I'm just shooting my images off into a deep cyber void it makes me feel better. It's also nice to have the blog as a digital archive of my work. And when people do ask me about my art the blog is a nice and convenient place to direct them to. And yet, I worry I devalue my work when I post it digitally online. So my second goal for 2012 is to keep more of my artwork for myself. It sounds funny, but my new plan is to keep some of my work secret. Un-reproduced, and only seen in original format. That's right! If you want to see the good stuff you'll have to come to my studio and see it in person! I think keeping some of my work offline will keep it sacred, and more of a personal experience when viewed. . .More valuable.

2012 here I come! I'm ready for you, I think.

Cowboys

2012-01-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

Jack and Chloe

2011-12-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Sir Isaac Newton

2011-12-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

Dead as Dillinger

2011-12-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Kurt

2011-12-14T19:35:00.001-08:00

Mozart

2011-12-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

Stanley

2011-12-11T23:01:00.001-08:00

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

It's Enough To Put One Off Their Tea

2011-12-11T20:47:00.001-08:00

Within

2011-12-09T22:40:00.001-08:00

Frida

2011-12-09T21:32:00.001-08:00

You Shall Not Pass

2011-12-09T20:07:00.001-08:00

Gandalf is that you? Oh, no it's just Leonardo again.

Leonarndo

2011-12-09T17:01:00.001-08:00

Batman

2011-12-08T16:59:00.001-08:00

My Favorite Explorer

2011-12-07T22:29:00.001-08:00

Van Gogh

2011-12-05T22:08:00.001-08:00

Jack White

2011-12-03T21:57:00.001-08:00

Beethoven

2011-12-03T12:28:00.001-08:00

Artificial

2011-11-29T21:50:00.001-08:00

Think I would be working here if I could afford a real rhino?

Gosh Gee Has it Been So Long?

2011-11-28T21:14:00.001-08:00

Whoa, have two weeks past already with no post? What happened? Well, last weekend I got sick, work sucked, and then it was thanksgiving. My goal was to draw a little over the four day weekend, but all I could manage was eating and talking to family. Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Plug In Sleep Wake Up Repeat

2011-11-28T21:12:00.001-08:00

Little Devil Whispers in your Ear

2011-11-28T21:11:00.001-08:00

Thank You

2011-11-11T15:33:00.001-08:00

Old Crow Keeps Playing that November Song

2011-11-11T14:46:00.001-08:00

Sloth Man 3

2011-11-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

Sloth Man rides a fixie through traffic

Sloth Man takes facebook pics at the company retreat in San Diego

Now you know a little more about Sloth Man

California Sleeps Dreams

2011-11-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

Huge acrylic painting. I like working big, it forces me to loosen up and make decisions.

Photo quality is pretty bad, too bad you can't all come over and see this one in person.

Sloth Man 2

2011-10-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

Sloth Man hangs out

Sloth Man goes to a job interview.

Devil Cat

2011-10-25T20:57:00.001-07:00

She Has Great Bone Structure

2011-10-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Zombies are Real

2011-10-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Some Nice Colors

2011-10-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

These Girls are Fierce

2011-10-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well Dressed Man

2011-10-17T21:56:00.001-07:00

He's the Only Film Maker Worth a Damn Right Now

2011-10-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

And he wants your dreams

Don't Throw Salt on Me Man

2011-10-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Long Live the King

2011-10-13T20:22:00.001-07:00

Those Old Bones Keep Coming Around

2011-10-13T16:23:00.001-07:00

Baby Owls

2011-10-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

RAWR!

2011-10-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

It's All Too Much To Take

2011-10-10T22:11:00.001-07:00

All My Rage is Yours

2011-10-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Samurai Warrior

2011-10-09T23:02:00.001-07:00

Painted Elephant

2011-10-08T12:08:00.001-07:00

Ghost

2011-10-06T21:50:00.001-07:00

Own Your Throne

2011-10-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Two Birds with One Stone

2011-10-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Night Hawk

2011-10-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Dark Spirits Coming Down

2011-10-03T22:52:00.001-07:00

A Better Time and Age Cont.

2011-10-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

A Better Time and Age

2011-10-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Tumble Rumble

2011-10-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I have a new tumblr and I am totally addicted to it. There is nothing more satisfying than having one of your artworks reblogged across cyberspace. For those of you not familiar with tumblr the way it works is people can just click and reblog your post on their own tumblr. If you are lucky it becomes a domino effect and your image spreads like wild fire through the blog-o-sphere. The draw back? I suppose if you are an artist such as myself you end up giving your images away for free (in a way) and they end up being decorations on someone else's blog. The upside is you get to feel famous when someone posts your image. That's what it's all about right?

Check out my tumblr here. I have all my best images up and it's easy to just scroll through them. Have fun, and don't forget to reblog my pictures :)

Talking Dog with Human Eyes

2011-09-22T17:38:00.001-07:00

Process: The Terrapin Band Poster

2011-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

The Terrapin band poster I made almost a year ago was the perfect blend of hand drawing and photoshop for me. Alan (lead guitar) came to me with a wild idea for the gig poster: The band's mascot flying on a Pegasus through a Jack Kirby-esk style cosmos. The rough he gave me (above) was great and made it easy for me to start.

First I had to establish exactly how "Terry," the band's mascot, would look. Alan told me Terry should look like he could pal around with Mickey and his gang. I immediately thought of the old 1930's Mickey Mouse cartoons and sketched up a version of Terry for approval. I was off and running. All I had to do was put him on the right steed. . . Alan said he wanted Terry riding on a Pegasus, and without realizing it I added a horn and drew a Pegacorn! Which is way better anyway so no one complained.

After I drew Terry riding his pan-galactic mount I took a deep breath and scanned everything into photoshop. It can be hard for me to let go of the physical realm and work in the digital frontier. It was time for me to buck up and start painting with pixels.

My first impulse was a red background and a fiery textured outer space. Yet, that didn't hold true to ol' Kirby and red was out this year. So I grabbed my brush and ink bottle and recreated a new background, by hand *sigh*. To my infinite frustration I discovered that Kirby's method is nearly impossible to duplicate! I would compare it to trying to copy what Pollock did to canvas. Seems easy- BUT IT'S NOT!

While I was working on the background I was simultaneously digitally painting Terry and his majestic side kick. Modeling the colors and getting them juuuuuuust right.

The purple background was finally finished and approved, so I took a break and had a little celebration!

To create the planets I painted in colors and used the smudge tool to create the marbled look of atmosphere. I referenced top secret NASA photos of the solar system, ensuring total accuracy.

Now it was time to set the dreaded copy. At first I played around a little with hand made type. But honesty it looked like crap. I knew the only way was to place the text on the computer. After what seemed like an endless amount of nudging and tapping I finally got all the band names and dates on their proper planets. Thank goodness.

The poster ended up being a huge hit and if you have a copy consider yourself extremely lucky. Only 100 were made. Perhaps someday there will be a glow in the dark version!!!

Check out THE TERRAPIN! And dash through the universe at the speed of Pegacorn wings!

Life of an Artist

2011-09-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

Click to make bigger

Innermachine

2011-08-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

I had the great honor of illustrating The Terrapin's latest album Innermachine. If you haven't heard of The Terrapin you should really go and check them out. They make some amazing interstellar pan galactic sounds. I'm not sure if you can still buy a hard copy of the album, and my artwork :). But you can listen to them online here Click the link and explore your innermachine.

Below I have included some of the roughs I went through to create the final cover design. My process entailed listening to the album in a loop and sketching images that came into my mind.

While listening I kept having this vision of a beautiful cyborg woman encased in a mechanized shell gazing upward. She is both empowered by the machine and held captive by it. What is she gazing at? I cannot guess. Perhaps the future? A distant star? I'm not sure, but I think the music will take you there.

Thanks Terrapin for giving me the opportunity to share in your creativity.

Click image to see larger.

Please notice that the text is different in the final version. It should read The Terrapin Innermachine. I don't have a copy of the final version!

The pencil rough. Notice the Terry the Turtle hologram projector in front of her eyes. I felt like this was a little too much and the space should be left open. I was looking for every excuse to include The Terrapin's mascot Terry.

A very early rough drawing. For a while I saw the cyborg woman in my mind staring directly at me. I decided against this idea, I felt this was too direct and she was actually looking beyond me.

An unfinished color version. Perhaps someday this will be completed for a limited edition release of the album. Only time will tell.

And finally, for fun, a hologram of Terry giving you the thumbs up.

Apparition

2011-08-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Taken from my ipod. Also, I found out that I am running out of space on my blogger account so I may start posting lower quality pictures from now on. :(

Forrest Imp

2011-08-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Totally Mayan

2011-08-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

Wood Block Printing Cont.

2011-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

I threw some color on there for effect.

Just a Little Place By the Lake Please

2011-08-02T14:35:00.001-07:00

Wood Block Printing

2011-08-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here is my first wood block print. I'm pretty excited about it. I need to practice applying the correct amount of pressure, and using the correct amount of ink during the printing process. Yet, I felt super Zen using the Japanese tools while carving the block. Like a real artist Samurai.

Col. Percy Fawcett

2011-07-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Fawcett

Back Behind the Church

2011-07-06T23:02:00.001-07:00

The General

2011-07-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

Golden String

2011-07-06T19:17:00.001-07:00

Know Your Knots

2011-07-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

Karate Chop

2011-07-01T14:23:00.001-07:00

After Gauguin

2011-06-29T20:38:00.002-07:00

Red Horse

2011-06-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

An Edit

2011-06-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

It's funny how you can be so thrilled with a drawing and then someone points something out to you and you are completely crushed.

I changed a panel from what I had a blog ago.

Here is the original page, and then the revised second panel. The second one is better, I think it looks more solid, and three dimensional. The cowboy is kicking the coyote towards the camera. Although it's not finished yet. The comic is slowly coming along. Hopefully it will be worth all the trouble. Oh and don't worry, the whole comic isn't about animal abuse.

At least I am learning alot about sequential art

On Safari

2011-06-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

A Comic Book I'm Working On

2011-06-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

Below are some teaser pages from a comic I'm working on. My friend James wrote it, and I am illustrating. It's a western and that's all I can say right now.

This is my first comic and I am pretty slow. These pages are not completely finished.

Thankfully James has been patient.

Sea Serpent

2011-06-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

There be dragons here

Boxers

2011-05-31T15:42:00.001-07:00

Egyptian Princess

2011-05-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

Vader is a G

2011-05-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Wandering

2011-05-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Devil

2011-05-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

My drawings have been coming out really dark lately, which is weird because I've been feeling pretty good. It's strange, my drawings hardly ever relate to how I am feeling. In this case It's gotta be the Guy Davis comics I've been reading. Man, that guy is good.

Perhaps it's just the little devil in all of us. . .

City on Fire

2011-05-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Gun Slinger

2011-05-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Some days I feel like a gun slinger, swaggering around with confidence. I love those days.

Chimera

2011-05-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

For some reason I am totally stoked on this mythical beast right now. There is some clean up work I need to do still, but I was anxious to post.

Every Dog Has His Day

2011-05-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

America celebrates a good killing and I can't help but join in. Some people are horrified with the idea of people taking to the streets over a death, but there is no stopping it, it's the American way. Some kind of cowboy frontier justice has been dealt, and a promise has been kept. Only America could have pulled something like this off with so much style. Like a movie, or a Tom Clacy novel. Too bad killing only makes more killing, but hey, a win is a win. Every dog has his day.

May Day

2011-05-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

The sun is out, birds are chirping, kids are playing, and I'm sitting at my desk watching a documentary on World War I. So much to do, but I couldn't help myself from doing a series of gestural sketches of fighting men. Chalk it up to practice I guess.

Conversation With Myself

2011-04-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

So, Andy, can I call you Andy? You haven't been drawing very well lately.

Everyone calls me Andrew. And I draw all the time.

Well I dunno, it hasn't really been your best work. . .

I've been really busy!

Oh yeah right, that's what they all say.

I haven't been inspired!

Oh you used to laugh at people who said that.

Man, lay off, you're too hard on me.

You're talking to yourself you know. . .

Okay, okay, I'm not going to move from this spot until I draw something cool.

You better.

Own the Streets

2011-04-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

A Little Fantasy is Nice

2011-04-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

The most interesting thing about this image is it was painted digitally. First I made a little drawing in pen, scanned it into the computer, and then painted digitally through a tablet. Painting on the computer is crazy, and hard to get used to. Sometimes I thought I smelled paint, but it was just my imagination. Painting on the computer has a lot of benefits, but I'm not sure I like it. I need to make more to decide.

IF-Journey

2011-04-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

The pony express rider journeys through the night to deliver the mail on time.

I think this would look great as a huge painting. For now, I have to settle for this little watercolor sketch.

Shamen Don't Need Cell Phones

2011-04-12T21:40:00.001-07:00

She has Crazy Hair but She Don't Care

2011-04-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

A four colored pencil is loads of fun, everyone should keep one in their desk drawer.

Stay Alive Join the Tribe

2011-04-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is Suzie Stillwater. She has an awesome fox skin jacket. She would like you to join her tribe.