The Art Blog of Taylor S Smith

John Singer Sargent Quote

2012-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

"Cultivate an ever continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents. Store up in the mind... a continuous stream of observations from which to make selections later. Above all things get abroad, see the sunlight and everything that is to be seen."

I love this quote. It reminds me of the importance of practicing mindfulness, being in the present (rather than you mind wandering in thoughts) and getting out to see the world.

On a side note, I've been drawing up the Dark Knight for fun in the evenings. The plan is to print it out to be five feet tall, mount it on cardboard/foam core and hang it up on a wall. The file is HUGE! Put it this way, it takes about three minutes to save and open the file in Photoshop :) More to come soon. For now, here are a couple screen shots of the work in progress. (The Magneto image is from the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 game art and is being used for reference).

Love Your Work

2012-01-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

"Do what you love to do, and do it so well that those who come to see you do it will bring others to watch you do it again and again and again."

- Mark Victor Hansen

TMNT Artist Trading Cards

2011-12-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

I love drawing these sketch cards. I used to collect TMNT cards when I was a kid and trade with friends. My dad, brother and I would go to "card shows" and buy/trade baseball cards when we were growing up. At those shows there were people selling comic books, too. I remember being so jazzed after buying X-Men #1 drawn by Jim Lee and being hooked on comics since. There's a bit of nostalgia in these artist trading cards which makes them a lot of fun to create.

The original 4 cards are for sale (as a set.) Send an e-mail to taylorsmith03@hotmail.com and we'll work out a price. Also, if there's enough interest, I am willing to make prints for sale as well.

Thanks for stopping by and best wishes to everyone in 2012!

Merry Holidays!

2011-12-15T15:12:00.001-08:00

It's that time of the year again. Here's a couple of my favorite Christmas/winter designs from this year.The Santa designs are from last year and where a lot of fun creating. I'd really love to do more character designing; it reminds me of caricature and graphic design which I used to do a lot more of when I was in college.

Best wishes to you this season and a Happy New Year! :)

Lonely Island Caricatures

2011-11-20T06:18:00.001-08:00

The other night I bought the newest Lonely Island album (Turtlenecks and Chains) and can't stop laughing. The group is made of three guys including Andy Sandberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer and they are best known for their comedic music. If you've been watching SNL the last five years, you've probably seen some of their music videos as digital shorts. This drawing was done about a year ago and I was inspired to share it after the last couple days of ROFLing. So good... :)

Blog Update: 11/24/11

Couldn't help myself; I've been listening to the new album so much I had to caricature the whole crew. I think it'd be cool to do this drawing again and trace it in Illustrator to really get that clean, symmetrical look. I'd also play with their silhouettes and likeness more.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving.

Season Panels

2011-11-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

This was a fun little project I did at work (Embroidery Library) with the theme of nature and the change of seasons. The top image is how they turned out before handing off the project to the digitzers and the bottom image is the thumbnail sketches. In these four panels, I tried to create them to stand alone individually but look good if they were used together. I like doing drawings that go together for a series. Maybe it's something about designing them so that they all look unified. I also enjoy doing thumbnails and environment sketches now and then. Just another way to play with shapes, which is something I love to do.

Halloween Cat

2011-10-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Happy (early) Halloween! Black cats and and jack o' lants are the theme :)
This was a design I did for Urban Threads recently. Inspired yet again by the art of Skottie Young, the drawing above was a quick sketch to bring to a design planning meeting. A lot of my "rough" drawings are actually pretty tight, but this one wasn't as much the case. I think that's what I liked about it... not so much the art but the mentality of being open minded and just letting what ever comes through me (while drawing) to do so. I'm learning to silence my "inner critic" more and it feels really good and hopefully reflects in the art.

Hope you're enjoying the season and thanks for stopping by!

Paper Wings Podcast

2011-10-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Paper Wings Podcast: Learn to make & sell your creator-owned comics, graphic novels, picture books & animation!

How do I make a living from my own ideas?

For most visual storytellers, and creative people of all kinds, this is the question of the century.

Led by by Disney character designer Chris Oatley and IDW comics creator Lora Innes, the Paper Wings Team is pursuing answers to this question by covering relevant topics such as:

How to craft beautiful and engaging visual stories.
How to get attention from big studios & publishers with an independent project.
How to grow an audience through technology and social media.
How to run a small, creative business legally and profitably.
How to make the most of your limited time and energy.

This was all copied and pasted from the Paper Wings website; I figured they can sell it better than me :)

I can't say enough good things about what's going on over at this site and am continually blown away by how much information is so generously shared on the Internet. You can almost call it free art school, not to mention a community of other artists/storytellers to grow with.

If you're a visual storyteller, this site is definitely worth checking out!

Follow Your Dreams!

2011-10-05T04:27:00.000-07:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

Superhero Trading Cards

2011-10-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

More superhero trading cards! The characters are drawn on 2.5" x 3.5" illustration board and drawn with ink, marker and colored pencil. I love making these mini superhero portraits! It's been fun exploring/experimenting with style and design on these. From left to right it goes, Gambit, Ghost Rider and Venom. Also, I'm thinking about drawing a bunch of these and selling them either as originals or prints for the Midwest Comic Book Convention. Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Donatello Fan Art

2011-09-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

Just having fun in Photoshop and testing a few things out with textures and stylization on my childhood favorite turtles. Inspiration plug goes to Dave Rapoza's amazing TMNT portraits done recently. If you're a fan of the green team, treat your self (you won't be disappointed!)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v403/MrDelicious/All_TMNT_Dave_Rapoza_2.jpg

Thanks for stopping by :)

High in the Sky

2011-09-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

This drawing makes me happy :)

Zombie Kitty

2011-08-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hello, Zombo :)

A couple more trading cards from last month. Each card is drawn with marker and ink on 2.5" x 3.5" illustration board. Also, like before, these original artist trading cards are for sale ($20) and all proceeds go to the local food shelf in Wayzata, MN. If interested, shoot me an e-mail at taylorsmith03@hotmail.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Battyman

2011-08-21T17:18:00.001-07:00

Dear Skottie Young,
Where did you get your talent? E-bay? Walmart? BTW, you're awesome.

I came across this image today on Skottie Young's site and was inspired. It was drawn with ink and white out on illustration board and then scanned in for color/contrast in Photoshop.

"Shiver Me Whiskers!"

2011-08-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

Going with the pirate theme here. :) Just another drawing that makes me happy and also, a new t-shirt design over at my RedBubble store.

Also, I'm really happy to share that there's a new roommate with me at Wayzata Lake Apartments. Meet, Tootsie! (a.k.a. Gato Meowpur) She's 4 years old last month and was adopted last Saturday. I've never had a pet before so it's been an experience this last week, but a good one for sure! Here's a couple picks of her at the new home. The picture of her on the window ledge is her looking down at a muskrat (I think) outside. And the picture of her on the toilet cracks me up thinking of Jinkxy the cat from "Meet the Parents." :)

8/13/2011 (Blog Post Update)

This just in... Tootsie is actually a guy!? This blows my mind! Some how the animal shelter seemed to miss this one, and so did I! Wow... I don't know if that's an insult to my cat's "manhood" or a mistake in the paper work, but oh well. I took my cat to the vet today for a check up and it's confirmed... she is actually a he! So from this day forward, Tootsie is renamed to Stimpson J. Cat (Stimpy).

:)

Mindfulness

2011-07-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

In art school, there's something really awesome about being in a classroom environment with other like minded students who are all eager to grow and learn and be inspired by one and another. It's also really awesome to have great teachers around to nurture and foster these students into well rounded artists. But what happens when you leave that scene and move on to a new chapter in life? With out the school, how do you continue evolving, improving and growing as an artist? Our first thoughts might be, "thank God for the Internet." :) A second thought might be, "what if there is a way to continue improving as an artist, even when we are not drawing/painting?" Perhaps there is a way we can teach ourselves!

I believe one way is to become more mindful.

A good theory I heard from another artist was about how our experiences in life are all rapped up in the art that we create. When we are not in the present, our minds are often traveling back and forth between the past and the future and consequently we miss a lot of things that are going on around us. As artists, we can be more mindful in our observations through out the day to help us continue to grow. When you're traveling to work, what car or building designs inspire you? When you're waiting in line at the grocery store, who has a great face or interesting character for caricature and how would you exaggerate it? When you're walking outside, what color schemes and environments do you love and how would you make it into a composition? When we ask questions, it almost "tricks" our mind into finding answers and this helps us stay in the moment. Like anything worth having, this takes a little bit of effort (being more mindful) and thankfully it gets easier the more you practice it.

Another cool thing about being mindful is that with it comes peace and happiness. When we keep our minds focused and alert on the present (rather than listening to thoughts in our heads) we're more able to appreciate and enjoy the moment we're in. So not only do you build upon experiences and memories to plug into your art, you feel better, too. Kind of a win win situation for the artist. :)

On a side note, I want say a big THANK YOU to everyone that bought trading cards this last month and for their support. Together, we raised over a hundred dollars for the local food bank in Wayzata, MN. It's a real joy to be making art and doing it for a good cause, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Marvel ACEO (Trading Cards)

2011-07-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

It's been such a treat to take a break from making art on the computer and playing with markers and ink again. This is my second round of Marvel ACEO (Artist Cards, Editions and Originals) Trading Cards. Sized at 2.5" x 3.5", these are fun little pieces of art to create and collect.

Like the first round, these cards are for sale and the proceeds go to the local food shelf in Wayzata, Minnesota. If you're interested, send an e-mail to taylorsmith03@hotmail.com (Venom and Hulk are all ready spoken for). I just want to say a big thank you to the people who bought cards and supported the cause all ready. The first series was a success and it's really cool that we can have fun with this and give to a worthy cause at the same time. :)

Gratitude

2011-07-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Two of the greatest words my parents ever taught me while growing up were "thank" and "you." At the time, it seemed like a polite thing to say when someone else did something nice for you. As I grow older, the significance of these words becomes more understood.

Gratitude can be thought of as a multiplier of good things in life. By the law of attraction (also known as the law of love) what we give we shall receive. Gratitude is also a form of love, and by giving thanks we are giving love. This is a really great way to bring more positive people, circumstances and events into our lives. The cool thing about this is that you can feel and think this way any time you choose! If it's hard to find something you're grateful for, you can always fall back on the things we might take for granted (running water, health, eyes, ears, friends, pets, nature, etc.) By really dwelling on the things we appreciate and love, we can turn around a tough day or create better days for the future. :)

In closing, a certain inspirational figure comes to mind on this subject. Is it any coincidence (if you believe in coincidences) that one of the greatest minds that ever lived, Albert Einstein gave thanks at least a hundred times a day? Could it be that life revealed so many of it's mysteries to him because of his understanding and practice of gratitude on a daily basis?

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."

- Albert Einstein

Marvel Artist Trading Cards

2011-06-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

For fun and in my spare time, I decided to get away from making art on the computer and switch to markers and bristol board to create some of my favorite heroes and villains of Marvel Comics. I guess you could call them artist trading cards because they're each the size of a baseball card (2.5" x 3.5".) These are nice because they're so small and don't demand a lot of time to make. They are for sale, so if you are interested send me an e-mail. All the proceeds are going to the local food shelf here in Wayzata, MN.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the art. It's a real joy to create and share with everyone. Have a great rest of the week :)

Goals

2011-05-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I wanted to share something that's close to heart and hopefully valuable to you in some way. It's nothing new. It's significance, though, can not be praised enough.

When I was 16, I went to a wrestling camp at the University of Minnesota. Along with the vigorous training, drilling and learning new moves, the camp instructors gave us booklets to work in at night. The booklets were meant for the wrestlers to figure out what goals they wanted to achieve as athletes and in our personal lives.

A couple years ago when I was living in California, I revisited my goal list from the wrestling booklet and to my amazement one of my goals was to "live in California." It blew my mind. I had written that goal maybe 6 or 7 years ago, forgot about it and was then currently living a dream and didn't even know it.

There's something about writing out our goals that is so helpful in getting to places that we wish to be in life. It helps us figure out what we really want and desire. In this short time we are here on earth, what is it that you want to do? Who do you want to be? You can think of goals as a bull's eye on the dart board. When you know what you're aiming for, it's easier to hit the target... otherwise, you're just throwing darts and it doesn't really matter where you hit the board. And that's OK, too.

On my computer there's several word documents with personal and career goals filled out. As artists and designers, we all ready have that creative muscle we use regularly. It can be applied here as well... and when doing this, just let it run wild! Have fun with it. Imagine yourself selling a painting for "XX,XXX" amount of dollars. Imagine yourself being published in a popular magazine and picking up the issue off the shelf at the grocery store. Image yourself eating dinner and having an amazing conversation with your favorite artist. Imagine your children's book or personal sketchbook being published and holding it your hands.

I could write about this for another hour it feels, so I'll try to rap up this post with some encouragement to make your own goal list. Look at it often and change and add to it as you go. Again, have fun with it! And don't wonder "how" you're going to achieve these... this isn't important. Just let go of hindering thoughts and dream big.

Snowed in on a Sunday

2011-05-18T14:47:00.001-07:00

Sketch Book Caricatures

2011-05-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple caricatures pulled from the sketchbook. The first one is of the rapper, Emenem. I think it's funny how he looks so serious or doesn't smile in his pictures so I decide to "lighten the mood." As my project manager would say, "somebody needs a hug..." The second caricature is of the auther, Franz Kafka done for the Caricaturama Showdown 3000 over at Facebook. I haven't drawn a lot of caricatures in the last year and these were some challenges from my friend, Ricardo, so thanks for pushing me, buddy. It was a lot fun!

Animals with Balloons

2011-05-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Another animal design project for Embroidery Library. I have to say, my art directors are really talented and have a good eye for things. They see things that I can't in my own art and know how to tweak certain things to get them looking better than before. It's all a team effort and I'm really grateful to have the experience of working with them and the other artists at this job.

Thanks for stopping by and happy early Mother's Day!

Threadless T-Shirt Submission

2011-04-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

New T-shirt design up for voting at Threadless.com

If you have an account set up at their site, it only takes a couple seconds to give it a vote. Careful though! My disclaimer is that voting on T-shirt designs is like eating potato chips... you can't just have one! By that I mean it's easy to vote for one, and then two, and then thirteen. But it is a lot of fun to see what people are creating over there. :) Good stuff, homie!

Illustration Friday: "Bottled"

2011-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

This week for Illustration Friday the theme is "bottled." This is the first time I've participated with this group and it was a lot of fun and a good challenge. My personal goal was to do this as quickly as I could (thumbnails to a finish) with out second guessing my first instincts. Comments and feedback are welcome.

On a side not, I discovered another great resource for illustration online. At Illustration Mundo, you can listen to a bunch of great pod casts with artists, illustrators, designers, directors, etc. Definitely a HUGE resource for anyone who does illustration or is an artist. Can't emphasise that enough! Some how these pod casts are related to Escape from Illustration Island which is another great resource that I'm learning about.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to the people that contribute their time and efforts to these sites. What a great way to share with the community and be a hub for inspiration.

Nosferatu Drawing

2011-04-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Ricardo and I live in different states (California and Minnesota) but thanks to the interwebs, we've been doing this thing were we sketch together using Skype. If you haven't used it before, it's a program that lets you call, instant message or video chat with other people. We both have web cameras so we can show each other what we've been doing in our sketchbook or just make weird faces at each other. It's a great way to catch up, do some drawing and share any thing new we've learned about art, life, etc.

This drawing is from the other day with Ricardo. I'm not familiar with Nosferatu, but I know of him from the early horror movies.

T-Shirt Submission @ Threadless.com

2011-03-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

New T-shirt submission for Threadless. If you're into t-shirt designs and haven't been to this site before, it's a real treat. Artists and designers from around the world submit their ideas for a chance to have them printed and sold on their site. You can help this design become printed by casting your vote! Here's the link.

http://threadless.com/submission/330877/Lion_of_Courage

It's such a treat to do this for a living. Thanks so much for stopping by :)

Ninja Kitty

2011-03-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

Victorian Cat and Monkey Sunset

2011-03-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

I'm having a lot of fun taking my drawings done in Illustrator and playing around with textures and color in Photoshop. The cat on the top was drawn in pencil, cleaned up in Illustrator and finished in Photoshop. We'll call him, "the Catitude, Dude!"

The drawing on the bottom was sort of a warm up sketch before work. Pascal Campion does these really great illustrations that convey a lot of emotion and story in them. He does one a day and gives himself a hour or two to finish it and I was inspired to do my own. Technically, it's not the greatest drawing and that's something I'm working on "letting go" and focussing more on telling a story. Norman Rockwell's illustration teacher once told him; "If you throw a tennis ball hard against a wall, it will come back at you hard. Likewise, if you feel a drawing hard, your audience will feel it, too."

Comments, feedback and suggestions are all welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Kokeshi Dolls

2011-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Another embroidery design series done over at Embroidery Library. This series was inspired by Japanese wood dolls and then modified by giving them an object to hold. I'm really inspired by Asian art and design so it was a real treat work on these.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Dragon

2011-02-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I like to take the vector art that was used for a project at work and "spice" it up a little with more details, color, background, etc. It's also fun to play around with the programs and teach yourself something new.

Lastly, I'd like to share a quote that stuck with me from the movie "Kung Fu Panda." Master Oogway shares with the panda a bit of his wisdom durring a dificult time. The quote goes...

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. That is why they call it the present." :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Birds and Artist Inspiration

2011-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I'm drawing on the computer I like to listen to artist interviews to keep inspired. Usually, when I'm on the computer tracing my artwork in Adobe Illustrator, it requires less imagination and creativity than say when I'm at the drawing table. For clarity I should state that most of my illustrations are roughed out at a drawing table and then scanned in and finished on the computer. During the drawing table phase, most of the illustration is figured out on paper and the computer is more of a tool to polish and clean up the art. So here's a couple entertainment art sites that I like to stream audio on and listen to when I'm creating on the computer.

Sketchoholic.com

Hosted by the amazingly enthusiastic and tallented Bobby Chiu, this site is full of interviews with professionals in the entertainment art industry. This is HUGE inspiration for me!

Stephen Silver's Artcasts

Character designer and illustrator, Stephen Silver shares his wealth of knowledge and wisdom about art and life. Another great source of inspiration!

Cardinal Stack

2011-01-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Recently we did a series of "stack" designs at Embroidery Library. The stack being three animals or objects of a similar nature sitting on top of each other. The cardinals were my favorite of the series. Something about simplicity really interests me, whether it's writing, speaking, etc.

2010 Favorites

2011-01-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

These are some of my favorite designs I've worked on in the last year. Big props to the amazingly tallented digitizers and art directors at Urban Threads. These embroider designs are a team effort between us all. I can't say enough good things about this group of people. It's been a great year.

Free Time

2010-12-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

These are a couple drawings from a while ago. The first one is a portrait study done by Yim Mau Kun. Studying other artists work helps me stay limber and learn some new tricks. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I do them in hopes that their genius becomes apart of my work as well. The second one is a drawing of Michael Jackson from about a year ago. It was a rough drawing in my sketchbook and was later cleaned up in Adobe Illustrator.

Happy Holidays to everyone and best wishes to you in the new year!!

Season's Greatings

2010-12-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone!

Flapper Designs

2010-11-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

My art teacher in high school told us about combining two different ideas to make something fun and different. Like the person that came up with chocolate and peanut butter together... that's genius... OK maybe not genius but it was a good enough idea to the people that began Reese's candy.

Lately animation has been a huge inspiration to me and these flapper designs where my effort to combine that with my love for graphic design. It was also an experimentation with style. I feel like some things worked and others I'd probably revisit and change. The last two designs are my favorites, particularly because of the gesture and angularity of the poses.

Thanks for stopping by!

T-Shirts and Stickers for Sale!

2010-11-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are coming up quick! Do you know a certain someone who needs some new t-shirts? Or maybe you all ready have the gift in mind but want to customize it with some unique graphic art? Well look no further! The Taylor made art shop is open for business!

Check it out!

Halloweenies

2010-10-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Published

2010-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

Ignore the watermark. I don't have the file on this computer with out my name written across his forehead.

Back in 2007 when I first started playing with digital painting, I did a caricature of my favorite late night host, Conan O' Brien. Last year I was fortunate enough to be asked for the rights to use the image in Marlo Thomas's new book "Growing Up Laughing." I was more than happy and agreed to let her use it. It is an honor and privilege!

Blast from the Past

2010-09-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Going old school here. These are caricatures I did back at Legoland, California in 2008/2009. Our thing was that we would draw you doing just about anything, but usually I tried to steer my customers towards the direction of a Star Wars character, zombies and my favorite super heroes.

I do miss drawing live caricatures. There's something about interacting with a client in person and when you do a good job, and the customer loves their drawing, it's a really good feeling!

Hula Girl

2010-09-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

Another drawing that makes me happy. :)
This is the vector design done for Urban Threads, the embroidery company that I work for.

Rubber (Stitched) Duckies

2010-08-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I was fortunate enough to draw and design a series of rubber ducks at work. I first created a "template" to keep the size and angles of each design the same and then began drawing up ideas for the individual ducks. This was fun to brain storm with my creative directors and I'm really glad this project was a team effort. To me, it's always nice to have a second or third person look at my art before I take it to a finish. They spot things that you sometimes miss (proportion issue, an object looks like something that you didn't intend it too, etc.) There were 20 ducks in the series with my favorite being the punk duck.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchbook Caricatures

2010-08-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

This first drawing makes me happy. :)
It's a caricature of my friends Dan, Natalie and Marko. I had a really good time seeing them and my friends in San Diego last month. I draw my friends sometimes for the sake of a memory exercise and it also puts me in a good mood. I liked how the stylization turned out so I decided to put it to the test on some celebrities. The next drawing is a caricature of the band Green Day. If I would do this again, I'd work on the likeness and expression a bit more. Otherwise I had fun playing with the shapes and simplifying.

thanks for stopping by :)

Zombie Pinup

2010-08-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun with Adobe Illustrator, lately. This is the colored version to the pencil sketch I posted last month.

Enjoy!

T-Shirts

2010-08-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

As an artist, it's good to keep your feet on the ground and know that there's always room for improvement. Today was a good reminder of that.

What a lovely day for a slice of humble pie :)

Fun and creative T-shirt designs over at Threadless.com !

Skullcake

2010-07-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Deadly and Delicious!

Hot Couture Cat Designs

2010-07-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Art Nouveau Butterly Woman

2010-07-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

Wow! That's about all I say right now... that and my friends are super talented. Seriously, I start surfing their blogs or listen to artist interviews online and I get super inspired!

This is a drawing from a couple months ago I did for as an embroidery design. One of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha, was the main inspiration for this piece. I'll start sharing more of my roughs and finishes from work. It's my hope that I'll contribute some more inspiration to others just like so many other artists all ready do.
:)

Zombie Pinup

2010-07-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is rough drawing I did at work for a zombie pinup design. We didn't use this for the final design but I'll still finish it in Adobe Illustrator and make a t-shirt design out of it. There's still a few things to add to it and I'll change the eyes too.

Well, it's three weeks and counting for the big San Diego Comic Convention! It's a great place for inspiration, meeting new people and getting feedback on your art. But most of all, I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends from Legoland and Studio 2nd Street again!

Happy 4th, everyone!

Steampunk Embroidery

2010-05-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Embroidery Designs

2010-05-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple images of the embroidery projects I've been working on. The bottom image is a Jacobean design I made and it's embroidered onto a walker. On our website, the customers can upload pictures of their projects to share. It's always cool to see how others are using your designs.

Anyways, I thought I'd share what I've been up too lately. I get super inspired when I'm surfing other people's art blogs so this is to give back to everyone else that's doing sweet stuff with their art and sharing it with the world! If you'd like to see more or are interested in embroidery, here's the links to our two sites. Urban Threads and Embroidery Library. Thanks for stopping by :)

Inspired

2010-04-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my friend shared a link with me that has become my new source (or fix) of inspiration. The website is CHIUSTREAM and it's a series of interviews with professional entertainment artists run by Bobby Chiu. Very cool stuff, especially if your interested in character design, storyboards, comics, animation, etc.

I listened to the interview with Alvin Lee at work the other day and was really inspired. So I went home and drew Street Fighter characters all night. This tough guy in the image above is Akuma. His teeth are even gnarlier than his hair!

Good stuff, man :)

New Job

2010-03-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

OK. So I wanted to share what I've been up to as of late. Since moving back to Minnesota (about 5 months ago) I've been fortunate enough to continue making a living as an artist. It's pretty fun too. The company I draw for now is called Embroidery Library and we sell embroidery designs over the internet. In a nut shell, we create the art work, digitize it and then sell it on our web site. Then customers can buy and download the designs to their sewing machines. The projects I work on range quite a bit so I posted some rough drawings, vector art and a few what the final product turns out like. After I create the vector art, the drawing is handed off to a digitizer who figures out how the design will be stitched out. What I really like about it is that there are different rolls with the job. Some days I'm an illustrator, others I'm more a designer and along with that there are design planning meetings where a group of us get together and brainstorm ideas.

In the short amount of time, this job has helped me grow as an illustrator and work faster in production. I've always liked to take my time and make things look really nice, and I still do, but that's not always a luxury and so you get good at cutting corners and still making good designs.

I'm really grateful to be apart of this team, to say the least. :)

Friends... and more Drama!

2010-01-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple recent drawings. To start it out, the top one is another celebrity caricature of Kevin Dillon's character, Johny Drama. I started this in October when I just moved back to Minnesota and just never got around to coloring it.

The second image is of two friends of mine, Dan and Natalie. They're both caricature artists at Legoland and super cool people. Natalie loves food and we used to talk about our favorite taco shops in Encinitas whenever it was slow at work. Dan, well, he's pretty much the man. They have been friends for a while but it was around Christmas time when I saw on Facebook that they were dating now and became inspired to draw this.

The last drawing is of another California friend/artist... Ricardo Vasquez. Another good man to say the least. To contrast his love for death metal music, Ricardo is probably one of the kindest guys you'll meet. A friend to all and a lover of life I can't say enough good things about him and his family. This was a warm up drawing before working on a freelance project today.

Finally... I've been listening to some art(pod)casts of Stephen Silver. Very inspirational and great food for thought, especially if you're into animation, caricature and passion for art. Check it out if you get a chance and thanks for stopping by!

Food For Thought

2010-01-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

Here's some kind of new art from the last couple months. The top image is another from my sketchbook inspired by Joshua Middleton. I remember seeing his work on X-Men covers when I was younger and recently fell in love with his work all over again. The second image is a caricature of Will Ferrell from the movie Anchorman. Couple of my friends from California are drawing celebrities for fun so that's our new thing. Finally, the last image is of an adult actor Jessie Jane done for a friend. I like how the ink in the background turned out, and as always, drawing sexy woman is a plus.

There's something that's been on my mind and apart of my focus the last couple months that is worth mentioning. If anything, I just want to talk about it more because I've kept most of it to my self and it's worth sharing . What I'm talking about is the laws of attraction and positive thinking.

About two years ago my mom gave me this book called "the Secret." It's a group of professional teachers, philosophers and speakers that share how they have come to understand the laws of the universe. It has a lot to do with gaining control of your thoughts and getting what you want in life. The ideas shared in this book are closely related to the New Testament from the Bible. What's really interesting to me is the more I research, the more it seems all other ideas, practices and religions that are out there all have many similarities.

I could talk about this till the cows come home, but for what it's worth, I'm really grateful to learn and practice from these teachings. I owe a lot of my good fortunes, relationships, health and wealth to this way of living. Each day is a blessing and there's a lot to be said about gratitude. Each day I look forward to learning more about these teachings.

Ooofda! That was a lengthy one. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Sketch Book Stuff

2009-12-27T16:47:00.000-08:00

Here's some of my favorite drawings from the last couple months since moving back to Minnesota. The sketch book I've been using has this middle tone for paper, which is great for working with darks and lights. One of my favorite new things to sketch with are white out pens. This sketch book (to me) is about experimenting with value and having fun. Some times I find that my favorite drawings come from experimentation or just not caring about how the final drawing will turn out. These were all drawn from photographs which were used as inspiration. Hope you guys enjoy them as much as I had fun drawing them!

Studies

2009-12-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

The top drawing is study from Charles Bargue. This was a great way to sharpen the eye. The image on the left is the Zerox copy of his and the one on the right is mine. There's a certain procedure to follow when drawing these and the process took around 60 hours to complete! Well worth it too.

The bottom painting was study of Chuck Close's work from 2007. It's a self portrait (back when I had spiky hair) and the idea is that color isn't as important as it's value and the placement of it on the canvas. This was a fun experimentation and a chance to just mess around with paint.

Random

2009-11-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

This post is pretty random but I wanted to share some of the things I've been up too.

The top drawing is a portrait study from a Yim Mau Kun drawing. This was a nice way to study an artist's technique and to get some drawing time in, especially when the luxury of a model isn't available.

The second drawing is a caricature of Kevin Dillion's character, Johnny Drama from Entourage. It's a good series but I don't watch often unless I'm with my brother. I'm always asking my brother what happened last weekend and follow the show through him.

Finally, the last drawing is of a swimsuit model from a Sports Illustrated magazine. I found this when I was cleaning my room at my mom's house, and since I wasn't employed at the time, between the Yim Mau Kun, sexy lady drawings and teaching a drawing class at my old high school, this kept me pretty busy. I used india ink with really florescent colors for this drawing... but unfortunately the colors didn't translate through the scan so I'm still trying to figure out how to get those really bright, saturated colors through digital media.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

Environment Thumbnails

2009-10-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some environment thumbnails from my sketchbook. They're all from photographs and took roughly 45 minutes each. These are fun to me because they remind me of a caricature, in the sense that you're playing with shapes and their relationship to each other in order to make a picture. Also, I'm not huge on rendering (all though I do appreciate it) and since these are thumbnails, you can crank them out fast like a theme park caricature.

more graphic studies

2009-10-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

A couple more drawings from DVD covers. I try to take the subject matter and then do my own thing with it. Like in the bottom image, I used the Batman symbol to as part of the composition. These are nice ways to limber up to a bigger drawing and be creative at the same time.

Sin City Character Design

2009-10-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

The other day I was looking through my roommates' dvd collection for something to draw. Anything related to comic books interests me so I saw this one (Sin City) and did some studies from the back of the dvd cover. I love the play of lighting in this movie with the black and white contrast. These were fun to draw and play with the positive and negative spaces.

Wedding Caricature

2009-09-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

This is a recent caricature commission I did. There are a lot of artists that inspire me, and it shows in my work. Alphonse Mucha and Adam Hughes were the big influences for this piece. The line art is colored, which is something I've never tried before and was pleased with the results. I am definitely looking forward to another project like this.

Michael Jackson Drawings

2009-08-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

These are a couple MJ inspired drawings I did about a month ago. The first drawing is from my sketch book and the second was used as demonstration art for Kaman's Art Shoppes at Legoland, CA.

Drawing Michael Jackson as a caricature is like shooting fish in a barrel... especially in his later years with all the plastic surgery. But that's not how I wanted to portray him. These drawings weren't meant for ridicule, but to remember the king of pop... and for myself.

Live Caricature from Legoland

2009-07-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

My friend told me I need to take more pictures of my caricatures from work. So here are a few of my favorites from last week and a few from a several months before.

The top drawing of the boy as Wolverine is inspired by Sean "Cheeks" Galloway and the bottom drawing is inspired by Robert Risko. Both of these artists in my opinion have great sense of design and I like simplification in art. It's like the saying goes... sometimes more is less. So that's what I've been trying to do lately. Oh yea, I think the real motivation for me to simplify was because we lowered our caricature prices at the park, and so with that I'm trying not to do as much work as I normally would for full price.

X-Men Fan Art (Continued)

2009-07-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

So a while ago I started drawing these X-Men characters at work. I'm a caricature artist at Legoland, California and I used the materials from work to create these. We draw with smelly markers and then color with Prismacolor Art Sticks. This is the second series of four characters that I made. The first four were all men, so I figured the next set would have to be all women. From top to bottom is Rouge, Psylocke, Mystique and Emma Frost.

Hoe you guys enjoy!

Recent Commissions

2009-06-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

These are a couple commission projects I've been working on lately. While going to school, drawing caricatures at Legoland, and moving out of my apartment, these were squeezed in some how.

Comments and critiques are more than welcome, and appreciated!

Portrait Studies

2009-05-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

These aren't really new but it's been a while since I posted some art so here are some portrait studies from the beginning of the year. They were drawn from photographs with charcoal pencil on newsprint.

On a side note, I've been working on some more X-Men characters so those will be coming soon!

Live Caricatures from the land of Legos

2009-03-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

We've been drawing a lot of people as Lego characters at the park. People love it and it's a great souvenir. I call em' "block heads." These are challenging sometimes because the features need to fit in a lego head... and legos don't have ears... so on kids especially it takes a little more thought to get a likeness.

These were from a couple months ago. I need to take more pictures of my work but sometimes you get caught in a rush of people that want a caricature and forget to. Business has been a little slow but I'm giving out deals and doing whatever I can to get people to sit down for a drawing. Even if I don't make a lot, at least I'm drawing a lot.

X-Men Fan Art

2009-02-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

Last month I was inspired to draw X-Men and since I draw caricatures for a living, I figured it was only natural to give them big heads and little bodies. The company that I draw caricatures for use Prisma Color Art Sticks (they're like wax colored pencils with out the wood) and smelly black markers to out line with. Those where the mediums I used to create these drawings.

One of the things that inspired me to draw when I was younger was the X-Men cartoon show. From there I discovered the comics and when I saw Jim Lee's take on the super heroes... well it's pretty much why I do what I do today. Anyways, these drawings were fun to do and I plan to do some more soon. The next round will be females to even out the guy to girl ratio.

Caricature Studies

2009-02-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

My roommate Matt Hennen does these cool head studies on newsprint and it inspired me to do some too. I liked drawing these on the newsprint for two reasons. One, the ball point pen feels like it skates across the surface. And two, it's easy to render on with charcoal or graphite.

The first image is me exploring new head shapes and design ideas. It's funny how my own facial features seem to show up in these studies. The last image is about memory sketches of coworkers. These didn't turn out as well as I pictured them in my head but it's going to keep me observer that much closer at work now. Enjoy!

Circus Art Show

2009-01-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

Recently some friends and I were in an art show in downtown San Diego. It was a circus theme. We met and saw some live painters at the show, had a couple free drinks and got to see some cool art. Good times!

Random/Recent

2008-12-15T14:48:00.000-08:00

The top image is a portrait I drew of my grandma from her high school days. It was an exercise for me to see how close I could get a drawing to look like a photo. It's funny, I don't see what's off in a drawing until I scan it and put it on the computer. For the most part I'm happy with how it turned out and look forward to doing some more drawings from photos.

The middle drawing is of the Disney Pixar character, Wall-E. I used colored pencil and marker for this peice. It's for a co-worker that's going to give it to her grandson for Christmas.

Finally, the last drawing is a mild caricature of another one of my co-workers. It was supposed to be a warm up drawing but I was having fun with it and took it a little further.

Twilight Drawings

2008-12-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I went and saw Twilight on opening night at the theatre. My friend told me it was a movie about Vampires and love... so I'm thinking, "cool, I really liked the Underworld movies, this could be good." I didn't realize what I got myself into till seeing about 50 high school girls lined up waiting to see the movie. Anyways, I thought it was kind of funny that one of the vampires falls in love with a high school girl, considering he's lived to pass several generations. What a loser.

Figure Studies

2008-11-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

Pretty sure it was comic books that really got me inspired to draw more and the human figure has always been a favorite of mine. Especially, drawing Spider-Man and Venom. They're fun to draw doing these crazy acrobatic/dynamic moves, and Venom's just fun to draw as a bodybuilder on steroids that slobbers everywhere.

These studies were to test my knowledge of anatomy and see where the week points are. I'm still learning about the lower torso so that's why there's a lack of construction there. The perspective in the ground plain is a little off too. All in all, these were fun mini puzzles to fit and piece together.

Figure Study

2008-11-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

In my quest to become a better quick sketch artist, I've started drawing figures from photographs. I'm also doing this to learn how to see value and render the figure. These are drawn with charcoal pencil on newsprint paper. Each figure took about 4-5 hours.

For this caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I used the same procedure from life drawing classes. It's kind of like a 1,2,3 step process that helps create a strong foundation for the drawing. I've learned this creative process while taking art classes at Studio 2nd Street

Hope you guys enjoy!

Tommy Lee Jones

2008-11-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

My friend showed me this site called "drawingboard.org." (got a nice ring to it, eh?) Anyways, it's a giant forum and I checked out the caricature section. The artists were posting their versions of Tommy Lee Jones so I decided to take a crack at it.

Purgatory Sketch Club

2008-10-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

A group of artists and I started a blog (Purgatory Sketch Club) where we do these "challenges" every month. The challenges range from Cowboys and Indians to 80's cartoon characters. It's a fun way to get each other motivated and create new art.

These are some of the images I've created for the blog challenges. The top image is a group of guys in line at a comic convention. The middle image is the Transformer known as Starscreem. The bottom image is an Orc, ready to lead his army to battle.

The challenges are fun because they're usually something you wouldn't draw. It pushes you to explore more with your art. It also helps you create work for a portfolio if ever needed.

T-Shirt Designs

2008-09-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

These were a few t-shirt designs I did for a rugby company. The lady I worked with would give me these slogans she wanted on the shirt and the rest was up to me to figure out. It was a fun side project because I got to put my anatomy class work to practice.

Head Studies

2008-09-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Since moving to California, which has been about 9 months now, I've been studying portraiture. The bottom two newsprint drawings were done in 2 hours with instruction from my teacher. I'm still learning the different planes of the face but the latest challenge has become rendering with charcoal. The top drawing are studies of women from a magazine. Influenced by J. Scott Campbell and Tom Richmond, I've always admired how these artists can make women look sexy. This was my shot at it, taking a little bit from what I know along with their expertise.

Spider-Man / Gambit

2008-08-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Spider-Man drawing was inked back in March and I decided to color it now that I have my NEW COMPUTER! To keep with the comic book theme, the bottom drawings are of my favorite X-Man inspired by Kenny Parks. Enjoy!

Live Caricatures

2008-08-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

These drawings are from last week at Legoland. I carried a camera with me for most of the time taking pictures of my drawings though out the day. The goal was to take the good/bad/and the ugly so that I could look at them at home and find areas of improvement in the drawings. These were some of my favorites.

Lately I've been averaging 1 - 2 "reject" drawings a week. Usually the only problems I have are with young - teenage girls and their mothers. I did have a father get bent out of shape a couple weeks ago, that was a first. Usually though, I never get rejects (that I know about) and what's weird to me is, I don't think my "live caricature" style is that exaggerated. If any thing (and I'm not crazy about this) but my drawings seam to lean more towards being "cute." At least that's what the customers say. The park that I draw at (Legoland California Resort) is geared towards kids and parents so I can image most people getting a caricature aren't looking for exaggeration as much as a good likeness. Actually, it seams like people are more interested in the body we give their faces to go with the picture (ex. Jedi, Princess, Fairy, Power Ranger, etc.)

Selling retail caricature has definitely given me thicker skin about my art. My first year drawing caricatures, if I got a reject drawing, it crushed me on the inside. Now a days, if I know the likeness is a good one in the drawing and the customer hates it, it's no big deal. In fact, I like playing the "I'm a starving artist" card and let them know that this comes out of my pay check if they don't buy it. And truthfully, it kind of does.

To end this post, I will say that it's an adrenaline rush when you're drawing someone and you have a good hunch that the person you're drawing won't be ready for the truth when you give it to them. It's even more fun though when you show the person your drawing and they love it! Can't describe the feeling much more than a natural high and that's something I want to push more towards these next couple months at the park.

Side Tracked

2008-08-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Bet you can't guess who my favorite super-hero is? I got inspired to do this one after looking at Sean Galloway's work the other night and colored it before work the next day.

Inspired

2008-07-29T18:02:00.001-07:00

Comic Con was awesome this year and I want to start creating a bunch of art to put together an ash can for next year's convention. Maybe sell some prints too, who knows. Here's a Spider-Man drawing I did a couple months ago that still needs to be colored. It feels selfish some times with all the work put into creating art, studying art, promoting yourself, updating blogs. But if the work you create has some kind of meaning to someone, I think it's worth it. That's going to be my main focus this coming year.

2008-07-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

It's officially summer at Legoland. I've been working more which means less time to draw at home. I have a few T-shirt designs I'm working on but can't show them off till the client gives the ok. On top of this, I'm taking two drawing classes and it's more than enough to keep busy.

A group of us artists from Legoland started an art blog to share, critique and motivate each other with our work. I post drawings here that aren't on this blog. Here's the link.

http://purgatorysketchclub.blogspot.com/search/label/Taylor%27s%20Posts

I haven't brought my camera to work in a while but here's a caricature from a couple months ago. I love doing caricatures for people that are happy to be drawn and not in a rush with their day. I take my time, so the drawing turns out better and we usually joke around or share some laughs. This family in particular made my day.

Friends

2008-06-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing of my buddies and I from high school. I did a drawing similar to this about five years ago on a larger scale. Back then I didn't know what caricaturing was so the likeness was missing. I wanted to recreate this drawing to show myself the progression of my artistic abilities and also show how we've changed since high school. Pictured from left to right is myself, Bones, Dero, and Big C.

These are some cardboard caricatures I did of friends from Legoland. It's experimental. I liked how they turned out and plan on exploring this more in the future.

Drawings from the Park

2008-06-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Check out the sweet anatomy on this bovine. As you can tell, I don't draw cows very often. Also, I thought it was funny how her hair clips look like devil horns. Didn't realize this till after the drawing was done, but oh well!

This guy was the coolest. Usually when I ask an adult if they'd like a caricature, they walk away or just laugh at the suggestion. But this guy wanted one and lately I've been dieing to draw anyone that's old enough to see a PG 13 movie (we draw a lot of kids at the land of Legos), so this was a real treat.

Memory Sketches

2008-05-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

I really miss Minnesota sometimes. Some people say they would go crazy if they ever lived in a small town and went to school in Bemidji. Part of that is true, but it's the people there that make it more than worth it. These are some memory sketches of my friends from back home.

New Furniture (and Artwork)!

2008-05-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

My boss from Legoland dropped off some couches for our apartment the other day. The guy who used to own them is a character designer for the new Transformers and Spider-Man cartoon shows so that made the furniture that much cooler. Check it out! Our living room is actually starting to look like... a living room!

Here's some new art from my classes this term. I'm focusing on portraits the most and my figure drawing class. I'm also enjoying reading about other artists like Alphonse Mucha and Norman Rockwell. All very inspirational. That's all for now.

"Who Wears Short Shorts?"

2008-04-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, It's official. My dignity has been totally compromised at Legoland. As if the striped shirt wasn't goofy looking enough, the employees alternative to pants are short shorts and red socks. I tried it for one day and have to admit, they're really comfortable. But with comfortibility comes lack of respect (from your coworkers and guests.)

Here's some caricatures from the park.

On a side note, the drawing classes at Studio 2nd Street are going well. It's weird. Lately all I'm interested in is drawing and getting better. Girls usually cross my mind during the day, but not often. I'm really focused with what I'm doing and love learning with my teachers.

Portrait Studies

2008-04-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

New photos from the land of Legos!

2008-03-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

Caricature booth.

Kid with Chicklet teeth.

Wall Sample. We hang samples of our work on the wall for people to see what our work looks like.

This gag was used on last summer's Mad Magazine Spider-Man cover.

Drawing kids gets tricky after a while. With adults, it's easier for me to see different shapes and features. Babies are challenging if you're going after exaggeration.

Legoland Caricatures

2008-03-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let people know what I've been up to since moving to California. That's what this blog is ment for. Hope ya'll digs!

Here's some caricatures from the park.

There's a lot of requests from kids who want to be Jedi's in their pictures. This one was funny to me because after the drawing was finished I realized it looks like he's grabbing himself... woops.

I'll post more park sketches after spring break.