My friend Ana’s a very well-dressed lady who happens to also run a very inspiring fashion blog that makes me wish I could afford a lot more studs.

Since I can’t own her excellent wardrobe (and nor could I wear it as well as she does) I thought I might draw it!

For Ana:

Between the state of my wrists, some family things and the fact that it’s summer, I haven’t been making a whole lot of new art recently. Or rather, what I am working on I am working on so slowly it doesn’t show up on the internet.

So here’s a retrospective of things I have done. This ain’t fine art, this is what I drew when I had free time in highschool and university, and this is the person that wants to draw things for videogames.

Here, let’s start with a few randoms – most of these drawings were cached in story ideas for comics or videogames or novels, but things don’t often go where you want them to, and then eight years later all you have is adorable and amusing drawings to remind you of the good old days.

I’ve done my fair share of fanart, as well:

Now for the high-concept original stuff! These demons were designed, I think, mostly for the helluvit.

These three are for an epic fantasy story I was working on. There was lots of sexy betrayal and sad landscapes and gore involved.

These are a few quick concepts for a story I had written to take place in a farmhouse. I had never, at this point, been inside a farmhouse except at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

These are raven demon designs for a story set in Quebec in the late 17th century.

These are some more artsy things I worked on in the first few years of university that I think are still kind of hilarious/awesome.

Anyways, hopefully that’s hilarious and interesting for you, too, internet! I know I was pretty amused, digging through to find all this.

So I was thinking: I’ve never been one to get very good at using photoshop textures, perhaps because there isn’t normally a lot of texture in my work in the first place. So, I’ve been doing these ballpoint pen drawings, which are, well, textureful! Textured. Heavily textured, some of them. And I’m debating playing with some of those textures in photoshop. Thoughts? Tips? Tricks?

Stay tuned for results, me hearties.

This is a double bass illustration I did for my friend’s upcoming jazz release. I am very, very excited to see it all in print – I had a lot of fun doing black and white layouts for him! Also, the music is fantastic. When I finish the website you can be sure I will link him.

Here is an in-progress photoshop exercise in colour theory and my own face. I can’t understand how artists would recreationally do self-portraits all the time, a couple hours of this and I’m feeling an awkward tension between narcissism and self-deprecation.

That painting I said was drying? Well it’s still drying. Cursing at it didn’t seem to speed up the process in the slightest.

I’ve been picking up a few new projects to keep me moving until spring. I’ll be having a few pieces up in a bar this June, and so I’m starting to brainstorm for that, and I’m also going to try to put together a monthly zine. I have until a week Tuesday to finish and print my first issue, and this is as much as I’ve done so far. I suspect I will be up late a few nights this week.

Not to sound like a highschooler, but I’ve decided to simply make zines to accompany songs. This one’s being drawn to Matt Pond PA’s “Fairlee” from The Nature of Maps. I’m open to future song suggestions, but I can’t promise anything – I have yet to prove to myself that I can finish a single one! But rest assured I will. And then I will sell it to you.

Fairlee (in progress)

Digital painting, 2008

The Triplets
Photoshopped graphite drawing
2008

Photoshopped from the original drawing, here.

This is also available as a 9″ x 12″ print on gloss coated Cornwall stock. Very nice stuff, trust me, I work with it daily. Drop me a line if you’re interested! You can purchase it at my Etsy shop.

Sometimes photoshop and I have sweet little quickies in behind the fancy brush settings…

Photoshop and a tablet.

Valkyrie

Pin-up for the band Detsorgsekalf, digital illustration from ink drawing

2005

This was for their concept album, Apocalyptic Blasphemed Battle Anthems, which details an epic, tr00 and grimm battle against Norway. Because someone there sent them hate mail. Yes, a whole album over a single letter. Black metal is a truly passionate genre.

You can purchase a gloss-coated print of this at my Etsy shop.

The Swordsman

Digital illustration, 36″ x 48″

2004

This was a test image for laying a vinyl-cut illustration over a printed poster. It looked pretty sweet, but man, was it ever a bitch to register.

This is available as a gloss-coated print in my Etsy shop.