The Advent Storybook -- Coming soon to Kickstarter!

Introducing The Advent Storybook, a new project coming soon to Kickstarter​!

The Advent Storybook is a beautifully illustrated children's book with 25 daily readings for the month of December. The book traces, throughout history, God’s recurring promise to send our Rescuer. Families can have an opportunity to connect each day and reflect on what matters most during the Christmas season.

The book is written by Laura Richie​ and she is planning to have me illustrate it--but first, she will be launching a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to make it all possible.

If you'd like to pre-order one or more copies of the book (releasing Fall 2018), or otherwise support the project in some way, please check out the Kickstarter campaign in about two weeks! You can learn more about the Kickstarter compaign on the author's blog.

Here's a preview of my illustrations for the book:

British Animal Portraits at Hot Red Bus

Made these cheeky British animal portraits for the newly remodeled Hot Red Bus restaurant, home of Los Angeles' best British-style fish & chips (LA Weekly) and some awesome British-Indian dishes.

Prints & throw pillows featuring these weird animal characters are available in my shop.

See some more behind-the-scenes images at on Behance.

Authority Matters

This image was made for a Christian teaching series that explores the Bible's approach to being a leader and/or a follower. Authorities are present in every sphere of life--families, workplaces, churches, and government. Our goal was to approach this potentially volatile subject from a more human angle, emphasizing the relationships rather than abstract concepts.

We tend to view authority as an impersonal force that blocks us from doing what we want, or forces us to do what we don't want. The client's emphasis was that authorities are meant to accomplish God's purposes in a way that allows human relationships to flourish.

This illustration would be the audience's first point of contact with the subject matter and provided a key opportunity to communicate the emphasis of the series and reframe the discussion from a relational point-of-view.

See some of the church design layouts using this image.

See more of my conceptual illustrations for churches and ministries.

The Remarkably Sage Frogbeast

Really happy how this latest digital painting came out. It has been a while since I've done one (not for a client) that I took all the way to finished detail. 

During a portfolio review with the venerable Chris Oatley I got some good feedback that I have a bunch of sketches I could take to the next level with a more finished look. This is the first fruits of following through on that advice. 

It's amazing how many more areas of improvement your eye begins to notice as you continue on with the work. Things that looked reasonably okay as a sketch don't hold up when the work gets more refined. In this particular case, the character evolved as well - the act of painting was part of the discovery. Really encouraging process, hoping to do more!

Live Painting at Alhambra's First Friday #2

Another live painting in Downtown Alhambra, the theme for April was "Film" so I made this mashup of genre imagery from films. Most of it is not directly referenced from a specific film, but meant to be wacky and fun and capture the overall spirit of the movies.

I feel like my proficiency with this painting style is really coming together.  Just a little bit of preliminary sketching and research was needed this time (though I'm sure more would have helped if I had the time). Of course, I've been researching dinosaurs for about 30 years so I'm sure that helps too :)

Live Painting at Alhambra's First Friday #1

It was madness at the kickoff First Friday event for the city of Alhambra. The monthly events this year will each have a theme, so for March's "Madness" theme I did my take on the Mad Hatter's tea party from Alice in Wonderland.

First Fridays will continue on April 5, the next theme is "Film". Find out more at Downtown Alhambra Events.

Following

"If anyone would come after me..."

Illustration for a teaching series called "Following," about how Jesus Christ calls his disciples to carry the cross and follow him. 

I really enjoyed studying how light and shadow behave when the sun is at a low angle. Generally I'm learning more and more the importance of really studying and gaining enough reference material at the beginning to enable a successful painting. Initially I was intimidated by having to fill so much space with nondescript abstract shapes like dirt and grass, but with enough reference study, eventually my mind was able to understand more how those objects work, so I could be thoughtful in inventing them for this image.

Painting all the dirt and grass was also a great opportunity to get practice with Photoshop's "scatter" brush tools. Special thanks to Chris Oatley for his great scatter brush tutorial.

This image is available for purchase as a high quality art print at Society6.com.

This cross image as well as several other sermon illustration images are available for licensing by churches, ministries, and Christian publishers.  Contact me if you'd like more info.

Happy Christmas!!

 "God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power 
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy"

Happy Christmas!!

Live Painting the Art Walk #4

Just wrapped up the summer season of the Alhambra Art Walk with my fourth live painting demo.  It was a great time and I'll look forward to coming back in the fall.  Last week's event was a little longer, and I stuck to black and white, so the painting came pretty far along.

You can see more photos on Facebook

Alhambra Art Walk

Had a great time participating in the first ever Alhambra Art Walk! Thanks so much to the organizers and to those who came to say hi!

I had some past work on display, but primarily was doing a live painting performance. It was envigorating to do a large painting in the midst of a large crowd, live music, and festive atmosphere. 

Painting live is also a good creative exercise, it forces me to take risks, acting quickly and decisively... can't get too attached to the final product.  Overall I was pleasantly surprised with how the painting was coming along. I didn't finish, but I may use the painting as a practice-run for a more finished picture later.

The Alhambra Art Walk will continue every first Friday throughout the summer. Not sure how often I'll participate, but I'm looking forward to see how the event evolves!

Alhambra Art Walk - May 4

Art Walk summer series launching this Friday in Downtown Alhambra! I'll be doing a live painting there and I'm sure Nucleus Gallery will have an awesome presence, as well as my friends at Alhambra Source, and many others. It's free from 5-8pm so feel free to swing by!

Live Painting

I had the opportunity to do a live painting performance during our church service a couple weeks ago. I was painting for the full hour, and about 3/4 through shared a brief testimony (experiential story of faith) about a struggle that inspired the painting. It was interesting to try the same painting twice, during two 1 hour services. I actually received some really great feedback from some members of the congregation after the first service, and was able to immediately implement their suggestions during second service, resulting in a much more successful painting (in my opinion).

My friend John Martin was kind enough to take this photo, and my friend Brad Rozman made this awesome timelapse video too! I guess everyone gets a turn on YouTube.