AWESOME PARTY SQUAD

QUESTION: Do you like to party? If your answer is "Uh, yeah!", then please keep reading. If you feel like you don't get into a party like you used to, welcome to my world. In what seems like an other lifetime, I played guitar in a band called "Step on it!". In that band the drummer, Dan Hill, would talk of doing a band where he would sing. Fast forward one year after saying that, and Dan gave us Cross Examination.

SOME would say Cross Examination is the ULTIMATE party band, a band that features a cross over metal and hardcore sound. As much as this band parties, they also produce a sound that is all their own and very well written. On their debut album, my friend Dan Z and I were asked to contribute a collaborated effort.

DAN went to work on a illustration for the cover entitled "THE HUNG JURY" which you can see below. Dan is an insanely talented artist and it's always a pleasure and honor to work with him. This is the first of two projects we worked on together, the other being the Humanoid artwork.


FOR the inside of the booklet (and vinyl version) I wanted to set a scene of a court room with a party atmosphere. A thought that was hilarious and yet a lot of imagining hours. When prepping the art, I fist had to gather the elements. Dan supplied a six pack of ROCK N' ROLL beer. I set up a mock photo shoot in my kitchen, crushing the empty cans and setting them up in various positions.


ONCE that was finished, I shot multiple images of plastic bags that I used to create the evidence bags and for the "herb" that was actually kitten litter. I then pieced together a document and water mark for "official party documents". The piece it self took about 25 hours of photoshop work and 3 hours of photo shoot time. In the end this is one of my favorite projects and pieces that I've worked on.


above is the 7" version of the insert

HUNTING THE SASQUATCH

MY good friend & co-worker Jimothy Conway turned 49 today, and in honor of his birthday I created a envelope in his honor. Why an envelope? Every year for your birthday, the golden condor makes an envelope showing off something of interest in that's persons life. This year, condor made me an excellent "dark knight" theme that really knocked my socks off.


FOR conway's birthday I sketched up a Sasquatch character in full basketball gear. Mr. Conway seems to believe in his glory days he had a vertical of just over 2". I've seen the photo a million times, a young, leaner & meaner version soaring over another player to rip down a rebound. So in honor of his basketball roots, I felt it was appropriate. Below you will find various rounds of sketches and conception for the envelope.




Happy birthday my friend. 49 years young and still having fun.

COLLABORA-BATION

WOW, long time no update. Things have been rather hectic with non-art related projects so I apologize to my two readers for my MIA. That being said, not being able to work on projects that you truly want to work on really drains your creative mind. So when you get a chance to work on something, it really feels refreshing.

THE current project that I've been spending a healthy amount of time on is a collaboration with my neighbor MATT GRANT on some CD packaging artwork for COLD BEAR SCOUT's debut album "Say Hello to the Moon and the Sun". COLD BEAR SCOUT features Steve Colbert, who is a radical person outside of his horrible love for Kobe Bryant, on a majority of instruments. Please check it out, as it's worth your time.


ABOVE you'll see Matt's conception drawings for the front cover. I believe Matt sketched with pencil and outlined with sharpie. The thickness of the lines, contrasted with the multiple "thorns" shows just how much time went into each panel. Once more work is done to the album, I'll update the post. But for now, you can see the original drawing the conception for the full color front cover.


THE idea around the color pallet features a blue soft edge to cause softness to what I've dubbed "cloud puffs". The inner "antlers" features a brown-ish glow to add depth to the edges of the piece. The "thorns" feature a collection of colors found in a bag of Skittles. The entire piece lays on a off-white background to break up the solid white areas.

ALSO below feature two of my fav. people in the entire world. Enjoy!