SF Bazaar

This past weekend Yuki Yamagata and I were at the SF Bazaar selling some of our goods and art. It was both fun and educational and I met some other great artists in the process. 

Here are a few photos from the event.

This was a beautiful sight

Measure up!

I'll be at the SF Bazaar this weekend with the very talented artist, Yuki Yamagata. We'll be selling art prints, books, postcards and other things, like this wall measuring poster full of woodland critters. This isn't the finished version but if you want to get your hands on one, stop by the Concourse Exhibition center, East Hall. Come by and say hello!

A Christmas card

Here is one of the Christmas cards I'm making for the holiday season and also the SF Bazaar Im participating in this coming weekend. I'll have some other cards as well which will be available this Saturday.

Hug-bot!

Here's another character I did for Weaver, the Hug-bot. It's powered by Uranium and has a penchant for squeezing everybody it comes across. Who's ready for a hug?

Last day of November

Welllll, my postings have been sparse and erratic the past few weeks but I wanted to post something before the month ends. Here is a turkey I did for Weaver Labs for the thanksgiving holiday. Gobble gobble.

Sketches

Haven't posted in what feels like weeks so I did some sketching earlier and had to post something tonight.

3-eyed crow and ladybug

Not really sure why the crow has 3 eyes or the significance of the ladybug but I felt like drawing a bird and a bug and I did just that.

Monster boy

The other night, I was going into a restaurant as a little boy was coming out wearing a hoodie like the one in the pic, with ears and teeth. As the kid was coming out of the door, he stopped and looked up at me. I told him that he had on an awesome hoodie and he just gave me a huge grin. For some reason I imagined that the kid thought he was a monster when he had the hoodie on. At least that's what I would think if I had that hoodie.

In Memoriam: Sox the cat, 1993-2013

Sadly, my cat Sox has moved on to kitty heaven. She was twenty. Yes, twenty. Cause of death, motorcycle accident. No but she was old and had a realllly good run for a cat and I will miss her dearly. Never again will I find a cat that will perch on my shoulder like a parrot.

Can I have one yet?

Nothing better than fresh baked cookies right out of the oven. And I mean RIGHT out of the oven.

Scooby-Doo Villain countdown - #1: The Specter!

It's that old geezer, Ebenezer!

Yes! And coming in at number one is the Specter, Ebenezer Crabbe. I know what you're thinking, he looks like a Dracula but I assure you he is not but just as terrifying. Ebenezer haunts a construction site that is building on the land where his old home once stood. Now he hangs around scaring off all the other workers besides Jim Rivets, Red Sparks and Fred, Shaggy and Scooby. Clearly they were desperate for workers when they gave a dog a rivet gun.

In the end it turns out that it was Red Sparks as the Specter and  Jim Rivets dressing up as his great great great granddaughter, Netty Crabbe. These two were delaying the construction of the building so they could rob local businesses by watching the owners dial into their safes and copy the combo.

It seems to me that just about every villain has a good case to plead insanity during their trial. Most of these people just hang out in abandoned warehouses, castles, closed down amusement parks, in full costume, mind you, just waiting for somebody to scare off. That isn't normal behavior. 

Scooby-Doo countdown - #2: The Alien

Slithering its way to the #2 spot is the creepoid Alien from "Close Encounters of the Scooby Kind"

Another villain that had a big impact on my loving Scooby Doo from a young age. This freaky UFO-er creeped me out of my pj's as a youngster with its eerie voice and big ol' eyes and running around threatening to take Shaggy and Scooby to Planet X.

Fortunately I wasn't to-to traumatized when the gang pulled the mask off and revealed the alien to be Tessie, some kind of female trucker.

Scooby-Doo Villain countdown - # 3: 10,000 Volt Ghost

And the electrifying 10,000 Volt Ghost charges his way into the number 3 spot for my Scooby-Doo villain countdown. The 10kVG has always been a favorite of mine basically because he a ghost made of electricity and has eyebrows.

Being unmasked as a supposedly dead electrician in a scuba suit, the 10kVG and Mayor Dudley were trying to scare people off so they could buy up property on the cheap.

And this one was kind of a gimme, the bad dude's name is VOLTNER... c'mon son...

Plus his appearance in Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed was one of the movies only redeeming qualities. (...curse you Alicia Silverstone)

Scooby-Doo Villain countdown: #4 - Jaguaro

And lumbering in at the # 4 spot is the ridiculous yet terrifying Jaguaro, aka Barney the pilot.

Now this guy has been stuck in my head for years because of how ridiculous he is. With the head of a jaguar and the body of a gorilla, this 7-foot tall statue-come-to-life gets his kicks chasing around the gang and members of a village in the Brazilian jungle.

He just beats out The Headless Horseman just because of the ridiculousness.

Scooby-Doo villain countdown # 5: The Headless Horseman

Well its five days until Halloween and I haven't done anything too Halloweeny this month. Seeing as how Scooby-Doo is one of my all time favorite shows(with the exception of What's New Scooby-Doo) I thought I'd do my Top 5 villain countdown.

Let's start with #5 - Elwood Crane aka The Headless Horseman.

This episode is one of my earliest memories of the show and is a corner stone as to my loving the show since childhood. Even though ol' Elwood tried to steal the family diamond and made the odd choice to use his own face for a disguise, he was a pretty crazy looking Horseman and landed at the # 5 spot. Plus this episode features Scooby-Dum (Scooby's cousin) and he always makes the show 14% better.

Barracuda

A couple of guys go out fishing to hook some barracuda and get a little more than they bargained for.

duck...duck...DUCK!

I was this kid in my younger days, always chasing around ducks and squirrels in the park. Of course I stopped once a mother goose came after me while protecting her hatchlings. Terrifying.

Mascot man

Ooohh man...it feels like its been forever since I've posted anything. October has been a busy October, hopefully I can get back on a daily routine with posting stuff. Anyways, here's a couple sketches I had in the ol sketchbook.

Ink-tober sketch

Getting in to the spirit of ink-tober. Here's a kid who sees something strange in the lake.

Chalk-tober

Doesn't "Chalk-tober" sound better than ink-tober? I donno, maybe it's just me. Here's a whale drawn in chalk.

werewolf

Haven't painted with actual paint for awhile so I thought I'd pump one out tonight. I was sketching monsters earlier and decided to paint a werewolf. This being the spooky season and all.

Crab rock

I started out tonight drawing some dogs hanging their heads out of a car window and this is where I landed...weird turn. But these sea-life drawings are always fun and quick for the daily sketch.

Here's a little crab on a rock.

Raccoons everywhere

In the past week, I've seen four raccoons while waiting at the bus stop. They're big as corgis and they aren't shy either, they got within about two feet of me just scrounging for something to eat. And they were bandit masks, which makes them extra awesome. I actually got some pics of a few tonight and I'll add them to this post once I edit them a bit.

SCBWI conference

Today was the annual Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators day at Fort Mason. It was a great event with a number of wonderful speakers and fellow artists. There were a few panels of speakers including illustrator Melissa Sweet: http://melissasweet.net/. She has illustrated a number of books including, "Little Red Writing", "Balloons Over Broadway" and "A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin" to name a few of her more recent titles. She is a brilliant artist and an extremely sweet(heh) woman with great insights.

The other speakers were Melissa Manlove and Kritstine Brogno from Chronicle Books and Isabel Warren-Lynch, art director at Random House.

All the panels were informative and very interesting. And it was great seeing all the other artists' work displayed in the portfolio room.

A number of my friends from the Academy were in attendence:
Angela Dominguez: www.andillustrations.com
Hsiao-chi(Alice) Chang: http://verysillyalice.blogspot.com/
Ana Aranda: www.anaranda.canalblog.com
Alex Lee: http://alexleeillustration.blogspot.com/
Sunny Joung Sun Choi: www.sunnyjchoi.com
Isabella Kung: www.isabellakung.com
Summer K. Jeun: http://www.keumjeun.blogspot.com/
Shih-Fen Lin: http://shihfenlin.daportfolio.com/
Alexandria Gold:

And as an added bonus I got to meet the amazingly talented Alina Chau, who was extremely sweet and very pleasant to speak with.
http://alinanimation.blogspot.com/

Please visit at all my friends sites, they all are talented artists and great people. I would post some of their images but I'd rather send you to their sites so you can see all of their work. Plus I don't want to get sued or anything by Melissa Sweet, Alina Chau or any of my friends.

Hummingbird

Another bird. I know, getting boring, but a friend recently pointed out that I don't have very many bird images in any of my portfolios. And with a name like "jordylikesbirds" you'd think I'd have a ton. So Im just trying to pad the bird inventory a bit.

Bandit bird

Another bird tonight, there are just so dern many to choose from and they're all so pretty. And this one wears a little bandit mask.

 The only irritating thing about finding pictures online is that the majority of people who post photos of birds don't bother to include the name of said bird. Which is often saddening because I want to find more info on the bird. 

blue birdy

I found this pretty little blue bird whilst perusing the internet machine today and I had to draw it. Nothing exciting but Im slowly getting back into the daily drawing thing and these are fun little sketches.

And we're back...

Sooo...how've you been? You look well. Things are finally slowing down a bit so I can hopefully get back on my regular schedule within the next couple days. I'll be attending the SCBWI conference at Fort Mason, Saturday where I'll be showered with offers from every major publishing house. Not really, but I will checking people in and drinking lots of free coffee.

But anyways, here's one of the images I've done over the past couple weeks. It's from a story I've been developing called "Dig".

Otter

Well I seem to be on a water/animal kick so I think I'm going to stick with it for a bit. These are fun, quick and fun again. Tonight I did an otter. They float on their backs, cuddle with each other and use their bellies as plates. A-dorbs!

Shark

Another fun one tonight, a happy wittle shark. Gotta do something other than my book projects just to keep things fresh and unmuddled in my dome.

quick bird

Another quick one tonight. Worked most the day on my other projects and then had work work. So when I got home, I just spaced, found a pretty bird and painted a quick sketch.

lil' Drac

Quickie tonight, I drew a lil' Dracula, ain't he cuuute??

Anyhoo, posts are gonna be sparse for the next few weeks, lotta things going down that I have to get ready for. I'll try and squeeze something in every few days or so.

Hitching a ride

No, not the Green Day song, just a little fiddler crab bumming a ride to the beach on the back of a good buddy.

Blimp balloon

I'm not sure if I had seen something similar to this or if I just happen to think of it...maybe in the old arcade game "Rampage"...you know the one with the monsters destroying cities and getting points for it? I digress. But I think the idea of a monster holding a blimp as if it were a balloon is kinda funny. Of course I might be alone on this.

Chain of eating

This sort of image has been done again and again by so many artists. I wanted to join those ranks...so I did one.

Princess and the pterodactyl

I rarely ever draw anything princess related, maybe only once before come to think of it. But, I need to keep broadening my horizons so I must dabble in drawing things that Im not accustomed to drawing. And I didn't make this entirely girly, I added a pterodactyl.

Hawaiian pizza sketch

We got home from the studio today and decided to make a hawaiian pizza and it was an awesome, awesome idea. Adding pineapple to anything automatically makes that dish 47% better. Sadly after such a pleasing dinner, I was only able to muster a sketch. Maybe I'll color it one of these nights.

Happy 79th, gramma

Today my grandma turns 79, and I want to wish her a happy birthday. I wasn't able to see her because she lives in Ohio but I hope she had a great birthday and here's the next fifty.

Whale of a time

I enjoy sea life almost as much as I like birds, maybe its even a tie. The ocean is so fascinating and vast, filled with so many different kinds of life and we're still discovering new species every day. Tonight I drew a whale, the largest mammal on the planet. So big yet so gentle, they just get a bad rap because of that Moby Dick chappy.

Allergies

Sorry I didn't post anything last night and was only able to muster this quickie tonight, but I got hit with a bad allergy attack and now my eye, nose and ears are betraying me. I'll be over it soon enough and back to making "quality" art, just gotta get the good drugs.

Bull

Cows are fun animals, they are big, funny, slow moving and are adorable. This one looks more on the angry side but he's a big ol' softy. I'm not sure what made me draw a bull tonight but I did it and I won't apologize.

Nessie

I'm a big fan of urban legends and all the lore behind things like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo and the rest. Who's to say if they're out there or not. Sure scientists keep compiling all this "evidence" but there have been enough "sightings" to have an argument, good or not. I donno, I think its fun to have an open mind and imagine that these creatures do exist. Plus I'm pretty sure "Harry and the Hendersons" was a documentary.

Anyways, I like the unknown and I done drew Nessie.

Wake up call

As a kid I was never really an early riser and wasn't one to wake up my parents. Mostly because my mom wakes up at like 5am or something ridiculous like that. But I always find parents stories of the different ways their kids wake them pretty amusing. This is just something I thought would be fun to do to a parent.

Pig in a pen

I've been slacking off the last couple days, other things just piled up and I couldn't concentrate long enough to flush out a complete thought. So for tonight I went back to basics and just did a quick drawing of a piggy in the mud.

Husky pup

The husky is one of my favorite dogs. As a matter of fact, growing up, we had two huskies, both named Shadow(I & II). They were just lovely dogs, every time they got loose they would take us on a wild goose chase around our property toying with us as we tried to catch them. Tons of fun. But I do miss them and I hope to own another one in the future.