How Are You Feeling Today?

A friend asked me about creating a mood poster like what was popular in the 90's for a friend of hers and I was thrilled to do so. Thus, the robot poster was created. Then, Sailor Moon shortly followed. She's so expressive that I just had to. The whole point of these posters is that yes, they're a throwback, but they're also to get us talking about our feelings and emotions and putting a label to how we are feeling. I'm selling both of these posters on my etsy if you're interested. I offer 8x10 and 11x14. Click HERE to go straight to the shop!

Robot Party Sticker Pack.

I'm jumping into the sticker game! This has been long overdue and I am happy to kick it off with with the Robot Party Pack inspired by the rainbow (ROY G BIV) and here to make your acquaintance! You can get them on my etsy or send me an email and I can take care of you! Plenty more stickers coming your way! I told Matt if I sell at least one of each set, I will be happy as a clam. We'll see what happens!

Lil Robot Cards!

It's been awhile, but I am still here. I am alive. I am still making art! Matt Benyo and I just wrapped up some work and I whipped up these little thank you cards to show our generosity. You know I love me some robots. So, I made each robot with their own little piece of the person's personality that it would be delivered to. I used microns and then I watercolored it to look like a print. Click to enlarge!

Venetian Masks.

I spent this week showing kids how to make Venetian style masks which is why I haven't updated since Wednesday. My apologies, but keep an eye on my blog. I have lots of fun facts and other neat things to post. Here are the masks:Here is a picture of me with my favorite, Elliot! He was joined by his sassy sister, Amelia. They're a great little family. I helped Elliot work on this neat little robot project on the side. He did such an amazing job. This is why I like kids; they inspire me.

Mr. Roboto!

I made a robot cut out along with the kids. I chose SPACE BOT! I haven't done a cut out in a long time anyway so this is overdue. While I was helping Ethan, Oscar added the gold asteroid under the Robot's arm. I didn't realize it for a good half hour though. The silver paper was SO HARD to cut. I hated it. Under the little red door is the fuel gauge and heart and the glasses are for safety purposes only.

Mr. Roboto.

I've been drawing a bunch of random robots lately. This is a good thing.

James Bot.

Two posts today! I made this robot for James. James is one of the kids and it was his birthday yesterday. He's great; very helpful and intelligent! I worked extra hard to make this robot for him. I asked him what kind of robot he wanted and he said he wanted it to have propellers, glasses, a balloon, and he chose the colors.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

I was born 23 years ago today at 1:34 am. If I had money, I would buy myself the schwinn bike I've had my eye on, polaroid film, and probably a pizza. I don't really enjoy getting old, but I love counting down to my birthday AND birthday cards. I've been saving my birthday cards since I was like 6; no joke. Well, it's here and I am looking forward to all the birthday wishes and I'm looking forward to everyone being nice to me. So far, the family has THE WORST ATTITUDES EVER. I hope my friends don't. Leave me something nice to read! Here's an updated version of my previous illustrator portrait. Party on? I will! Happy birthday, to me. Thanks everyone!

Metal Marvels.

I have a collection of metal wind up robots that I love. I can't wait until I'm like, 30, and I can put them on a shelf in a house. So, I tried to paint ROBOT LILLIPUT again and this time it turned out a little better than the previous attempts, but not by much. I will keep doing it until it looks the way I want it to, but I'm making progress. I used gouache. I just got home from Leo's Coney Island with Shelby & Chris Boonenberg. We stayed for way too many hours and in that time span saw 1/3 of Downriver. Today was a bad first day of Spring. It was gloomy, cold, and it rained. Sweet. Not.

Space Bots.

I drew these robots at Ram's Horn the other night. One of my new friends, Angel, let me use her gel pens. Unfortunately, you can't see the gelly, glittery, shiny goodness that's on the paper because the scanner doesn't translate those things well.I watched this documentary called The Yes Men Fix The World. It was witty, funny, and informative. The Yes Men are culture jammers. Culture jammers are activists that disrupt mainstream cultural institutions and/or corporate advertisers (wiki).

Emotion Day/Big News!

Today isn't actually Emotion Day. I went through quite the range of emotions today though; blah, meh, frustration, apathy, bliss, miz, empathy, and excitement. It's actually kind of mind boggling to think about how many emotions we go through a day. In lieu of the aforementioned, I spent the day getting in touch with my "emotional side" and I did this abstract doodle. Sometimes, not actually drawing something is a good way to go about doing things. It was a nice change of pace to say the least.This is where the EXCITEMENT part of the day comes in. Friend and peer, Gary Bedard, sent me an email telling me about a Robots Show on the popular website Drawger. Drawger is a blog site for illustrators, by illustrators, and it's invite only. Some of the biggest names in illustration today have blogs on there (including former professor and friend, Don Kilpatrick) and Drawger holds shows on the site. The person that administers the show approves, or denies, the work submitted. I am SUPER INSANELY PUMPED to inform everyone that TWO of my robot pieces were selected for the show!! djksfls;df;!!! They are old pieces [which reminds me that I need to do some current robot pieces stat], but you can view them HERE and HERE! I provided fun descriptions for the pieces. This is a really great start to 2010. Honestly, thank you so much for informing me, Gary!

Inspirational Overload.

I've been looking around on the web at a variety of sites to get INSPIRED. I hope that they inspire you as they have me. The first set of images comes from the website "Don't Fuck With Robots". My friend Meredith showed it to me. Robots are fun to look at. Unfortunately, the artists responsible for the imagery aren't properly credited so I don't know who did them. Click on images to make them bigger!My friend Sarah stumbled upon this guy, Brock Davis, and his website from 2009. His goal was to make something cool everyday in 2009. The stuff he came up with was AWESOME. The titles are especially witty and clever. It's neat to see how he utilized the spaces around him to create really cool things and the way he combines graphic elements to make his art. A few of my favorites are: fencing, working late, xylophone, and arcade expressionism (my personal favorite).And last, but certainly not least, Meredith (formerly mentioned), posted about this really cool site called Well Medicated. There's a lot of inspirational things on there such as "50 Amazing Gig Posters Sure to Inspire". No sneak peaks on that one! Just head to the website and check it out (though I will say the Vampire Weekend poster near the end is my all time fave; not ONLY because NOSFERATU is in it). In order to make art, one must be inspired by the world around them.

R08075 (or robots).

I really didn't think I would ever be able to draw another group of robots ever again because I tried, trust me I TRIED, but it happened again; this excites me. So here's a crew of robots that I created on this special 3D paper. It requires special 3D glasses, but I mean, it just looks 2D without the 3D glasses so if you have 3D glasses, it's like a little something extra. Which robot is YOUR favorite?! P.S. I am a mere SEVEN DAYS from having posted everyday for a solid month!!

Success!

I don't know what (much) success smells like yet, but it smelled really great when it came in the mail today in the form of my robots design printed in a metallic silver on a black shirt! Word on the street is you can pick one up from a CCS info session. I should go and get seven and just wear this shirt everyday because it's awesome:Also, here is a quick sketch I did of some people at a starbucks.This is kind of a lazy post, but I need a break. Also, it's the one week anniversary of my continuous blog posts. I feel really accomplished, but it's also kind of stressful trying to keep up with the blog. It's a race against time to churn work out, but it's good. So keep your eyes peeled for wild things, halloween something or another, THE JONAS BROTHERS, creatures, Larry David, and more.

Robots Revisited.

I am revisiting the robots. What can I say, I love them. I reprinted them and wanted a silkscreened look and, most importantly, I wanted color. The color is done using watercolor. So, I'm done with this set. I'll have to draw a new set over break.This past Saturday was Noel Night here in Detroit and it's one of the most festive nights EVER. Anyway, my good friend Chris Houghton was doing caricatures and he offered to do one of me, for me! What a treat. He did a fantastic job and I gave him the liberty to give me a really red nose (in reference to Joe Sorren or the Puffs commercials; depending on how you look at it).I'm really starting to notice how small the network is around these parts. Mike and Vince were talking about filling a sketchbook over break and Vince told me about it and I told Chris. As for the challenge, I might just try to fill a sketchbook over break. It would take me so much work to do it, but I think it'd be worth it. I am also going to be doing one piece of art a day and posting it to my blog over break (like Chris Houghton's Dailies).

In 4 days I will be comatose for about 3 days.
Then I will wake up and do some work.

My Relationship With Wall-E.

I can barely put into words the awe I experienced when I saw Pixar's Wall-E. There was nothing more adorable than this little robot and the fact that he exhibited so much emotion. The movie itself was fantastic (including the 20 minutes without dialogue and only sound effects) and I got to see it on someone else's dime. I suggest everyone see this movie. It has my heart. Beware, it's a tear-jerker

Logo.

I did this logo for BBC kids in our Image Making 2 class. Considering I had 2 hours to start it and finish it, I'm pretty pleased with the end result. Originally my colors were purple with orange lettering, but I changed them for some reason.