Illustration 

Candace Parker and the WNBA - After painting more than 30 portraits of male basketball players over the last year or so, I thought it was about time I painted a portrait of a woman basketball player. Candace Parker is a member of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and a likely candidate for winner of both the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. I was intrigued by Parker's game and the interest she had brought to the WNBA.

A lot of people make a big deal of the fact that Parker can dunk and she has done so on a few occasions during games. I think that is less important than her all-around game which she has demonstrated in both college and in her rookie season.

Admittedly, I didn't really pay much attention to the WNBA until this year.

I had never been to a WNBA game before or even seen a full game on television before I decided to attend a game between the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks, the team that picked Parker with the number one pick in the 2008 Draft. While Parker didn't put up impressive numbers in that game I found the game extremely entertaining. The crowd was into the game from before the tip-off, ecstatically cheering the players when they were introduced and giving Parker the largest welcome of all. In an exciting game that came down to the final shot, the Liberty came away victorious, sending the crowd into pandemonium.

The WNBA gets a bad rap for supposed boring games with unexciting players, a slow pace and sloppy play (including other criticisms). If the game I saw at Madison Square Garden says anything about the league, it's anything but those things. I've watched a few games on TV since then and have come away impressed with many teams and players with jump shots as deadly accurate as a Kobe Bryant game-winner.

I think the league can only get better. With more and more marquee players like Parker in the WNBA more people are going to take notice. It's a different game than the NBA and it's on its way to developing its own identity and a larger fan base.

This piece is for sale as a Limited Edition Print in the shop. You can also see a larger version of this piece on the Portraiture page.

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:09:36 -0500

Pre-Wrapped Sandwiches - I love sandwiches, I think I've always been a sandwich lover. My dad always makes great peanut butter and jam sandwiches on white bread, and folds the slice of bread over to make a little mini sandwich.
When I was 13 my cousin taught me a different method on how to make a toasted peanut butter sandwich using an extra layer of margarine, making the peanut butter oilier and fattier. It was delicious!
And my mom always made me amazing sandwiches for my school lunches. She spoiled me with sandwiches on croissants, bagels, mini-pitas, and other lunches that made my friends drool. They were filled with sandwich meat, cheeses and lettuce, subway sandwich sauces and sprouts.

Seattle Weekly contacted me last week to do an illustration for a review of some pre-wrapped sandwiches in the Seattle area. I tend to stay away from eating pre-wrapped sandwiches if I can, but I have had some pretty decent ones from grocery stores or truck stops throughout my sandwich eating days.

I thought it would be interesting to base the illustration on a renaissance still life painting. I painted all the sandwiches normally and then added the plastic wrap after with white gouache.

This piece can be seen larger on the Portfolio page. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:29:34 -0500

Washington City Paper Cover - I painted a couple illustrations for this week's issue of the Washington City Paper, including the cover image above. It is a portrait of Homaira Rahman, a 25 year old from Virginia, who was murdered earlier this summer.
It's a very sad story and I wanted to do my best to paint her as respectfully as possible.

This illustration of a hospital room scene appeared alongside the story. If you're interested in reading the article, you can find it here.

You can also see these illustrations larger on the Portfolio page. Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:36:50 -0500

Helio Gracie Jiu-Jitsu - Helio Gracie is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend credited for creating a popular form of the sport, called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which utilized different techniques than other forms of Jiu-Jitsu.
I was asked by Rareview Interactive to put together an illustration of Helio Gracie for a website mock-up they were working on for the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

One of their mock-ups included a timeline with illustrations depicting the long, storied history of the martial art. Strangely enough, Helio Gracie is famous for a fight he lost in 1951. That is the fight I was asked to portray.His opponent, Masahiko Kimura, broke Helio's arm, choked him into unconsciousness and pretty much had his way with Helio Gracie. Despite losing, Helio was lauded for his toughness and for utilizing the new improvized techniques that he developed into a new discipline of Jiu-Jitsu.

You can see this piece larger on the Black and White page. Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:34:02 -0500

Las Vegas Weekly Illustrations - These three illustrations accompany an article in this week's Las Vegas Weekly about Fabrizio Boccardi, an ambitious Las Vegas businessman with plans to build a $3 billion casino called The Seven Sins and create a new gaming empire on the Vegas Strip.

The first step in his plan involved having a book written (titled The Seven Sins) about a fictitious character loosely based on Boccardi's life who is a tyrannical casino owner and mob boss.
The next step is to start a movie franchise on the forthcoming series of books and then build a casino to appeal to the fans of the movies.

I was asked to portray Boccardi in a couple fictional environments from his book. The first is his underwater office, enclosed in a sphere in a shark tank with monitors keeping tabs on his enemies.

The second environment is one where he is fawned over by a gorgeous Vegas showgirl and protected by his hulking bodyguard, Alexander. Two cheetahs rest at their feet, ready to tear the flesh off anyone who dares to trespass onto his property.



This assignment was a lot of fun. I'm always up for painting sharks and cheetahs and Las Vegas businessmen.
You can also see these images on the Portfolio page, or read the article here. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:54:21 -0500

Coney Island Cyclones - I went to a Coney Island Cyclones game last night at Key Span Park and brought along my sketchbook. It's a really nice park that sits off the boardwalk with the Parachute Jump towering overhead.
I've wanted to draw the Parachute Jump for a long time and now that I have I'm glad it's out of the way. That thing is really complicated, there are so many beams and posts and angles and things that it took me four innings to get it finished!
The Parachute Jump was built for the World's Fair in Queen's, New York, in 1939. It moved to Coney Island in 1941 as an addition to Steeplechase Park, a huge amusement park that closed in 1964 after being in operation since 1897.
Riders would be lifted to the top of the tower in a harness and dropped into a free-fall that lasted about 20 seconds.

Baseball games are great to sketch at because the outfielders pretty much just stand there posing for you. The umpires and catchers all keep pretty still, too.
The biggest problem I found with sketching at the game was that I found I was making myself vulnerable to being hit by foul balls. At least a dozen times I looked up from my sketchbook when the crowd around me started cheering in anticipation of catching a foul ball.
The Cyclones won 1-0, beating the Lowell Spinners.

You can click on the image to see a larger version. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:21:46 -0500