'Ripe For Emancipation' Book Cover

Here's a book cover I did for Mariner Media Publishing. The Book is entitled 'Ripe for Emancipation', dealing with the conditions of the Rockbridge County area of Virginia, an how those conditions called for the time of freedom.

Hey guys, sorry for the wait this year, been doing a lot of experimenting and studies in my most recent sketchbook, which is one of those cheap "learn how-to-write" notebooks kids use in gradeschool (felt it would bring out the fun for me). I fished through all my scribbles, notes and hoopla and decided to post these few. I'm calling this sketchbook my "playbook" because I have some exciting ideas to pop off in the next few months, one particular project that will be showing up in May, which should be a treat, for everyone in RVA especially ;) More details to come. Hope you enjoy and I'll have more for you soon!

Sketches plus The RVAnthology presents 'Rooftops'

For the past couple months I've been envolved with a group of friends here in Richmond called The RVAnthology (Richmond, VA). It's been an idea that has been brewing in the art community here for a while, but with the talent and work ethic of Eric Scott Pfieffer, Richie Pope, Julia Scott, and Nate Nelson, we finally made it happen. It's a collection of short stories we all came up with based around the city we've all come to love. Here's our mission statement:

To inspire other young artists to create their own future, to collaborate and work towards achieving even their most seemingly impossible goals.

We have a gallery opening on December 10 at the Whitley Gallery, here in Richmond. The images are from my story, 'Rooftops'. If you can make it, it'll be great to see you!!! As soon as we have information on ordering the books, I will post the information, but as of now, we have a first printing of 200 that is looking to sell out locally.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Scraps

For the past few months, I got my hands on some of those old school composition books with the marble cover. Surprisingly they were available in an unlined format, so I've been filling them up with really quick observational sketches, thumbnails, writings and so forth. "Not much different from a normal sketchbook," you may add, but there's something about drawing in something that closely resembles computer paper, the same stuff that I drew on while my Dad cleaned up at his job when I was little. There's some freedom in drawing in it, and a breathe of fresh air from the delicious yet expensive moleskins. Anyway, it is a chance to loosen up and get the ideas down for me. Initially, I wasn't going to post any of these, but some friends convince me to post these, to if anything give a peek of my process.

Along with this post is my poster advertising the Richmond Anthology, which I am a part of. The show will be held December 10. It has been a great opportunity and an exciting ordeal to get a story on paper that has been on my mind for a while. I'll be hitting the blog up with more soon, but for now, back to work. Enjoy -

Another Batch -

Tangerines

I was given one of those square, orange Flexi-Sketch books, and have been starting to fill it up with portraits. It's cool testing how far you can push paper if it's not a moleskine.

Son House

Here's a wallpaper for those who'd like one to kick things off again. I've been experimenting with some new materials, testing some new waters, and been having alot of fun. Mark English once said that the reason artists get frustrated with their art or feel like they hit walls is because they're not learning, not trying new things. Truer words never spoken.

The image above is of one of my favorite blues artists, Son House. I had a great Uncle who played a harmonica when I was 5, and I always was captivated on how he moved and felt the music he played. It's one of those memories I appreciate now that I'm older. I know Blues is a subject matter that many illustrators are drawn too, and it's easy to see why. Aside from our art heroes' influence, it also is a extremly admirable trait to channel such raw emotion and energy, and create something honest, dirty, and true such as many true blues musicians do. Here's one of my favorites, accompanied by the awesome cover by the Stripes -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jN5vqEyV7g - Son House version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fM2qhG8mA4&feature=related - White Stripes Cover

Keep checking by for new updates. Take care and God Bless -