'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 -

Become a Fan on Facebook

I started a fan page on Facebook, where I can show a good amount of pictures that might not all make it on here. I believe this is the link, let me know if it works -

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Visions/148129305216811?ref=ts

See you there and thanks for viewing again.

The Return Part 3

The Return Cont.

The Return

”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge

So if you haven't forgotten how to get here or have decided to give this blog a try, thanks to you both, it has been long overdue for a reasonable update. I'm posting a few pages from the past few sketchbooks I've finished up over the past few months, and a special portrait of a friend to inspired me to get to the painting again. This past year has been filled with a few battles and difficulties, from family and friends. Any like many things in they, they still are there, but you got to remember if you've got a desire in your heart and the ability to use the gift your given, you have to stay focused and keep "dong the do". Don't change the dial, I'll be updating here faithfully from now on, keeping you up to date on all the happenings on Mr. Visions, including an upcoming Gallery show in December and a number of Comic shorts to be published. Again, thanks for the love and support: long story short - I'm back :)

Freelance, FREEDOM FORMULA, and all that jazz?

Well 2008 is getting more interesting and interesting as it comes to a close. It's had it's share of heavy downs and peaking ups, but I count my blessings and keep moving. I'm now officially in the freelance business, and have stepped into the shoes of professional comic book artist, which sounds weird because I have so, oh so much to learn. But it's extremely enjoyable and I love what I'm doing, so what can you say -
My first published comic came out a couple days ago. The title is FREEDOM FORMULA, writeen and created by Edmund Shern and the team over at imaginary friends studio. I jumped on the project midstream, doing the interior pencils. Radical comics, who's putting out the book, has been amazing to work with and has extreme potential. The title itself is in the works of possibly hitting the big screen sometime in the future, being handle by Bryan Singer (blush), who did X-Men 1 & 2.
But before I get too much on a tangent, with issue three in stores, I thought I'd post some of the pages I liked from the issue. I'm learning alot,a bulk of the learning curve coming at the end of the issue, but I'm learning what I can do and getting ideas of where I want to take my work. Hope you enjoy -

ALL IMAGES AND CONTENT ARE PROPERTIES OF RADICAL COMICS.

Chesapeake Bay Awareness Posters - facing the horrifying truth!

I did these with my friend David Pijor a while back, they are part of an Advertisement campaign raising awareness of pollution throughout the Chesapeake Bay area. The theme of the vintage b movie posters where used to a) hint at the horrifying truth that the Chesapeake Bay area is in danger of being a highly polluted and unlivable place and b) to grab people's attention. David cooked up the idea and asked me if I wanted to come on board, and of course I was there. Hope you guys dig em and they get the word out. We are currently discussing a print run, but we have to iron out some details, we'll keep you posted.

Artwork (Mr. Visions - www.mrvisions.com)
Copy Writing and Art Direction (John Armstrong & David Pijor - www.pijornification.com)

I'm back!!!

Hey guys and gals, sorry for the embarrassingly long wait. Things have been crazy on this end, trying to make a run at the art race instead of tripping over my feet. Alot of what I've been doing recently has been graphic design oriented, mostly logos and other designs. It's fun taking on challenges like these, but the kid inside me keeps telling me to take off the tie and suite and get back to the things that excited me when I was young, what I really want to do with these hands of mine. So off in Neverland I've been, and here are the first fruits of my visit: I'm redesigning some of my favorite childhood characters, starting with the one and only Peter Pan. I tried going for a wild child boy, very tribal: a nature boy. I also wanted to portray him as mischievous, so you can see the over sized belt, taken from Hook no doubt, along with some trophies: the Captain's fine hooks! Anyway, I'll be showing some more love here in the coming weeks. Thanks for the support guys, take care, and I'll talk to you guys soon. God bless -

A Chemical Romance of Sorts

Here's my version of the Joker and his queen of chaos, Harley Quinne. Here I tried to combine my flavor of line with a similar handling of blacks from the previous drawing. this piece proved to be a bit of fun, because I was able to develop the joker as I saw him, a really rotten core of a villian. I really see him as a sick and twisted, chemically unbalanced foe. As one friend put it, "the yin to Batman's cold, methodical yang." Anyway, I hope you enjoy.