The 80's, So Hot Right Now.

Immediately after I finished the first illustration for Joe, he shot me back an e-mail about doing another one for the same issue. The article he sent over was about the many different groups of characters that flock to the slopes, but it mainly dealt with "The Joey." Even after snowboarding for years, I had never even heard about this so it was a pretty entertaining little nugget of information. "The Joey" is pretty much the biggest goofball at the resort. The one who always gets in the way, wears the craziest outfits, and is altogether clueless when it comes to any sort of etiquette on the slopes. Joe had initially mentioned using a lot of dayglo colors and after reading that I couldn't help but envision acid wash jean jackets, tight jeans, and patterns that you might see on Saved By The Bell.

I felt like the first round of sketches were too heavy handed, in that they were sort of telling the viewer how to feel, or were giving away the reaction too much.

I was glad with what we settled on after looking at the sketches. I think it captured the idea of "The Joey" better than any of the others and honestly, was probably a lot more fun to do than any of the others would have been. A bonus perk to the whole shebang was that it ended up being a fun trip down memory lane.

Snowboarding in May

A childhood friend of mine helped start up a snowboarding/skiing magazine called Steez a few years ago, and he recently told me to e-mail their art director, Joe LoVasco, about doing some illustrations for them. A week after I initially contacted Joe, he shot an article my way for thier new issue about the SIA snow sports trade show in Vegas. After 37 years, the event has started to become too polluted with "glitz" and "glam," and is being moved to Denver to help get back to the roots. The magazine is usually black and white so it was great to read from Joe that they are now doing it in color, and to just do whatever I want.

These were the 3 quick ideas I had that I was sure would all be turned down. I still want to do the one of that infamous neon cowboy with the snowboard under his arm, just for kicks.

"The Bird Show"

This was a piece I did for a juried show in April. The entrants had to submit a piece that could be whatever came to mind when they thought about birds. I always wondered what it would be like if a bird tried to sneak one out in a birdbath. A pretty idle thought, but it's fun to imagine what it might be like. I ended up receiving first place, so I guess enough enjoyment came from the idea I had to share.