Risk it for a Biscuit

Joe LoVasco, from Steez Magazine, contacted me recently about doing an illustration to be included in their new issue. The article was about the pitfalls and risks we take with winter sports and the dangers of competitions for the big cash prize. Joe dug the treasure map-like drawing, so we chatted about changing a few of the dangers that could be illustrated on it and it was a sealed deal. From sketch to finish it was a quick deal and was good fun. Thanks Joe.

In case you notice that banana peel on the bottom of the illustration and start to wonder to yourself if anyone has actually ever slipped on one, I'll save you the time and let you know that it has happened, and it was me.

Steeeeeeeeeeeeezz Skateboards

Back in September, Joe from Steez Magazine, e-mailed me about possibly doing a skateboard graphic for a run they wanted to do for the holidays. Since I've been skateboarding for about 13 years, this was a huge deal to me. I guess if you don't go pro and get a board with your name on it, the next best thing is to have a graphic of yours on a deck, or you can try to be like Mark Gonzales and have both, but good luck on that one. Joe was pretty open to whatever I wanted to do as long as it could have some kind of crazy face, or person on it. 

I mostly just thought of stuff that looked funny to me or would be funny to someone else. A fat guy giggling and acting very giddy was one of my first thoughts. That giggle Homer Simpson has is comedy gold and that may have been subconscious inspiration from my years of watching him.

Old ladies doing anything that's out of character is something I like to see. I love seeing little old ladies smoking, drinking and swearing more than a 16 year old. I could die a happy man if some old lady threw me the horns or the "gnarly" hand signal surfers and skateboarders get associated with.

Joe got a kick out of the giggling fat guy (I'll just have to save the gnarly old lady for some other opportunity). We played around with the idea of him reaching for the Steez logo, or maybe reaching for some other person on the nose of the board. Joe then recommended a beer can, and we decided that we could have him spraying some beer, and place the Steez logo in the middle of some foamy goodness on the nose of the board. You can tell we were reaching for a very sophisticated concept on this project

The stuff nightmares are made of.

I drew the head, hands, and spray separately so that we could play around with places for them to be on the board. Doing a skateboard graphic for the first time is tricky because when you first try to fit something on the entire length of the board, you never really think about what an awkward dimension it is to work with.

These were the color ways we played with. While I liked most of them, we had to decide on two that we liked the most. Joe and I both agreed that the lime green and navy color way had the best contrast. I wish we could have done all of them but oh, well.

We decided on the lime green/navy one and that we would do wood grain for the negative space. We also decided to just do a blue and white one for those more simple folk out there that don't dig all that fancy shmancy jazz. Unfortunately, I found out a few weeks ago that there had been some confusion with the printing company and only the white and blue colorway had been completed. It was a bummer to hear, but on the upside, there has been talk of doing another run in the future, with a new graphic.

Just a day after Christmas I received some of the boards from my friend Andy, who works on the magazine and grew up in the same town I did. Even though there had been some minor hiccups with the project, it was still great to have some of the decks in my hands. Skateboarding and drawing are my two biggest passions and to be able to combine them is amazing. Hopefully I will be able to stay involved in both for as long as I live. A big thanks to Joe and Andy for doing this and choosing me to be the one to do their first ever run of skateboards.

p.s. I will post, at a later date, where these decks will be available and how to get your hands on one if you would like to do so.

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.