The Salad Days

I've been wanting to share this for a while and today felt like the right day for it. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to this short movie by a Post Office clerk a few months ago. Usually when complete strangers try to talk to you about skateboarding it's a pretty embarrassing experience. However, this guy, After noticing I was holding a skateboard, doesn't bring up the X Games, but instead, tells me I need to see this movie from the 60's called, Skater Dater. It helped that he had this tone in his voice like he knew it was pretty ridiculous and that I would think the same thing. Plus, the title alone was enough to convince me to watch it. Even if it was a complete disaster, which most movies about skateboarding usually are, there would still be some good cringe-inducing laughs from it. Well, I watched it, and it is ridiculous, and cheesy, and totally awesome! From the choreographed opening sequence, to the hill bombing battle, it pretty much rules. It has hardly any dialog, which is a plus, and the soundtrack is pretty rad. There are better versions, but this was the only full version I could find at the moment. So, here it is, in all of its stupendous glory: SKATER DATER

Interviewed for Steez

Along with the 5 spots to wrap up the 2-part article, I was put on the hot seat and grilled about the finer things in life. A big thanks to Andrew Fersch.

Steez Spots: Part 2

So, here are the other 5 spots I had done for a 2 part article in Steez magazine. In case I forgot to mention it before, these spots were done to accompany definitions of terms used by snowboarders and skiiers. I especially got a kick out of drawing the fourth image down. Back when I did snowboard, I loved it when people ate shit so hard going down the hill; Powder and clothes went flying in every direction. Coincidentally, it was usually someone showing off, so I never really felt bad for blatantly laughing at them. But, in case they weren't showing off, and did get seriously hurt, I apologize now for laughing.

More stuff from this issue later on.

A Hallmark Moment

This guy is making another appearance on this ol' blog for one of those warm, cuddly, the family all sitting around a warm fire, sentimental reasons.

A few weeks ago I noticed an e-mail that had "The Loch Ness Project" titled as the sender in my inbox. Instantly intrigued, I opened that sucker right up and surprisingly, it turned out to be an e-mail from the wife of Adrian Shine (the man picture above). She had caught a glimpse of my drawing on-line and wanted to let me know Adrian saw it and got a kick out of it. After a few more e-mails and a trade off, I had a signed copy of a booklet of his resting in my hands. To have someone that I've done a drawing of see my work, find amusement in it, and reach out to me is kind of a surreal thing. It makes the work that much more satisfying and can even trump the financially fulfilling side of things. Aaaannnnd, that's enough sentimental junk for now.

Update

Some of my illustrations will be hanging up in the Gimme! Coffee on Green St. in Ithaca for the month of May. Stop in, get yourself something to drink and check out some of my work if you're in the area.

Ding-Dang Drawing for a Friend!

I just did this for a friend. He wanted a drawing of a young Bob Dylan and that's just what he got, gosh darnit!

Sh-sho-show Picsssss

The show has come and passed, and it was quite a blast. A lot of our friends made it into town for the night, which turned it into a big hang-out rather than some stuffy show. This picture is of my mom and Travis right before the show started and right after we had some awesome ice cream.

These are the cookies that my friend, Alexis, baked up for it. She's rad. Out of the 100 that she brought, there was about 10 of them left that I am now hoarding for myself.

After doing all these random heads for about 2 years, I finally found a place for some of them.

These following pictures have some of Travis's sculpture work that he brought down for the show.

Thanks again to everyone that stopped in. I'll let this picture of my bud, Marcus, sum up how the night wrapped up.

Spots

I recently did 10 spot illustrations for Steez Magazine. The article is split into 2 parts, so the other 5 will be on here in a little while. The purpose of the spots were to accompany definitions of slang terms that are commonly used on the slopes. I think I recognized 3 out of the 60 that Joe sent to me. I feel out of touch.

Coming Soon!

Who: Phil Ashworth and Travis Winters

What: Showing of some illustrations and sculptural work from the past year or so.

When: Friday, April 2nd. 7-10pm.

Where: Homegrown-104 E. State St. Ithaca, NY

Why: Because.

How: Begged until the guy felt sorry for us and decided to give us a show because he thought we were pathetic losers.

Hooty HooOOoo

These are just a few from the winter months when I had some free time. This first one came from a strong disgust for the long, cold winters that any north easterner continually develops year after year. It also comes from reading Calvin and Hobbes a lot when I was a kid.

Little scraps of left over paper, once again being used to draw famous people. George Carlin and Joan Rivers:

New Caricatures

Here are a couple portraits from a project I worked on a few months ago. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out as planned but, in the end it was still fun to do some new drawings, and get some insight into the literary culture of Romania. This first one is of a famous Romanian playwright, poet, journalist, and political commentator; Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912).

The next one is of Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889). Regarded as the most influential Romanian poet, he also spent time as a journalist and editor for the newspaper Timpul. Him and Ion Luca Caragiale both belonged Junimea, a literary society, which was an intellectual and political association from Romania.

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.