The Yellow Yeti

My 2nd Political Post!

2010-02-13T18:03:00.002-06:00

Enjoy!!!

LOVE SHOULD BE SIMPLE

2010-02-13T16:50:00.003-06:00

2010-02-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

Animal Letters!

2010-01-27T11:54:00.003-06:00

Space Ranger

2010-01-27T11:25:00.007-06:00

Well finally getting around to posting some work! I've been busy working on multiple projects lately and I'll be posting a bunch of new work shortly.In the meantime ,....

These are some some turnarounds and a splash page for a small game I've been developing. I have no clue why images get posted and then colors totally wash out of what the original looks like. Let's just assume that the colors are much more vibrant and we can all be happy.

T-shirts

2010-01-11T21:19:00.002-06:00

This is a recent t-shirt design I finished for a local Auto Mechanic. Quick piece = fun project.
Overall I am very pleased with the result,..and the wide selection of colors to choose from!

If you happen to be in the Muskego area and need some Muscle for your motor give em a call!

Patterns

2010-01-11T20:48:00.002-06:00

Smokin'

2010-01-11T20:23:00.001-06:00

Glasses or no glasses.
That is the question of the night.

Just a character that I've been working on for a lil bit. I've decided that I'm pretty much ditching line in my illustrations and characters if I can help it from now on. I feel free again! Lines begone!

Presents!

2009-12-23T08:39:00.002-06:00

POPROCKS!

2009-11-19T16:18:00.000-06:00

Mix em with yogurt and you have a taste sensation.

Sam Shapiro's Art Gallery

2009-11-19T10:03:00.007-06:00

Back in 2003-2004 I had the pleasure of teaching an Illustration Pre-College class at The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. One of my students was a very talented young man named Sam Shapiro. His energy truly amazed me. He helped by showing other students his skill and how it just seemed to flow from his fingers without effort. His humor along with his eye for color, composition and character were years ahead of his age. His talent and helpfulness was truly an inspiration to not only myself but to other students in the class. Years after that moment, I repeatdly often wondered what he was up to. What he had become with all that he had, and how he had used his talents. Was he working at Pixar? Was he showing in a select New York gallery? Was he himself now a teacher? The possibilities he had in front of him were endless.

This past September I received a letter from his mother telling me that Sam had passed away this past June. I found out he had been battling with depression and anxiety for the past 6 years, and had been self-medicating himself with drugs and alcohol.It is sad to see such a talented and gifted person get lost to the shadows when they bring so much light to the world around them. His family has put together a gallery showing of his work entitled The Addiction of Art and the Art of Addiction. It is located in The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Designs student union and showcases Sam’s life as an artist, the struggles he had with drug and alcohol addiction, and the effects that these struggles had on his creative output.

I would encourage anyone who is in the Milwaukee area over the next month to go and take a look at his work and meet Sam for the first time.

The Addiction of Art and the Art of Addiction
Type: Music/Arts - Exhibit
Start Time: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 10:00pm
Location: Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Student Union
266 E. Erie St. Milwaukee, WI

http://samshapiro.org

Sparkle!

2009-11-18T16:12:00.000-06:00

Who doesn't love a pig eating ice cream?

CHILDREN'S FLU FIGHTERS!

2009-11-06T13:18:00.009-06:00

Well there is nothing like a global flu outbreak coinciding with going back to school to get the old creative juices flowing. I recently did some character work for the Children's Hospital for a flu fighting campaign it was doing to raise awareness and help kiddos stay virus free. At first I thought the kid characters were going to be developed into full out super heros who would be flying rings around the likes of Captain America and Spiderman. But soon after I was told they would in fact be just normal kids wearing capes fighting germs and telling kids how to remember to wash their grubby hands. Eh' still a good time.

You can check out the actual website promoting the Children's Flu Fighters campaign and order up a FLU KIT for your school or place of business or possibly even yourself.

http://www.childrensflufighters.com

The kit contains an assortment of colorful stickers, posters, mirror clings, coloring pages and 98 bottles of Purell with a belt clip attached to them. Enjoy the post and now wash those grubby hands.

CATCH THAT MONKEY!

2009-11-06T12:47:00.015-06:00

This is a project that was done fairly recently for Blue Cross Blue Shield. After multiple sketches, slight tweaking and a dynamic monkey sex change a couple of pieces got developed that I'm pretty pleased with. Kudos to great art direction and partner efforts! The main message is for kids to do a multitude of things. Get out run around and be active and limit your screen time. There are two other active animals in the series but I'll post those at a later date. Overall great project to work on.

Dunkin Bear!

2009-11-06T12:44:00.001-06:00

These are a continuation of some previous Dunkin Bears I did awhile back.
Why is everything always a continual work in progress?

Hey Some Polar Opposite Characters!

2009-11-06T12:38:00.002-06:00

Random Character Work.

Hello my name is Heinz.

2009-11-06T12:02:00.008-06:00

LUNCH BOX!

2009-11-06T11:25:00.016-06:00

Hello Blog. It has been awhile.

This was a fantastic lunchbox project I recently worked on for my small friend Ella. It was her first day of kindergarten and her mom wanted to surprise her with her very own personalized, super duper, extra pink & girly, almost makes you sick it's so cute lunchbox. I think I nailed the "it almost makes you sick" part,..but I still have some work to do on the rest.

After much deliberation and discussion on what to draw,.. the bottom scratchy sketch was chosen as the direction to go in. (Other options included, a teacher owl, a sea creature from the deep eating small children, and monsters heads.) I was hoping the mother would choose a monster theme since Ella is a big fan of Friday the 13th and horror movies.But due to the Child Protective Services and sensitive teachers we went with the flying pony version.

SCRIBBLE-A-ROO

2009-01-21T09:02:00.003-06:00

WOW. I'm embarressed to look at how long it's been since I've posted anything. I am humbled and ashamed. So to start out the new stretch of posts here's a couple of pages of random scribbles in my notepad. Some would call them sketches,.I call them scribbles.

T-SHIRTS!!!!!

2008-12-09T11:46:00.006-06:00

Whew well I'm getting around to posting again. I've been busy working on a variety of projects and have not had the time to post anything on here. These are some recent shirt designs I did. The boat version was a design that was created for State Farm Insurance much like the previous option in a later post. All of my shirts will be available for purchase in a bit. Thank you for all of your comments & e-mails. This blog has been fun thus far!!

Sketches,..

2008-11-24T09:16:00.002-06:00

I'm finally beginning the work on my website and after long back n forth I decided it is going to be a sea creature themed site. I seem to have a love of those awkward deep sea creatures. I took a trip to Maui awhile back and fell in love with all the life I discovered under the surface. The color, the movement, the way it immerses you into a entirely different world. So I began my scribbles of 2 lil characters but will be doing ALOT more in the coming days and will be posting the progress as I go along.

I BE JAMMIN

2008-11-23T18:58:00.004-06:00

Well after a couple week delay I'm finally getting around to posting some new finished work. It's amazing how quickly time can cruise on by when you are knee deep with no sleep. So now that the bags under my eyes and subsided a bit,...here comes a post . This one is a continuation of a sketch for a music book cover I had posted recently. Nothing like a warm tropical illustration to make me feel better on a ice cold November Day.

Some fish in a pan

2008-11-12T11:35:00.003-06:00

These pieces were done for a sing along book that taught music scales.
I had the blowfish between the man's legs originally,..but oddly enough the client said
no. Live n Learn!!!

Bounce!

2008-11-12T11:02:00.003-06:00

I was digging through some old files and came across these sketches i did awhile back for a Hospital Kangaroo character. I kinda liked them so I thought I'd share these golden oldies! Enjoy!

LIL ITTYBITTY TEDDY BEAR

2008-11-05T16:53:00.004-06:00

Well I'm posting a collection of some bears I was working on for Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Yes somehow cute lil bears and imported coffee beans make sense. These are all just concepts and I'm still working on character development and switching around color pallets. The 1st brown version tends to look to much like a rejected
version of Yogi Bear for my liking,..but for now I shall deal.

MAKING SOMETHING DULL,.... FUN!

2008-11-04T11:09:00.004-06:00

Well I got job to create a fun pen mailer. A company wants to send out pens and have a fun unique packaging concept to go with it. We all know that pens are the most interesting thing on the market. I mean it writes, you can sign casts with it, you can shoot spitballs with the tube. Limitless possibilities! But how do you make it fun?

So this was my first stab at it. Still a WIP and will be tinkering with the characters a bit and the type treatment. But I thought I'd post this and continue polishing this turd. ENJOY!!!

BOOK SPOTS

2008-10-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

BURGER KING!!

2008-10-30T11:54:00.003-05:00

Soooo I'm posting a t-shirt design I did for Burger King about a month ago and then afterwards turned the graphic into this lil swipe card.I'm not a big fast food guy myself but I have a soft spot for creepy clowns and non blinking big headed kings.
So this project was right up my alley.

It squeaks when you bang it.

2008-10-27T10:11:00.002-05:00

Ahh yes a new sketch and a new post.
Still a work in progress.

BONE DOG

2008-10-20T14:58:00.001-05:00

Promotional piece mailer.
The large area of empty space is allowing for a toy bone to be placed in the area.
Just an design FYI.

Lunchbox

2008-10-20T14:39:00.003-05:00

This a lil lunch box campaign I did for a local agency. I did a couple characters designs to start it off ( Yes Captain America) and then went into final layouts. Overall I'm pretty happy with the look,..but would like to explore more garment options.

Postcard

2008-10-16T11:00:00.003-05:00

The New Halloween Postcard is finally finished and is out devouring small helpless children everywhere.

Cover Piece

2008-10-15T13:22:00.006-05:00

Let's break down how this one started.

4pm Revisions to sketch were made by client.

8-9pm Sketch revisions made on my end.

Ate a quick meal of Fajitas and 2% Milk

9:30pm- 4:15 am Worked on final piece and burned out retinas staring unblinking into computer screen.

9am Wake up and check e-mail from client.

9:17am -12pm Tweak final.

12pm - 12:32pm Minor freak out as computer locks up with spinning wheel of death.

Need to restart and tweak the last 10 minutes again.

1:05pm E-mail final piece off to client.

1:06 Shower my oily body to it's professional appearance it is today.

1:15 Eat breakfast.

1:30 Look back at this piece and not be happy with it and decide to revise it at a later date.

My Day and Art. TA-DA!

YETI PHONE CONCEPT

2008-10-15T13:16:00.003-05:00

Well here is the latest in the stream of Yeti Posts. I've been working on a cellphone interphase for kids that is character based and has a back story to it. This animatic is basically my rough pitch of how two of the multiple functions would flow and work. It is a bit rough but it gets the point across. Some people have asked about the sweat on the character. My explanation is simple. He is a misplaced Yeti/aka Snowbeast with a nice thick coat of fur. And as anyone who has ever worn a Yeti lined Coat can tell you,....it can get sticky in there. So here it is.

I'd love to know any comments.

Character Designs,..thus far

2008-10-02T10:30:00.007-05:00

Yes yet another Yeti character design.
I wanted to break it down into elements that could be easily made into simple animation. That was and has been my problem all along as I’ve revised and revised it 6 times. I wanted it more simple,..yet to keep a strong form and remain attractive and marketable. I think this one is a lil more tough/gritty looking and I feel gears more to boys than the previous post. But the animation is more annoying that enjoyable right now.They just twitch & blink. But it's a work in progress.

ATTACK OF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES

2008-10-01T15:49:00.009-05:00

This is a recent shirt I did for State Farm Insurance.

What better way to keep kids quiet while mommy & daddy talk than to give me him/her a shirt! Especially one with a sea creature on it destroying a city! The deadline was so tight for this one I had to reuse parts of a city scene from a previous piece to finish it up. The fact that I had just seen Cloverfield helped a bit with inspiration for this one.

Romance in the Woods

2008-10-01T13:01:00.001-05:00

A tribute to hair & women.

NOT American Idol

2008-10-01T09:50:00.004-05:00

Originally this piece was going to be a spoof of the American Idol judges and use their likeness to resemble the interview process for college grads. But over the course of the project the direction changed to move away from the Idol judges into more non specific people and thus reduce the chance of being sued I guess. It still was a fun piece to work on and practice my character design skills with.

Rock n Roll Music

2008-10-01T09:27:00.004-05:00

I did this piece for one of my favorite clients.
They are great people, respect the artists vision and have fun work to boot! Plus I enjoy Elvis so it all works out in the end.

Boyscout Work!

2008-10-01T09:10:00.005-05:00

I just finished up a spot illustration for the Boyscouts and some additional character design work. I really like how the kid characters got flushed to in the final piece and how the troop leader kinda looks like Tom Cruise. Hopefully I get to do more work for them! I guess I enjoy drawing animals and outdoor scenes.

12am Doodles

2008-10-01T00:07:00.003-05:00

Just some quick sketches.
More to come,...

Pro Reading Poster

2008-09-30T15:16:00.011-05:00

This was a piece that came out of a rejected sketch for another client. I liked the ape character in it so much I decided to develop it further into another project. The character really went through some changes in the final stage (which was a good thing) I'm very happy with how the piece turned out.

YETI COLOR TEST

2008-09-30T13:58:00.005-05:00

Hello and welcome to my brand spanking new blog!

I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that this works!

These are some color studies of a character I developed to be used as a navigation element

for a cell phone interphase that is geared towards technology inept children. ( are there any

of those left in the world?) I hope to continue to develop his environment and side characters

as well but for now I'm just trying to nail down his color and body type.

First Post Complete!