Dropped this eagle tee on East Coast Ink. It’s take on the traditional sailor’s bald eagle tattoo with one reversed wing, though I’ve given it more of a neo-traditional flare.

What’s the most disgusting word in the english dictionary? Well, many, including me, would agree that there’s something about the word, “moist” that just sends gross feelings creeping up your spine..  So that was the feeling of the crew from Pennsylvania that rang me lookin for a musketeer sorta graphic that they could be proud of. I know.. Musketeers are french, which instantaneously makes them uncool and pretty faggy, but no one said that uncool and/or faggy was a direction to avoid on this little jobby, so we’re good. In fact the most inspiring direct quote from the client was in fact this; “I’m hoping your mental imagery of a musketeer is somewhat as badass as Chuck Norris kicking the shit out of Kanye West..” Sir, I don’t know if such great heights can be achieved from behind a computer screen, but I should hope that you think I’ve made every effort to try.

The fun part about this illustration for me was breaking out of the rut I’ve sorta been in and trying a totally new approach. While it took me way longer to finish this than it should have, I feel like I stepped up my raster art game a couple times over. Freehandin’ it with the Wacom overall was kinda fun, though rather frustrating at times… could be because I dug up the old 4×6 baby tablet I discarded long ago. It’s definitely got me considering a new one if I can ever afford it.

Thought I’d share with ya a tee that I just sent over to Stoke Int. Met Chad at Surf Expo two years ago and we’ve been in contact ever since. He’s a rad dude who I’m told is actually appearing in a Target commercial that plays on-screen at some LA theatres before movies?? Between running an apparel company, acting and whatever else he’s up to I don’t know how he even finds the time to call my ass to find out where his art’s at!?

Did I mention I’m on a huge black and green kick these days? That used to be my favorite color combo when I was just starting out in the design biz. Used to have a black/grey/green logo that got ditched along the way in favor of my next favorite color scheme – black and orange. Above is the same tee in GIANTS colorway.

I always try to provide my t-shirt art clients with a tech-pak to show how I’m envisioning the art printed on a shirt, along with color options if they request. It’s a good habit to be into, so there’s no confusion between you, the client and the printer. Takes longer up-front, but your clients and their printers will truly appreciate it and it may even get you accolades or a recommendation in the future. Here’s quick shot at how my tech-paks usually look:

There’s no such thing as too much info on these. If your client gets a design from you they’re stoked on and a happy printer because you’re art is clean and spelled out, you’ve done a decent job. Time to move on to the next one.

Crossfit, if you haven’t heard of it, is an intense workout program for athletes and martial artists. This studio in Massachusetts hit me up to help them out with an identity. They requested the gothic type and that I incorporate the tomoe into it. I see crossfit training as a means of gaining much strength and becoming very physically fit, but there’s also a group dynamic to it. Those who you train with go through the sweat and the tears with you and are encouraging. The sword symbolizes the brutal strength that you train to harness, and the chains represent the bond you’ll create with other trainees and trainers.

The GLOBE range is finally done! You’re getting an advanced preview of the line from inside the Dwindle Distribution showroom. Sssshhhh… don’t tell anyone..

And now for another hush hush… not saying any more.

I mentioned all of this on twitter I think, but here’s the recap of what got churned out (quickly) for the event.

MUMFORD Balloon

Found this shot of Matt Mumford to begin illustrating off of. He was nominated for “Best Transition” skater of the year by Transworld Skate, so we honored him by littering Hollywood and Vine with black balloons with his face on em.

Here’s how the sketch based on that photo came out.

And here it is on the balloon.

In context. iPhone cameras suck at night.

DIY T-shirts

The day before the award show I got a box of white t-shirts and went at em with spray paint and some stencils.

I had to add a little something to mine.

Stoke Int. has hit me up for another piece, which I’m starting to work on. That reminded me that I had this pic from the last package they sent me with one of the shirts I did up for them. The next one’s gonna be nuthin like it!

That also reminded me that I wanted to post up this little Dunny that the homie Kevin C. dropped off days ago. Thanks again, Kevin!

Effin love cheeseburgers – but who doesn’t?

There’s a lot of really great… well… a couple of really decent longboards out there on the market right now. Trouble is, unless you live by a beach or college town, you’re local skate/surf shop probably doesn’t carry too many, if any. We all could use a cruiser to get us from A to B at times, especially when you don’t wanna push all that hard – like say on your way to and from the liquor store. So here’s the deal, I’m saying if you can’t find one you’re down with in your area and/or don’t wanna spend a bunch of money buying one online and having it shipped, I suggest doing a little customization to make something unique that you’re gonna dig because it’s your own personal flavor and you’ll have poured some sweat equity into it.

You’re gonna need a deck, trucks, wheels, bearings, grip and hardware, and maybe riser pads depending on wheel clearance. When it comes to your wood, it’s all about what shape you’re into and what you can find laying around or on the cheap. I had this swalllow-tail deck laying around for a while – ot’s nothing super special and was previsouly screen printed on for a promo. For a cruiser, the quality of the wood isn’t terribly dire – you’re probably not gonna be ollying it unless it’s a real shortie and even then, so what. Truck and wheel combos are fully up to you as well, just all has to work together. Wheel-bite sucks.

On to customizing. I started out by giving mine a flat coat of black as a base.

Took a little while to figure out what I wanted my art to be and after mentally running the gamut between everything from super basic to overly detailed and hand-done I decided on some real clean, simple but bold stripes. I’ve been on a black and bright-ass green kick so that’s the color combo. It’s easy to do stripes, all you need is two colors of spray paint and some masking tape.

After a couple black coats dried (for a day or so..) it’s set for a second color. Just drop some tape lines on there and spray away. The areas in between tape lines got smaller for me as I went up the board.

You can pull the tape while the paint is still drying – sometimes you get cleaner lines that way. The green I used is called Green Apple from Montana. They have some blazing colors. Dries retardedly fast too. Was able to do 3 coats in under an hour.

To match up with the black and green stripes on the board I liked the idea of green wheels with black stripes.

I had some blank green 63mm wheels laying around, so with a standard Sharpie I added my black stripes. The ink dries almost immediately. Though, drawing straight lines on a curved surface proves to be more challenging than it seems.

After everything’s dry it’s time to slug it all together. The inverted trucks you see on these are OEM by “SLANT”. They’re loose as f*ck and in my opinion are pretty rad. I know by way of word that they’re gonna be sold in pairs by Globe in the near future, so keep an eye out if you think you’ll be into ’em. Hardware was donated by Nano from Speed Demons, Thanks Nano!

For grip I’m trying out some EVA samples that I can use with shoes or barefoot if I’m down on the Strand, pushing from bar to bar on the weekend. The soft EVA cuts like butter with an Exacto knife.

That’s it. Not a terribly difficult project, most of the stuff you can source from used boards or throw a couple bucks at here and there. So there you have it, a custom longboard that you can be proud of, using recycled parts and done cheap. Now off to the beach for a beer..

The other day I got a small, heavy pachage in the mail. I pulled out this book and remembered that about a year ago I got hit up to be included in this book about design blogs. I opened it up and found the little write-up on this here blog on about the 6th page. Pretty sweet placement!

Thank you, Macarena for including me. Let’s see if any new eyeballs come and have a look..

Transworld Skate’s 11th annual SKATEboarding awards are tomorrow (fri. 6/11) in Hollywood and one of Globe’s most active veterans, Matt Mumford,  has been nominated for “Best Transition” [skater of the year]. In his honor we thought it would be a cool idea to do some real grassroots kinda promo.. and why not? Everyone loves getting off the computer and getting their hands dirty every so often. Well, at least I do.

First up, on a super last-minute kick we got a shit-ton of balloons cranked out which of course needed artwork, hence one-color Mumford portrait above. Here’s how that went down.

classic Mumford photo steez

1. Found this classic straight-on shot of Mums to use as the basis for the illustration.

2. It’s easier to figure out how you’re gonna make it happen on paper before gettin onto the computer. Like they always say, the computer’s a tool, get yer shit down first before commiting it to vector. As you can see I had some trouble trying to figure out what to do around his jaw line.. had to work that out in my head and on some scratch paper before getting busy with illustrator. But, as this was a rush rush kinda gig, didn’t have too much time to waste stressing on it.

3. Finish illustration in vector, get rid of any extraneous color, paths, etc. Deliver artwork to vendor for quick turnaround, get sample, take shitty iPhone picture on otherwise awesome green couch. Real happy they decided to go with white print on black balloons even though the ink got choked a bit.

Next up on the to-do hit list was some straight-up D-I-Y t-shirts for some of the guys to rock to tomorrow’s award show.

Got a stack of blanks this morning and with seriously little time and no budget, I got about 25 shirts knocked out with only 2 stencils and a king can of black spray paint. You heard me say, DIY, right!?

.. surf team poster made for a pretty good stencil. Got super wet, but never blew out.

.. all the shirts laying out to dry. Drying racks?? Psshah.. when you gotta get it done, sometimes you just gotta get it done dirty. Each one’s done a little different.

On the off chance you’re attending tomorrow evening, lookfor the dude whose shirt with the sleeves ripped off says, “kil kil kill” on the back and come say what’s up.