I’ve added a new item to my store. Show the world you are serious about getting in shape with this new cartoon sticker. Size: 2-3/4” x 3” (7mm x 7.75mm).
New “Six Pack Abs” Sticker
Christian Comics
In between client projects I do a webcomic called Sketchbook Silliness. It’s a way for me to express my creativity and just mess around. The whole thing is sort of an experiment with my comics ranging from the silly to the serious to the spiritual. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few go viral. One recently made the front page of Reddit, another made most viral on Imgur, and I’ve had two comics get over one million views on TikTok (this one and this one).
You may have noticed that the second of those TikTok comics was about my Christian faith. A few days ago I posted another comic about my faith that has also been doing pretty well. It got 35 retweets on Twitter (which is a lot for me) and has been steadily passed around on Facebook with over 2,300 shares and counting).
Fact is, my Christian comics (on average) do as well or better than my other comics. Many of my regular comics have flopped, whereas most of my religious comics have done fair-to-well in terms of likes/comments/shares. They are few and far between but overall they are well-received.
So, I’ve decided to gather them all into one place. If anyone is interested in reading all of my Christian comics at once you can find them here. My hope is that they might be something there that will be a blessing to someone.
‘Polar Pranks’ Kids Meal Illustration for Kid Stuff Marketing
Kid Stuff Marketing specializes in kids’ meal menus and toys for restaurants. I’ve done a few projects for them now. Recently they hired me to create a multi-purpose illustration using a line of polar bears that they refer to as “Polar Pranks”. They asked me to take their original polar bear designs and put my own spin on them. They wanted to update the look of the brand while still keeping it somewhat recognizable.
The layout was a bit tricky because the image had to be able to be sliced-and-diced in different ways. We designed it so that this image could work as a placemat, or as a a wrap-around paper sack (so no action on the folds), or with segments lifted for use on plastic cups.
Final result: Here’s how the sacks and cups turned out…
Amusement Park Playset Concepts
The Smiley Company has a line of toy figurines based on the classic yellow smiley face we’ve all seen a thousand times. They hired me to help design a playset for the characters using an amusement park theme. Here are a couple of the concepts I submitted:
Christmas Flashlight Find
The holidays have been so crazy that I almost forgot to post this!
Earlier this year I was hired by Kid Stuff Marketing to illustrate a haunted house flashlight find for Halloween. They liked it enough to hire me to do a second one with a Christmas theme.
These are simple but very clever toys. My kids think they are super cool and it takes them a while to figure out how it works. I made a little one-minute video to show the flashlight find in action:
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/KNuwMSB1sqk]
Merry Christmas everyone!
2019 Year In Review
2019 was another busy year for my illustration studio! I got to work on a lot of fun projects including:
PACKAGING ART
I illustrated packaging for
• Hasbro’s Little Big Bites
• Weegos Toys
• “Country Critters” bags and placemats for KidStuff Marketing.
TOY DESIGN
• Designed plush hoodie toys for Ontel Products
• Concepted some vehicles for The Smiley Company
• llustrated a fun Halloween Toy for KidStuff Marketing
I was also finally able to reveal some toy designs I’d worked on the previous year including Slinky Headz for Alex Brands and some cute bath toys for Goldfish Swim School.
ILLUSTRATION
• I illustrated a music video for Chuck E. Cheese
• I drew some lunchbox art and fun headbands for Goldfish Swim School
• I designed a mascot for SwimKids USA
• I illustrated the cover of a parenting book
• I drew a full-page comic for Spider Magazine
WEBCOMICS
My webcomics hit some milestones: I landed on the home page of all of Reddit; made “Most Viral” on Imgur; and had a comic get over one million views on TikTok.
MISC.
I also attended MSP SpringCon and FallCon, and even did some courtroom sketching for the Mohamed Noor police shooting trial.
Thanks to all my clients and followers for your interest in my work over the past year. Here’s wishing you a very merry Christmas and a terrific year in 2020!