Gnomes! Gnomes! Gnomes!

More gnomes to come. . .

Star Trek Noggins

Cute Noggins

I have so much fun creating these little noggins!

Halle Heart Children's Museum

I haven't posted anything new since the birth of my son Liam but I did attend the Grand Opening of the Halle Heart Children's Museum located in Tempe, AZ where I was the designer of their mascot Lub Dub. The awesome team over at Glyphics Design hired me to re-design the character that was created back in 1996. At the Grand Opening, it was really neat to see Lub Dub everywhere throughout the children's museum as their guide. To my complete surprise a costume was made of the newly designed Lub Dub as well. If you live in AZ, go check this place out especially if you have kids because it is awesome and has lots of fun interactive activities that help educate children about the heart and eating healthy.

Hit-Girl

So, you wanna play?

Chloe Moretz's portrayal of Hit-Girl in the movie Kick-Ass was amazing. Because of her that movie is now in my top 10 all-time favorites.

Influence Map

As if I don't have enough on my plate right now a friend challenged me to create an Influence Map because he had seen them popping up quite a bit on various blogs. After much though here is my map. In hindsight I could have added much more earlier influences such as Disney and Bluth but maybe another day I will make modifications.

1. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
2. Saturday Morning Cartoons
3. Retro video games
4. Little Golden Books
5. Vintage advertising
6. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
7. Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley
8. Pixar
9. Kei Acedera
10. Arthur de Pins
11. Peanuts by Charles Schulz
12. Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack)
13. Bruce Timm
14. Rhode Montijo
15. The World of Jim Henson
16. Dr. Seuss
17. Parker, one of my Boston Terrier's
18. Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

Candy Corn Girl and Friend

Phoenix Comicon 2010

This past weekend I had my own booth at the Phoenix Comicon and it was so much fun. Seen in the pictures above are my beautiful fiancee Nora wearing black and her friend Sara who flew in from Missouri to spend Memorial Day weekend with us. It was especially fun having them help me take care of the booth on Saturday or to watch them walk back to the booth to show me what they bought from other exhibitors. In the booth next to me is the super talented artist Brandon Dayton with whom I carpooled each day and had a blast hanging out with and talking to as he drew amazing commissioned sketches. Brandon will be exhibiting this coming weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Heroes Convention.

This was my very first solo experience and it was an absolute blast getting to meet everyone that stopped by the table to look, comment, or purchase my work. It was so much fun watching everyone point and smile as they called out Cute Noggins they recognized or commented on my original illustrations and characters. Even though I have lists of ideas for future sets of Cute Noggins visitors did not hesitate to tell me who I should do next or which was their favorites on display.

Again thank you so much to everyone that stopped by my booth to say hi and comment on my work, it was really great getting to meet all of you. As an artist I often times feel so disconnected from the outside world. I was able to meet so many fans that I otherwise never would have had the opportunity to meet and I was very touched and inspired by many of your comments. I can't express enough how great it was to see the smiles as people looked at my work and said ,"Oh how cute!" Thanks everyone for making my first solo experience so much fun and successful and I hope to see all of you again next year.

Please keep checking back to see new original illustrations and Cute Noggins as they develop. And please don't hesitate to stay in touch with me through my comments area or through Twitter at http://twitter.com/cutenoggins.

BT Sketchies

Torti Tortcake

LOST - The Island

I hope you are enjoying the final season as much as I am.

Day of the Dead Cupcake

For Christmas this year my girlfriend Nora requested that I make a design and paint a DIY Miss Cupcake by Olive 47 which can be bought in stores that sell vinyl toys.

Nora is really interested in the "Day of the Dead" and these are the designs I came up with that theme in mind . . .

And this is the end result after painting the blank vinyl toy. . .

Photos above taken by Rob Reed.