Pee-Wee

We went to see the Broadway production of the Pee-Wee Herman Show and it was amazing to see a concept so out-of-the-box still holds up even today. After that, we saw Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist".

The poses, the silhouettes, and the comedic timing of both Paul Reubens and the characters of "The Illusionist" were definitely something to behold...

O Cyclops, Where Art Thou?

Done for the "Cyclops" project for the Lazy Artists Club. "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is one of my favorite all-time movies.

From the Vault...













Icons done for a video game...

Boogie Down Box


This playset came about from living in New York City and being around its dance culture. Each section represents different places where you might see people dancing: the practice studio, the club scene, the subway, even in front of a bodega.

It even folds into a nice boombox! (I'm looking at YOU, fellow 80's kids!)

Friends featured: Erik Otto, Jimbo, Scott, Ephrat, Hanna, Cam, Tine. Also Ferris Bueller and Mr. T (who I don't know personally) and myself (who I know sorta well).

Also, thanks to everyone who suggested a name for the playset!

To the OTHER side of the OTHER coast...

My friend Emory is moving to Hawaii; we figured we have basically the nation covered from end to end. So, in Oakland, we bid him adieu @ Luka's with proper after-party Mexican food @ Guadalajara.

Here's the illustration I made of him:













And the man of the hour (pic, courtesy of Jenn Chen):










People said the muscles weren't big enough to which I replied: "I didn't want to run out of printer ink!" HAHA! Best of luck in Hawaii, Em!

Sims 2 sampler...















Just a few of the many objects I created for the Sims 2 expansion packs. These are the tied-down concept drawings/paintings (created in Illustrator and Photoshop) which we would then make orthographic (front/back/side view) drawings of. They would then be sent to the 3d modelers and shown to us for review.

ICON DO IT!














Above are examples of some icon work done for the Sims 2 PC Game (Bon Voyage! and Freetime, respectively).

You definitely need to be in a different mindset than usual, especially working within such a small box. Though not as quick and much more labor intensive, I compare it to quick gesture drawings--You have to be aware of the extraneous details which can clutter things quickly and CLARITY, CLARITY, CLARITY.

...Problem solving, left and right.

Big thanks to Frances Ngai who taught (and is STILL teaching) me a lot about UI. For the Sims 2 "Freetime" pack, we figured that, in all, we created about 200+ icons (not counting the ones that got cut)! She's truly a force to be reckoned with...

Print stuff

Apologies for the delays, just been busy. Here's what some of what I've been up to:

I've had a couple illustrations published in "The Ave." a New York-based hip-hop magazine. The first being the LL Cool J piece (shown previously on my blog) in the Winter '07 issue:








And the next, a Kanye West piece (below) in the Spring '07 with covers posted as well. (P.S. Let me know if you see any around the Bay Area...I'm still trying to hunt some down!)












Probably the best thing about these opportunities--of course, next to being published (and in a NY mag)--was the fact that fellow SHM homie, Cameron Moore (http://mookiedesign.com/), was also the assistant designer for the mags. Yet another joint-SHM collabo (The Sims2 is the other concurrent project, but I'll save that story for another time).