Decathlon Poster Process

New work!

A 16" x 20" poster I did as part of a demo for my Adobe Illustrator class a Portfolio Center. I just finished it today. I thought it turn out pretty good. Whada you think?

This part was done in Adobe Illustrator CS4.

I then copied certain grouped areas from Illustrator into a Photoshop document and created a series of Smart Object layers. Then I added various textures in the layers masks of the Smart Object layers.

The result is a the marriage of Illustrator and Photoshop. The best of both worlds.
I love texture!!

Prints available here.

I'm featured in a new Freelance Portfolio E-zine!

Greg Welch is a designer that specializes in magazine publishing. He has done a great deal of print magazines and has been doing some impressive online magazines and PDF portfolios for all types of artists. He created this new Freelance Portfolio online magazine. One of my illustrations is featured in the premier issue on the cover and here it is. He promotes it heavily online and is gaining some traction and a bit of controversy even. Want to be apart of it contact Greg.

Vote for my T-Shirt Design!

Bridging These Truths Publicity Galore!

On Tuesday the 21st of April my family and I were asked to come to an Image Awards ceremony at the Emory University Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They were honoring student leaders with awards. Great group of people indeed. At the end of the ceremony they unveiled my poster of Bridging These Truths. The my client and visionary Brenda Stanley and I donated a 30" x 18" canvas gallery wrap of the poster to the NAACP chapter. It will be displayed in the TV lounge of the Dobbs University Center in a week with a plaque of recognition. Here is the article about it in the Emory Wheel.




The poster also posted on a very popular blog www.yourobamaupdate.com with a link to my prints for sale web page. You might have to scroll waaaay down to see the post but it's there!

A large framed print of this also was recently auctioned off at the 2009 SCAD-Atlanta Scholarship Gala donated by your truly.

It has been talked about at length on the radio, speeches, presentations and the Georgia School Board is very interested in displaying it in a large amount of their schools.

It's getting LOTS of other publicity, sales and traction even 100 days into Obama being in the White House.

It's also not to far fetched that the poster will be seen and given to Michele Obama. Because it's not what you know it's who you know and Brenda knows!

Stay tuned!

Jay

World of Wine Map!

This map is a long time coming. I started working on this in July of 2005 with restaurant owner Tim Moore. It was to be a 11 foot by 5 foot mural for his restaurant Terra Grille which is now Terra Terroir. We went through what seemed like countless revisions and tweaking with all the info on the map.

It's a vinographically correct map of the world. A term we coined when producing the map. The state and countries are enlarged to the size of importance and quality of vineyards in the region. On the left hemisphere is the "old world" way of wine making and on the right hemisphere is regions that produce wine in a relatively modern way. It has tons of facts, popular vineyard locations, and interesting tidbits for all wine lovers. When seen at a large scale it's great conversation starter for wine enthusiast.

Then sometime in late 2006 the job stopped for due to a change in direction of the restaurant decor and Tim starting a family. The job was put on hold indefinitely. Then in late 2008 I decided to finish this map and make it my own since no reproduction rights were ever sold. I changed the name of the map and some descriptions and made it more my own. Now it's done and available for sale as prints, posters, and reproduction rights. Click on the map to see an interface where you can zoom in to all the different areas of the map.

Bridging These Truths

Over the last 2 months or so I have been involved in a large project creating a poster about change and hope in America. Brenda Stanley of The ABC's of ICU came to me with her creative vision and very rough sketches. From talking with her we had an immediate connection to the subject matter and drive to complete this highly detailed and symbolic poster. It was originally intended to be part of a presentation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Downtown Atlanta (Dr. King's Church). Through the creation of the photo illustration all the other people who were able to see it saw a much bigger purpose for it. This poster had to go public and be made available to all. There are a lot of Obama and MLK Jr. posters, paintings and novelties out there. But we have not seen anything close to the detail and idea of the Statue of Liberty, King and Obama with all the civil rights moments throughout US history that has lead to this point in history of our 44th president, Barack Obama. So go to this brand new page to see in much more detail and read more about it. Show your support and recognition to this historical event in American history by purchasing a print for you and gifts to others. Print sizes from 20"x 12" to 60" x 36". Comments welcome.

Prints and Products!

I was one of the earlier adopters of Zazzle.com when I set up an account in 2001. I mainly did this for printing some personal stuff and to see how it works. Well they are still around and going strong. My Zazzle store has recently doubled in size with the amount of products offered with my art work on it. I have recently had a boost in sales this Christmas Season so I'm quite happy about that.


create & buy custom products at Zazzle


Also I'm just getting started with Esty.com as of today.

"His Life" painting Accepted in the Upstream People Gallery

Just found out this week that the painting was accepted into the

10th Annual Judeo-Christian Juried Online
International Art Exhibition

See it here!

Signed and numbered edition of only 50 giclee prints
in various sizes, greeting cards, and more are
available exclusively through Heirloom Christian Arts

24" x 36" Interactive Acrylic Painting on Masonite.

Donations

Recently I donated a print of mine where the image was picked by a very nice lady in Hawaii, Angel Visoria representing Habilitat, which is a long term residential program built on the "Therapeutic Community" model. This approach is considered by experts to be the most effective method of treatment for substance abuse and chemical addictions. Habilitat was holding a charity luau based in Kaneohe, Hawaii, selling framed artwork to help raise money for this non-profit organization. I donated a giclée print of Imagination. An illustration I did almost 10 years ago. While I was at it there is a 1st Annual SCAD Atlanta Scholarship Gala that was holding a silent auction from student and faculty and I donated a framed print of the same piece.


I also decided to frame and donate a print of Worries From Home. I have very few pieces of art that actually fit into the fine art "match your couch color". This is what I came up with and I hope that the prints raise as much money as possible.

eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art

I entered my artwork from a past job into the AAOS eMotion Pictures.

Almost 1,200 entries were received from 17 countries and 45 states, representing a broad spectrum of orthopaedic conditions. The artists' words were strong and the artwork powerful.

A jury of art professionals had the difficult task of selecting the artwork for the exhibit. The jury included René de Guzman, director of visual arts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; John R. Killacky, program officer for arts and culture of The San Francisco Foundation; and Paul Pratchenko, professor of art, painting and drawing, San Francisco State University. The show features 200 works of art from 152 artists.

I'm honored that one of my illustrations is on exhibit in San Francisco until March 2oth for. It's a gallery show of all sorts of orthopedic art for doctors, patients, artists and children. Read about my chronic back problems story here and see the other artists work. A book is available with all the artist's work including mine available here.

Christmas Departure

Brand new acrylic painting completed 12/08/07. It was created for my Christmas card.


Inside the card it says:

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace. ~ Agnes M. Pharo

I'm making this available for prints. If you are apart of military family or giving this to a military family, prints are 50% off. All I need is some sort or proof.

Merry Christmas to you!

Jay

Rosie the Riveter as CaLPERS

This was a cover illustration I did this past Summer for Directorship Magazine. The concept was to show the strength in numbers with proxy statements of a very large California retirement System known as CalPERS. So they had the initial idea of using the well known image of Rosie the Riveter by illustrator J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" - Many women first found economic strength in World War II-era manufacturing jobs.

So my idea was to show a similar image but with the proxies in her fisted hand. Which appropriately covered her face so that showed very little identity with a particular person or race. She needed to represent every person.



My intern at the time was gracious enough to pose for the reference shots and she did surprisingly well. The painting was done 90% as an acrylic painting. The type and logo was added in Photoshop.

They loved it show much for the cover they asked for 2 giclée prints of it to give as gifts to the leaders of CalPERS.

Art Fairy - Hidden Pictures

This was a ink drawing I did mid in September 2007 as a demo for my Materials & Techniques I class. I was also influenced by my 6 year old daughter who loves art and fairies. So I decided to do double duty and created a picture for her to color and hang in her bedroom as well as find the art objects in the scene. I might even submit it to Highlights for publication. See if you can find all the art supplies.



Here is a terribly low res video of my process.


If you would like a printable version for your child to do just drop my an email and I'll email you a PDF to print.

Worries at Home Ribbon Design

I just finished a new version of a collection of some old illustrations of mine for a print to be sold in military bases and print shops. It's to help keep up the moral of the troops family and loved ones. I've created several new versions using these four scenes of the soldier.



The basic story of the figures are when the soldier is being deployed he misses and worries about his family, then he starts to receive letters that things are going fine and then he can focus on his soldier responsibilities. Original is 30" x 40"

New print available - His Life

Just announce a new painting is available for for print purchase. Late 2006 I was commissioned by new company called Heirloom Christian Arts. It was a complete pleasure working with Camilla Raymond on the project which gave my ample time, creative freedom and generous compensation to create the new painting based on a one inch high piece of jewelry. I transform the message and detail into a 24" x 36" painting using a relatively new medium called Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics. It's an acrylic paint that allows you keep it wet on the surface on your painting for much longer than conventional acrylic paints. This gives way to an oil painting look without all the harsh mediums of oils and using water as thinner. I loved the process! I even made a step-by-step demo of the process for my Materials and Techniques II class at SCAD-Atlanta. If you would like to get a PDF of the step-by-step process please email me. The painterly feel and hand done look is a little different from most of my work, but it was fun to loosen up. Let me know what you think!

Signed and numbered edition of only 50 giclee prints in various sizes, greeting cards, and more are available exclusively through Heirloom Christian Arts.

Thanks for looking!