mondo: cowboys & aliens

i've been looking forward to seeing cowboys & aliens for quite a while now, so i was pretty excited when director jon favreau picked me from the mondo roster to design a poster for the upcoming flick.

the seed for my design was planted while reading an interview with favreau during the movie's production. i was excited when i heard that he intended it to play as a straight western... that just happened to have aliens in it. when i received the assignment to create a limited edition screenprint for the film, i remembered that intent and wanted to channel some of the incredible spaghetti western poster design that graced movie theaters in the 1960's. much like the tone of the film itself, i wanted my design to read as a western poster first and let the alien references throughout slowly reveal it to be something much more.

it was a great experience collaborating with the mondo crew and jon favreau to pull this thing together. now to see the film...

poster specs:
• 4 color screenprint on french cream speckletone 80# cover
• size: 24" x 36"
• edition: limited, 190

sale info:
• date: fri, july 29
• time: random
• where: mondo

kaiju pee wee

here's my entry for gallery 1988's "i know you art, but what am i?" pee wee herman themed show, which opens this friday, july 29th, at their venice location.

ok, confession time: i've never seen "pee wee's big adventure".

*crickets.*

well, at least, not all of the way through. i have nothing against it, it's just one of those movies that wasn't on my radar (there are a lot more, but we won't get into that right now).

at any rate, one of the few factoids about this movie that i was very aware of is the fact that godzilla makes an impromptu (and illegal, according to his owner, toho) appearance in it... and that's all i needed to know when deciding what angle to play in my tribute.

if you're in LA, check out the show this friday. there are a ton of talented artists participating, including battery mates dave perillo and scott derby.


show opening
friday, july 29th, 2011
7-10 pm

poster info
size: 9"x24"
medium: 3-color screenprint, cougar off white 100# cover
edition: limited, 50

location
gallery 1988: venice
214 pier avenue
santa monica, CA 90405
ph: 424.238.5988
hrs: weds-sun 11am-6pm
e-mail: gallery1988@aol.com

on sale info
prints are now available here.

mondo: star trek: let that be your last battlefield

here's my second entry in mondo's series of limited edition star trek screenprints, "let that be your last battlefield".

the classic episode of star trek: the original series that the poster is based on seems tailor made for my style. it features two warring aliens, both with bilaterally split faces, one black on the left, white on the right, the other vice versa. no problem, right?

it was only after i had done a few rough layout sketches that i realized just how tricky illustrating these two aliens would be. showing them both in profile and facing each other would mean both aliens were showing the matching colored side of their faces to the viewer. not exactly visually exciting. showing them side by side and straight on would mean the like-colored side of their faces were very near to each other... again, not exactly conveying the diametrically opposing viewpoints that the aliens embrace so tightly.

after a handful of digital sketches, i was no closer to a viable solution and i shelved the project for a few weeks to work on other assignments.

returning to the project with a fresh set of eyes, my idea was to have the aliens face each other in a yin and yang configuration where, no matter how you view it, one is always upside down. this allowed for both colors of their faces to be seen, but more importantly, it illustrated their antagonistic views of each other. with a massively helpful phone call from mondo art director rob jones, all of the details were hammered out (portions of type upside down) and the flippable poster you see before you was born.

hang it with either face right reading, bele and lokai's conflict (and the fate) of their shared planet is captured here for all eternity.

poster specs:
• 4 color screenprint on offwhite stock
• size: 24" x 18"
• limited edition of 215

sale info:
• date: fri, jul 15
• time: random (follow @MondoNews for a hint!)
• where: mondo

kung fu panda

through a partnership between the autumn society and the folks over at dreamworks animation fine art, i had the opportunity to create a limited edition print for the most excellent "kung fu panda".

i've been a huge fan of the movie since i first discovered it on DVD and i thoroughly enjoyed interpreting the main characters (especially the furious five) into my style.

"legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend."

poster info
size: 10.125"x22.75"
medium: archival giclee on watercolor paper
edition: limited, 50
prints are now available here.

© 2011 Dreamworks

"room 237" poster

now that this has been released into the wild by slashfilm, i can finally show it off... it's a brand-spankin'-new screenprint that will be part of this year's crazy4cult show at gallery 1988!

i've done a few shining-inspired pieces in the past and i wanted to revisit the film again this year. after doing (a lot) of research on the film and soaking it in a few times, i am fascinated by the layers of meaning and the depth of widely varied perceptions people walk away from this movie with. it's no wonder it is studied and analyzed the way it is over 30 years later.

at any rate, i've participated in the last two editions of crazy4cult and it gets bigger, crazier and more popular every year. it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon and i can't wait to see all of the new pieces that will be dropping there later this week.

show opening
friday, july 8th, 2011
7-10 pm

poster info
size: 16.9"x22.5"
medium: 4-color screenprint, french madero beach speckletone 100# cover
edition: limited, 80

location
gallery 1988
7020 melrose avenue
los angeles, CA 90038
ph: 323.937.7088
hrs: tues-sun 11am-6pm
e-mail: gallery1988melrose@gmail.com

on sale info
prints are now available here.

thundergod A•31

this new green colorway of my thundergod A•31 print will be available for the first time tonight at the opening of rockets robots and ray guns, a retro-themed sci-fi art show at jinxed philly.

thundergod A•31 is inspired by the bugnuts insane opening sequence of the 1960's tsuburaya-produced ultraman tv series. now, if only i could integrate that swanky song into a 2D piece of art...

anyway, if you're in the 'hood, check out the rockets robots and ray guns show, the lineup of artists is killer.