Listener Band Sticker

I was recently asked by the frontman of the band Listener, Dan Smith, to design a new sticker for their upcoming tour. The band has recently grown to three members, and he asked if I could do a spoof on the popular Pep Boys logo, with the faces resembling the three band members.

I met Dan a number of years ago, and love every chance I get to work with him. Listener has a new album, Time is a Machine, coming out very soon, so keep an eye out on this website for tour dates and release dates:

http://iamlistener.com/

This is a very talented group of guys.

P.S. Here is a recent photo tweeted by the Listener guys, of a one-color version of the sticker in use!

Knit Together Photography

Here's a recent logo I did for a couple in South Africa, Brent and Nicola, that are starting their own wedding photography business. I had the pleasure of becoming friends with Brent during my S'African trip last Summer. He let my friends and me crash at his place in Cape Town for a week, and was a better tour guide than we could have possibly asked for. He showed us one of the best weeks of our lives, and Cape Town and Brent have a special place in my heart.

Brent and Nicola are setting up a website for the business now, and from what I have seen of their photography, they are going to take the scene by storm.

Grey Bird Design

Here's a recent logo I made for a super cool friend of mine in South Africa. It was a nice time working on this logo. A fan of my work, he wanted to leave the design up to me. To get my inspiration flowing, he told me he was a big fan of traditional archery and printmaking, and I already knew that he was a fan of my hand lettering, specifically my "Thank Ya Kindly" design.

Combining the feel of the cursive-hand-written-script style of 'Thank Ya Kindly", printmaking, and archery, plus the name "Grey Bird Design", produced the logo below. Lots of fun.

I also wanted to provide a black and white version of the logo. This will come in handy any time he needs to print one-color, or make a water mark or engraving.

Here is sort of a primitive step-by-step process of how I came about drawing and designing the type for the logo. First step is a pencil sketch, second step is inking the type by hand, third is making a vector drawing of the type in Illustrator, and finally sprucing it up in Photoshop.

And finally, here is look into the process of making the wee bird:

The Softer Side of Jeb Kennedy

For the month of April, my illustration group, Jeb Kennedy, hosted a theme month dedicated to women. Exactly one month after the actual National Women's Month, we hoped we could squeak by without anyone noticing. It took about one day for someone to notice.

The idea was to stretch ourselves mostly. The four of us, (all being gentlemen), haven't spent as much time practicing drawing the female form as we'd like. So, hoping to boost our confidence with drawing women, and add some to our portfolios, we set off to do the unthinkable- draw ladies for a month.

The results were a lot of fun, and we were even privileged enough to receive some guest art from some very talented female illustrators. Lots of fun. I now feel almost experienced enough to actually hold a conversation with a real lady!

Below are my submissions for Ladies & Jebs. If you'd like to see all the lady art from the other guys, and the wonderful guest submissions, please check out the Jeb site at:

http://www.jebkennedy.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!



These first two nautical-themed illustrations were a lot of fun. I plan on adding to the series with at least a third piece taking place at night. If I'm feeling ambitious, I may do a fourth installment taking place at sunrise.

I'm very pleased with this entire whale illustration. One of those stellar times when the image in my head is perfectly translated through my hands an into an illustration. A really great feeling.

This mermaid illustration is the second in the ocean series. It was really fun playing with different color combinations to get the feeling of dusk. I also really enjoyed  drawing the different sea life in this series, and giving each sea creature it's own little personality. The idea is that the moon is a a little teaser of the planned third installment for the series.

When working with a retro/mid-century style, and drawing women, it is almost a requirement to draw a  pin-up-style lady riding a rocket or a bomb. I will also take any excuse to draw anything outer-space-themed. I thought maybe putting her side-saddle would by more lady-like. This paragraph as a lot of hyphenated words.

I really wanted to do a piece that broadened the definition of our "lady" theme, by doing a little lady. Once I made my mind up to doing an illustration of a little girl, it didn't take long to decide on Boo from my very favorite Pixar film, Monsters Inc. The relationship between Sulley and Boo is really fun to watch progress throughout the movie, and I really wanted to show how she can make this otherwise terrifying beast into an innocent playmate. This one was one of my most well-recieved illustrations in Ladies & Jebs, and super fun to make. It sorta just came together very naturally. (It was also a ton of fun to sneak in all of the hidden, Pixar-style, easter eggs into the illustration.)

Hope you enjoyed the lady art! I promise, from now on it will not take me being forced to add a female touch to my work now and then.