(I) Santi

Earlier this year my wonderful cousin Sallie moved from San Francisco to Denver, CO. Shortly after, her cat Santi passed away. He wasn't the easiest cat to get along with, but she loved him fiercely and feels his absence keenly. As a special tribute I made a watercolor painting for her of Santi as a Christmas gift. I don't actually have a picture of the finished product, but here's one of an initial sketch:

I painted the final version at a makeshift studio I set up on my parents' pool table. I'm including a photo of that just because it was such an amazing experience to have all that ROOM to spread out in! Usually I'm working in my room at my art desk. Having three times as much space is paradise!!

Happy New Year, all!

(I) Merry Christmas

(I) Pooch's Hooch beer label

Jefferson's brother- nicknamed "Pooch"- makes his own beer, so for Christmas I designed a label for him. Stay tuned for results on how that goes over...

(I) Christmas card (baby time!)

Oh my crap my little brother's gonna be a father! There, I said it, it's out there. I'm fully stoked. I made this card for them to celebrate, and to wish them a non-ravenous-tiger Christmas.

There's more stuff to come - I've been working on presents for a few people, so those need to get unwrapped before I post 'em here.

Happy holidays, all!

(V) Morty: "The Favor"

 It's got nuthin' to do with Christmas, but Morty's back! Check it by clicking HERE.

(OPP) Don Kenn

Hey all - I've been working on a few things, but I can't post 'em quite yet as they may ruin some holiday surprises. Look for a few posts toward the end of the month. In the meantime, enjoy this find I recently made, artist Don Kenn who has a blog of art drawn on post-its!

(GD) 2010 Trackstand Competition and new t-shirt

Mission Bicycle Company is holding their 2nd annual Trackstand Competition this Saturday at the SF Bike Expo. I redesigned the flier from last year with a new cyclist, which means there's a new t-shirt design in the shop! GET SOME!!

(I) Nevermore Update

I updated the design for the Nevermore t-shirts so the word balloon looks a little better on dark backgrounds. Get your shop on by visiting my Spreadshirt store. And as always this design can be put on any kind of item, just send me an email.

(I) New Halloween Design(s)!

Happy Halloween, all! In celebration of my favorite holiday, I've created a new t-shirt design with a variant for the kids- there's plenty of time to get your order on before the Big Day. The two designs are at my Spreadshirt store, and please keep in mind that any design can be put on any product, just email me: owl_henry@yahoo.com.

(I) Zombie Lex!

The latest addition to my zombie army: Zombie Alexis and her boyfriend Ben! This is the fifth installment in the series, and the first couple. Lex is also the first lady zombie I've done. Happy birthday, Dr. Lexy!!
Here's the rest of my army, beginning with my first - Zombie Rick!

Zombie...me!!

 

Zombie JD!

And Zombie Matt!

Wanna get your zombie on? Let's DO this thing. Email me.

(I) Mission Bicycle Festival T-Shirt Design

Another project I've been busy with lately, a t-shirt design for the upcoming bike celebration and street party hosted by Mission Bikes. One of the owners of MBC knows one of the founders of Threadless, who was quoted as saying he'd "wear the hell out of" this t-shirt. High praise. SF residents, please join us for the Mission Bicycle Festival on Sunday, September 26. Should be a blast, and you can pick up your very own t-shirt!

(I) Midsummer Night's Dream Poster

For those of you wondering where I've been for the past month, here it is. A good friend- who, last year, commissioned a design for the play All in the Timing- asked me to design a poster for her upcoming production of Midsummer Night's Dream. I created two images for her auditions, one featuring the Puck and the other a fairy- the file's marked as Cobweb. She's imagining a steam punk slant on the costumes, so Puck's got goggles and industrial gloves, and Cobweb has smoked glasses and an engineer's jacket:

I also created an image for the final poster, depicting the king and queen of Faerie with their animal companions as mirror images of each other. I actually drew each element separately, including flowers and petals, scanned the pencil drawings, colored them each in Photoshop, and assembled them into a file so huge that the computer actually slowed down- saving took a few minutes, and there were about 150 or so layers. It was dramatic:

I'm crazy about the finished product, though. I think it's some of the best illustration I've done to this point, and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

(I) Beekeeper Angels

I stopped in to a local beekeeping and honey store here in SF, just to check it out, and got to chatting with the owner about a beautiful mural on the back wall, a kind of Mucha-inspired piece with San Francisco symbols interspersed throughout. She was telling me that it's hard to find illustrators that aren't flakes, and mentioned a project that involved the Charlie's Angels logo but with beekeepers, an image she'd wanted to commission for some time. I got this done within the week and emailed her. We have yet to connect, and I hear the store is in financial trouble so this may be simply a creative exercise for me. Another. Creative. Exercise. For me. :)

(I) Zombie Matt!

This week my friend and co-blogger Matt joins Rick, JD and me in Zombie Town. Check out the GooBlog for more information, or to check out all the other cool stuff we've been doing.

(GD) Summer Song

A logo for a summer house in Maine.

(I) S is for Seahorse!

Careful observers will note- perhaps with outrage- that there's already an "S" design in the B is for Baby canon. This one was a commission for some friends and their new baby, which apparently looked like a tiny seahorse in her first sonogram. This design, along with all the others- now there are 15!- is available at the B is for Baby Cafepress store as well as the Spreadshirt T-Shirt site.

(OPP) Travis Louie

Some beautiful creatures from my latest discovery, Travis Louie. Check out his site by clicking HERE.

S.O.F.A. 3 - Now on YouTube!

"S.O.F.A. 3: The Test" is the latest video from the Non-Permanent Parliament, the comedy short film side of my artistic endeavors. The S.O.F.A. series follows a woman who has entered a kind of witness protection program to live without the gays she so loves being with. In this installment, our heroine must undergo a test in her new group therapy. Check out the video by clicking HERE, and please rate, comment and pass it along- you can even subscribe to my videos!

Threadless' PeliCAN t-shirt benefits Gulf Coast relief

Threadless.com is an excellent site where graphic artists create t-shirt designs, fans vote on them, and the most popular are printed. I've purchased a number of shirts over the years, and now there's even more reason to support Threadless: a $10 t-shirt benefiting and raising awareness for the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. Check out PeliCAN and get involved, yo!

Goo Blog: Subway Sketch

The Goo Blog rolls on! This is a sketch I did in a NYC subway. You can read more about it by visiting my weekly blog with artist Matt Gaydos: http://twogoosinone.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/subway-sketch/

(I) New Goo Blog Entry: Contour Drawings

This is my latest entry to the blog I've been working on with my brilliant artist friend Matt Gaydos. You can read the description of where this piece came from, and you can check out all of our other stuff by clicking HERE.

Frank Frazetta 1928-2010

Frank Frazetta passed away in a hospital in Florida; the cause of death was a stroke. His style was deeply influential and instantly recognizable, and his absence in the art world will be felt. When I was a kid, my dad had a small print of one of his paintings on the inside of his towel cabinet, and there were a number of books on the shelves of our house with his work on the covers. I think that was one of the triggers that got me reading- I wanted to know who these incredible people and monsters were!

Thank you, Mr. Frazetta, for giving breadth to my developing imagination.

Owl Henry Gelaskins!

No, I know: you've always wanted Owl Henry images on your phone (iPhone or...lesser phone), laptop, iPad, iPod, Kindle or game system. Your dreams are real. Gelaskins is a company that can put any of my images (or, yes, your images) on sticky paper, and they make it absurdly simple to do so. Just email me (owl_henry@yahoo.com) and I'll set you up to be the coolest l'il Owl Henry supporter on your block. Let's do this thing.

(I) H is for Hyena

Congratulations to Sarah Parker and her new family!

(OPP) Winsor McCay

One of my favorite artists, Winsor McCay worked around the turn of the century, creating works like this for his 'Little Nemo' strip, the series he is best known for today:
The detail and storytelling is amazing, but even more mind-blowing is that he and other artists like him cranked stuff like this out WEEKLY- they appeared every Sunday.

(I) Lazarus

New post on my blog with artist Matt Gaydos. Check it out by clicking here: http://twogoosinone.wordpress.com/

(OPP) Stephane Tartelin

One of my favorite artists. Check out his website by clicking HERE.

(I) King Jackalope

My blog with artist buddy Matt Gaydos rages on. Check it out by clicking HERE.

(GD) Professional Postcards

After the success of the visualization project I created for him, Mr. Ryan hired me to create a gratitude postcard for his clients. Though it's not my typical style, I wanted to design something that would correspond with the look of his website, creating a unified, professional presentation.

(I) Lovecraft Portrait

In my latest post to the GooBlog, I created a portrait of H.P. Lovecraft using pen and ink- no pencil layouts, no Photoshop fixing, no do overs. Kind of intimidating, but I think it came out all right. Check out my blog with my friend Matt by clicking here.

(GD) Three New 'B is for Baby' Clothes Designs!

Yeah! Three more letters towards my total conquest of the alphabet! Wa ha ha!! The iguana is a commission, the quail was for a friend's birthday, and the bat is just rad. And that's what we're all about here at OwlHenryDesign: Rad.

I was recently critiqued for having few ladies' designs in the shop, and I wanted to make sure everyone knows that any design in the shop can be put on any piece of clothing, though I try to make sure those clothes are made in the USA. Just email me and I'll set it up, no problem.

So check 'em out at my Spreadshirt store: http://owlhenry.spreadshirt.com/
or visit the brand new Cafepress store, where you can see pictures of my cousin Thalia sporting her "O is for Octopus" bib, as well as Tony and Karen's son Emmett in his "E is for Eel" t-shirt. NICE! http://www.cafepress.com/OwlHenryBaby

New Collaborative Art Blog!

My friend Matt and I have been talking about creating a blog together for a while now. We think of it as a kind of conversation, one guy makes a piece of art, the other guy responds in any way he wants, and we create, over the course of a year, a combined total of 52 pieces. Follow the goo times here.
I should add that this idea was inspired by a similar blog between artists James Jean and Kenichi Hoshine, called "A Polite Winter." Though they haven't posted anything in four years, it's still worth checking out: A Polite Winter.

(V) Morty's Commercial Appearance

The Morty's just keep coming, though I think this will be the last for a while. This one was written and directed by Rod Brogan, genius at large. Enjoy by clicking HERE.

(GD) Visualization Project

The following pieces were for a client who wanted help with a visualization exercise he's working on. In the first two, his head is placed on actor Jason Stratham's body, and in the third, he's surrounded by money. They were a good challenge for me, and I hope they help!