October Monsters 1

This October I'm doing one monster sketch a day. I'll be sitting down every night for no more than an hour, max, and making some creatures. Just because I love October the best. Enjoy.

2 New Morty Videos - Whaaaaaaat? True.

My incredibly talented friend Erik Champney took over writing duties for "Morty Against Humanity," Sir Mortimer's TWENTIETH video!! This one is truly wild and wonderful and I love it - definitely one of the best Christmas *cough* presents ever. Thank you, Erik, you brilliant fuck! CLICK HERE to soak in the weird. And please CLICK HERE to read more about Erik and his illustrious playwriting career!

In other Morty news, Sir Huddlesworth was challenged to The Ice Bucket Challenge, and responded as only Morty can. Click the picture below to watch:

Cool Cats

This was an idea that popped into my head and wouldn't leave. No special reason for it, I just felt like celebrating some of the more cat-oriented vet techs that I work with. Everyone at the animal hospital works incredibly hard, and I'm always honored to be even a peripheral part of the team.

Another semester down!

Fourth semester of nursing school has limped to its final, gasping finish, and I feel more confident than ever. Which is good, because the HESI and NCLEX tests are right around the corner! These are some images from thank you cards for our clinicals instructors, who more than deserved them.

Morty sings! (I've Had) The Time of My Life

Morty's at it again! Click the image above to get back into the studio with Morty as he records the 80's classic, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." If that's not enough for you, Morty's also recorded Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and Will Smith's "Summertime." You're welcome.

R.I.P. Nikki

You're all like, "Mike, I'm into that picture of your friend's dog that passed away from cancer." And I'm like, "Yeah, I painted that." You're like, "Uh...WHAT?" And I go, "Yeah. Second painting I ever did." You can't even speak. I continue, "Well, I'm not counting the Lazarus hiccup. I do count that Tree Grows in Bako brilliance, though." And you're all, "That's crazy!" And I know. I. Fuggin. Know.

Rest in peace, Nikki. Good dog.

K is for Kung Fu Kangaroos (I)

The niecelet turns three this year. When she was born I made a K is for Kaiya/Kachina design, and for her second birthday she got a t-shirt with Krakens on it. This year, kung fu-kicking kangaroos! Happy birthday, you wonderful little creature!!

ALC 2014 Rest Stop 2 Med Team Logo (I)

Tomorrow, the AIDS/Lifecycle completes its yearly week-long journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and for the second year in a row I've been sidelined by school. This year I did get to contribute this design, commissioned by my friend Amber who heads up Rest Stop 2's medical team. The printer kind of made it into a whole new design - I wish I'd known what to expect, I would have done it slightly differently, but live and learn. Radness will not be denied.

I'm all signed up for next year's ALC, so Becky and I will see you at the Med Tent. And if you're wondering what Rest Stop 2 is, check out my music video from 2012, or my longer documentary-type-thing from 2011. We do have some fun!

Thank you to all the heroes who participated this year in the ALC - a truly amazing experience for a truly honorable cause.

Back to School (P/GD)

I'm midway through my nursing program! It feels like I just started school, and then it also feels like I started school about 100 years ago. Below are some graphics I made over the past semester, just to prove I've still got some skillz, and I still find ways here and there to be creative. Thank you to everyone who's supported me through this - three more semesters!

Hotter Than July (GD)

A congratulations image I sent to some li'l genius in NYC who just opened her art show in NYC called Hotter Than July, a celebration of all things sexual. It's up May 2 - May 9 if you're in that area. For more information or to check out some hot porn artistic images, CLICK HERE. Congratulations, Savannah - now get some sleep!

(I) Thank You, 5A!

It's the end of another semester of clinicals, our semester-long hospital rotation. This semester, nine of us were at SF General for our Med-Surg I clinicals, with my team of three assigned to Unit 5A. It's my third semester, and definitely my best in terms of feeling comfortable, learning a shit ton, and liking the nurses I worked with. There's just no good way to properly thank a team of nurses for being open to having students - it just makes a world of difference, working under professionals that actually want to teach you. The above illustration is a poster design that we put up in the break room, along with an ample supply of coffee.

Thank you 5A, and see you next semester for Med-Surg II! Woot!!

Win some, lose some... (I)

Not every project works out the way you hope. I made this at a request from a friend who told me to do whatever, which means I put her and her friend in a horror/suspense film context. She didn't get the reference, so she didn't use the image. Ah well - I like it anyway. Do YOU get the reference?

Wedding Bash Invitation (GD)

My incredible brother is getting married at the end of this month to his girlfriend of eight years and the mother of my beautiful niece. As my wedding gift, I made the invitation. Tiffany wanted a western theme. The skull in the image is a picture of one hanging on my mom's garage, on the property where the wedding is to take place, and the flowers are natives to California and Hawaii, two favorite states of the bride and groom. Their festivities are going to be casual and fun, and I'm very much looking forward to bearing witness.

I Love New York

Precious

I just want to walk this city, always
The background blur in a thousand photographs
Gliding along with all the old ghosts of me
Whose sentences begin with, "Do you remember...?"
And I answer yes, no matter the truth

I take their hands, hot with their exertions
I can feel the birds in their muscles
Suddenly they need a different train
They're on the wrong street
They're gone, but they never go far

Their hearts are stuffed with old Time Out pages
The free events circled
They breathe coffee
You can play them the whole song
But they'll only hear the last line

                                             -New York City, 25th and 9th
                                              14 January, 2014

Happy Holidays 2013! (I)

Hello all! Thanks for all your support this past year! Despite the pressures of nursing school, I've managed to put out some fairly deece things, I hope you've enjoyed them. And I fulfilled my resolution to publish at least one thing a month! Yeah!

Above is the image I made for my holiday cards this year. The creative process is fascinating to me. Being a largely untrained artist, sometimes I have to let the pencil do what it wants, and either I like what I see or I start over. Forcing a design out if it's not coming is just painful. This year was like that; I had a really different image in mind, but I couldn't make it work. (It was a little alien sitting on a wall looking at a star, but it kept looking like a giant penis with feet. Not so Christmasy...or not the holiday vibe I was going for.) So I started doodling, and this li'l weird dude came out with his floating cats. Huh.

Happy New Year, everyone. Everyone here at Owl_Henry (which is just me, of course!) wishes you a happy and safe holiday wrap-up. See you in 2014!!

(I) Super Ed!

The image on a thank you card I designed for our cohort's class rep, who always works so hard for us. I used zazzle.com for the actual card, and I highly recommend them. Thanks, Edward!

 

Happy Birthday, Sonja! (I)

Holiday card design for my dad (I)

My dad asked me to design his Christmas cards this year, so I made three. I chose three symbols of our family's favorite place, Big Sur: a sprig of lupin, a redwood cone, and a golden eagle's feather.

If you'd like to purchase some for yourself, or another of my various holiday card designs, please check out my Cafepress site.

Chris of Thrones (I)

Christopher and his dog Echo are way into Game of Thrones, and that's okay. Here's a portrait I made of the two of them as John Snow and Ghost for his birthday last month.

Halloween Radness 2013

Another year, another birthday...the radness continues. Here's last year's image.

Lillian's First Birthday Party! (GD)

Two very dear friends from my grad school days are quietly raising your new favorite presidential candidate in Bakersfield, CA. Yesterday she celebrated her first birthday! Below is the invitation I was commissioned to make for the celebration. If the party was half as delish as the lovely Lillian, I'm sure it was the party of the year. Where were you??

Happy October! (I)

Two images of myself I recently created for my Facebook profile, which has become my artistic medium of choice. The first is my yearly tribute to Halloween and the best month of the year. The second is me as the vaguely-psychotic nursing student I've become. Below those two are some photo references I used. Happy Fantastic, all!

She Creatures (I)

Another year, another show poster project for my high school teacher friend! This year she's directing a play called, She Creatures, and my main objective for the poster was "KEEP IT SIMPLE!" I have a real problem with this, year after year. Last year's blowout for Dr. Horrible was a lot of drawing, a lot of layers, a lot of time spent. My own fault - I have a specific vision, but I don't work very fast, and there's probably shortcuts I could be using in Photoshop. The big nightmare was Midsummer a few years ago - man, that was epic. But ultimately, I was really, really happy with both of those.

She Creatures is a somewhat abstract piece involving various mythological creatures climbing out of Pandora's famous box into their individual vignettes. A phoenix, a gorgon, a sphinx, a shapeshifter, a dragon, a selkie, a unicorn, and a mermaid all have their uniquely-realized scenes. I made the beasts into primitive cave drawings, which I think makes them more mysterious - a sense of the familiar and unfamiliar at once. The light bursts around them make them look a little like constellations, and I like that (unplanned) aspect of the piece. The background photo is a room in my mom's house, a bright red wall that felt right, and the box is actually a fancy tea container. I love this design - simple and eye-catching. Boom.

Check out the other posters I've created for the Mira Loma Black Box Theatre by clicking below:
All In The Timing (2009)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2010)
Almost, Maine (2011)
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - The Musical! (2012)

Morty raps! (Audio)

Morty raps. Your summer is complete. (Click the pic to listen.)

Nursing School Project (I)

People keep asking me how nursing school is. The truth? Kind of awful. The program is excellent, the teachers are knowledgeable and friendly, and I couldn't have asked for a better cohort of fellow nurses. But the amount of information I'm expected to cram into my head and actually retain? Terrifying. I'm excited to be a nurse, to have graduated and found a job (which, according to everyone I've spoken with - only a small percentage of whom are nurses - will be no problem), to be able to come home at night, plop down on the couch and watch Mad Men without worrying about all the homework I'm avoiding...that's the dream.

Below is the image I created for a final group project in last semester's Pathophysiology class. Nursing school is intense, but I have to say I'm loving all the information I'm being exposed to, all the questions I'm answering (even if I have to look up those answers five times). Hopefully it'll all stick at some point and I'll be saving lives in no time. Pray for me.