wonderground gallery show

I was asked to be a part of the very first show at the Disney Wonderground Gallery in Downtown Disney (right next to Disneyland, CA!).  I was asked to do a Mickey themed piece and a Pixar theme piece, and I got to choose which Pixar film to do.  I finished these waaaaaay back in February and  I can finally show them to you!

The grand opening of the gallery will be on June 9, in Downtown Disney.

I'll be there!!! 

From 11am-1pm I'll be there to sign my custom painted Vinylmation 95 (which is top secret until then), and say hello!

I love classic cartoony Mickey, especially the rubber hose era, where things were allowed to get super weird and surreal.  They're so fun to watch.  I didn't want to stray too far from that.  But also, pink.  Lots of pink.

I wanted to focus on Sid for my Toy Story piece.  Did you ever know a kid like him??  I didn't, but I DID go to people's houses were it was obvious they hadn't redecorated in about 30 years.  That gross avocado green from Sid's house really stuck with me...and the shag carpet...and the crazy wallpaper...yipes.  I always liked the mutant toys lots, too.  They're fun and sad at the same time.  

Both these pieces are acrylic on board, and framed, and ready to go!  

I'm not exactly sure just yet, but there may be t-shirts and prints of these paintings available at the gallery, amongst other things!

Should be a pretty good day.  Hope some of you can make it out!

cheer book art

While digging around in the folders on my desktop looking for stuff to update my portfolio with, I ran across many (many many) folders of artwork from the CHEER! series that I worked on last year.  Then I realized that I never posted any of it!  I guess I was waiting for the books to come out and kinda forgot!  It all works out because now I can post my favorite drawings from the third, fourth and fifth books altogether.  

Unfortunately, the last two books had very, very few illustrations in them at all.  I guess they weren't selling so hot and they had to cut back where they could, so the books went from having about 80 illustrations total to having about 12.  Ah well, it was fun while it lasted!

This is one of my favorites from all 5 books.  This girl is in love with Dustin-something-pop-icon-kid (basically Justin Bieber), so I got to draw really silly, jacked up versions of Justin.  The narrator, like myself at that tender high school age, really doesn't get the whole boy band infatuation thing.

The team mascot in the book is this wall-eyed bear costume.  Ha ha!

These are "artsy" kids.  I like the kid with the cameras.  He's really into photography, man!

A fashion blogger type!

I always like drawing tea cups.  Or coffee cups.  Any cups, really.

New York boys.  Too cool for school!

Little spice dudes!

Another Dustin-Justin, signing autographs with a booger in his nose.  

Did anyone else have teachers that looked like this?  80's blouses, miserable wrinkly face, sensible shoes?  I think all of mine were this way.  

Who hasn't wished they could high five someone through the computer screen?  Is anyone working on this technology?

These were all done in good old fashioned Photoshop, by the way.  I used a scratchy-inky brush.

In other news, I have a big THING to share with you soon and it has to do with 

Disneyland 

and Toy Story 

and Mickey Mouse 

and t-shirts 

and vinyl toys. 

 Doesn't that sound cryptic-ly exciting?? 

 I can't divulge any specific stuff YET (well, they actually gave me an official blurb I could post on my blog but it is so obviously not written by me that you'd probably be offended that I posted it at all, assuming I thought I could trick you, and then you'd be mad and never come back, right?) but as soon as it all goes down I'll post lots of pictures and it will be great!