Tri-Beta Crest

I was approached by a client wanting to purchase an old design I did a couple years back, but I didn't feel comfortable selling that design because it no longer represented my illustrating abilities (the old design is still on my account from the Emptees days, but it's definitely not up to Mintees standards). So, I took the opportunity to revisit the scientific symbolism of Tri-Beta, a biological honors society of which I was a member in college. The client went for a one-color print to keep costs low, but I like this two-color option.

Crest of Ignatius

This is an unused design for my medical school. They took a different design that was more marketable a wider age range.

It's a re-interpretation of their logo, the crest of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He was a 15th century Spanish knight-turned-priest who founded the Jesuits. He was known for his prosperity and generosity, including sharing his food with wild animals after his family and workers were fed.

Loyola Medicine

I designed a shirt for my medical school last month, and now it's getting printed. It was a fun one to draw. I did the individual drawings by inking them up on tracing paper on X-ray machines at the med school.

CURE Uganda

My fiancee spent this last January studying nursing in Uganda. While there, they had clinicals at CURE Hospital, a pediatric neurosurgery hospital in Mbale, Uganda. Each year the nursing class has a fundraiser to bring a monetary gift to help support the hospital. This year Justine organized selling shirts, and I was able to help out by designing them. There was a great response, and we made over $2,000 in profit for the hospital. Here we are wearing both color options.

Iniquity

Once upon a time, there was a perfectly happy heart who lived in blissful autonomy outside of any body. Then one day, a mystical dagger from outer space pierced the heart with a mortal wound, cutting it from left atria to right ventricle. The commotion summoned a serpent who violently protested by displaying it's over-sized fangs. Luckily, I was there to witness the entire event so I could draw it later.

Judgement Day - Nuclear Vishnu

I've had the privilege to work with the nation’s best string metal band, Judgement Day. Anyone who hasn't yet heard their unique take on metal (violin, cello, drums, and NO guitar; need I say more?), quit reading and go to their website immediately. I’ve been trying to develop my style more on this design, and I really like where it took me. I hope you guys like it too.

This shirt will be for sale at Judgement Day’s show at The Independent in San Fransisco on September 29. The show is called "Evolution of Strings." If you live in the area, check it out.

Judgement Day’s website: http://www.stringmetal.com/judgementday/



Here's an animation of the design process.

Imago Dei, Universitas Improbitas

I fused a few ideas I had bouncing a round in my head for a while and came up with this. I tried to use objects and symbols that can be interpreted as both divine and depraved in an attempted to juxtapose the being made in God's image and being inherently flawed.

Rise of the Unholy Trinity

I was inspired by Albrecht Durer and my eschatology class to draw an interpretation of Revelation 12-13. I felt particulary challenged to draw it when my professor said that no one interprets Revelation completely literally. I decided to give it a go, and came to the conclusion that the Bible has some of the best metal imagery around. I've been trying to get some bands to bite, but nothing so far so it's for sale.


Here's an animation of the design process.

Monster Pop - Diver's Nightmare

It's been a long time since I posted anything. However, school's almost over, and my mind is full of interesting ideas. Here's a shirt design that I finished last summer that just got printed for Monster Pop's spring line. I haven't done many full color designs like this recently, but I still like doing this style of linework. I have two other designs for for sale there too. Check them out if you're interested at http://monsterpop.storenvy.com.

Astrela - Dissection

Here's a shirt I did a couple months ago that Astrela picked up. They're a local post-hardcore/screamo band from Rhode Island. Check them out some rough samples here: http://www.myspace.com/astrelamusic. This is probably the goriest shirt I've done yet, but it was a lot of fun.

Bloody Heart

I'm experimenting with designs with simpler color schemes. It's been fun. Here's the first one, and hopefully more will come soon. I also had some amazing die cut stickers made of this design.

Heart Battack

No where else can you see a heart-infused zombie bat like this one. The real question is whether cardiovascular layout is beneficial for this creature or not. On one hand, a massive heart means that it could have a huge energy potential and therefore a huge amount of destructive ability, but a completely exposed and inverted heart may leave a flying mammal quite vulnerable. I experimented with a simple two-color design this time. I'm pretty happy with how the fog/glow turned out. The text is just for placement. If anyone else would like to buy it, I would change the text for them.

Tri Beta - Crest

DISCLAIMER: I already know that I am an ultimate geek. There is no need to leave any comments or write any emails alerting me to this fact.

I am an officer for my university's chapter of Tri Beta, an honor society for biology majors. We are currently in the process of designing some apparel for other bio-geeks to purchase. We were thinking of putting the Tri Beta crest on a shirt, which definitely seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I looked at the crest, and I couldn't help thinking to myself. "Self, that crest is full of awesome imagery that you could illustrate way better than that original design. I mean, we're talking a knight's helmet and shield, a skull with a snake emerging, crazy weird leaf-vines, and rugged banners. You owe it to the world to make this more alive (...and slightly more brutal)." So with a newly inflated sense of self, I did. Just for the heck of it. And I had a lot of fun. I also included the old crest so that you can marvel at the vast improvement.

Lizard Bones

This is an older design that I started as an experiment a while ago but only recently decided that I was done with it. That's the unruly nature of experiments; it's hard to know when to call it complete. As a result, this has sat untouched on my hard drive since last spring in hopes that I would get inspired to "finish" it. Then I just decided that it was finished! It probably still needs more to be a full design, but if anyone's interested, I'd keep working on it.

Hummingbirds and Morning Glories

This design was fun because it was a chance to apply some of the detailed linework that I usually do to a tamer idea. I plan on screen printing this soon.

Immortal Revenge - Eight Appendages of Impending Doom

I figure every artist has to draw a writhing octopus and create a variation of Hokusai's "Great Wave of Kansagawa," so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. This has been my first real project of 2009. It was done mostly for fun and the hope that it would look sweet. There is no deep significance other than the magnificence of octopi.

Immortal Revenge Clothing purchased this, but it hasn't been printed yet.

Opthomanus Ingestor

The Opthomanus ingestor is a very intriguing creature. It was created in the margins of my biology notebook a few weeks ago. It moves by pulling forward with its hand-like head and follows by inch worming its back claws. When it attacks its prey, it snatches it up with its hand, quickly whips its mouth tail around, and vigorously shoves the prey into the vortex of teeth.

Wisdom Rooted in Love

When most people look at a tree, they only see the branches. However, the foundation is in the roots. In the same way, if we think of our visible actions and the invisible thoughts and motives that accompany them as the tree, what are the roots? It is my hope that my roots are in love and that this love motivates first my thoughts and then my actions.

For the Love of All Things Creepy and Crawly

This design is inspired by Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God," but instead of spending millions of dollars to plate it with diamonds, I used assorted reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods. I think it would look sick if it was printed with glow-in-the-dark ink.

For the Love of All Things Creepy and Crawly

So this picture technically isn't a "reptile" skull since it includes amphibians and a few arthropods as well as reptiles, but that would result in a rather long name. I took about 80 or so images of these awesome creatures and traced them. Then I scanned them moved them around in Photoshop until I got the shapes I wanted. Keep coming back here for more posts of my artwork!