Category Archives: Illustration

OSIRIS-REx Coloring Book

It is a little hard to believe that is has been nearly two years since the launch of the University of Arizona’s OSIRIS-REx and I was able to create a coloring book for the launch. I’ve always been fond of coloring books and space flight so I can cross this off the list of projects that combine one or more passions. For more information check out nasa.gov/osiris-rex as well as the UA’s site osirisrex.arizona.edu

The coloring book provided the challenge of distilling the concept down to something a 4 to 6 year old would understand, making the drawings both communicate what will happen as well as fun to color, and then I didn’t want to leave older children out so I created the informational page on the back side. A pdf of the coloring book is here.

UA Holiday Snowglobe 2014

Now that the 2015 card has been released, I’ll post the 2014 holiday card for University of Arizona Student Affairs & Enrollment Management. To get the best experience, click on this link with a mobile device as the snow globe shakes and new scenes appear when you tap it. Nerd fact: the original animations all had to be under 200k to flow through the mass email system, and that ain’t much. cool fact: won a Silver Addy for this.

animated snow globe

2012 USA Triathlon Duathlon Championships T-shirt Design [whoa that was long]

Once again Oro Valley and Tucson host the USA Triathlon Duathlon Championships on April 28, 2012 and we’ll be there with a T-shirt design. In case you were wondering, a duathlon is run-bike-run not swim-bike-run for a triathlon. I suppose that makes my bike riding just an athlon. I have yet to see the completed shirts and their may be embroidered shirts as well. TriSports.com is sponsoring the championships, just as they most every race in Arizona. Not only are all of athletes very appreciative of their investment into our sports, they are also highly involved with our community, our environment with their huge water harvesting barrels look like missile silos and their solar energy panels providing shade for their entire parking lot – smart move there. I could go on, but it has to be mentioned that the entire company is made up of [and owned] by great people. Below are less than half of the ideas I came up with for the t-shirt design. I’ll be cheering on a teammate who already has multiple state cycling championships as he races tomorrow, adding his 4 minute mile skills to his riding. It would be great if he pulled off a podium finish.

All in all, it is a win-win-win-win-win for our cities, athletes, TriSports.com and other local businesses – and for those of you that pick up a commemorative championship t-shirt.

I started of simple with some imagery specific to the southwest [saguaros and chilis – suprise!]

With the course up in Oro Valley, adding the backside of the Catalinas with Table Mountain helped tie in the location a bit more than just cacti, and a runner and cyclist were added. The shirts need to appeal to both women and men so I kept the feel right down the middle.

A quick two color version for embroidery was created, and dealing with thread always comes with limitations.

When it was all said and done, 3 designs were chosen and I am waiting to be surprised on which was used [all 3?] when I pick up a shirt. The logo was changed to include location and date. Of course I am hoping they sell out of them, but only after everyone that wanted one got one.

Free St. Patrick’s Day coloring page

This activity page will make my wife happy, as she is a special ed teacher and would always like more activity pages. Mixing Irish and Mexican heritage is always an easy hit. Two free versions for download are provided. I am okay with the one where it backtracks, but cutting those out and ending up with just 17 numbers is just as good. Hey, 17, March 17th…

I just had to color one for myself.

Backtracking version [shown below] — Simple 17 numbers
Free St. Patrick's Day Coloring Page

100 Years of Arizona Statehood Activity Page!

A connect the dots and coloring page? Seriously? Just go back to second grade for a moment and you know that right about know your teacher would be handing this out and you would be eating it up. 100 years – some thought that Arizona was too crazy to make it that long, but it did and we have. Have fun connecting the dots, and have fun coloring. If you like it, I might make more and make them funny [some may say Arizona is funny, but nah, really funny ones and not just off-kilter].

Click on the image below for a printable PDF that is just dying for you to complete and color. I am already coloring my third activity sheet. So much for getting work done today.

Free Arizona Statehood Coloring Page

Free February 2012 Desktop Calendar

Here is a quick calendar I drummed up as there has been a lot of work the past few weeks and not a lot of white space to do much else [always a good thing]. Now if Tucson’s weather was cooperating, it would fit the mood, but so far we have been very warm this winter. Usually there are great storms rolling through and Tucson can get the crazy dark mountains with the sun still shining through onto parts of the desert. Instead we have shorts and flip-flop weather, which is exactly what was predicted from Roadrunner day. Once again he outran his shadow, and once again we will have a winter that requires us to wear a sweatshirt for the first 2 hours of the day [and maybe closed toed shoes] and after that it is perfect weather.

You have a choice of 3 desktop calendars, two of the stormy Catalinas [one without the roadrunner] and then one of just the roadrunner – click on the image to download a desktop-sized version – enjoy!

 


 

The Little ESPN Tattoo that Never Was

ESPN Magazine contacted one of our sister companies, a printer of temporary tattoos, and asked if we could design a tattoo for one of their articles. They asked for an 8″x10″ white tattoo made up of all sorts of NFL plays to put on a players arm for an article about them. Which player? I’d love to know, and an 8″x10″ tattoo would pretty much wrap my bicep. I suppose that means it could have been any player in the NFL [wah wah wah]. In the end, they must have gone with another idea, though it would have made a great photo. I went through a half dozen versions to end up with this one that was approved, but never was used.