Hosewater Brewing Co.

Here are two beer labels I concocted for the beer-brewing crew I joined last year. Each is a simple pen sketch taped over a collage of ripped magazine paper. Both still need text placed on them in Photoshop, but that will likely happen when I produce more of these so that I can do it consistently all at once. Stay tuned for more! (Bitter Ex Amber Ale, Poacher's Pale Ale, Rye for an Eye, Johnny Pumpkinseed, Bitch-Tits Cream Ale, etc.)

Dapper Cactus IPA (India Pale Ale)

Wily Czar (Russian Imperial Stout)

Melancholy Comics: 1

Apologies for the size; this is as big as I can make it. I hope it's still legible.

From 2009--This was going to be a piece of a larger project with black and white ink narrative interspersed with mixed-media dream sequences, but I've since moved on to other endeavors. The over-arcing theme of the project was about self-discovery, but I've become much more comfortable with myself over the last five years and have shed the angst that originally fueled these works.

Still good exercises in visual storytelling though.

Skulls: 3/4 angle

Not 100% anatomically proportioned, but a fun shape to reproduce none the less.
-A pencil drawing                                   -A paper puzzle

The Golden Snitch

Behold!

I made this snitch  in 2007 as a gift for a friend before you could just buy one at the store. I placed it in a box that I covered in paper and ink to make it look a tad more regal. On one side there are swirling engravings and on the other side is a very poorly translated inscription reading "We'll lead as two kings" in Latin, although it more than likely says something like "Us reigning as how king twins."

The snitch was made with oven bake clay packed around a wooden core, and metallic origami paper over jeweler's wire for the wings. I carved a small compartment inside the wooden core to house secret messages, jewels, drugs, teeth, monkey tears, demon souls, etc. The etchings in the surface were made after a pre-bake (a half cook time to stiffen the clay without fully setting it) in order to avoid warping on the surface. Pre-bakes are great if you ever need to carve a design into a sculpture or you want to make straight cuts that will hold their shape, particularly if you're going for a hewn stone look. The swirling lines and the inscription we stained with a brown ink wash: coating the piece in watered-down ink/paint that seeps into recesses and then wiping off the excess on the surface.

It doesn't fly, but it looks pretty sweet.

. . . torn apart by idle hands . . .

Today's piece is from a couple of years ago:

Tiger Mask

-Fall 2008
-Paper, markers, tape
-Not of my own design, actually from an old french template I found in my garage back in California
-Not a mask for wearing, more of a wall decoration

Paper Tiger: also a really cool Beck song.