Retro paintings

It is the 10 year anniversary of the Michael Jordan painting. I painted it sophomore year in High School. It was the first drawing/painting that really let me know how far I was coming as an artist and inspired me to want to go into the art field. When I did the picture I thought about what I could do differently and so I painted his portrait Black and white but wanted to leave the rings in color. My art teacher, Mr. Myles walked me through the process and got it started for me, then I was able to finish it up by myself. So I'll say he did about 30% of the work.
I of course was proud of the painting and showed it off to everyone I knew. My mother made copies of it and sold it to her co-workers at her job at the time. Alot of my family members also have copies of it. The one mistake I think I made was not really trademarking this version of the image. Since the reference was from a nike ad, Nike really owned the rights to the image (and so does the photographer). So after I let a friend post the pic on her website, not too long afterwards I started seeing my version on jackets, backpacks, t-shirts, etc. Can't say for sure that it was all based on this version but it's pretty coincedental.

My kinda girl...

This is from last year, when Sucker Punch actress Abbie Cornish was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, to promote her movie "Bright Star". He cracks me up when he watches a clip of her rapping and is shocked that she's pretty good, considering in the US she's only known for doing art house drama films. She went by the name MC Dusk during her rapping days as a member of Blades of Hades. In another clip from that show, she showed some graffiti she did.

Cute face, accent, an action movie coming out next year, rapping, tagging. Sounds like my kinda girl...except for the whole dating Ryan Phillipe while he was married.

BTW, Her group, Blades, finally got a record deal. I doubt she's still apart of the group full-time, but she might get a featured appearance on their album. Her mentioning them on tv, no doubt helped get them noticed by a record label.
Cheers!

Video and images are copyright to Jimmy Kimmel Live and abc network.

Bruce Lee

This is another collaboration with artist Richard Serrao. So far I've colored a few of his drawings that he's sent to me via e-mail. Here's another one we did of 60's/70's Martial Arts film legend Bruce Lee.

This is one of his older drawings, but it was one of the earliest drawings I've seen of his and was kinda excited to color it. I went for a retro style similar to the Chinese Connection dvd cover.

Mr. Serrao and I have been discussing working on a Punisher story that he's been working on for a couple years. He's been giving me some very humbling compliments on his blog, and it's very encouraging. His friends have also been giving me some feedback (positive or otherwise) but very helpful. Hopefully he gets the greenlight for the Punisher book, and I'm able to be the colorist.

Even if that doesn't happen hopefully the two of of us can work on another project together. These projects have been fun nonetheless and have been good for my portfolio. Well I'm out Nellz Nation.