Free Yo Mind/Film Fest Frenzy/Throwdown

Here are three semi-recent pieces. The first one, "Free Yo Mind" is for my tentatively titled book "Baptized in Fonk". The second piece I did for Baltimore City Paper's Film Fest Frenzy issue. I've always wanted to illustrate a special issue for the City Paper and wasn't asked until recently to do this for them. I love the way it printed and wish that I could have done some spots to go with it. Maybe next time. The third piece I did for Baltimore magazine's Charm City Chatter column. The piece depicts the "Throwdown" between Baltimore chef Rodney Henry and Bobby Flay. Apparently they were recorded for Flay's "Throwdown" show and they baked quiches. 

 

Baltimore Love Project/Madonna Party/Force Fed

Here are a few pieces that I finished this week.

The first is for my friend Michael Owen's Baltimore Love Project fundraiser called Innovate Love. The name of the piece is called "Neighborly Love". To innovate is to make changes in anything established. "Neighborly Love" is about breaking the mold and reconstructing. What would happen if our neighborhoods were able to co-exist, bond and build on the foundation of love? When I think of Baltimore, the city that I live in and love, this is how I imagine it.

The second piece is a piece that I did for the Ottobar in Baltimore for a Madonna/Gaga/Britney dance party. I took elements of each person and created a super-human/diva/pop-star. The face of Madonna, the bald head that Britney sported for a minute and Gaga's glasses.

The third piece is a personal piece I did entitled "Force Fed" that will soon be a part of a book project that I'm working on with Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins aka Declaime. I'm hoping to call the book "Baptized in Fonk".

New Bmag and some personal work

The first piece below is my latest for Baltimore magazine. It was chronicling the SNOWPOCALYPSE that we experienced here in Baltimore last month. The second piece is a piece that I did for my wife for our anniversary. The phrase is from a Flamingos song by the same name. This song is "our song" as a couple.

Baltimore Magazine: Murder Ink Readings

This is a piece that I did for Baltimore Magazine's Charm City Chatter column. This write up was about the public readings of Anna Ditkoff's Murder Ink column that runs in the City Paper (that I work for).

Prince VS Madonna VS Michael

This was done for the Ottobar's (in Baltimore) annual Prince/Madonna/Michael dance party. The idea is that Madonna, Michael and Prince are the foundation of pop music, much like the color wheel is the foundation of color. While designing this I thought of the colored circles on cans of spray paint. As a result, I decided to add some spray paint to tie it all together, along with some symbols to evoked royaliy and religion (naturally). 

Baltimore Magazine: At the Rodeo

For this month's Charm City Chatter column I was asked to illustrate the Professional Bull Riders invitational that took place downtown. I was really excited to do this one because it meant that I got to draw a cowboy and some plaid. 

Soul Full of Christmas: Mix Cd

This is a holiday mix cd that I made for family and friends this year.

Roots Jam Session

This is my submission for the Roots' Jam Session logo contest. I hope I win. I love the Roots. Tweet it/me if you like: funkaldelyfunk

The BOSS!

I illustrated this for Baltimore Magazine's Charm City Chatter column. I used my buddy Frank Hamilton's photo as a reference, so there's some authenticity to this one.

CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK

A piece I did for Thursday night's 2nd Annual Lighting of the Chicken ceremony's corresponding exhibition 'Chicken in a Biscuit'.
Artwork had to be chicken themed.

Bob Dylan: It's Not Dark Yet

A piece that I did for my wife's b-day. She loves Bob Dylan and loves this song.

City Paper: Female Problems

A piece I just finished for Baltimore City Paper's annual Fiction and Poetry contest. This story was about an abused woman and a constant reminder (her cat) of her abused past.

Baltimore Magazine: Poe Procession

This was a piece I did for the 'Charm City Chatter' column of Baltimore Magazine. The piece was supposed to depict the mock Edgar Allen Poe funeral procession that was held in mid-October. The client really wanted to depict Raven's fans, bagpipe players, the horse and carriage, the police, etc. I felt that silhouettes was the best way to depict the wide variety of characters at the event.

Work in Progress

This is a commissioned piece that I am working on. A portrait. This is the background art, the portrait still has to be worked on. More to come later...

Self Portrait...

I have a bunch of stuff to post soon, but because of secrets and/or publication dates I have to wait a little bit. In the meantime, here is a self portrait I did last night/this morning between baby duties.

Bmag update

These are the latest illustrations that I did for Baltimore Magazine. The Otakon piece was online only because of editorial issues that caused the column to get pulled.The piece on the left depicts Cardin's paparazzi filled town-hall meeting last month.

Social Networking spot illustrations for Style

These illustrations were done for STYLE magazine to accompany their social networking feature. While I am very happy with the final, I had a different idea for the Craigslist piece that was rejected, that I may revisit just because I was really in love with it.

UPDATE: Below are scans of the layout. Love it. STYLE magazine prints color so beautifully.

New Amerykah Type Poster

New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh

This is my piece to commemorate Badu's follow up album to New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War. I plan on giving her a print when I see her at Merriweather this Saturday.

Doppelganger Danger...

This is a poster that I designed for the Wilma Martinez Project:
Wilma Martinez Project
This was Wilma's first stab at starring in two roles simultaneously. From what I hear it's pretty raunchy.

STYLE magazine "Summer Waves"

This was for STYLE magazine. The feature was on summer hair trends and the art director wanted something "retro feeling". I think it turned out quite nice.

This is the latest piece that I did for Baltimore magazine's Charm City Chatter column. It was for the kid's group Milkshake's visit to the Lyric Opera house. Apparently they are HUGE and from Baltimore. I didn't realize how big they were when I got the assignment, maybe because my child is only 3.5 months old. Anyway, the idea was to make the kids event look like it was in a "grown-up" environment, hence the point of view.

Elephants on Parade

This is on my promo piece (which you can see in a few posts below), but I figured I'd post it again in a larger size. It is featured in the "Charm City Chatter" column of the current issue of Baltimore magazine. The piece was to illustrate the annual march of the animals parade that Ringling puts together every year. The elephants march from the B&O Railroad museum to the big top. This year the parade happened a little later than usual and apparently there were kids in their pajamas there to see the large pachyderms.

T-shirt update...

So, the people at Okayplayer said they loved my original design, but were torn as to whether or not they liked the Meshell portrait, so they asked me for a couple more versions featuring the monkey with headphones image that is on the cover of "Cookie". I redrew it to fit my style and added a few scratches and splats and this is the end result. I hope that I'm in the running to win the contest.

Okayplayer T-shirt Contest...

So, I have been a big fan of okayplayer.com for some time now. Online home of the Roots and fansite for okayplayer branded artists such as Amy Winehouse, Meshell Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu, Common, Talib Kweli, Jazzyfatnastees, SA-RA, J Dilla–the list goes on and I consider myself to be an okayplayer.

Anyway, they recently posted a contest to design a t-shirt to commemorate the year 2002 in honor of their 10 year anniversary. I chose to do a design for Meshell Ndegeocello's "Cookie-The Anthropological Mixtape" because I'm a big fan of Meshell's and other artists that released material in 2002 were already represented in one of the other designs. I came up with four designs. Here they are. Stay tuned to see if I win.