1. Trying to decide whether to add the background junk or stop at just the bear. It would be metallic silver paint, mixed with some black for the shaded tones.

    Trying to decide whether to add the background junk or stop at just the bear. It would be metallic silver paint, mixed with some black for the shaded tones.

  2. My friend Caleb, a former classmate at Texas Tech who is now doing amazing things in the editorial art direction world, was just in town and checked out my mural-in-progress at Airtime. 

    My friend Caleb, a former classmate at Texas Tech who is now doing amazing things in the editorial art direction world, was just in town and checked out my mural-in-progress at Airtime. 

  3. Please forgive me for having been gone for so long. I promise I can change… I’ve been working around the clock lately on some new creative projects and have lots to share in the coming weeks. Here’s a thing I made on the airplane today, thinking I should redraw it and paint it on a wood panel or some heavy watercolor paper.

    Please forgive me for having been gone for so long. I promise I can change… I’ve been working around the clock lately on some new creative projects and have lots to share in the coming weeks. Here’s a thing I made on the airplane today, thinking I should redraw it and paint it on a wood panel or some heavy watercolor paper.

  4. Last week I gave a talk at RIT on “The Art of Process.” I owe a huge thanks to the design and illustration departments for sponsoring me as a guest speaker, but most of all to Miguel Cardona for making it all happen (and also for designing the poster and snapping these pictures at the event). During the talk I went through the evolution of my work and ideas over the past 7 years since I’ve graduated with my Design degree from Texas Tech. I explained the stories behind each piece, the often times funny places my ideas come from, the mistakes that wound up working in my favor, and how each idea led to the next. A lot of my examples involved reviving an old project from mediocrity by iterating on it and adding just the right serendipitous details. My goal was to inspire students to keep learning after they graduate and show them that getting the kind of work you want doesn’t always come your way automatically, but that you absolutely can steer your career in any direction you want. This is especially true if you are self-motivated and push yourself to try a few things that seem impossible. I’ve done many things over the past few years which I never thought I’d be capable of, and certainly thought I would fail on plenty of occasions but in the end those were the experiences that wound up being the most valuable to me. I also got to have some great conversations with illustration and design students, checked out the impressive collections the University houses, Including the Vignelli Center and saw some amazing original pieces of design history in the archives.

    Last week I gave a talk at RIT on “The Art of Process.” I owe a huge thanks to the design and illustration departments for sponsoring me as a guest speaker, but most of all to Miguel Cardona for making it all happen (and also for designing the poster and snapping these pictures at the event).

    talk with the hands

    During the talk I went through the evolution of my work and ideas over the past 7 years since I’ve graduated with my Design degree from Texas Tech. I explained the stories behind each piece, the often times funny places my ideas come from, the mistakes that wound up working in my favor, and how each idea led to the next. A lot of my examples involved reviving an old project from mediocrity by iterating on it and adding just the right serendipitous details.

    My goal was to inspire students to keep learning after they graduate and show them that getting the kind of work you want doesn’t always come your way automatically, but that you absolutely can steer your career in any direction you want. This is especially true if you are self-motivated and push yourself to try a few things that seem impossible. I’ve done many things over the past few years which I never thought I’d be capable of, and certainly thought I would fail on plenty of occasions but in the end those were the experiences that wound up being the most valuable to me.

    there's a llama in the audience

    I also got to have some great conversations with illustration and design students, checked out the impressive collections the University houses, Including the Vignelli Center and saw some amazing original pieces of design history in the archives.

    Poster by Miguel Cardona

  5. A week ago at Blue Bottle in Mint Plaza with Matthew Smith and Marco Suarez. I’ll be moving to San Francisco and working with these guys at Zaarly in a couple weeks. I was quite happy running my business in Austin, but this type of opportunity doesn’t come up every day so now I’m moving on to the next adventure. I’m looking forward to joining a team of very talented people to keep challenging myself while helping create a great product. I will definitely keep making art even though I won’t be taking on client work. A big goal of mine is to sketch more, so expect to see new stuff in the new year.

    A week ago at Blue Bottle in Mint Plaza with Matthew Smith and Marco Suarez. I’ll be moving to San Francisco and working with these guys at Zaarly in a couple weeks.

    I was quite happy running my business in Austin, but this type of opportunity doesn’t come up every day so now I’m moving on to the next adventure. I’m looking forward to joining a team of very talented people to keep challenging myself while helping create a great product.

    I will definitely keep making art even though I won’t be taking on client work. A big goal of mine is to sketch more, so expect to see new stuff in the new year.

  6. Sloth T-shirt design preview. You can also check out the Flickr set that shows the process of illustrating this guy and preparing the file for silkscreen printing.

    Sloth T-shirt design preview. You can also check out the Flickr set that shows the process of illustrating this guy and preparing the file for silkscreen printing.

  7. Guess what? My desk is on DESK.

    Guess what? My desk is on DESK.

  8. Read an interview with me by the fine folks at Big Cartel.  →

    Find out what my original career game plan was, what my name has in common with toilet paper, what inspires my artwork and other deep, dark, secrets.

  9. I saw Wesley and Spencer at the Carbonmade studio this week and asked them if they’d like to star in my next GIF, Bromance in Heather Gray.

    I saw Wesley and Spencer at the Carbonmade studio this week and asked them if they’d like to star in my next GIF, Bromance in Heather Gray.

  10. Carbonmade, thanks for being so kind to me. carbonmade: Sometimes the answer to what lies inside the belly of the beast is a covert operation led by a bevy of babes in beehive hairdos. Hey, it could happen. And it does in just one of the magnificent large-scale paintings by Shyama Golden. As an added bonus, she also posts photos and time lapse videos of her creative process from start to finish. Very rad, as they say in the States.

    Carbonmade, thanks for being so kind to me.

    carbonmade:

    Sometimes the answer to what lies inside the belly of the beast is a covert operation led by a bevy of babes in beehive hairdos. Hey, it could happen. And it does in just one of the magnificent large-scale paintings by Shyama Golden.

    As an added bonus, she also posts photos and time lapse videos of her creative process from start to finish. Very rad, as they say in the States.