Extreme Muraling

There's a certain makeover show that happens to air on Sundays that I just did a mural of the Paris landscape for. The image covers three entire walls plus the ceiling!

It was an extremely difficult project because if the short time table I had to work with. I'm extremely happy with the result, though. Honestly, it just came out beautifully. This may be the fastest I've taken a project from start to finish and is certainly the largest files I've ever worked on. Did you know that Photoshop has a Large Document Format for files that exceed 2GB? I do now...

Not certain of the date/time of the airing of the episode, yet.

More to come!

NYC Marathon 2009

Congratulations to Meb Keflezighi (2:09:15) for being the first American in 28 years to win the ING New York City Marathon and to Derartu Tulu (2:28:52) of Ethiopia for her victory as well!!!

The NYC Marathon was last weekend, running through the five boroughs of New York City. It was a thrilling race with stacked rosters in both the men's and women's races. I went out early to about mile 11 to cheer for the leaders of both races but then focused my energies on cheering for my friends and Front Runner teammates.

I was sad not to be running the race again this year (we'll see about 2010) but was super duper excited to be on the sidelines with my sign screaming. I got quite the workout hitting three spots along the course and meeting everyone at the finish. By the end of it, I felt like I had done a race, myself, but I'm sure I was feeling nothing compared to the 43,000 finishers.

Front Runners alone, had 18 women and 95 men running in the race, with 4 women under four hours, 11 men under three hours and oh-so-many Boston Qualifiers and Personal Bests that I don't care to count. I'm so proud of all my teammates and can't wait to see them out at our next fun run or whenever they're able to walk again...


Pictured: Myself, Kelsey Louie (2:55:35 PR), & David Lin (3:31:05)

Brooklyn, the Beautiful...

Oh Beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains; majesty, above the fruited plain...

I've been working from home a lot lately and it gets pretty boring. Imagine not having to take the subway for work, to pack or go out for lunch, having any coworkers to gossip with or about and with everything you need in reach of your desk (including a bed...).

It's a bit lonely and I get stir crazy. So occasionally I'll take a break from work and make a point to get out of my apartment. I take a walk around the block, go for a run, do my laundry and sometimes just climb up to my roof.

Yesterday I took a trip to the roof and was greeted by this amazing sky. I'm actually working on a piece right now that is all about a beautiful sky so I was so happy to find such great reference right before me. Not wanting to risk missing the moment by running to grab my camera, I just took this shot with my camera phone. (God bless technology.)

It's a mix of the Brooklyn and Manhattan skyline with the Williamsburg Bridge right in the center. My favorite part by far though are those tremendous clouds.

Check back in a month or so to see the piece I'm working on...

Running Pants Incorporated

The other day I was inspired to make something just for fun. Do you remember the last time you just gave in, put down your work and just did something that you knew you would enjoy even though it would probably go nowhere? That's the mood I'm talking about.

I created this little logo a few months ago while I was working on finishing my grad thesis. I actually threw him aside with the dozen and dozens of other "failed" logos I had sketched. Later, flipping through my sketchbook I found him and saw in him something I'd missed initially. He was exactly what I was looking for... He was fun. He was pure energy. He was running!

Well, I haphazardly cleaned him up and threw him around a few places as I was rushing to finish my thesis, but didn't really spend any quality time with him. The other day I discovered him again and decided he needed a real home where he could run free to his heart's content. Here at Running Pants Inc., he's free to run all he wants. And run he does! Just look at him go! Whilst running he thinks and dreams of running and poetry. Visit him everyday for a new haiku. He has thought of many and wants to share them. He also wants to share the haikus his friends have written. Won't you share a running haiku with him?

Haikus have three lines that go 5 - 7 - 5 syllables. Haikus can be about anything running- victories, trails, sneakers, short shorts, and even blisters. Here's an example for you.

A wind in my hair,
a wild furnace in my heart,
pebble in my shoe.

Let your creative juices flow! Think about it on your next run! Just relax for a minute and have fun! You can leave your submissions as comments or email them directly to me. We can't wait to hear them!

In the meantime, watch Running Pants Inc. slowly grow. Into what? you may ask. You'll just have to wait and see. I've already order tattoos of our little friend (let me know if you want one). In the future we're hoping for t-shirts, arm-warmers, bling and of course running pants! (Also, let me know if you're interested in some of these...) Remember friends; IT'S A MARATHON, not a sprint. Patience is rewarded.

Playboy: Light, Sweet & Crude

I'm not an avid reader of Playboy Magazine (or patron of any kind) but I'll be picking up an issue this month. This month is their annual Collegiate issue and somehow I managed to land an illustration in it.

Every year they have a annual College Fiction Writing Contest, and over a year ago, I submitted an image to illustrate the winning story. Well, it took a while, but the story has finally been published, and my illustration was named a Runner-up! "Light, Sweet, Crude" by Purdue graduate Christopher Arnold is about a young, hotshot, Houston-based, oil trader from humble oil drilling roots. The story deals with his rocky relationship with his father and shady (at best) oil trading practices that lead him to international scandal. It's actually a really great story and doesn't feature any scantily clad women at all!

Congratulations to Christopher Arnold (writer) and Mike Marsicano (illustrator) for winning and getting their story/illustration published!

Past the irony of the publication, I'm super excited to have this as my first published editorial piece! Now, I suppose I have to go out and actually buy an issue...