Happiness For All

^ Designed from the words above ^

Happy new year everybody!

Version 2.0Version 1.1:::variant version:::

funguy

continuing on the theme of an earlier post:::

• feel the atmosphere • breathe the air •

• see the sights • but beware •

• of teeth that gnaw • and lips that curl •

• mouths that murmur • all's a knot •

• silently shouting • patiently prying •

• ears that listen • can hear a thought •

Venusian Fly Trap

My contribution to the Canvas Collective, a site hosted by fellow Sheridan alumni Erika Brouwer. Lots of other great wallpapers to be found there, and freshly updated every week!

Fire Fly

This has been sitting in my sketchbook for a good while. Couldn't bring myself to finish the stippled background by hand so I completed it in Photoshop.

Mainly just wanted to draw a big bug, but was partially inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Situated in a post apocalyptic future, it's a story of mankind's struggle for survival against the ever spreading toxic forests and monstrously mutated insects. A great movie and an even better manga. As always, Miyazaki is the master!

The Cyborg of Sargon

This is known as a Lamassu, a celestial being from Mesopotamian mythology. In art, they were depicted as hybrids ~ winged bulls or lions with the head of a human male and considered househould protective spirits of the common Babylonian people. Babylonian history later portrays these bull-men as the protectors of kings and statues of them were often used as gatekeepers. Usually sculpted with five legs to show balance from all angles.

⫷LOVE ❉ ABUNDANCE ❉ JOY⫸

Love Tunnel

❖♥❖ LOVE Mandala ❖♥❖

Version 2.0Version 1.0Shaped LOVE into the six petalled Seed of Life formation as seen in the center. Layered it up at different sizes and spun it out towards the edges.

Best blessings everyone :)

Plip!

Had a lot of fun drawing these little yellow guys back in high school getting into all sorts of zany mishaps. It's basically just one character, but cloned innumerably for narrative purposes. I call 'em Jimmy.

Beaver Blowout!

An older piece, but relevant to the timeless fact: beavers bite back.

Invasion of the squids!

A poster I made last year. Based on an article about the decimation of fish populations in the coastal waters of British Columbia due to an increase in the number of GIANT squid.

Elusive is the fish able to swim among the the tentacles of turmoil

To dodge the many manufactured nets

And explore an ocean

Rather empty, rather full

Uncatchable fish

Uncatchable soul

Who controls these hands?

Drew this several years ago and just recently gave it some color.

Remains open to interpretation..

Staircases

This was initially a tattoo design for a friend, but I've added some color, texture and a couple nondescript characters to populate the piece. Definitely an exercise in patience with all the steps I had to draw. A tip of the hat to Escher as well.

Hoping to upload some photos of the tattoo once it's complete.

Flower of Virtues

Came across some thought provoking and uplifting information last year on a site called the Wingmakers.

Particularly inspired by what James, the site's anonymous host referred to as the 'six heart virtues' and adapted them into the Flower of Life template. At it's core is a six petalled formation, ideally suited for the words Admiration, Compassion, Understanding, Valor, Humility and Forgiveness .

~*~

Pineal Pathway

Floating in a sea of photons

Let there be light ~*~

Toltec Tollbooth

Been playing around with some matte painting techniques lately to the tune of an ancient astronaut theme. The columns on display here are known as the Atlantes and represent warriors of the Toltec Empire ~ located in Tula, Mexico.

And yes.. the ufo is a hubcap.

Aetherborn!!!

Finished cover art for Aetherborn's "Guardian" EP and a t-shirt design.

Thanks for the gig Mike.

Check out their awesomeness here ~ annnnd here!

Seek the Key to the Third E in Thee:::

FAMILIAR DOORS LEAD YOU INTO STRANGE ROOMS

DIMENSIONAL POTENTIAL

COLLAPSES AND BLOOMS.

FIND THE KEY AND GO WITHIN

MOVING FORWARD, CONSTANT SPIN ~

TRAVEL ALONG A FLOOR OF GLASS,

A ROOF OF MIRRORS

REFLECTS YOUR PAST.

ALL EYES AHEAD

AS YOUR HIGHER-SELF

LEADS YOU CLOSER AND CLOSER

TO SPIRITUAL WEALTH.

Transmutation continued

Further developments for a visual narrative based on the journey of a dark and scribbled figure on the path to Ultimate Awareness.

5~Headed~Hybrid

Recently joined a new blog called the Hybrid Collective, a collaborative effort alongside fellow illustrationists Joel Hustak, Andrew West, Andreas Schubert and Parker Campbell. First post is up and more is soon to unfold.

Here's a taste..

There Is No Banana

Those sneaky simians are smarter than they let on...

Hey folks, this is my first Threadless t-shirt submission. It went through the 7 day voting period, but unfortunately didn't make the cut :(

Might tweak it a bit for a resubmit, but in the meantime I'm working on a few others.

Also posted some additional photos on Flickr..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44420662@N03/4649983593/in/photostream/

::LOVE::UNITY::

First prototype color copies. Compared with the black & white versions below, these have a much greater depth to them. Further still, once I incorporate 3D sculpural elements and holography. Until then, I'm left experimenting with color gradients and layering to evoke more vibrancy.

On the computer screen and especially with my larger prints I've noticed the interesting feature of faces popping up in certain regions of the vortex depending on my proximity to it.

In other words, the human mind has a great ability for spotting patterns, such that these crisscrossing shapes at various fades will often reveal recognizable facial features. Some look happy, some look sad, some look altogether alien:::

I find it fascinating to ponder that perhaps these patterns personify entities residing in a World of Words. A world that we all seem to tap into so freely and draw meaning from. A world with a foundation in Symbol and built by Prose.

This is a Land of Language that exists at the edge of print, between the spaces and lines. It's a realm riding the defining curve of conceptual understanding. It flows through the cultural matrix of sounds, recognized and accepted as speech.

At a certain distance from the image these "faces" will be perceived. Upon closer inspection, they lose their distinct forms and the eye sees only shapes. In the case of these two, the shapes are those of LOVE and UNITY.

Health ~ Wealth ~ Happiness

Composed entirely of the words: (H)ealth (W)ealth (H)appiness. Mirrored and spun, this was quite fun :) I found it a very relaxing and a constantly surprising exercise to create this mandala. One of my first attempts with transparent gradients and am very pleased with the results. I purposefully molded the letters H W H to look similar to ripples and am currently exploring with motion graphics to further this concept.

It is impossible:::

:::to stop a man or woman who will not quit.

I LOVE AND FORGIVE MYSELF

:::Sourcery:::

:::This planet is
a trampoline ~
how high
you jump
is up to you:::
downward tumble,
elastic stance,
graceful motion,
deep in trance ~
formation from
a steady breath,
a leap of faith,
the slate wiped clean ~
escape into
a long lost land,
an ocean blue,
a forest green.
Seek the seekers,
change the view,
wake the sleepers
with eyes renewed.
Stretch, expand
this static shape
take your hand
and grab a friend ~
take the other
and grab the crew ~
we’re here to heal,
to learn, to feel:::
Connect the dots
and flip the page,
shake off the spots
and jump on stage:::

:::Merketta:::

:::§øurcery-active

:::apprentice of dust

:::fractalogical perspective

:::and a total sense of trust

:::in the

CøsmøCøllective

:::and the purpose of rust

:::there's a lust for decay

:::as it paves the way

:::for multiphasmic application

:::by intermorphic vibration

:::and a quantum response

:::through the program modulation

:::of a crystalline formation

:::shifting in relation

:::to the resoNation

:::of a universal operation

:::personified presence

:::in the preparation

:::and proliferation of a

:::forward fixation

:::by uplifting concentration

:::and a humble ambition

:::toward a total condition

:::for pattern

:::recognition

:::feeling the way

:::with the pieces in play

:::molding moments

:::like clay

:::energetic abstraction

:::empty is the cup

:::containing lasting

:::compassion

Love Fractal

My attempt to create a fractal using only the word LOVE. Haven't figured out how to incorporate the Mandelbrot mathematics into the design as yet, but would like to animate it continuously zooming inwards, spirally shifting and morphing into different words and colors.

Nature takes form around the basis of fractals.  However, the smooth triangles, cones, cubes and spheres representative of Euclidean geometry, as archetypal as they are as symbols and commonly found in the world of manufacturing, they do not provide an accurate model the universe. Math for such requires a tad more 'roughness.'

Coined by Benoit Mandelbroit in 1975, the term fractal was derived from the Latin fractus meaning 'broken' or 'fractured.' The fundamental characteristic of fractals is that their structure repeats in a very self-similar fashion at any level of magnification.  This can be found in clouds, coastlines, mountain ranges and lightning bolts, as well as various vegetables and animal coloration patterns.

They are also found within our body as seen with the branching networks of our respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. From the cells and upward into a fully formed human, fractals may even extend unseen into the social framework of civilizations. They link the ancient mystical understanding "As above, so below" with many of today's mathematical and scientific models.

Further still, language itself could very well be considered a multidimensional fractal. After all, what is any alphabet (or font for that matter) but a set of self similar symbols, combined endlessly through writing or speech to evoke layer upon layer of meaning.

...

In the case of a Mandelbrot set, regardless of the extent to which one zooms in on its boundary there is always additional detail to see. During the twelve-second zoom in the animation linked here, the set becomes magnified eleven-million fold. Thus, assuming the first frame is life-size at 45 mm across, a carbon atom would comprise 36 pixels in the final frame.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Mandelbrot_color_zoom.gif

The Wikipedia page on the Mandelbrot set is densely packed with equations, but if you scroll down about halfway there's a beautiful 14 step slideshow of some high res fractal images.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
This one is the 8th in the series...Illustrated below are 10 simple fractal progressions:::

These and more found at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fractal.html

And for some exquisitely rendered fractal designs check out the extensive galleries at...http://www.abstractdigitalartgallery.com/

Youtube has plenty of great fractal vids as well. Here's one that was made with After Effects...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zPvmNXTYQ

Body Language

This is a project I've been been working on for the last eleven months or so. It's constantly evolving, with no end in sight. I've displayed it in various venues and have received some great feedback. Now I think it's finally ready for an online presentation.

Essentially it’s a collection of positively charged words arranged in the form of a female figure, ultimately designed to be a reflection of the Divine Feminine.

To give credit where credit is due, I’d like to note that the pose I used was greatly inspired by the Sacred Mirrors series by Alex Grey.

http://www.cosm.org/

It's important that I also delve a little bit into the background of my process to give this project some context. It began when researching the power of sigils and repeated affirmations. For those who aren’t familiar with the term sigil, it’s a ‘magical’ device which is frequently used in occult rituals, often times worn as a talisman or placed in and around an alter or shrine. In effect, it’s a symbol containing a message of one’s conscious desires and aspirations, directed at the subconscious mind.

Since the subconscious absorbs and interprets surroundings through the analysis and recognition of symbolic shapes and patterns, a sigil is meant to be put up somewhere you will see it on a regular basis like a mirror or fridge door. The purpose is that through repeated exposure to this intentionally simplified symbol one can more readily manifest their desires. However, there's a catch... for a sigil to be most effective it must be forgotten. To put it another way, first specify the desire and charge it with intent, then let it go. This can be done by designing numerous sigils, putting them away somewhere for a couple weeks (out of sight, out of mind) and then bring them back out once their individual meanings have escaped your conscious mind. Some sigil makers even destroy them in order to fully let go and allow the 'magic' to run its course. Detachment is crucial.

For a more in depth summary of sigils and sigil construction check this out...

http://home.comcast.net/~max555/book/Sigils.html

So after playing around with sigils for a little while I decided to take one word and manipulate it into a pattern. That word was PEACE. While drawing it in my sketchbook I noticed that from a certain angle the words formed what looked like eyes. In continuing with this thread the natural development was to turn it into a face and then incorporate a variety of words into a full body.

With that to springboard from I took to the task of creating a prototype with 66 words.

The most current version contains 161.

For a closer look to see the words I've used, here are some details of the head, hands, torso and legs.

I've also created a color version and have included the seven chakra system. Printed an earlier version at nearly life size (6' x 4') on a vinyl sheet and it looks absolutely stunning. I'm hoping to print it to fit the side of a building someday...

Inverted version

For easy reference, here's a list of the words I'ved used so far.