Cancer, zodiac of the sea

I was asked by my friends over at threadless to do a "select" design. "select" meaning an 8 color design of whatever I wanted. Now, I have had my qualms about threadless in the past, but nothing to stop me from taking a crack at it. Initially the design I had wanted to do was of basically a bouquet of hands and fore-arms supporting the jawbone of a horse. This seemed way too Matthew, a little too threadless, and basically pretty uninteresting by the time I had finished the initial sketch. So I decided to go with something different.



I really wanted something that stood out, was somewhat originally, and more importantly something that would be a real task for me to draw. I have heard a little bit of response from the guys over there, but nothing too convincing. We will see. None the less, I am pleased with the fact that I was actually able to pull off drawing a bunch of crabs.

so, after talking with a huge amount of artist reps, friends, and debating with myself I have decided that there needs to be a change with my art. The main problem I have personally been having is that I am sick and tired of doing line work with a tablet, and miss using a brush terribly. I have basically stopped using the wacom for anything but coloring and am back to my old friends brush and ink. It is a semi-sweet reunion, but I definitely think I am pushing my work back to where I want it. The other change I have been trying to make is to take the ideas behind my work but handle them a little differently. The threadless drawing is a bad example, but the last few pieces I have posted on the website show a little bit of the progress. Baby-steps, but at least its something. Expect this blog to be about these baby-steps for a good long while.