BUILD MADISON 2011: ZOMBIE CRAFT

I was invited to participate in Build Madison, a 24-hour create-a-thon where local artists and programmers get together at the Sector67 hacker space to create products overnight. My co-workers at PerBlue created a zombie-themed game, which was initially visually represented by ASCII art. I made more detailed versions of each tile while keeping a very simplistic, retro feel.

UPDATE: Recap of the event HERE. Play the game HERE.

PK: PIRATE SWAG

Sea dragon scale mail and mermaid mail to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, arrr.

PK: SPECIALIZATION WALLPAPERS

Wallpapers for our character classes.

Crafter

Warrior

Militia

PK: SPECIALIZATION DECORATIONS

Interior and exterior decorations for our new crafter, druid, explorer, master, mercenary, merchant and thief character classes.

PK: EXOTIC SWAG MERCHANT

My first full illustration for my employer, how exciting! The pixel art pieces below are the ones I designed myself. The other items for sale featured in the larger drawing were designed by my fellow artists.

See the update info on the official website, and download the image as desktop wallpaper!!

DESIGN FOR REV. DAVID WEEKLEY

I was commissioned to make a design that would promote the book In From the Wilderness, by Reverend David Weekley. The book chronicles his journey coming out as a transgender minister within the United Methodist Church. After reading the book, which is pretty much about his whole life, I felt compelled to make something big and complex that would symbolize the many different aspects of his personal story. The book is excellent and I cannot recommend it enough.

The plan was for this to appear on t-shirts. We are still working out the logistics of getting it printed. I will provide updates and a link to buy when we get it all sorted out. In the meantime, this was a very important project for me personally. David was standing up for equality and social justice years before he told the world he is transgender, and he and his wife Deborah continue to fight for the civil rights of all people. I am extremely proud to be able to work with them.

TAM 2011: Team Randi T-Shirt Designs

My t-shirt designs for TAM are currently in some sort of physical proximity to some incredibly smart and amazing people I respect a lot and that sort of makes me want to freak out a little.

UPDATE 1:

I thought I would include this great footage of The Amazing Randi exposing frauds to the public on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Makes me proud to have gotten to work with his organization.

UPDATE 2:

Photos are coming in from TAM, being shared on facebook. I'm so proud that I got to be a part of it!! I got these from the public photo album of Fred Bremmer.

Also, here is a blog accusing my design of contributing to a James Randi-worshiping personality cult as fanatical as any religion. How cool is that?? :P

PK: OIL GOLEMS

My first task at my new job working for PerBlue!! These were re-designs of oil golems for our game Parallel Kingdom. The originals were just gray blobs, I wanted to give them a bit more of an oily sheen.

GRIFFIN

RUGBY MINOTAUR TATTOO

Tattoo design commissioned by a team member of the Madison Minotaurs Rugby Club.

Inked by Bill at Big Guns Tattoo in Madison.

ENKIDUDE

Reworking my old logo, inspired by the character Enkidu from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

VG CONCEPT ART TEST

I applied for a job doing concept design for video games, and they required an art test. I had to create two seamless background tiles for an old school RPG, a pixel art house suitable for cell phone games, and a fire resistant zombie.

UPDATE: I got the job! I am now a proud employee of PerBlue Mobile and Social Gaming!! SUPER EXCITED!!!

CAMPUS CONNECT: LASER TAG

TOAD FOR AUSTIN

It's a masterpiece!! There's a bar I frequent that has chalkboards in the men's restroom. I usually draw a goomba from Super Mario Bros. when I go in there, it's sort of my calling card. Last night, my buddy Austin requested that I draw Toad.

Should I count this as commissioned work for my portfolio? :)

CAMPUS CONNECT: SKI FREE

CAMPUS CONNECT: GLEE

I have very short deadlines for these Campus Connect flyers, usually only a few hours. They aren't overly elaborate compared to my fine art, but I'm proud of their quality considering how quickly I turn these out.

I was divided on whether or not to give the central character a face. The client ended up printing the one with the face, but a lot of people also prefer the one without.

And the answer to this question is yes, I am a Gleek!

CAMPUS CONNECT: SUPER BOWL PARTY

Trying to loosen up, and explore colors and abstract shapes to convey energy and conflict. The beloved Lucky elephants make their long awaited return of course.

JAR OF HEART CONTAINERS

A mashup of Christina Perri's hit song and the Legend of Zelda.

NEW LOGO

New logo.

The original "monster face" design was a bit too illustrative to use for more conservative purposes, so I redesigned it to be more abstract and business friendly. This functions better as a professional logo, but still speaks to the original’s aesthetic qualities.

HARRY POTTER SPELLS CHART

DOLLARS 4 DEGREES

Did this as a favor for a co-worker, she needed a graphic for a group project she was working on.

CAMPUS CONNECT: CHICAGO TRIP

CAMPUS CONNECT: HARRY POTTER EVENT

To promote this movie field trip, I paid close attention to Harry Potter mythology in order to create a genuine visual experience for fans of the franchise. I reinvented the logos of the three SBA properties as medieval-inspired dormitory banners, similar to those used in the movies. The newspaper page is loaded with Harry Potter trivia. There is also a nod to the UW-Madison football team hidden in the Quidditch stats.

CAMPUS CONNECT: HOOFERS' RAIL JAM

STU LIKES SUSHI

A friend of mine had this photo of his roommates' cat and wanted me to clean it up enough to print and frame as a digital painting, to give them as a gift. I enlarged the photo to print resolution and painted on top of it to give it an artistic feel.

WOOT SHIRT: PHOBIAS

Derby.

CAMPUS CONNECT: ROOMMATE MIXER

Having fun with Lucky's elephant mascot.

WOOT SHIRT: MEME MASHUP!

Derby. This design won an Honorable Mention award from Woot and a Best Loser Award.

JmmBell1987 nominated me for the Best Loser, and said:

"In a derby full of half-hearted traces and slapdash, mindless designs, Eshto's 'Ultimate Wisdom' stood out. It's a clever piece that's based around a funny theme, not on slapping a few memes onto a shirt and calling it a day. Not to mention, its art deco design and colors make the whole thing quite visually striking."

CAMPUS CONNECT: MOVE IN FLYER

A simple, straightforward flyer that pays attention to corporate identity. These were the colors Lucky was using on its website at the time.

WOOT SHIRT: CRYPTOZOOLOGY REDUX

Derby. I had to watch an episode of Jersey Shore to research this. It was excruciating.