OneBlueBird

Some more Poker Night At The inventory Work

2010-12-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

Deal, Fold, Call and some serious Raising

Here are several assets I made for the games art styling. I really loved making the decks of cards, not sure what it is about card decks but I seem to always be making them for companies. The same goes for family crests as I got to do one for the TTG table felt in the game. Something that I thought was super cool was working with Valve's TF character, The Heavy. I got to pose him, and make lots of supporting designs for the TF presence in the game. Besides TF I got to learn how to draw and illustrate in different art styles, my favorite example of this is illustrating like the Penny Arcade guys and of course not to mention the Sam & Max characters. If you love these sample you should go buy the game and see all the great unlocks! Go buy it Poker Night At The Inventory

I also got to do some major updating to my portfolio site www.onebluebird.com, which entailed adding an entire print section and let me tell ya, I had work going back about 7 years! Keep a look out for some of this print work as I plan on sharing it with you all in the near future.

Till then enjoy this Poker goodness

Inventory House Deck:

Penny Arcade Deck and Suicide Kings:

Sam & Max Deck:

Strong Bad Deck:

Concepts for the Poker Night Logos:

TTG Table Felt:

Trogdor Table Felt:

TF2 Table Felt:

TTG Table Felt:

Penny Arcade Table Felt:

Sam & Max Table Felt:

Inventory Table Felt:

Penny Arcade's Fruit F@#$er Table Felt:

Time to place your bets

2010-11-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

So did the title get your attention, well it should because this post is about the Citizen Kane of poker games. With that intro all that is left to say is "Poker Night at the Inventory"!

This is the branding, site, and assets I created for the big pre-order and TF2 unlocks announcement. This was a great project to be apart of as this game is one of the coolest concepts I have gotten to be apart of at Telltale games. Not only is a great concept but an amazing cast of characters to work with like Tycho (from Penny Arcade), The Heavy (from Team Fortress 2), Strong Bad and of course Max (from Sam & Max Series). I got to work on posing The Heavy which was a super cool experience, Value is truly an amazing group and their work is the best to work with and create new one of a kind assets.

The game itself is just beautiful, I had the pleasure of working on the asset creation for a lot of the main environment art assets and the brand itself in the game. Stay tuned on that topic as I will be posting all of that art once the game is released. In the meantime here is some goodness to get you excited and of course go pre-order now and land yourself some sweet FREE TF2 unlocks!

Enjoy

Its fall

2010-10-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Fall,

Its that time of year, leaves turn, the temps drop and the skies get a thin layer of grey. Its gets me thinking of times of color mixed with a pungent but beautiful smell in the air of renewal and growth that spring can bring after a long fall and winter. These past few weeks make it even more crystal clear that fall is a time to develop and feed off the elements you enjoyed from the previous seasons. Fall does make me smile and at the same time gives me a sense of sadness about the end of a wonderful yet terrifying year. This year was filled with the most important moments in ones life, getting married, new career goals, and life changing moves. With a foundation like that in place for the year, it does throw your life into a huge growth and state of mind blowing craziness. For me that was 100% the case, struggles of trying to enjoy your new surroundings, a new career, a new wife and at the same time trying to find a balance in taken care off all those things can be a challenge that could break a person's spirit but with fall being here it gives me that sense of development to begin the renewal process that comes with winter to springtime. I will try and take these moments of fall to continually remind my spirit that I am developing a wonderful life and yes times of struggle happen and times of doubt about ones talents will happen but fall will come and wash away those extreme moments of color, passion, and emotion to lead you down a path of contemplation and renewal. So yes fall is here, go out and enjoy natures moments and think of how your year has lead you to this fall and the moments ahead as we all need to think about the truly wonderful moments ahead of us.

Fall I am glad you are here.

Love,
Stephen

Complete Series

2010-09-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Here is the complete Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse poster series. I had the pleasure of designing all the posters as well as illustrating all but the last one in the series finale which had an illustration by the Creator of Sam & Max Steve Purcell. These were so much fun to direct and I am so happy that the fans loved them so much that the series posters are on sale at the telltale games store. Hope you all like them and go buy them to decorate your walls!!

The design layout and illustrations for each of these posters were inspired by different old school science fiction movie posters. The themes also matched the overall look and feel of each episodes.

Speaking of episodes here are the in game title cards I designed which include the logos I made as well.

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Episode Four

Episode Five

Hope you all enjoy
-Stephen

Trying to find a rhyme

2010-08-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Once again things have gotten busy and I find myself realizing time has flown by, I ask myself what now? Do I play catch up and write up or just go with the flow, well I chose go with the flow. I recently found myself making a huge overhaul to my site OneBlueBird and where do I begin to talk about that, well its fully coded by me not the best code but it works. The current plan is to finish the site by adding some more exciting elements like a series of animated transitions for moving from section to section. I have also been exploring Augmented realty for the site, those details will have to wait as I don't want to ruin the surprise. Other than those elements the site is pretty close to complete.
Work wise I have been busy with the release of all 5 episodes of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. Besides that we have also announced at work our partnership with Universal Studios and we are doing Back To The Future and Jurassic Park so that has made things very busy and exciting at work.
Being in San Francisco has put a lot of things in perspective both personally and professionally. Design and interactive design is so much apart of my life and my love at the moment. I get moments of pure excitement when I have an idea for an exciting app or interactive motion design. (Speaking of animation and motion design I have been story boarding a lot lately for site designs and some cool ui ideas at work.)
Besides the excitement I get from design, I have felt a part of my career and my true love of illustration kicking back into full affect with a project I did for The Devil's Playhouse poster series. The posters are fun from the illustration to the full design layout of the typography. The beauty of illustration for me is the prefect harmony between design and illustration, when all the right elements come together from concept and subject matter.
My next post will be the complete collection of The Devil's Playhouse posters I had the pleasure of creating. Till then enjoy the post and the art I created for my website.

Here is to a rhyme to live by.

-Enjoy

March part two

2010-04-03T15:35:00.001-07:00

Hello,

Here is some more work that I did for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. This was the marketing site for this series. I got to do a really cool theater approach for this site. Overall I am happy with how the whole campaign has come across and the fan's enjoying it a lot. Also I got to illustrate and design the poster for Episode 1: The Penal Zone and let me just say this was one of my favorite parts. I will be posting more work as the Game comes out on the 15th and its ok to share.

Here is the live site to check out: http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/thedevilsplayhouse

Enjoy

March the busy month!

2010-03-31T22:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So this month has been one busy busy month. I had friends in town had lots of fun going here and there seeing what San Francisco has to offer. Also at the same time launching two of the biggest campaigns Telltale Games has done. We launched all new Merch for Tales of Monkey Island! I got the pleasure to be the Art director and creator for most all the merch. Along with that set of items we launched the big Pre-Order event for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. I got to Create the look and feel for all the Marketing and Web content plus I got to design the screens for the PS3 version of the game, how cool is that! To top it off I got to Direct and storyboard out the Trailer for the Series Premiere to the world. It is being talked about as one of the Best Telltale has produced, which makes me feel really great. The trailer got play on G4TV, Gamespot, IGN, and basically you name it it made it on somewhere on the web. Oh if you are a PS3 owner go to the PSN and download the HD version.

Anyway here is some great work I produced for this great game. Logo work, Trailer, Key Art, and some Branding.

Enjoy!

Logos and A Game Icon for the First Episode:

Key Art created to help get the vibe and excitement going about the new Series:

Invite for a GDC Party/ Event to Announce Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse:

The Trailer for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

Catch up

2010-02-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Hope everyone is having a good weekend? I am so far, its been a crazy few weeks and have a major project coming to an end this coming week at Telltale, so I will post some images of that once I can.

Time to play some catch up with some more design/illustration work I have been up to here ya go!

These samples are mainly the landing page design from the big holiday Campaign we had at Telltale Games. This was a fun piece that I made along with tons of banners and other supporting matters. The homepage design was staged to be a scene of a living room that is ready for the holiday season. The Main picture frame had a slider styling applied to it to have several messages slide into view. The page also took advantage of all the other picture frames by having them link to their specific games page. Also the fire place was a video that looped to enhance the feeling you were in a really room with a fire going, in fact you could click on the fireplace and the video would go full screen for your viewing pleasure.

The last stage of the site was to turn into a post holiday party scene with open presents glasses and some crazy mishappenings that went down like the fire getting out of control and it being put out.

Overall this was an extremely successful campaign and brought tons of traffic and most importantly customers to the e-commerce part of the ttg's site.

Enjoy

Revolution!

2010-02-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Some art to get the vote and Revolution started for TTG! Telltale Games (the company I work for as an art director) is releasing their games for the mac now. We released the amazing series Tales of Monkey Island first and now we are letting the people's voice be heard by letting everyone vote on their favorite TTG game title to be the next Mac title. With that in mind here are some exciting Propaganda posters I created for the Mac campaign as well as the overall site I designed which you can visit and see here Telltalegames.com and Telltalegames.com/macgames

Enjoy and get your vote out!

-Stephen

Illustrations for the big Day

2010-01-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Evening,

I thought I would post the artwork I created for my wedding. These images range from the invites to some simple yet fun designs used for buttons and a bunch of other materials for the wedding.

I hope you all enjoy as I will keep these items closest to my heart.

Wishing everyone out there a wonderful night.

-Stephen

Set of buttons designs for our wedding them which was fall and family.

The official Whetstin Family Crest!

This was the design I made for the cake we wanted. Again the theme was fall and family (family bluebird).

Based off my design this is the AMAZING result that was created by the talented and the BEST tasting baker River Town Cakes.

Map I designed that was packaged together with the invite.

Back pattern for the map print.

This was the front of the RSVP card people sent back to us.

Here is the back of the RSVP card with all the fields for people to fill in.

The sketch for the final invite.

This finished wedding invite.

The back of the finished Wedding Invite.

California life

2010-01-16T19:02:00.000-08:00

California oh California,

This is an open letter to the life I have started in California specifically San Rafael just outside San Fran. My new career at Telltale Games as their Art Director is going amazing so far I have been handed a great marketing / web group to push in the right direction and my hopes to step up the design look and feel of the company and products. Lots of potential for me to play and invent some great work. Life in California has been really interesting and growing on us. I think this area is full of great things to enjoy but we just need the weather to clear up, as most might know winter in the San Fran area= Grey and cloudy or better described as FOG. I am sure it will get better and the exploration of California can begin. Things on our list of must sees is the beach, red wood forests, shopping/food areas in the heart of San Fran and lastly some fun hiking.

Other then the above mentions of growth, learning and new beginnings, life is grand. Started working out regularly and drawing more. These past 4-5 months have been stressful and a wall for me in terms of creativity but I feel the energy coming back and I am going to start to get lots of content being pumped out and on this site as well as every other place I live on in the "inter-web."

Well I think that is enough social words for today here is to a lot more and I hope to keep feeling this motivated and ready to communicate my work and passions.

Have a wonderful day,
Stephen

I am Back!!

2009-11-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

Dear Readers,

I know I know... I am a broken record, but seriously I have a good reason for my lack of posts and disappearance for the past few months. You might ask, "so whats up and where have you been or what have you been up to" and the answer is a lot and now I am ready to share a list of them with you all.

First off the big one was that I got MARRIED :-) in October and little to say that was my life for September through the middle of October. After the Honeymoon I got several amazing job offers and had to do a lot flying from MN to San Francisco for a few weeks. I accepted a great Art Director position for a talented and great Gaming Studio called Telltale Games. I am sure some of you have heard of them, as they are responsible for such great episodic games as Sam & Max and of course their big hit at the moment is the newly redone Lucas Art's Classic Tales of Monkey Island! With that being said I am excited to add my mind and talents to the mix at Telltale.

Well if you have been following my blog over the past years you all might be saying WOW what happened to my Senior position at Ham and the answer is I decided to leave Ham. They were running into several issues that I will not go into too much detail about but they had to lay off several people/friends, as well as cut everyone's salaries and so on. I loved the work I did there a lot but I had a really hard time with that and seeing what was happening to the people I cared about and seeing the economic downward spiral happening there, SOOOOO I took a fulltime contract position with a gaming company called Electrotank as there Senior UI Designer/ 2d Artist. I got to work on some really cool work and will share it down the road once I can, the only thing I can say about it is "ubi" hehe

Now that I am married, moved/settling into California life while starting a seriously cool career path I think it's time to get back to the web and get my word out again.

I hope people will read this once I get back into the swing of things and please post comments or ask me anything you would like and if I can answer them I will.

As an end note I am going to be posting all of our cool wedding stuff I made for the big day.

Take it easy and here is to the future and happiness for both my personal life and career!

Thanks for reading and enjoying my works.

-Stephen

Historical Pieces

2009-07-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I have been really busy lately working on a bunch of items for our wedding, like invites, website and other fun items.

Along with that I have been swamped with work which I will make my next post about.

In the mean time here is some more side projects I did for Amanda on my downtime. I got the pleasure to do the button for the Lumberjack Days in Stillwater, MN. Amanda works for the Washington Historical Society and submitted my design to the board and they loved it. Everyone that attends will get their hands on one.

The next things I got to do for Amanda was for Hay Lake Day at the Hay Lake School Museum, where she is the Site Manager. This piece was more traditional and for families. I went with a mix of a rich sketch and clean design/icons.

Below is the full sketch I did for this poster.

Keep an eye out for more work and please let me know you all think and I hope you keep checking in.

Bands and Family Crests

2009-05-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Recently I finished up some really fun projects for a band and a client's personal family crest. I thought they turned out nice, so I hope ya enjoy!!

These pieces were done for We the Living a small up and coming band. We are still waiting to hear if they will be using them in the future if not I got some cool work out of it.

The band gave me the art direction for the below image from a chemical truck they saw on tour that had a cool chemical symbol with hands and asked if I could take that and come up with something for them. I turned the symbol into a "w" shape for "We" in We the Living. Also made the hands clean and graphic. Even though this idea wasn't mine I think it turned out ok for what they wanted.

Below is an image for some possible clothing for their tours.

This last image was done for a commissioned project. He wanted a family crest because of the work I have done with Family crest in the past. It also turned out fun and something different then my other crests.

Thanks for checking in and I hope to have some more projects up soon!!

For Amanda

2009-05-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Well, here is something super quick I did with Amanda for her historic site, Hay Lake School Museum's Beer Tasting Event. We had a ball playing up the Beer and coming up with a way to display what she needed for the event.

The design is a mix of type play and playing up the flat graphic look of classic poster that she wanted for the flier.

Hope you all enjoy!
-Stephen

TWO MORE GAMES

2009-04-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

Evening,

Still busy working on two new games and a really cool educational interactive product that will hopefully go to market in 2010-2011 school year. Other then work I have been busy wedding planning well I should say being supportive to Amanda while she plans haha. I am designing and building our life site that will kick off with our wedding. I'm also illustrating a cute image for our wedding invites, so little to say I am swamped and kept busy.

I thought it would be great to post two more games that recently launched. One of which is SpongeBob SquarePants: Gary's Adventure and it has to be one of my favorite games. I got to handle everything from concept, design, illustration and animation. This was my baby for 4 months or so. Being proud of it I took some screen shots of it being the "Top Game" for the past 3 weeks on Nick.com and Spongebob.nick.com and its still going strong at number one.

The last thing I will show you is a game for SPAM (that's right the food). This was a lot of fun to illustrate, animate and brainstorm. Based off everything SPAM wanted and all the rules based around that property, I think it turned out great.

Here are the links to both games:
http://spongebob.nick.com/games/play/spongebob-gary/
http://www.spam.com/howto/game

Enjoy,
Stephen

SPAM:

More fun work!

2009-04-20T19:39:00.001-07:00

Evening,
Hey there everyone. I have been super busy again working away on three more games and recently two sites. One of which this post will be about. I completely designed this site head to toe. This site also has a game that I designed. Its a fun word game that is just random and addicting. HAMJAM is an annual party/ throw down for HAM's clients, friends and well friends of friends. Last year I designed a brick breaking game and t-shirts. The theme this year was the 30s feel and just taking what you have and making something. The inspriration for this site was found art and just retro. Hope you like!! Here ya go the live site for ya to check out. HAMJAM

-enjoy

Sketches and trip stuff!

2009-03-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I have been running around catching up on some major work since my trip to Boston. The trip to Boston was mainly fun because of the ride there with Amanda, we had a ball rocking out while on our 26+ hour straight drive to the hotel we stayed at in Boston.

It was a tiring/challenging trip seeing family plus trying to enjoy ourselves and eat and drink some good New England food. My niece was cute but really over the top with her bossy "no" action the whole time we were there, it was hard to get her to socialize with me, Amanda or anyone and even giving me her uncle a hug was like a battle. But I love her and we had our few precious moments!!

There were several highlights to the trip which I will post below for you all to see. Once we got back it was time to work late nights and catch up on several large projects (mainly games) that had to get wrapped up and kicked off. Since I posted last there have been two games that have launched and a couple of other projects that I started and I'm currently finishing up. I will save those projects for another post later. So please check back I am trying to keep to my promise of updating as much as possible. haha so we will see!! Below are several sketches in my favorite style I am developing lately for both my redesign to my current site and also some fun family style imagery.

Hope you all enjoy and please keep me on my toes and ask for more work it will help motivate me to keep this beast alive.

-Stephen

Enjoying the best Guinness I have ever had ummm..... that was a great Irish bar in Boston.

Hanging out with the dead people in Salem Mass. that be witch country.

This had to be the best moment I had with my niece Bella. We did some doodling together.

This was one of the highlights of the trip for me and Amanda, Hanging out with my BEST MAN Amiel!! Watch out folks he has got some insane skills and is going to be releasing his beautiful art on the world.

This is a sketch for the up and coming redesign to onebluebird.com

Some doodles of the fun hanging elements in the site that will be animated.

My hope is to turn this into my music/sound on and off controller for my site redesign.

Just a fun sketch of what I think my mom looked like young and holding me for the first time haha. Not sure what the crown is about but I have been putting that in all my pieces lately.

Winter time is almost over and I thought I would post this playful image of Amanda and her process in building the greatest snowman ever!! (totally thinking about turning this into a poster or postcard)

Back from Boston

2009-02-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Well we made it back from Boston in one piece. It was a fun drive there with lots of stops and visiting with Family and friends. I got to see my main man/Best man which was great. Took lots of pictures which I will post as soon as I can get them off the camera. Got to see my niece for the first time and let me just say it was interesting to see how she didn't like people and it took forever for her to warm up to anyone even her uncle. But hey I got to draw with her and give her a stuffed horse to hug. Other then that the trip was very tiring and as they say "I need a vacation from my vacation". I thought for today I would just post a few recent sketches that I doodled. Keep a look out for pictures, details about the visit and also a huge amount of sketches I want to post.

-enjoy

Here is a sketch I did while sitting in meetings and thought about kids, Mario Brothers (my version looks like an angry hitler) and questioning designer:
Here is a sketch I made in my new travel sketchbook. I hope to start filling this one up soon:

Illustration application

2009-01-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Tomorrow I am off for a week to the East coast to visit Boston, Rhode Island and some other places in between. Before I leave here is some really fun products and illustrations I got to make for HAM's Holiday 2009 gift.

Sign and numbered posters:

Deck of playing cards (HAM's take on its own designer, Creative director and Art Director world influenced deck of cards):

Some illustrating and sketching

2009-01-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Well before I head off next week I wanted to try and get in some posts. Today's focus is back on my true passion which is illustration and sketching. For the past five years I have been trying to find my voice as an illustrator and I have to say I am feeling good about where I'm going. Art is like life with its ups and downs like a roller coaster. Feelings of success to feelings of questioning the quality of art you produce. I think I finally figured it out in my mind, I have to see the lines I need to cross and the barriers that I have to jump over. How does one get over these barriers haha well if I had the one right answer I would write a book, I think... The way I have dealt with my barriers is to realize what they are and find ways to climb over them and use them to overcome the next big barrier. I believe that every experience is a stepping stone to the next big challenge. The beauty in life and art is to learn from them and get better. Hope this little insight helps and remember to take a moment to see how a barrier will help you become something stronger for the next task ahead.

Well here is some exploration and pieces that I have done, enjoy.

Sketches for BRIO Magazine (full page spread about teens and eco-friendly choices):
Doodles for fun:

Sketch for a work project:

Illustration for a Technology Magazine about the life and evolution of a hacker:

Test Illustration sample for a Direct TV print and web campaign:

One of a series of Illustrations about San Francisco:

Illustration of the southern cook Paula Deen:

Series of Dog illustrations for a dog book that was recently published:

Part4: What have I been up to?

2009-01-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hi,

How are you all? I hope amazing. I'm currently working on a game for "Spam" the food lol. Its different but cool, lots of weird animations. This post will be the last post about "What I have been up to?" and I'm going to post the interactive things I designed and had fun with this past year. Something to keep a look out for is going to be future posts about illustration, random sketches and design work. In the meantime here are some samples of a few of my favorite interactive concepts.

Oh before I forget I am going out of town next week to Boston for the whole week and will return on Tuesday the 27th. I am going to try and post some photos from the trip and my sweet little niece.

Thanks for listening and enjoy:

Interactive piece designed for the political season. With this piece you could pick a candidate then mix and match pieces from speeches they have given then send that mixed message to friends or post it.

This next project was to design an interactive valentines song/message maker that could be both a love song or a hate you for dumping me type of song. The general concept was the more positive messaging you select the more over the top the set design and characters would get with lovey stuff and the same goes for someone selecting hateful messaging.

Part3: What have I been up to?

2009-01-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Evening,

Well I thought I would post some illustration work tonight versus more interactive stuff (interactive will be a later post). My true love is and has always been illustration, some news to announce which is really cool, my work has been featured in both AI-AP Illustration 27 and the 2008 HOW promotional Annual this past year. The interactive poster I made this year, that got me into the HOW Awards Annual, had doors that swing open to reveal artwork under neath the other images also laser die-cut designs as well. It was a huge hit here in Minneapolis and all over the states. Along with this post I redid the branding for HAM with some really fun illustrations in my new breath of style and feeling. Hope you all get a kick out of them.

HAM Holiday Poster 2008:

Also a picture taken from a Poster show. My poster got to hang with fellow artist like James Jean and Tara Mc Pherson. The Show was hosted by College of Design in Arizona.
HAM Branding- Business cards and general illustrations for branding (the tank illustration along with the poster earned a place in AI-AP 27:

Part2: What have I been up to?

2009-01-06T20:47:00.001-08:00

Hello,

So here is some more work I have done this past year or so. This work mainly revolves around interactive work, design, and animation. There are several other interactive/web design projects I will post after this one. I hope you enjoy and like what I have been up to.

Below are a series of stills from the Mall of America: Nickelodeon Universe site I worked as illustration, design and animation. I got to animate Spongebob and several other elements on this one. It was fun to work on.
The next set of images below are from the 2008 Halloween site I designed for Target. This years theme was Domo and all things Domo. With this project I got to Design everything, Animate, and illustrate needed assets. The Amazing thing I just found out was that this online experience was Targets most successful seasonal campaign to date with sales up 89%.The last set of images I will showcase today are from the previous years Halloween site for Target. Edgar and Ellen from Nickelodeon were the main theme this year and it was extremely well received. Again I got to lead the design and animation along with making all the fun illustrations for the site.

What have I been up to?

2009-01-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hello,

So some might ask what have I been up to that has kept me so busy. Well here is just a taste of all the fun stuff I have had the pleasure of being apart this past year or so. (next post will be interactive micro sites for places like target.)

Here ya go:

5 minutes to kill yourself 2 ( had the pleasure of leading all the assets creation, design and illustrations for this project also animating in MAYA at times.)

Kill Thy Neighbor for adult Swim: I was the lead Illustrator, animator and designer on this one. Its a button smasher but it was developed by HAM.

And then I worked on this concept that is being turned into something else. Its going to be a game that changes from shooter to action adventure. OneBluebird will be producing this one with one other title this year. Right now its for fun and just to have it built but I hope it will have a place to live.

I'm Back 2009

2009-01-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hello to anyone that still reads this blog lol. I'm back and I'm going to try and make this blog alive and updated as regular as possible, starting now.
So where to begin? I have been working and living in Minneapolis, MN for the past year and work for a gaming/interactive agency. Along with that Amanda and I have gotten in engaged a year ago as well. The wedding is planned for 10.10.09 and that will be our 4th year together.

With work, life and freelance things have been busy and hard to keep my mind straight and give this blog the love it needed. Now that I have a grasp on myself and my mind again I thought now is the time to come back to the land of the living.

Projects have been wonderful and fun this year; working on gaming, interactive sites and animation to list a few. Clients like Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Target, Spam, and San Francisco Chronicle have keep my mind and hands drawing away.

So I thought what better way to kick off this rebirth of sorts with a life changing event, with some of our engagement photos.

Please keep checking back and I hope to win my viewers back!!

Enjoy,
Stephen

Long time no hear

2007-09-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the huge delay in posts and probably why people has slowly stopped check this blog out. haha I going to try and start posting cool stuff soon. Look out for sketches, animation, interactive micro sites and a cool-fun-sweet (I hope) project in the coming months. Other then that I have been really side tracked with summer events. My puppy if you can call him that now is so big now he looks like a classic style basset hound now. Well I am off to sketch up some concepts. Take it easy :-)
-Stephen

New Pieces!!

2007-08-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Just enjoying the summer we went to Ely, MN and relaxed. I caught two big walleye which I am going to post. Well I am back in my studio and thought I would post the two finished pieces from the last post.
-enjoy

Sketches and some more sketches!!

2007-07-16T14:12:00.001-07:00

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been busy with things. Hope everyone had a great 4th, I know I had a ball. Other then that just some traveling and of course working. Here is a hand full of sketches I have done this month for a variety of clients. First set of sketches are for UTNE Reader. The next sketch was for a concept for YMCA. Then last is a sketch from the book I have been doing illos for.
-enjoy

HOW Design Conference (PART 2)

2007-06-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,
Here is the second part of the HOW Design Conference trip. The most amazing part of this trip was the day me, Penelope, and Josh and got a personal tour from Ty (Huge thanks to him for hanging out with us) of Cartoon Network. He is a Designer there and over all nice guy. So we got to go walk through most of the Studios. We got to see animation areas, Web development/ animation group, Design group and finally got to met the illustrators that worked there. I was just blown away by the cool environment and nice people there. Ty also gave us tons of free stuff (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends- MY FAV.) Well after the tour, Ty asked if I would draw/tag their stairwell. I thought I went to haven haha. So I did a piece with my bluebird flying from the bottom of the stairs to the top. Truly I can now cross off one of my to do things before I die.
Well Once that day was over my head was spinning. The Conference closed at the Atlanta Aquarium (the nations largest). They had whale sharks there!! So that was an amazing way to end the trip. Now I am home back to work, I have a book, two websites and another illo for the UTNE Reader to get done.
-enjoy

HOW Design Conference (PART 1)

2007-06-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I am back from Atalanta from the conference. It was an amazing trip not only did I meet lots of people but people I knew. Thanks to everyone for stopping by the booth. The other artists that were there from Scott Hull was Penelope, Josh, Mike and Von. I realized how much I enjoyed networking and marketing on this trip. Seeing people come up to me and really want to know what I do is something that showed me how much I love this field. It was also a feeling of growth for me. To have a booth and hand out t-shirts, stickers and buttons was a ball. So here is a photo bump from the Conference. The images show our booth, people stenciling at our booth, the city of Atlanta, Gary Baseman giving a talk and then a drawing he did on our panels (which was cool to meet him as well). Oh and I will be posting a PART 2, so check back for that,
-enjoy

And I'm OFF!!

2007-06-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

Hello,
I am off to the HOW design Conference. We have a booth there my Rep and a few other artists will be there giving out free stuff, which I know everyone likes. So if "y'all" in ATL for the Conference stop by booth #336. Well till I get back here is a piece I did for the UTNE Reader.
-enjoy

Fancy Yourself a Ride

2007-05-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
I wanted to post a new piece I recently did. Its for the HOW conference. This piece has to be one of my most successful piece. Lots of fun imagery in it including my basset "Joxer" and my signature bluebird. On another note I am working on a new piece for the UTNE Reader which is a really cool magazine. I will post that once I am done.
-enjoy

New Sketch!!

2007-04-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Man I am enjoying Spring :-) got to do the lawn and get some sun and then play with my puppy. Also we got to take long walks in the neighborhood and see whats what. On another note I finished this sketch for a new promo piece for my post cards and also a large card that will be handed out at the HOW conference. Yes indeed I am going to this years HOW conference my Rep has a booth so a group of us are going to go to represent for Scott Hull :-) This years event is in goo ol Atlanta. I grew up in Memphis soo I am excited to visit the south again. Ohhh also on an old note here is a screen shot of a clothing site (esselleonline.com) I designed and built :-)
well I am off to finish this promo piece and work on some other goodies .
-enjoy

Ahh Spring Time!!!!

2007-04-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well its that time of the year!! I love this season and all the fun things that start happening. I love lawn care so I have been getting out there in the yard and edging, mowing and of course getting the flower beds planted with Amanda. Also since we have a puppy and this is his first spring playing with him in the yard makes me soo happy. Its good to have weather like this to get me away from the computer and working and enjoy the beautiful world out there. This spring and summer we plan on traveling a lot and trying to get a lot of fishing in. :-)

Well I am going to take Joxer " The Mighty" my puppy Basset out and play. Here is a cute pic of our little guy.
-Enjoy

Story time

2007-04-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Well I have been missing for a few weeks haha. Sorry just kind of overwhelmed with life and work mainly web stuff. Anywho I thought I would share one of the new pieces(About the stories of Jack the Ripper) I have been doing.

-enjoy

Total Rejection

2007-03-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch for an illustration about total rejection. You know the story about a guy head over heels in love- imagining his future with her. Then on the other side the girl is thinking about nothing but kicking him to the curb. This illustration is also a revision to an old piece I did about 3 or more years ago. Hope you enjoy it.
-peace
Stephen

San Francisco Chronicle

2007-02-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Heres a piece I finished for the San Francisco Chronicle. It was a really fast deadline a day and a half. I had fun, it was about fashion and the dark side of modern models being to thin, the article then compares fashion from the 1890's with woman changing their waists to be a perfect small waist. Well enjoy
-peace
Stephen

New Work!!

2007-02-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay in my posts. Just so much stuff going one from all ends personal and work. Here are two finished projects one for EH publishing and then Canvas Boutique (http://www.canvasboutique.com/)
Hope you enjoy.
-peace

Stickers!!

2007-01-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Here is a sticker that is in the works to get printed. I would like to have anyone that thinks they would like buy this sticker with some pins and would sport them please leave me a comment. I am also working on another ill. for EH publishing. So I will post that once its done. I am also going to post a link and a sample jpeg to a clothing site that is going live next week. So keep checking back!!
-peace
Stephen

Website Relaunch!!

2007-01-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years. I launched my refresh to my site and hope you all enjoy.
-peace
Stephen

Christmas Time!!!

2006-12-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all have a happy holiday and new year with your loved ones. Here is a little fun animation done for my rep's holiday site.

Also please check out my site after the new year and see the major refresh and updates!!
-peace
Stephen

New Piece!!

2006-12-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,
I just finished this piece for EH Publishing. About the PS3. The Article asked the question: Is virtual violence harmless, or does life imitate video game?
My Concept was to take one of the stories about a man getting robbed and like a video game he fought back. Like a character from one of the video games.
I hope you enjoy. Here is the sketch and final.
-peace
Stephen

Doodles are fun

2006-12-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

I was working on a flash animation and created this sketch while things rendered and whatnot.
I am going to be posting more often. I had several projects and plus with the holidays I have been traveling. Things to look forward to: ill. for Electronics House Monthly, Animation for Scott Hull Holiday site, Refresh to personal site for the New Year, plus some illustrations from other projects. Thanks and enjoy.
-peace
Stephen

Santa!!!!

2006-11-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I am working on this ill. for the holidays. I hope you enjoy.

-peace
Stephen

Finished Tom Petty

2006-11-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I got this piece done and had a moment to post it. I really enjoyed working on it. This is the last piece of my three pack mailers I am having printed up. Hope these mailers bring in some more fun clients. I will post some images from the project I finished with the department of defense. Enjoy

-peace
Stephen

My Web Angel

2006-10-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I have been busy. I just finished along project with the department of defense. It was a flash video game based with avatars. So I am going to post them on my onebluebird.com site soon.

In the mean time I have been think this over long and hard. I want to bring my site into the new year!! Since making the site my style has grown and developed. Sooo I'm going to give my site a refresh. Nothing to dramatic. I am simply taking my design now a step further and adding some new graphics. My goal is to turn my site into a working illustration. So here is a sketch of one of the graphics that will be added.

-enjoy
Stephen

Tom Petty

2006-10-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Here is another promo piece I am working on. Its Tom Petty. I wanted to do an ill about music and who better. I should be done with this one in a few days.

-enjoy
Stephen

Finished!!

2006-10-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I finished this piece its called Smitten. The guy wants her, but she isn't having it.

I hope you like. Enjoy
-peace
Stephen

Another Promo Piece!!!!

2006-10-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I finished this sketch for a promo piece that will go with the Marie Antoinette, plus one more piece. This will make a three pack for mailings. The themes are couples and culture. So the Antoinette piece is a couple piece and comment on the movie coming out. This sketch(a.k.a. Smitten) is for a couples/ dating theme.

The last piece is a Music/ portrait.... its a secret till I am done :-)

well enjoy and peace,
Stephen

New Work!!

2006-10-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I finished this promo piece about the movie Marie Antoinette and got a moment to post it along with another piece I did for my clothing/ brand. Its a family style crest. Hope you all enjoy!!
-peace
Stephen

Halloween Contest!!

2006-10-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Please submit artwork for this contest. I'm a judge for it. Penelope the creator of http://illustrationfriday.com/
Asked me and a couple other artists to be judges for it. Its a Scary/ fun time of the year and what better way to have fun then making some cool artwork. The rules are sooo simple just make an image that is black and orange. Well there are other rules to it so just visit the site:

http://penelopeillustration.com/projects/halloween2006/index.html

and make something cooooooooo and whatnot. :-)
-peace
Stephen

Marie Antoinette

2006-09-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw the trailer for Marie Antoinette. Looks GREAT. Can't wait to see it. So last night I did this draw and finished it this morning. I am going to make this into a nice promo piece for my postcard campaign. Thanks to Amanda she helped make this true to 18th century France. The Bird in the hair was her idea :-)

-enjoy
Stephen

New Work!!

2006-09-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I wanted to keep this piece kind of secret, but I can't help wanting to show it. This ill. is for my childrens book I am writing with Amanda. Lets just say its going to be one fun Adventure. :-D
Well I am currently working on some stuff and have some new projects lined up. So keep ya eyes open.

Hope you enjoy.
-peace
Stephen

Moving ohhh Moving

2006-08-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I have been quiet about this till the day came and passed. I have moved to Milwaukee to start a new life with Amanda the girl I love. I also decided to be a fulltime Freelancer and gave up my fulltime job in DC.

I love this area and I am so happy. Things have been so good for me this year and my career. My Rep is a GREATTTT Rep and I see a really bright and exciting future for my career.

Well once I get all settled in our new place I will post more ills soon, but till then here is some pics from the set of Studio 60 the new Matthew Perry show. These pics are of my work hanging as set posters and artwork. Warner Bros emailed me about this and wanted 9 pieces to use for the sets.

About half of them will be apart of the set permanently.
-Enjoy

Spread the Word!!

2006-08-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Scott Hull Associates have Launched the new Dial-In-Style campaign. Spread the word. I am a proud contributor :-) http://www.dial-in-style.com
-peace
Stephen

Little art to keep ya happy

2006-08-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

This piece was done for a Wedding. I had lots of fun doing this piece.
-enjoy

Oh Vacation

2006-08-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well I am back. I had a wonderful time off relaxing, fishing and just enjoying being with the person I love. Me and Amanda had a ball we stayed at a cabin. I went fishing and caught two fish my first night out, a walleye and a northern. My next time out let me tell you was soooo much fun I caught four walleyes in arow, they were all keepers. Some good eatting yummmm.
While out on that night fishing I saw a BEAR a Black Bear. He was swimming across the cannel haha.

I got pretty close to him and took some pics of him in the water and then he jumped out of the water onto the bank and I got some pics of him looking back at us on the boat like "what you doing in my water?" haha

I have to say this was one of the BEST vacations I have had.

Well On a work related note I have been busy. I have my page offically on my Reps. site www.scotthull.com

I have lots to scan in and work to post. I have been trying to catch up since being way. Also I have some more news to annouce in the coming weeks :-) its life changing and makes me happy to say the least.

Well I am off to the world of Illustration. Take it easy.
-Peace
Stephen

So here it is the Great News!!

2006-07-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well, All the paper work has gone through and its offical.
I have a Rep. I have signed with Scott Hull & Associates!!
Currently I am getting all the images together for them to have for the web.
I am soooo excited about my future and my career.

Also some more BIG news I got a call from Warner Brothers and they want to use my art on a TV show as part of the set. Like posters hanging on the walls and whatnot. The Show that will have my work is Studio 60 the new Mathew Perry show.

Well I need to get back to work.
-Peace Stephen

Finished Ill.

2006-06-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished piece for Playgirl. I hope you enjoy. -peace Stephen

Finshed Sketch

2006-06-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the Sketch for the next Playgirl piece. I got thumbs up So i am starting the final. I should have that to post this weekend. Enjoy -Peace Stephen

Sorry for the lack of posts.

2006-06-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I have been so busy lately with work and freelance, and just life haha
I will have some new work to post this week. I am doing another Playgirl Piece for their Review section. I also did an interview for an online Magazine. They gave me three spreads for my work and then a page for my pic and questions/answers. I am also going through a huge deal that will be GREAT for my career, but I will wait to tell everyone about it till all the paper work goes through. Well back to work!! -Peace Stephen

Wolverine

2006-06-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

Finshed this piece enjoy!!
-peace Stephen

HowDesign.com Featured me!!

2006-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

"We at HOW magazine were so taken with your site that we have listed it as one of our Web site's "Top 10" sites to see this month."

WOW i am so honored :-) to visit my site go to http://www.onebluebird.com
more work on the way keep checking back.
-peace Stephen

Spidey

2006-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

I finished the I spider-man piece. I am working on the wolverine piece. Enjoy
-peace
Stephen

Sketch

2006-05-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the Wolverine Sketch, its apart of the series I am working on. The spidie piece is almost done will post that soon.
-peace
Stephen

Some news :-)

2006-05-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I just got the ok to an agreement to design a site for a clothing boutique. That is going to be a fun job. I also have a ton of illustrations I am currently working on and should post those soon.

Lots of cool things in the pipe line, can't wait to post them.

-peace
Stephen

Some more work

2006-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Some more stuff. I did this t-shirt design for this event thats a local maryland family started event haha I just love the name and had fun making a family style crest with an icon of a drunk king of hot dogs lol

and then here is an image of a sketch for an illustration I am working on.... i will post some more illustrations this week.

-peace
Stephen

New Illustration

2006-04-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Just updating!! Here is a new piece about Dating: Call Me

I have some new designes on the way: Another t-shirt design and some other goodness.

Well you enjoy.

-peace

Stephen

Another T-shirt design

2006-04-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Trying to keep up with posting :-D Here is a t-shirt I designed for Harvard Medical School.

I had alot of fun with this one because its so type driven. Well later in the week I will have another set of illustrations.

Enjoy!!

-peace
Stephen

Another Finished Piece

2006-04-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
I just finished another piece and have a hand full more almost done.

Well I hope you enjoy.

-peace
Stephen

Heres A finished fashion piece

2006-04-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I have been trying to post more and seems I am slacking in that haha

I have some pieces I just finished and some more sketches on new ones as well.

Keep a look out for them. Till then here is a new Fashion Ill I did (they then layed type and whatnot on it.)

enjoy!!

Peace,
Stephen

Lots of new work

2006-04-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I thought I would post a lot of my sketches for new illustrations I am currently working on.
I am also posting a design that is being made in LA for t-shirts.

Last but not least I am posting a design for my clothing line I am currently getting together. This design is for belt buckels.

I will post lots of finished illustrations and work later in the next week. Thanks for visiting.

-peace
Stephen

New Piece

2006-04-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I finished a new pieces and wanted to shar it :-D

Enjoy, I will have tonz of new stuff to post in a few days or so. I am waiting to get thumbs up before I post them.

-Peace
Stephen

Spread for my Promo Stuff

2006-04-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

Here is My Spreads that were printed in the Black book and I use as tear sheets. :-D

Click to view Larger!!

New Work to come !!

Peace,

Stephen

I'm back!!

2006-03-31T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone I am back. Sorry for the long time between posts. I took a week off last week and had tonz of fun and relaxed. Once I got back I had tons of work and projects pilled up. I have been working like crazy this month and last month. Lots to show. I will post alot of illustrations in the week to come. I am waiting to get thumbs up on them. till then I have another piece I finished for that annual report I have just one left to do then all the illustrations are done and will be placed in the report. I think this will be one amazing piece once its all printed and put together.

Peace,
Stephen

I have been Invited!!

2006-03-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

Yours truely just recieved this:

I'm Invited!

By the AIGA/Baltimore to participate as a reviewer in the 2006 Student Portfolio Review. "AIGA is asking for a bit of your time and the students are asking for a lot of your honesty. While we will all benefit from your participation, a student thinking of bringing back comic sans might benefit the most. Interested?"

In two words "Hell Yeah"

haha I feel honored to be asked to be a Reviewer. I remember when I had that moment myself as a student.

I also loved it when a few months ago I was asked to give a talk at MICA to the senior thesis class. I greatly enjoyed speaking about my work and talking to future stars about the field of illustration and the art of promo.

Well I am excited and can't wait to see some great work and talk with people who care about this field as much as I do.

peace,
Stephen

Fat Albert!!!!

2006-03-12T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I just finished this and thought I would post it. "Hey Hey its Fat Albert"

I will post some other work in the next day or so till then enjoy!!

-stephen

More Annual Illustrations!!

2006-03-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I have been busy finishing up some logos and design stuff. Plus Finished up some more illustrations for that Annual Report I have been posting.

I will post some design stuff later in the week along with my finished "Fat Albert" piece.

Well till then Enjoy

-Stephen

Some sketching and work going on!!!

2006-03-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

Hey people,

I did this sketch last night and I think it turned out really fun I am doing it for a contest posted by my a friend of mine Saxton at Sacks10.blogspot

Its a Fat Albert Contest :-) you have to take and give your personal take on the subject "Fat Albert"

I decided to make a full illustration of three of the characters I like. This is the sketch I will take to final. So in a few days I will post the final.

These next pieces I did for Promo the top one for HZDG and the bottom one as Promo for myself. They would be poster and also made into long stickers too..

Well I will post more work later in the week. I have some work I have to jump on now.

enjoy
-stephen

Just Updating!!

2006-02-24T18:46:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Hope all is well. I just got an email from the Art Director that I worked with at PLAYGIRL and she told me they are going to have a section about the artists in the issue I did work for and I will have a picture and bio lol :-) thats right people

Well this week has been really killer I have been working like crazy on new work and I should have some stuff to post once I hear its approved :-D

In the meantime here is some artwork i did for this retail center for some ads I did several versions and this is one of them its my fav.

This next piece is from the whitman series i have been working and and lead to the website www.thewhitman.com

Which is up for an ADDY this year :-D

Well that should keep ya till my next post I hope ya enjoy.

Have a Great Day!!!!

-Stephen

Major Updates!!!

2006-02-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone I have Great News. I just heard the work I did on http://www.thewhitman.com
Recieved a nomination for an ADDY. That is soo cool and a huge thing for me :-D

I also got word that I will have another t-shirt coming out from a clothing company in LA.

Also working on a logo for this company that works for movie companies as a placement agency. They put stuff in movie i.e. nike, phones things like that on the big screen... I got word they are taking me on as a client as well and working to get my artwork in movies.

Whatelse I Just Put my Website http://www.onebluebird.com through a Major Update and there are tons of new work in the illustration, sketch and design sections.

Well everyone I hope your weekend is going well enjoy it!!!!

-Stephen

Finished Playgirl Illustrations!!

2006-02-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

2/17/2006
Here they are folks!!

I finished these and just heard back they are all approved and off to to the pub.

Life has been great just working and getting more freelance I got a job for another t-shirt design and then a logo design for a company in LA.

I also did a design for someone that wanted a tat. the job was to design an image of this bird that is on the polish flag. He loved it and he is getting it inked this weekend I am going to try and get after photo of the design on his arm.

Other then a busy life with freelance, my day job has been going well I just finished up a group of illustrations for some posters for skin care for kids and then some icon art for a invitation to Chuck Norris's KickStart program haha thats right you heard right the legend himself chuck "kill you with just a flex of his butt cheek" Norris haha

The project turned out cool I will post the finished product once its printed :-)

Well kids I am off to make some more art and what not I will keep the posts coming I promise.

-Stephen

This is the Tat I designed for a client(its going to be inked on the shoulder):
Oh on a side note my personal life has become amazing, I love you Amanda :-)

Updates 2/14/2006

2006-02-14T09:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long time in posting I am new to this blog thing haha

I have been really busy with illustration projects and what not. Here is some recent things I have been working on I did this sketches for PlayGirl. Once I finish I will post the finals:

These next images are for an Annual Report for a Financial Company :-)

Enjoy..... more updates to follow I will try and post more!!

Welcome!!

2005-12-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

Hi,
My Name is Stephen Whetstine. This is going to be a way for me to post updates about things I am up to and whats going on.

Please check back in the future and I should have this blog all figured out and images posted.

Till then check out my site www.onebluebird.com.

thanks,

Stephen