My Facebook Fan Page

Apparently there's this new fangled thing called Facebook. It's real popular I guess and they made a movie about it and everything. Anyway I started a fan page there for my art. I figured it would be a rather effective way for me to keep people informed on my latest art projects and related news.

I'll be posting links to new releases weather it's on this blog, istockphoto, Inner-Nut.com, or my portfolio site at Jeffmorinart.com. Plus I'll try to keep it up to date with what I'm currently working on and perhaps post some process work too. So if you're interested in my work or would just like to talk about art, head on over and click that little "Like" button on the top of the page. I sure would enjoy hearing from you.

http://www.facebook.com/jeffmorinart

Sketch Of The Week: Hang In There

What do you think, Should I make this into a demotivational poster?

I had a dream about a week ago that there was a black cat that crawled up the side of our house somehow. I think it was trying to get into the window or something but It couldn't and it got stuck and died. In the dream I was helping my mom knock the cat off of the wire it was clinging to.

Later when I awoke and was pondering the details of the dream, I realized that the manner in which the cat was holding on to the wire was very similar to the cats in the "Hang In There" motivational posters. Apparently my subconscious is just as pessimistic as the rest of my consciousnesses.

This is one of the many Hang In There kitties.

Somewhat ironically, as I sit here writing this, there is a group of crows out on my street feasting on the dead carcass of a black cat. Is this some kind of message from beyond? Is God trying to tell me something? If so, it seems pretty bleak.

Takes The Cake

On occasion, My pal Nick makes custom decorated cakes. I think about a year ago he started doing it with more frequency and he decided that he'd like to make it into a little side business. So, he commissioned me to create this mascot/logo for use on business cards and the like.

Nick wanted a cartoon version of himself in full chef garb running with a cake. This would go along with the name of the business, Takes The Cake. A clever name indeed.

Usually it takes quite a few different sketches before I really nail a design, but in this case I got it with the first one. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't come up with anything I liked better than that. But just to give Nick some options I did one more little sketch. Then I sent the sketches to nick and indicated to him that I liked the top one best, and he agreed. Since the sketch turned out so well I really didn't want to redraw it and risk stiffening up the pose too much. So, I decided to use the thumbnail sketch for the final illustration and make any necessary changes or tweaks in illustrator.

Sketch Of The Week: Smelloggs Zap-Os

I love a good cereal box design. It seems like they are hard to come by these days.

I haven't done any graphic design projects in a while and I was thinking about beefing up that portion of my portfolio on Jeffmorinart.com. One of the things I wanted to do was to create some cereal box designs based on my own made up cereals. This is one of the ideas I was kicking around.

Sketch Of The Week: Sloppy John

read in a thick New York accent

This guy, whom I've nick named Sloppy John, Comes into the supermarket where I work. He likes to chat it up with the employees. At first I didn't really like him all that much and it wasn't because he resembled a homeless person or smelled of stale beer and sweat, it was because all he ever seemed to talk about was how horrible our county was. He would complain about the people that lived here with such hatred and anger. The reason it made me so angry was because he was the spitting image of the people he was complaining about.

Eventually I grew to hate him less and I learned quite a bit about him during his many beer runs to the store. This man was quite the paradox; His parents immigrated to New York from Germany in the 40's, he spent some time in the military, he's a homosexual, he was a school teacher, and a pig farmer. On top of that he styles his facial hair like some kind motorcycle enthusiast. In the end ol' John turned out to be a pretty interesting guy with an interesting life.