When I get the time

New Portrait

2010-05-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

My friend Roya moved to NYC. Good luck out there!

Flicks

2010-03-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

Recently Julie and I met one of our neighbors who is a huge dog lover, trainer and often takes in dogs to foster. She works frequently with Bull Terriers and has a soft spot for them it seems, as do myself and Julie. A few weeks ago we got a note asking if we would be able to take on a foster puppie for a short amount of time as she was at her capacity. This is how we ended up opening our door to Flicks.

Day one, Flicks arrives at our place and is a little unsure of his surroundings.

He soon settles on the couch.

It's been a busy first day.

Treats are in order. We are told that he loves peanut butter inside a bone, who wouldn't.

Day two. In contrast to our own dog, he is an angel in the bath tub.

Hes gets a special shampoo for his skin. Will be cleared up very soon.

Julie dries him off, making this look like a scene from E.T.

As you can see his coat is a little patchy and pink still, can't wait till it has grown in. Should take four weeks or so.

Another busy day, Flicks insits on squeezing in behind our dog B for an hour or so before bed.

New Bespoken invite: BLOGGED

2010-02-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

The fashion week invite we just completed for Bespoken got some attention. It's an old 45 with the invite details printed on the label, these guys fancy it for one of the prettiest fashion week invites for fall 2010. Can't wait to get one in my hand.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Spot The Tiger

2010-01-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

Last year I made a promise to myself to start making some statements with my work instead of just making eye candy. You can imagine how excited I was when Mike from Chorus Rising invited me to contribute towards the non partisan debate/art project Spot The Tiger. The project matches social issues with images created by a diverse range of visual artists. It was definitely challenging tackling such a big issue in an illustration, I have done very little of this and it made me realize how hard being a professional illustrator or satirist must be.

My chosen issue is weather prisoners should have the right to vote. Hop on over to Spot The Tiger , cast your vote and check out the other great work.

Anchortapes

2010-01-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

THE FLING - *STRANGERS* from Anchortapes on Vimeo.

Anchortapes.com is the latest project from Long Beach local Billy Kostka. He has been sifting through, selecting and ultimately filming some of the best musical talent in Southern California. The most recent session is from Long Beach four piece The Fling. My personal faves include the Deep Sea Diver sessions and The Flings silly hat version of 'Elinor'.

I was glad to help Billy out by putting together some branding for him to use on the site and for the video ID. I look forward to doing more with Anchortapes in the future.

Good Day Shirt Design

2010-01-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

Every year Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles lend out every one of it's employees for one day a year to local non-profits and charities. As an employee, this is a great opportunity to go out in to the community and spend a day with your colleagues and do something more than just sitting behind a desk all day. This year I was asked to come up with a design for the shirt that everyone is given to wear that represents our association with Saatchi.

As Saatchi grows every year in to more and more pro-bono and non-profit events, it was decided that we should make a shirt design that could be versatile and used for any of those such occasions. The result is this, something fun that I hope encapsulates a little of what goes in to these great efforts by the kind souls at Saatchi LA.

First Lucky Pixie product

2010-01-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

Both myself and Jules decided that we should try to make some products between us as a joint project. She has the craft and business streak, and I like design-y things for the home. Here are the first few things we have put together, pillows, tea towels bracelets that Jules has hand made out of shredded junk mail.

There's much more we want to do in the future but for now the next goal is to get 'Lucky Pixie' up on Etsy as a shop.

Painting my dog blue

2010-01-06T22:41:00.001-08:00

Over a year ago, I was carpooling with a group of friends from work and on picking up, one member pointed out an old sign that had been taken off the front of the salon below her apartment. It was a simple hand painted sheet of plywood that looked like it had been battling the elements for a number of years. I was immediately intrigued and charmed by it, so much so that I asked my friend (yes, Kieth) stop one evening on returning from work and throw it in the back of his truck. I kept it at the side of our house for over a year until I was under threat of having to throw it out.

The time had come to paint the sign. I was determined to not have this turn out like most of my other paintings and take months, if not years to complete so I held myself to one weekend. Sketching quickly, and in retrospect borrowing heavily from one of my favorite artists who will go unnamed (I'll let you guess) I tried to get this done as rapidly as I could and still get a good result.

Starting after work on Friday night I sanded and primed, leaving a faint trace of the hand painted sign underneath. Using my awesome and very sleepy dog as an easy source of material and with the help of Jules, we were able to get done painting on Tuesday night. Not quite the weekend but on my track record, not bad at all. Capt. Kieth came to the rescue once again to help hang the sign, which weighs upwards of 100lbs I'm sure, even after having a cycling collision with a reckless BMW driver on his way over, he still got it done.

Landscaping '09

2010-01-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

Before

After

As previously promised, here some photos of the process we went through to get our garden to it's current drought-resistant state.

Shovels were broken, muscles were strained, dirt and beers were aplenty. Happy to say that we are four or so months down the road and all the plants are growing in nicely. Can't wait for the weather to warm up a little so we can take full advantage. Thanks again to Chief Designer Keith Ellis for being such a badass, and to Julie my wife for hatching the idea in the first place.

It kills you mural

2009-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Leave it to creative tornado Sayer Danforth to decide he's going to paint a massive mural in his house. I'm just glad he invited me to pitch it. Lots of late nights ahead methinks.

2009-10-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my good friend Justin and his lovely new wife Jen. Great couple, great wedding. Here's the stag himself.

Japanaholic #1

2009-10-09T11:35:00.001-07:00

I love going to the Japanese market in Torrance. Not only are the noodles delicious but the whole place is a visual roadtrip. Tuna candy, crazy deserts, and the best bread ever. These are a few little gems I spotted. Gotta feel bad for Ponyo though, he looks pretty pissed off about being in that little bag.

Done diggin

2009-09-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a plot was hatched between myself, Julie and a few friends to do something about the terrible state of our front yard. With Keith as chief designer we went ahead and ripped out the grass. Many back-breaking hours later this is the result. We went from a grass lawn with flowers and a crappy old bar to a drought resistant, low maintenance yard that needs next to no water. Thanks Keith, and thanks to Jen for lending us your husband for the last three weeks. Before and after photos coming.

NYC art show

2009-09-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

I just picked this up from the printer today and shipped it to NY to be included in an art show being held by Bespoken Clothiers to launch the Spring Summer line. I finished the Spring Summer look book a week or so ago and started straight on to this. I blended some of my floral ideas with a sketch of one of the models from the look book. Printed on silver rag with archival coating. Came out quite nice. First piece in a show!

Designing stuff with Microsoft Word

2009-08-28T15:54:00.001-07:00

Cory Casey, A.K.A. C. Wizard emailed me yesterday with a pretty strange challenge: To try to spruce up some posters he had been creating in Microsoft Word as he had no other software.The only condition was it had to be Helvetica.

At first I thought WTF am I going to do with this?! But before long I was totally hooked.I'm almost thinking about doing some further projects in Word, it's kind of fun!

Prius Floralscapes

2009-08-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

I recently had the great opportunity to concept and design nine different scenes for the Prius campaign that were to be taken and made in to these huge flower installations. Low and behold it was actually approved, produced and unveiled with a fanfare that included the Mayor of Los Angeles.

Photo credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Ape poster progress

2009-07-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I still want to do a little more to this, I think I need to put him in the context of a bar to make the type make more sense. One of my friends in San Diego would always order this drink at bars. As band that inspired the illustration are from there I thought it would be a nice touch. I think I would like to add something in to the type too.

Transport illustrations

2009-05-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Playing around with some shapes and iconography. I was actually thinking about using something along these lines for a big painting initially but now I'm not too sure. Maybe another possible screen print. Might look at developing some type.

Do you recognize the truck in the top image? Clue: "Great Scott!"

America illustration

2009-05-06T12:13:00.001-07:00

We wore cowboy boots to work one day towards the end of last year and I had this idea for an illustration. Might make a nice screen print at some point. I'm not decided on the colors though. As much as I want the red, white and blue I want to play with some less expected color.

Floral fabric

2009-05-06T11:41:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the magic that is Spoonflower, I got my rosette design printed on to fabric. This is then going to hopefully end up as awesome cushions via the sewing machine skills of Julie and flogged on Etsy. That's the plan anyway.

Bespoken Fall/Winter

2009-05-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

The second book I have worked on for Bespoken, uncoated black cover printed in silver with a soft touch coat on the interior pages. We kept the design simple with emphasis on the clothes, quality and the brand message. Photography by Blossom Berkofsky.

First painting

2009-05-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

I must have been working on this for well over a year and a half. I started my stencil technique with this and as it is on art board, have had many terrible issues with it. I know working on wood is way easier.

Although I already moved on, I need to back and finish this up. There will eventually be type on the sign, all I need to do is figure out what it will say.

New rosette study

2009-05-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

I want to roll out my floral rosette design in to a series of different but related circular pieces. This one I am starting out planning the shapes and color in illustrator with the intention to move over to texture later.

I want to tone the color down a lot but kind of like how this looks all bright. Very playful.

Nice day for a spot of painting

2009-04-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Awesome until your dog tries to eat a Pomeranian walking past your
house. I think her stoop rights are revoked for now.

Apartment complex painting

2009-04-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Trying to get all of these cabinet doors painted so I can start on my full size doors. Started this piece for a friend, going to try get it done in good time, speed up my process. This is my 2nd full-on piece. Another local spot in Long Beach, this super cool 70's apartment complex is looking kind of tatty these days but the lines are awesome.

Well hung

2009-04-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Took far too long, but not as long as the last one. My completed
lighthouse painting up on the wall! I still need to go in and touch up a few spots which got messed up along the way. The Long beach Lighthouse, or robot lighthouse sits in the port of Long Beach and was completed in 1949. Built to survive earthquakes and tidal waves, it's a great example of 50's design. I have been fascinated with it since we moved to Long Beach as you can see it's light blinking at night and it is often silhouetted against Catalina Island.

iPhone doodle

2009-01-09T12:55:00.001-08:00

Drawn using brushes for the iPhone. Cool little tool for the finger
phone. Lots of control of zoom, brushes, color and opacity. Layers
would be nice though.

This is a Steve Jobs quote I found interesting, and worthy of a little
doodle.

Bespoken lookbook

2008-12-10T18:07:00.001-08:00

Drum roll please........... This is the cover of a spring / summer 09 look book that should print this weekend.

BC Surf

2008-12-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

My good friend, and Brother-in-law Chris asked me to help out with some branding for a local surf shop in San Clemente California.

After meeting the owners I decided this would be a fun project, we agreed on a lot of the things we liked. One of those being old-school Ocean Pacific graphics.

I think we managed to bring that through in the redesign.

Rumors circulating that they are having new signage made for the exterior of the shop using the new branding which will be great. Got to say I'm crossing my fingers for the board laminate though.

If you are in the area and need anything check them out. Melanie, Mannie and Chris. Super nice people... BC SURF

APES desktop art

2008-12-04T10:42:00.001-08:00

Here's two 16080x1027 APES desktop images. Click on the above image then right click and save, or just drag over to your desktop. I will work on getting some other sizes up. Any requests?

Save Trestles From The Monster

2008-12-03T18:13:00.000-08:00

Everyone seemed to like this concept for it's attention-grabbing quality. Also this comes across a considerably meaner than the previous idea. The work was eventually used across web banners, posters, pins, shirts and so on.

Great chance to work with a great organization. We need to look after our natural resources and hopefully with our participation there's room for Surfrider to grow in to a force to be reckoned with.

Save Trestles Initial concept

2008-12-03T17:58:00.001-08:00

Through work I got the opportunity to do some work for Surfrider. It was a quick-fire job to get people to attend a public hearing. This was the second and final hearing where arguments were being heard for and against building a giant, gnarly toll road right through the middle of some truly unique countryside in Southern California.

Surfrider had already done a great job raising awareness with the 'Save Trestles' campaign. They now wanted to get something a little more solid circulated that
had a specific call to action for the event.

We banged out two concepts. This being the first. These were meant to be posters, highlighting what might happen if the toll road was to go ahead.

The second concept was chosen. I liked this one personally. If not just for finding a good place to make a reference to the original Woodstock poster!

APES banner art

2008-11-26T11:08:00.001-08:00

I worked some detail in to the 'Apes Of Wrath' type for a banner to hang behind the band at shows. Was pretty tedious but think it will pay off when it's printed pretty large. Just need to decide on the color scheme.

Quiet afternoon

2008-10-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Some quick studies for a work in progress.

Very graphic

2008-10-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

Spotted this great building In long beach. Might make a great painting.

Work in Progress

2008-10-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

I have been getting in some practice with the old Wacom Tablet. I like drawing big textures so far. Tedious but rewarding. Here's a test for a possible poster, and probable wall mural.

Tuesday morning gadget fest

2008-10-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

This phone blogging is cool

S&S Digibook

2008-08-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

By far the most ambitious interactive project I have worked on, it took about seven months from start to completion to get this together. Saatchi Los Angeles wanted to produce a yearly book of work but instead of printing a book, saving those resources and producing an interactive book to be distributed on a USB drive.

I tried to keep the navigation linear to emulate a printed book, using detail photos from around the office as background elements. It was nice to work on a project like this and see it all come together through the programming and flash development.

Good friends and photographers extraordinaire, Dan Busta and Ryan Schude came along and shot wonderful interior images of the new remodeled third floor. The final package was an orange rubber casing presented in a foil-stamped box.

Stag Rmx

2008-08-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to produce some prints as gifts for the kind gents that helped myself and Julie out at our wedding, I produced these pieces. Both are kind of mash-ups of other existing content I am working on. I was initially going to just print one piece but realized that some people are room mates and would therefore have duplicate prints in the house. Going to produce 6 prints, three of each on a different type of art paper, including bamboo which I'm super excited about as it's totally sustainable.

Finally on a wall

2008-08-03T15:41:00.001-07:00

It's been probably 6 months since I had the first rosette print made which now hangs above my bed. With the help of my friend Sayer Danforth I hand framed two pieces last week. Getting better at the whole process, and also found a great gloss coating that paints on and protects the surface. Since then I have found a wonderful printing resource in Santa Ana. There's a guy down there called Moses who is trying to experiment with all types of digital printing. Also is very cost effective and quality conscious for canvas prints. Feels good to get this up on the wall at last. Two more are ready to give to friends as presents.

Unseen Forces

2008-06-25T21:18:00.001-07:00

A piece for my good friend Chris Iltis for a musical project. The radio had some personal meaning as an object. Chris wanted for the music to be portrayed as an unseen force so I created the creature as a sort of spirit of the radio.

STAG!

2008-06-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

So far the only thing this has been good for has been to add a speech bubble to for the header of this blog. Pretty frustrated with this piece in general, was intended to be a print but not really holding up yet. Needs work. Fully planning to NOT let this slip in to the WIP drawer for the next month to two years...

Rosette

2008-06-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

In 2006-ish I collaborated a good friend of mine who is a fashion designer to make some sweet hand made mens T-shirts. We did make some sweet mens shirts, 5 of them, then we both went our separate ways. Since then I have had a half-realized project on my to-do list. From shirts, to canvas, first in hopefully a series I have two 50x50 inch versions of the above ready to frame.

Toyota Matrix Launch

2008-06-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

This was a fun first project as Art Director for Saatchi Los Angeles. Studio shots of the what was all-new 09 Toyota Matrix. Designed and printed on pearl Curious paper in a 2 fold poster format.

My Wedding invites

2008-06-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

So my part of the wedding planning came down to designing and printing the invites. I drew this scene which is meant to be the spot that we got married at, right there in front of those two bushes. I guess it kind of looks like that. Designing = easy, printing on our home HP Photosmart thing = stupid.

Way Free

2008-06-07T20:26:00.001-07:00

Some sketchbook studies for a concept I have finally started making a painting for. Even though I don't paint. Or didn't paint. We will see how that goes. All about life, cars, oil, concrete. I started thinking about this when I used to spend two hours plus per day on the I405.

San Clemente

2008-06-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is a scene based on a path to the beach near to where we used to live in San Clemente, California. Line work and digital color. I'm thinking about revisiting it and putting in some shading and texture.

NIMH

2008-06-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

I recently worked on the branding, art direction and development of the NIMH launch. Was fun working with manufacturers to making the skate look cool. Thank you to Brian, Jan, Jon and Jen at Rat Tail.

Old shot of my fave building in San Diego

2008-06-07T14:53:00.001-07:00

Castle, originally uploaded by peel.chris.

This is really a test to link up my flickr page to here. But I really like this shot so...

Lets get pissed!

2008-06-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

So on April 19th I became the luckiest man on earth when I married Julia Iltis (now Julia Peel muhahaha) in San Diego, CA.

It has to be said the highlight of the day was all of our wonderful friends and family. We will never forget how much love and support you gave us.

Thanks in particular to Cory, Jacob, Dan, Ryan, Billy, Sayer and Brian for being our media and entertainment. You guys rock.

Check out a gallery for more of above by the one and only Busta.

Vicious 07

2008-06-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

More old stuff you have probably seen on my myspace page. These are the last two shirts I created for VICIOUS bearings. I guess I had been watching old horror movies or something, I remember having a dream about my friend Cory Casey wearing his Chargers #1 foam finger in a zombie movie scenario. Hence the 'winner' shirt.

Nimh Owl

2008-06-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

I always loved the movie 'The Clash of The Titans' that had a cool mechanical owl character. That kind of stuck in my mind when working on this illustration for NIMH, a new Skate company from my boys at Rat Tail. Here's the ink line work, and the final poster. Photo by Wes D.

Going Ape

2008-06-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

More old stuff. From probably late summer 07. A favor for my good friend Dustin and his band. He wanted something for his bass drum. I don't think they liked it very much, which is fair comment. They on the other hand, are fantastic...

APES MYSPACE!!!

Oileater

2008-06-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

In an effort to catch up with the doodling I would have posted if I wasn't such a procrastinator, here's a little something from a slow morning at work. I think I had watched 'The Host' a few nights before. Kind of a daydream about a monster being released from an oil drilling site off the coast of Longbeach. And it wants it's oil back!

Back in the USA!

2007-09-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Baja is an interesting place. I can't say I will ever go there with a group of boys ever again, or if I ever want to have a machine gun pointed at me any time soon.

It was all worthwhile for the happiness of my buddy Chris, and of course this photo that was captured through the (now forever scarred) lens of my beloved LCA.

For more Lomo sexiness, check out from here onwards on my flckr page.