Got some nice press this month from a couple killer design mags from the UK. DigitalArts asked me create a tutorial on illustrating tattoo-inspired vector artwork, as well as provide the final image for the cover of their D&AD Special 2009 issue. Go pick one up to get all the tips and score some exclusive freebies from theGoldenBlack.com on the disk. Also received some love from ComputerArts issue 163 in the Output Design Showcase. Got to talk about Back in Black 2 a bit, give some shoutouts to Hydro74, Munk One, ISO50, Brian Morris and share the spread with 123Klan and Julie West. CA also included a selection of my work on the included disk. Check out the images below for some quick shots of the spreads.

Had a great time at the “Size Matters” exhibit, hosted by the Vitale Bros. last Friday night! The show had a big turnout, killer artwork and a good amount of pieces sold. Nice work Vitale Bros. and Tampa Bay! We were rollin’ pretty deep to the show and took a few pictures of the action. See below for my two pieces: 4×5 ft Skeletor and 4×6 ft Ornate Skull  (both are router cut and mounted vinyl prints) Click here to see the rest of the shots and of course, me with my standard, drunken, pirate poses, parting with friends and bothering random girls… It’s what I do.

I’ve got a couple new pieces in the next Vitale Bros. exhibit coming up this Friday night at Nova 353 in downtown St. Petersburg, FL. I decided to do my pieces as large format, mounted, cut-out foam core prints. I made some of these back a couple years ago for an Urban Outfitters window display and they turned out really nice, so i figured this was a good excuse to make some new ones. The artist lineup for this show is stacked with a ton of Florida talent. If you live in the Tampa Bay area, you definitely need come out, get drunk and check out in some new, huge art with us!

Artist Lineup:

Bask ,Tesone, Frank Strunk III, Sarah Hutcherson, Ron Pieniak, TW Curtis, Pale Horse, Hydro 74, Chad Mize, Phillip Clark, Hugsmugglers, Andrew Spear, Dolla Lama,   Davey Montooth, Terribly Odd Andrea Pawlisz, Ricardo Hernandez Marquez, Melia, Krystal Ralph, Smilemaker,  Joey Vitale, Paul Vitale, John Vitale

Just took a trip out to San Diego, CA to get out of the studio and take a little break from work a few days. Michelle, Kirstie and I squeezed in as much action as we could in the short time we were there. Check out some pics below.

The first night we made the voyage across the boarder to Tijuana! We ate some legit, $1 tacos, drank some (filtered) margaritas and took a taxi out to the Friday night Lucha Libre wresting arena. Of course, I had to buy a couple Luchadore masks and yell at the wrestlers a bit. It was really fun, not sketchy at all like I imagined. Damn, they had some weird snacks at the concession stands there!

The next day we did some kayaking at La Jolla beach to see some caves, sea lions and leopard sharks. I also got in a little surfing, which I haven’t done in years. Def. a nice change of scenery from the computer screen. After a long day of paddling around the ocean, we went to see ‘The Hangover’ and I fought a terminator afterwards in the lobby. Both ruled!

On Monday, I visited the headquarters of one of my favorite clients Iron Fist Clothing. It was killer to see Travis and Mike again after about 3 years when we started working together after meeting at a tradeshow in NYC. I got to check out a bunch of new samples of pieces I’ve designed, ranging from shirts and hoodies to shoes, bikini’s and board shorts. Keep an eye on these guys. They’ve got so much amazing shit coming out.

Right down the street from our hotel was the new Tribal Gear store that had a huge selection of apparel, shoes skate decks and amazing artwork.  I got to meet Carl Arellano and shoot the shit for a bit, as well as pick up some new stuff from Maxx242, Usugrow and Fudamae.

If you wanna check out the rest of the pics from the trip. Click here for my Flickr page.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any new client work here on the ol’ blog. While most of the shit I’ve been designing recently, I can’t really post big shots of yet, I wanted to put up a quick teaser of some of the pieces.  Check ‘em out and I’ll put up bigger images later.

Here’s a rundown of some of the more memorable stuff that’s been in the works:  Working with Shared Vision and Smirnoff Vodka to design a gig poster, custom bottle label and a promo swag bag for their ‘Cee-Lo’ event in Atlanta.  Iron Fist has been keeping me busy with a series of new shoe art and a bunch of shirt graphics. Some new clients I’ve been stoked to start working with are Globe Shoes, Hart & Huntington and Ve’cel Clothing. Tons of type treatments and shirts for those guys. I also created my first vector tutorial and some illustration pieces for Digital Arts and Vektorika Magazines. Keep an eye out for those in July!

Another recent piece that was pretty fun, was a gig poster and giant banner design I got to do for my friend Asa Palmer, who’s band ‘Harrah’ is playing with the blast from the past, ‘Frodus’ on the 26th. Definitely going to be making the trip out to Orlando for that show. Anybody else gonna be there?

Also, tomorrow, Michelle and I are taking a much needed break and making it a really long weekend by flying out to San Diego, CA for a few days to kick back and not think about work… much. Should be rad! How’s Tijuana these days? I’ve heard some rough stories, but godamnit! i wanna see some Lucha Libre wrestling, buy dumb tourist shit, eat tacos in Mexico and no mexican drug lords or swine flu is gonna stop me! Lady of Guadalupe, velvet paintings, fake Jesus pieces and luchador masks here we come!

To balance my last post on lameness, here is a post on recent awesomeness.

Our Memorial Day weekend included a bottomless wine party in St. Pete., a boat party in Sarasota and ended with a prog metal party in Orlando.

ISIS tore it up.

Thanks to our boy, Asa, for always taking such good care of us when we come to Orlando.

Our friend, Casey, came along too.

Casey (also known as banjofreak) is a leading contributor on Moustache May, where he posts a daily photo of himself and his noteworthy moustache. And get this…no Photoshop allowed. Blasphemy! Even if you don’t have a moustache fetish, Casey (and his wife’s) creativity with these pictures are totally enviable. Go check them out.

YASLY is also a top competitor.

In other art news, Brian Morris (artist in the Back in Black 2 show) and Mitch O’Connell have a new, badass exhibit up at Rotofugi called Secret Handshakes. Stop by the Chicago gallery and toy store now through June 7th, or buy the pieces online. You can also check out pictures of the event here.

And finally, Jose Canseco tries MMA for the first time against a 7’2″ Korean monster, Hong Man Choi. After Jose’s defeat of Danny Bonaduce in Celebrity Boxing, he thought he should really test himself (or the Japanese paid him an obscene amount of money).

Jose blames his lose on a knee injury. HAHAHA. Awesomeness!

So have you heard that they are making a film adaptation of Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (You know…the book chronicling the Norwegian black metal scene)? Well metalsucks.net tells me that Jackson Rathbone, teen heartthrob and “Twilight” star has been cast to play Varg Vikernes of Burzum.

WTF? This is the worst casting call since Keanu Reeves became Siddhartha.

This guy will be playing this guy:

For those of you unfamiliar with Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes, he is a right-winged, fascist extremist convicted of stabbing Euronymous of Mayhem 23 times and burning three Christian churches down in Norway. For those of you feeling sorry for Euronymous…he’s the guy that made necklaces out of pieces of Dead’s (Mayhem’s vocalist) skull after they found him (self-inflicted gun shot to the head).

Varg has also attacked the authors of Lords of Chaos as having “managed to fill the heads of a generation of metal fans with lies.” And to keep this story interesting, Varg just got out on parole (after 16 years in jail) YESTERDAY! This shit just got good…

In other lamesness news, this new website has recently been brought to my attention: www.mmashirtshop.com.

It is the Threadless for MMA tees!!! Haha!!! I can’t even imagine the horrible designs that will come out of this site. You can start submitting your shitty winged skull designs in June.

And finally, have you guys been watching Deadliest Warrior on Spike? I’m a fan because my team usually wins (the Samurai, Apache, Shaolin Monk, etc.) until now. The Mafia beats the Yukuza!!?? No fucking way. Don’t worry Yakuza…I’ll always run in fear from you!!!