Pre-Wrapped Sandwiches

I love sandwiches, I think I've always been a sandwich lover. My dad always makes great peanut butter and jam sandwiches on white bread, and folds the slice of bread over to make a little mini sandwich.
When I was 13 my cousin taught me a different method on how to make a toasted peanut butter sandwich using an extra layer of margarine, making the peanut butter oilier and fattier. It was delicious!
And my mom always made me amazing sandwiches for my school lunches. She spoiled me with sandwiches on croissants, bagels, mini-pitas, and other lunches that made my friends drool. They were filled with sandwich meat, cheeses and lettuce, subway sandwich sauces and sprouts.

Seattle Weekly contacted me last week to do an illustration for a review of some pre-wrapped sandwiches in the Seattle area. I tend to stay away from eating pre-wrapped sandwiches if I can, but I have had some pretty decent ones from grocery stores or truck stops throughout my sandwich eating days.

I thought it would be interesting to base the illustration on a renaissance still life painting. I painted all the sandwiches normally and then added the plastic wrap after with white gouache.

This piece can be seen larger on the Portfolio page.

Washington City Paper Cover

I painted a couple illustrations for this week's issue of the Washington City Paper, including the cover image above. It is a portrait of Homaira Rahman, a 25 year old from Virginia, who was murdered earlier this summer.
It's a very sad story and I wanted to do my best to paint her as respectfully as possible.

This illustration of a hospital room scene appeared alongside the story. If you're interested in reading the article, you can find it here.

You can also see these illustrations larger on the Portfolio page.

Helio Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Helio Gracie is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend credited for creating a popular form of the sport, called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which utilized different techniques than other forms of Jiu-Jitsu.
I was asked by Rareview Interactive to put together an illustration of Helio Gracie for a website mock-up they were working on for the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

One of their mock-ups included a timeline with illustrations depicting the long, storied history of the martial art. Strangely enough, Helio Gracie is famous for a fight he lost in 1951. That is the fight I was asked to portray.His opponent, Masahiko Kimura, broke Helio's arm, choked him into unconsciousness and pretty much had his way with Helio Gracie. Despite losing, Helio was lauded for his toughness and for utilizing the new improvized techniques that he developed into a new discipline of Jiu-Jitsu.

You can see this piece larger on the Black and White page.