It's been a long time coming! It's Saturday Morning!

 So I've been MIA lately. Mainly because of work. Partially because of Uncharted 4. It's been really hard to find the time to develop to personal work/projects, so with my wife's blessing, I took 2 months off from work to work on an idea I've had for years - start a tee biz.

I didn't go into this blindly (I've found moderate success with some designs at Threadless and Society6), but there's much to do since I have to draw all of the traffic. So what I ended up doing was design shirts I'd want to wear and hope people would join in. Designs are always in the works and will hopefully continue to come with your support and encouragement.

Check out the site for a little more info and I'd love to hear your feedback - www.saturdaymorningsociety.com. Thanks friends!! Carpe the Saturdiem!

Free Shipping & $5 off @ Society6

Hey Friends!

Whether you like my stuff or not, you can get $5 off + free worldwide shipping until March 9th!! I'm sure there's fine print (like framed stuff) but still!! You need to use this link to receive the discount: http://society6.com/Muddybeats?promo=14fb95

Here are some favs people have been loving! Thanks!

Is the "M" for maiming or money or both?

So I usually am pretty light hearted when it comes to my posts here but I was recently sent an article stating that most of the chocolate we consume comes at the cost of slavery. Not only that, but child slavery as well. There are reports of abuse and so on. I was infuriated at the information and at my inability to change it. So I will do what I can do, vote with my wallet and only purchase ethically sourced chocolate (Target has some and they're gooood. Read the label) and use my talents to try to raise as much of a stink as I can. Nike was a huge human rights offender but they changed their tune and are now leaders in that field of human rights. So with that, I'm saying "good bye" to M&Ms (and Hershey and Nestle, etc).

This is the short version of the atrocities. I'm hoping you would decide chocolate is not worth another human living enslaved (again, you don't have to give it up, you just need to be choosy). Feel free to post, blog, pin, facebook, etc this image and spread the word. Here's a couple articles I ran across:
http://johnrobbins.info/blog/is-there-slavery-in-your-chocolate/
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/
Thanks friends!

Prepare for B.A.T.T.L.E.!!!

So this is the post I had previously warned you about. If I may be serious for just one post, I've always been a creator and throughout my career have put on different hats - graphic artist, graphic designer, 3D modeler, product designer, illustrator - and I trace it all back to my youth. Ever since I could draw I've made my own board games, video game concepts, comic books, magazines, flip books, etc. If I had a positive experience with something, I immediately went ahead and created my own version of it. One of my favorite gifts as a kid was a stack of plain white paper. I can't tell you how much time I spent losing myself in my thoughts. Today I am blessed to keep that mindset as I co-own a creative studio where we get to create goodness for some great people.

So that's the preface. Now onto the rest of the story - my dad was good friends with famous iconic toy designer Harry Disko, creator of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and Marvin Glass' right hand man (Google them. If you're reading this, chances are you've touched one of their inventions). Well, my dad (and mom) had an attitude towards me that I could do anything. It wasn't because they were trying to be encouraging, they just literally believed I could do anything and succeed at anything I attempted. Well, my dad knew I loved toys (still true today), and I told him I had an idea for a toy and I don't know what the next steps were that transpired, but I found myself a short time later at the age of about 9 presenting my toy concept to Harry in our family kitchen. It was so long ago and I don't remember much of what he said except "You can't show blood on toys."  The only other thing I remember is that he was such a gentle and nice guy. I am still super grateful for the time he took and only wish I would have been older and more mature to get to know him better and have learned from him.

Well, I recently found the illustrations I had presented to Mr. Disko and here they are for you to enjoy a good chuckle.

Having grown up in the 80s, I was a huge fan of He-Man,
Transformers, ThunderCats and GI Joe. FYI - B.A.T.T.L.E. Men
stands for Buffed And Tough True Leaders Everywhere!!!!

The technology behind this guy was based on Zartan from GI Joe
who changed color in the sun. You would drop this guy in cold
water and his battle wounds would appear. Here I even created
a sweet collection of accessories including mustaches.
Waaaaay ahead of my time.

To further enhance the battle-ness of the situation, I developed
backpacks that they'd wear and would include sounds of weapons
and of them getting hit and also a signature phrase.
My favorite is the one that says, "LOOK, YOUR SHOELACE IS UNTIED."
Distraction is a master tactic one must master if one wishes to emerge victorious.
I knew that at age 9.

I couldn't just post these guys and leave it at that. I wanted to reinterpret the design but still keep the 1980-awesome vibe. While playing around I even created the Japanese version (if there's anything incorrect or offensive in translation, blame the internet translation tools.) Hope you enjoyed! Keep up the awesome and if you're reading this then here's proof you still have time to see any childhood dreams to reality. Thanks folks!

Feeling most Eggcellent!!

Hey friends!

I can tell my Gouda Day piece has been resonating with people so I have decided to do a few more pieces around it starting with this guy. I don't know, I just get a kick out of spreading a little encouragement and I LOVE food. This may be my, excuse the pun, sweet spot.

And if you want to spread a little encouragement to yourself, friends or fam (or a stranger) this guy and many others are available at Society6 with free shipping until midnight on January 12th. You have to use link however in order to get the free shipping http://society6.com/Muddybeats?promo=14fb95. I have a super cool blast from the past post coming up but I need to do a couple things before I can post it. Stay tuned!!

Have a most eggcellent day!

Supa Dupa!

Hello friends!!

First off, thanks so much to all who have been showing support on Society6. It's going to help pay for a broken windshield :(.

Anyways, I just got a Wacom tablet after years and years of being frustrated whenever I have to hop onto my wife's computer and use hers. As frustrating as it was, I loved the fact you could get more realistic stroke effects and brushes. So to get acclimated to it, I decided to try it out on a sketch I did a while back for 10 Paces (not to mention it's been a while since I've done something for fun).

Here's the 2 options I cooked up. Enjoy!

I added a letter press effect to this option. See below for more detail.

Super quick, super awesome promo

Hello friends!

Society6 is offering $5 off + free shipping until DEC 8th! A deal soooo good I had to share. You need to use this link to get the code: http://society6.com/Muddybeats?promo=14fb95. The offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert. Everything else is fair game (even the mugs)! Here are some of the favs so far, but I will say my fav is the Double Thumbs. It's pretty awesome. Thanks so much! Have an awesome week and if we don't talk soon, an awesomer Christmas and super safe, super awesome New Year.

Long overdue update

Hello friends!

Sorry I've been MIA. I've been super busy running the studio on top of working on-site with a client that I've had zero fun time for personal illustrations for the past 6 months. Well, I hope to change that soon. In the meantime, as you're thinking about that special someone (yourself included) this holiday season or if you're just in need of cool art, why not pick up some great items from Society6? I recently updated my account to include some personal fav pieces I've developed as well as updated some of the older pieces for their new mug items (but there are plenty of other talented artists as well):

And this little guy has been moving like hotcakes!!!

I'd like to give a super humble "THANK YOU" to all who have been supportive on Society6, Twitter and Dribbble. You all are awesome!!

Monsters Inc X-over!!

So the good folks at the Pixar Times celebrated the release of Monsters U by calling for submissions for a Monsters Inc Mash-Up themed piece. There were some pretty awesome pieces submitted. I, unfortunately, missed the deadline because of too many projects, but I still wanted to finish my concept. Here she is in all of her glory. Monsters Inc meets X-men. Enjoy!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a super long hiatus!!

Hello friends!

Sorry for the gap in postings. Work has been crazy busy (and The Last of Us came out as well). Anyways, the good folks at 10 Paces and Draw reached out to me and asked if I could participate in one of their sketch swap thingies and participate I did. I received a sketch by the talented Jesse Tise and I had to do my art thang all over it. Below is his sketch and my final.

Jessie's Sketch

Oh, and here's the sketch I submitted.

I went old school with a nod to Action Comics #1

 Thanks folks! Have a SUPER weekend! Yeah, I went there.