T-Shirt Design for THE VOODOO ROOM

This is the first draft of the t-shirt design for my parents' bar in Astoria. I had never done an art file for a 2-color print, so this was a bit of an exercise. I might still make some changes...

A Brief Conversation

A driver motions a pedestrian to cross the street. The pedestrian comes up to the car's window.

"Actually, I was just letting you cross, I didn't need to talk to you."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Anyway, now that you're here, how are you doing?"

"I'm good."

"Yeah? How's your family? Is your family doing OK? How about your mother? You guys doing alright for money? Have enough to eat?"

"Yeah, we're doing alright."

"OK. Good. Sorry, I wanted to act like I was taking care of this neighborhood for a second."

"It's cool. I get it."

"Actually, can you tell me where I am? I'm not from around here."

The Photo Leaf (Update)

I recently made some major changes to the main body of The Photo Leaf. There's a proper portfolio section now, as well as some tiny icons that I drew by hand for the mid-section.

(Have I mentioned that I'm a little embarrassed that this has become a career move for me?)

Layout For PINK FROST

My girlfriend Amanda has recently put together a collection of jewelry and accessories for sale. I helped out with the blog header and business cards. Visit her site here.

Icon Set for Truckerspeed.com

My friend Scott Carver of The Penny Jam is putting together a website to collect the various A/V projects he's currently involved with, including his recent coverage of South By Southwest (SXSW) for Pamplemoose, and his new public-access television program.

I did some icons for the front page. Check out Trucker Speed.

Introducing THE PHOTO LEAF

I mention it elsewhere on Orange Year that illustration is my main focus, but photo retouching is my day job. For the past two years, I've been employed as The Head of Graphics and Web Design for a modeling agency in downtown Portland. In all of that time I've photoshopped 1000's of images, sometimes 100 a day. Some are simple color correction and some are intense digital airbrushing. It's second nature by now, so I figure why not focus on it a bit more?

The result is The Photo Leaf.

I labored intensively over the site in the past week as I haven't focused on HTML or form integration in the past couple of years. Also, I expect the site to grow and get more interesting in the coming weeks.

I'm trying to charge something extremely reasonable for the service. I've checked around, and it's pretty much as cheap as the cheapest service online. In a lot of ways, photo retouching has become an unexpected joy for me, so even if I'm under-charging a little I'm pretty happy to do it.

Movie Poster for "EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE SUN"

My friend Sean Whiteman asked me to make a poster/flyer for a film that he made recently, but that he won't let me see. Based on that, here's what happened.

EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE SUN is the fourth feature length film from Sean and his brother Christof.

You can't really tell here, but I made this large enough so that it could printed at full poster size (27" x 40"). Blades of grass and threadcounts and everything.

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Bus Illustration Update

The ever-growing bus illustration. Still not done.

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Moleskine 3D

My friend Joe at Engrave Your Book recently asked me to draw up a Moleskine notebook in 3D for his website.

TMNT - Favorite Things

Sketch - February 24th, 2009

The second in the series of my 7-year-old-self teaching my future-self how to draw faster/better.

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Sketch - February 19th, 2009

Sketch - January 13th, 2009

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Header for EngraveYourBook.com

My friend Joe Mansfield just re-launched his popular custom-engraving website www.engraveyourbook.com. The operation features exclusively-made leather covers to accompany blank notebooks. You can select from the collection of featured artists, or submit your own design.

Joe designed the site, but he let me do the script for the header. I went back to my 4th-grade roots and whipped out some cursive.

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Sketch - January 10th, 2009

Desktop background. Try it out!
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Sketch - January 9th, 2009

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m'things!

Category Buttons for THESHIPSHAPE.COM

Sketch - Oct 29th, 2008

My apologies for this thing. I just started playing around with some high-resolution brushes, and suddenly

"ah shit, I'm an artist!"
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Mode Models Portland Site

This is an example of the website I've designed and currently maintain for my day job. Just like this site, it's a heavily modified CSS template from Blogspot, where I've removed the standard top bar and created custom buttons for the sidebar.



(Also featured on the page is a widget for Mac OS X 10.4 and up, a small program for download that runs the CSS feed of the main site in one's dashboard).

The whole site is here.
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Icon Electric

Animation - Based On A True Story

I should have posted this before. This was an animation I did in a school a few years ago. Not my best work, but completed in one evening, so there.
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Masthead & Footer for theshipshape.com

I tossed out the earlier concept altogether, and went for felt. Eventually, if I still like these enough, I'll probably end up actually making them and photographing them.
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The Ship Shape

A work in progress of the banner for the sister-site.
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Sketch - Oct 10th, 2008

Sketch - Oct 6th, 2008

Deep like the real orchid station deep.
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An Orange Year

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I made this 16 page book over the course of my last 6 months at school. I printed 20 copies which are now all out in the world. I'm hoping to expand and revise at some point. It's my pride and joy, and the namesake of this site.

(Please click the pages above to read. Note that the smaller pages above are actually two facing pages. Don't forget to click the second page.)

(January - June 2006)
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Russian Nesting Sharks

A single-sitting project from the animal kingdom.
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The Good Ship Astoria Poster

A poster I put together. "The Good Ship Astoria" was the official name of our non-existent house band that broke up a couple months ago. Tribute poster.
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Sketch - Sept 19, 2008

A Neat Trick That YOU Can Play

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When you know that you'll be meeting a new person for the first time, possibly a friend's significant other or a business partner, agree with all of your friends that you'll wear an eye-patch upon introduction.

After a few weeks of wearing the patch unquestioned by your new acquaintance, find a moment alone with them. Look around as if you're checking for the coast to be clear, lift up your eye-patch, and tell them "shhhhh."
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That Elusive Beautiful Something

Weiden & Kennedy are accepting open-ended pieces, reviewed for employment consideration, and this is what I came up with. There are still a few details that need to be touched up, and some color adjustment to be made, but this is the gist of it.

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A Model Summer

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It's obvious that I've been elsewhere this summer, dedicated quite exclusively to my day job at Mode Models. I've recently been at work on a few new posters, which should be making their way online shortly.
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Zuni Web Illustration

Work for Mode Models PDX

The first two are magazine advertisements I designed for the modeling agency I work for. The second two are examples of the hundreds of composite cards I've prepared and printed for the office.
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#3 - Eating and Fighting Cover

"Childhood #2 - Forest"

When I was 7 years old, I used to walk through the forest for days at a time.

On one particular adventure I had been sustaining myself on roots and berries for a week when I came across a small pack of dogs. All were friendly and very well mannered, and each had its own special power, like foraging or ice-breath.

We lived together quite happily and without incident, until I turned nine. The dogs got me a wristwatch, but the creepy thing was: I never told them that it was my birthday.

- Max Brown
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#2 - The Good Ship Astoria Band Poster

My entry in the Portland Mercury's band poster contest from a few months back. I never found out who won the contest, so I'm assuming that it must have been me.

#1 - Untitled with Guns

This is the first bit that's come out since moving to Portland. And so it begins.

Columbian Cafe/Theater Website

Illustrations I did for my family's restaurant and movie theater in Astoria, OR.

(Summer 2006)
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