This is a new piece I created for Fustercluck Zine. At first they wanted to feature a couple of my older pieces, but when they asked if I wanted to do an original, I jumped at the opportunity. They gave me complete freedom and I ran wild with it. Read more »
“Dear Lord Koehler” is an open forum where I answer all today’s the most pressing questions as asked by nine year olds, check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. The fourth grade class of Gordon J. Lau Elementary would like to know: Read more »
I recently did an illustration for St. Anthony Messenger. The art director liked my previous work with color and wanted a piece full of color. The theme of the short story was hope and redemption, so I really wanted to make a piece that reflected that. This was a great opportunity to play with integrating ink wash and digital color. Three of four of the sketches are above. The art director ended up choosing the comp on the right. Read more »
As much as I’ve drawn water in my work, I still love to have images to work from. Reference, which was called photo scrap when I was in school, is essential to most people who work realistically (and most who don’t). The best reference an illustrator can have is their own. This past weekend I rented a Canon 5D to shoot pictures of water, staking out a couple of San Francisco’s beaches. I managed to shoot about 400 pictures, capturing water up close and waves from a distance. Here are some of my favorites. I also shot several pictures of my bathtub lit by candle, but that is for another time. Read more »
I’ll been posting up pictures periodically of my sketchbook work. I just finished this recent sketchbook, so I am posting the entire thing up in order without omitting anything. This sketchbook was given to me by my friend Tony Huynh, so in honor of that I gave it the name “Two Winters” as his last name is pronounced “hwin.” The book was also given to me at the start of one winter and finished right after the following winter. Here are some notes: Read more »
It has been a while since I’ve done a solid series of work. I’ve done the Zodiac calendar before and it has always been a project I’ve wanted to revisit. I had another idea for a project and as I researched and started drawing it out, I realized that it would work even better as a Zodiac calendar done in a series of twelve pieces. These pieces focus mainly on the idea of the constellations. Read more »
February was a month full of demos. I managed to fit in several ink wash and technique demos in colleges, elementary schools, and an art store. I love doing skulls because they are easy and quick but still have some pop and texture. For variety, I also mixed it up with an eye. Here is a selection of demos ranging from 20 minutes to an hour. Enjoy! Read more »
In January I did five illustrations for this month’s Popular Science. The article was called “Mental Combat,” it was about the psychological treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The art director called me with a great concept: he wanted Rorschach blots showing war scenes and other imagery related to combat and trauma. The idea was excellent and paired really well with my technique. Read more »
I recently did a limited edition print for a group show at Bottleneck Gallery. The piece was for the group show “Get a Room,” where all the pieces featured famous pop culture couples. I did Roland and Susan from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Here is the piece from start to finish: Read more »
Sorry I haven’t posted here in so long! I’ve been busy cranking out illustrations, but unfortunately I can’t show those until my clients do. In the meantime, here are some new sketchbook pieces. I haven’t been cranking them out as fast as I’d like, but I’m hitting some interesting ideas that I want to use later. I have two pieces left until I’m done with this book. I’ve even considering popping these on the site… Let me know what you think! Read more »
