Art by Lawrence Washington

Angela Washington put this video collaboration together for me. It showcases all of my XMas designs through the years. Enjoy:

On Monday, December 10th, 2012, I did a radio interview with my good friend Angela Washington on her show, "The Simple Truth" Here is the link to the full show. It's in video too, so you can see how chubby I look on camera. :-) http://tradiov.com/sf/the-simple-truth-12-10-12/ Also, be sure to "Like" her Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/thesimpletruthshow

The Simple Truth Logo My good friend Angela Washington needed a logo for her new Radio show, "The Simple Truth". I came up with this design in a few days. I like making logos. The process of researching and creating a design based on someone's personality and show format is fun and the results can be very rewarding. Catch her show on Mondays at 2:00 P.M. on tradiov.com .

This is the last commissioned piece I did. Deb's mother wanted a sign to put up in her home and came up with the concept of an ant (her nickname it seems. "Zompopa is 'ant' in Spanish) at a bar with bottles lining the wall. Also in a retro style. From there, it was my discretion to create the overall look. She loved the end result:

My girlfriend wanted me to create a couple of pictures to give to her mother and Grandmother this coming Mother's Day, so I came up with these based on her ideas. This is for her mother: "Mama and Bebe Under the Cherry Tree" Recently I've grown tired of drawing cherry trees. ;-) And this is for her grandmother: "Four Generations " This one's a bit unconventional, but I wanted to experiment with a different style. I really need to learn to paint one of these days.

My girlfriend's cat died recently, so I decided to make this as a way to honor her. I always like the original Image and thought it would be perfect for this update. The text translates to: "Beloved Julie, the Plump Cat." I think she would have liked to be immortalized this way.

Out of nowhere, I was given an opportunity to produce artwork for the 2012 International Women's Day Summit and Awards Luncheon . I was worried because I got the job right before I was to leave for Vacation in Utah. Turns out I spent most evenings working on the project, as the due date was on the day I was to be gone. But, I soldiered on and manage to complete the task (After several drafts) on time and the client loved the result. From what I hear, the event went well and everyone loved the design I produced. Here are some samples of the materials that featured my work: All told, the process was challenging, but rewarding. I loved the feeling of satisfaction I got for making the client happy with my work!

Gotta love my daughter. Her needs are simple. Every time she sees daddy drawing, She asks me to draw her something. This time she wanted to be a butterfly. So I drew this up real quick. Only took me an hour. Her birthday happens to be next Tuesday. Score!

Hard to believe, but after all these years, this is my very first normal picture. As in, not connected to a theme or Holiday. Weird. It's certainly not the last, either. I got all kinds of ideas lately: I got the idea for this piece from the famous "James Dean in Times Square" photo. I wanted to do a version of it, but not a complete 'rip-off'. I like the use (or non-use) of color. Black and White pictures have a certain quality to them that I can't describe. Perhaps the lack of colors force me to be more creative. I like the mood this piece sets. I like it so much that I made a framed version of it. I want to keep it, but I also think it would make a good gift. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

I may have stopped giving Valentine's out at work, but I still manage to make pictures for my girlfriend. This piece is another that I produced for the 3-D effect. I'll try to make more of these and get better at the technique. Deb loved it by the way: If it looks familiar, that's because it's a bit of a sequel to an earlier piece of mine, "The Patient Samurai". It's kinda nice not being alone on that bridge anymore. I had an earlier idea of drawing me and Debra in Japanese garb, but I scrapped it cause I thought it would be too cheesy. Maybe next year. ;-)

Two months into 2012 and I've been pretty busy art-wise. An old friend asked me to draw a picture of her boyfriend Jaime and his daughter Lilli. This is a bit of a departure for me as I usually only draw myself. Anyway, She wanted it jam-packed with pop culture references as the two subjects are huge nerds. See how many you can spot. There's also a couple of homages to a friend that passed last year. This project was emotional in many ways, so I wanted to do a great job on it. At one point while putting it together, I had an idea to make it 3-D-ish. I hadn't done anything like that before, but I think the end result came out pretty cool. You can kinda make out the effect in the pic I took of the final framed piece:

2010 was a great year for me in many ways. The best being that I got a girlfriend, Debra, who is all-around wonderful, and very supportive. All I ever really wanted was a girl who loves my silly pictures and encourages me to do more of them. And I got one! To show my appreciation, I put her into the pictures from time to time. Historically I've had bad experiences with putting love interests into my work. But this time it's different. This time the girl actually likes me back. :-) First Anniversary 2011: 2011 was spent mostly travelling from place to place with my new love. But some of my favorite moments are the quiet ones. The times where we're not doing much of anything at all. I feel this picture captures that kind of moment. For Debra's anniversary present, I had this printed on special canvas paper and I made it into a scroll for her to hang on her wall. Compared to the disastrous result of doing something similar for a love interest years ago, this piece worked

Hello. It's been a while since my last post. I've had a rather interesting personal life. So interesting, in fact that I've managed to not draw very much. Let's see, I lost two friends (they're not dead, we just don;t speak anymore for reasons to silly to go into/ Really. I can't even explain it if I tried!!) But I did manage to sneak in a few art pieces for special occasions. Let's go through them now. Joyce Quan, The "Naked" Superhero : I created this one for a friend of a friend. Joyce was in the hospital undergoing treatment for Breast Cancer and this was the artwork for her 'Get Well' card. I'm not much for the superhero artwork, but I feel I did a pretty good job on this. All I did was base her pose on Supergirl. Thanks, DC Comics! Christmas at ATPA: I believe this is the last piece I did for the company I work for. This was back in 2010 as a greeting for our internal website. So no one outside of our company has seen it. It'