Personal (Graphic) Piece.

Inspired by a couple different illustrators I work with. Made as a sympathy card for a friend.

8-Bit Mario and Luigi Ornaments!

Continuing my 8-bit trend, I made these two 8-bit Mario and Luigi ornaments for AIGA's 2010 Art of Ornament silent auction benefit for Habitat for Humanity.

Clevelanders, these could be yours to take home! Come out this Friday, December 3rd to the first floor gallery of Twist Creative to support a good cause!

(I will update with higher res pictures and the price they sold for this weekend.)

Captain America.

For a local Sketch Slackers blog, last month's theme was "Captain America vs. Batman." While I like both those fellas, I didn't like the whole "versus" theme. So I just did a Captain America piece.

I figure this could represent the condition of the country nowadays, and how the political quarreling of petty differences has polarized everyone and is good for no one.

Or, ya know, Batman just beat him up.

Cakes and Cocoa.

Adding some more American Greetings stuff.

Preview: 8-Bit Character Designs of D-Lulz and Friends.

Thanks to everyone for their support and compliments about my costume! I thought I'd post a prelude of what inspired me to make that, step by step.

Step 1: Saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Fantastic. (It's dropping on DVD next Tuesday, November 9th, at local retailers near you. Purchase a copy for you and your friends at the low, low price of $25.99 at Amazon.com. Complimentary plug, Universal Studios. FREE DVD, PLEASE.)

Step 2: Played Scott Pilgrim video game and fell in love with the simple elegance of the 8-bit design.

Step 3: For funsies, I thought I would give a shot at creating some sprites of my pals. Now, dear reader, I know you don't have the pleasure of knowing my cool-ass friends. You're just gonna have to trust me that this following sample is exactly what some of them look like:

Eric, Me, Claire, John

That's basically our fighting stances, obviously. I picture Eric as the 'tank' character, taking down baddies without changing expression. I'd be smiling and exclaiming how cool it is that I'm a video game character the whole time. Claire is floating because she has a very graceful, elegant walk. Also, because she floats. John has a ninja sword because of course he does. Ninja swords are gnarly.

Anywho, this is a sample of just 4 characters, but I have about 10 started. Once I finish them all, I'll eventually show them all in one big post, hopefully with special moves and nicknames and all that business.

Step 4: When pumpkin-carving time came around, I was the only one with artist's tape, drawing a large grid on my gourd-like squash. This has most likely been done before. But to this degree of awesomeness?

Probably, yes. But it was still fun to do.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into my current obsession. Bookmark and visit periodically for other crafts and/or illustrations. And check out my Tumblr of comedy pictures. (link over at the sidebar --->) to bust a gut laughing.

Halloween Costume 2010: I am 8-Bit.

So, for Halloween this year, I thought it would be funny to create a huge version of my own head and wear it. Then I realized I had absolutely no idea how to do that. So instead, I decided to experiment and continue with my ongoing obsession with everything 8-Bit.

It's made out of: Insulation foam, joint compound, a cardboard box, glue, some gesso spray and acrylic paint. Pretty amateur stuff actually, and a really fun project. Took me about 2-3 weeks to finish. The tie was bought from ThinkGeek.com, and was a great finishing piece.

A ton more pictures after the jump!

(All photographs are courtesy of J. Nicosia Photography.)

Cute couples.

More American Greetings stuff.

This is me attempting to do a pretty floral design. I'm pretty satisfied the way this one turned out.

These were two original lettering designs I had concepted. I believe the "Love" one was made into a GINORMOUS musical card at Wal-Mart.

Some more old cards.

Another D-Lulz original. I designed this one with the plan for "Cotton Eyed Joe" to play when opened.

An original concept of mine. It's cool to see some modern Father's Day cards out there.

Part of a series of musical Thanksgiving cards.

A Starbucks Christmas card a few years back.

Some old greeting cards. (You're gonna be seeing a lot of these.)

Here's some random greeting cards I've done for American Greetings in the past. Some of them go a couple years back, so I may not remember enough about them to comment on. Until I get my butt in gear and start doing some personal work, you can expect more posts like this in the future for a bit.

Kid's Birthday, obviously.

Planned by my good friend, Julia., I do believe. Fun technique.

A little maximalism influence on this girl's birthday card.

These were some of the first collage pieces I've done, really. Got to spend almost a week in the Media Studio, and got some funky pieces from it, including these Christmas gifts.