Protagonist 7"

coming soon to a turntable near you!

the folks at P+P (and iloveimprint.com) did an extraordinary job here. great paper stock even, and check out the spot varnish!!!

order at: Paper+Plastick

listen at: Protagonist

Armadillo + pw!

since i first got into punk rock and ska as a high-schooler in houston tx many moons ago, some of my all time favorite records & record covers had artwork by Jason "Armadillo". In addition to working closely with No Idea Records, a label that inspired and influenced my love for music and packaging, seeing anything adorned with his art always assured excitement and left an indelible impression on me. You could see it a mile away and know it was all his: phenomenal perfectly painted cartoons with a tremendous amount of bite.

now imagine my excitement when he got in touch with me to do a collaborative painting for Scott White's "Collaborations Show" in FL! It was a pretty big deal for me, working with someone who has been a staple of my record collection, and the process was even more fun than i could imagine

after being attacked by mosquitos and gnats one muggy afternoon in Florida, on the day New York decided to jump from 52 degrees to a most unwelcome 80, Jason came up with a funny solution for our tag-team large scale painting in true Armadillo fashion:

click any of the images for a larger view!

his sketch and process for his painting

(i don't know how he gets his lines painted so frustratingly perfect):

i spent one of my favorite days in recent memory throwing paint while it rained outside. i nervously added the bugs around 3AM and prayed i wasn't ruining Jason's awesome figure

bright and early the next day i shipped it back to Jason who put the finishing touches it desperately needed and pulled the whole thing together by making it pop. i'm crazy about the hand lettered can of bug spray he did, again, abnormally perfect

you can see some of his art at inkandpaindept.blogspot.com

the best part is we had so much fun...we're doing it again! keep yer eyes peeled way back for future collaborations in the future, hopefully at galleries near you!

save the date

(our play on the monogram)

Have Nots T-Shirts

As Boston punks Have Nots unleash their 2nd LP "Proud" to the masses, they are preparing to hit the road with some new shirts and merch for sale!

Jon and co. had specific ideas here based on their lyrics, and it has been a blast helping them with so many projects during this exciting time for them

rough sketch w/ proposed "cubicle type":

a bit too dead man :

keep your eyes peeled for a second shirt done for them, and some posters too, in the future

be sure to go support them on tour when they come to your town!

humming an unfinished melody

i keep a special sketchbook given to me long ago containing work from a very unfinished series. i hope to finish it someday, and perhaps even share it.

i recently flipped open to this one though, and in lieu of the inordinate amounts of "horror" drawings i've been working on, i felt this would be fun to share.

Strawberry Shortcake

It's with great excitement that I think I can finally announce my comic book debut! Coming to a shelf near you, premiering on a wednesday, I was asked to be the cover artist for Ape Entertainment's Strawberry Shortcake limited series!

(click for a larger view!)

This is the first time li'l Ms. Shortcake has graced a comic book in 25 years!

The best part? It's going to be a "Strawberry Scented" Issue #1 !!!

the process and people have been absolutely incredible to work with, and things have been smooth and enthusiastic. below is a quick sketch/comp and a preview of blueberry-centric #2 !

(click for a larger view!)

I can hardly believe it myself. Very proud to be involved in both comic books as well as once again having an opportunity to make art for children to hopefully enjoy. There are a lot of extremely exciting things in the works, both Strawberry AND non-strawberry, but I still can't share them all just yet. Rest assured I am busier than ever, grateful as always, and looking forward to it all

** UPDATE: we're a "Staff Pick" in Previews Magazine !!! Read all about it HERE!

thanks, and take care

pw!

PS: I saved this "sweeter" post for today so I could wish my Mom a very Happy, and monumental, Birthday. I'm so thankful for her; she's the best!

LTJ!

just found this picture on-line and wanted to share. i saw it in person after Christmas last year and it was really exciting.

you can also see the art up-close HERE ... but up-closest LIVE!

Protagonist : States EP

recently i was asked to help Florida's PROTAGONIST to bring ideas for their new "States" EP to life. Modeled after their home state of Florida's flag, the band wanted reflect their own experiences, both wonderful and horrible, traveling across the country on tour, as well as broader interpersonal reflections on the past through stories both personal and historical.

(please click for a larger view!)

the inside of the 7"

the sleeve that will house the 7" continuing the motif of the flag's "X"

be sure to see the band on tour throughout the year, hear some songs, and find out more HERE or as always, at PaperAndPlastick.com

Pnut Jewelry!

i can't believe i haven't posted this sooner, but a short while back, my friends at the amazing Pnut Jewelry asked me to come up with a shirt design. head over HERE to see the generous write-up on it, and please order a few for you and your sweetheart! Sarah and i have our own, and i am telling you, no bull or bias, they came out Fantastic, and on the Nicest shirt material too. the attention to quality at Pnut reaches beyond the exceptional jewelry and into every aspect of everything they do.

frankly, i don't know when the last time you may have checked up on what Rusty has been working on, but be sure to check out all the incredible new things he has made; absolutely amazing. and you'll want to bookmark PnutJewelry.com. there's always exciting new things on the horizon there.....

the above was a four foot banner at an exciting and exclusive jewelry show in CA. always fun (and a little intimidating) to work that kind of scale, and Debbie and Rusty are the absolute greatest to work with. I had some extra fun re-drawing the chord in my convoluted roller-coaster-ride-for-the-eyes kind of way

Have Nots : Proud

I was lucky enough to have reworked the art for the 12" vinyl release of "serf city" from Boston's Have Nots, and we had so much fun working together they honored me with the task of bringing the vision of their upcoming full length to life! believe it or not, this has been in the works since last July!

band member Jon Cauztik sent me the above photograph last summer. It's of his father who passed away, and the music and lyrics wrestle with this a great deal. the name of the LP would be "Proud", in the hopes that his "old man" is listening with pride, and for good measure, the Have Nots have really turned up the volume for this record. they wanted an LP that reflected everything they were going through and singing about; be it life, death, politics, love, abuse, traveling, and everything in between. my number one goal was doing not only the music justice, but also a very powerful urge to honor the father; both as the man who had passed away, as well as the boy in the photo long ago listening on his headphones.

one thing i couldn't wait to do was finally get an opportunity to play with some textures i had been stockpiling! both of us avid fans of old records, my good friend, designer Jiri Seger, has taken me to some pretty great places in NYC to hunt down dusty treasures. one day i collected armfuls of only the rattiest, filthiest, most stained and aged record sleeves available, and the shop was all too happy to be rid of them. i scanned each gorgeous archeological find in 4 pieces each, and then reassembled them in the computer, biding my time for the opportunity to use them in a meaningful way.

the above version was one of the more refined starts. here, i was thinking of the way sepias and colors (water & pencil) were once applied to old photos, and i imagined that the old colorings were somehow merging with age. Weathering with time to symbolically color the photo itself; each color represented something else in the picture. It was also important to me to imagine that despite the record not being available until 2 months from now, one could imagine unearthing this vinyl treasure more like an artifact of a previous generation or two.

(please feel free to click on the following images for a larger view)

with direction and input from everyone, we tweaked and toned everything and continued the whole "gatefold" design. I really wanted it to look like an old sleeve with the photos on top, and somehow typed on, and then left over generations. (if you look hard, you may even find a strand of my fiancé's red hair between the layers). Everyone between the label and the band was so amazing and enthusiastic every step of the way

the inside of the gatefold is the band's tribute to their home, Boston, and evokes all the themes of traveling, both leaving and arriving, witnessing of and missing out on, contained within the music itself

for an insert sleeve to contain the record itself , we thought we would continue the idea of old photo albums with each song imagined as an important news-clipping from yesteryear.

again, feel free to click these for better views, but here you can get a more detailed look-see. i had painstakingly combined layers of regularly evolving liner notes & lyrics with old aged papers i had also assembled over time. each clipping contains pieces of at least 3 different papers. once the text was placed and destroyed accordingly, i remembered to faintly show the transparent markings of the writings on the other side, not to mention occasionally distort the text wherever the wrinkles and creases deemed appropriate.

the downright magical icing on the cake? an incredible e-mail from Jon:

"Just realized that the randomly picked release date of this record, with the title track about my dad, and featuring a picture of him on the cover, falls on the 15th anniversary of his passing...how f....ng cool is that?"

this experience does not stop being incredibly meaningful and special, and one that makes me immensely proud to have been given the chance to work on "Pride". thanks guys!

you can find out more at Paper+Plastick Records as well as HaveNotsBoston.com !

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finally, Happy Birthday to both my good friend and amazing illustrator Chris Whetzel who turned 30 today, and my own father, whom i am incredibly proud of, tomorrow.

Comic Book Pin Up : The Destiny Gauntlets

(please click for larger view)

this is actually an oldie (but goody) for my good friend, artist & publisher extraordinaire, Mike Collins at Tiki Machine. It is a pin up for his comic book epic "The Destiny Gauntlets", for which i was lucky enough to have gotten to do the logo for as well last summer. I chose his character Ghavin, Giant Warrior and Child of the Flame!

This was one of those labors of love i did in the middle of the night, and i felt like i must've done ok judging by my fiancé's reaction when she discovered it on the drafting table in the morning. she's pretty honest with me, so when she tells me something looks good with mild incredulity i take it to heart with excitement. although this piece is actually half a year old, it's pretty indicative of the kind of work i am venturing into: comics! [ note: silence on the blog doesn't mean sparks haven't been flying in the studio; i'm hoping to share all sorts of fun news in the future] I'm so grateful to Mike for the chance to be in his book, and with such great ideas of his to draw inspiration from!

you can see more of what Tike Machine does HERE!

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...while you are checking out Tiki Machine, you should really check out their incredible new book, MONSTER MYTHOS: A Folklore Beastiary. Truly amazing collection of monster art from a wide collection of some of the best artists across the nation. you can see a little of that HERE

The "Young Guns" Tour

(please click for a much larger view!)

Coming to a city near you! "Ska Is Dead" Presents: The "Young Guns" Tour, featuring We Are The Union and The Forthrights! Find more info HERE! and don't forget to buy some cool new shirt designs HERE (or on tour)....

Reed, Jimmy, & Dave were amazing to work with, and i'm so glad to continue an awesome friendship with We Are The Union. Every second i worked on this poster was a blast for me, and i hope to get to do a whole lot more like it

-pw!

Make Do And Mend

Happy New Year everyone! I know things have seemed quiet on the eastern front here, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. But until i'm prepared to announce some big things, i got some exciting news & kind words today... the new Make Do and Mend LP came out, and everyone is excited about it!

i didn't take the gorgeous jacket photos or do the superb design here (that would be the amazing Rob Dobi), but the ambitious & generous folks at Paper + Plastick records, as well as the band MDAM (incredibly nice, and whose awesome music you can listen to HERE), needed my help in a pinch a few months back. It seems they had some packaging ideas for their rocking new full length LP, but they hadn't really been done before. So i created a custom one-of-a-kind die-line for the guys, and they let me know today that they received the final product (see above!) and couldn't be happier.

It makes me feel good to know that people feel they can count on me, not only to solve problems, innovate a little, & help manufacture their vision, but also that i can be counted on period, even if it means another all-nighter, or taking a few phone calls while taking my Dad to see "True Grit" on a Festivus afternoon in Virginia! i'm just super proud to have been any part of this release, and to know so many awesome people who all had their hands in this

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here are some notes i took talking to James about the vinyl packaging:

the die-line i concocted for manufacturing:

a "mock-up" of the front cover when folded:

(there were printing limits on width, but the asymmetrical solution worked out nice)

the art in my die-line, ready to go to the presses:

(thanks to the excellent hard-working folks at IMPRINT)

(the tree is a die-cut window, and the existing logo of the band, here used as a pocket)

a rough tiny 2" mock i did out of sheer nervousness the next morning.

whenever i engineer a new die-line, i always make these pint size records. fun!

i want to make absolutely certain that everything works correctly.

and here it is in 12" glory! find out more about the band and how you can order this HERE!

thanks for reading! Even though i didn't really do the stunning artwork here, i just wanted to share a different side to something i am passionate about: elaborately packaged records!

-pw!