Mario Gomez

Three pieces I did recently for the July issue of Men's Health Germany on an article about German soccer star Mario Gomez and his workouts and training regimen. They wanted the images to depict Gomez being tackled and pulled by six defenders from other teams. Those defenders are Rafael Marquez of Mexico, Rio Ferdinand of England, Fabio Cannavaro of Italy, Lucio of Brazil, Pepe of Portugal, and Carles Puyol of Spain. To anyone from those aforementioned countries who read this blog, please don't hate me!

I felt that painting the defenders' skin red would keep their presence in these images from being too literal. I wanted it to imply that he's sort of fighting through his inner demons and interacting with figments of his imagination as he trains.

Joanna Silvestri

Here is a piece I did for the July issue of Playboy magazine. It's for the short fiction "Joanna Silvestri." The story had very soft imagery, with an almost nostalgic feel to it, following an aging porn star as she revisits her past. This was a lot of fun to do, and probably the most pleasant art direction I've ever experienced.

I am super excited to be a part of this magazine. It seems nearly all of my illustration heroes have been supported by Playboy at some point in their career. Artists like Frank Frazetta, Yuko Shimizu, Phil Hale, James Jean, Sam Weber, Tomer Hanuka, Marcos Chin, Gary Kelley, Kent Williams, Robert Mcginnis ... all artists I attribute to greatly influencing my artistic development. It kind of feels like joining a club. The big boys club (plus Yuko)

detail

A few of the preliminary sketches