Olivia Rae James, photographer and amazing lil' lady, finally has a portfolio site and a logo to go with it.

Her pictures may seem fictional, considering how wonderful everyday looks, but I can assure you readers and viewers, you're in the nonfiction; nothing is posed, nothing is styled; her eye just manages to capture the best in the everyday. I can only consider myself the luckiest, to be able to watch her work and experience new adventures with her. (And sometimes carry her camera on long bike rides.)

Take a look at her new site, and if you haven't already read her blog Everyday Musings, we brought that over to the new site too.

The talented developer Erik Holmberg of my design home, Fuzzco, coded the designs down to a t, and some!

Click here to visit Olivia's site!

I've had the pleasure of designing for some great companies, but it was a real treat when I was asked to design some tees for Patagonia. Everything they stand for in environmental awareness and conservation aligns perfectly with what I want to work and stand for. The first tee came out this spring, and if you have a kid or want to squeeze into a mini shirt, go grab a whale at your local Patagonia carrier, or... online. There is one blue and one in purple and pink!

Click here to purchase one.

The brilliant photographer, and great friend, Ben Gately Williams is hitting the states on two wheels this summer, with his friend Jason Neuman. These two are riding across the country from East to West, and down the Pacific to Baja to raise money for a local non-profit, Sidewalk Chalk. They're a Charleston-based NP that cultivates education with creativity, by encouraging students to explore and push their own ingenuity.

If you're interested in learning more about the trip or supporting these two cyclists and Sidewalk Chalk, may I suggest clicking this link to Ben's Brunswick to Baja site:

This link right here.

This week, in honor of Shark Week, I have been dedicating each night to designing something sharky (ichthyological). I've always been fascinated by sharks; maybe it's the boy thing to do: sharks, dinosaurs, power rangers, dinosaurs and dinosaurs. Growing up on the ocean was probably what kept this interest going. When I started high school my papa bought a book by Peter Benchley called Shark Trouble. It wasn't fictional like most of his others, but it kept me well into this shark craze.

(Aside: I started reading his other books, including one about a giant squid called The Beast, which I think tops his more well-known, Jaws.)

Anyways, this week was always super exciting to me, and I wish that Discovery channel would take more advantage of it. There are so many repeats, even from years ago. A little more education and a little less on attacks would also do these sharks some justice.

Okay, okay... I won't make this post a rant on how my personal opinions can better national television; I'll save that for another day. My own fascination with sharks and marine life, actually this world's fascination with sharks, is truly inspiring. Here is a sample of the work I've churned out so far, but please visit the actual page to see the full project and read about each piece. And check back throughout the week for more work. Happy shark week!

I'm placing a swag order today to finally launch my store. Expect an update on twitter as soon as I start getting the packages.

Issue 4 of NICE Magazine came out this morning in South Africa. I'm not sure if there is a physical version of the magazine down there, but the online version is pretty nice. (And accessible worldwide!) A month back I was contacted by them to send over some high res images of my work... I went camping ten hours north of Austin for a few days with the lady and forgot to...

They tried again two weeks later and THIS time I remembered.

If you'd like to read the magazine and check out some of the awesome artists they feature, click here. I'm featured on pages 16-21, right before an incredible artist named Chris Bettig. I'm about to go back in there and read about his work. "The fourth issue of NICE magazine is all about colour. Expect the usual dose of top-notch design, art, publishing and illustration from the world's finest creatives." - NICE Magazine

I know this year is only half way through, but Momentus has to be one of my top three projects this year (currently standing at number 1). Put together by designer Evan Stremke, Momentus features 30 defining moments in US history illustrated by 30 cussing-amazing artists. I was lucky enough to grab my first choice on the list and hit the books. (Also Netflix)

Before I go into the project, I'd love to suggest watching Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Journey of the Corps of Discovery narrated by Hal Holbrook. The film traces the 862 day journey of Lewis and Clark and condenses it all into 4 hours. You may think this is a little long for a film, but there was nothing better than pouring a bowl of cereal and substituting morning cartoons for two days.

Originally, this illustration was going to feature their first encounter with a grizzly bear, just because the journal entry was so iconic, but I'm tired of drawing bears. Instead my contribution features day 164, where they arrived at a Mandan village and set up camp. Just to avoid any historical commentary, the Mandan's had more dome-like lodges, but they would use tipis when away and for hunting. Okay? Okay?

If you haven't already seen the whole project, check out the link at the bottom of the post. There is a great line up of artists coming up and four beautiful submissions that have been up since last week.

Click here for more Momentus.

Gopher Illustrated here in Austin, Tejas recently ran an interview with me in the publication TODOAustin. The people over at Gopher are super kind folks and pretty dang talented. They are actually having their Volume 02 release party on June 23. Details here for anyone interested in good food and beer.

Lumber fox (version grayscale) had a nice half page shared with a sweet little graphic they made for my name. You can pick up a copy somewhere in Austin, Progress Coffee and the Mexic-Arte Museum on Congress to name a couple. If you aren't in the city, or don't want to leave home you can also read it online (page 10) here.

The kind folk over in the windy city have reprinted my Russian Newborn, with a twist. This once golden shirt is now printed for the ladies on baby blue. Sorry gents, but it wasn't manly enough the second time around. Head on over to this link to buy it for 12 bucks!

I haven't had much free time recently, but I try and break out the Wacom every morning or so to get some personal work done. Without further ado, I'm going to make use of one of my new site features and post a small slide show on the permalink of some of my most recent illustrations.

This slide show and this whole site (actually) could not have been possible without the delicate coding hands of Miss Melanie Richards. I threw her a mess of screenshots and illustrator mockups, and she put it all together in an HTML/CSS world. Thank you Melanie! So much!