Eric Shalley

I am pleased to unveil Phase 1 of the Insurance Store individual insurance site. It has been in development for several months and it feels good to get it up off the ground. I am looking forward to adding all of the great “extras” in the upcoming Phase 2.

Visit the Insurance Store site.

One of my fondest art memories relates to this piece. This drawing won me my first ever Scholastic Gold Key Award back in 1997. I was a sophomore in high school and this is when I realized that I could make a living as an artist. I began to take art much more seriously from this point on, and wouldn’t you know it, I make a living being an artist!

The project was to combine 3 random elements that we drew out of a hat. I drew a zebra, lightning bug, and wire cutters.

An interesting side note: This drawing is where I first experimented with ballpoint pens. You might notice it is often my drawing utensil of choice for many of my Illustration Friday entries.

Ballpoint pen, Graphite, & Colored Pencils.
18″x10″

Click the image to enlarge.

I think that robots take routines to the extreme. Processing all of that binary code must get boring.

Ballpoint pen sketch with color added in Photoshop.

Click on the image to enlarge.

I love the Olympics. I always have and I always will. I watch everything that is televised and have my DV-R filled with Olympic coverage. I have also always had a passion for architecture and heavily considered pursuing a career in it, but decided on graphic design instead. This year’s Olympic venues are incredibly stunning and very artistic in style. I came across these great artists renderings of a few of the buildings and wanted to share them.

More images of the Bird’s Nest.

More images of the Water Cube.

Great information graphics on all things Olympic.

I have been a car enthuasist since I got my first Matchbox car at the age of 2. My favorite car has always been the Lamborghini Countach LP 500S. As you can imagine when I came across the photos of a Lamborghini (although not a Countach) with a completely hand drawn paint job I was quite stunned. The level of detail is amazing and I would love to see the original sketches for the concept. Who knows, maybe it was free-handed on. It’s not like the car costs over $185,000.

The car was actually drawn on with Sharpie markers right on to the paint, then finished with clear coat for protection. It took about two weeks to complete according to the Flickr stream.

You can view more photos of this amazing piece of art here.

I can honestly say that Cole Rise’s photography stopped me in my tracks a few days ago. I dropped what I was doing and spent a good 20 minutes looking through his site. He really has a unique eye for detail. I found myself staring at beautiful landscapes and being amazed at how much visual interest a small silhouette of a cow or a bird flying in the distance could add to the composition. His work with people as a subject matter is also equally interesting.

Check out his website at colerise.com or his Flickr stream.

I just found out about this fantastic survey from Kate. I just took it and I strongly encourage you to take it if you are at all involved in the creation of websites. It is provided by A List Apart and they compile all of the information and make it available to the public, which benefits us all. It only takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Take the survey here.

Launch day is always exciting and nerve racking all rolled into one. Today I had site launch for an area hospital’s Heart Center. It is a hybrid microsite of sorts that brings together several new and innovative services all in one place.

Click on the image to see a before and after.

You can visit the site at heartattackcare.net

Canned ideas are almost always a bad thing. I try to keep mine in a can way in the back so they never escape.

Ballpoint pen sketch with color added in Photoshop.

Sometimes you can’t have enough of things. In Ted’s case, enough speed, well..maybe enough safety too.

Ballpoint pen sketch with color added in Photoshop.