Gallery: FAC Holiday Art Exhibit – December 7, 2013

December 9, 2013 / Blog, News / 0 Comments

Photos by J. Hardy

We’ve included a few select photo frames from the Fayetteville Arts Coalition’s Holiday Art Exhibit on December 7, 2013 at the former FAC Gallery in Fayetteville, WV. Guests and artists abound, we were popping tags and passing out cream pies (literally lol) until the rooster crowed or it was time for the kids to go to bed, whatevs.

A stellar evening was had by all thanks to the hard work put in by the FAC staff and the artists. We’re looking forward to working more closely with FAC and other artists in Southern West Virginia in the future.

Peace, love and chicken grease – BZ


311 :: Show Poster

December 14, 2010 / Portfolio, Show Posters / 0 Comments

For this poster, I teamed up with L.A. based 311 to create and produce a limited edition print run for the band’s Charlottesville Pavilion appearance on 10-24-2010. The graphic was generated from 3 separate pen drafts converted into vector format and laid out in Adobe Illustrator. The project was initially approached to be done as a promotional graphic. Though Adam Raspler, 311’s manager, made the call to produce the prints for retail’s sake. We produced 100 total offset press prints that were sold along with the band’s t-shirts and other merchandise the night of the show at the Charlottesville Pavilion. After the show, Brian posted up at the merch booth and signed prints for fans at the booth. Based on response from the band and their management, look for more 311 graphics from my studio in the near future.

Visit the Shop to purchase this print.


MiMoSa :: Show Poster

December 13, 2010 / Portfolio, Show Posters / 0 Comments

This was the promotional poster I created for the MiMoSa show at Awful Arthur’s in Blacksburg, VA on May 13, 2010. I have always loved various culture’s versions of a dragon. This one is based on the Tibetan style.

I needed a quick dragon fix one night a while back and drafted up a fairly tight dragon that collected dust on the shelf for over year in my studio. When this show was confirmed, Third Eye Presents commissioned me to design the show poster and fliers so in a pinch, I resurrected the old dragon drawing and took it to my vector sanctuary in Adobe Illustrator. There it took on color. I chose red because of it being a fire dragon and drafted separate copy for the background, clouds and fire swirls and laid them out in a matter of a few hours.


The New Mastersounds :: Show Poster

December 13, 2010 / Portfolio, Show Posters / 0 Comments

The New Mastersounds are one of the most dynamic touring acts in funk music today. Their music calls to mind the bygone era of the late 60’s and 70’s when funk was pure & raw driven emotion. Live or on stage, The New Mastersounds easily captures a time of splendor, when acts like The Meters and James Brown first shook the stage.

When this event was confirmed for Blue 5 Restaurant in Roanoke, VA, I decided to thumb through the stack of old National Geographic magazines I have in my library, seeking vintage inspiration for the promotional poster. The ads from that time period – even those in black and white – were so vibrant and loud with texture and eye candy. I was in heaven.

After drafting some rough sketches, what began to emerge was a kind of Pam Grier, Super Fly, Spy Movie poster vibe, which I relish. Instead of redrafting finals and scanning the hard copies, I created this piece entirely in Adobe Illustrator utilizing my Wacom Bamboo Graphics Pen Tablet. This was my first official venture with the tablet and I was excited to see how the product would ultimately turn out.

The final result hit the mark with the band as well as the fans. The original pressing of the promotional poster billed Salvador Santana as the opening act. However, Santana’s last minute schedule change put up and coming Chicago power funk act Lubriphonic on the bill instead, the result of which left us with an abundance of spoilage from the initial run. So, as an incentive perk to the ticket buyer, we handed out signed copies of the print at the door.


Ooah of the Glitch Mob :: Show Poster

December 12, 2010 / Show Posters / 0 Comments

This show poster harkens to the glorious, now legendary time when I was booking live shows in Blacksburg and Roanoke, VA. Ooah of the Glitch Mob was the semester wrap party and I created this poster to commemorate our final show of the semester.

The artwork itself was crafted in essentially three parts. I drafted the foreground in pen and ink and added color via premium Prisma-tone markers. These are amazing markers that allow one to blend various shades to get a smooth color transition. The mushroom huts were inspired by Roger Dean’s album cover work in the early seventies. I grew up staring long hours at his album cover work for the band Yes.

Once I completed the foreground, I found a suitable sky/cloud photo from a stock photo site and tweaked out the colors. I was looking for something dreary with thick stratocumulus cloud cover. I placed the  background graphic and then pen tooled the flying, black, gargoyle-looking arial crafts coming through the clouds. The overall feel I was going for was one of impending doom, for the sole purpose that Ooah was our last show and ultimately one of the last ever events at the Lantern before it closed for good.

The show raged epic that night. DJ RahBee and Savoy crushed the opening slots. One for the books. Ooah really enjoyed the artwork and I had him sign several copies for the archive.