Illustration: Marble Bowl

Finally finished this illustration about losing your marbles:

Marble Bowl

Guide to Holiday Gift Guides

With less than two weeks left until Christmas, the internet is buzzing with gift ideas. I've compiled a list of my favorite gift guides and just to be a little more editorial, I've chosen my own highlights from each. I know you don't have much time to hear me ramble about it, so let's get on with the gifts!

photo credit: Angélique ~

• CNET. 2009 Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide

From the mouth of the tech news site CNET comes a great guide including articles on budget gadgets, luxuries and green stuff. Highlights: Canon PowerShot A480 10 MP Digital Camera. Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear Headphones.

• Etsy Gift Guides

The editor's of Etsy list their favorite handmade and unique gifts in a ton of categories. Highlight: Egg Carton Book

• ExtraBux Gift Guide: Grown-Up Stocking Stuffers

8 stocking stuffers for adults. Highlight: Burt's Bees Mini Lip Gloss Collection

• Heeb Magazine's Graphic Novel Gift Guide

I don't talk about illustration and drawing quite enough anymore. If you're here looking for a gift for the illustration enthusiast in your life, maybe these graphic novels will work for you. Highlights: The Book of Genesis Illustrated. All Star Superman.

• Gamertell's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide

Gamers need love too. Look here for video games and gaming gear. Highlights: Dead Space Extraction for Wii

• Chicago Now: Our Favorite Green Gifts

For the environmentally conscious person. Or maybe a gift for the person you want to be more environmentally aware. Highlight: KOR BPA-Free Water Bottles

• GQ's Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide

GQ Magazine's gift guide filled with fashion conscious and stylish selections. For a laugh, also check out their Tiger Woods Gift Guide. (Sorry, Tiger!) Highlights: Ion USB Portable Turntable. Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S Camera.

• Entertainment Weekly's Holiday Gift Guide

Shopping ideas for TV lovers, movie lovers and star watchers. See also: 'Twilight': 12 Great Gifts! Highlight: Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Collection.

• Times Online's Geek-free gadget guide for Christmas 2009

Enough said. Highlight: ASUS EEE Seashell netbook

• ANidea's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide

This guide compiles ideas from social network sites such as twitter and Facebook. Highlights: Vibram Five Fingers

Gifts for Graphic Designers: A Wish List

My own guide selecting out items and ideas for the graphic designers of the world. Highlight: Pantone 100 Top Colors

The Lifehack Last-Minute Gift-Giving Guide

Last-Minute edit to the list to add Lifehacker's guide. Highlight: The Men's Underwear Repair Kit

Inspiring Calendar Design

Calendars are a bit of functional art for your home. So let's take a look at some inspirational calendars that will get your art juices flowing.

Digi Scrap Station's Calendar Templates.

If you're feeling craft, check out Digi Scrap Station's Calendar Templates by Inspiredbydominic Designs. This is a set of digital templates for each month in 2009 in PSD format.

>
2009 Bubble Wrap Calendar from Perpetual Kid

For more wonderfully wierd but fun calendars take a look at Smashing Magazine's Creative Calendar Designs including a magnets of the months to make your own calendar of the pieces, a color concept associating colors with days and a smart post it calendar.

Inspiration Bit plays up calendar typographic with stunning letterpress calendars.

10 Plus Creative Calendar Designs via Kreative Garden

10 Plus Creative Calendar Designs via Kreative Garden has some pretty calendar images that attempt to break the grid form of the usual calendar while still being functional.

DezineHQ's 29 Creative Calendar Designs is just what it says. The amount of variety with these is great, although without sources comments or links it's hard to tell what's what. Some of it may be concepts and some might be available to read. I'm not sure.

For original art pieces, check out Etsy. Fifth Course has a few highlights


If you spot or made an interesting calendar, pass it on in the comments.

Portfolio: Back to School Designs

Uploaded my lastest designs, this time they're of the Back to School publication. It's a newspaper insert to several Maryland newspapers in association with Maryland Family which is produced by the same company and department as where I work, Patuxent Publishing. There were several original illustrations created as well as stock and submitted photos. The final designs were done in InDesign CS.

Cover to back to school

Original illustrations I did for Back to School

Live From The Field

Edit: Sorry for the odd post. I forgot that I had to tag things properly to get it to format from my phone