This site hasn’t been updated in a while and that’s because I’ve migrated everything over to Thigpen Designs.  Come check it out with a new look, feel and new art to buy! Just in time for the holidays!

Last week I launched a contest to promote my Etsy store where I am currently selling prints of my work.  The rules of the contest is to leave a friendly/witty reply or comment and I would pick three people to give a free giclée print of my work. 

I have received many great replies on my facebook fanpage, twitter account and email.

What I noticed the most was that most of you are really interested in my “Wicked” print (a personal favorite of mine) requesting to win that one.  Well your chances for that piece have just improved because I am adding in two 8x10 prints I’m giving away of Wicked.

If you have already made a comment, you do not need to send another one (of course I’m not stopping you if you’d like to post another one) however if you are reading this for the first time, then please feel free to send me a reply (via facebook, twitter or email) and I’ll be happy to throw you in the pot!

I’m opening up an Etsy store to sell my prints online and what better way to start it off than with something free, for you?  I’m giving away limited edition prints to three lucky people who will receive either my art of “Wicked," “The Bumbling Blue Bear Brothers” or “The Red Hood” all you have to do is enter!  But wait … you want something free right now?  Well how about free desktop wallpaper of the three images that are in the store.  (Click each link for desktop: The Bears, Wicked and Red)

Contest rules:

Just leave me a friendly and/or witty comment and I’ll go through and pick the best three!

There are three ways to leave a comment:
Follow me on twitter and send me a reply (using @sthig) and make sure to use the hashtag #sthigcontest

Become a fan on my illustration page on Facebook and underneath the post about the contest, leave your comment.

Don’t prefer to use Facebook or Twitter? Then feel free to email me with your comment.

The winner will be announced on July 6th.  I look forward to hearing from you! 

I’ve noticed several people doing their version of twitter birds so I thought I’d throw my hand to it.  These are free for the general public so please feel free to use them as your twitter icons.

Cutie Pie

Zen Bird

Bird Nerd

Hypno-Bird

Lately, I’ve been blogging about the economy.  I do this because just like many people, I’m concerned about whether or not I am “going to go under” or whether I’m destined to be a greeter at Wal-Mart.  I found that writing about the current state of the economy helps me to remain positive and keep moving forward.

As is probably true with many people right now, finding work is tough but I’m holding on okay.  When things get tough though, one thing I’ve found to be really rewarding is to give.

I’ve started giving my time once a week to a local homeless shelter called “The Open Door.” It’s located in the heart of downtown Atlanta and provides acts of service such as feeding the homeless, providing a place for the homeless to take showers, offering and participating in a foot clinic, and offering up a place of community.

When I volunteer my time, the worries I have about money and the economy seem to just melt away.  One thing that continues to amaze me when I’m volunteering is that there is always enough food.  Just the other day 5000 sandwiches were donated—we couldn’t give away enough of them!

I want to list a few benefits of what giving can do for you (or at least what it’s done for me):

* It makes you feel so good inside. 
* To help others is very cathartic.  You realize what you have and what you’ve taken for granted.
* The old saying of “it’s better to give than to receive,” holds true
* It doesn’t take much to give and what you give is huge
* Giving makes you feel human again

I’ve found that I can’t wait for Thursday mornings so I can volunteer my time at “The Open Door.” And as an added touch, volunteering my time has wiped away much of my cynicism.

So, my encouragement to you is to find a place where you can give of your time, whether it be through a church, a shelter, or a charity such as Habitat for Humanity.  There is always someone who can benefit from your generosity and there’s always time to give.  The gift you receive is the greatest feeling ever.

While doing my daily reading on the internet I ran across this article where cartoonist Mark Lynch says how companies are cutting budgets thus cutting creatives (me) from potential jobs.  I’ve already seen this happen to me as most of my illustration jobs come from magazines and newspapers. 

While the article does focus on doom and gloom there were two nuggets of joy I got from it which were:

All we cartoonists have to do, to quote of all people Rupert Murdoch, is turn a certain percentage of those eyeballs looking at that Web page into dollar signs. I’m do not like who Murdoch is, but disregarding the messenger, the message is spot on.

And, hey, everyone loves cartoons. I know I said that, but it gives me hope, so I say it again.

and

Back when vaudeville was in vogue, a comedian could make a career out of one comedy sketch. When radio came along, comedians played to the entire country, and so needed to come up with new material each week; which put a lot of vaudevillians out of work, but opened up new opportunities for writers and voice actors. Television cut into the market for voice actors, except as announcers or cartoon voices, but opened the doors for other performers and writers.

Media change, but there will always be a place for creative people. The trick is to find it, and figure out how to make a living from it.

This gives me hope and courage to try to stay on the forefront of being a creative.  I’ve switched from doing publishing work to illustrating logos and banners for the web with surprising success.  So my challenge to you creatives is to keep looking for new avenues for work.  Illustration will always hold a special place in media, it’ll just be different avenues.

This economy has gotten everyone scared and uptight.  Companies are freezing their budgets or they are just going belly up.  It’s enough to give you ulcers at night! 

I’ve determined that I’m going to grab 2009 by the horns and do everything I can to keep my illustration and design business afloat.  I’m sure I’ll run into some bumps and bruises along the way, but I’m remaining hopeful.

While surfing the net I ran across a few articles talking about how to remain successful in the face of financial turmoil.  Here are are some of the highlights

From David Airy’s blog

The truth is, as freelance web designers we have good reason to be optimistic. With slashed budgets, marketers may increasingly turn to email, viral and web marketing as they seek better value for money and return on investment. And when companies begin to lay off staff, it is often the freelancer who benefits when they step in to complete the work that starts overflowing.

And from Tech Crunch

In every recession, abundant opportunities are inherently rife. To simply believe that this is a generic time to step off of the playing field to warm benches or take a seat in the spectator bleachers in the hopes of emerging once again to readily have a shot at winning the game is illogical. Businesses, and customers, do not stop making decisions—they’re just more discerning during volatile economic climates. But make no mistake, if you choose to stop vying for customer attention, the world will move ahead without you.

This is your time to vault in front of your competition, to earn rapid and sweeping visibility, for a fraction of the time and money that was required to excel during the “good days.”

I made a post of Google Android wallpaper and I thought I’d offer the same ones (plus one more) for the iphone as well.  Below are the images ready for you to download.  To save the images on your iphone, hold your finger down for an extended period of time until a popup box appears prompting you with a couple of possible actions.  Then navigate to your photo gallery and set it as your wallpaper

Holy Hula

Get the Point?

Little Red

Wicked Witch


Zombie Hula

Goldilocks

Google’s Android smart phone, the G1 was released a month or so ago and I have to admit, it’s really neat.  Much like a desktop computer or iPhone, you can dress it up by putting nifty wallpaper on it.  After doing a scan over the internet, I found that there was just not much in the way of wallpapers for the Android so I decided to make some myself. 

Below are five wallpapers all formatted to fit the Google Android.  While on your G1, follow these instructions

1. Click an image below (it will take you to a pop-up of the full sized image - make sure to have pop-ups enabled)
2. Press and hold the image for a few seconds and then your Android will say ”Save Image” and ”View Image” (you want to save the image)
3. Press your Home button and return to the home screen.
5. Press ”menu” and select ”wallpaper.” This will bring up ”Select wallpaper from Pictures or wallpaper gallery” and you want to pick pictures.
6. Navigate to the image you just saved and select it
7. Adjust the crop (the orange box) to full screen and hit save
8. Presto! You’re done

Get the point?

Holy Hula!

The Wicked Witch

Zombie Hula Girl

Goldilocks

Every month in Atlanta there is an event called “Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School.” From what I understand, it’s all around the country and I’m happy that there is a chapter here in Atlanta. 

Basically Dr. Sketchy’s is made up of a model, a lot of drinking and time to commune with other artists.  This month’s artists were awesome and I’m always amazed at the work they produce. 

Below are some of the sketches I did of the model.  Since I’m not very good at traditional life drawing, I tend to over exaggerate and heavily stylize the model.  So my pictures never look like the person, just what I see them as in a stylized way.