Crazy4Cult New York!

Crazy4Cult 2012!! In NY!!  So easy to get to from Philly!  And yet on that day, I am up in Vermont!  However, the day had many other wonderful things happening not in the general perusal of this little blog.  Let's just say it involved a change of the face book status:).   So I've been pretty disENGAGED with my blog over the summer, so much so that this piece for one of the biggest shows of my year, has opened without promotion from me, and the piece has already sold! I finished this about two months ago, and then had in the studio itching for release only to be late to the party.  Yarg!!  Anyhow, the show has done really well, and great to see the NY press coverage.  So here it is, "The Path of Shaun", 9" x 12", ink and gouache on paper.

Like the maps I've been doing of late, I think the dogged pursuit of simply following the character tells a lot about the movie.  In this case, a pretty intense back and forth between a few places, the Winchester, Shaun's house, Liz's house, and all of the zig-zaggier path come when the zombies come and Shaun gets out of his rut.  It's a sort of dry approach - but I think of them as doing two things: they allow the viewer to follow the experience of the entire movie in a really condensed frame, with some fun little details, and humor, and they also have a bit of an info-graphic/anthropological study feel.   I do try to shape them for clarity, but when you start connecting the dots, these patterns start emerging from the plot in a very simple stripped down way.  There not all that much control in these very controlled piece and that's really fun.  I'm working on more movie maps for a two man show in January at G1988's Venice location - and those are getting really crazy!:)

There's some fun little details around the Winchester.

photo by HalfBaiked

Apparently, the line went three quarters of the way around the block!!  Hats off to Jensen and Katie at G1988 for putting this all together and doing a lot of great promo work!!

Medicaid: The Sinking Ship

New editorial piece for Annemarie Neff at American Medical News about the team effort being used to consolidate and help out Medicaid (symbolized with the boat).  Basically doctors and hospitals are trying to consolidate medicaid patients and work as a team to help relieve some of the cost while providing better care.  Medicaid is a huge drain on the national debt and a system in drastic need for reform.  It's also an essential program in need of saving and not to do so could be catastrophic.  Possibly even cata-seamonster-trophic.  
     I had a good time painting this using gouache on hot-press paper to lay out the color structure and then subtracting out highlights with a wet brush.  By heavily wetting the areas before the initial color blocking, I can bleed in some other subtle color variation (the more purplish red in the sea monster and the variation in the blue of the water) to get a little more depth in the painting without over powering the line work.

Tsk tsk . . .

Here's a new piece for Scott Dvorin at the New York Observer about young parents who try to maintain a little bit of their former boozy nightlife, but do it in the middle of the day.  It's a fun, yes, and a little sad concept but great illo fodder.  I'm glad we ended up with this one with the toddlers tied up out front like dogs.

Unbearable

Thought I'd try a painting with a little more painting in it.  I've had the idea to do a Teddy Roosevelt equestrian painting for a while, and I might use this for a show in Chicago.  I read two biographies of him when I was a kid, and while I think he was an amazing person, I think he must have driven everyone around him crazy.   He's in the Magnificent Bastard category.  Did some great stuff, said some great things, but seemed to me like a bull in the china shop.
  Fun to mix in a little more watercolor with the gouache.  Basically I'm playing with the addition/subtraction stuff I've used in a few in class demos and other little paintings with bit of the dry brush on top that I've been working with since college (thank you, Rudy Gutierrez:)).  I sized it to fit this great wood frame I found at a little used furniture/antique/various stuff shop about a block and a half from my house.  20$! plus 22.79$ for some plexi, and ba-boom!  Teddy!

The Joy of the Micron.005

Between shuttling back and forth from Pratt for the end of semester survey and final critique, I got to spend a little quality time with my oft ignored sketchbook and some .005 microns.    

I love the 65 year old women who dress like 18 year olds in Brooklyn.
How do they keep that denim so shiny?!?

Kong.

Puffed up pigeon under a heat lamp in Chicago.

Character idea for a children's book I'm messing around with.

One Philly park tree, one Central Park tree.  The Philly one is the one
with cheese whiz all over it.

Assemble!

Here's my piece for the Gallery1988/Marvel/Disney Avengers Movie release show that's open this weekend in LA.  I went with the 80/90's costumes for most of them, mostly because it's what I grew up with, and I sort of miss a bit of the "camp"- Hawkeye without giant purple boots just doesn't work for me:).  I haven't seen the flick yet, but I'm looking forward to it.  And I can still write off all my Avengers related comic books for like, a year, right?  All Marvel titles?  Really?  ALL COMIC BOOKS?  Wow.  Sweet.

For Alice, 1925 - 2012

My grandmother, Alice, passed away this week after a long bout with dementia.  This painting is based off of a photo of her from 1950, right after the birth of my mother (sorry to date you Mom!).  She was a very kind, independent, and complicated woman, and I wish I had been able to spend more time with her.  She had a great laugh and she will be missed.  This one's for you with love, Alice.  Rest in peace.

New Website Up and Running!

The new site is up, a little cleaner, a little easier, more work, more . . . pizazz?  Anyway, have a look - I'm still in sort of a beta testing period.  So there maybe some small changes yet to be done, but it feels good to have it up and working.

New Website Coming Soon!

Been concocting a new site for the last week or two, and it's about ready for the unveiling!   Troubleshooting now, and doing the last little bit of finagling, but after a long hiatus there will be some new material.  For those of you who follow this blog, most of the work will be no surprise - but it promises to be a much faster and more elegant solution to the ye olde portfolio site, and be a lot easier to get around.

Tinker Tailor Portraits

Watched "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" last weekend - great movie.  Love the lo-fi cold war stuff.   I also loved seeing a lot of great British faces.  Pictured are Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong,
Cirian Hinds, Colin Firth and Toby Jones.

At Last!!

"Cancer", 22 x 22
gouache on paper

So I finally have a good scan of "Cancer", a piece I did a few months ago for the "One Hour of TV a Week" show.  I knew I wanted to do piece about cancer - there's been a lot of it in my family, as in most, but it took me a while to figure something out.  I definitely wanted a feeling of a whimsical sadness- and something that was a bit medical but not too trite.  Eventually I thought of a tree house - something made of itself, it's own material, but different - and then found some nice medical illos to work from to get the heart/lung interaction right.  Turned out to be a little trickier than I thought.

"North by Northwest Passage" for Alfred Hitchcock Show, "Suspense and Gallows Humor"

"North by Northwest Passage"
22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 I've loved "North by Northwest" since the first time I saw it - the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota.  So - I thought I'd throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie - the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn't find reference for (but for "North by Northwest", I figured I'd take a little liberty).  Also not included are the 1212 Michgan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood.    Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.  Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the '51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the '52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in.  I took color from the footage to get some of that "technicolor" feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass' opening credit arrows to show the action.

Anywho - the show opens at the Gallery1988 Venice location on April 13th!

(detail)

progress - pencils to color blocking, to black line on top

The remnants of my notes.

In the private collection of . . .

So I got word a few days ago (and already posted this on Facebook - but blogs are forever) but my Peter Sellers was purchased from the Gallery1988 "Is This Thing On? 2: The Weird Year" Show by none other than "40 Year Old Virgin" writer/director and "Freaks and Geeks" co-creator and executive producer Judd Apatow.  Hope he wasn't planning to give it a gift and I'm stealing his thunder but hey - I gotta name drop when I can!

Pillars of Delaware!

Had fun doing the little black and white portraits for the super nice Kelly Carter at Delaware Today featuring some important Delawarians.

Pete Dye Trail

Here's a new spread for Tony Judge for the upcoming issue of GO Magazine about golf course designer Pete Dye's courses in Indiana.  This piece was sort of a beast - but it was a lot of fun to do all the type solutions, and a challenge to fit it all in.  I had done a big map spread for the February issue and Tony wanted a little different feel so I worked with ink and watercolor. 

It's Sweater Time!!

8" x 10" Gouache and ink on Rieves BFK
Fun to do some .005 micron work:)

Portrait of author, funny-man, and super nice fella Lucas Klauss.  My lovely sister-in-law commissioned the piece to commemorate Lucas' first novel - Everything You Need To Survive The Apocalypse, which you should buy.  I had a good time splicing together some facts from Lucas' personal life: his childhood cats - Johnson and Johnson, harmonica enthusiasm, his love of killing white things (watch out honkies!), and of course his amazing knowledge pertaining to when it is, and when it is not sweater time.  Jealous of his success? As well you should be, but you should know, success lives in his hometown in Gwinett County, Georgia - a county so great it has moved beyond the need for punctuation.  Gwinett is great.  Period.  So no period.  Congrats Lucas, and hope you like it.

Is This Thing On?

Here's my submissions for this year's "Is This Thing On 2: The Weird Year" Show at Gallery1988 show in LA - HOSTED BY WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!!  I had . . . maybe too much fun on these guys.  I grew up on Bill Cosby records, and Peter Sellers has been a sort of hero for me since the first time I saw Casino Royale and had my mind blown.  

This one is "Go-cart Championship of America" - 19 3/4" x 15 3/4" gouache on paper.

detail

And this is "Man of a Thousand Mustaches", same size, gouache on paper.

detail - yup - all fake mustaches.

Big in Taiwan!

Angeline Chen from COOL Magazine, a street fashion, art and design magazine in Taipei, Taiwan was nice enough to contact me a few months ago and tap me for an interview in her column.   The magazine sells in Taiwan and also a few places in China, which is pretty amazing.  I've broken through to the mainland!  It was really great to get them in print a few days ago - and interesting to see my work in the midst of Taiwan street culture.  Makes me realize how pop-y my stuff is - and at least for me, how far my palettes have come from 5 years ago.   

Acrylic Demo - for Valentine's Day!!

Here's a demo I did a few weeks ago that I just touched up to bring it to a bit of finish - maybe not totally finished - but hey!  I got a Bill Cosby piece to paint, so here it is :).  I wanted to show my class some simple color blocking and dry brush technique. so the steps went like this:
1. Mount a sheet of 140 lb Arches Cold Press to a wood panel, using PVA, and the trim the excess off the edges.  Let it dry for an hour.
2. Paint in a washy sky-y background, draw portrait on top in very, very light pencil.
3.  Block out the face (the shape of the contour of the face) in red oxide (a nice cheap opaque pigment) with a little payne's grey mixed in to give it a slight variation, being careful of the edges.
4. Block out the hair shape and eyebrows in payne's grey, again being careful of the edges.
5. Start into lighter tones to "pull" out midtone highlights.  Basically, stating to shape out the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, ears, back of the neck, and forehead - using dry brush
6. Move up the the value scale being careful to not just keep mixing in white, but using cadmium yellow, napthol red, and light portrait pink to keep it warming - not just lightening, using dry brush.  So far, I've pretty much just used a #6 Filbert.
7. Use light on the sky as a high point for the highlights - in this case, the slightly whited out light portrait pink for the highlight.
8. Descend down into cooler tones and dark from the red oxide mid level, using payne's grey and dry brush.
9.  Use a bit of a napthol crimson wash on the upper left side of the forehead to allow the right side to pop a bit a more.
10. Wash a bit of brilliant blue into the mouth/chin area.
11. Realize you should have been painting the shirt, tie, and jacket at the same time and add them in.:)
12. Throw in plane for extra depressing affect.
13.  Besides prep and background painting, about two hours - not bad, have a cup of coffee.
14. Happy belated Valentine's Day!!

Here's what the end texture looks like.  Pretty pourous - but you can see how the wash on the left side smooths it out a bit.  I want the right side rough - closer the viewer, and remembering that rough surface come forward, smooth surfaces recede.  And - if you look close, you can see the bad photoshop highlights in the eyes I tossed in before I painted them in the finish above.  eeesh.

Rumbletoid and LostAtEMinor

My friend and Philadelphia consiglieri Josh Longo is now posting for LostAtEMinor and was very generous in throwing up some of my Freddie Mercury portraits for the New Illustration section.  VIVA FREDDIE!! And thanks, Josh!  But enough about me - let's talk about Josh.  Josh is an industrial designer and teaches at Pratt in the ID studios next door to the Communication Design Dept and sometimes stops by my class on Mondays.  We share bus rides back and forth from Philly to Pratt in Brooklyn - and like schoolgirls on a sleepover, we say we should sleep and then talk the whole time.

     Josh has a pretty amazing CV based mostly on his 3D work in Longoland, but for the past few years he's been doing what most of us illustrators talk about, but never REALLY do - and that's branch out.  He's been developing his 2D work and is doing some amazing stuff.  Not to say that Josh wasn't already great at drawing - he was - but moving from drawing as a preliminary for 3D work, and doing drawing and painting as a finish in and of itself is a really interesting difference.  It's been fascinating to watch.  We have a lot of similar influences and his stuff has inspired a lot of the more recent painting I've been doing and vice-versa, which is a blast.  The way he attacks pieces and compositions reminds that it's supposed to be fun - that the if a piece doesn't have intuition, that it's probably lacking in inspiration, too.  If you haven't already, check out rumbletoid - and check out his sketchbooks.

Here's a piece for Megan Scherer for Cincinnati Magazine about a downtown park revamp.  It was interesting doing a straight overhead and trying to give it some dimension.  I like the board game feel.

Delaware Today

New piece for Kelly Carter at Delaware Today about the life changing ease of having a civil union, while still calling for the ban on gay marriage to be lifted (coming soon I dare hope).  Anywho, I had fun painting this one - sort of a softer feel than usual - and God bless the gays!

Trout

Here'e the full image of one of the pieces for the "One Hour of TV a Week" Show coming down this week.  I've wanted to have an excuse to do a big trout for a long time.  I'm one of those kids who wanted to be a marine biologist, and did a fish dissection for my second grade science project.  I remember catching trout with my father and thinking the outside of trout was beautiful, and then (because I had to after I was 6 or 7) cleaning them and finding all this great stuff inside.  It was a little gross and lest I sound like a serial killer, I want to convey the tragic aspect I felt for the fish.  But - the mechanisms of what fuels this beautiful little animal machine were astounding from the tiny heart, to the contents of it's stomach, to the bladder it uses to regulate buoyancy.

"Magic 2",  22" x 22",  Gouache and pencil on BFK

If you've never been trout fishing, get a liscence, go find a small, cold, spring fed stream after it rains, wear a heavy pair of jeans and long sleeves, a pair of old sneakers you don't mind getting soaked in the stream, lots of bug spray, a creel with a frozen bottle of water in it, a three dollar pack of 18 trout worms, extra hooks, and an old rod and reel.  The worst that will happen is that you spend a nice summer afternoon walking a pretty stream.  The best case is you walk a pretty stream, fool a few wily trout, and have a nice breakfast/lunch/dinner.  They are damn good eating - especially after working up an appetite crashing through underbrush to get to a steam and back:).  

Two Hours at the Museum

My parents swung by Philly for a lovely visit and we spent part of the afternoon at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  They have a great collection, and given my recent interest in sketch booking (and trying to brush up my skills for the in-the-works-cross-country-bike-ride) I though I'd try to do a little work while I was walking around.

Bust, bust with stache.

I do love me some Stu Davis.

When people ask me about Philly, I say "wherever you go, nice restaurant, fancy hotel lobby -  there's a guy in shorts and Phillies t-shirt".  This is untrue - as evidenced by this drawing, he is sometimes wearing an Eagles Starter Jacket.

Mod tackles air-smooching.

Drawing of the surgeon, Dr. Agnew,  from the "The Agnew Clinic" by Eakins.