http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/ Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:06:03 EST FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://drawger.com/_images/drawger_leo_logo.gif http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=13059

For a weighty Bloomberg Markets story about multinational criminal gangs using intimidation and violence to get poor eastern europeans to sell their kidneys.



What was crazy was some of the complicit doctors in the story, so I included them in the roughs.

Gangsters, a former Ukrainian kick boxer in this case, search for people willing to sell a kidney for $10,000 or less. They sell the organs for 15 to 20 times what they pay, profiting from misery of the gravely ill and poor.



The most heartbreaking part is when they only pay the poor people half what they promised and often their health is wrecked.

]]> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:06:03 EST http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12946 For today's NY Times Op Ed and first job with Matt Dorfman.

The article was mostly about China wanting Korea to stay divided, so I had to explore that in the roughs. But I was really hoping I could get away with a conceptual portrait.

Luckily Matt agreed AND was willing to go to bat for the idea. And thankfully gave me an extra hour to paint it.

]]> Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:56:46 EST http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12862

This was for the Zellerbach paper company calendar. The calendar was titled "Year of the Tree" and I got the month of November. The company later went under and was bought out, so the calendar never was produced, so I thought I'd give it some life here. Happy Thanksgiving!

]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:23:20 EST http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12407

Got a call from ESPN the magazine, not to spoof Roy Lichenstein of course, but to illustrate the Seattle Mariners rebuilding their baseball team and possibly trading their star players Felix Hernandez and Ichiro Suzuki. The editors suggested a garage sale scene or the player's sitting on a pile of dynamite, which I explored.



But after doodling the Mariner's logo over and over, I saw that I could turn it into an explosion, to go with the expression "blow up the team".

And the explosion I was drawing kept reminding me of my favorite Roy Lichenstein painting "Explosion" 1965. Of course I could have easily drawn my own explosion, but I thought how fun would it be to spoof the Lichenstein, and maybe, just maybe, some readers would enjoy the spoof as well. I knew the art directors would, and Oliver Yoo who art directed this, went for it, thanks Oliver!

I love spoofing famous artworks, just for the fact alone to closely study their compositions. Of course I didn't want to hide this fact, so I wrote "Apologies to Lichenstein" along the bottom of my illustration, like Bob Staake wrote "After Escher" on his brilliant New Yorker Cover last July. Which I loved and have on my studio wall.

Later while researching the painting, I stumbled across this website "Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein" put together by art historian, David Barsalou who has spent 25 years (looking through 30,000 comic books!) to find examples like these, he has found more than a 140.

Which made me realize that I should have actually written "Apologies to some unknown '60s comic artist, because unfortunately, the original source of "Explosion" I spoofed wasn't on his site. Perhaps Mr. Barsalou needs to look through a few more comic books ; )

Of course everybody knows Lichenstein was inspired by the comics but I had never realized how directly he drew from them, including the text. I figured he had and but never really thought too much about it, because I understood what he was going for. But after seeing these, examples, maybe he should've have written "Apologies to Tony Abruzzo, John Romita, Jim Pike etc etc." under his paintings....



Here's "my" piece in print. My little acknowledgement at the bottom ended up being removed by the magazine, as unnecessary or distracting, which is probably correct....but it was necessary for me! It made me feel better.

]]> Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:59:48 EST http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=12029

After a super busy 3 months I finally took off a whole day to go skiing and nearly missed a call from ESPN to take a shot at their Fiction Issue cover. I say "take a shot", because they commission 6 artists/photographers for their covers. Which I like, since there's less pressure knowing if you air-ball your shot, there's 5 other balls in the air and somebody is going to make it.



I had tried before about a year ago and didn't make it. Honestly I didn't think I had much of a chance because their covers by nature are rarely illustrated and when they are, it's vector or 3D. But since the subject of "Fiction" was so conceptual and needed a different feel, I felt my chances were better.

Apparently one of the other artists was Edel, who I'm sure won't mind me posting his piece, since the dang thing is funnier and more memorable than mine! I'm guessing the only reason it didn't get picked was maybe the editors thought the mag's demographic (18-30 year old males, sorry guys), wouldn't identify Shakespeare or maybe only associate him with plays. That's my guess anyway. I wish I would have thought of drawing famous writers.... maybe something with Mark Twain's likeness..... hmmm next time. But this is another example of why illustration rocks, the solutions are so original and varied.



Anyway Siung Tjia, who art directed this, thought the stadium vendor guy was worth going to finish on, and he came up with the brilliant idea of putting the cover lines on the books.  



Only tricky part was he wanted me to do the type! I knew he was right and it would look better that way, but man! Me doing typography for some of the BEST typographers in the business!! Freaked me out!



I appreciate great typography, in fact I've actually commissioned multiple art directors to do custom type for the 10 or so random splash pages on my website, but I never really studied the art myself. And I didn't have much time, so I just stayed up hand lettering it over and over until I got something tolerable.



The inside of the issue is chock full of illustrations, including Jeffery Smith, Heads of State, Eddie Guy, Andy Rementer, Mike Bertino, Matt Owens and Shonagh Ray.

]]> Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:58:58 EST http://www.drawger.com/alexnabaum/index.php?section=articles&article_id=11883

Actually for today NYTimes OpEd. Did the original in color here below.



]]> Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:20:48 EST