 Worst Case Scenario
posted: March 9, 2010
Here is an image that I sent out earlier this month as an email promo. My concern was that younger AD's wouldn't be savvy to the Pinto reference. The 70's after all, is ancient history. Instead I heard from a couple of AD's who actually owned Pintos and got an assignment from an AD who used to drive a Ford Maverick. I also heard from a buddy who works in big truck garage who told me the cartoon was a big hit among the drivers. Now if I could only get them to assign some illustration.
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Facebook Experiment
posted: February 23, 2010
One question for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
For the past several months I have been posting a drawing everyday on facebook as a way of getting some sketchbook material "out there". With the seismic change in the illustration markets, it has been my opinion that the more irons you have in the fire the better. Social networking as marketing is something that I think deserves our attention given the sheer enormity of the phenomenon. Last weekend I attended a workshop at the Helen Day Art Center on social networking and had my first taste of Twitter. I still have alot of homework to do, but it seems like it might be a way to draw people into a site, providing you have interesting content and merchandise readily available online.On another front, my prints were recently accepted into The Artful Home site, and I am hoping for some traction there. Where's it all going? Damned if I know. But I do believe there are opportunities out there. Here are some samples of what I've been putting up on Facebook.
Dance of the Alpha Males 
Metrosexual Cowboys 
Hard Toys for Hard Times 
Texting to Oblivion 
Watercolorpalooza
posted: January 27, 2010
Shooting Star
Lately I've changed my approach to acrylic painting. I'm trying to be more spontaneous and painting without preconcieved notions a la Adolph Gottlieb or Philip Guston. And it's driving me crazy second, third and fourth guessing myself. My elecrtic sander has been getting quite a workout. In reaction to those trials and tribulations, I decided to break out the watercolors. I am enjoying the change of pace and and the quickness. I can finish one fairly quickly and move on to the next idea. Speaking of ideas, for some reason turtles have been making an appearance in my sketchbooks. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's because they're easy to draw and their primordial quality appeals to me.
Adventure 
Street Fight 
Scout - Last week cartoonist extraordinaire Kevin Pope emailed to ask if I would contribute a piece to a charity art auction sponsored by The Art Directors and Designers Club of St. Louis, in collaboration with the American Heart Association. To be honest, I've never been a big fan of the "heart" as a design element. With the exception of Mr Fuchs and Jim Dine, hearts always seem to come off as wimpy. I thought of a work- around and did this the next day. The event will take place on March 12 in St. Louis, MO. 
Everyday I Have the Blues - I'm trying to work through my heart phobia. 
Less-Than-Punctual Fighters of Crime Sue Their #@% Off
posted: December 15, 2009
I love it when personal work and assignments intersect. SooJin Buzelli had seen a painting I did for a book that I've been working on called SHTBNALD. She gave me an assignment to illustrate and article on suits. Or at least that's the gist I got, because to be honest, the article was pretty heavy slogging. We had a conversation and agreed that the comet as metaphor for suits was pretty cool. Like incoming space debris, litigation is often out of the blue and devastating.
Here's the layout SooJin supplied with my SHTBNALD painting as a place holder. I thought the comet idea worked very well with the subject matter. 
Here are the sketches. We agreed on something like the second and last ones. 
Because the SHTBNALD paintings were done very spontaneously. I wanted to have the same effect here. I started with a light raw sienna wash and did the inkwork without the benefit of a preliminary drawing, a light table or a projector. I wanted freshness in the line so I did 3 different inkings. The third one really sucked so I won't show that one. The background washes are all done wet on wet and at times it's like juggling chainsaws. I proceeded with two of the inkings until I made the decision to pursue the one that eventually would be the finish. Now here's the weird thing. In the heat of the battle I had a brain cramp and actually made each illo a half inch too deep. Embarrassing to say the least. Luckily SooJin was able to crop the top and it worked out OK. Hopefully she will forget all about that and call me again sometime with another assignment. |
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