Illustration Friday : "Voices"

Wow, what a potentially creepy topic. I mean, voices, just voices? Like the disembodied sort?

Who knows.

I'm currently working hard on what is probably the largest personal project I've done so far. It's around 50 pages, told in a graphic novel format.

Back towards the end of summer I was invited to contribute to the new volume of Flight. I've been at it at nights since late September.

My story is about Larry Walters and it's a mostly fictional adaptation of his life, his childhood, travel with a weather balloon, and what happens in the sky. In a way, you could say that the way some people hear voices, Larry (in my version at least) sees things in the sky. But only when his glasses fall off.

I've begun piecing all the art together so most of them the edges aren't clean, and a few I've had to place into panels, but over all it's going very well and I'm pleased with the way it's turning out.

Below you'll find one finished page, a finished spread that comes a page or two after the first one, and the raw watercolor underpainting of the first page. Enjoy.

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Also! I'm doing a drawing to win a drawing!
Check out the details to enter and potentially win a drawing by me here.
Details towards the bottom of that post, in bold.

Illustration Friday : "Opinion"

My opinion, and it is just that -- what people ought to do is work hard and make things instead of watching TV.

But if you need to commission a giant portrait of yourself, well, who could blame you. At least you have a high opinion of yourself.


Sorry for the drought of postings this week, I've been embroiled in a fairly large undertaking for the past two months and won't be done with it until about mid-January.

As I'm able I'll let you know about it. Until then, you can check out Justin's killer Hobbit pieces over on his blog. They are the best thing he's ever done. And I have accepted no money for saying that.

Except this $5 bill I just found.

Cheers.

Illustration Friday: "Poof!"

Poof! It's magic.

Can't beat violin for pure making-cool-things-happen type magic.

The above piece is a spread from my book Ticket.

Please see the side bar for more information if you are interested.

I hope you enjoy it!

Illustration Friday: "Enough"

Maybe ... enough is enough? I'm not sure.

I've been promoting Ticket (see right sidebar for more info) for an entire week. Maybe it's been enough of constant posting and writing about it. I'm not sure. But maybe enough is enough. I'll leave that to you to decide.


Ticket didn't take off (...that ...might be an unintentional pun) until this piece. When I brought up this picture for Ticket, it was the first one I feel that I really had to knuckle down and improve on to do. The simplest things stump me. I went through half a dozen or more thumbnails for this one. It'd been several nights in a row and I'd made it through the first 4 spreads. I drew everything at about 14x20. This piece has managed to be my favorite one out of the bunch. (I think, it's hard for me to know and harder to pick one) I think it might be though, there's something in it that completes a little half inch by half inch thumbnail I did and tacked up on my desk maybe two years ago.


I don't know. There's always been something that struck me in it. I'd had the idea for sort of Grecian architecture, giant birds landing, they had more Greek architecture on their backs and something. Lights at night, a party. In the end having such regal birds carry something on their backs felt like they were just big winged donkeys and felt demeaning.

There maybe a way to yet make it work. I'm sure I'll be back.

Who knows for sure, but it's nice to think that some ideas are good enough to be mined again for fresh pieces. I love drawing birds. And little flying boats and clock towers. Enough? I don't know, maybe, for a little while.

. . .

No, it's never enough.

Illustration Friday: "Sour"

I'd be a sour-faced youth, ... were it not for ... painting.

I mean, I enjoy it so.


...

That's a stretch, I know. Man, how else could I make "sour" work? I just don't know.

It'd help if I were more creative. Or better able to think up complex, abstract connections between things.

In the words of the late, great Chris Farley, "We both know that women are attracted to me ... in the same way that ... metaphors describe stuff."

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These painting are for Ticket: a story in pictures. A paperback picture book the studio I work for is releasing this Friday (July 11!) I'm ridiculously excited about it and I hope you'll check back Friday to see my full post about the creation of Ticket, from start to printed finish.

Below is an excerpt:

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I made a couple all nighters in the production of Ticket. These paintings represent one of them.

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The next night I scanned them all, complied them in Photoshop, and called it good.

I think I took two nights to do the post-production finishing work. I think. Things started to get fuzzy towards the end.

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They put it all together and sent it off. Then the proof came back.

Check out here for my post about the proof.

A few more days of waiting and now it'll be all done. July 11.

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Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll check back this Friday!

Note: This post is not the surprise I mentioned in the last post, that'll be coming right around 5 PM EST today.

Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: "Fierce"

Fierce winds; high seas.

Yet another piece from Ticket, my forthcoming zine. They all should be printed and ready to order in a week or so.


Ticket is a 32 page paperback picture book. Black and white interior, full color wraparound cover.

To see most of the previous posts concerning Ticket as well as a couple other pieces, click the top banner to go to my blog and scroll down a little.

Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: "Punchline"

"HAW HAW! GET IT?"

This is an old doodle from around two years ago but the idea still gets me.

Illustration Friday: "Worry"

Eeny ... Meeny ... Miney ...

Moe.

Here's an older one that still makes me laugh and still makes me worry about being in this situation.

Illustration Friday: "Wide"

This is painting for Jack & Inar, a story and book of my own creation, yet unreleased. The players in this image are, Adolphus M. Grimble, the fat one, and the nameless one is the old man who has seen something. The distance between them is very wide.

There is a hail storm outside and pouring rain. The two are underneath the shell an exploded smoke stack; Grimble is taking refuge, the old man is stuck.

The setting is the exterior of Grimble's factory on the east side, a terrible, explosive accident has taken place. This man is the only witness. For your enjoyment, I present a selection of The Brothers Grimble: Jack and Inar, a selection from chapter seven, The East Side Accident. We will begin the dialogue with the old man.

“On my rounds yesterday evening, right aroun’ the dusky time. Sir, well, I was standin’ near to th’ stacks, and when all of a sudden, I hear this ole noise, Mister Grimble, not a natural noise neither, no, no, sir. It were a groaning. Sounded like old Mother Earth herse’f was stretchin’, you might’ve said. I hear this noise, and it gets louder. It warn’t the sound that metal makes when it’s twistin’ neither, oh no, sir, that were to come. I hear this sickenin’ clamor when all of a sudden I seen Him; oh yes, burstin’ out of the ground I seen Him. . . .”

Grimble sat on his knees next to the man. He had never been this close to one of his own workers. He wasn’t sure what to do.

The old man closed his eye and lapsed into a fit of coughs. He wheezed erratically and drew his breathe in great gasps. Bubbles formed around his old mouth.

“What did you see?” Grimble pressed, his pulse quickening.

The old man opened his one good eye, and it wavered around before settling on Grimble. Then he spoke quietly, shaking with fear. “I’ve seen Him burst the stacks, Mister Grimble. I’ve seen His hateful fire. I’ve seen Him come writhing out of the deep. I’ve seen Him. I’ve seen His wicked horns. I’ve seen the end. . . .”

“SEEN WHO!” Grimble bellowed, gripping the man by his collar. The old man gurgled. Both eyes flew open at once. His mouth moved silently as he sank down into the cold mud. His mouth continued to move, but no sound came out, or if it did, Grimble could not hear. Bending down right next to the dying man’s mouth, he could hear the old man whispering in a raspy voice, “I’ve seen him. . . . I’ve seen him. . . . I’ve seen him. . . .”

“Seen who?” Grimble pleaded almost as silently.

The man gasped and spoke in a clear voice, “I’ve seen the Devil.”

Illustration Friday: "Seeds"

From the SEEDS of DESTRUCTION sprung the DOOM BRINGER ULTRA ULTRA.

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At its original inception, Project X-18999 was designed to be a domestic household robot -- a construction of limited artificial intelligence specifically engineered to help old people get around.

Marketed as "The Friendly-Bot" to an aging "Baby Boomer" generation, X-18999, was intended to replace the Personal Emergency Response Services provided by Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. Unofficially, it was designed to render obsolete "those little necklace things with the button."

Focus groups reported to feel, with regards to X-18999, "like it was my best friend. " -- Sandy Evans, Ohio.

"I like it better than my children!" raved Andrea Burkowski, Indiana.

AARP declared X-18999 to be "the best thing since lobbying for Medicare!"

However, an unfortunate aesthetic design flaw, specifically with the addition of the shoulder mounted cannons (which were arguably unnecessary in the first place as X-18999 was designed for finding medicines dropped in the kitchen) X-18999 scrambled simple commands and interpreted "cross the street" and "buy a bagel" with "UNLEASH THE WAR-HAMMER OF THE APOCALYPSE. THE TRAVELER HAS COME. CHOOSE AND PERISH." -- Much to the dismay of the understandably confused early adopters.

The resulting lawsuits crippled the parent company who had up to that point worked feverishly on a patch for x-18999 (dubbed "the kitten patch") intended to address certain "admitted instabilities" in the speech recognition region of X-18999's CPU.

Unfortunately, the parent company went bankrupt and the kitten patch was never put into production. Thankfully, most robots were hunted down and destroyed by the U.S. Military.

The lesson we are all left with is frustratingly simple: Do not design your robots to even look like that could blow up a city. It will give them ideas. It is that simple.

Illustration Friday: "Fail"

Epic Fail. Failed album cover for a collection of kids songs. This one should not have failed-- the math was there -- kid, tea cup, moon, flying, little boats with musicians initials.

All the elements for a great cover. Alas it was not to be. Nor was my second cover:


The album is called "Slug and Bugs and Lullabies" ...so here we have a slug, a bug, and a lullaby. Not these colors mind, I just colored it for myself, but the drawing.

It was not to be either. So, I made another, (two versions of another) and they were ultimately not to be.

More covers versions
A previous IF post with another reject interior
The "approved" final rough which was unapproved

The above is a version that almost made it, made it to a revision at least, and then canned.

Here's what came about to be final--


Oh, wait, no, it was changed, the bugs were taken out and some stars from some of the interior art replaced them.

Oh well.

I've still got the drawing of the kid and the tea cup and the moon. That'll make it into a mural in a kids bedroom some day.

Fail? Heck no!

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This post is to show the progression of cover development under the IF topic "Fail"

I hope it didn't somehow come across as if I were harboring some latent irritation towards the "client" because the project was fun to do. We've done several projects together in the past and I look forward to more.

What failed to occur to me was the "failed" elements making it into the album in other places, I was only thinking about the cover in regards to "FAIL."

(Fail is a funny word to me and to think of a kid and teacup and moon and flying and to think of some deep, dark voicing pronouncing: FAILURE is funny to me.)

Most of the "failed" elements made it into the album design in other places, just not the cover. The slug, bug, and gramophone made it onto the back, the one "failed" cover made it behind the the place where the CD goes inside. Again this wasn't about the individual pieces, just about the cover itself "failing."

I picked this project to post because I genuinely liked the pieces themselves. Every project has revisions, so I don't want anyone to think the client was unreasonable in anyway. Because that was never the case.

Illustration Friday: "Homage"

Paying homage to one of the greatest, Maurice Sendak. I got to meet him once in NYC. Not something I'll forget. Here's a little watercolored Wild Thing I did some time ago.

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In other news, I'm selling 20 prints of the piece below!
from my piece which was voted/accepted into
the Illustration Friday "Open" show

$25, free shipping to US

Check out details here
Order prints here

Thanks to those who have ordered!

Illustration Friday: "Extremes"

Extremes? Maybe. Painter and Photoshop may not be at the extreme either end of the spectrum, but they are different. And I get very different results. The results themselves being extreme. There, how's that.

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Painter is a completely different animal than Photoshop I have found. The brush effects are really cool. I used Painter a few times, a couple years ago. Here's to wishing I had stuck with it.

At the time I had a vague idea that I would need to know Painter. Alas. Lazy youth it would seem.



The above reworked in Photoshop.

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For all you I.F.-ers, you can still vote for me (if you are so inclined) for the Illustration Friday gallery show, because,

Hurrah! I was mistaken, You may vote until the 19th of October!

Oh boy! How fun. My entry with links to the voting:

http://lightnightrains.blogspot.com/2007/10/illustration-friday-open.html


Thank you.

Illustration Friday: "Juggle"

Juggling home and work life has never been easy for this pig.
Between acting like a sullen cry-baby and working at Starbucks, life is tough.

Illustration Friday: "Momentum"

This monstrous troll would surely gain some momentum-- if he could get moving that is.
Or if I'd ever get around to finish painting him.

Illustration Friday: "Alphabet"

Here's an old drawing with new photoshop. Nothing like a guy that looks like a cross between a viking and a football player to teach you your letters.

A!

Illustration Friday: "Missing"

"Dead Eye" yeah, that's what they called him. In his day.

Illustration Friday: "Poem"

"Sing! O muse, the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another."

The Iliad
Homer, 800 B.C.

Illustration Friday: "Discovery"

Illustration Friday: "Geeky"

Geeky? An overweight man dressed in flowing ribbons carrying a platter of fruit? Is that geeky? I don't really know.

But I do know that this picture of me from a year or so ago thinking I'm Harry Potter is geeky. I can admit that. And I'm ok with that.