From My Sketchbook

I was at a condo association meeting the other night and there were so many unnecessary tangents that it gave me LOTS of time to sketch! Some of the conversations were about as important as what C.B. is pointing out here.

Skateboarder

A cross-hatch sketch from my sketchbook. Note that he's wearing a helmet- could you have guessed I have a kid?

Faces, faces and more faces

Lots of faces using my new drawing pen. This is just a quick drawing- no pencil sketch first- and this time I decided to integrate what I imagined my characters saying. Have fun!

It's a bird... It's a plane...

I picked this drawing just for you...

I've been having fun with my new drawing pen. More sketches and info to come.

Oliver Hardy

I watched a Laurel and Hardy movie on Hulu last night- The Big Noise- and made this drawing between the bouts of laughter. These guys are still wonderful!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/81275/the-big-noise

And for some, that's not a bad thing

Thank you Vegas!

I drew this on the airplane coming back from a Graphic Artists Guild conference in Las Vegas. More sketches from the conference to come soon...

Postcard Promos

It's time to get some postcards out to a few clients and prospective clients. I created 6 different promos with my illustrations to reach out to some editorial (magazine) art directors and children's book editors (respectively).

If you fall into one of the above segments (or similar), I'd be happy to send you a card.

Happy Halloween!

(Click the image to see it LARGER)

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the Trick-or-Treaters running around Saturday night, especially because this will be the first Halloween in our new house! My son is going as an astronaut (he's so cute in that costume with the HUGE helmet) despite his obsession with superheroes (can it be fueled by my obsession with superheroes? Hmm...).

As an added bonus, I've included a sort of before and after to show how one of the characters looks with all the shading and lighting taken out. That's the most time-consuming part but also one of my favorites: A different area of my brain takes over so I get to listen to podcast after podcast of This American Life and it doesn't distract me.

Happy Halloween! Please make sure your trick-or-treaters stay safe, and please drive extra slow Saturday evening.

Faces and characters

I like practicing drawing different faces with varying expressions and sometimes the page turns into a congealed mass where everyone is held together because of their proximity to each other (like when two drops of water suddenly connect).

I think my fave here would have to be the lady with glasses next to the dog. She's thinking: "Did he just say something?"

The guy with the 5:00 shadow is saying: "No no, I just couldn't find my razor this morning. Or yesterday."

'Damn Cave' on Threadless

My Batman shirt is up for scoring at Threadless. It's a little bit of a departure for me as the art is a little more realistic than my usual stuff. This was a fun illustration to create and I'm really excited to have it up in the running.

For a closer look, check out my blog entry from October 6. Or click on the image above to vote and/or leave a comment.

I also have a shirt in the running over at Design by Humans: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/64191

Schizo shirt design

I've been designing t-shirts for many, many years. Recently, my wife, son and I moved to a new home and as I was cleaning out my office (no small feat) I found some notes on shirt ideas. At the time I jotted down the ideas, there was no way to sell crazy shirt ideas (there was always Spencer Gifts, I suppose) and get them out to a wide audience. Luckily, all that's changed now and there are many, many online sites to choose from. So does anyone have suggestions of where I should take this design (modeled by my awesome cousin Noa)? What sites do you like?

Here's an incomplete list of online shirt competitions:
Threadless (the Mama Bear of online competitions)
Designs By Humans
Wooshka
Uneetee
Withoutpockets
Shirt.Woot
Here Itself
Tilteed
Caponocca

What I'm Working On: Damn Batcave

I've been working on this Batman illustration for a t-shirt design and finally came up with what I want on the iphone. It's late at night and he's trying to drunk dial (you don't have to have been drinking to drunk dial someone- just very, very tired) but his choice of headquarters is thwarting his hook-up attempt. 
 


It was fun to illustrate just a small amount of the character to let the viewer figure out who he is (hopefully without hitting anyone over the head with it).



Whattaya think?

 Anyone want Catwoman's digits?

my photo reference

Illustrations from calendars I've illustrated

Thanks to those who sent me messages on yesterday's post of an illustration for the Jewish New Year. I've posted here further illustrations from a few different calendars I've illustrated (and designed) for PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education). There are SO many more illustrations!

At the Dead Sea.

A map of Israel with the favorite sites or things to do.

Kids learning from the Torah.

At the Wailing Wall.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Jewish New Year! 5770

Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends.
This is an illustration I did for a calendar for PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education). I illustrated each month with images from holidays which fell during that month.

Apples dipped in honey is traditionally eaten for a sweet year.

Life drawing

While I was on vacation, my wife saw a listing for an open life drawing class (not really a class- more of a free-for-all that cost $7). So I showed up and the room was already full- I was a little late as the address didn't make enough sense to the GPS on my phone- full of artists mostly in their later years with huge sketch pads, conté crayons, brushes, pastels etc, etc. And me with just my sketchbook and a ballpoint pen (I mean, I didn't expect to need anything more on vacation!).

We warmed up with a few 5 minute poses before jumping into one loooong drawing. The sketches above are from that same pose, just that I mived to the other side of the room to get a new vantage point.

I didn't put these drawings up because they're my favorites, I put them up because I was so happy to be drawing a live model and I wanted to remember how much fun it can be and how nice it is to sit in a room with other artists as if we were a community for more than just 2 hours. It's like the air is different (and it is- there's a lot of charcoal and pastel dust) or charged and you're all sharing an experience together. and you walk out with renewed energy for sketching/drawing. So if you're an artist, I strongly recommend that you get out now and then and draw with others and walk around and see how they approach the same problem (as in math problem, not in a negative way) you're faced with and watch yourself grow from the experience.

Bad time to answer the phone

A recent sketch from my sketchbook:
Seems you can’t go anywhere without coming across someone talking on their phone with little regard for those around them. So I’ve started sketching various scenarios like this one. I’ll upload my Batman one to my blog once I have it worked out better. Now I’ve gotta go answer the phone...

Aliens!

We just returned from vacation (which is why I haven't updated my blog in a while) and one morning while away, I was watching my son Leo play with anything that looked like it might be a toy. A toy golf club became a (leaf) blower. The sofa became a hub for all his (flying) cars. And his real toys- I could only imagine what he was seeing in them. And he was especially having fun with an alien toy. He has such a creative imagination that I thought I'd draw for him some aliens and a Leo character/warrior to play with them.

Frank Zappa poster (or Phi Zappa Krappa)

I took a quick va-cay in Vermont these last few days and came across this poster. I love the style, the subject matter is dead-on and even the way the poster is falling apart adds to the overall appeal. Where can I get one?

HELVETICA

I saw the HELVETICA movie this week. Yes, it's a movie about a font, but it has a rich and interesting history and the movie is interspersed with a variety of designers (a few big names and then a few smaller ones) who either extoll the font's virtues or rip it to shreds.

It was nice to see how excited some designers were when they described HELVETICA while others were quite funny in their criticism (either of the font or those who use it).

I walked away uncertain whether or not I wanted to use the font ever again- and that's what this drawing is about.

Paul McCartney

I went with my family to the Paul McCartney concert at Fenway Park in Boston yesterday and was wowed by the performance(s) and the venue so I decided to create a tribute. Illustrated above is one of Paul McCartney's guitars surrounded by the songs he performed.

Below is a photo I took on my iPhone which I had to enhance to try to get a better image (too many things conspired against me- a low-quality camera, bright skies behind a dark arena and vid screens that were often too bright for the camera to deal with).

And then there is a video I took (again with the iPhone) of the light show and fireworks during Live and Let Die:


If you're a Beatles fan, this show would not have dissapointed you. What a great night!

Baby- that's my logo!

I was at a party with friends this past weekend when I spotted something familiar. A 7-week old named Jonah was sporting the logo that I had created for a summer camp! What a kick it was to see something I had designed, completely out of context and while in my civilian identity (when I wasn't working). Isn't he a cutie?

Here's the logo:The logo went through many, many incarnations before we finally settled on this look, these colors and the gazebo which is one of the first things you see when you drive into the camp. I'm very proud of how it turned out.

Harvard Square

My tribute to Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA where you will always find a musician performing, usually right near the Harvard Coop (pronounced Coop, not Co-op) which is the building I depicted.

Nationally known performers who got their start in Harvard Square include Tracy Chapman and Joan Baez.

When you're not watching the street musicians, there are SO many great restaurants and stores to check out (Favorite restaurants: Border Cafe, Fire and Ice, Grafton Street).

Girl in a tree

I really wanted to draw a tree showing the texture of the bark and somehow a girl got stuck in it.

Mykonos poster

My mother-in-law is in Mykonos so I thought I would revisit a poster I illustrated and designed after visiting there myself a few years ago.

I illustrated the scene from a photograph I took. I loved the juxtaposition of the lazy scenery with the hard-working donkey in the foreground. And the real-life colors are so vibrant! When I was done with the illustration it just begged for some type and that's how it became a poster or a postcard.

Keys

Perhaps because my wife and I are closing on our new house tomorrow I decided to finish up this illustration. What more need be said?

Vaulting ahead

Getting ahead despite being stuck in the same size box as your coworkers.

An editorial illustration I began some time ago (portfolio pieces sometimes have the luxury of time) and finally got around to finishing recently.

Cape Cod Map- download a free version

If you're heading to Cape Cod this summer, here's a simplified map I just finished illustrating and designing. I did a simpler version (1 color) for a wedding program and then decided to finish the map to a higher degree.

For a free higher resolution PDF of this map to actually use when you visit the Cape, click here to download it.

Following Instructions

This is an illustration of a group of people I created for Flash Kids/Barnes & Noble books. The instructions were much more complex than what I usually get (draw a tree with a squirrel running on a branch, for example) and it took a lot of rechecking to make sure I got everyone right. Here's the description from my client:

Assignment: illustration of a group photo of 3 older men, 1 with short hair, 1 with no hair and 1 with long hair, 1 with glasses, 1 with a hat; 2 older women with short hair; 1 middle-aged man with no hair and glasses; 2 middle-aged women: 1 with a hat and short hair and the other with long hair and glasses; 3 girls, 2 with long hair and 1 with short hair, 1 wearing glasses; 2 boys with short hair 1 with glasses and 1 with a hat; 4 large dogs, 1 spotted black and white, another just black, and 2 golden; 1 small white dog; and 1 small brown dog.

Are you dizzy yet?

Housing market

An editorial piece I completed a few days ago about the housing market and how every house that gets sold is another step out of the recession hole. This could either be a broker or a buyer proudly displaying the house that has just sold.

So everyone, go do your part and buy a house. Or a cup of coffee...