Ella's Thank You Card

My niece's thank-you (folding) card.

Springsteen poster

I found this old Springsteen poster at a home I was visiting and just had to take a picture of it. From what I can tell, it's from 1975 and what I love about it is that it looks like it was used to line some cat's litter box before it was framed. The wrinkles and tears really give the poster character. Last summer I found a great Frank Zappa poster that was in even worse shape!

In case you're a Springsteen memorabilia fan, I found this site that gives you what seems to be quite a complete Springsteen history with images of posters and tickets.

 

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What I Did On My Vacation

Recently, I was in Texas and New Mexico for a 5 day vacation. Just before I left I got a call from a senior manager at Scholastic who asked me if I would do some sketches for an internal presentation. They liked the quality of the sketches I had done for previous jobs (which I then went on to finish and color) and requested that these be done as sketches. Great! I knew I could fit in some work while I was away; what I didn't realize was just how many sketches there would be! It turned out that there were 4 pages of progressions (which they had sketched out very basically with stick figures) which illustrated how a certain segment offers important benefits to Scholastic.

So I started out with simple sketches with a ballpoint pen in my sketchbook (usually in the hotel room while my son napped) like this:

Which I then redrew with a nicer drawing pen:

When I returned to Boston I arranged the separate illustrations on the page and added halftones:

Another page:

A detail from the page above:

I was very happy with how they turned out.

Just before I got on the plane to Texas, I was asked if I could work on a sketched-out logo (same style) for their segment as well. The concept was Entrepreneurial ideas/Innovation and to include the words and phrases you see below. My client's wish was to avoid using the lightbulb cliche as a symbol of innovation, so I  created a futuristic-looking device that is (pardon the pun) light years ahead of the bulb.

Well, I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed creating these illustrations and logo. The fun of my job is finding creative ways to express ideas and I got to do just that! And Scholastic was very happy with the work. I even got to draw an Ed version of Clifford for one of the pages!

 

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Eviction cartoon

3 Scarves, a Neck Tie and a Drawstring walk into a train...

The T (trolley) is a great place to sketch. New people are always coming on and best of all, a lot of riders tend to stand or sit relatively still so I can get a decent chance at doing a drawing I'm happy with.

Looking over these sketches right now, I just realized each person is wearing something around their neck... I guess it's not so unusual for a Boston winter.

5 Faces: One Liners

I have a section of my website I call one-liners (you'll find it as a category in the "ed" section) where each illustration is made up of, you guessed it, one line. These were some illustrations I sketched in my sketchbook before I transposed them to my computer and redid them with cleaner lines.

Sometimes I like to trace the lines with my eyes just to make me dizzy = )

Value vs Growth Investing

Out this month in Black Enterprise magazine is a great article that I had the privilege to illustrate. It discusses the merits of both types of investing, Value and Growth, to help enable the reader to make better decisions.

I was asked by the editor to come up with a couple of sketch ideas that would depict the two investing options and this is the one that was chosen. I couldn't possibly convey how many poses I went through before deciding on the two in the illustration- I didn't want this to be too testosterone-driven or make it look like either figure has the advantage- so both men are depicted as if they had just been going about their usual day at the office when someone gave them some armor and a sword and told them to fight.

 

The article together with the illustration.

To read this article, check out the March 2010 issue of Black Enterprise Magazine or go here (my illustration doesn't appear on the online version).

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On the Train

Last night I went to see the Boston premiere of the movie: American Artifact The Rise of American Rock Poster Art. It was a good, not great, movie but the visuals were entrancing and the history of the posters was very interesting. If the topic interests you even slightly then it's worth seeing this movie.

I took the train to the screening at Emerson College in Boston and got to sketch people getting on and off the T. I love this time of year- there are always great hats and scarves that really accentuate angles and add flair to a drawing.

After the movie, the director, Merle Becker, did a question and answer session (and with the lights finally up I was able to do some sketching. See my sketches of the director, above).

Then it was time to get back on the train to sketch and go home where I'm now thinking about how and where to set up my own silk screening studio...

Faces5

Another page of faces from my sketchbook.

Drawing on the Table

I just found this sketch I did a few years ago.

I was teaching a cartooning class at a local museum school and some of the kids were interested in drawing and others (despite some valiant attempts on my part!) were just there to eat candy and do some doodling.

This particular student suddenly got really into what he was doing to the point where he got up on the table while still drawing and remained there for another 5 minutes finishing up a landscape to go with whatever creature he had done. I grabbed my sketchbook and recorded this quick sketch of him.

That was a good drawing day (for me and for him).

@CommunicateGood

This is the stripped down view of the background

 I recently designed this Twitter background for @CommunicateGood.

CommunicateGood is the Twitter page for Rich Polt which coincides with his blog, Communicate Good to talk about "...communications, doing good in the world and the intersection of the two."

Rich is the owner of the PR Agency Louder Than Words, a PR consulting firm, and a good guy doing great work. Or is he a great guy doing good work?

 

This is the view you get when going through Twitter 

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Happy Groundhog Day 2010!

Welcome to another Groundhog Day. I'll just bet it's felt like so much more than 365 days since the last Groundhog's Day and I appreciate you coming by to check out my yearly GH card.

I've been creating a card for this rodentastic holiday since 1992 (To be honest, I've skipped a few along the way) and I'm happy to come back to it in 2010 despite the crushing deadlines, a sick 4 year old and lack of enough sleep. But enough about me...

See you again next year!
You can check out a bunch more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog by clicking HERE.

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Jaws

I had a night of insomnia recently and found myself on the sofa watching old movies. One of those movies was JAWS and I couldn't help reaching for my sketchbook. This is a (quick) sketch of the shark hunter guy who became lunch at the end of the movie. Behind him is easily the worst shark drawing I've ever created but it certainly needed to be included.

So I got to thinking about an artist I was led to by an instructor at RISD. I was beginning to experiment with a cross hatching style (you can see my more recent cross hatch illustrations in the FRED portfolio on my website) and my teacher sent me to the library to check out Murray Tinkelman. It seems he was plagued with insomnia (if memory serves) and did much of his work late at night while watching TV.

Check out Murray's stuff. It's so much better than my (quick) sketch above and he certainly would have drawn a better shark. http://tinkelmanstudio.com/portfolio.html

(I'll draw a new shark soon for a future post)

Optimism

An illustration I recently completed about thinking positive. It's a new year, and despite tragedies occurring all around the world (Haiti immediately springs to mind), we all do our best work when there's hope/positive thinking. I read recently that approximately 50% of American households donated to the earthquake relief effort in Haiti- that kind of outpouring goes a long way to OFFER hope.

The quote I used in the illustration is a little pedestrian when considered with what I wrote above, but I just love the message it sends to us as individuals:

"The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser- in case you thought optimism was dead." -Robert Brault

Martin Scorcese at the Golden Globes

Last night, Martin Scorcese accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award with a gracious acceptance speech (after a wonderful intro by Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio). My wife commented that he looks like an exaggerated character- an actor playing Scorcese.

It was fun to draw him but since it was my first time I missed opportunities to really caricature his very black glasses and his rounded nose. Thankfully, this won't be the last time he wins an award...

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New York sketches

Illustrations from a recent NY Starbucks visit. The guy at the top kept nonchalantly touching his nose- the things you have to put up with when secretly drawing people at a coffee shop!

A series of quick sketches of people around me.

A couple of women- one seemed to think it was a good time to take a nap despite the lack of open tables and the number of people circling. BUt it was nice that she kept so still so I could draw her.

Happy New Year!

This is the New Year's promo I'm emailing out to all of my clients and potential clients. There's so much catching-up to do after the holidays and the new year that I wanted to make it quick and simple.

Yeah that's supposed to be me. No, that's not really my hair and I (thankfully) do not own a tuxedo t-shirt.

From my sketchbook

Holiday Card 2009

On November 17 I received an email from a client asking me to produce her family's holiday card to make it into the mail by December 10. Sounds like plenty of time until you consider what needed to be done:

• Conceive and design a tri-fold card (and in this case I was provided with wonderful photos by Steve Robb). Make revisions based on client's feedback.
  
• Hunt for paper samples at multiple stores to line the envelopes and scan and email them for client to choose.
  
• Order the envelopes.
• Order the chosen liner paper (this took 10 days to arrive. TEN DAYS and the day before I received them I was informed that my order would be short!).
  
• Find someone to address the envelopes (both regular and return addresses). Lauren Karp is a goddess.
  
• Go away for Thanksgiving. Wait for printer to reopen and send approved design.
  
• Get postage stamp options from which client may choose.
• Design the outside of the envelopes using colors from the card as well as colors from the liner and the postage stamp.
  
• Cut the liner paper. I did this by hand to make sure they were done right.
  
• Assemble the envelopes (attach the liners and stamps- thank goodness for self-sticking stamps!).
• Fold and stuff the cards (while keeping a critical eye out for any printing issue).
• Lick (bleh!). OK, not really- I used a sponge to seal the envelopes.
  
• Hand cancel at the P.O.
• Send client the following photo taken at the P.O. with my phone so she could see the completed package as I was canceling them.

In the end, the cards arrived on the 11th and after assembly the cards were in the mail by 12 p.m. on the 12th. Not bad!

I was so happy to work with this particular client on her card. She was clear about what she wanted/liked and was able to communicate the changes she wanted to see.

Thank you C.M.!

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."

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