Snow Walking

It's getting cold outside here in the Northeast and I'm starting to look forward to the snow... stay tuned for beach scenes after the first time I have to shovel out the driveway.

Illustration from my sketchbook, colored in Adobe Illustrator.

Sketchbook 11-4-10

Flying Cars are Here

I attended an event tonight presented by Social Media Club Boston at Hill Holliday called Flying Cars are Here: The Futuristic Present of Marketing which was a part of FutureM in Boston. There were 4 terrific speakers/panelists and the presentations centered around social networking (of course) and the Recommendation model.
I brought my sketchbook/notebook and as usual did a few drawings/cartoons.

The first is self-explanatory. People make themselves crazy over whether they have enough followers (I was going to say "whether they're being followed" but that's a different topic) and the goal of getting comments.

 

The next was about Smart Objects technology and a case study in Israel where marketing agencies created a Coca Cola Village to bring 'Likes' into the real world by using an RFID-enabled wristband which held attendees' Facebook logins and passwords (you can read a little more about it and watch a video here) and allowed them to 'swipe' what they were doing. I thought this was very cool (and so did the teenagers who took part).

I also drew a couple of the presenters while I scrawled notes. The one on the bottom talks about the fact that although a lot of companies are gathering data they receive/find about their brand, only 1% of those companies actually do anything with that info. That's really going to start to change! Another thing mentioned was that there's an enormous amount of info being put out there by us all and going through it can be like going through trash in a dump.

It was a very interesting event, topped off by amazing infographics pooled during the event detailing stats on all the social stuff in the room, including, for example, the number of posts generated at the event (over 1300!). Nice job @djcap!

And finally, here's a photo I took during the panel discussion with my iphone.

My Sketchbook

A page of fun little sketches in my sketchbook. I did some of these while watching TV (I get hairstyle inspiration) and others while watching my son play (and between putting together puzzles and playing with him).

Faces 6

More faces and a whole tiger. OK, so I didn't draw the tiger- my son put a sticker on my drawing and I thought it was cute...

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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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.

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).

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.

From my sketchbook

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.