Jillian Tamaki Sketchbook

Smoke Signal #4 + Other Stuff

2010-03-09T16:31:00.005-05:00

Hi All,

Dirty Mike has been published in Desert Island's Smoke Signal zine. Thanks, Gabe!

It's available in-store (540 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn) and online.

OTHER NEWS!

♪ I will be at San Diego Comic-con.

♪ I will be on a panel at MoCCA.

♪ Skim will appear in my foreign translations! Edicoes SM (Brazil) will publish the book in Portugese and Uitgeverij Sherpa (Holland) will translate to Dutch. NICE!

♪ I'm attending this year's ICON event in Los Angeles, where I will eat many, many burritos.

Sad Day

2010-03-08T15:31:00.003-05:00

This is an image about a father's illness that is in the current issue of Men's Health Magazine. (AD Vikki Nestico.)

Unfortunately it coincides with some sad news about the passing of ACAD teacher Eugene Ouchi. I never had Eugene as a teacher, but I know some of you probably did. I remember him as a very kind fellow. You can see his work here.

Dinner

2010-03-05T09:52:00.001-05:00

Click to Enlarge.

Not Re-Inventing the Wheel

2010-03-03T16:10:00.002-05:00

These pictures are from a killed job.

Sometimes I have to laugh at how seriously people take illustration ("people", of course, being illustrators themselves). Of course, there's a degree of conceptual thinking, intellectualization, etc., but I have found that a large chunk of the jobs one encounters involves creating pleasant, positive images.

I don't mind doing this sort of thing from time-to-time. It makes me feel like an old-timey illustrator and there's a certain challenge to bringing a little finesse to such content. Drawn.ca recently posted about a cookbook illustrated by Charley Harper that speaks to this.

Animals

2010-02-28T22:20:00.002-05:00

Radio Silence.

Sorry! I've been in Florida again. I'm addicted!

Anyway, this isn't really anything comprehensive... just a few excerpts from a handout on Animal Anatomy I'm putting together for my class tomorrow. I get asked to draw quite a few animals, so unlike some other things we've gone over in class (perspective!), I actually feel somewhat qualified to speak on the subject.

There is no formula to trick to drawing animals, or anything else for that matter. Only through observation (ideally from life), and practice will give you a fundamental understanding of structure and form. This might be a bit of a bummer to hear as a student, but I believe it's the truth and applies to all drawing.

Skim in Softcover

2010-02-17T12:25:00.001-05:00

The softcover version of Skim is now available. I believe the cover price is $12.95 US.

Cultists 8 (The End.)

2010-02-15T19:02:00.000-05:00

Cultists 7

2010-02-15T12:39:00.000-05:00

Cultists 6

2010-02-14T18:52:00.001-05:00

Cultists 5

2010-02-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

Cultists 4

2010-02-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

Cultists 3

2010-02-13T00:18:00.000-05:00

Cultists 2

2010-02-12T16:26:00.000-05:00

Cultists

2010-02-11T14:41:00.000-05:00

Mountain Woman

2010-02-10T20:41:00.001-05:00

Strange Picture

2010-02-08T21:51:00.001-05:00

Witchy Woman

2010-02-07T10:35:00.004-05:00

This lady is loosely based on an Icelandic saga we learned about in a very terrifying wax museum in Reykjavik.

Is there anything more intoxicating than the concept of a witch? (FYI: in the original saga, I believe the woman, Freydís Eiríksdóttir, was NOT a witch.) In retrospect, people who were deemed witches were probably just women who were a bit eccentric or had no interest in living with men and their rules. Which to many men, even today, is very irritating indeed.

New Yorker Never Ran

2010-02-04T11:37:00.003-05:00

Here's a New Yorker illustration for a Yvonne Rainer dance review that never ran.

Also, some sketches.

Thoughts on Context, in which The Author rambles on Sloth, Musical Instruments, and Public Television

2010-02-01T00:39:00.008-05:00

Gourd Drum (Ipu Hula or Ipu Heke), 19th century, Hawai'i

I've been feeling shitty about not going to museums lately. I mean, why exactly does one put up with the crappy things about the City if not to take occasionally take advantage of the wonderful things?

And I missed the MoMA Bauhaus show. Boo.

Anyway. I was thinking I might go somewhere tomorrow. This Met exhibit of Oceanic instruments looks pretty cool. They're something so beautiful about an object for which you intuitively know its use. Sam and I were talking about this the other day when we observed that he immensely, surprisingly, enjoys kitchen supply stores despite the fact he doesn't cook.

For many of the instruments, you can listen to curators speak about cultural uses and hear audio of them being played. The site is simplistic, but it offered a glimmer of how museums could harness interactivity to reach many more people and, more importantly, deliver a more thorough understanding of the subjects at hand.

Context is important.

I'm currently working my way through a PBS documentary series called Art: 21, about fine art in the 21st century. 3 or 4 contemporary artists are profiled per episode, and the experience is so RICH. You're brought into someone's studio, peeking in on them working, speaking to their family, oftentimes their subjects, hearing memories of their childhood. So much more compelling and accessible to hear it from the artists' mouth versus reading a curatorial text. You realize how much of creativity is simply exploring things that perplex you or that you're curious about. Didactics come later. Or, perhaps, full meanings are discovered through the process of creation.

On illustration. Illustration has always been a late adopter, often reinterpreting or refashioning artistic "styles" several decades after they were conceived by the art world, and applying them to commercial purposes. It's kind of a nostalgic form. No judgment on that (that should go without saying!). And yes, it does go the other way sometimes too (see: pop art). But! I think there's a valuable lesson illustrators, particularly students of illustration, can learn from Fine Art… that work should come from a place of exploration and introspection. To copy a "style" is simply a superficial appropriation of someone else's context. Someone else's life experience, interests, travels, tics. It's just surface. There's nothing underneath.

Flute (Pūtōrino), ca. 1800–1820

Aotearoa (New Zealand), Bay of Plenty region, Māori people

The Two Things You Need to Know About Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2010-01-28T15:59:00.001-05:00

Salinger

2010-01-28T13:56:00.003-05:00

I think I did this last year or 2 years ago. It was a crazy-rush piece (start to finish in a few hours), so it's not the best thing in the world. But I was thinking about how I feel a TINY bit more connected to notable deaths if I've drawn the person. You end up meditating on that person for a while.

Sometimes that person is JD Salinger. Other times, it is Mariah Carey.

THURSDAY! Brooklyn Public Library Event (1/28)

2010-01-27T23:02:00.001-05:00

Bewitched

2010-01-26T13:06:00.005-05:00

I was dutifully doing work when I started watching a documentary on the Shakers. Then I had to draw a picture of the Shakers because I'm a sucker for the costume of religious fundamentalists.

Watching a movie about Shakers while filling in virtual shapes with virtual paintbrushes, and streaming said movie over a worldwide network of fiber optic cables and pulleys. Unpack that for a while.

Slo-Mo Pathos

2010-01-24T21:38:00.003-05:00

(click to enlarge)

It irritates me to no end that I can barely remember my PIN number sometimes and yet can pull up (multiple!) television advertising conventions from the mid-80s.

P.S. I am not insane.

Portrait of Right Now

2010-01-18T22:46:00.000-05:00

I spent a lot of time this long weekend drawing a lot of one thing. This is not it.