Sad Day

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.

Not Re-Inventing the Wheel

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.

New Yorker Never Ran

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

Also, some sketches.

Goodbye!

I’m heading back to the Arctic Tundra (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for a bit of skiing and Vietnamese food. I’ll be back on Jan 3.

(Until then, I can’t take any jobs. Let’s work together next year!)

Readers, please have a safe and happy holiday.

Byebye!

Independent UK

I did a few things for this next weekend's [of the 20th] Independent newspaper in the UK. I think it may be out on Sunday? I think it's part of the magazine? I'm not sure the details, but if you're over there, I'll assume you know what I'm talking about.

There are more, but I like this one best. The illustrations accompany a Christmasy story by Louis de Bernieres.

(AD: Ben Brannan)

Speaking of Christmas, I was dropping some stuff off at the Society of Illustrators today and decided to drop in at Bloomie's since I'm looking for boots. I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say the shoe department was COMPLETE carnage and the first thing I thought of was "I wonder if this is what Baghdad looked like after they overthrew Saddam Hussein." There is nothing like witnessing shopping-induced mayhem to make you feel ashamed to be a human being.

So many dead-eyed husbands.

Anyway. Apologies for the lack of sketchbooking lately. It's always really crazy before the holidays.

Feminist Choice

(click to enlarge)

Here's a recent illustration for Smith Alumnae Quarterly. I like the colours in this one. They're a bit of deviation from my usual palettes which are more restricted and complementary.

The article is about feminism giving women the freedom to define themselves as they wish.

I watched A League of Their Own when I made this picture. So good! Avoid the clap.

AD Ronn Campisi.

David Sedaris' "The Loggerhead"

I recently had the honour of illustrating a David Sedaris piece for the New Yorker. Talk about pressure! The story is not online, so you'll have to buy the magazine itself. The art ran a bit smaller than originally planned but hopefully it holds up. Thank you so much to Chris Curry for the opportunity. Here are some sketches:

Heart Running

Here's an illustration for Runner's World Germany. It's about running with a heart condition. Usually I don't use such a "deep space" in illustrations, but this was kinda fun. A little atmospheric interference* goes a long way.

*for students: the basic principle, as it pertains to art and drawing, is that things get more "low-value" as they get farther away. This is due to moisture, pollution, and other particles floating in the air between your eye and whatever you're looking at. That's why someone standing 10 feet away will appear crisper and more high value, than, say, the Empire State Building a mile away in the distance. In reality, the image above maybe isn't the best example, since it's kind of about fog and whatnot. The example of the Empire State Building is better.

Passing the Ball

For Plansponsor.

You may recall, this was in the Gallery of Rejected Sketches. Thanks to SooJin Buzelli, AD, it's an orphan no more!

Sam helped colour this one.

Babysat: Rachel

Cool Babysitter.
(click to enlarge.)

Halvah

I don't want to alarm any of you, but I am now a New York Times Published Author.

Okay, not really. But I did contribute a little blurb to go with a drawing about bake sales, which have apparently been outlawed in NYC schools. Mine is about halvah, a middle eastern sesame treat not popular amongst the residents of Calgary, Alberta in the late 1980s.



The drawing appears in this weekend's Sunday Times. AD Kim Bost!

Hill Training

Runner's World, Germany. AD Grit Brüeggemann.

Car Alarm

(Click to Enlarge)

Weekend

Garden Lady

This is a portrait of a Risk Adviser lady for an online magazine called ai5000, part of the "Plansponsor" family. I noticed a resemblance between this and some of Paul Smith's prints in the last pot.

Whenever I get paid to do online stuff, I feel very very happy. It makes me hopeful that illustration can be viable on the internet. Paid illustration, that is.

You can view the rest of the magazine, which has lots of other illustrations. Here's John Cuneo's.

On another note, I love it when the layout actually makes the illustration look BETTER. Pretty.



AD SooJin Buzelli.

Paul Smith Spring 2010

Colour, Pattern, Balance, tiny bursts. Full show.

Rosanne Cash for the New Yorker

A long-skinny for this week's New Yorker. Sorry, these don't show up very large. Click thru to enlarged image.

I haven't done a New Yorker illustration in a while. They actually gave me one of my first jobs when I was starting out (my head nearly exploded when they called). I still see that first illustration floating around the Internet...





AD Max Bode.

Hemispheres Cover

Here's another Hemispheres Magazine cover. This one, like the last one, also had to do with Chicago. In this case, the Olympic Bid. There was a bit of criteria with this one. The client specifically requested a skyline (never the most fun to do, in my opinion, not being the most architecturally minded). The deadline was also very, very short. This was completed start to finish over 3 days, if I recall.




I now honestly feel like I must know Chicago's skyline better than New York's. Oy.

AD Rob Hewitt.

Swine Flu

This was a ridiculously quick turnaround for the Washington Post Style section. The call came in around 12ish and it was sent by 3.45. Sometimes that quick newspaper stuff ends up being fairly "lucrative" if you consider the $/hour.

Functional Squares

Been thinking a lot about Josef and Anni Albers lately. I should probably get a book. (Anni above, Josef below) These always remind me of a teacher I had at Queens University who was all about colour squares. Did not get it at all at the time.