Sly Guy

A-B-C

(Click to Enlarge.)

A common foible of learning to work in ink is accepting the fact that ink is not pencil. Most of us learn how to draw ("properly") with pencils, so it's the implement that we are most comfortable. Ink is obviously much less forgiving.

I held individual meetings with my 2nd year Cartooning students today and recommended to all of them to keep an Ink Only sketchbook over the summer. No pencil or preparatory drawings allowed. Experimenting with the media in a very pure form will help you learn what is and what is not possible. It's a matter of adaptation and working with the media's strengths. Very zen.

(I actually stole this idea from Sam, who kept an Ink Only sketchbook in the summer between 3rd and 4th year. He improved dramatically. )

This drawing is from a similar sketchbook I'm keeping now, experimenting with washes and painting.

Mountain Woman

Witchy Woman

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.

National Geographic Animals

This project was definitely one of my highlights of the year. It was completed back in September, but the issue is just out now (Jan2010).

The series was about Asian Wildlife trafficking. You can read the article (and view some very disturbing photographs) here.

Animals, along with Dance, are probably my favourite things to draw. I was very excited when the AD, David Whitmore, suggested a simpler, painterly approach similar to the guy in this post. Thanks, Blog!















This wash technique is a very different one from my typical method... more of a one-shot deal with very minimal digital manipulation. (I still sent pencil sketches, albeit very rough ones.) Some of animals were done a dozen times before I got a few that worked. I would send the AD several final versions to choose from. Here is a picture of (mostly) discards.



It was an exercise in a new way of thinking and a good lesson for me as I try to streamline my illustration work. I have discovered through teaching that the most important thing you develop in school is not technique but PROCESS: a way of working that allows you to operate within the confines of Art Direction but still leaves you psychologically free to create work that is fresh and stimulating.

Situational Readymades 3

Broke Music Lover.
L Train, under East River, Brooklyn.

Related: I tried to find a plain old RADIO in Manhattan today and I FAILED. I might as well been looking for a gramophone.

Situational Readymades 2

Student Driver, Driggs Ave, Brooklyn.

(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!

Weekend

Streets of Soho Pt 2

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.

Super Deep Narratives

New Apartment

Click to enlarge (as always).

The Yearling

Maybe inspired by this article/video.

Bernie Madoff-type character

Colour Girl

Tew New

Two new illustrations added to my portfolio:

The first, for the incomparable SooJin (she's like Cher or Madonna... on a one-name basis) at Plansponsor, "Stressed Out Kites":


The second, for Brian Morgan at The Walrus, an illustration that accompanied a short fiction piece (click to enlarge).

Blue and Green

Nanny Diaries

McGolrick Park, Brooklyn

(click to enlarge)

This is a test image, in which I tried to make a more "developed" picture of the little animals I've been playing around with recently.

Details:

Pink Skirt

Another pink skirt. This actually looks like my mom circa 1990.

I have had quite a few people email about prints of the ballerina. Email me regarding info for purchasing prints if you're interested. jill (AT) jilliantamaki (dot) com.

Instuds Interview!

Had a really fun interview with Robin from Inkstuds yesterday. Topics covered: ethnics, raccoon-dog balls, computers, the aging process. Oh! And Comics!

Thanks Robin!

Listen Here.

Best Friends

Self

Bigfoot

Swimmingly

Just a dude

Special Lady

Protestor