posted: May 21, 2009

I'm a bike nut, or at least that's what my kids tell me. Doesn't matter what form, touring, racing, utility, it's all good. So when Bicycling calls I do it no matter the size or budget. I spend more time on roughs and final than usual, because it's a subject I love.


This is of course on road rash and how to treat it. I've never been seriously torn up, a few minor spills, but if you've ever watched even one stage of The Tour you will see these guys get shredded. They're nuts, I love it.


I don't do many people in my work, have relied heavily on mechanical type objects, architecture, hands, and when I do people they tend to be kind of "Lego" like. So it's kind of fun when I try to do something a bit more physical.

posted: May 8, 2009

This was something I intended to post a few weeks back. I was getting really upset with art directors who were letting editors run rough shod all over the creative process. Many of you would agree that some of the things we like to hear the least are "Looks good, let me show the editors" or "I'll get right back to you with the editors feedback". Don't get me wrong, editors have quite a responsibility but what's the point of even having an art director if all they are doing is acting as a conduit for the whims of the editors, who more often than not are sort of literal leaning in their visual sense. At the very least the art director should be an advocate for the illustrator and not just roll over when the editors flex. It's been my experience that the good art directors have the balls to stand up to editors and others. Sometimes I need to push the art director back into the editors office by simply refusing to follow some ambiguous, arbitrary, and again usually trite and literal direction that comes from there. I used to have a sort of cartoony style that I didn't love but lived with. I let art directors and editors push me all over the place and pretty much did what they asked until I had no love at all for what I was doing. When I began working in my new more honest style just about four or five years ago I was so happy and excited again, kind of like way back when work was always just for yourself and you couldn't wait to get back to a piece. I swore not to let myself get derailed by the bad ideas of others, the pursuit of pay at all costs etc. Well, I have sold out more times than I care to recall, as I'm sure we all have, you get tired of fighting, you just want to get the job done and move on. Well I welcome the slowdown that is forming now to refocus, rally the troops, generate new fresh good work and re commit to not letting the work get away from me. The sample above is of course for one of the ADs that the above does not apply.

Recent Work

posted: April 14, 2009

Recent work.

Haven't posted in a while so like a few recent posts here is a smattering of recent day to day work. I'm still bracing for the downturn but have been pretty fortunate for the first few months of 09 to remain busy. I do however sense a slowing now but have a sizeable commercial job to keep me busy. I'm honestly looking forward to a lighter workload as I really need to break out a bit.

Recent Work

posted: February 23, 2009

I wanted to post after I got back from the SI editorial show but couldn't get to it.  I am always so blown away and humbled when I'm standing before such great illustrations, whether it be Tim Obrien's guy with the hat in the rain, or Chris Buzelli's birds ( I know Chris, not your favorite) but stunning to the rest of us, Adam's stamps etc etc. So I'm thinking the whole time that man I gotta stop doing crap and really step it up, vow not to let art directors and more importantly editors push the work somewhere that I don't want it to go. Some of you may do the same thing, once in a while say okay time to re-focus, seek inspiration, make every piece interesting, and fight, refuse to compromise on bad direction, "no I'm not making that change", "not comfortable with that". In the end it is not possible to make every piece a great piece, compromises are made and sometimes you just have to take away a lesson from a less than stellar piece or one that didn't turn out as planned.
With that said, here are a few from the past few weeks, no unreasonable compromises made on these as all the art directors here let me do what we do. Thanks to Patricia, Orly, Leanne and others not represented here. And thanks to all you stellar illustrators who inspire me strive to be among your ranks.

These op-ed pieces have to be turned around in hours. Love the pressure, no time to screw around. This one was on how The U.S. shouldn't wait for the elections in Iran before opening dialogue. Start now.
They liked the phone booth and minaret idea but wanted a Blackberry instead of the booth. I expressed that the idea wouldn't have the charm of the sketch- no wires going into the window, the waiting booth, door open. The door of the phonebooth being open is a big part of the concept-as the door is open for dialogue with Iran, so step in.
 
They insisted on a Blackberry as it is well known that Obama is fond of his Blackberry. Compromise? yes, but tried to make it work.

 

This was a Wall St. Journal cover. The story is on intelligent infrastructure so didn't need a lot of concept, I sometimes just enjoy doing a straight forward technical type of illustration with maybe a subtle concept behind the whole thing.
 

Here are a couple of pieces from TIME. I do a weekly column by Justin Fox, usually on the economy, finances. One of these is on Wall St. bonuses, the other on how if every one starts saving and being thrify our economy will implode.

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