Valentine From Sis
Posted by Robert Saunders at 4:49 pm on February 14th
An early harbinger of a lifelong obsession with music. I got this in a Valentine today from my sentimental sister. It's a pic of me in my formative years with next-door neighbor Danny Shwartzman, me strumming on my Mickey Mouse-Guitar (Valentine-red in real life) and Danny petting my stuffed tiger and sucking on what I have no idea. Piano at right denotes musical family. Note the fingers of my left hand carefully picking out an "L" chord, and the thumb of the right strumming hand showing early influence of Wes Montgomery. In reality, it must be told, to play a song on the guitar you cranked a little handle on the top. While I hungered to perform material like Unit 7, and West Coast Blues, regrettably the only song it played was "Pop Goes the Weasel". Baby steps...
Sloan Snags a Silver
Posted by Robert Saunders at 11:16 am on February 1st
Michael Sloan receiving his silver medal from Committee Chair Tim O'Brien at the Society of Illustrators 49th Annual Exhibition Sequential Awards Gala.
I want to congratulate my pal and Half-Tone mate, Michael Sloan, for winning a Silver Medal in sequential art for his full-length illustrated novel (without words), The Heresy of Professor Nimbus, from the Society of Illustrators. You couldn't find a nicer guy or more dedicated artist. Michael went to New York to receive the honor Tuesday night. I asked him if I could put a notice about it here. Photos of the event were nil, so the image above will serve to illustrate the occasion.
Credit Where Credit is Due Dept.
Posted by Robert Saunders at 1:22 pm on January 17th
Sometimes an image stops you in your tracks. I just got my New Yorker in the mail a moment ago. I couldn't not post the cover in light of Bush's recent announcement of his intention to send more US troops into battle, and with all that's been discussed here politically. The cover is by the great Anita Kunz, who I imagine would have posted it if she were on Drawger, but whose name I couldn't find listed here.
Thank you, Anita, for creating a breathtaking image capturing what the country must be thinking right now.
Maiden Voyage of illoz.com Today
Posted by Robert Saunders at 2:08 pm on January 3rd
Deet-de-deedle-de-deet-de-deedle-de...
Congratulations to illoz.com on their big launch today. It's a great day in the neighborhood! People are dancing in the streets, artists are coming together and rejoicing, and critics are predicting the dawning of a new paradigm. Illoz.com is a smart new venue for art directors and designers to acquaint themselves with distinguished illustrators, view their working methods, their latest projects, sketches, whimsical creations, read blogs, and collaborate in cool, streamlined ways. More to come...
Gifts You Can Do Without
Posted by Robert Saunders at 11:35 am on December 23rd
I think I'm gonna hurl...
With Christmas coming up it's important to know proper etiquette upon unwrapping that inevitable, really awful present. In the nick of time, Dave Bamundo called with a quick job to appear in today's Wall Street Journal about the cheesy gifts golfers get.
Working with Dave was fun because he's a consummate gentleman and a sure hand at direction...besides being an inspired illustrator.
I include the sketch detail below in contrast to the final. The guy's first grimace amuses me more because the marks are spontaneous and direct. I'm usually all nerves when copying to the final. I wonder if digital illustrators have this feeling too, though they can take the actual sketch right to final; so I imagine not.
Doing What You Love
Posted by Robert Saunders at 3:13 pm on December 16th
A friend brought it to my attention that I haven't posted anything in awhile. Well, recent jobs I've been doing don't lend themselves to posting, and I'm waiting for the perfect image. Something up-to-date, appropriate for a hip mag, witty, ironic... Right. Aw, what the hay, people on here post their personal history every day, so why not me.
This is a promo piece I did for a directory page awhile back. I was filling my sketchbook with ideas, and this guy appealed to me. He's doing what I hope to be doing at his age: playing a high-class gig on his exotic vintage guitar in coat and tails—and presumably getting paid at union scale. It's in pen and ink, which I used to do a lot of because it was fast.
But you never know in this business what effect your illustration will have on people, including art directors. You get some interesting responses. In this case I got a call from the then art director of the L.A. Times Book Review. He says, Rob, love your guitar-playing gentleman...know what it makes me think of?
Rob: No, what?
AD: Are you familiar with the work of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, of the sinous brush-line and poster work? That guitar cable and the contours of your guitar player convey a Lautrec-feel to me. Would you be interested in doing a cover for the Book Review, in a T-Lautrec style?
Rob: (What th'...T-Lautrec???) Uh, sure, love to...
So I changed over to a new style overnight, adopting every stylistic affectation I could from the little dead Frenchman, who by the way was one of my alltime heros and an avid drinker of absinthe (back when absinthe was really good). What the hell, I think—I'll go for it. Illustration makeover time! Thus did I depart from pen and ink forever to pursue the joys of pure brush illustration and study up on the work of T-L man.
Moral: Do what you love to do....for whatever reason. I've heard famous people say that, and it sounds good to me.
Victory in da House
Posted by Robert Saunders at 9:14 am on November 8th
Ooh! Ouch! Ow! Ooh!
I've trotted out a few of my stock illustrations on the morning after the Republicans' defeat, to make the point that this is what Congress is going to do to the White House now that the Democrats have taken back the majority of seats in the House. It is time to hold the lobbyists', Bush admininistration's, and crooked politicians' feet to the fire. First off, I'm hoping there will be a renewed ethics committee, then an investigation of laws broken by the administration, and a restoring of the inspector general's office on waste and fraud by contractors in the Iraq war.
I want Congress to get rid of the bad apples—even Democratic ones—
...and restore ownership of this country to the people who pay the bills and hunger for a little bit of justice.
Doin' the Right Thing
Posted by Robert Saunders at 10:35 am on November 7th
I did my civic duty today, and boy do I feel proud. I was able to mark everything in the right place without getting befuddled. I have no doubt we're going to hear before the end of the day that there have been voting irregularities somewhere in the nation, so brace yourselves. It could get wild out there!
What a country.
PS: In the interest of full disclosure, this silly pic was done on the subject of "Self-esteem" for some bleeding-heart-liberal health newsletter, sometime in the last century.
Haiku Lampoon
Posted by Robert Saunders at 5:28 pm on October 10th
Did these images for Entertainment Weekly when they wanted some art for haiku to lampoon movie stars and couples in a "meditative" but ironic way. I submitted the art for the writer to insert the copy into, but the published haiku wasn't very funny. They must have felt it wasn't working, too, because after two of these ran, I never saw any more. I thought I could do better haiku myself, anyway. Haiku (1st line is 5 syllables, 2nd line 7, last line 5) is hard to do right. Try it and see.
Crib Boy
Posted by Robert Saunders at 8:44 pm on October 6th
Ever do something like this? You do a job—this was for California Lawyer many moons ago. The subject is how a 16-year old victim of statutory rape by the mother of his child got dragged into court and sued for child support by the county. You send the final in. Then you realize: damn! I should have worked on that profile. It looks too much like a little man, like me, not like a kid. Well they were happy with the piece, no problem, so go figure. But I, in my obsession can see that the image doesn't really read as well as it should. So I take it into Photoshop later for the hell of it and tweak it so that...
