 Blow Up opens.
posted: September 1, 2010
Blow Up, a show of works by Tomer Hanuka, Sam Weber and myself, opened today at the Society of Illustrators (NYC). Opening reception will be held on September 10th, next Friday.
Our concept was to create an exhibit of three 'illustrators', to show the power of print, and wanted to share what kind of creative and thinking process go into creating the works. After a lot of ditched concepts and ideas, multiple meetings (over dinners and lunches), and needless to say, many many hours spent in front of our drawing tables, we are quite happy with the result, but then again, we have to let you the viewers decide themselves. It may not be a typical group show you may have been expected to see, so we are excited and nervous at the same time... It would be great if you could visit, either at the opening party next week, or while the show is open. We each created series of new images for the show that were not shown previously, and I am sharing some of my final pieces here. Mine were created using the definition of term 'blow up'. 
Blow Up No.3: The Big Bang (original drawing: 22"x 30") 
Blow Up No.2: Storm Forming (original drawing: 22"x 30") 
Blow Up No.1: The Bubble (original drawing: 22"x 30") 
mess on my drawing table... 
long long hours of drawing.... 
In my personal pieces, I figure the composition out as I go. So some parts are completely finished while some are still in rough pencil stage.
I am not posting any photos of the final gallery spaces, because we want that to be a surprise when you come to the gallery. (I may post some photos after the opening party is over). But here are some pictures of work in progress last week.
on the top row from left: entrance area, invite flyer, and Tomer's works n the floor.
on the bottom row: Tomer Hanuka on the left, Sam Weber on the right.
I just got this gorgeously eerie piece from Tomer!
... and here is from Sam!
Thank you Anelle, Tim and everyone else at the Society of Illustrators for this opportunity. And last but not least, thank you Mr. David Rhodes for generous support in helping to make this show possible.
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Blow Up.
posted: August 13, 2010
this kick-ass flyer created by Attack at Wieden Kennedy NY
It is official.
Tomer Hanuka, Sam Weber and I will be in a three person show at the Society of Illustrators in September. We will be SO so happy if you could be able to make it. It felt like it was never going to work out at first. Now, images are in hands of a great printer, new works being created, funding in order, and we are close to ready to hang the show toward the end of the month. We want to thank Mr. David Rhodes for his generosity without which this may not have happened. Big thanks to Attack guys at Wieden + Kennedy who created this kick ass flyer for us. And, everyone at the Society of Illustrators and Tim O'Brien for giving us opportunity and being patient with us all along the way. Hope to see you on September 10th. 
I am working on a few new works last minutes to match what Tomer and Sam have for the show. Working through this weekend!! Simple. Bold. And Graphic.
posted: August 5, 2010
Like every single lines in the waves, and those textures in sweaters. And oh, drawing polka dots for hours and hours is just pure meditation I can do non stop forever. But, it is also true that I tend to get commissioned for complicated images because of this obsession. In reality, I am a huge graphic design fan, simple and bold posters are my favorite. But I seldom ever asked to do anything simple. So, when Alissa Levin of Point 5 Design called me for Columbia Journalism Review cover and said “we want something very simple, bold and graphic”, I was like “YESSSSS!” 
dummy layout came from the client as a brief for this project
Some jobs come with no brief, and some comes with very detailed one. This project was the latter. The editorial and design teams had gone through long meetings to decide what they wanted to be the cover, so this job came with a detailed mock up dummy.
Type of briefs are definitely case by case, and it is not that one is better than the other. All it matters is that there is trust and good team work between the designers and illustrators. 
I gave four sketches according to the brief. Top two are very similar to the brief, and bottom two are 'curb balls'. I try to present some curb balls whenever possible, just to give different prespective.
Woops, busted! No, I don't have an iPhone or a blackberry :-b Phone is something I can make and receive calls, at least for now that's enough...
Drawing in black and white stage. About 22" high. India ink on watercolor paper. When an image is graphic, I try and include an area where things are extremely dense, to balance out. In this case, the waves.
Long long process of figuring out the color... in progress.......
Done!! Although there are many layers on my Photoshop, this one is considered simple, because of the graphic nature of the image. Some of my illustrations have like 50 layers...
I like how images feel a lot different between the cover and inside spread. July/August issue of Columbia Journalism Review is in newsstands now. 
back to Mexico! part 1
posted: July 28, 2010
When I said I was going to the city of Xalapa, taking 5 hour bus ride from Mexico City, a lot of my friends were concerned. Well, I have been there before and it was fantastic, and it is a beautiful college town surrounded by nature of cloud forest, and there is a great small design organization called Amarillo Centro de Diseño who has invited me back to have an exhibition and a four day workshop. So, why not? I took a lot of photos I want to share with fellow Drawgers and readers. I love Mexico so much I feel it is my duty to show the positive side of this country to Americans. I think I am making this post into two sections. To start, I am showing the process of the announcement poster. During last year's visit, I made a fake lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) poster. I wanted this to be something related. I recently adopted a 5 year old Chihuahua. Well, Chihuahuas are from Mexico... So, this time, theme was to make him into a superhero. And here it is... 
usually my illustrations all starts this loose. one of the thumbnails. 
this is the sketch. I didn't need to show the sketch to the client, so I kept this rather loose too. 
then, placing the sketch into the dummy layout. The left was the poster for last year, and I used the same banner and flower pattern to keep them as a series. 
ink drawing is finished. Late at night... and my model was completely bored... 
This was printed as silkscreen poster, so I made the original drawing into three color separations. Needless to say... Mexican flag color scheme. 
the silk screen poster is complete! placed onto Amarillo bulletin board.
And!
Here is where the fun starts! Amarillo people went into the night in Xalapa and posted them in the city, a-la- real lucha libre poster style! 
My lucha chihuahuas were then turned into a tote bag design (sold out) as well as banner at Amarillo to announce the show.
Well, this is it for now, and I will post some photos from the show and workshop soon.
Thank you for reading!
PS:
by the way, I have made the poster into computer wallpaper. It is on my site for free download during the period of the exhibit. If you are interested, please visit here. 
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