The New York Times!

Woo! I reached a milestone in my freelance career, I got a piece into the New York Times! I was in yesterday's sunday business section, and it was extra-cool because Sam got a piece in the same section, on the same day! (plus a bunch of other illustrators I admire were in the Sunday edition too. Awesome!)
Big thanks to AD Minh Uong!

The article I illustrated was about how doing volunteer work after graduation can actually lead to new jobs and opportunities. You can read it online here!

Sketches:

Final:

Yay!

The Walrus

I recently had the honor of illustrating the May cover of The Walrus magazine! (for my fellow Americans that may not know-- it's basically the Canadian equivalent of the New Yorker/Atlantic Monthly/Harpers.) Coincidentally for the May issue, the cover story was about Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party in Canada and the sole Green Party Member of Parliament. Big thanks to AD Brian Morgan! I absolutely love how the cover text came out.

I really enjoyed learning about Ms. May, she's an incredibly smart, capable woman, but as an independent in parliament she's got all the chips stacked against her. For the cover, they wanted Ms. May standing up & speaking from her actual seat in the far corner of the Parliament, up against the yellow curtained wall. Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" was cited as as a good inspiration:

Since I was given a pretty specific idea for the cover, it seemed like just a matter of putting everything together in a pleasing way. I sent this sketch to Brian, and we kept building from there:

This was generally fine, but Ms. May needed to be at her desk, right against the wall. When looking through photos, I noticed Ms. May often gestures while speaking and wanted to include that.

Reworked to better show Ms. May's actual Parliamentary location & the MPs around her

I felt the image needed some warming, and Brian said I needed to adjust the likeness.

This likeness got closer, and I started adding in the specific MPs around Ms. May (and warming things up even more)

It seemed like there was some drama/color missing, so I added a shadow.

Tightening things up, and making the image more graphic. (I used a hard light layer overlay on the shadows for more saturated colors)

The final image, all cleaned up with some subtle texture on top!

I don't do too many likenesses, but this was a fun (and informative!) challenge, and I'm proud to be featured on the Walrus cover. I wish Ms. May all the best, and hope she likes her portrait!

Pokemon Battle Royale!

The Pokémon Battle Royale show at Light Grey Art Lab opens this friday! Here's my Drowzee! (who I kept on my Leaf Green team almost solely because I loved the noise he made)

Apparently Drowzee is based on the looks & psychic powers of the Japanese Baku spirit: a dream-devouring tapir-like creature. Spooky! I wanted to show Drowzee in more of an environment, and although Drowzee is a primarily a grassland pokemon he is also sometimes found in ancient ruins and tombs. Paying homage to Drowzee's scarier mythological counterpart in a crumbling temple seemed appropriate!

I have a limited edition of 15 prints for sale at the show. I wish I could go, There's gonna be so much fun art from 151+ (!) amazing contributors. Check it out if you're nearby!

The Dead of Winter

Did you ever read Nancy Drew? When I was a young'un I looooved reading about her teenage detective adventures. The pulp-y covers always juxtaposed Nancy with a precarious situation or mysterious 'spooky' objects, but they had the desired effect of prompting kid-Kali to find out WHAT was "The Secret of the Forgotten City"?!

WHO was "The Invisible Intruder"?!

And what the HECK is with "The Crooked Banister"?!

I love looking at the word & image interaction in book covers and old posters, and thought it'd be fun to create my own mystery novel cover for an imaginary heroine.

Here's hoping that someday I get to make a real one! Kudos to Sam for helping me think of a title that had just the right amount of pun, and to Andrea for giving me a fresh set of (smart) eyes!

Liberal Arts trap?

Another recent illustration for the Boston Globe-- this time for an article by a Masters in Music Composition postgraduate about his struggles finding jobs that relate to his major. Thanks again to AD Ryan Huddle!

 He writes that the whole major was a sort of pyramid scheme: there was no music composition positions he could go into upon graduation other than teaching music composition to the next round of students. He also added that liberal arts majors might be better served in other more directly applicable fields like science, technology, and math.

The article was interesting to me, as a fellow liberal arts graduate (and teacher!). There's definite pros and cons to choosing a career you're passionate about, but that may not hold as much monetary promise as other careers. (though I have no regrets) However, as difficult as the illustration field can be, it seems like there's a lot more jobs in visual arts than music composition, so it's not quite the same situation.

Sketches:

Color test--I actually kinda like his figure here, I just realized:

Bonus-- I just looked up a photo of the writer, Adam Ragusea, and was delighted to find that my illustration actually appears pretty similar! I had no idea! I guess my imagined image of a music composition major fits pretty well with the real thing.

Ship Ahoy!

My contribution to Jimmy Giegerich's Bits in Multiples of 8 videogame zine! As a kid I never owned a gameboy, N64, or any other game system, so all my exposure came through friends or as an adult. I'm late to the party and just started playing Pokémon Leaf Green this year, but I love the idea of little kids off adventuring in a magical/cute/dangerous world.
And yes, I know that Wingulls aren't in Leaf Green, but they are way too cute not to include!

Also, I think I will always be a fan of doofy-looking pokémon. Just keep splashing, Magikarp, someday you'll be a Gyarados!

The kids are alright!

Hey, how about some young, stylish people having fun?

This is a recent piece for a short essay in Philadelphia Magazine about how, despite increased unemployment, not all young people are unemployed and scrounging for money. Some have jobs, nice apartments, spending money for a night out, and are doing A-OK!
Thanks to AD Colin McSherry for this light, fun assignment.

 I will always enjoy drawing nice apartments and fashionable people! For this piece I just had to make sure that they weren't toooo nice, and still looked affordable for people in their 20's/30's. (though I wish I had that orange moto jacket, or the hunk's cardigan...)

Sketches:

Plus, lime yellow & pink. My new favorite color combo! I can't get enough of it. Expect more pinks from me in future posts!