BABIES. And pregnant ladies.

Things have been pretty darn busy over here, teaching started at MICA again (I'm teaching Intro to Illustration for freshmen this semester!)and I've had a lot of fun projects that have kept me frantically working away into the nights. (needless to say, that's contributed to some stress) NEVERTHELESS It's time for me to cowboy up and share some of the rest of this work backlog I'm accumulating, and try and keep up a regular blog schedule again.

Thus: pregnant ladies. A while back I did a feature and 2 spots for Pregnancy magazine about celebrity pregnancies and how they set a vastly unrealistic image for post-pregnancy weight loss. Having never been pregnant, it was interesting for me to hear about realistic and unrealistic expectations...it can take a year (or more) for new mothers to lose their pregnancy weight, but there's all these stories about celebrity moms getting back into their swimsuits in a couple months. You don't think about how these celebrities have nannies to watch over their kids and chefs to cook them healthy meals and fitness trainers to customize workouts for them, etc. etc.
The opening image is a generic celebrity mom looking slim and luxe and carefree.
Sketch (I used a spot in Rodeo Drive as ref for the background):

Final (My AD suggested the paparazzos!):

The spots are of a new mom trying to fit into her old jeans, and later accepting her body and just enjoying the time she's spending with her baby.
Sketches:

Finals:

Thanks for looking! & thanks to Robert at Pregnancy Magazine!

Skulls in the Woods

Yikes! I have a backlog of work to show, and summer working/munching/reading/relaxing has slowed me down! Time to get crackin'. Without further ado, here's the image I created for the Humboldt Roller Derby 2010 program cover and bout poster, all the way out in California!


They wanted me a full-body illustration of their lovely logo lady wearing the team colors (army green/gold/white):


Since they're the Redwood Rollers, I figured I'd give a nod to their forest sentinels with the twig & tree motif. I treated this more as a pinup than a scene, since it was to be used for the 2010 program cover & I thought it should be more symbolic. Drawing kick-ass ladies is always enjoyable, and with Roller Derby I feel like I have to hit a balancing point between toughness, sexiness, and originality that can be kind of tricky to find!

Animal People & Bonus bogus logos

So! Getting back on the wagon train, I have a comic I did for Muse Magazine & the wonderful John Sandford! Muse sometimes has a 4 page myth-based comic (I previously did Hercules and the 12 labors for them) and John came to me with an Okanagan myth from the Pacific Northwest. The premise of the myth is about how the Great Spirit names all the animal people--they all have to come to his great lodge the next morning and pick their names, first come first served, and The Great Spirit will give each a job to do. Coyote is a trickster, and he schemes to stay up all night and be the first to receive his name (something grand like GRIZZLY BEAR or EAGLE) but all his scheming just causes him to sleep in and be the last to arrive. He is left with the name of Coyote, but also given the job of protecting the people of earth.

John suggested the totem-pole-like style, and I got to hand-letter the title as well!



ALSO, a while back I did a little piece for Inside Counsel magazine. It's a magazine for lawyers and people in the law department, and the article was about how campaign finance reform is changing & companies are now allowed to back political candidates. I thought of Nascar suits and all the advertising that gets crammed onto them, and applied the same principle to business suits. I had a fun time finding red-based logos and blue-based logos, and then twisting the names around so I didn't infringe on any copyrights. (Gatorate and Kol-Aid are some of my favorites) See how many you can recognize!!

Faux-logos always remind me of the awesome DVNO music video by Justice, enjoy!

More Sketchbook

Hey guys! I'll get back to posting more finished work shortly, but I did these sketchbook pages over the last couple of days and figured I'd share them too. Like I said before, I'm trying to use my sketchbook more, and I think the trick is to get colored pencils involved in the situation...immediately more fun for me! Maybe it hearkens back to my childhood, plus it's fun to play with colors!

So, we've got a girl and her moth pet, because moths and girls are cool:

And a vaguely Mr. Darcy-ish man striding about with a tittering companion, plus a misty lady in her garden.

I suppose all these things stem from me currently reading the Song of Fire and Ice series (courtly-things, medievaly) and listening to the Harry Potter audio books while working (precocious youngsters and magic!). Yup, there you go. Despite what my editorial work may say to the contrary, I am a nerd who enjoys medieval adventure and magic kids.

You're such a prat Ron

So, not only have I been listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks while I work, but I bought the most recent Harry Potter movie from Blockbuster's store-closing sale. Yes, it's safe to say there's a Maximus of Magicus going around here, or whatever latin J.K. Rowling would translate that into. Sam and I watched the movie tonight, and I did some silly sketches during it. I don't show a lot of my non-professional work on this blog, and it's about time to start! Now you can see all the stupid drawings I do to make myself giggle.

Ron is just the saddest and goofiest character. Harry is the orphaned hero, Hermione is the "brightest witch of her age" (or so the author keeps reminding us) and Ron just blunders through everything getting the wrong idea and wearing sweaters with his initial on it. My salute to Ron.

Butter Beer looks delicious in this movie! Even Ron gets a mug (and a wonk hand)

For those who know Sam and/or would like to try and decipher my handwriting, I took quick note of some of our moviewatching experience. Sam is always ready with a snappy comeback, even when a movie is just going about its business.

Enjoy!

Carbo OVERLOAD

Hey guys! Who doesn’t love food?! I love being an illustrator, but cooking has been one of my new favorite hobbies, probably second only to eating. I recently got to do a piece for the Vegetarian Times, and I did a write-up on it for The Loud Cloud too! (it has all the same info as here, but its laid out nicer, hehe)

I don’t often get a chance to draw delectable dishes for an assignment, so I was excited to try my hand at this one! The article, “Carbs Demystified,” includes a lot of technical information about carbohydrates—good carbs vs. bad carbs, glycemic load, glycemic index, and net carbs. Part of the great thing about being an illustrator is that you learn a myriad of interesting facts from the articles you’re assigned (sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes, despite their name!) but sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what the focus of the image needs to be. The A.D. on this story, Scott Hyers, helped me out by specifying that the illustration shouldn’t get into the technical info or define good or bad, but instead should just show a general choice between foods.

As someone who will spend 15 minutes deciding what type of cookie to eat, I understand the overwhelmingness of choice. Since there are amounts of carbohydrates in every food group, I figured a diverse representation of food would be the best way to go for my sketches. The food had to be all vegetarian, of course. I know there are different levels of strictness in people’s diets, so I checked with Scott to make sure I wouldn’t be in the red if I included egg or dairy products.

While sketching, I enlisted the help of my trusty cookbooks for some examples of tasty-looking dishes. I admit to being biased—all the food I sketched happens to be food I enjoy eating too! I liked the idea of a traveler finding his way through a jungle of food, and also tried some other approaches, like catching whatever meal you want on your plate. In the end the gastronomical explorer was chosen, and I set to work!

Throughout the project, I looked at my childhood doodles for inspiration. I’ve had a huge sweet tooth my entire life, and one of my go-to drawing subjects as a kid were various types of desserts. I was excited about bringing together kid-Kali and adult-Kali in one illustration! I remember drippy chocolate-glazed cakes and fruity cupcakes were some of my favorite scribbles to do, so I made sure to include an updated version of each in my final illustration.

Any time I deal with a lot of objects in one illustration, coming up with a solid color scheme is extra-important so all the objects don’t look too cluttered or disconnected. Colors like red, orange, yellow, and green have been shown to trigger hunger, and I wanted to go with a bright, summery feel. It took me a while to balance all the different food colors, but in the end I was pleased with the results. All in all a very satisfying project, with the only downside of making me perpetually hungry!

Sabriel Posts & the "God Molecule"

Hey guys! Wow, I've gotten a bunch of comments on my most recent Sabriel post! Thank you, I really appreciate all your thoughts and support--as I've said before, none of us at the Picture Book Report are getting paid for our work on this project, so hearing from you guys really makes it all worthwhile. I got a request to make it easier to find all the other Sabriel posts, so now if you scroll down the column on the right side of the page, you will find a section named "Labels" with a handy link to all the Sabriel posts! (I'm considering labeling all my other posts too, for easy browsing)

Okay! So it's way past time for me to get back to posting weekly pieces, right? The past month of so I was in a bit of a slump--feeling creatively burned out, wondering where my illustration/life/future is going, and having some mild health problems that just sort of added to the bad vibes. It seems common in creative-types to cycle between these on-and-off times. Resting and focusing on non-art pursuits (cooking! exercise! reading!) seems to have done the trick and I'm feeling better now and ready to go!

So, to put you in a good mood for the weekend, here's 2 spreads that accompanied an article about dying! ;P It was actually a pretty cool assignment from Tom Kachadurian, a great AD at Spirituality and Health magazine. The article talked about the use of a psychedelic drug, nicknamed the "God Molecule", to help people with terminal illnesses deal with their eventual death. Apparently the drug induces a hallucinogenic state where you feel totally at one with the universe and a higher power, as if you had died already, so the participants don't feel as scared of actual death anymore. Tom wanted to go for a swirly psychedelic look without getting too much of a 60's/70's vibe, and I wanted something calming and epic for such an intense experience.

My thoughts went to a galactic-type feel...like the participant is floating through the universe. It was a double-page spread, so I tried some different views with rich blues, whites and red/oranges (that I ended up combining in the end). I also tried an overlay of the human nervous system (approximate, at least), but Tom thought it looked a little too scary and skeletal.

I tried both a closeup and expanded view. With the expanded you get more of the calming, floating feel because you can see more of the body. I kind of like the head sketch on its own, but it does feel a more creepy than calming!

So, we end up with a space-goddess, with some swirling energy and a burst of enlightenment! I remember watching an X-files episode with aliens in it while working on this assignment. I wonder if there was some subliminal influence... Swirly marks come really easily to me, but once I go crazy with them I have refine a bit to ensure there isn't a distracting amount of swirls or strands or colors! I tried to go for a more watery look, like ripples and eddies of energy.


In addition to doing the space-goddess spread, I also did some edging on the following two pages. I actually really like the spread I created for these pages, it's simple but I spent a while balancing everything.


I hope you like 'em! Thanks to Tom Kachadurian at Spirituality & Health!