hooray for gold lamé!

2013 has already proven to be a very busy year indeed. I'm positive that I have done more to put myself and my art "out there" these last few weeks than I have done at all in the last few years. (And it's still only January!) As exhausting as it can be, I find that I'm enjoying the frenetic pace and I hope that it will lead me to a place where I can create full-time. Mmm, dreamy ruminations. But for now: arts!

I recently embarked on a collaboration with Matt Barry to illustrate his critical essays exploring the films of John Waters. The first in this series focuses on MONDO TRASHO (1969). This is a difficult film to pull a "defining scene" to illustrate because it's really more a string of bizarre vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative.  So, I decided to do a simple side-by-side of the film's two leading...er...ladies, Mary Vivian Pearce and Divine. Two things about this decision that made it a bit of a challenge: 1. caricatures are not necessarily my forte (they're, like, hard 'n stuff) and 2. Divine is not nearly as "Divine" in this film as she becomes later in her career. That said, I think it turned out to be a pretty successful experiment.  Here's the sketch:

And after some digital bedazzling:

Hooray for gold lamé! Stay tuned for the next installment.

mind the pocket square.

Tonight's meditative sketching seems to have produced one rather dapper lizard. To be fair, I did have a serpentine voice coaxing me earlier today. So that explains it?

Indian ink pen and pastels.

Media: The West Wing - S4E3

well, you can.

A little sketchbook inspiration for the day.

and how have you been?

Admit it, you thought that I was going to go all of 2012 without making a post, didn't you? You did. It's okay. I grant that it was looking rather bleak, but lo! Here we are. Reunited. And it feels so good. How have you been?

2012 has been an interesting year for me. It was a return to a medium that I really enjoy and yet is a complete departure from my usual work. This year I took a step back from illustration and got involved with film production via Matt Barry. Matt first asked me to "lend him my artistic eye" and act as videographer for THE SCAM in late January. I hadn't really done any film work since December/January of 2004/2005 when I traveled around Scotland filming Hannah Verlin dressed as a sea monster in search of her ancestral home. (I really wish I had a link to share but I cannot locate the correct photo album at this time. Use your imagination, but I guarantee the reality was better.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience and so I didn't hesitate when Matt asked if I might help him again on A SIMPLE MISUNDERSTANDING. The project was filmed in Maryland over the course of two weekends and while my work schedule didn't allow me to be there for the actual filming this time, I was able to lend a hand in post-production acting as Art Director. My first task was to create a promotional poster for the film:

Next up was creating the handwritten title design for the film:

Instead of having the end credits scroll up in a standard Arial font when the film fades to black, I wrote all of them out in the same style for a sense of continuity. My hand was so fatigued and achy by the end of the day that I no longer had to try in order to achieve that "scrawled" look.

You would think that writing, directing, and producing two short films on top of a full-time work schedule would be more than enough to keep one busy, but Matt wanted to add "starring in" to the list and so AFTERMATH was born. The shoot was a one man project as Matt had the dual task of acting and filming himself. I was keen to again help out with title design, using the bleak diary style narration to inspire an offset typewriter look:

So that was my 2012 year in film. Will 2013 be a year to get back to illustration or continue on with film design? Both? Perhaps. But first, let's see what tomorrow brings.

Media: "Smile (Pictures or It Didn't Happen)" - Amanda Palmer feat. The Grand Theft Orchestra

the end. again.

Like so many millions of people on this big blue marble in July of 2007, I was busy preparing myself to embark on the final chapter of a seven book journey.  Though I was quite excited to find out the fate of the Wizarding World (and to finally learn the answers to some rather burning questions *fingers crossed*), it was a bittersweet sort of exhilaration to know that this was it.  The end.  Almost.

Four years later, I find myself preparing to say goodbye once again as the film series for Harry Potter premieres its grand finale and I thought it might be fun to take a look back at how I bid adieu to the books.  This little sketch of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in "battle/Charlie's Angels mode" was done right before the release of the final book.  Enhanced with some digital painting, it was my little well-wish for the trio, whatever the outcome.

Good luck, yes, but I hear they're doing just fine.

Media: "Doc Pomus"- Ben Folds

birthdays, revisited.

As you may or (more likely) may not have noticed, it's just about time for my yearly check-in post. Make no mistake, I'm well aware of how disgustingly flabby this blog has gotten. Yes, I could promise to finally get my act together and maintain a robust and healthy art lifestyle, but this is merely my semi-annual smoke signal, not a New Year's resolution. So while we'll keep our fingers crossed that one day that artistic spark will once again ignite, let's not expect an inferno. Yes? Yes.

And so, to birthdays. Birthdays have been my primary inspiration as of late. First up was my nephew's first birthday and I wanted to give him a gift much like the one I had made for his sister a year and a half earlier. I could not find a similar three-panel frame, so I got three separate clear 8x10 frames with the intention of doing a like set. I finished the first watercolor panel, which is a baseball theme, but still have two sports left. I was pondering football and soccer. Basketball, maybe? My dad suggested lacrosse. Why not water polo or fencing while we're at it?

After the picture came the card, which I also decided to do in watercolor. Of course, I only have the sketch process for it. I decided to not traumatize the child too much and went with the rather benign-looking bear holding the cupcake as opposed to the weird dog, the mutant wombat-bear, or the blob in the top right-hand corner that may have been a bear at one point as well. I'm thinking I made the right decision.

Birthday #2 belonged to my friend/roommate. She likes owls. I like cute things. And really, who can argue with that?

Happy Birthday!

sleep is for people with time to kill.

If there is one thing I have learned in my life it's that insomnia yields some strange crops - and looky what I just harvested:

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, his effeteness, Lord Dandy-Fop!


Yeah, I have no idea either. All I can say is that he's an improvement over Sir Slouchy from the start of the evening . . . I think.

Well, it's 7:24 am, the sun is up and the trucks and buses are rumbling along their route outside my window. My day is done. Good night day all.

Media: "Bitch" - The Rolling Stones