Monday, August 16, 2010

Illostribute - John Held Jr



Here is my next submission for the collaborative illustration blog Illostribute.com . The idea is to honor master illustrators and fine artists by investigating their work, through interpretation. After researching the chosen artists work, each contributing illustrator is to respond by creating their own piece of art, inspired by the work of the referenced artist.

The second master illustrator that was selected for this project was the ever inspiring John held Jr. His work is fun and timeless, and you can read more about him HERE , and below I've posted a few of his pieces which I referenced for my inspired painting.



In referencing John Held Jr's work, I fell in love with his simple use of shape, space, character and story. I love the way he focuses on illustrating what's important to the illustration, while removing everything that is un-necessary from the concept. A perfect example is his piece with the kids playing miniature golf. Only the kids, golf clubs, and graphic sections of the putting green are illustrated, and everything else in the scene is left out. Graphically I find this to be a really bold and interesting way of depicting such a scene, and that's what I found my self inspired by.

In my piece I started with two simple rectangles, one yellow, and one brown. Adding the window, the checkered boxes, and the two red dots on the yellow rectangle on the left, helped me convert an otherwise boring yellow space into a graphic and stylized representation of a taxi cab. Adding in the characters to the piece now tells the story of a man in a taxi cab pulling up next to a lady walking down the street. Finally I played on the way the old "Life" magazines often referenced the word "Number" in their title for each issue. In the few I looked at, the titles read "Radio Number" & "Automobile Number," so to help sell the concept of my piece, I titled mine "Getting Her Number" as a reference to what the man in the taxi cab's reason was for approaching the woman on the street.

Getting Her Number
6" x 8"
Digital
2010
Piece inspired by John Held Jr.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Yeti Swap


One of my favorite artists / designers working today is Don Clark, half of the amazing Clark duo that makes up the awesome Seattle based Invisible Creature Design/Illustrations Shop. If you are in need of some inspiration and would like to see some awesome design work, swing by and check out their killer site.

As for the trade, a long time ago, Don and I decided that because we both share an equal love for the Legendary Ice Beast that is the Yeti, that we would partake in a ceremonial trading of the Yeti's. Below you can see my contribution to the swap on the left, and on the right, is Don's Bad Ass contribution to the trade, which hangs proudly in my home studio.

My concept for the trade was simply letting the Yeti and some of his cold weather friends take a bit of a break from the snow to enjoy some drinks and much needed sunshine.

Next Year - Swap of the Sasquatch! Can't wait.

A closer look

Don's Yeti:
Freddy Mushyeti
17" x 23"
Digital
2010




My Yeti:
A Break from the Snow
10" x 16"
Acrylic & Paper Collage
2010

I'm featured on WIRED in Italy



A little while back, the Italian branch of the magazine WIRED asked me if they could post some of my work in one of their online artist galleries. The artists they are showcasing are pretty diverse, so it's a cool place to see a wide range of work. Here is the LINK to see the work, and since I don't speak Italian, I'm not really sure what they are saying about it, hopefully it's good.

The piece above:
3-Desire The Night
featured in the Ancient Book of Sex And Science
Acrylic & Paper Collage
2009

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Good Cop , Bad Cop



Just a little painting for a little fun!

Good Cop, Bad Cop
Acrylic & Paper Collage
5" x 5"
2010