Favorite Artist

Andy Warhol...love that flat, colorful silk screened look and he was such a successful marketer. Next up would be Sigmar Polk with his abstractions including fabric but retaining some clues to realism.

CINCINNATI ROLLERGIRLS VIDEO

Cincinnati Rollergirl "Sadistic Sadie"

Hi all. I just wanted to share with you the first video my production company, Plum St. Productions, LLC, created for our latest clients, the Cincinnati Rollergirls. We've got many more videos on the way.

Check it out HERE!

Discussion: Favorite or Most Influential Artist (On You as an Illustrator)

I am curious who are some the biggest inspirations to people who read this blog.

While it is hard to narrow it down to one, I will start off and say Francisco Goya is one of my favorite artists of all time.

Why? I love that he was basically a working illustrator who secretly did a ton of subversive, personal art about the hypocracy he saw around him (but kept it secret so not to upset the King and nobels who paid for his work). He had a varied and interesting range. From doing painted sketches and designs for tapestries to the "Disasters of War" series-what a facinating career!

Who are your favorites and biggest influences?

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

This is the portable brush with permanent ink cartridges that I showed at lunch on Wednesday.

Boy, are they hard to find.

Get one at Hyatt's Art Supplies for $17.

This appears to be the same product, available through Amazon.

Dick Blick art supplies is cheaper, but out of stock until March.

I love these things. Especially for on-the-scene sketching.

Illustrator/designer needed

Hi all,

It kills me to have to turn down this job, but I'm throwing it open to folks here to follow up if they'd be so inclined. The job is for a small local agency doing a limited edition print for Drake Hospital having to do with first responders - Fire, EMS and Police - in some sort of commemorative composition; the roll out for this will be an event featuring Rudy Giuliani sometime in May, so the deadline is of course a bit tighter than ideal. The three departments featured will represent the City of Cincinnati with some reference to local landmarks in the piece, and I can certainly help out with reference on fire and ems personnel, gear, vehicles etc and probably some cop stuff also. This could be a nice high-profile piece, but does not come with a corresponding great budget; they're interested in a donated piece but it sounds like there's probably some room to negotiate a fee. If you're interested, please contact Larry Davis at 513-385-3370 or harrisondavislar@fuse.net as soon as possible. Also feel free to give me a call at 513-248-1550 for further details. PS a design- or photo-oriented solution is not out of the question...they're open to ideas.

Thanks,
john

100 Awesome Open Source Tools

 

Here's a page I found that may be of interest to illustrators (and others) who need software: 100 Awesome Open Source Tools.

Although the page talks about writers and bloggers, it also has links to free, open-source graphic and Web design programs. "Gimp," for instance, does basically anything Photoshop can do.

"Open source," of course, means these programs are entirely legal to share and distribute.

I hope this is useful to somebody.

Work Cartoons

Work is apparently moving away from the illustrated look for its self-promotional stuff, which I honestly think is a good idea. Hopefully it just means I'll get to draw vector versions of a lot of this stuff again : ) Bring on the skulls icons!

But anyway, here are a couple of spot cartoons they've been using in the background for various presentations.

Life Drawing

Life drawing is essential to keeping up one's chops as an illustrator and I just found out about a new group meeting on Thursdays from fellow illustrators lunch regular Bruce Erikson.

Open Life Drawing at Xavier

Every Thursday (except for holidays, spring break and the summer) we have a model from 6-9PM. There is no model on March 4th which happens to fall during spring break or April 1st which is our Easter Break. We finish up on April 22nd.

We do one long three hour pose so that people can paint or sculpt as well as the customary sketch. Each session is $7 or $30 for all 12-13 for the whole semester.  Its pretty low-key, but lots of fun.

If anyone is interested in checking it out, drop me an email and I will send the maps that Bruce provided that show where the studio is on campus and where to park.

Other Life Drawing Opportunities

Manifest Gallery also offers open life drawing sessions. Chuck, Oliver and Paula have attended them and can perhaps give more details about the group and pose lengths.

Dr. Sketchy's is a life drawing group with themed poses and costumes, which is a fun change of pace. They are the 2nd Thursday each month at Leapin Lizard Gallery. The next one is March 11th from 8-11ish. You can get regular updates from the meetup site. Many of us have attended these as well and they are a lot of fun.

I know there are some other groups as well through the Art Academy and Cincinnati Art Club. If anyone wants to recommend a group, post it!

Just got back from helping judge the CCAD student show with Woody, Ryan, Darryl and Chris. Folks, we saw some awfully nice artwork today, and had some good discussion time. I wish I was able to post some of the pieces here - maybe Chris can at some point. I believe the opening is at the end of March.

Shepard Fairey Opening

Everyone may already be aware, but tonight at the CAC is the opening party of Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand, an exploration of his 20+ year career as a street and commercial artist.







Show is open through August 22 I believe, and is sure to be a pretty decent show.
OBEY

And simply because posts are more fun with art attached, here are some illustrations I did at work to label brand archetyping or in our case...Rocketyping.

Hi Everybody-
I've gotten interested in the area of art licensing, so I'm starting to learn what all that entails. This is an experiment using one of a series of silly birds that I've been drawing. I wanted to see what I could do with it in some sort of pattern. Just playing, but would like to hear critiques-I know there are imperfections in the corners-I haven't learned all the techniques yet. Also, have any of you worked in this area? Know anyone who is?

Thanks Christina - just went out and dug the paper out of the snow. The best thing about this poster was having the opportunity to collaborate with our own Chuck Rekow - great guy, excellent designer and consummate gentleman under pressure. He contributed the type & border design and color and the poster is by far the better for it...thanks, Chuck! I usually get vast amounts of these every year; the Heart Assoc. would be pleased to receive any contribution, and I would be pleased to deplete the number I have to store someplace.

I obviously can't figure out the formatting rules of this site, but I have to include a pic of Chuck's incredibly cute daughters and their field trip to Merten printing. It's set in stone - now that they've had that exposure to the magical aroma of ink & amp; solvent...meet two of the youngest graphic artists of the next generation:

Loomis Downloads

Don't know if anyone is interested, but I eat this stuff up.
Here's a link to pdf downloads of the Andrew Loomis books.

http://alexhays.com/loomis/

Press: Article about John Maggard and Mini-Marathon Poster

There is a nice article in the Cincinnati Enquirer by Lauren Bishop today about John Maggard's 30th Heart Association poster.

Hopefully John will post an image of the poster here (hint, hint). The article also includes a nice gallery of all the previous posters.

We have seen the some of the design process of this poster here on the blog with the comp.

Concept Sketch-Not So Nice Queen Marries Dubious King

Here is a concept sketch for a fairy tale personal project I am working on... More soon as it develops. I am a little obsessed with 18th century costume at the moment...

Visual Literacy Program

Has anyone subscribed to this program? I'm tempted to throw down for a month, but thought I'd see if anyone here had looked into it already. Sounds like it could be really educational.

John Maggard, Bill Cigliano, and Chris (CF) Payne

Here are some pics from the event for the group.
If you want my two cents or the links I posted head over to my blog.

http://wjh3.blogspot.com/

City Beat

Cover for City Beat this week. play on Rockwell’s “First Love” image for a story about older gay couples.

Thanks to my friend Woody for helping me brainstorm on this one on the fly.

It was initially oil and color pencil, scanned that, and finished digitally. I didn’t want to approach it as an imitation of Rockwell, because I simply would just not win that match. So, I stole his composition and tried to keep the posture of the two figures similarly. I also had to make some changes to make sure it looked like two men and not a man and a boy….that would be trouble.

So, I took a little of the “cute” out of it, so now it plays as simply a nod to Mr. Rockwell for those who are familiar with the image. And for those who aren’t, I still think it gets the message across in a fun way.

Ice and Snow

Something attractive on a frosty Friday.

Special Lunch This Week-February 17th

This Wednesday the 17th we are doing a special field trip lunch to see Bruce Erikson's work at the Xavier Faculty show in the University Art Gallery located in the A. B. Cohen Center.

More info: http://www.xavier.edu/campusuite/modules/news.cfm?news_id=7211&grp_id=20

We will meet at Betta's the usual time of 11:30 and head to the gallery afterward.

Hope to see you there!

12 Hours of Sebring

Just released this week is the official event poster for the 12 Hours of Sebring sportscar race in Florida, using my artwork for the 6th year running. If you fold it in half it also becomes their program cover, with foldout.

So, why all the green cars? The problem they have is getting the big teams to commit early to the race, and show us their planned paint schemes sometime in January, to be on the poster. As it happens those teams all had green cars.

Getting Over Him In 8 Songs or Less

This Sunday, February 14 at 7:30pm on HBO2 will be the premiere of Debra Solomon's film entitled "Getting Over Him In 8 Songs or Less," which DarcyVDesign contributed to. Debra is a highly creative director who is also responsible for bringing the animated Lizzie McGuire to life.


Here is a link to an interview of her at Movie Maker magazine:
http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/debra_solomon_getting_over_him_in_8_songs_or_less_20100201/

Enjoy, and don't forget to watch it!

Clients!!!!!!!! How to deal with them.

Found this great presentation on clients by UC's own Michael Bierut. Check it out!

http://visualambassador.com/2010/02/08/michael-bierut-on-clients/

Best Place to Get Quality Prints Made

Does anyone who reads this know a good place to get poster-size prints made?
On the topic, good places for postcards, smaller prints and other materials are also welcome. I get this question a lot.

Sketch...

Here's what I'm working on tonight...
This is the chosen sketch for an article on seeing disabled people in the workforce as an advantage rather than a burden. The woman in the illustration will be a portrait of the article's author--mother of two daughters with disabilities and avid speaker on the subject!

I'm starting this right after dinner :~)

Science, Medicine and Nature

The ongoing Zombie discourse has inspired me to post another chapter opener from "The Amazing Quiz Challenge".

In the end, the chapter's title was reduced to just "science", but when I started, I tried to think of funny ways to incorporate science, nature, and medicine in one reasonably simple drawing. I let myself be influenced by the understated approach of Gary Larson and the famous Muppet duo Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.

O.K. I admit it. It's a direct steal.

Zombie Hard Drive, or Hard Drive Failure

-- or, perhaps, Zombie Hard Drive.

I've got a Western Digital external hard drive: WD5000E035-00, to be precise. I use Windows XP on a Dell with a Pentium 4.

Overnight, the hard drive stopped working.

The little green light on the power cord keeps blinking. I replaced the USB cord with one that I know works, into a USB outlet that I know works. I plugged the hard drive into my wife's computer.

And yet neither the Device Manager, nor My Computer, recognizes that I even have a hard drive anymore.

What happened?

Zombie Paula!

Hello, all!

My first post here..... I just couldn't help myself! I want to be a zombie, too!
Brain burgers all around.

Cheers!

Just another zombie

O.K., O.K., here is my zombie portrait......David

Tim Fuller-Zombie Portrait

Since we have so many Zombie fans, here is our fearless leader and editor of 12-Way With Cheese. I know there is usually a head vampire, not sure what the head zombie is called. They do not seem to be very hierarchial.

CW-Zombie

Yes, my zombie portrait has a zombie cat... Cats often eat their owners when they are undead...

DC The Zombie

In response to Woody's plea to share your undead love... here is my zombie portrait for the 12 Way With Cheese Comic Anthology. After seeing Woody's zombiefied self-portrait, I feel the need to rent a testicle! I vow that my next zombie self-portrait will be a more worthy bad-ass version!

Amen.

Kid Friendly Image

Howdy All,

Just wrapped up my zombie bio pic image for the book.
Love to see what other people came up with.

W

Announcement: Blog List

I have added a list of individual blogs on the side bar.

If you want to be on this list, let me know and I will add it! (I know my blog is is sparce so far. I just started it to replace the "News" page on my website.)

Need critique of compositions

Hi Illustrators~

This is my first post to any blog ever, so bear with me, please.

Here are two collages I made from pieces of photos that I put together. I plan to use them as the sketches for two of the B & W marker illustrations I'm doing for the 2nd Shaker kid's book.

I'm especially interested in your suggestions for the first one, with the boy looking at his sketchbook while he's remembering the last sight he had of his mother. That's the part that's up above his head. It's supposed to look like a "vision" he's having of that night when his mother left the cabin to go with the man on horseback. But I think it might just look like somebody painted a mural on the back wall of the room he's in, and left the edges jaggedy. Any suggestions, please? Thanks! See you tomorrow, at lunch, I hope.

-Pam D

Press: Article in Soapbox Media about Local Illustrators

Cool article in this week's issue of Soapbox Media about Cincinnati's illustration scene.

Some of the illustrators covered are Darcy Voorhees, Ryan Ostrander (who did this excellent illustration for NKU and set up this blog), C.F. Payne, me and many others.

They even mention our blog in the article and the comics anthology many of us on the blog are involved in, 12-Way with Cheese.

Check it out!

Hey how romantic - an opening on Valentine's Day! This will be an exhibit of prints since it's in an open public area, but come on over if you like - we'll have plenty of beanie-weenies and Yoo-Hoo.

Announcement: Gallery Opening: Ursula Roma

Check out Ursula Roma's new show opening Friday, February 5th from 6-9 PM at 506 Wyoming Avenue.

There are more details here on the A. R. T. News blog.