Will Hillenbrand's New Book: Spring is Here

This is the flyer from Will's New Book Spring is Here. Hopefully signings will be happening soon around town! Looks like a great book!

Bike Stickers

Here are some more sketches and stickers for toddler bike helmets. No time for reference or too much refinement. The dog linework has some wonky lines, and things, but I thought I would upload anyway cuz they were fun to do. I'm partial to the bees though : )

You Call This Cincinnati Football?

Bungled.

Many thanks to Brian Hagen's tiger.

Dr. Sketchy February Viking Session

For those that couldn't make it out to Dr. Sketchy this month. I thought I would post some pictures I took from last Thursday. The poses were great, so I thought some of you would might like to see them to use as references if you like.
Enjoy!!

~Brennan

New Map

Hey, guys, here's a new map I just finished.

2012 World Choir Games Mascot Design Contest

Only 5 days left for submissions on this but the World Choir Games are in Cincinnati this year and they are looking for a Mascot.

The 7^th World Choir Games, the largest international choral festival and competition in the world, is coming to Cincinnati USA in July 2012. And the search is on for a fun, personable mascot to be an ambassador for the Games, create excitement and maybe even end up on a T-shirt or two.

• First place, $500
• Second place, $250
• Third place, $100
• Spirit Award, $100 retail value in World Choir Games merchandise
• Creativity Award, $75 retail value in WCG merchandise
• Selection Panel pick, $50 retail value in WCG merchandise

More Here

Intersting Topic: Illustration Textbook?

This blog entry on Gurney Journey caught my eye: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-is-there-no-illustration-history.html

Why are there no Illustration Textbooks? Why is illustration pretty much left out of art history books? (Especially in coverage of the 20th century?)

What do you all who teach illustration think?

World Fire Sculpture Competition results

Here are the results of the World Fire Sculpture Competition in Estonia. All the teams created the first sculpture in blizzard conditions. It was very harsh and when the sculptures were lit - it was snowing so hard that the flames were almost completely horizontal. I was lucky that my gear held up to the conditions and we finished building the piece in the time allowed. I posted a photo of the gear that I wore. Gunnar, who has built rooms in the Ice Hotel in Sweden had mentioned that if I could work under those conditions then I could work anywhere - like the arctic.

We felt lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the final competition. However we did not win any of the prizes. First place was Lithuania, second place was Latvia and third place was Estonia.

You can see some video of the burns that I videotaped at this link:

http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/hartz.html

You can also read another article about the competition here at Soapbox Media:

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/0201davidhartzplayswithfire.aspx

Wow - it seems like forever since I've checked in here - some terrific pieces that I've got to go back and spend some time with after I get out from under some assignments. Meanwhile, check out the great poster that Chris came up with for the Mini-Marathin this year:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110210/ENT07/102100328/Payne-creates-mini-marathon-poster?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Entertainment

he was kind enough to fit it into his crowded schedule on very short notice, and hit another home run, as usual! Hope everyone is staying warm and I hope to get back to being a more active participant here soon...

John

World Choir Games

The World Choir Games are coming to Cincinnati. Vehr Communications is handling all of their press. My former editor at the Enquirer, Michael Perry, now works at Vehr, and is trying to enlist the aid of artists to create a mascot for the games. He's asked me to pass this along. If interested, visit http://cincinnati.com/blogs/wcg2012/contest/

Webcomic

The guys I've been working for have started posting pages of the webcomic I've been working on. Visit carpechaos.com and click on Door to Door on the left to check it out. They'll be uploading a page nearly every day for a while. There are about 5 pages of straight up sequentials and then it changes modes to a bit more like an encyclopedia.

Anyways working on a ton of stuff. Hope to be able to announce more of it soon.

Lunch

Hey, guys. I hope you guys are having an awesome lunch :) I can't make it, even though it's at one of my favourate locations :( I would feel badly if I missed for laziness reasons, but I have a LOT of commissions that came in all at once. So, I need to crank, like crazy. I hope you guys are having a great time :) Sorry I couldn't make it. Someone order and enjoy the chicken fingers for me! :P

Mark Willenbrink: Watercolor Classes at Tri County Hobby Lobby

Mark is teaching a Monday Night Watercolor Art Class

beginning Monday, February 14th

5:30-7:30pm

5 weeks for $75

Tri County Hobby Lobby

Happy Chinese New Year!

This is a detail from a two-color interior illustration for the Reader's Digest book, The Smartest, Funniest, Dumbest Things Ever Said. I've posted the full 2-page spread on my blog, along with a bit of backstory and several preliminary sketches.

I hope to post a bit more from this project later.

Some old stickers

I was looking through some old files and came across this sticker sheet (1 of 10) for a Scholastic project. Lice are surprisingly fun to draw. I think I had drawn krill (And carpenter ants for that matter) for various publications a dozen times, various sizes. Maybe I will get to draw bedbugs soon since they are all the fashion.

David Mack: Talk at PAC Gallery

Artist Talk: David Mack
PAC Gallery
Saturday February 5th,
5-7pm
Artist Discussion starts at 6pm
2540 Woodburn Ave

Come for an evening with David Mack for an open discussion about his recent and past work.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196512627031477

Mike Maydak: Show Opening at The Flying Cat

Mike Maydak has 17 new paintings at this show in Covington at The Flying Cat.
 
Opening is Friday, February 4th, 6-10 pm.
 
Check it out!

Illustrators Lunch February 2nd Cancelled

Lunch at Grand Ole Pub is cancelled due to icy weather. Will reschedule soon...

Next week will be Downtown-either Le Boxx or Washingto Platform... Vote!