Continuing to render each of the 44 United States Presidential portraits for an upcoming wooden toy block project, as a way of planning ahead, and, at the very least, pad my back catalog, whilst the summer slow season slowly ambles along. My favorite so far, has to be Martin Van Buren (pictured above). What a great face, and hairdo!
Also, had another of those ‘health care spots’ for the Wall Street Journal on Monday (pictured below).
Month: June 2009
June Isn’t Exactly Busting Out All Over
ChronicleHE, Far East Economic Review, Uncle Goose Toys
Work this month continues to trickle in very slowly. The above piece was on an environmental topic for the Far Eastern Economic Review this past weekend, and below was a Chronicle of Higher Education editorial illustration about special needs students that I did early last week.
With all the down time, I’ve started to get a head start on some of the upcoming projects that are currently ‘on hold’, such as the series of ‘presidential portraits’ for a local toy manufacturer (with 44 of these things to do, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few in reserve, and even if the project never quite gets off the ground, these aren’t bad to have in my back catalog..) – pictured below, Madison (#4), Monroe (#5) and Adams (#6)
Woody Guthrie Show
personal
This spring, my wife talked me into auditioning for a local theater group’s production of ‘Woody Guthrie’s American Song’. My son was selected to play the role of the youngest incarnation of ‘Woody’, and a few weeks later I got a call asking if I wanted to join the cast, in the capacity of ‘high tenor’ and all around utility infielder. I’m playing a lot of guitar, a little bit of upright bass, singing a lot of high harmony, and playing Cisco Houston in the show. It’s been an interesting experience so far, and the cast is a nice group of people. The show runs from July 9 through the 19th, and in conjunction, I’ve designed a logo for a tee shirt design (pictured above). I may change a few things yet on the design (I may redo the boxcars and the figure atop them, and I need to add an apostrophe at one point in the lettering), and I may do another ‘color’ version of this for coffee mug purposes. I may also finish up one of the alternate ideas I had for the shirt, just because I enjoy drawing portraits (pictured below)
ADDENDUM: A bit later, I went back into it, and did a few minor tweaks here and there in the design, and I was also asked to do a color version for usage on coffee mugs, and that version is pictured below:
Book Project
Baker Book House
This month I finished up a series of six illustrations for Baker Books. This was for a student edition of a popular inspirational bestseller. Nice to work in black and white again for a change of pace, and I also attempted with this project, to try and work a little ‘looser’ as a way of keeping issues regarding likenesses and technical accuracy details to a minmum, and also to create a consistent overall ‘look’ to the series.
Summer Doldrums
Far East Economic Review, WSJ
Been kind of quiet the past few weeks, with a job here and a job there, and one larger book project with a long deadline (which I’ll probably end up finishing about a month early). A couple large projects expected to come in over the next few weeks, so I’m not in panic mode yet, but will probably send out a few promo postcards to shake the bushes this summer.
The job above was an illustration for the Wall Street Journal last week, and below is another one for the same client. One of the ‘health care spots’ that I do every other week for a column called “Aches & Claims”.
Last weekend, I also had another cover illustration for my Hong Kong client, this one having to do with the situation in Thailand. I usually give this client the separate illustration components in layers so they have a bit more freedom with their cover layout, which usually has to include a certain amount of text, which was a good thing in this instance since I had to do a little last minute adjustments to the boxers due to a cultural taboo regarding the soles of the feet.
Below is another illustration for the Wall Street Journal that I did this week, regarding the hopeful signs that the economy is recovering, combined with the sad fact that the job market probably won’t be improving for a while yet.
