A few illustration projects from this week. The one above was another fiction assignment from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. This was my first national client way back in 1989 (I can still remember that first image, one of my first attempts at scratchboard, of an ice fishing shanty in the middle of a frozen lake), and I’ve been working for them pretty steadily for the past 20 years, through several personnel changes.
Below is a cover illustration for a Jewish magazine out of the Detroit area. Did this one in a bit more of a painterly style.
And then, wrapping up the week, I also had a series of small ‘umpire’ spots for Highlights magazine.
Kind of slowing down here at the end of March, and I’ll probably take advantage of the lull by doing a bit more advertising and self promotion.
Month: March 2010
Fun and Games
Sorsamo Games
I’ve been mentioning over the past month how I’ve been working on a large board game project for a client in Helsinki, and now I’m finally ready to share a sampling of the work that’s been monopolizing most of my time over the past six weeks or so. This is another board game for the same client I’ve done 3 other projects for over the past few years, a sort of ‘companion piece’ to the ‘Epäillyt’ Helsinki mystery game that I did last year. Also set in the same city (but around 1950 during a time when the Olympics were held there), but this one features a ‘marketplace’ theme where you try to set up different booths in the public square and compete for customers. Above is the box layout with the front cover and sides (you can click on the image above to see a larger more detailed version), and below is what the board looks like (again, you can click on the image to see a larger version).
In addition to the board and box, there were also many cards and tiles to develop, and I’ve posted a small sampling of these below. There were 6 different color coded ‘booths’ and various cards and tiles related to gameplay.
Something Fishy
Uncle Goose Toys
Been doing a lot of game/toy work over the past month. The samples above and below are for a series of ‘Aquatic blocks’ for a local wooden toy block manufacturer. I did a similar series of ‘Bugs’ blocks last summer, and I may be doing another series of these in the coming months on another subject. I’ll post a link to where these can be purchased once they’ve hit the market. They make great gifts for youngsters.
I’m getting very near the finish line on the overseas board game project, and will post samples soon (and there’s a lot of them).
Other work
ChronicleHE, WSJ
Besides a big board game project that’s been monopolizing a lot of my time this past month (and for which I’ll have some samples to post, probably next week), I’ve also had other quicker turnaround pieces come across my desk the past week. The above illustration was one that I completed Tuesday for the Chronicle, and the illustration below was one that I did for the Wall Street Journal last weekend (they actually ended up using a simpler version of it with the background color removed).
Oscar Poster 2010 – Now in 3-D!
Oscar Poster
(update March 6) Down to the wire, with the oscar party at my brother’s restaurant less than two days away, and I’ve finally finished the black and white version of this year’s oscar caricature poster. A bit of a crowded mess this year, with ten nominations, but finally managed to crowd everything in. I’ll be spending part of the day on Saturday working up the 3D version, and hopefully can get it printed in time to take with us to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. (my order of 3D glasses came in the mail earlier this week, so I’ll have several pairs to bring with me)
Every year on ‘Oscar Night’ my brother in Chicago hosts an ‘awards party’, and for the past 6 years I’ve been doing a commemorative ‘caricature poster’ to present as a gift. This year, with all the fuss about the new ‘3D’ process utilized in the film ‘Avatar’, I thought I’d try my hand at a 3-D oscar poster this year (of course this meant tracking down some special glasses for viewing it). Above is the 3D version of the black and white art. (You’ll need a pair of the ‘old fashioned 3D glasses’ to view it – (Red cellophane over the left eye and Blue over the right eye). You can click on either image above to get a larger detailed view.
The finished poster is approximately 14 x 16 printed on an 18 x 24 sheet of quality paper.
You can see all the rest of the posters in this series under the ‘portfolio’ section of the menubar.