Above, a spot illustration for the Chronicle over the weekend. They are entering what they call their ‘paperless summer’ and this is one of those ‘internet only’ illustrations.
Below is a sample illustration for a possible project for the same publisher of last year’s ‘literary paper dolls’. This may be a bit more challenging than last year’s book, but may keep me busy for a few months in the summer.
Month: May 2011
The Talk
comics, Freaks of Nurture Comics
I finished up the latest comics in a series that I’ve been working on, sporadically, since last summer. These are written with a friend, who runs an autobiographical essay blog entitled ‘Freaks of Nurture’, and the first ten or so that we did were written directly for the medium, and those had more of a traditional ‘set up and punchline’ format that I found rather stifling and ultimately predictable. I’ve taken a different tack with these past two efforts, adapting some of his previous essays instead, and have been a bit more pleased with the results. This one concerns a ‘sex ed talk’ that he recalls with his stepfather. (You can click on each image to see a larger, easier to read version)
I also, for the same site, occasionally provide simple illustrations for new essays, and the one below I did last weekend for a mother’s day story.
Research Spots
ChronicleHE
Earlier this week, I did a series of small spots for an upcoming article in the Chronicle. These are to accompany an article about an academic researcher.
Summer is on the Way
Barrons, Jukejoint Handmedowns, music, Self Promotion
A little under 9 months until my 50th birthday. I promised myself years ago that I would consider the idea of getting a tattoo at that milestone in my life. The only problem, especially with designing it myself, is the fact that I tend to get real tired of looking at my own work after a short period of time, and I have yet to find a tattoo artist with whom I have complete confidence to permanently mark up my derma layer.
I’ve long been a fan of the retro tattoo designs, especially the ‘sailor jerry’ type, and I’m pretty sure it will be some sort of ‘pin up girl’, so I worked up a design this afternoon of which I’m kind of fond (for now). (Apologies to the legendary Gil Elvren from which I appropriated the pin up girl pose)
I have a very talented niece, who just turned 17, who is interested in becoming a tattoo artist, and she’s been doing some experimenting with henna tattoos recently, so I thought I’d give her a chance to give me a temporary one as a ‘test run’. I’ve been playing upright bass with a country/western group over the past year, and thought it might be a good ‘look’ for some of our street corner performances, if I got something like the black and white version below, on my forearm.
And, just to show I’m not completely goofing off this week, I had a job for Barrons that I finished up yesterday, with a ‘summer theme’.
