Month: June 2011

Days 19 through 22

comics, Freaks of Nurture Comics, National Geographic

Day Nineteen:


Today’s drawings are a couple rough sketches for an upcoming project for a west coast client. I had done a rather large project for them about two years ago, and hadn’t heard anything since, but then got a call out of the blue from them a couple weeks ago (turns out they are riding out the recession like a lot of folks, cutting back and scaling down, and have only just recently began assigning work again). There will be more to this project later, but for now, this is what I’ve been given the green light on.

Day Twenty:


Spent a lot of today working on rough sketches for upcoming projects, so along that vein, today’s illustration is more along the lines of a ‘quick sketch’.

Day Twenty One:



Today I started laying out the next comic feature for the ‘Freaks of Nurture’ project (and began the finished artwork, sample panel above). This one is a departure of sorts from the previous ones, where I’m adapting a ‘story’ that doesn’t really have much humor in it, but it is nicely written and I’m enthused to get going on it.

Day Twenty Two:


For today’s drawing, I did another experiment using the paint tools. Last winter, I did an illustration for a website called ‘Covered’, where artists submit illustrations based on old comic book covers. I decided to try this again (although this time I didn’t bother submitting it to the site, since it usually takes about a month or so to be posted, and they prefer you don’t post it to your own site until that time), and this time chose an old fifties ‘romance’ comic book for my inspiration.

Days 14 through 18

CRC, Freaks of Nurture Comics, Newsday, WSJ

Day Fourteen:


Yesterday’s ‘day fourteen’ illustration is coming in a little late for various good excuses. I was working on a rather large WSJ assignment (which will more than likely be ‘day fifteen’), plus my music group The Jukejoint Handmedowns began work on recording their first cd for several hours during the day.
So, anyways, today’s illustration is one for the Freaks of Nurture blog, an essay about ‘fear’.

Day Fifteen:


And here’s the Journal assignment I’ve been working on for the past few days. This is a cover assignment, which needed to leave room in the center and along the right edge for copy purposes.

Day Sixteen:


Another paying assignment today, this one to accompany a ‘father’s day’ article for Newsday. Quick turnaround, sketches in the morning, finish by the afternoon. I’ll also be working on some tee shirt concepts this afternoon, but the sun is shining, so I think I’m going to take a few hours off and enjoy the sunshine.

Day Seventeen:


Since it’s the weekend, and I didn’t have a lot of free time available, I decided to go back to some more paint experimentation with another ‘yearbook’ portrait. This time working a little bigger and in more detail.

Day Eighteen:


Skipped a day yesterday to enjoy a lazy Father’s Day, and today’s illustration is another paying assignment from the CRC. They wanted a series of small heads of parents, teens, kids, grandparents of mixed ethnicities in a fairly iconic colorful cartoon style.

Days 9 through 13

Barrons, ChronicleHE

Day Nine:


Today’s illustration is another (sort of) paying job. An illustration for a friend’s promotional postcard mailer.

Day Ten:


For today’s drawing I decided to go back to the gouache tools again. I wanted to play around with some portraits, so I found some anonymous high school yearbook portraits that I found on google and painted a quartet of them, trying to stretch myself colorwise, choosing colors I wouldn’t ordinarily use, and trying for more of a rough painterly approach to it. This was a lot of fun, I may do some more like this tomorrow. (you can get a little closer look by clicking on the image above)

Day Eleven:


Enjoyed yesterday’s experiment so much, that I continued along the same vein today. Tomorrow’s post will more than likely be a paying gig.

Day Twelve:


Today’s illustration was an assignment for Barrons. I wasn’t sure how they were going to lay out the page, so I did two versions of this one, one with a background, and one without. The assignment called for a picture of the character of Liza Doolittle’s father from Pygmalion.

Day Thirteen:


Today’s drawing is an illustration assignment that I had for the Chronicle due early this morning. A few more assignments have trickled in over the past few days, so I may be posting less ‘extracurricular’ work over the next few days, and concentrating on making a living instead (thank goodness).

… and on the eighth day

WSJ


Today’s illustration in my ongoing ’90 days of drawing’ is an actual paying assignment for the Journal. I got the assignment yesterday, and the finish was due this morning by noon. The client requested two versions, one with a background, and another without, as the story may be coming in short and they weren’t sure how the art would fit in. I’ve also included the three preliminary sketches for this assignment (pictured below).

You might notice a little bit of ‘grey’ in the white areas of the illustrations. For some reason, over the past week or so, the brightness or contrast or something has gotten screwed up on my computer, and I’m still in the process of getting back to where it was before. (I blame the wife, who likes to come out to the office to watch television on my monitor, and may have altered the brightness)


Days Five through Seven

comics, Freaks of Nurture Comics

Day Five:


Was way too busy yesterday to do any drawing, so I had to skip a day in my 90 day challenge. Today I took an old photo of my wife’s deceased mother and experimented a bit with the ‘gouache’ tools from my Painter software. Usually when I’ve ‘dabble in painting’ in Painter in the past, I’ve stuck to the ‘oils’ tools and sometimes the ‘oil pastels’, but this medium took a little bit of getting used to. It definitely had more of a ‘wet on wet’ feel to it. I’m not really crazy about the colors, so I may go back and work on this piece some more later. (you can click on the image above for a bigger version)

Day Six:


Wasn’t entirely satisfied with my ‘gouache’ experiment yesterday, so I tried another one today. This time starting with a blank canvas and no reference and just started doodling off the top of my head. Still a ways to go with this medium yet, so I’ll probably give it another shot later.

Day Seven:


For today’s ‘drawing a day’, I chose to finish up one in a series of single page comics that I’ve been doing with a collaborator for the past year or so, for the ‘Freaks of Nurture’ website (click on the image above for a larger, easier to read version). I also had a couple illustration assignments come in this afternoon, and spent a portion of the day conceptualizing and doing rough sketches.