Been a weird week. My Dad was rushed to the hospital in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, and I’ve been running back and forth from GR to AA, spending long nights at his bedside with little sleep, and for the most part, postponing work until the whole situation becomes resolved. However, this weekend I got a call from the Journal with an assignment for a set of 6 food illustrations that I didn’t feel I could pass up. I’ll be doing these over the weekend whenever I can squeeze the time in (we brought the computer with us to Ann Arbor, as we stayed in the hospital guest accommodations, so I could work on this project and a few others if time permits). Here are the first two of this series (more to come).
Month: September 2012
173 Tommy
Facebook Faces
Another portrait today, of another local musician who lives down the road from me, Tommy, in the same pen & ink style I’ve been playing with the past week or so.
Working off nervous energy
Facebook Faces
Gonna be a busy music weekend, with an ArtPrize performance this afternoon, a private party over in Holland in the evening, plus another ArtPrize performance with a different band on Sunday, so, I’m working off some nervous energy before I have to pack up and leave today. Here’s another facebook portrait; a pencil/watercolor sketch of my niece Andie. Still an hour to go, so I might get another one or two done before I leave.
Oh, and if you happen to be in Grand Rapids over the next few weeks taking in ArtPrize, be sure and vote for my song entry (you can find listening stations at St. Cecilia’s on Ransom Ave, or you can vote online), and our voting code is 53301.
Sure enough, here’s another one. One of my ‘mystery facebook friends’, Deborah, whom I don’t think I’ve ever met, and have no idea what the connection is (other than the fact that she’s a local musician).
A trio of Bass Players
Facebook Faces
Doing some work on the ‘investment book’ today, and in between found time to do a set of three ‘bass player’ friends of mine from facebook, Doug, Tim and Chad, bringing the total up to 170 so far (with 30 more to go). More and more frequently, I’m enjoying this pen and ink technique (I start with a pen width a LOT wider than I usually use, and try to vary the line thickness completely by pressure on the stylus).
Later today, I’ll be heading downtown to catch a few of the music acts that are playing as part of the ArtPrize Music Showcase at St. Cecilia’s (our time slot is tomorrow afternoon), so I thought the bass players were appropriate.
Old Home Week
animation, Barrons, Jukejoint Handmedowns, music, self portrait, WSJ
It’s been a long quiet summer, so it was nice to hear from three of my ‘regular clients’ this week following a long absence. Of course, it has been a long time since I’ve done this sort of quick turnaround concept driven material, so I felt a little rusty at first, but it was a comforting feeling to get back to work at the sort of projects that I’ve come to think of as being in my ‘sweet spot’.
The illustration above was a piece for Barrons on the defense budget, and below is a quick turnaround weekend assignment from the Wall Street Journal (which came to me while I was accompanying my Dad to one of his chemo treatments yesterday afternoon).
Back home in Grand Rapids now for a few weeks, as the first round of chemo is done for now and the next will be taking place after a few weeks rest.
In other news, ArtPrize has started up here in Grand Rapids this Wednesday, and for the first time, I’ve entered something in this annual competition. I normally wouldn’t have, but this was a group decision to enter a song in the new ‘song category’, and is entered on behalf of the Jukejoint Handmedowns. While I write half of the material for this group, and my partner writes the other half, the members decided to take a vote on the one song that would be entered, and it just happened to be one of mine. I was thinking of different ways of promoting the song, and the idea of an animated music video came to me this morning. I decided to devote much of my time today to working on trying to put together a full length animation to accompany the song entry. The animation is rather quick and sloppy (mostly because I wanted to get it done while I still had time to use it for promoting our entry), but this has given me a confidence boost, such that I may attempt a more ambitious project in the future.