Destinations magazine needed an illustration of a guest columnist. I’m happy with how this came out. I pulled back on using the splatter and left just brushstrokes.
Here is a recent illustration I did for Direction the magazine of the American Moving and Storage Association.
A few Fridays ago I headed out of my apartment over to my buddy’s apartment. We were meeting to go to the Beach House concert at the First Unitarian Church. Our neighborhoods are separated by a long block of corporate businesses, so at night it tends to be creepy walking those seemingly vacant blocks. Knowing that my 160 lbs. of brutal power is much better at the backstroke and crosshatching than punching I usually take the one road with two bars on it. The downside to not worrying about getting mugged walking down a street filled with drunk douches. Because we are creatures of habit I tend to do this during the daylight hours as well.
Around 7 p.m. I headed down the aforementioned block when a kid, probably just passing the legal age to drink asks me, “You headed to Buckhead’s?”
He had four inches on me but was sporting the haircut I had in college. It was most likely buzzed by a friend having his first or second go with the hair-clippers. Like me, he had visible issues with acne when I was his age and for this reason I gave him the friendly benefit of the doubt.
“No,” I said laughing. I’d never hang out in his desired destination but we all make mistakes.
“Oh, so you’re headed to McFadden’s?” He said stumbling a little.
“No I’m headed to my buddies house.”
“So where are you guys going then?”
“A concert at the First Unitarian,” I said thinking he probably went to school in the area and would have heard of the venue.
“Where is that down by the river?” He said pointing with his finger pointing south, parrallel to the direction the Delaware runs.
“No, it’s a church up by Rittenhouse.”
“Wait, you are going to church on a Friday?” he replied dumbfounded.
“No, hah, the concert is held in a church but it is not “church” and they aren’t a Christian band.”
“So are they a local band? Is that how you know them?”
“No, well, they are an indie band but I found them from a review.”
“So, who do you know in the band?”
“No One!”
“Oh, so you and your buddy are gonna get drunk there huh?
“No, probably not.”
“Well you came from a bar then?”
“No, just from my apartment.”
“So you’re not getting drunk tonight?”
I smiled and said, ” No.”
“So you’re not getting reckless tonight?”
“Uhh, no. I will probably be in bed by midnight.”
“Jeez well try and have a good time dude.”
“I will.”
I did and Beach House was great . The First Unitarian Church has an amazing venue in it’s sanctuary.
Check out their Daytrotter Session.
Tags: Beach House, Buckhead's, First Unitarian Church, McFadden's
My friend’s Gary and Lauren recently had a house warming party for their newly purchased home. This is the picture I made for them as part of their gift. I think it turned out pretty well.
Tags: House, illustration
Aquaman returning from the dead in DC’s crossover series Blackest Night has given him the most positive media attention since Entourage. This is much better than the norm of being the butt of jokes. In the pages of Brightest Day since his return he’s been looking much more badass.
The Nerdy Bird (Jill Pantozzi) does not seem to agree. In a recent “Hey That’s My Cape!” post at Newsarama she talks about giving him a professional swimmer looking suit. While I agree it would help with water resistance, I think Aquaman is strong enough to push past it. Plus this picture made his plated scales cool. Plus, his orange shirt and green pants are pretty recognizable by the general public.
Reading the post about a more aero aqua-dynamic costume did make me think of a picture I drew shortly after graduating from college (above). I wanted to make it look like Aquaman was really swimming. Right here is is do the butterfly, my favorite stroke. So many artist make it look like he is flying through the water. I think it was fairly successful. I have a colored version of it as well but its pretty horrible. It was when I had just started experimenting with painting in Photoshop and it showed. I think I might try another go around Aquaman swimming in the future.
Tags: 30 Rock, Aquaman, Big Bang Theory, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, butterfly, Entourage, Family Guy, npr, swimming
Tomorrow the TV landscape will be dramatically altered. An island will disappear and not even Hiro’s time traveling ability will be able to bring it back. When the next season of TV debuts LOST will be gone along with Heroes and FlashForward. While LOST is finishing its story, Heroes‘ death is definitely one by boredom and FlashForward doesn’t seem to have picked up a solid audience.
FlashForward seemed like ABC’s attempt to fill the void left by LOST. It’s show that started slow but picked up second half of the season. Out of the two shows born out of LOST‘s success I’d rather see this one succeed than V which has been renewed. That isn’t a knock on V. I just find FlashForward more exciting though V‘s subtleties are great. I guess I can always read the book.
I had decided not to watch Heroes next season even if was renewed. The show started strong but fell flat. In the end everyone found their power a burdon. There was no sense of adventure just doom and rehashing Sylar every half season. I’ll miss the excitement of Hiro when the season first started. And I’ll miss Claire’s mixed feelings about her abilities. In the beginning I found it humorous that the guy with the coolest power and one with least repercussions found them to be the biggest burden. By the end Nathan’s burden of being able to flying was the most annoying. I mean, really! If you don’t want to fly just don’t. Stupid.
It is interesting to note that NBC and ABC have picked up two new “super hero” shows. NBC’s The Cape which has a trailer that was so influenced by the recent The Dark Knight movie it feels like a rip off. ABC has picked up No Ordinary Family. The trailer plays as a Modern Family/Parenthood/Fantastic 4 mash up. Michael Chiklis is cast as the lead, a father and a cop with super powers. He plays this more like his role on The Commish than The Shield. The super-speedster wife is played by Dexter‘s now dead wife, Julie Benz. I’m not sure which will make it. I would have bet on Reaper over Chuck a few years ago and I was dead wrong. But if you’d like my bet it is on No Ordinary Family. It looks like it does what The Cape can’t by being lighthearted and what is more lighthearted than a grown man trying to fly? You be the judge (I have placed trailers for the shows at the end of the entry for your viewing enjoyment). I doubt either will replace LOST.
The loss of LOST will be one more greatly felt than any of these shows. With the start of this last season the question from friends and co-workers directed both inwardly and outwardly has been, “What will you do without LOST?” Initially my response was, “Hopefully be satisfied with the ending of a great story.” This was not passionate response most expected from an avid fan. As the days grew closer to the end of the series I realized I was going to miss LOST but my initial answer still stood. I was, excuse me, I am going to miss the sense of community the show created. Gone will be the water cooler talks about parallel universes and time travel with co-workers who would go cross-eyed on the topic if it not had been for LOST. This is something in my life that has been relegated to comic book stores, sci-fi friends, and what I have subjected my family to. The creators of this show tricked the world into watching a sci-fi/fantasy show. “Well played,” I thought. But as time grew even closer to the ending of the show I began to realize that it wasn’t just me, the genre-nerd, that was going to miss the show, but it will my reality-TV watching co-workers, and my sci-fi novice friends. There have been times at work that five of us would sit down and talk about last nights episode. We would talk about Christianity, the negative weight of electrons, Egyptian gods, Hinduism, Nirvana (the band), dead scientists, Kurt Vonnegut, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Narnia, and much more that doesn’t come to mind. The breadth of that discussion and the topic taboos that could have started arguments during a work day could have been very bad. That never happened. That never happened, because LOST is about our similarities. It is about how everything we do. If we read Vonnegut or worship Egyptian gods we are all looking for the same thing. To be found.
If you want to delve into all the intricacies of LOST check out my friends blog.
And if you can’t let go to LOST check out my other friends Facebook group for a sideways Miles and Sawyer spin-off show.
Tags: Chuck, Dexter, Fantastic 4, FlashForward, Heroes, Hiro Nakamura, Julie Benz, Kurt Vonnegut, Lost, Michael Chiklis, ModernFamily, Narnia, No Ordinary Family, Parenthood, Reaper, The Cape, The Commish, The Shield, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, V
Recently I created a cut-out illustration called Flat Pete for Destinations the magazine of the American Bus Assoication. The illustration isn’t in my normal style but more of a children’s book style. I drew the character in pencil, scanned it in and traced it in Adobe Illustrator.
The idea around cut-out is for members to take Flat Pete around on bus tours/trips with them and to send in photos of where he ends up. It took inspiration from the Flat Stanley project. Recently Flat Pete ended up visiting Richard Simmons. It’s very odd. I never though I would see a picture of Richard Simmons holding something I created…
Tags: illustration, Richard Simmons
This is the latest illustration I have done for a profile piece in Direction, a magazine for the moving and storage industry. The lady is the founder of Two Men and a Truck. She came up with the logo being drawn in the background. This was drawn with pencil and painted in Adobe Photoshop.
Tags: illustration
This morning I pulled into the Starbucks parking lot and stepped out into the rain. I forgot my umbrella at home. As I ducked under some low hanging branches to get to the sidewalk a white haired man three times the size of me stepped on to the sidewalk square I was aiming for. With is beard trimmed to a goatee he could have passed as Santa Claus in the off-season. “What a rainy day,” he said.
“Sure is,” I replied.
“Must remind you of home,” he said with a smirk.
“Yeah I guess so.” I replied kind of puzzled. Maybe rainy days remind people of home. This is a saying I never came across but still it could be one.
“You’re from Britain right?”
“Oh, no, I’m not,” I said with a slight chuckle.
“I’m sorry I thought I detected a British accent. Where are you from originally”
“Long Island.” I replied. Though I had watched part of an episode of Dr. Who while I was getting ready that morning.
“Hah, well I guess that is closer to Britain then where we are now.”
I laughed and let the man go ahead of me as we entered the store. He offered to purchase my breakfast. I thanked him but turned his offer down. He insisted, I persisted and then gave the cashier the money. So I got a free coffee and bagel out of the deal.
My co-worker suggested he was a bear and British was code for gay. I’d rather believe he was a nice old guy (maybe a bit hard of hearing) who was a bit embarrassed by suggesting I was British.
Tags: Britain, Coffee, Dr. Who, Santa Claus, Starbucks