Communication Arts Illustration Annual '09

JAMES - i'm am honored and so psyched to have been included in the prestigious Communication Arts Illustration Annual for 2009. the above illustration, which you may remember from the poster for Trail of Dead that i did earlier this year, was chosen and the issue was just delivered to my house. i am in some seriously good company - it's an amazing issue.


the issue is on newsstands now and should be available until late August. and the original poster featuring this illustration is still available, but i have maybe 8 prints remaining. there will be no reprints - once it sells out, it's done - so get one while you can (click the link on the top right column on this page for poster sales).

Splitting Headache

JAMES - i was psyched to be asked to create a poster for the upcoming Jay Reatard show at the Orange Peel here in Asheville - i've been a big fan of his for a long time, though the only time i've seen him live was with one of his former bands the Lost Sounds (who were opening for the Hot Snakes in NYC - killer show!), so i can't wait to see the show tomorrow night (click for a great video).

original sketch

anyway, the club asked for a Black&White poster, which actually was perfect timing. I've been looking at my recent Black&White posters, and though i'm sure to most people's eyes, the changes in style is subtle - but to me, i feel i've tried many different approaches. and while i feel real comfortable with my more design-influenced posters, i've been wanting to get back to more comic book-influenced compositions - posters that sort of have a narrative. case in point, my early DC Snipers poster, my Daggerman poster, my first Hellsayers poster, and my Unknown Hinson poster (click the links to see what i'm talking about).
so this was my chance to get back to that, and to use it to represent Jay Reatard's music, i really let go and let it be really weirdo.

detail shot

as is customary, this is Black India Ink (Dr. Ph Martin's Black Star, Matte) on Bristol paper with Vellum finish. i used my absolute favorite Rosemary&Co #2 brush (series 33), and a Nikko G nib pen for all the hatching and tiny details. absolutely no white out.
this poster will be available as a free giveaway with all purchases of any of my other posters for sale - you can find them on Gigposters.com, Ebay.com, and Etsy.com.

Mermaid

JAMES - oh, that siren song of the mermaid - wretched scourge of the sailor.

I Want Your Skull, #7

JAMES - i'm honored to be a part of the latest issue of "I Want Your Skull". my page is the above image, which you may remember from my Trail of Dead poster. the rest of the issue is just incredible - beautiful color cover, b&w inside, and it comes with a print by the great Drew Millward.



from the press release: At long last, I Want Your Skull #7 is released! This one features a killer wrap-around cover by Brian Morris and includes a fantastic new, serigraph art print by Drew Millward.

And it wouldn’t be I Want Your Skull if we didn’t talk to a few of the creators impacting the world of skeleture expression. This time around it’s cranial designer Dan Springer and screen-printed poster pioneer and old school ripper, Lindsey Kuhn.

As a special treat, we’ve included a reprinted interview with the legendary original guitarist of the Misfits- Franche’ Coma, featuring brand new illustrations by Mark McCormick.

If that wasn’t enough, 34 full page artist pages grace the inside pages. It’s a whose who if super talented creators working in a variety of styles from all over the world, and all dedicated to the SKULL! Included: Cassandra Warren, Glyn Smyth, Shawn Hebrank, Geordan Moore, Rhys Cooper, Tallboy, Ashley McMullen, Albie Rock, Peter Nevins, Jason Goad, Brian Ewing, Budai, Murdoch Stafford, Jeral Tidwell, Franx, Ryan August, Dzgnbio, Horrorwood, Konnik, Jazun, Anville, Droid, Mike Sutfin, Jon MDC, Gregg Gordon, Sean Tidy, James Flames, Kenn TwoFour, Jess Guercia, Jeremi Rimel, Mike Fisher, Surge, Mictron and Joe Bonham.

The whole thing comes packed in a custom printed envelope with a logo designed by lettering genius, Henry “Loco” Contreras.

Limited to 250 copies, hand-numbered and packaged with care.

you can buy copies here for only 20 bucks - www.iwantyourskull.com.

Nerve!

TOM - Here are some recent illustrations from a weekly gig I've been doing for Nerve.com. The feature is called "My First Time" and every week someone submits a piece about how they lost their virginity. They're all really short and to the point, so they're worth checking out. AND, if you have a funny, or somewhat interesting story about how you lost your virginity, send it over to Nerve.com and I'll illustrate it. Yippy! The above image is my favorite so far, it's from week two. I had alot of fun with the guys tattoos. Below are the rest of them.

Week one.

Week three.

This week.

The Pill

JAMES - this recent illustration combines hot sex, the pill, and the fear of the 0.3% of the time the pill might fail. ooooooooh, scary babies!

i used my now-pretty-consistant color pallette, as well as a technique of double-painting i've used often in the past few years. but this time i decided to go larger than i ever have - this bad boy's 22"x30"! on Arches Aquarelle Watercolor Paper. it was awesome to work so huge, i felt like i had more interaction with this piece because i got to literally move all over it.




the above three photos loosely show the process, as it started with a pencil drawing, then fleshed out with watercolors, acrylics, inks, more pencils, some markers, and finally alot of dripping paint, which i focused around the areas where the large figures' eyes will be.

detail shot

once the under-painting was done, i gave it a translucent white wash and began drawing the faces with red acrylic paint.


i also did an accompanying illustration, using one of the babies from the larger piece, to further the concept.

Philadelphia City Paper!

TOM - A couple Sundays ago I was in Philly with James and Steph enjoying a day of art, tattoos, and the sun. The next day, in the midst of moving into new apartment and finishing up pieces for a show (which I will post about soon), I got a call coincidentally from Philadelphia City Paper to do an upcoming cover for them. They had a pretty wacky idea for their Book Quarterly issue which seemed like it would be an interesting challenge for me since I don't normally incorporate animals into my illustrations. They wanted the animals to look like animals but be dressed and acting like humans at a cocktail party. I wound up having a lot of fun and got into drawing each animal's different human-like qualities.


This is my third time doing a cover for Philadelphia City Paper and they are super laid back and easy to work with. Above is what the final print version looks like. Some slight changes, but I'm still very happy with the way it turned out.

And here are some process shots. Above is the black and white version. I wanted to keep it as clean as possible at this stage with very little shading and spotted blacks, because I knew I was going to take care of that when I stared to color. Also, the grass in the background was done separately in acrylic, then added in Photoshop.

And here is the original sketch. It was based off of a rough sketch that the designer sent me. There was more of a pyramid composition going on at this point. As you can see, there were alot of changes made between this point and the final, but this definitely helped me visualize it early on.

Well, that's all for now. If anyone out there lives in the Philly area, don't forget to pick one up!

Young Lion

JAMES - without a doubt, my newest most favoritest local band is Floating Action. they have a brand new self-titled record out on Dr. Dog's label, Park The Van Records. i was pretty stoked to be asked to create a poster for the Record Release Show here in Asheville.

original sketch

i did a bunch of sketches and came up with an idea i thought would work, so i did a couple of illustrations for it and scanned them in and as i started to put it all together i realized it just wasn't cool enough. so i scrapped the idea and started fresh. i developed the above sketch in photoshop, to get an idea of the colors and how they would work. i was limited to two colors, and so i utilized an overlap of the two main colors to create a third color.
i also wanted this to have a definite concept: the band is from an area here called Black Mountain, which is obviously up on a big mountain. i combined that with the fact that traditionally, fresh and new jazz musicians are referred to as "young lions". hence, the mountain lion character. and of course, the fact that he's diving to reach the newly released record is, literally, 'floating action'.



above are the two main pieces i needed to illustrate, and it was just easier to draw them separately, so i can place them and re-size them in photoshop later on, and change it to my heart's content. as is uaually the case, i was constantly trying to capture the looseness, flow and action of the sketch, but incorporate more detail and realism - and allow them all to live harmoniously.

detail shot

the last part i needed to draw was the lettering, which is all hand done. i scanned that in and spent awhile composing the scene and coloring it in. a special touch is the subtle 'smoky' wash around the bubbles to give the effect of refracted light under the water.

2-color screenprint, 13"x20", edition of 130

once again, this was printed by Nick at The Half and Half, and as usual it looks amazing. we went with an edition of 130, and they're 13"x20". they're available for $15 on gigposters.com - i don't have many of these to sell, so get them before it sells out. and do check out this album, it really is pretty incredible. my favorite song is "Marie Claire".

Bump in the night

TOM - Here is this weeks New York Press illustration. It's about loud sex downstairs neighboors. It's a good story, check it out here.

Emulating

Detail

Detail

Detail

TOM - Here is one I've been working on and off for a while. I came up with the concept a few months ago while I was looking at a lot of classic pin up illustration. It was a challenging exercise to try and create my own classic looking pin ups for the posters on the wall and in the books on the floor. I drew them separately so I could treat each one as it's own illustration. I am always amazed by the incredible talent of guys like Gil Elvgren, Al Buell, Fritz Willis and many others. The idea of "emulation" in this piece not only goes for the woman in the illustration trying to emulate her pin up idols, but also me in some way paying homage to an incredible era in illustration history.

Morning Joe

TOM - Anybody know this guy, Joe Scarborough? He's got a show on MSNBC called Morning Joe, I watch it online 'cause I don't have cable. It's weird because I really don't like him as a person and I disagree with most of his views, but for some reason I really like the show, it's entertaining and a real conversational way to get your news. He's got one of those jerk faces though that I can't stand, so I was compelled to draw it. If anybody knows who he is, let me know if you think it looks like him.