Hellooooo Nurse!

TOM - This was an Illustration I did for this weeks New York Press issue. It was for Kelly Kreths sex column. Check out that article here.

Tweet

Sketchbook

TOM - It's been a while since I've posted any of my sketchbook stuff, so here are some entries from the past few months...

Tweet

New York Press

TOM - The past two weeks I have been busy illustrating some pretty cool articles for the New York Press. This fist illustration was for a story about a woman who falls is lust with some guy in her yoga class, and winds up sleeping with him in a spare room at the Y. Kinky.
The Art Director wanted to keep it PG13, but still get the point across, she had a great idea of showing the couple kissing, while intertwined in yoga contortions.
I drew up a few sketches around that idea. The AD picked the third from the top.
I think this one was the most suggestive of the bunch, and I really enjoyed drawing their body positions.
Colored it in Photoshop, and it was good to go. Check out the steamy article here.
On to this weeks issue... The main idea behind the illustration for this article was to show how the '20 something' generation has become so used to seeing themselves on T.V. due to an overload of reality television, and now internet reality shows. We worked out a scenario where there is a 20 something sitting in her living room, watching nothing but herself on T.V and internet. I came up with a few different ways of composing it, and the AD picked...
...this one. I inked it up,
then colored it. Check out this article here.

Tweet

Goin' to Rehab.

TOM - This one goes out to Jon Sperry. He has mentioned a couple times that I should do a portrait of Amy Winehouse. It actually was a lot of fun. I had been wanting to do a portrait of a more contemporary musician, since my previous were more ' legends'. But when I would think about it, there's not too many musicians (famous) out there that I admire these days. I happen to really dig her music though. It's soulful and honest. She really doesn't give a fuck, and thats why I think I like her.
She has such a unique face. While gathering up photos for reference, I couldn't help but notice that all her emotions are written all over her face. She truly looks crazy. That along with her beehive hair, skinny body, and tons of tattoos, physically makes her such an interesting character. As well as trying to capture her intense, almost scary stare, I tried to echo elements of her life in the background through classic "old school" tattoos. Tortured love, addiction, 50's pin up appeal.
Here is the pencil sketch, then the inked illustration.
I had drawn the classic tattoos on a separate sheet, then placed them in the background in Photoshop.

Tweet

Patterns

TOM - So this was meant to be an illustration for the online drawing contest blog called Free Fridays. James actually told me about this site. It's pretty cool. They give you a word a week to illustrate anyway you want, the only catch is to some how to include the words "fecal face" in it, the winner gets a prize (comics, music, supplies...) I was meaning to Photoshop in "fecal face" later on, but i got caught up with a few other things, and never sent it in. The word that week was 'Patterns'. This is what I came up with.
I used this as a chance to mess around with Photoshop, tried to break away from the way I've been using it lately. I wanted to give it more of a textured feeling without making it look cheesy computer colored. I didn't ink the drawing, I just did a really tight pencil drawing indicating line weight and shading. The point was to make it feel a bit chaotic with all the patterns, but not tacky. I still love using ink, and will continue to, but I'm having fun trying out other approaches.

Also, my website is now updated. Check it out: www.thomaspitilli.com

Tweet

Time Out!

TOM - I recently did an illustration for Time Out New York. The article was about how to catch a cab in some of New York's worst spots. The basic idea given to me was to illustrate a group of people having no luck getting a cab, and the smart guy who knows all the tricks just around the corner hitting the jackpot. I did several sketches for the AD, and he went with this one, my first idea, pretty straight forward and to the point.
When I started to pencil it, i tried to give the foreground people a bit more personality and desperation, not as relaxed as they seemed in the sketch. Threw in some perspective and detail and...
...to the inks. I inked it with my usual Winsor & Newton #2 series 7 brush on bristol, scanned it, then...
...into photoshop for some color. After a few revisions, this is what came out.
Check out this weeks issue to find out how to catch a cab!

Tweet

Another Go...

TOM - My friend Mike and I have recently been toying with the idea of collaborating on some kind of Illustration / Design project. We've decided that before anything, we should do some test runs to see if our styles are compatible. Here's what he did to an earlier post of mine. Pretty cool for just about ten minutes of work, I'm excited to see what might come of this.

Tweet

Jubilee!

TOM - Here's a quick one for the Shelton Diagram Factory Correspondence Club. When I was a kid (or a younger kid than I am now) I used to love reading Generation X comics. Chris Bachalo completely blew my mind with his tripped out page designs and super cute chicks. Looking back on some of those old issues, they're just as impressive. This is my take on Jubilee, one of my favorite characters on the team. Yeah, it's fan art, but who cares, it's fun.

Tweet

BOX SOCIAL

TOM- This weekend was the opening of the Box Social show at the Secret Robot Project in Brooklyn, which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. The turn out was really great, and Jason Estrin and everyone else who put the show together did a really great job.



There was a really great variety of stuff up on the wall. I liked the clothes line look.





There's my two page Archie spoof.

The more people that showed up, the hotter it got in there, so...
...the party moved outside. Thanks to global warming, we had a beautiful summer night in October.
The whole outside of the building is decorated with some really cool art. There's Duffy being zapped, along with Neil and Mike.
I really started to like those lightning clouds, so I made a plan to take photos of people underneath them. There's Stephanie and Duffy.


Here's me and fellow cartoonist Hilary.
My lightning bolt plan fell through due to getting drunk and forgetting about it. Here's to openings!

By the way, the show is up 'till November 8 for more info on location and other stuff click right here.

Tweet

Spidey!

TOM- This is my latest contribution to the Shelton Diagram Correspondence Club. I've been getting some really cool drawings in the mail that have been making me want to draw something cool in return! I used this as a good opportunity to mess around with a classic superhero, in somewhat of a classic style. Those guys back then were so f*ckin' good that it makes me sick! Then it makes me want to try harder! I colored it with the same method that i used for my last post, except this time i added a bit of a halftone pattern.

And here is the black and white piece that I sent in the mail. Later.

Tweet

'Perfect' Final Color!

TOM- So here is the final full colored version of my 'Perfect' story for the Ka-Blam-O anthology. My goal was to make it look like an old comic printed on newsprint. Back when comics were cool, when the pages were thin and flimsy and they smelt like a moldy basement. I had alot of fun working on this one. Eventually, i would love to work on a longer story in this same style and actually print it on newsprint!

Tweet

Oh no, Tombies!!!

TOM- So this is how I spent my Saturday. Getting turned into a Zombie by the special affects make -up extraordinaire, Jenai Chin. These photos were done for her promotional postcards for Halloween. If your looking for some cool make-up during Halloween, be sure to contact her. And if your looking to scare the shit out of some little kids, give me a call.Thats all for now, more drawings coming very soon!!!

Tweet

"Perfect"

TOM- Here is page one of a two page story entitled "Perfect". The story will be featured in a new anthology created by Edowyn Vazkez called Ka-Blam-O. On top of there being four other great artists featured, the book will be COMPLETELY SILK SCREENED in a two color process! I'm excited to see what it's gonna look like when all is said and done, which should be this winter. I am really having alot of fun working on this. I feel like i'm piecing ideas and design elements that i've had in my head for a while and are now finally coming out. A big inspiration for the layout, especially the first panel, was Archie comics. Just the way they always have that big introduction panel with the title and everything gives it a kind of built in cover which I always loved.
Real quick: here is my pencils. I'm still trying to figure out how tight or loose i need to go with my pencils. This seemed like it worked, just enough info for me to start inking and figure shit out along the way. I inked it with a #2 series 7 W&n brush, some nib, and some pens. Next page coming soon!

Tweet

Part two

TOM- It was good to have James up here for the weekend. These are some of the drawing I did of him while he was drawing the two sketches from his last post. The sun was strong in that first one, and i think we both had some pretty weird expressions on as we were drawing. More sketch book stuff to come...

Tweet

Geisha

TOM- In keeping with adding more of a design element to my work, I'm trying to push myself in terms of composition, and not always having to use perspective or alot of people in the scene to make a drawing interesting. In doing that, this to me feels more like a logo or tattoo design.
I wish i could say i just thought of this and put it down on paper, but it wasn't really like that. Like anything else, i have a rough idea, then start scribbling, working, then reworking until it starts to look ok. This is usually done on typing paper and gets pretty messy. I wanted a real clean look to my inks, a little more controlled. With this being simple, i didn't want to add any unnecessary lines to confuse it. The final step was coloring in photoshop . My recent approach to that is to limit my colors and approach it more like a silkscreen, which this might become soon.

Tweet

SounD!

TOM- The quote is something that popped in my head one day, so i wrote it down in my sketch book alongside that drawing of the 'pomp' girl. Then i drew the 'fro' girl the other day also screaming/singing, and thought the two of them might look good in an illustration together. I've been wanting to play around with illustration and text lately, since I've been looking at these Morning Breath guys stuff , which has been very inspiring. I'm not a graphic designer, so my choice in text is based on pure instinct and guessing. I knew i wanted the feel of several different style fonts making up the sentence, but i wasn't exactly sure how to execute it. Maybe it'll just be something to play around with...

Tweet

More big hair!

TOM- From the pompadour, to the fro. Covering all the bases when it comes to chicks with big hair. Just did this today, started out as sketchbook drawing, then on to inks and photoshop. This might become a series of drawings of chicks with big hair(theres another on the way) or it might find it's way into an illustration/promo piece. By the way, check out ArtBurn, me and Edowyn posted the results of our recent drawing exercise. Peace.

Tweet