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!
4 comments:
wow! It looks fantastic!Everything abut it about.OMG(yes omg) The penguin and pig are so fffnnn cute!LOVE IT-Good job thomas!
yeah man, this is really great. alot of personality with those animals. the rabbit reminds me of the character in this book i had when i was a little flames, called "the Paper Party".
i think the pig and the bear are my favorite. really great job, especially on the composition and the colors. there's alot going on, but it's so easy on the eyes. great great job.
i have one request PLEASE - my favorite part of artists' blogs is when they show the process, and you very rarely offer this stuff (sometimes i get to see it in person when we hang). can you post the original sketch? and the ink drawing? maybe a detail shot? even if you don't write about all of it, i'd love to just see what your process looks like on works like this. and i know i speak for any other artists who read this - it's incredibly inspiring, motivating and a great learning experience.
Thanks guys! James, I totally remeber "the Paper Party"! Yeah, it has that vibe. Also, I added some process pics. I know, I need to do that more...
This cover is great. I saw it on another blog and knew it was yours right away. You definitely worked out the composition and the animals are awesome.
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