Monday, February 27, 2012

Black Star


TOM - Here’s a recent illustration I did of the legendary hip hop group, Black Star. The group consists of  Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (formally known as Mos Def). I’ve been a fan of both of their individual careers for a while and now that the group is back together, it’s exciting to hear the new music that is coming out.  I tired my best to capture their style, which really sets itself apart from the majority of the current  hip hop aesthetic, and was fun to interpret in an illustration.


Here’s a look at the idea in it’s early sketch phase. I wanted something simple that captured their movement and energy on stage as well  as showcasing their bad ass vintage mics which are super cool! I knew I wanted to do some kind of abstract, colorful background, so that is very roughly indicated here.



After I decided on that sketch, I lightboxed some pencils over it, and inked it up.  Here is the final black and white image.
I had a lot of fun working on this, it’s always enjoyable creating images of people that you are interested in, I feel that connection always makes the image stronger in the end.
Thanks for reading!


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sexy Fruit Prints



TOM- These are some recent linoleum cut prints that I made for an upcoming Slap Dash event, with the theme, Sex Ed. I wanted to make something that was not figurative, but still suggestive enough to work within the theme of the show. I had a lot of fun making these. Above is is the version in which I added a layer of color in Photoshop, below are the straight forward cuts, sans color, and how they will appear in the show.

If you're in Brooklyn on Saturday night, come out and hang! Here's the info:

Slap Dash Sex Ed (Readings, Video, Film, and Art Show)
@LaunchPad  721 Franklin AvenueBrooklyn, NY 11238
8pm-11pm