Eat your fruits and veggies!

TOM- Been a LONG time! Sorry I've neglected the blog. I've been busy and been making a ton of new work! I tend to post more frequently to my Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to follow me there for all the most up to date work. In the meantime, here's a brand new piece inspired by summer, nature, and my love for fruits and vegetables, oh and pretty girls! Hope you're enjoying your summer!

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COVERS!

 TOM - Been a while since my last post! Sorry 'bout that, but it has been busy and eventful, and here is a look at some of the things I have worked on since. Three different covers I illustrated, one for Fort Worth Weekly and two for The Washington Post Express. These were all super fun to work on, hope you dig 'em. Thanks for checking in!

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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!

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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 Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238

8pm-11pm

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Cut It Out!

TOM - I’ve been having fun experimenting with some collage elements in my work recently. I always find it refreshing to introduce a new technique that I don’t know much about in order to breathe new life into the work. Here are a couple examples of some of the work I’ve been cooking up with that approach.  Hope you dig it!

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Drawing People In NYC

TOM - As an exercise in artistic discipline and just plain ol' havin' fun, I've been carrying around a sketch book very regularly. On trains, at cafe's, in waiting rooms, bookstores, wherever. Over the years I have fallen in and out of this habit, currently I'm in it and having a good time. This time around, to avoid freezing up, I purposely buy really cheap, flimsy sketchbooks for no more than $3 each. The point is not to set out to make a good drawing or to have some sort of pretty object that I can carry around with me, the point is to make different types of marks, strengthen my eye-hand coordination and keep the juices flowing. I'm in love with these little sketchbooks you can get at the MUJI store in Soho. They're small, have smooth paper and super cheap, perfect. My current sketchbook is filled with some pretty bad drawings, but these are the few where I felt most confident in my approach, mainly because I wasn't thinking about the drawing when I was drawing it.

Thanks for reading and happy 2012!

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Un-Blogged in 2011

'Boxer 1'  (Linoleum Block Print)

TOM - As 2011 comes to a close, I thought this would be a good opportunity to post some stuff that I haven't gotten a chance to post here on the blog. So often, I'm posting new work and process pics on my Facebook and Twitter, that I don't get the chance to post everything here. So, here's a quick look at some pieces that were un-blogged in 2011, hope you dig 'em!

'Boxer 2'  (Linoleum Block Print)

                                             Illustration for Bicycle Times

                                              Cover for Philadelphia City Paper

                                   Illustration about Mayweather/Ortiz fight. 

                                 'Sonny Rollins' (Linoleum Block Print w/ Photoshop)

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Some Stuff From My Sketchbook

TOM - I haven't posted any sketchbook stuff in a long time, so before the year is out, here's a small look at my current sketchbook. Hope you dig it!

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OC Weekly Cover

TOM - Last month, I was contacted by Laila over at OC Weekly to illustrate a cover for them. I always enjoy working with OC Weekly and I was super excited to do my first cover for their paper. The story was a sad one, about a mother being deported back to Mexico, leaving her teenaged children to live alone in the United States and their journey through that experience.

There was a lot of emotion in this story and I knew I wanted to depict that sense of separation and longing as best I could through my illustration. Laila and I discussed some ideas over the phone, then I hit the drawing board and sketched some stuff up, here's what I came up with:

I was really excited to take any one of these to finals, felt pretty strongly about all of them actually. I liked the idea of somehow representing 'America' somehow as a character in the image, so I tried several attempts at that which I think forced me into a more graphic approach. Pretty obvious as to which one they chose:

And here's a look at the final art. I'm super happy with the way it came out, hope you are too!

I've been real busy lately, cookin' up a lot of new work, be sure to follow me on twitter and facebook for all the up to date happenings!

Thanks for reading!

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Dallas Observer Cover

TOM - A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by Alexander Flores of Dallas Observer to illustrate a cover for them featuring a whole bunch of accomplished Dallas musicians, including Erykah Badu and Rhett Miller of the Old 97's. It was a super cool gig and I was glad to finally get to work with Alex. Unfortunately, during the  production of this cover, my computer crashed! Thankfully though, I was able to borrow a friends computer for the scanning and coloring of the final image and everything went to press right on time, whew!

Here's a look at some of the process that went into making this cover.

This is an early sketch idea. The cover called for pretty much, just a group shot, so placement and composition became my main focus. I wanted to have Erykah up front, she's probably the most well known of the bunch and also the most visually interesting ( I was really looking forward to drawing her fro!)

Then we decided on this one, I really liked the idea of having Erykah's hair somehow incorporated in the logo itself, as if the logo were etched out of it. After a few failed attempts on Erykahs likeness, I had to scrap that angle all together  it and try again. I think a big part of growing as an illustrator is being able to admit  when something just isn't working and being able to scrap it and start again, no matter how much time you already put in. If it's not working, it's not working.

I was simultaneously working on some interior illustrations of all the musicians and thought that version of Erykah would work much better on the cover. A bit more iconic and less of a full frontal shot. It worked!

Got to work on all the other characters and the assembly begun!

Trough several revisions and a broken computer, I'm very happy with the way it all came together.

Here's a quick look at another interior illustration I did of singer/songwriter, Sarah Jaffe.

Thanks for reading, more covers on the way!

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Dia de los Muertos

TOM - Here is my contribution to a group show I was asked to be a part of, the theme being 'Dia De Los Muertos'. This piece along with several other artists work will be on display in Portland, OR at The Screaming Sky Gallery September 29 - October 23rd. If you're in the area, go check out the opening this Thursday!

Here's a quick look at my process for creating this piece. As always, it started off with a pretty rough sketch. I knew I wanted some sort of graffiti theme and after skateboarding all summer, I wanted to incorporate a skateboard in the mix somehow. Anyway, there was enough info in this sketch for me to get excited and want to add to more to it.

I brought it to a level of detail that I was happy with in the inking stage. I had fun trying to mimic the 'spray paint' look of the skull. I used dry brush to long continuous strokes, much like someone who's actually spray painting might approach it. The pattern on her sweater was inspired by patterns I've seen in an old Mexican pin-up book, Mexican art continues to blow my mind and inspire me.

Above is the flyer for the show with some of the details. If you're interested, the color print of this piece will be for sale at the gallery and the original black and white drawing will also be for sale(just not on display).

Thanks for reading!

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Seattle Met Fall Arts Preview

TOM- I recently got a chance to work together again with Seattle Met for their September issue. I was asked to illustrate the full page opening for their Fall Arts Preview. It was a really cool gig and fun to work on. The AD, Chris left it really open and gave me pretty much free reign on coming up with an idea, which I was really excited about. The motive was to somehow incorporate all the areas of the arts that the preview would cover; dance, fine arts, music, literature.

They originally had a rough concept of a ballerina, which I thought was pretty interesting and decided to try and play with that idea in my sketching process. Above is some of my brainstorming, trying to keep it as feminine as possible, but also graphic and exciting enough for a full page opener.

They decided to go with the third sketch, which I was pretty excited to draw. Here's a look at that idea a little more fleshed out, brought to a rough pencil stage.

I tightened the pencils up a bit more and inked it with a #2 synthetic brush on Bristol.  My old and trusty electric guitar served as my model for this particular guitar (and most electric guitars that I draw).

And here's a look at how it all came together in the end. Chris hooked it up with a nice type treatment and the print version came out looking really great. Always great working with Seattle Met.

Don't let this post fool you, Fall is not here yet! We still got a couple weeks left of summer, enjoy it! As always, thanks for reading.

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OC Weekly

TOM - Last week I was contacted by OC Weekly to illustrate their feature story about the city council's layoff of nearly one third of the city employees. It's causing a bit of a stir in Costa Mesa and the Orange County Employees Association has called the move drastic and unnecessary.
In the sketching process, I wanted to try and capture the emotion and tension between the two sides. Two of the sketches also play with the 'pink slip' metaphor, I thought that might be a nice graphic and symbolic approach. In the end, both the art director and I were leaning towards the second sketch and the last, we ultimately went with the last one.

I was hoping that the idea of the council man trying to flick the city workers off of his agenda gets the sentiment across. Above is the ink drawing on bristol which I used a #2 brush to ink with. I knew I wanted to play around with color and mood, so I kept the drawing pretty open.

And here's the final image. After much trial and error with the coloring, I finally settled on this one, hoping that it get's the right mood and drama across.
And here's a little spot I did to accompany the article. You can read the article here. Thanks to Laila for the assignment, always fun working with the OC Weekly.

Thanks for reading. I know I've been a bit silent on the blog lately, but it's been a very eventful summer and there's a bunch of new things I can't wait to share, so stay tuned!

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