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TOM - Here's a new promo piece I did recently. The idea behind it is about how newspapers are sadly becoming obsolete with the Internet being the fastest, most accessible way for people to get their news. Due to news blogs, podcast, and video feeds, newspapers are quickly becoming a thing of the past. I see much less newspaper reading on the train and much more ipod listening than ever before and I must say it's actually very sad. As an illustrator, the rush that I get from seeing my work printed on paper alongside an article is something I hope I never goes away. Websites and blogs are cool, but being able to look at an illustration up close in a newspaper or magazine and admire an artists brushwork or how the illustration works within the composition of the page is something that you don't get from seeing someones work on a web page. I'm sure writers feel the same way about having their work printed in a newspaper, since everybody has a blog nowadays, it's just gotta feel more "official" for a writer to see their work in a newspaper. And beyond all of that, on a purely aesthetic tip, newspapers just look cool! The shape and size of them, the smell of ink on newsprint, aside from comic books they're really the next best thing. I'm all for keeping up with the changing times, I think being able to get up to date news at any moment is an awesome idea, I just hope there continues to be a place for newspapers in that future, maybe "green" newspapers, articles printed on recycled paper would be kinda neat.

Here's a quick look at my process for this piece. Above are the final inks, I inked this with a #2 Isabey brush, Windsor Newton India Ink and some pens for the finer detail.

I had a real hard time settling on a color scheme for this piece, so a big shout out goes out to everybody that helped me, including James Flames. As you can see above are some of the alternate versions I went through. In the end, I'm very happy with the final piece.

So everybody go out there tomorrow and buy a newspaper, they look alot cooler than iphones!

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Flying!

TOM- Steph and I went to the park the other day and tried to fly. We hovered above the grass for a while, it was awesome. We got some weird looks from people, but they were just jealous that they couldn't fly. Haterz.

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Utne Reader, NY Press

TOM- Been a while since my last post, here's a catch up on some recent work. Above is an illustration I did for the latest issue of Utne Reader. It's an article about what sexual acts are acceptable according to he Quran, phone sex being one of them.

This one was for New York Press a few weeks ago. It was about a woman's divorce from her long term partner. I broke out my new set of watercolors on this one, I had fun.

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Portraits

This one goes out to James. Last month when he came up to visit, i asked him to sit for me so I could sketch a portrait of him. In addition to some of the sketches I drew up, I also took some photo reference. I finally got a chance recently to whip out those photos and tackle this portrait for real. I've been doing more painting lately, so I took this as an opportunity to practice using my acrylics.
This one is of Stephanie that I did using colored inks, black ink and acrylic. This combination is something I want to continue experimenting with.

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Bonz and Obama

I got a request from Brian Bonz to illustrate a coloring book type image of him and and Obama just chillin'. This is the idea I came up with. These will be passed out at his show this thursday @ Mercury Lounge. If you're in the NYC area, go check it out and don't forget to bring crayons!

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