'The Stranger' Illustration

TOM - This week, I got the opportunity to create an illustration for The Stranger, an awesome newspaper based in Seattle. The article is about a summer camp for non-traditional families, in this particular case, poly families, a family where the mom and dad have multiple partners. The AD, Aaron asked if I could illustrate a typical, happy summer camp image, except for the fact that the canoes are stuffed full of these multiple-parent families.

Here is the sketch that Aaron chose, it was the one I felt the most strongly about also, so I was glad he picked it.

As far as the inked drawing went, it was inked with a synthetic Princeton #1 brush and black indian ink on bristol. I kept the drawing very open with little to no shading at all because I wanted to expeiriment with color, adding light, shading and mood.

I'm happy with how the final page came out and I had a fun time working on this, thanks, Aaron! Read the full article here.

***Reminder***

On a side note, the show I'm in in Philadelphia, 'Wired and Hazy' is still up until the end of the month, be sure to check it out at SALT Gallery if you're in Philly!

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Tote Bags!

TOM- Check out these tote bags I just made! You may remember this image from a previous post a couple weeks back.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out and excited to be venturing into the world of tote bags!

If you are interested in purchasing one of these, here are some of the details: they are printed on 100% natural canvas totes with standard sized straps. To order, please visit my Etsy shop, where I also have t-shirts available as well.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, thanks for reading!

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Getting hot in here...

TOM- Here is an illustration I did for Nerve.com this week. I illustrate a weekly section for them entitled, 'My First Time', people submit stories about how they lost their virginity. For the most part, they're pretty entertaining to read. Over the past year or so, I've used this as an opportunity to experiment with different styles and approaches. Since most of these stories take place during adolescent years, I often approached it with a sweeter, more young adult type style. Recently though, they changed the format of the page a bit and asked if I could make the illustrations even sexier, focusing on the climax of the story and giving it a more adult feel. I'm cool with that, plus the wider format will give me another way of approaching these compositionally, which I'm excited about. Anyway, here's my first crack at the new approach. I included the black and white version as well, it's slightly different than the final.

Look out for some new sexy illustrations at Nerve.com!

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New Drawing and Tote Bag Design!

TOM - Here's another new drawing I mustered up in my free time. I'm going to have some silkscreened tote bags made up with the black and white version on the left, those should be available in the next week or two, I'll totally post about it and throw them up on the Etsy shop when they're ready! I think the color version would make an awesome print, if anyone is interested in buying one, let me know and I could make that happen! Monday morning, it's sunny, be happy, have a great week!

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'When I Die'

TOM - Over the last week, whenever I could find the time, I've been working on this new piece. As the day's get busier, I've been noticing that having some sort of personal project on the side really helps me unwind at the end, or sometimes the beginning of the day. James and I were recently discussing sketchbook practices and I was telling him how I haven't kept a sketchbook in months, sounds crazy, I know. But recently, I've been really enjoying simply grabbing a piece of paper and just drawing and erasing until something comes out of it. I feel like this allows my imagination to run wild, like a sketchbook would, but it also fulfils my desire to create a 'finished piece'. This particular drawing is an example of that. I'm sure I'll get back to sketch booking again, but for right now, this approach seems to be working so far.

Here is the black and white version. It took a long time to clean this up in Photoshop, the original has a ton of eraser marks and smudges! Anyway, I'm thinking about possibly making this into some sort of print, if you'd be interested in owning one, let me know.

Have a great day!

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