Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity.....

Leftover "turkey" the day BEFORE Thanksgiving!
Coincidence-- I was editing an old post to save time with "save as" and just noticed that I had used "vanity" (this week's Illustration Friday subject) in the description. Almost a year ago to the day: "I know it isn’t officially US Thanksgiving yet, but, with travel coming up etc. I thought I would go ahead and send pre-turkey day greetings. Watch out gobblers! Your tan-vanity may get ya cooked!"
Not sure if it applies at all to the Mark Twain quote I decided to use, but it might be worth exploring later on. "It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Mark Twain"

Mark(S)Zuckerberg

I've had the thought lately to get more weekly practice with my caricatures, so, I've trying to begin integrating more into my "Illustration Friday" posts and elsewhere. This is a bit late, seeing that it's almost Thanksgiving, rather than Halloween, but, I did create it back before All Hallows, so anyways. I think there was a magazine with Mark Zuckerberg on the cover as I was sketching on my iPad. Didn't put alot of thought into what Halloween character he would be, but, it could be apropos depending on who you ask.

Silent...

But deadly funny. If you haven't seen any Charlie Chaplin lately, give yourself a quiet, but, silently loud kick in the pants and give 'em a watch. Illustration Friday.

Stripes

Another Illustration Friday. A young(er) Bill Murray, back in the day, in the movie by the theme's name: ”Stripes.” I wanted this to be much more conceptual, but, alas, had to just do what I could while on deadlines with work stuff. I have, however, wanted to start doing regular caricatures to post, so, maybe this could be the first. What do you think? Anyone interested in seeing some of my closet caricature skills?

Scary

Scary is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday. Had to get this done, of course, TODAY. Deadlines are deadlines and today is Halloween, so, it had to be today! Trick or Treat!

Fuel

This week's “Illustration Friday” topic is "Fuel", suggested by Mags (http://www.oreillyink.com/). "Contentment consist not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire." ~ Thomas Fuller

Created on my iPad with “Procreate” app.

Contraption

Boy oh boy, wish I wasn't soo busy this week, but, at least I finished this the best I could under the circumstances. “Contraption” for this week’s Illustration Friday!

Thanks for the memories Steve.

Just heard about the passing of Steve Jobs, and although I felt his time was probably short for a good while now, I have to say I actually got a wee bit emotional while watching a retrospective about him on TV. As an illustrator and designer for well over twenty years, I feel like I was right in the thick of the Apple revolution. Although, admittedly, I am not, by any means, an “early adopter” of the latest and greatest technology. I saved for a long time to purchase my “own” Mac computer. At the time, in the early 1990's, I spent well over 10 grand for a
Mac Quadra 950, and scanner, and printer. The fastest machine at the time. I don't get that attached to machines and things. However, the more I reflect over the heart of my life and career over the last 25 years, I get a glowing nostalgia thinking that most whatever I've done in that time has been supported by Apple products. Even in light of the fact, that in the mid nineties, while Apple was struggling, I unashamedly purchased a Mac clone. I can remember waiting for a flight to Europe in 1997. The cover of the glossy American news weekly in the waiting area was about Apple, being “rescued” by BIll Gates and Microsoft with a crucial influx of cash. The deal also, in my recollection, was that any legal matters involving the suit Apple had against Microsoft and their Windows operating system be dropped. That one hurt. I remembered the sound of the soft chime of the original MacIntosh I was fortunate enough to learn on, in the first office I shared with others in the late 80's. I winced to know, that the genius of the Macintosh OS was it's friendly, approachable, interface; (the easy to navigate “windows,” and the mouse; that made a non-computer designer an instant devotee. Now that I reflect, I realize that a machine, in a subtle way, had actually given a young designer a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he could make it on his own. Thanks, Steve.

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Side note: Funny, I recently had toyed with the idea of creating a caricature every week to post on my blog. Well, it seems to be apropos that Steve Jobs be the first.

Hibernate

For Illustration Friday, this week's topic is "Hibernate" suggested by Caitriona (http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitrionasweeney/).

“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book (Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with Richard, and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death." ~ Anais Nin

Thought provoking quote for sure! Whether you're someone who loves their job or not.
Hibernation is for bears! Let us awaken from our “slumber” before the cold sets in!

Bigger to hear you with....

Last week, big eyes. This week, big eyes AND big ears. If I knew how to spell “Chihuaua,” I would say I thought immediately of the ferocity of the little chihuaua. Dynamite in a small package. I was hoping to show some sort of irony originally, but, realized a tiny little chihuaua going ballistic isn't really ironic as much as it is realistically chihuaua-esque. Whatever that means. “Ferocious” for Illustration Friday.

Mesmerizing, or should it be “Mesmer-EYE-zing...”

This week's Illustration Friday entry is “mesmerizing.” Not sure why I thought of an owl right away, but, it has to be the big, engaging eyes. Makes me think of some hypnotic soundtrack playing softly in the background. My eyelids are slowly getting heavier. Heavier.... Sleeeeppy.....Sleeeeeeeepy....
I'm falling aslllllllleeeeeeee....... Nevermind. Or it reminds me of that owl from the old “Tootsie Pop” animated tv ad. How many bites does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? One.... Two..... CRUNCH.... Tha-reeeeeee.

Disguise

I'm Back! It's been a loooong, but productive Summer. Quieting down a bit, so, I finally had a chance to post. Hope to be able to post some of the fun projects I got to work on recently, soon.

Launch

OK., Pre-Launch. It's been a while, but I finally cleared enough off the deck to get back on the Illustration Friday wagon.

VERY Angry Birds Indeed

Had the pleasure, last month, of working on a fun project for MAD with Senior Art Director, Sam Viviano. The stars had aligned, I guess, because I had just recently purchased my first iPad, and like millions of others, bought a version of the game, Angry Birds. I also was stoked when I realized that I could create just the kinds of vectors I needed, directly on the iPad 2, using Adobe Ideas app. I was even able to get a tight sketch for the bird closeup in the upper right, that I could take and finish in Photoshop on my main computer. The game screen was composited in Illustrator CS5.

"The beginner lesson"

Combining two themes again! Oh well, I just didn't get this to where wanted soon enough to stand for "lesson," so, it works fine for the both. Ole' sasquatch isn't quite the ruffian brute we thought, now is he? Hope you like it. Happy Mother's Day moms!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bar-B-Q Bike?

"Bicycle" is this week's Illustration Friday theme. And since I've wanted to contribute to the Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis' "Banjo Pig" blog for quite a while now, I decide to kill two pigs with one bicycle. I mean two birds with one... never mind. http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Still trying to experiment with Brushes and other painting apps on the iPad. This was almost entirely created with Brushes.
I am tending to prefer Brushes mainly for its ability to "re-create" the file on my computer at much higher resolution using their companion app "Brushes Viewer."

(Thanks to the guys at Banjo Pigs: http://banjopigs.blogspot.com for posting on their blog!)

Journey

"Darnitall, Edna, how is it that every time we come back from our trips, we bring back twice as much as we left home with!? That trailor is dragging behind like it weighs ten thousand pounds!" Ahhh, it really is all about the Journey, isn't it? Whether it's the journey to or fro...

Bottled late than never... or canned, or jarred,

Oh well, I missed the last Illustration Friday deadline and there's already a new category out. Last week's was "bottled." Don't know why this was the first thing I thought of. "Bless her heart, ole' Maybelle has done gone and done so much cannin', she's canned herself!" Did this with "Procreate" app on iPad.

First iPad Brushes painting

I figured out how to post this, so, here ya go.
This is my first iPad painting using the "brushes" app.
I like the progressive build animation, as a whole, better than the final still image. A cool feature of brushes. Wasn't thinking of anything or anyone specific, though, he does look Asian, then becomes Norwegian, and then perhaps Dutch, aging all the while.

Toy

Some Dads really go all-out for their bambinos.
I imagine the dude inside the contraption is an old buddy that helped Dad build the whatchamacallit, and now has been given the task, albeit begrudgingly, of driving the engines.
This was from an old sketchbook. I took it into ArtRage for the iPad
to colorize. Still getting used to the different way of looking at an iPad, not as a computer, but as a electronic device, as it relates to file transfers back and forth. (Which can be frustrating.) As well as the limitations back and forth of some software iPad apps. Still learning my way around the iPad, but having a blast doing so!

Test from iPad

My very first Brushes app painting. (And first post from iPad using BlogPress.) The animated progression is cooler than the final result. I'll have to see if there's a way to save the movie from Brushes to post. (if anyone reading this knows, give a holla) Gracious. This should make it whole lot easier keeping up with my posting!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Here's a closeup of previous post:

For the mountain of eternal soft swirl. "I dropped a carabiner into the soft, vanilla goodness, I volunteer to go get it!"

Swirl

OK, so I remembered this week's Illustration Friday topic incorrectly. It was supposed to be "Stir," and I remembered it as "Swirl." Well, at least I got around to doing SOMETHING. A last gasp for Ole' Man Winter. It IS Spring after all. I HAVE already had an "Oh, good thing I went around changing all the clocks in the house yet still found a way to be late to an appointment because the ONE clock I did not set to SPRING forward was the one I ACTUALLY LOOK AT ALL DAY" moment. Oh well, tomorrow's St. Pattys. We'll ALL be swirlin' then by golly. "Once you reach the summit, you can see the land of banana splits, and chocolate parfaits."

Warning Will Rogers

Some universal signs are subtle. Some, not so subtle. Illustration Friday's theme this week is “Warning.“ Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight, Red Sky in Morn, Sailors Better
Watch their Backside or else they may end up in one of those Huge Whirlpools in the Middle of the Sea like you used to see in Old Movies. Or something like that...

Swarm in here

This week’s Illustration Friday subject is “Swarm.” I had an immediate idea for an illustration, and intend to render that, however, I have been a bit tardy getting them out lately, so, I thought I'd post this recent spot illo cartoon I created for an auto parts company. Written, as always, by Joe Scibetta of Agency South. “Look out Albert!”

Layers upon Layers

Nowadays, with the digital medium being fairly de-facto in an artist's toolbox, I am not surprised that the actual first thing to come to mind for this week's Illustration Friday subject was something having to do with a multi layered illustration in Photoshop or Illustrator. Thank goodness that's not the avenue I pursued. Ahh, the delicate layers of a young vegetable. Sometimes so sensitive as to shed an equally delicate tear.
(And, of course, the young fruit, Tom Ato, is first to notice.)

“Shorn” his bitter side....

Darn if we don't give enough props to all those poor sheep who give generously of their wool every Winter. I can’t imagine what it might be like during the record setting Winter our country has had this year for those poor little quadrapeds all shorn from their coats. Oh, wait, of course I can imagine what it would be like.
My sketchbook entry for this week’s Illustration Friday subject: “Sweater.”
PS. To all those Scottish readers: don’t think I don’t know that sheep are usually shorn in the Spring, after the Winter. That just didn’t fit in too well with my imagination.

Reversery

So in a hurry was I to get out this week's Illustration Friday entry, I combined my "line" layer in ps with my "sketch" layer. Ooops. I hope it's not noticeable in the final version. Don't think it tiz. Since I was almost two weeks behind (again,) I almost combined the one before (surrender) with this week's "reverse." But, somehow I cam up with a "push-me-pull-you" riding a skateboard. The second sketch
I worked on, I used the new Sharpie brand "liquid pencil." Not sure I like it that much so, far. It smeared the gunky stuff on my hands, and although, it erased even easier than a pencil from my paper, it wasn't so forgiving on my table and hand. Strange. Oh well, another in my huge pen collection.

Dusty Chicken

Because I am a bit behind with my Illo Fridays, I combined the last two themes: "Chicken" and "Dusty." This is the first thing I thought of when imagining of a dusty chicken. Don't know why. I also had to decide on who would be the natural enemy of the chicken, and the raccoon seemed to be the best fit due to his natural "mask." Doesn't look like he'll win this one! Mister Racoon better reach fer tha sky! Thars a NEW sheriff in town!

Deja-Vu View

Hello! and back from Holiday shenanigans! Deja Vu all over again.
Illustration Friday this week is Deja Vu. Illustration Friday this week is Deja Vu.
Did I mention that already? Was working on my sketchbook for the "Sketchbook Project" and integrated the two. That's kind of like Deja Vu isn't it? By the way, Happy New Year to all! Holiday frivolity this year being what it is this time every year, kept me from my blogging duties, but I'm back and better than ever for 2011! So, Happy New Year to all! Holiday frivolity this year being what it is this time every year, kept me from my blogging duties, but I'm back and better than ever for 2011!