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!



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