Question Everything!

Hello, all! Hope all is well. I've been juggling a few plates lately while trying some new things. I'm still trying to get the hang of a wacom tablet, and lately I've also been attending SUNY New Paltz's figure drawing every week; it's a great free-model Monday night. Perhaps I'll post some drawings from the sessions eventually, but for now you'll have to settle for another illustration installment!

I was recently contacted by Jesse at Philadelphia Magazine with a very interesting assignment: a portrait of Philip Berg. Now you may ask: "who is Philip Berg?" That was my initial response when I first read Jesse's email. It turns out that Philip Berg is the man behind many conspiracy theories including the government's responsibility for 9/11 and the Obama/birth certificate fiasco. Apparently, Berg became obsessed with conspiracies and was once a well-respected lawyer.

Jesse wanted a portrait that would showcase Berg's involvement in the conspiracy movement, but he dd not want Berg to be "too crazy looking." He sent me a few reference photos (neither of us could find much) and I got started:

I decided to nail the likeness down first and try some different backgrounds. I agreed with Jesse about staying away from a "crazy look" as we agreed that the article would let people decide for themselves. My goal with Berg was to show him as he sees himself: as a hero informing people of the facts. I went for a iconic and confident look; he is very proud of himself and what he is doing.

In terms of the backgrounds, the first sketch features polaroids of 9/11 and theories about Obama and the White House; the photos feature handwritten theories. I was going for an "evidence wall" type of feel.

For the second sketch, I went in a different direction and used a technique from a personal drawing I did a year or two ago. I like the visual effect of a figure surrounded by question marks. It works in two ways as they can represent both Berg's questioning everything as well as our questions about Berg: "What happened to this man? Has he lost his mind? etc."

Jesse decided to go with the first sketch, and I was fine with either choice. I worked up two different color versions. One featured a green background and the other was the red background chosen. I tried a few new things on this piece in therms of rendering the figure, and I like some of the subtle things going on.

Jesse seemed very happy with the piece, and I look forward to working with him again. Honestly, working with Philadelphia was a bit of a dream job as I spent my college years and then some in Philly, and I get a kick out of thinking folks I know actually get to see my work in print. And there are still some other Philly publications I would love to work with (hint hint).

On a side note, this assignment sort of sucked me into the whole conspiracy world. I was watching videos of 9/11, reading sketchy blogs, etc. Some of the arguments can be pretty persuasive! Interested in reading about Mr. Berg? Read the article here.

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Coming to a town near you?

Hello, hello. As promised last week, I come bearing art. Its been getting busy around here since the last post, and it has made me almost forget about Halloween! I have to start my costume, and that means brevity in this month's post. Sorry!

Earlier this month, I was very lucky to be contacted by Tom at Riverfront Times. Not only was I glad to receive a job after a break, but it was a cover! Nice! Then Tom dropped the bomb that the article would be national among Village Voice Media publications, and that was awesome!

Tom had an idea of what he wanted so I sent him two quick layouts to choose from (I used a frame from another assignment's sketches as an indicator):

After layout approval, I worked up a tight sketch. While doing so, Tom ran the layout by the other art directors and wrote me with the feedback that it seemed very "farmer" with the pitchforks and such. I made it more urban by replacing them with pikes wrapped in barb wire. I thought it might be too much, but I guess not:

And I submitted two versions of final art. Initially, I was working the piece to emulate images on my website that Tom had mentioned. However, I really wanted to explore this as a two-color image, and Tom responded to that as the direction to move in:

After some discussion, we settled on this final version:
The difficult part of this assignment was creating a suitable composition that would work with all of the papers' mastheads. Tom allowed me some leeway and said that overlapping the logos is fine and actually encouraged in some cases. Good news for me! Here is a sample of what most of the other mastheads look like:
The artwork is being featured as an interior image in Minneapolis City Pages as well as the cover of Riverfront Times, Village Voice, Houston Press, SF Weekly, Miami New Times, New Times Broward Palm Beach, and Dallas Observer. Needless to say, I am SUPER-PSYCHED to have this artwork coming out this week! It's one of those days where you can't stop smiling and whistling, and people look at your weird.

Many thanks to Tom, Ivylise, Miche, Alex and Alex, Monica, Justin, and Nick for such a great opportunity as well as the great exposure. I hope to work with each of them again in the future!
(You may read the article here)

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Work is Play.

Hello again. I'm sorry that I don't have any art to share this week. Instead, I wanted to share some work-related stuff that I have going on. To quote Milton Glaser, "Art is Work." But I also think Art is Play. We all started because it was fun, right? Doodles and mark-making were fun. So to keep it as such, I am trying new and old things outside of my usual methods.

I just got a Wacom in hopes of experimenting with Photoshop. It was a gift from my lady friend, and its pretty fun. I went with a tiny one as my desk space is pretty cramped already, and I didn't want to spend too much money in case I didn't like working in this manner. I hope to post some results eventually.
The Bamboo is pretty cool as it can also basically replace your mouse. Not only can you use it with a pen, but you can also use your fingers as if it were a mousepad (think scrolling and clicking on you smartphone or itouch).

I have also been experimenting a bit with "analog" work. Aside from the sketchbook, I want to try some media on different papers. Here is a result of inks on a watercolor block; no preliminary drawing here, just putting pen to paper and seeing what happens:

I also keep forgetting that I finally got a toned-paper sketchbook! Its in my bag, but I immediately grab ol'trusty. Hopefully, I'll stumble upon it and get some playing done there as well.

Sorry again for the lack of commissioned work this week; I need to spread it out :) Check back next week for a new piece!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Cham-paign, anyone?

Hello again! I don't have much time to chat today as I have a pretty complex project on hand, so I'll just jump into a brief step-by-step of a recent project I can finally post. I think. Although I do not see anything for the campaign online, I was told that I could start promoting the artwork in October...

Over the summer, I was very lucky to be chosen for a poster campaign. It is for Sidedoor Productions, a film studio that accepts submissions/scripts for movie ideas (think Project: Greenlight). They are teaming up with Mountain Dew to get the word out: you could have your movie made! The design firm handling the promotions was TracyLocke in Connecticut. A special thanks to Kim and Andy for selecting me as well as their friendly demeanor and patience.

The project was originally going to run four posters, but the number was cut down to two due to budget. There may be a third poster in the future if needed. The first two posters were to a pitch/script-themed poster and a generic all occasions poster.

Quick composition layouts that were discussed before sketches: Round one of sketches:

Round two of sketches (face alterations):

Round three of sketches (additional face alteration):

First round of finished art (too green):

Second round of finished art (more facial detail and new figure, background alteration):

Third round of finished art (face alteration and color changes):

Final posters as produced by TracyLocke:

I decided to show the original artwork on my website so that viewers will see exactly what I delivered. So I placed the needed text on the art and produced these versions for my promotions:

The entire process for these posters took around six weeks due to Andy and Kim waiting for feedback from folks at both Sidedoor and Mountain Dew, folks on vacation, etc. I do hope we continue with the third poster as I greatly enjoy working in a series. I also think I enjoy poster work so much that I am hoping to do more both for clients as well as self-initiated projects.

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Charity and A Gift.

Howdy! Welcome back for another weekly post! Wow!

I just added some new work to the site, and I will blog about one piece this week and the other commission next week. Give me a break; I have to spread it out or I'll be writing all day.

In a recent commission from Miami Herald, I was asked to do a section cover illo concerning the economy's effect on Florida charities and non-profits. In a nutshell, donations are down as folks are hesitant to give money. As such, charities are having to try alternative methods of securing enough funds such as directly soliciting and cutting budgets/programs. I won't be showing sketches as I may want to use them for a future assignment. Final artwork:

I like the image; its simple and to the point. It changed slightly from the sketch in that I added the spotlight.

Also, in a great turn of events (and thanks to Scott Brundage showing my portfolio), I am now being represented by Richard Solomon Artists Reps. I won't say much about this as I think Richard and company has some future announcements planned concerning their roster and direction. I look forward to working with them and hopefully bringing in some advertising campaign work as well as any new commissions and collaborations!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Breaking down to Build Up!

Hello all. Welcome to another post! All is well in the studio, and I'm in the middle of a little breather. Two possible projects are being sorted out, and I am taking advantage of the downtime to really attack my sketchbook. I'm really trying to feel out why and how I draw while trying to let go of any idea I have of what is "good drawing." I'm also sorry to say that I am adopting a "my eyes only" approach to the sketchbook; the idea is that I will only focus on progress and experimentation instead of making pretty pictures for other folks to see. So there may or may not be additional sketchbook updates.

Although it was poorly made, listening to a documentary about Henry Darger (In the Realms of the Unreal) brought to light how a person can make art only for oneself. Until this time, I felt all artists crave attention, and I often joke that "all artists want to be famous" as we really just want people to view our work; we need to be validated! But there is certainly something to be said for a man who spent his whole life writing and illustrating a 15,000 page manuscript that no one saw until he was close to death. It makes me wonder where the assumption that I have to show my art comes from and that keeping it to myself feels selfish. But hey, keeping it to myself should keep it honest, right? I already find myself drawing differently and drawing subjects I wouldn't otherwise. So its off to a good start.

While exploring the sketchbook, I am also trying to really explore other aspects of drawing by looking at as many drawings as I can and trying to figure out WHY it appeals to me, reading and researching how drawing works from both an artist's and a viewer's perspective, and trying to discover how one moves from drawing to another technique such as painting; they really are two different beasts. Defining such things can be very frustrating and there are always artists and images that counteract any definition one hypothesizes. however, I feel doing so and asking myself such questions will make me more honest with myself and my work.

I am also trying to "step out of the box" within my regular assignments as a loose continuation of this exploration. A good example of this approach is a recent illo for John at Bloomberg Markets. I was very happy to be contacted by John from a referral by Kam, the Bloomberg designer I worked with last summer on a great assignment concerning Asian stock market regulators. John was looking for a metaphorical image to represent the mistreatment of retirement pensions by General Motors. We discussed concepts and such, and I provided the following sketches:

John wanted to see a sketch of a "pension" license plate that was beat up and rusty. The plate is a Michigan plate to allude to GM and "motor city."

In the other sketches, I wanted to explore the pensions as dwindling. This sketch of an emptying funds gauge fit the bill, but I think it was too static.

I enjoyed this sketch that worked in both my idea as well as John's license plate request. However, it was decided that the size of the image was going to be small, and certain elements of the sketch would be hard to read. The final art:

Initially, the image was "too clean," and John asked that the license plate be dirtier. Upon revision, we were both quite happy with the finished product.

This image was a little intimidating for me as I do not usually work with textures, and I do not usually aim for a more realistic representation. However, I was adamant that those two elements were key to this image being successful so I basically jumped in feet first to scanning textures and making brushes in photoshop. I had not worked in this manner for years! Replaying the creation of this art in my head, I have to say that exciting nervousness of not knowing where the image and just trusting yourself is going is a lot of fun; I hope to push it into more work.

Thanks for reading! Look for a new post next week!
Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Non-profit work pays more than money.

Hello, again. I'm trying to keep up with blog posting, and I am aiming at a weekly schedule (hopefully). The idea is that posting often will result in shorter posts.

So what's new? Well, I finished up a new promotional mailing effort yesterday, and I am working on a few projects as well. As usual, they are hush-hush until publication. The following illo was published last week so I can share it with you. It is a commentary illo for Education Week. Vanessa emailed me with the assignment details and the title alone piqued my interest: "Failing to Learn." The article is pretty captivating, and I was looking forward to tackling the issue visually as it was definitely going to be a challenge outside of my comfort zone.

The main gist of the commentary is that our education system is repeating the same mistakes, and we are not learning from errors of the past. The sketches:

This first sketch was based off the classic tale of William Tell. Vanessa liked the concept, but the editors felt it may be too obscure. I like the image, and I may complete it as a personal piece since the message can be related to by a wide audience.

Sketch #2 was more situational with Sherlock Holmes "examining" education (in this case, a poorly trained teacher). I liked playing with scale in this sketch. Thanks to Aliyah gold for reference poses, and I was the model for Mr. Holmes.

I felt the third sketch was my best concept, but my worst drawing. Maybe I should have "sold" my idea better. To show the repeating of past mistakes, I felt an ambiguous figure that could be either a student or a teacher with a collection of dunce hats would work well. However, Vanessa's editors felt this was too harsh and ma be seen as downright offensive. I could see that as well; its a bit too subjective. So Vanessa and I agreed on using the Sherlock Holmes sketch, and I was off to a finish:

The image was actually submitted in two versions with both a blackboard and a green chalkboard; Vanessa preferred the black version as it popped in her layout more. There were lots of little challenges in this image that I enjoyed solving, and I tried a few new things that worked out in my favor. Thanks to Vanessa for the kind words and fun assignment. I hop eto work with more non-profits in the future!

Enjoy the day,
Chris