Another illo for the Publisher’s Weekly “Soapbox” column. This installment was a funny editorial was written by Mike Reiss, who has been a writer for The Simpsons for nineteen years. In an effort to reach kids with a different message than he does on TV, Mike has published eight children’s books, and enjoys the freedom of being the sole storyteller. But he doesn’t do it for the money:
“To earn what I make as a TV writer, I’d have to publish a children’s book every four hours.”
Money isn’t everything though…but Homer Simpson has weighed in on this:
“Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like…love!”
This is a photo of a Ndebele traditional healer from the National Archives of Zimbabwe. When I was visiting there back in 1998 we visited the archives and were able to order reprints of old photos from their amazing catalog of images. We paid a small fee, filled out some paperwork and several months later this and a few other pictures surprised me when they showed up in my mailbox.
While working on a recent illustration I started using the lasso tool in Photoshop to draw some quick and spontaneous character silhouettes, which I really enjoyed. I was playing around some more with that this week in the lab…Also playing with the custom brushes a bit.
After a chat with P.A. this week about custom brushes (typical graphics nerds that we are), and in the spirit of openness and sharing that has energized the online illustration community, I am giving away the farm and offering up my most frequently used custom brushes for anyone to download…these were exported from CS3, so hopefully you can use ’em…
Download: Keegan’s Custom Brush Collection #1
Here are some photos of the One Fell Swoop CD I’ve been posting about (by the Amsterdam based duo Rara Avis). It’s nice to see the finished product, and for a change, it’s an object people will keep around rather than something someone will throw out after they are done reading the article…Thanks to Terri for bringing me the CD’s, and hope you get well soon!
Click to see a larger version.
Another drawing from the “One Fell Swoop” album artwork I posted about last week. This regal bird is printed on the CD.
I recently had the pleasure of collaborating with the musical duo Rara Avis(Terri Hron and Robbert van Hulzen) on the illustration and design for their new album, One Fell Swoop. They are based in Amsterdam, and make strange, mysterious music that spans many centuries and many cultures. You will hear dissonant medieval sounds coming from a hand-carved recorder, traditional South Indian passages, a home made toobophone and electronic rhythms to complete the collage.
The title of their album is from a great line in MacBeth:
“All the pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?”
So I ran with that dark imagery for the cover. I also had the fun task of designing the whole package for the CD case. I enjoy deign projects like this from time to time, and I had secretly always wanted to design someone’s album. Unfortunately I don’t have the final package in my hands yet, but I will post some photos in a few weeks when I get my mitts on one.
Click on the image for a larger view.
This is a poster I did just last week for the band Your Vegas. They originally hail from Leeds, UK and recently settled in NYC. Universal Records (their label) sent them out for their first gig in L.A. this week. To commemorate the show, the sharp marketing folks at Uni (thanks Frank!) decided to commission a limited edition poster. I had a crazy busy schedule last week while working on this, as I had the only other music project that I have ever worked on underway (more on that soon!). All in all it was a fun frenzied project, and I had a blast with the silhouettes, using only the mighty lasso tool to draw the loose shapes. Anytime I get to go nuts with glowing lights and a dusky sky, counts as a fun project.
Some detail shots after the jump…
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This is another illo for Publisher’s Weekly ‘Soapbox’ column (thanks for the steady work Clive!). The author, Mary Murphy writes about Jessica Seinfeld’s book, “Deceptively Delicious”. Seinfeld’s book gives tips for busy parents on how to sneak pureed veggies into kid-friendly dishes, without them detecting the spinach you’ve surreptitiously included in the brownies. Murphy writes about how the culinary deception wasn’t so successful with her kids.
The timing of this illustration was uncanny. This fun story story was about Blackberry etiquette, for Las Vegas Life magazine. I had just become a proud iPhone owner a few days before receiving the job, and I was very much under the influence of the glowing little computer in my pocket. Having never had any kind of Blackberry-like device, it took a little getting used to the idea that I was so connected all of a sudden. As chance would have it, I received the email for this job on my shiny new gadget, and was able to reply and accept the assignment immediately. This was all while stuck in traffic on the F.D.R. (though I suppose this is a violation not just of etiquette but several laws as well).
It’s fair to say I have been gushing about this thing for weeks now, but it’s worth noting that the iPhone isn’t just helpful in GETTING the jobs, but also in executing them. The camera makes quick reference shots very easy, and the screen is big enough to hold in your hand while you draw…much better than running over to the computer, importing the image, printing it out, etc. And having a hand-held Google image search in your hand is only a good thing for the busy illustrator! One of the first things I did was load up all of my illustrations form my website into the photo viewing app, and now I have a bright, crisp, flickable, pinchable, zoomable portfolio of my work with me wherever I go. Sweet!
Now if it only had a drawing program…
(Click on the image for a larger version)
