Cover illustration for Friskee Trax 4 compilation from Friskee Media. Ink on found paper, 2009. Click image to view larger.
My friend Josh Heilaman of Friskee Media commissioned this cover for the Friskee Trax Compilation vol. 4. Head on over to the Friskee site to sample the tasty beats buffet.
The original drawing is about 5 inches square, a marker drawing on an old map.
Alison Bechdel is the creator of the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For. Her recent book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, is a frank and tender deconstruction of her childhood and adolescence. It's never easy to understand one's parents from an adult perspective, and Bechdel uses Fun Home to explore her father's identity through fresh eyes.
Note: If you are reading this blog (and watching the videos) in Firefox, good for you! (If not, please switch browsers right away. You won't regret it.) Since you are a savvy Firefox user, you might benefit from the Flashblock plugin, which reduces the load time for web pages with embedded videos.
This is your brain on vacation.
As you may have read, I have a piece in the Society of Illustrators Annual 51. The show for the Book and Editorial categories has opened, and I'll be attending the awards night this Friday, February 6th, with friends and family.
Other things I plan to do in New York include: Walking a lot Eating a lot, for example, at Sakagura Attending the Society's weekly Jazz & Sketch night on Thursday Catching the end of the James Jean show Kindling at Johnathan LeVine Gallery And maybe getting a haircut
Ciao!
p.s. Thanks to Shanna at Blue 7 for helping me find something respectable to wear.
Anonymous Niece, acrylic and colored pencil on Rives BFK, 2009. Click image to see full-size.
To learn more about Illustration Friday, click here.
Anonymous Niece was created for Seeing Other People, a show of contemporary portraiture by Oklahoma Artists. The show hangs in the OKC Underground Invited Artists Gallery from January to April 2009. There will be an opening reception this coming Thursday, January 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Please join us!
To create this fictional portrait, I worked from several photographic sources. My primary source was a picture I found in a stack of old family photos. There is no information on the photograph identifying the subject, just the name of the portrait studio: Jamiesons Studios, 3A High Street, Wrexham. (A quick search tells me that Wrexham is in northeast Wales, the country my family came from two generations ago. So it is likely the girl in the photograph is a distant relative.)
Following is a list of movies I listened to (on headphones, from my portable dvd player) while I worked on Anonymous Niece.
Normal, OK: Hinton Geary, ink and collage on found fabric.
I'm pleased to announce that Hinton Geary from the Normal, OK series has been accepted to the Society of Illustrators 51st Annual book and exhibition. Ever since I learned about the S of I, I've wanted to be a part of it. My painting Let's Make Some Undies was in the student show in 2005. This will be my first time showing at the Society (or anyplace in NYC) as a professional.
Hinton will be in the Book Illustration category, representing Normal, OK: The Book (which you can order by clicking here).
The exhibition opens at the Society of Illustrators in NYC on January 28th 2009. The awards ceremony for the Book and Editorial categories will be on February 6th. God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be there.
