Posters.

I've been working on a poster series, and just finished the last one. These were designed to announce an upcoming laptop initiative at work starting this month. The challenge was trying to create an atmosphere of empowerment rather than dread. The scenario was pretty simple...starting Fall 2008 all students in the department were required to have laptops (i.e. buy their own laptop and software). Now attempting to get college students to be excited about spending a lot of beer money on a laptop...that's a tough sell to say the least. So the idea came up to produce a series of images that would a) empower students b) create a sense of solidarity and 3) drive them to the website for more information. Here was my take:

Rise! 24"x36", March 2008 (Illustrator)

Realize! 24"x36", May 2008 (Illustrator)

Rejoice! 24"x36", August 2008 (Illustrator)

Overall, I'm happy with the results...especially the concept.

This post brought to you by the colors Red, Orange, and Yellow.

Sketchy Sketches.

Crazed Flight Attendant* (pencil)
*She believed she was posing for a Vogue cover-shoot as she delivered peanuts...so weird.

Meeting Sketch - Eric (pencil)

Meeting Sketch - Jack (pencil)

Man on the Moscow Metro (pen/pencil)

Russian Woman (pencil)

Girl (pencil)

Random Doodle (pen/pencil)

Finished.

Well, Mice in the Barn is finished and ready for press. It was a whole lot of work and a lot of fun to paint....and better yet, I think 'those who pay' were extremely happy with the work. There are even talks of a follow-up book to begin very soon (as in now). It's always nice to finish up one BIG project and begin another that is already behind schedule. How does that happen, exactly?

The next book is about...wait for it...wait for it...mice. Not just mice, mice that go camping. I think the working title is Red, Ted, and Jed....or Red, Ted, and Fred. All I know is that if the book is about camping, I would like to officially try to include a reference to Canteen Boy if at all possible. Somehow, I don't think that will fly with a children's book.

Here are a few more finished lo-res spots from Mice in the Barn:

Mice in the Barn (Painter)

Mice in the Barn (Painter)

Mice in the Barn (Painter)

As always...a pleasure to work with The Zealot on this project. One day, maybe we will earn our mice badges and work our way up to other mammalian species.

The Illustration Brothel is Back and Damp.

It's been sometime since I've had a chance to post...well...anything. The short of the long is that while I was overseas - Noah decided to drop by my place. His stay was brief, but not before he left around 7 feet of water in my place.

Everything was wiped out in the first floor of our building. In no particular order...3 vehicles - gone. Client files - gone. Family heirlooms - gone. Silkscreen machine - gone. All non-digital paintings, illustrations, drawings (spanning the last 15 years) - gone.

But, on the bright side - no one was hurt. We were much more fortunate than most around south central Indiana, many of whom are still trying to piece together their lives.

Check out Pathfindar's photos on Flickr. This guy was wading directly in front of my building. When I was in Poland and was alerted as to what was occurring a half-a-world-away, I immediately Googled Franklin, Indiana Flood. This was the first image I saw.

To quote John Malkovich's character KGB from the movie Rounders - "It hurts doesn’t it? Your hopes dashed, your dreams down the toilet. And your fate is sitting right besides you."

I did salvage a few slides...well, kind of:


Maybe I can use these as texture for a bad Photoshop collage. Dare to dream.