Virtually Spring

Virtually Spring, pencil drawing/digital

Here's my New Yorker cover submission for the theme of the week: Spring.

I'm conveying a very common scene on the streets of NYC these days. Everyone is wrapped up in their electronic devices and living and experiencing things through social media, the internet and email. They don't fully realize their surroundings.

These people are experiencing spring but only through their devices which is why they are glowing with pastel colors. The young girl represents innocence and simplicity and she is in full color with a huge smile on her face because she is living in that moment and not virtually. I've put them in vintage clothing to maximize the contrast of life at a simpler time and life woven with today's technology.

Figure Drawing

Pets make great models. Especially ones who move around a lot. They provide constant inspiration and help to get you to think about shape and gesture.

Tax Maze

Tax Maze, digital (click to zoom)

Here's my idea to mark April 15th, Tax Day for The New Yorker magazine.

March MADness

MAD MAN, digital (click to zoom)

"We're going to sit at our desks and keep typing while the walls fall down around us because we're creative - the least important, most important thing there is."                    —Don Draper

MAD MEN Season 5 Premiere on Sun., Mar. 25 at 9pm ET/PT on AMC. 

Preparing for MADness

MAD MEN concept. Graphite on paper (click to zoom)

It's been some seventeen months since we've seen them, but things are shaping up.

MAD MEN Season 5 Premiere on Sun., Mar. 25 at 9pm ET/PT on AMC.

Color version coming soon.

BEWARE: The Ides of March

BEWARE: The Ides of March

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Caesar: What man is that?

Brutus:A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Act 1, scene 2, 15–19

I thought I'd mark the day with my depiction of Julius Caesar, who, on this day, tragically met his end, when his closest colleagues betrayed him. A lose impression of a calendar is used as my background and the fateful day is marked. The English language has been enriched with colloquial terms by a lot of William Shakespeare's work and from Julius Caesar besides "Beware the ides of March" we get 'Et tu, Brute?' as well as common terms like 'backstabbing.'

Spring Training

Spring Training, digital sketch (click to zoom)

Above is my sketch for this week's Blown Covers contest: Spring Training. The bobbleheads seemed a perfect match for a play on the 'spring' training theme. Is the Mets player being poked by fans? the trustees for the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme victims? or MLB who granted the loans the team took in order to cover their debt?
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Françoise Mouly, the art editor for The New Yorker magazine has launched her personal blog, Blown Covers.
Each Monday, she posts the theme of a contest for the week, which mirrors closely what she has suggested to the magazine artists she is already working with. On Friday, she reveals the winner of the blog contest and on Monday, the current New Yorker cover.
You can visit her blog to see all the ideas submitted as well as Françoise's pick.

The Exquisite Corpse Project

I launched a new blog today to display the results of our creative exercise game: The Exquisite Corpse Project. We are a group of creative professionals who complete these drawings through the course of our day.

Our is a take on the old parlor game popularized by Surrealists in the early 20th century. Players draw each panel in turn and fold the page to conceal their contribution before passing it along to the next player. Once completed, the entire drawing is revealed and more often than not, the independently drawn panels remarkably relate to one another.

Down with Downton

Mr. Carson, digital (click to zoom)

MR CARSON: We may have to have a maid in the dining room. 

ROBERT CRAWLEY, EARL OF GRANTHAM: Cheer up, Carson. There are worse things happening in the world. 

MR CARSON: Not worse than a maid serving a duke.

Season 2 of Downton Abbey has just concluded and the third season is reportedly due out in September of 2012.

Jim Carter portrays the butler, Mr. Carson. I was initially interested in depicting the Mr. Carson character for his appearance. As I watched the show, I realized that of the entire cast, this character was my favorite. As the butler, he IS the estate of Downton Abbey and its smooth operation rests solely on his shoulders. He is the epitome of properness.

He has great pride for his role in service for Earl Grantham's estate. As the social classes begin to question their differences, Mr. Carson's character is the one that I felt for the most as he struggles to validate his purpose.

March is In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

My sketch for the Blown Covers contest, digital

Françoise Mouly, the art editor for The New Yorker magazine has launched her personal blog, Blown Covers, where she offer a glimpse behind the scenes.

Each Monday, she posts the theme of a contest for the week, which mirrors closely what she has suggested to the magazine artists she is already working with. On Friday, she reveals the winner of the blog contest and on Monday, the current New Yorker cover.

Above is my sketch for this week's theme: In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb, where I've replaced one of the New York Public Library's lions with a lamb. In the 1930's, the lions were nicknamed "Patience" and "Foritude" by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia for the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression.

You can visit her blog to see all the ideas submitted as well as Françoise's pick.

Fire!

Fire Safety Training

Long meetings go by faster with a pen and paper in hand.