How I went from Feathery Fine to Woodring Bold, in just One Week’s Time!
So often I am called upon to create illustrations that ask for color or grey tone fills. I enjoy these, but it does affect the way I use my brush with the original line art, limiting my natural inclination to let the brush hairs do their dance about the paper. These two B&W spots, commissioned recently by The Riverfront Times in St. Louis, gave me the opportunity to let loose and draw in my old-school style. The first went a bit too far in the light-touch direction, the printed piece quite small and not well-suited for such detail. At the art director’s request, I emboldened the line work with the second piece, resulting in a drawing that feels uncannily like something Jim Woodring might knock off between bites of a mystic sandwich. I’m sorry if I borrowed your brain’s hand without asking, Jim. I promise I put it back where I found it. Interested parties, please check Comic Art Collective to see these two pieces now posted for purchase.
Watercolors at the Fairy Tale Factory
Just up, on an internet near you, it’s Seattle-based writer Amy Morgan’s brand-new Fairy Tale Factory site, a unique place where budding writers can connect with other like-minded souls to experience the wise tutelage of Miss Morgan’s classically-structured creative writing workshops. Below is one of the seasonal headers I was asked to create for the site, smartly put together by Kelly Davis of Farm Girl Works.
My TV Will Always Have Rabbit Ears
Call me old-fashioned, call me just plain old, but flat screen televisions are completely boring to draw. The same goes for most of our modern, faceless gadgets, which seem to be getting sleeker and smaller as the days go by. I swear to never stop drawing rabbit ears and radios with cloth speakers. Devoid of such bygone nuances, but nevertheless a pleasure to have illustrated, are the following recent examples of William Steven Humphrey’s I Love Television column, now appearing at The Mercury, in Portland.
A Monkey’s New Year from Albuquerque
Here’s the third irreverent New Year’s cover I’ve illustrated for Albuquerque’s Alibi weekly. Last year it was Bush getting the boot from the planet, this year his close-cousin takes the honors.
When the Biggest Fish is Actually a Mammal
Here’s an ink illustration recently commissioned as a gift for a fan of my old A Sleepyhead Tale cartoon, the pencil under-drawing still in evidence. It was requested that I draw the phrase-themed image in the “Sleepyhead” style, something I found quite illuminating to undertake, going home again and finding my key still went into the front door. No whales were hurt in the process. I even used a brush with synthetic bristles.
Perspectives, Drawn
Finally, here are four recent installments of my editorial strip, A Drawn Perspective, touching upon matters near and wide. For an extensive look at this strip, visit this slideshow album. A Drawn Perspective runs every other week in six Seattle-based papers, including the newly-christened South Seattle Beacon, edited by Erik Hansen.
