There is a certain song by the Decemberists that I really like called “The Mariner’s Revenge Song”. It’s a jaunty, nautical rhyme about a young orphan seeking vengeance on the man who betrayed his deceased mother.
The narrative quality of the song always spoke to me as something that would make a great illustration, like something out of an old picture book of sea-faring tales.
I tried to capture the climactic moment in the story below. Thanks for looking!
Recently I had the opportunity to illustrate an article for Grid Magazine, a local publication here in Philadelphia that covers all aspects of sustainable living.
The article was about eating invasive plants (non-native plant species that cause damage to local ecosystems). Most people would call them weeds, the type of growth you see taking over a vacant lot or popping up from a crack in the sidewalk. It turns out a lot of these plants are edible! Below is my finished illustration. Check it out in the February issue of Grid (#46).
I recently illustrated a piece for Magnet by Phil Sheridan, about a very personal experience he had seeing John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Rosanne Cash and many others perform at NPR’s Cabinet of Wonders in NYC last year.
Below are some of the steps I took from original concepts to the finished art.
Experimenting last night with Prismacolor Art Stix. I found out it’s not the best drawing tool to use on long poses since it creates this waxy build-up that is hard to work with past a certain point, especially with my heavy hand.
Just a little something I did in the spirit of one of my favorite times of year. This started off as a pencil sketch from my sketchbook, refined and finished digitally.
Happy Halloween!
Still trying to capture that elusive quality of “life” in my life drawings. Is it in the linear structure of the figure? The rendering of light and shadow, the roundness of form? Still not sure. Probably all of these things executed skillfully, by someone who isn’t over thinking the process like me.
A few weeks ago I was commissioned by Magnet Magazine to provide an illustration for an article in their upcoming issue. The article, written by Phil Sheridan, was about his observations of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in London, particularly the inclusion of the Sex Pistols into the mainstream of British music history.
The subject matter was right up my alley. I had a great time doing it so I thought I would show a little of my process here.
After brainstorming and going through many rounds of thumbnails, I decided on the four strongest. I knew I wanted to get Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious in there with the Queen, how could you not? I cleaned them up and sent them off for feedback.
After the art director and editor settled on one, I developed the concept further in a pencil drawing stage.
On to the inks, I was trying to find a good balance of black and white, experimenting with different kinds of mark making.
As a jumping off point for my color scheme, I used these two iconic album covers as inspiration.
The final image. ‘Ello!
Check out issue #92 of Magnet (the one with the XX on the cover) to see the printed version!
Lamenting the end of summer, even though I usually get bored at the beach.
Hope everyone had a good one!
Here are the last two drawings from my visit to the Academy of Natural Sciences. These were done from two of many amazing taxidermy displays they have on display there, which is about as close as you can get to the real thing. Hopefully I will someday be able to return their with a sketchbook and some time to draw.
The polar bear diorama was definitely one of my faves! Done with ballpoint pen.
