Four Illustrations

It sure had been busy at home and at work this past month. There has been comedy, there has been calamity. There has been illness and recovery, and a quick jump back to illness again. There has been holiday fun and the fearful terror wrought by a gushing water heater.

And I did a few illustrations for work. Here is what they looked like in the paper:

Open in a new tab to embiggen.

I might update the post later with more in-depth discussion for some of the illustrations, but then again I might not.

Social media for your neighborhood. Created in Illustrator (mostly.)

I'm going through another phase where I'm uncertain of my purposes of blogging. I've used the process in the past as a way to document my workflow, to leave a brief record of what/why/how I'm doing what I'm doing.

Best California Governors. Drawn in Clip Studio Paint and a little bit of Photoshop.

I've done it to force myself to think about my work by having to explain it. I'm not sure who I am explaining this to anymore. I mean, who reads blogs?

What to do with the castoff BART cars. Drawn in Clip Studio Paint.

But, as always, if you have any comments or curiosity about any of my efforts you can ask here or on Twitter.

Comparing costs between hospitals. Clip Studio Paint and Illustrator

The end.

Tale of the Tape

Here is an illustration I created for the Mercury News a couple of weeks ago. Rather than try to explain what it's about, I'll just link to the special edition website with the whole story. It was written by Tracey Kaplan, an investigative reporter for the Merc and can be read here.

The great Pai Wei created the webpage.

Created in Photoshop.

It's a fab piece of journalism concerning a past incident of harassment and a possible cover-up by the Santa Clara County Sheriff. If you have any interest in such topics it's a great read, and – I almost never do this – I also recommend the comment section for a little extra spice.

Since this post is so light on detail about the creative process (not much time for it today) I'll show my rejected first effort here:

Drawn in Manga Studio and Photoshop

More art coming soon!

More Dubs vs. Cavs

Here's a collage, arranged for a Mercury News special section preview of the 2017 NBA Championship. I know, I know – that was weeks and weeks ago, but I've been lazy about the Blogspot upkeep.

Photos: Mercury News ace, Nhat V. Meyer; AP guy, Marcio Jose Sanchez;
Jason Miller working for Getty Images

As usual, I didn't have much time to work on this assignment, and – rather than try to do some elaborate drawing or cartoon – I thought it would be fun to use some photos and create something reminiscent of a rock poster. I was hoping to be a little edgier but, again, not much opportunity for exploring ideas. The image above is what ran in print.  

Below is a modest tweak for online presentation. Horizontal images are preferred for online, which is always an extra batch of work since one must squash and recompose the job as the deadline guillotine falls. There was an extra spoonful of disappointment when I realized it's more square than horizontal. Ah, well. It would make a pretty good CD cover.

The End.

Where Did The Pokemon Go Go?

I drew this for a short piece – written by Angela Hill – that ran in the Bay Area News Group's quarterly magazine. And, just now, I see that they published it online, as well. Angela always does good work.

Drawn in Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop. Open in a new window for a very large image.

The article pondered the sudden rise and swift fall of the Pokemon Go phenomenon. My illustrative offering suggests that, possibly, they were hunted to extinction.

This fad did not capture me. I think my gray hair and bifocals rendered me Pokemon Go-proof. Or perhaps it is because my daughter is too young and therefore I was not swept up in the excitement.

I'm more of a retro-gamer. If it's not more than twenty years old I won't even look at your "silly video game." I sort of faded from the cutting edge when the Sega Genesis disappeared from the toy stores. But I do game on the iPad and hit websites like GOG.com where they sell old computer games on the cheap. Masters of Orion 2 is my latest purchase, along with Afterlife and EV Nova; and I occasionally fire up my late 90s iMac to play Unreal Tournament (1999 edition.)

That means, twenty years from now, Pokemon might seem cool to me. So, you might find me wandering the streets in 2037 with my retro 2016 iPhone, dancing and waving my cane while I shout: "I finally got the Squirtle!"

The End

Monumentally Lazy Blog Post 3

Drawn in Illustrator.

Simple. Took longer to do than you would think, but simplicity – for me – is most often a result of pruning a more convoluted and complex effort. Very true in this case.

The link to the story is here.

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Giants Do It Again

The world is topsy-turvy and anything can happen. Weird to think that, a few years ago, I figured I would slip free of this mortal body (many decades down the line) and never see the Giants contend in a World Series. This season, the instant they beat the Pirates in the one game playoff, I would have been more shocked had they not won it all. Again.

Open in a new window for a big ol' image.

Drew this in photoshop over a couple of days (and a little bit of night) for the special section of the Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times etc. I had a great time doing it!

I'm pressed for time right now, but I'l come back with a more formal post about it in the near future, including a pic of how it looked in the paper, as usual.