Old Editorial Illustration

I used to do illustrations for the Sunday editorial section on a regular basis. They were very quick turnarounds. The editor would most often wait until mid-day Thursday, or even Friday, to select an article for publication. That left only a few hours of time on the clock to come up with something and finish it up.

My recollection is this was for an article about the previous Pope, who was not doing well at the time. He looked shaky and weak and miserable, but he kept doing whatever it was he was doing. I think the story compared the Pope's suffering to the tales of Jesus' suffering, so that's the hook that latches article  illustration.

No larger size available.

I don't know why this sticks in the memory, but I clearly recall this was done in a hasty panic the day it was due. I felt all kinds of regret and remorse when I had to send it to the page designer in order to meet deadline; I hated Jesus' head and wanted to do more to the chair.

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Sorry I've been posting old stuff. I hope to get some fresh work to show soon. I'm in a bit of another art-slump and the time and energy for personal work has dipped to new lows, while work for the paper seems to have been steady but hasn't been of the fun and artistic variety.

But, I'll try to get it going again very soon!

Tiny Old Star Wars Jpegs

A few years ago I did an illustration for the review of the final Star Wars movie. I thought I had blogged about it, but it was done before the birth of the blog. I found an archive of my website where I had written about it. I've edited that text and placed it below.

Will update with larger image when I find it.

For this assignment, I was given a slab of page one real estate and told to fill it up with Star Wars imagery. "Just put a big Darth head at the top, above the fold." Yes, I can do that.

The writer of the review -- the great Barry Caine -- was a familiar face to the readers of our papers. He was featured prominently in our entertainment section on a regular basis and his smiling mug-shot was often used in promotional ads, so my use of him as a character in this package isn't as off-the-wall as it might seem to those of you from outside the area.

My intention was to have Barry-Wan standing with several of the movie's characters. I did drawings of Mace Windu, Chewbacca, Threepio, Obi-Wan and Padme... but they hit the cutting room floor. I was running out of time and getting them to fit together and look good in the space provided wasn't going to work out.

And I almost forgot about leaving room in the image for the story. Kind of important.

I had good fun. It was cool to see it so big on the front page of the paper.

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This is an arrangement of some the discarded doodles which has been rattling around in my screen-saver folder since 2005.

If I ever find the original files for either of these drawings I'll post 'em big and update the blog.

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Gift Giving Etiquette

No time for typing today. So, in brief, here's an illustration done for work. The story is online here: Gift giving dos and don'ts.

Open in new window for a larger version!

And here's how it looked in the paper:

No larger size available.

Drawn in Photoshop! Two things really bother me: The Santa cap doesn't wrap around the teddy bear's head very well and I should have drawn a clearer coffee cup shape.

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Bay Area Hobbitats!

Here's a bit of fun!

Angela Hill had an idea for a story highlighting places in the Bay Area that might fit in to a vision of Middle Earth. She's a Tolkien fan and, for inspiration, she even loaned her copy of "The Hobbit" illustrated by Alan Lee. Her story is here, and it's very nicely done!

"The Hobbit" was a passion for me in my tweens and teens; I couldn't even guess how many times I read that book. Lots. I knew this would be good fun for me.

Open in a new window for HUGE version.

Secretly, I dread these kind of map illustrations. Well, not so secretly now, I guess, but it's just so dang hard to get things to fit!

This was a quick turnaround, so I didn't have time to fret over each bit. It was a straight forward sprint all the way. I was really worried about how it would look until a couple of hours before it was due. I wasn't certain I could fill the page but I had to discard a few other ideas because I couldn't wedge them in comfortably. Which was good, because it took much longer to color than I thought it would, and another 5 minutes spent on the drawing would have sent me tumbling into the deadline crack of doom.

Still, I wish I could have worked in a gag about the Oakland Raiders. And Iwas going to have Gandalf and Bilbo saying something like "How strange this place is." "I knew we should have taken a left Lothlórien." Or something nerdy like that.

Jennifer Schaefer designed the page, guiding me along the way; and here's how it looked in the paper:

I drew everything except for the dragon Smaug at the bottom. I traced it from a picture of the cover to the first edition of the book. I thought that would solidify my Tolkein-geek cred.

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Very Old Painting

Once again, propping up the blog with an old thing.

This is a 2004 study, referenced from a still frame from of one of the Sherlock Holmes tv shows made in the 80s. Not sure, but I might have painted this while watching the TV on pause -- the lime green iMac didn't have a DVD player, so that may have been the only way to do it.

This is full size. Don't bother clicking.

I've been completely burnt-out by the job-commute routine these past few weeks and so I haven't had the time or energy for more personal work. Hope to improve on that soon.

Hm. Feel like I've typed that 500 times before.

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Don't Stuff Yourself

For about a month and a half -- mid-november to early January -- everywhere you go there will be bowls of candy, trays of cookies, office party snacks, free samples as you walk through the mall and plates of junk when you visit family and friends. Yeah! But, if you're worried about over-doing it perhaps this story by Angela Hill can help you cope.

This is my illustrative accompaniment for said story as it appears on the website:

Open in new window for a larger image. 

This is what I arranged for the print version:

Open in new window for a much larger image. 

And this is what it looked like in the paper:

All the bits were drawn separately and assembled in Photoshop. I web-searched for images of holiday cookies and candies, and I used those pictures as reference and inspiration. I invented the lady as the final piece, and -- without meaning to -- I almost made her look like a cookie, too.

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Head Drawings

Created these head drawings for a graphic that ran in the paper a few weeks ago. Only used about half of them. Drawn in Illustrator, and I was trying to achieve a Chris Ware vibe. Kind of close, I think.

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Are We There Yet?

Yet another old illustration I did for the newspaper, probably 2005 or so. I think the topic was how to make your family vacation drive more enjoyable, but that might not be totally accurate.

Don't bother clicking. It doesn't get any bigger than this.

I don't know if this is the final and I don't know if that was headline that was used; it looks a little peculiar and makes me squirm uncomfortably, but it might have run like this.

I kind of dig the crazy-looking characters and mad color scheme.

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Doctor Strange

Hey! It was Steve Ditko's 85th birthday the other day. I think he's the last of the old guard of comics artists I've admired since I was a wee lad. Coincidentally, I've been re-reading his run of Doctor Strange stories that ran in Strange Tales in the 60s. Quirky, bizarre and beyond brilliant.

Updated the picture with a slightly more careful coloring effort.

Tried to get the Ditko vibe when I did this quick drawing this morning while drinking coffee/feeding the baby/ etc. Fun to do!

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Evelyn Again

Spent a week (mostly) away from the computer. It's nice to take a break but I feel like I haven't done much... and I haven't! So, here's a 20 minute drawing to try to get back in the swing of things.

Open in new window for the actual size.

Grabbed a photo of the lovely Miss Evelyn B. and -- using the biggest, most jittery and uncontrollable photoshop brush I could find -- I put on my Mary Cassatt hat (or should I say bonnet?) and hacked this out.

Eh, it's alright. Fun to do, no matter how it looks.

The End.