From The Vault: The Hi-Way Cafe - 2009

I used to be part of an art blog called The Pop Project, where each month all the artists would submit pieces centered around a theme. One month it was "The Twilight Zone", so I chose to illustrate a shot from my all-time favorite TZ episode, "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?"

Set entirely in a quiet, off-the-beaten-track greasy spoon, WTRMPSU? is about a bus full of passengers who get stranded there because of a massive snowstorm. Rumors fly that an alien has been seen nearby, and paranoia quickly takes root, with all the patrons suspecting its each other.

Its a creepy, funny, tense show, with a hell of an ending. I saw it for the first time when I was eighteen, and amazingly it still kinda creeped me out. I've watched it a few times since, and it still really works.

Anyway, I had a number of moments from the show to represent visually, but I liked this one, which is just before the big ending. There's no sound on the soundtrack; making this moment even more unnerving, since (if you've seen the show), you get a small sense that something is most definitely up.


Not too long after posting this piece on the blog, I was contacted by the granddaughter of actor John Hoyt, who starred in the episode and is represented above. She loved the piece, and that her Grandfather was remembered so many decades later. She asked for a copy of the piece, which I was only too happy to provide. Who would have guessed such a thing?


I like this piece overall; but I think my favorite part is the stuff seen through the window. It kinda looks like it would in real life: fuzzy and indistinct, but you can still sorta make out what's going on. I need to do more of that!

From The Vault: Martin Short - 2006

I used to have all the "Hot Seat" portraits I did up on my namtab.com site, but now that I trimmed that page down to a manageable size, I figured it would be fun to dig out some of the older and (IMO) better ones and put 'em up here!

This portrait of Martin Short--who was promoting a one-man show on Broadway at the time--was one of the first Hot Seats I did for Time Out New York after they had redesigned the page and changed the orientation of the portraits from vertical to horizontal.

Feeling creatively invigorated, I really tried to give these portraits my all, making them more complete illustrations all around--giving the magazine more bang for its buck, so to speak.

So I thought the name "Marty" all up in metaphorical lights was a really neat desig element. Plus, it tied in visually to the picture, and sort of commented on Martin Short's on screen/stage persona, which was kind of an attention hog, the kind of guy who chased after the spotlight. Nothing would make that Marty happier than seeing his name in giant, twenty foot glowing letters.

But...for whatever reason, the magazine had some weird rule about no text ever being in these portraits, so they asked me to take it out. I kinda thought that ripped the guts out of the piece, but by that point I knew not to argue. Even if I had, they would have gone ahead and taken it out themselves, so I said sure, got rid of it, and the resulting printed version was okay, but not as good as what I had.

Some days, the bear gets you.

From The Vault: Super 16 - 2005

This was one of two pieces I was contracted to do for some sort of insider movie magazine (meaning it was a trade publication, not sold to the public), for an article on different film stocks.

This was one of the most difficult, frustrating jobs I ever did: the client in question had little to no idea what they wanted, and even less money to spend. But I really wanted to get some work in entertainment-related magazines (still do), so I bit the bullet and tried my best.

When the client saw this, they told me in no uncertain terms with was not what they wanted. They still couldn't tell me what they did want; they just knew this wasn't it.

I ended up discarding this entire piece and starting over. Having no time left, I basically grabbed some stock photos of people using various cameras, added some color and effects, and threw it all together. I thought it was awful, and I knew this would be the only time I would work for this particular client.

They actually liked the second version better, much to my simultaneous horror and relief. I asked that the pieces go uncredited--the only time I've ever done that--and tried as best as I could to forget about the whole job, and what a missed opportunity it was for everyone involved.

From The Vault: FMOFU Logos Pt.5 - 2010

This was to be the final set of logo designs I worked up for Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground magazine.

Most of the other logo treatments had been rejected, so I got rid of all the concepts I had been playing around with earlier, and tried to come up with some other looks. Of this group, I really loved the last one--it looked really cool to me, dark and claustrophobic.

The one that was ultimately chosen--#6--I thought was cool, too, with the little drawing of a skull I had lifted from a previous poster I had done. I've said it before, I never throw anything away!

From The Vault: FMOFU Logos Pt.4 - 2010

Yet another set of logo designs I worked up for Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground magazine.

I really liked the first two--I re-introduced the "paste-up" motif (hoping maybe, by sheer repetition, I could convince the editors to go with it), and I liked the second's red-with-dark bits look.

The third one is way too conventional "monster"-y, I think I probably felt the need to fill the space so I just whipped up one more logo variation...

From The Vault: FMOFU Logos Pt.3 - 2010

Yet another set of logo designs I worked up for Famous Monsters of Filmland: Underground magazine.

That first one is really a toss-off, and never under serious consideration. I liked the second one because of the addition of the blood spatter, a little design element I would incorporate into other FMOFU logo variations.

From The Vault: Disaster Preparedness Pt.2 - 2003

These were the final six illustrations I did for a research paper about disaster preparedness in the case of a terrorist attack.

As you can see, the detail is minimal, but the bright colors and circular shape make the illustrations not all that bad to look at in the end.

Thankfully, none of this has come to pass--let's hope it stays that way.

From The Vault: Disaster Preparedness - 2003

This was probably the weirdest assignment I've ever had--illustrating scenes from a research paper about disaster preparedness in case of a terrorist biological attack. Fun stuff!

I don't remember how the person who hired me to do these illustrations found me, but they told me they needed twelve scenes from the paper turned into graphics which would be interspersed throughout the text.

The paper involved some sort of high-tech "disaster suit" that people could activate in the case of an attack--a mini-alarm goes off, you take some pills, etc. I guess the final panel represents running like hell.

I didn't have a lot of time to do these, as the lack of detail shows. I ended up doing twelve total, we'll see the other half next week!

From The Vault: Coffee - 2003

Back in 2003 I had hired an art agent, and for a while I sat down to a bunch of advertising art, in a conscious attempt to show potential clients my style would work in that arena.

Some pieces came pretty well, some merely okay--this is one of the latter. The typography is kinda cool, but the actual drawing of the coffee is kinda ehh: it doesn't look like liquid to me, it looks like mud or, worse, river sludge. Starbucks didn't end up with a bajillion locations by selling that!

From The Vault: Where Are You Tonight? - 2003

An early, kinda lazy attempt at a paperback book cover. I like some of the elements here, but I didn't push this enough to turn it into something really worthwhile--I think it needed another pass on the figure, and not have it quite so distorted.

The type is handwritten, something I should try again sometime!

From The Vault: Aretha - 2003

This was a conceptual piece that didn't quite work, but I still kinda liked it: I pictured the viewer standing on the other side of a recording booth, not hearing the tidal wave of sound being produced by Aretha Franklin's booming voice.

Of course, the whole port hole thing doesn't make a lot of sense, but I just kinda liked the way it looked.

From The Vault: Anthony - 2003

I was asked to do this portrait of then-one-year old Anthony Serano, by two of my oldest friends, Paul and Sharon Serano, whom I've known since high school. They were doing a big party for their son's first birthday, so they wanted a nice portrait for the invites.

When I look at this, I sorta cringe because I think I botched it--the face came out okay, but the tones for the wisps of hair are all wrong. They're way too dark and solid and to me it just looks odd.

But this remains, in a way, one of my most significant pieces because I went to the party, something I don't normally do (I don't have kids, so kids parties are kinda ehhhh for me). While there, a friend came up to me and handed me a piece of paper with a name and a phone number on it.

It belonged to her friend Tracy, whom this mutual friend thought I should call. I was a little taken aback, not expecting such a thing. But I went home and after a day or two I did call Tracy.

After talking on the phone and via email for about two months, we went on a first date. That was eight years and eleven days ago, and we've been together ever since. That makes this piece the most rewarding I've ever done, or ever will do.

From The Vault: Dorothy Lamour - 2002

This is the last entry in the series of old Hollywood Glamour-type portraits I did back in 2002--Dorothy Lamour!

Ms. Lamour nowadays isn't one of the best known actresses from that era, but I loved her in all the Hope/Crosby Road movies; she seemed like such a good sport. She was mostly thought of her in her trademark sarong; here I glammed her up a bit.

From The Vault: Audrey Hepburn - 2002

This was another entry in a series of old Hollywood Glamour-type portraits of leading ladies past and present--this time going with someone about as iconic as it gets, Audrey Hepburn.

Looking back at this one, I think I went a little too dark on the grey tone, which to my eyes doesn't match with Ms. Hepburn...but I wanted to keep the tones consistent piece to piece, so I was sort of stuck with it. All the white helps with the angelic look, something that matches quite well with Audrey Hepburn The Icon.

From The Vault: Charlize Theron - 2002

This was another entry in a series of old Hollywood Glamour-type portraits of leading ladies past and present--this time going with someone current, Charlize Theron.

There were a couple in this series I thought didn't work at all, but this one's not too bad--I wanted Ms. Theron to look sexy (that's not difficult), but I didn't want the portrait to look too out of place with the old-timey style I was aiming for, nothing that would stick out alongside portraits of Crawford, Hepburn, etc.

Hollywood Glamour: Joan Crawford - 2002

I did a series of old Hollywood Glamour-type portraits of leading ladies past and present in 2002, starting with this one, Joan Crawford--not sure why, since I was never that big a Crawford fan (compared to, say, Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Theresa Wright, etc.). But start there I did.

After doing a whole run of these (which I'll post on subsequent From The Vault Fridays), I decided the design I was using was too ornate and busy, so I stripped all that out and went with this approach--just the name in simple type, white and grey, strategically placed. I think this worked much better, and put the focus back where it belonged--on those amazing faces.

From The Vault: MBA Jungle Portraits - 2001

These are three portraits of a series I did for MBA Jungle magazine, back in 2001 when that mag was still around (from top to bottom: Jerry Stiller, Tara Reid, Bill Paxton).

They had a regular feature where a new celebrity each week would pick stocks, and then the magazine would measure those stocks' fortunes against other celebrities. Maybe it was this kind of "its all a big game" attitude toward our financial sector that got this country in the trouble we're in. But I digress...

Anyway, the feature was fun, and it was one of the first regular assignments I had gotten in this style, so it taught me a lot about getting things done on time and looking consistent. When I look at these now, I'm generally unhappy with them: the grey tones are too heavy and hard-edged, giving the likenesses a rockier look than I like. But, like a lot of things, it was a learning experience.

I did something like a dozen of these (some of which I have on my website proper), and then the magazine decided to drop me in favor of another artist. Eventually, MBA Jungle went belly up. Coincidence?

From The Vault: Bruce Hornsby - 2001

I don't remember the particulars of this piece, other than musician Bruce Hornsby was running a contest for artists to design his next tour t-shirt (I think) and the winning entry would get free tix to a concert and some other freebies, not to mention the chance for their work to be seen all over the country, if not the world.

I designed this piece, very soon after I started doing all my work digitally. Looking back over it now, it seems like a pretty weak illustration--not enough detail, and I don't know what the hell I was thinking not coloring his left sleeve, that just looks weird--but at the time it was where I was at. So I was happy with it, and sent it in.

A few weeks later, I was told that I didn't win the contest, but Bruce Hornsby was so impressed with it that I was sent an unscheduled, unplanned "second prize" award, which was free tickets to a show. To say I was thrilled was an understatement!

I never ended up claiming the tickets, because I never was that huge a Hornsby fan (I saw him once live, and while it was a fine show--he even whipped out a Dylan cover--it didn't inspire me to go see him again). But that vote of confidence (Bruce Hornsby made the extra effort to say how much he liked what I did!) really helped me keep going during that dark time in my career when I wasn't landing any work, and wondered if I ever would.

Thanks, Bruce!

From The Vault: Hey Mister - 2002

Okay, this one probably needs a little explanation.

Back in 2002, I was single and desperately unhappy about it. A recent relationship had imploded and I was in a really bad place in my life. I was also feeling the pain a lot of single guys know--seeing women around that were really cool and yet were with guys that didn't seem worthy of them.

I was feeling that exquisite pain over a woman who I was just completely smitten with, but had a boyfriend who I thought was a slimy, cheesy worm. I couldn't understand how this quirky angel was involved with a guy like this. So every time I saw them, I went home feeling frustrated and angry, bewildered at what kind of man the women I was attracted to in turn found attractive: it sure as hell wasn't me.

So one night, in a fit of pique, I did this piece, one of the few (only?) times I've ever used any sort of profanity in an illustration. I imagined this amazing woman dumping said worm and finally seeing the truth--that I was worth her time. Not only worth her time, but the kind of man that would drive a woman into a sexual frenzy, so much so she would say something as porn novel-ish as what you see above.

Color and design-wise, this is a much more punk-y piece than anything I've generally done before or since, and I think that must have to do with the fractured state of mind I was in that night.

From The Vault: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Titles - 1999

This was my proudest achievement during my year Koen Book Distributors, the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Titles catalog.

I had been given a list of all the catalogs I would be designing shortly after I started at Koen, so I knew when the Sci-Fi one was coming and I had always planned to make it really special. I would work on it in bits and pieces in between other duties.

I wanted the cover to be a rip-of...er, homage to my favorite movie poster of all time, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. I even grabbed a piece off of that poster, and used it as the crowd running amok in the foreground. I took the monster from some old comic book ad, and then dropped all the Koen-specific text on top.

I wanted some sort of graphic theme to run through the whole thing, so I had clumps of little flying saucers streaking through the text, as well as brief intro about the wonders of science fiction on the inside cover. The final page even featured the classic "The End...or is it?" gag.

When I look back on this now, of course I think I could do better, but at the time this was fairly ambitious of me to put this much thought and effort into the design, and I was really, really proud of it. We got some positive word back from some customers saying how much they liked it, and that meant a lot to me. It remains the highlight of my time and work while I was at Koen.