From The Vault: Namtab in Entertainment Weekly

...sort of. Even though I have never done any official work for Entertainment Weekly, my work has appeared in the magazine! In this 2003 article on Margaret Cho, you can see the portrait I did for her in the background. It was a quite a surprise, seeing that when I leafed through the issue.

So far, I've had my picture in the magazine, some of my letters printed, and this--but no actual original illustration. I hope to change that, eventually...

Time Out New York: Tegan Quinn

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is musician Tegan Quinn!

I didn't know much (read: anything) about Ms. Quinn, other than having heard of her as part of the duo Tegan & Sara. Since she's promoting an upcoming solo tour, I thought I'd go with an "action" shot--the subject in a real place, instead of the usual poster-ish approach I go for.

So I put her on a darkened stage with real moody lighting. I added the little pop of red color just to have some nice contrast, and I think overall it came out pretty well.

The Pop Project

I've got a new piece up on The Pop Project, where this month's subject is "The Twilight Zone." Click on over there and check it out!

Monster PSA: Lt. Col. Glenn Manning

This week's "Monster PSA" poster is a bit of a change of pace, in that I have the title character (from 1957's The Amazing Colossal Man) doing the speaking, not the actor.

But when I was putting this poster together, using the actor's name just didn't work (sorry, Mr. Glenn Langan!). There was something about the very-important sounding "Lt. Col. Glenn Manning" that worked a lot better in this context. The public service message seemed obvious, considering who was delivering it.

The Amazing Colossal Man was one of those cheapie "B" sci-fi films of the 1950s that was run on my local UHF station seemingly every other Saturday, so I became very familiar with it. Its not a great movie or anything, but it has an endearing goofiness that holds up better than a lot of other movies from that era.


(This Monster PSA poster is available at my Zazzle store as a t-shirt and mug)

From The Vault: Confessions of A Park Avenue Playgirl - 2005

This is an alternate version of a faux-vintage paperback cover I did back in 2005--the delightfully titled Confessions of a Park Avenue Playgirl.

With that kind of title, I knew the cover had to be playful and silly, and that's how the final piece (which you can see on my site here) ended up--but before I wrapped it up, I tried this version, using a completely opposite color scheme. I think it works pretty well on its own terms!

Time Out New York: Michael Palin

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is Michael Palin!

Of course, I am a huuuuge admirer of Mr. Palin, having grown up on Monty Python, but also A Fish Called Wanda, American Friends, and his other various efforts--as actor, host, and author--over the years.

Palin was promoting a new documentary on Monty Python, to commemorate the group's 40th anniversary. So I decided to keep it simple, and drop in an iconic shot of the group behind him, and then fade it a bit to give it that feel of an old photograph that you're fondly looking back on.

Monster PSA: Gloria Holden

This week's "Monster PSA" poster is the first (and hopefully only) one that I completely redid between the time I worked on it and the time I posted it here.

Originally, I had a close up shot of actress Gloria Holden (playing the title character in 1936's Dracula's Daughter) and the message was something along the lines of being able to run your life as you see it, sort of a reference to the idea that she, as Dracula's daughter, would maybe want to lead her own life and not be limited by her famous parentage.

But as I moved on to other Monster PSA posters, this one kept nagging at me, like it didn't quite work--conceptually, it was too dull. Plus, Holden, by herself, didn't have the visual punch of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, so it didn't really work in any respect.

So last week I started all over, and went for this shot of Holden, in her spooky black robe, which I thought was much more visually arresting.

Then I redid the message. Since Dracula's Daughter, as a film, has some lesbian overtones (she feasts on women as well as men, somewhat seducing them, just as Lugosi did) I thought I'd go for a modern day message, this time about marriage rights for everyone.

But since I don't like any of these to be too strident or serious, I thought I'd add the "or suck the blood of" bit to lighten things up a bit, since equal rights for vampires would obviously be paramount in the mind of Dracula's daughter.

Exhibition at the Miami Beach Cinematheque

This is exciting!

There will be an exhibition of my Universal Monster posters at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, kicking off Halloween night, on the event of their Frankenstein/Invisible Man double-feature, and continuing on into November.

This will be the first time my Universal Monster posters will be seen outside my website, and the first time any of my poster work will be seen at the size it was meant to be seen: 22x30" big!

You can find out more about the screenings and the exhibition here: Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. Future updates about the exhibition will appear here!

From The Vault: Sterling Hayden - 2003

I guess the reason actor Sterling Hayden is on my mind this week is because I just sold a copy of my faux-movie poster Two Bullets in the Chamber, which "starred" Hayden.

Hayden almost always played a tough guy--on either side of the law--maybe most famously as the corrupt, racist cop in The Godfather. I'm not sure where I got the idea for the big black box on the right--its not really a look I've dabbled with much, before or since--but I kinda like it, in some weird way.

Time Out New York: The Rza

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is musician, and now author, The Rza!

This piece is a perfect example to me of the main reason why I enjoy doing these weekly Hot Seat portraits--the freedom to experiment.

After I was told who the subject was, I went looking for reference shots of Rza, and there was one where he had his hands in front of the camera, making a sort of "W" sign.

I liked that look, but wanted to do something different with the colors--for whatever reason, I got the idea in my head to make the hands that right in front your face solid white, to make them abstract. Then I would color the shirt with just one or two colors, then go for full-color on the face.

I'm not sure why I got so attached to that idea, but I wanted to try it. Now that I have, I can look at it with some distance and see whether the idea works or not, and whether I should bother to try it again.

But that's one of the nicest things about doing these portraits ever week for over four years(!)--Time Out New York allows me to try different things, which is an extraordinary amount of freedom. And even after 200+ portraits, I still look forward to doing these pieces, week after week.

The Pop Project

Starting this month, I'm participating in The Pop Project, an art blog which is the brain child of my pal Charles Howell.

Each month we run a poll asking visitors to pick a subject, and whichever topic gets the most votes will be the subject we all attempt to visualize. The (so far) four participants are me, Charles aka Chunky B, Eric Stettmeier aka "Bubba Shelby", and A. Pants.

Since we needed a topic to start off with, we settled on an early childhood artistic influence. My choice, the Gorn from Star Trek, can be seen there now, so go check it out for those of you who need more of me in their lives!

Monster PSAs: Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning

This week's "Monster PSA" poster is a little different this time, in that I'm having the message delivered by two actors instead of one--but since the role of the Creature From The Black Lagoon was played by both Chapman and Browning, I couldn't possibly leave either one of them out!

The idea for the message--which is an established cliche--partly came from the time I met both men at a Monster Con a few years ago. I was so excited to meet the actual guys who played my all-time favorite monster!

I first introduced myself to Ben, and asked him if he would sign my custom Creature poster. He cheerfully agreed, and we talked a minute or two--he was incredibly friendly and I was trying to make sure I just didn't say something stupid.

Finally, I thanked Ben, and then moved to the next table over, which was Ricou Browning's. I then asked him to sign the poster, and like Ben he readily agreed. Ricou blew me away when he asked me where I got the poster.

I told him I had made it, and he said that it was so sharp looking he assumed it was something that came from Universal! My head was spinning over that compliment, and as I thanked him and walked away, my main goal was to make sure my poster--now with both signatures--didn't somehow get damaged on my way out of the show.

This is my long-winded way of saying how cool I thought it was that these two guys "teamed up" when they did shows like this. Sure, seeing either one of them would've been great all its own, but having both guys there, together, made it so much more special.

The Namtab Store at Zazzle.com

I have opened a store over at Zazzle.com, where several of my illustrations are now for sale on t-shirts, mugs, and more!


make custom gifts at Zazzle

Namtab on the Web!

I was going to run my typical "From The Vault" segment this Friday, but there's another appearance of my work on the web I want to talk about!

The super-cool blog When Is Evil Cool? has a piece up all about my Monster PSA stickers, in glowing terms I'm not sure I deserve, but I'll accept! Be sure to go over there and check it out, along with all the other cool stuff you can find on WIEC!

Time Out New York: Pink

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is Pink, or, as she's sometimes called, P!nk!

I was really excited for this one, mainly because Pink's look and vibe is so high energy and fun, and I thought it was going to be a fun challenge conveying that.

But when I actually sat down to work on it, I found this portrait really tough to pull off--not the likeness so much, but the aforementioned sense of energy and fun. I originally went with a lot of blacks and hard lines, but that didn't look right, so I ditched all that and went the other way--very little black, instead going with all kinds of crazy color.

Namtab on the Web!

Wow! Someone over at Turner Classic Movies must have liked the interview with me so that much that they put a link to it on the main TCM page!

Fire, bad--promotion, good!

Monster PSAs: Elsa Lanchester

I really have the wind at my back, regarding these Monster PSA posters--they're quickly becoming my most popular set of pieces, and I've been coming up with ideas for them so fast I can barely get them all down.

For these PSAs, I've been toggling back and forth between the message being related more to the actor or to the character--in this case, of course, the sentiment is more from the Bride of Frankenstein's experience, not Lanchester's.


There'll be a new Monster PSA poster every Monday here on the blog for at least the next few months, so keeping checking back to see the newest one!

Namtab on the Web!

In lieu of a "From The Vault" installment, today I'm highlighting an interview I did with Richard Harland Smith, over at MovieMorlocks.com, the official blog for Turner Classic Movies.

This was the first interview I've ever done about my work, and I'm really happy how it turned out--it was a lot of fun and Richard's a great interviewer. Plus--over there you'll see a brand new "Monster PSA" poster that will only be seen at Movie Morlocks! Hi-keeba!

Check it out, I hope you like it, and thanks Richard!

Time Out New York: Michael C. Hall

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is Dexter himself, Michael C. Hall!

Being a regular viewer of Dexter, it was fun getting to do this portrait. Having first seen Michael C. Hall as the neurotic brother on Six Feet Under, I was amazed how he could play this very different role, and do it so effectively.

Obviously, given what kind of character Dexter is, it made sense to use lots of red for this portrait. But I didn't want it to look like blood necessarily, so I went for this more painterly look.

Namtab on the Web!

Wow, this was exciting!

Last Friday, one of my Monster PSA pieces appeared on MovieMorlocks.com, the official blog for Turner Classic Movies.

The article was written by Richard Harland Smith, and my mention was part of a bigger piece about Frankenstein in general. Richard was very complimentary towards the piece and my work, which of course I really appreciate.

Turner Classic Movies is, also of course, the channel for movie fans, so I'm thrilled that one of my pieces appears in any connection to it. Thanks Richard!

Monster PSAs: Lon Chaney Sr.

These Monster PSA posters are turning out to be nearly the most popular set of pieces I've done, second only to the Universal Monster posters (a coincidence, surely).

For this one, I had a couple of ideas for taglines that I thought matched an image of Lon Chaney Sr., but for whatever reason this one seemed to make the most sense to me--from everything I've read, Chaney Sr. went to such extremes to create the monster make-ups he was famous for (subjecting himself through grueling physical demands in the process) that I can only assume he was utterly, completely obsessed with what he was doing.

In any case, I liked the contrast of the cheery text and the ghoulish image, which seems to the engine that drives these Monster PSAs in the first place.

From The Vault: Blue/Orange - 2005

Another piece done solely as an experiment; this time with two contrary colors and some odd shapes.

I like how the hair almost completely fills the frame, and looks sorta like big puffy clouds; yet another visual approach I haven't followed up on much but should...

Time Out New York: John Kraskinski

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is John Krasinski!

Most famous, of course, from his role as Jim on The Office, he's also now a director, having directed the new film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, adapted from the book.

Since he was promoting the film and not the show, I stayed away from any Office references, although I never have done that for any of the other show's cast members I've had the opportunity to do portraits of for TONY:

...I wonder who's next? I hope it's Creed!

Monster PSAs: Claude Rains

In the middle of a very busy couple of weeks, I managed to work up another one of my Monster PSA posters, this time features Claude Rains as The Invisible Man, making a very self-aware statement.

From The Vault: On The Spot - 2004

This piece was nothing more than me wanting to do a very slick, fashion-y type of image, not tied to a specific face.

I think its kinda cool, actually, I should try and do more of these...

Time Out New York: Trey Anastasio

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is musician Trey Anastasio.

For some reason, when I illustrate people with red hair, the black tones I usually have look very wrong to me--they stick out like a sort thumb, even more so than with blondes. So I took all of the heavy dark shadows out of Mr. Anastasio's hair and beard, and kept the blacks on his face to a minimum, which, along with the background, gives the piece a light, airy look, that I think works well for the subject.

Monster PSAs: Boris Karloff

My latest addition to my "Monster PSA" series, this one took a little longer to come up with: not because the joke is so clever, but because Boris Karloff is such an iconic figure of 1930s movie horror that I had trouble deciding which image to go with!

From The Vault: Spencer Tracy - 1993

One of the earliest attempts at illustrating in this cut-paper style--a portrait of a particularly haggard Spencer Tracy.

I was--and still am--a big fan of the actor, and around this time I was renting every movie with him in it I could get my hands on. Later in his career, he seemed to specialize in roles where he was made to look weathered, beaten, down and out--or some combo of all three.

While it's not that great a likeness, I do like the cartoony looseness of it, something I haven't been able to pull of that much as the style developed.

Time Out New York: Juliette Binoche

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is actress Juliette Binoche.

Any time I have a big time movie actress as a subject, I try for an old Hollywood glamour-type of shot, which is why I tend to go for black and white. When I do this, I usually have an old-timey glamour photo background, but this time I wanted something a little different, a little more ornate.

This American Life

This is a piece I've wanted to get to for a long time!

A year or so ago, I did a portrait of This American Life host Ira Glass when he was interviewed for Time Out New York's "Hot Seat" feature. I was really happy how it came out, and I knew I wanted to use it as the basis for a full-on TAL poster. When I finally sat down to work on it, it was a huge amount of fun, finding the right balance of old-timey and modern design elements.

I think my favorite element is the last thing I put on there--the scratchy Chicago postmark, which I thought gave the whole thing a feeling like the show is a big postcard, sent from Chicago--via the radio--to the rest of the world.

Monster PSAs: Lon Chaney, Jr.

My third attempt in the "Monster PSA" series, this one screamed out at me when I saw a still of Lon Chaney, Jr., in his breakout role as Larry Talbot, aka The Wolf Man, with his hand on a doorknob.

To me he looked like he was checking the door for heat, the way you're supposed to do when you think there's a fire. Voila!

I'm having a lot of fun with these, so I've been trying to come up with more of them in between working on other projects. We'll see how long I can keep 'em going...

From The Vault: Back Light - 2004

I have no memory of the hows and whys of this piece--I was probably bored and just wanted to mess around with something and see what happened.

That heavy white outline is the one unusual element--its a nice effect, but one that for whatever reason I haven't used again.

Time Out New York: Andre Leon Talley

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley.

Like last week's subject, Nina Garcia, Talley is a figure from the world of fashion, of which I know nothing about (watching What Not To Wear every week is as close I get).

So I was at a bit of a loss as to how to approach this, and since I had very little time to turn the piece around, I went with something cool and dignified and relatively simple (although I did add the dot pattern on his tie because I thought it looked cool).

Animal Care for Artists Initiative Logo

Last month, I was contacted by Laura Menck, one of the board of directors of The Animal Care for Artists Initiative, a new non-profit dedicated to providing health insurance for pets of those in the arts.

Laura couldn't have known it, but she couldn't have found a cause I'm more passionate about if she tried. Being self-employed for over half a decade now, I'm all too familiar with the delicate balance that it sometimes takes to make sure you have adequate health insurance for not just yourself, but for your pets.

Laura and the ACAI was a dream client to work for--all they asked was for it to include their mascot Dolly (the dog on the left--so cute!) and it to have a sort of old-timey, WPA-ish feel to it. Of course, that's music to my ears, and I was so excited to work on this I ended up putting some other work aside to get to this.

It all came together quite quickly, and even the one element usually the most hard to pin down--the right font--fell into place. I sent it off to Laura and the ACAI, and they loved it, and its now on their website.

I hope that the ACAI is a huge success, and helps creative people like me the chance to provide for their pets--they deserve it.

Woof! Woof!

Monster PSAs: Glenn Strange

I can never resist a series!

After finishing last week's Bela Lugosi PSA-type poster, I of course let my mind wander, trying to come up with some other, public service-type messages that some of the other Universal Monsters could deliver.

Once I finished the Glenn Strange portrait, I worked on crafting a gentle, reassuring message, since, from what I've read of the man, he was an exceedingly sweet guy. After all, who wouldn't want Glenn (as Frankenstein) telling you he's sure you're going to be okay? I know I would!

I actually like this one better than that Bela poster--this portrait especially has that simple, kinda cruddy look that a lot of the Frankenstein/Universal Monsters merch had from the 60s and 70s, before stock art guides took over.

From The Vault: Eric Clapton - 1994

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. How else to portray Eric Clapton, then draped in the blues?

Maybe the likeness could be a little sharper, but overall this piece still works for me.

Time Out New York: Nina Garcia

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is fashion stylista Nina Garcia, former editor of Elle and currently a judge on Project Runway.

Most of the time on this piece was spent on the hair! I wish TONY would interview more bald guys...

Charles Schwab On Investing - Summer 2009

This is the most recent piece I've done for Charles Schwab On Investing magazine, for their Summer 2009 issue.

As I've stated before, I really enjoy these assignments from CSOI because they're all so different--each piece I've done for them (you can see previous ones here) is about a different subject and has a different look, and they're always a fun challenge.

I also enjoy seeing text laid over my work--since most of my printed work are portraits, they tend to stand apart from the text, but with CSOI the article is frequently integrated with my illustration, like it is here. I think it gives articles like this more flow and make them more visually appealing.

And I'm happy to report, I'm working on another piece for CSOI right now!

Monster PSAs: Bela Lugosi

I have no idea how I came up with this idea--the image, colors and all, simply popped into my head one day and I tried to getting it down as best as I could.

If I wanted to analyze this (and why not?), I'd say I've always been interested in the idea that the classic Universal Monsters--so terrifying in their day--are now mostly considered warm, friendly icons, suitable for kids. How things change.

Running with that, I liked the idea of using the monsters in sort of PSA-style announcements. And since Bela Lugosi was so bedeviled with financial problems in his life, I think he would be concerned with the average American citizen's staggering amount of credit card debt.

I also wanted to it be a very quick, almost sloppy-looking piece--like those underground "street art" illustrations Shepard Fairey was famous for before he did that Obama piece (hey, I'd like some of my stuff to be in the National Gallery, too--although I doubt this'll be the piece that gets me in there).

Maybe I've put too much thought into this?

From The Vault: Let's Go - 2005

This has always been one of my favorite pieces, because it captured the exact feeling I was going for. I had always assumed it had a permanent spot on my regular Namtab.com site, but after looking through the vault for something to post this week I see that isn't! Weird.

Simply put, I wanted something fun and cool, with a lot of energy--this woman is dancing the night away, the music is loud, everyone's having a good time!

Time Out New York: Vincent Kartheiser

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is actor Vincent Kartheiser, who plays the oily Pete Campbell on the superb series Mad Men.

Darlin' Tracy and I are both big fans of the show, and I was jazzed to get to do a portrait of someone from it. More than most of the cast, Kartheiser very different than he does on the series--with non-Brylcreemed-to-the-point-of-immobility hair, and the beard, I doubt most people--even die-hard Mad Men fans--would recognize him if they saw him on the street.

I initially thought about putting all sorts of vintage ads behind the portrait, but when that looked to junky to me I ditched that idea and went for something simple and clean.

Can't wait for Season 3 of Mad Men, which starts this weekend!

Chandu The Magician

Still in a poster-makin' mood, I whipped up this piece for the very fun, very crazy Bela Lugosi movie Chandu The Magician (you can probably guess who plays the "mad man" mentioned in the tag line).

This was another one of those cases where I immediately saw in my head a visual--Bela, as the mad Roxor (not Chandu--that's Edmund Lowe), looming over the movie's title in a curve--and simply tried to build the rest of the poster around it.

Bela even starred in the sequel--the sensibly-titled The Return of Chandu--but I don't think I'll get around to that one...

From The Vault: Vertigo - 2004

This was another one of my blind alleys, in that it was a approach I never continued with after trying this first piece.

This is based on a scene from the classic Hitchcock film Vertigo starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak; and the hazy, wavy effect put on top of the two actors' portraits was of course my fairly unsubtle way of referencing the feel and theme of the movie.

Looking back at this piece, I don't think it came out too bad; but for whatever reason I never tried this illustrative approach again.

Time Out New York: Ashton Kutcher

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York was is actor/producer/former Kelso Ashton Kutcher!

Kucther was promoting a new movie he's in called Spread, but I wanted to do something not more portrait-y. I've been messing around with actual paint strokes a lot the last week or two, so I put together this very colorful, lively background.

Working back from that, I decided I wanted Kutcher in black and white so he would *pop* more off of that background. Once I finished the portrait part and put him on that background, it looked exactly like I hoped it would. Another Hot Seat portrait was ready to go!

Has Boobs, Reads Comics

One of the (too)many comics blogs I read is TheNerbyBird.com, written by the charming Jill Pantozzi. Her catchphrase is "Has Boobs, Reads Comics", because...well, she has and she does.

A couple of weeks before the San Diego Comic Con, she had a contest for someone to design a sign for her scooter (which she uses to get around because of her Muscular Dystrophy) that would work as a sign to tell people who she was and what her blog was.

Well, I'm a sucker for doing any sort of pure graphic design piece, so I whipped up the above little number, playing off her blog's logo (which also features various superheroines' bustlines) and even throwing in a cartoony version of Jill herself, speeding by.

I sent it in, and a few weeks later...I didn't win. Oh well, I thought, nice try.

But apparently Jill (and people who left comments) liked my design enough to want to turn it into a t-shirt, which she would wear to the SDCC! I thought that was great, and, sure enough, a few weeks later, there was Jill, rocking my design:

...I am filled with pride, seeing my design on a shirt like that. And this is certainly the prettiest thing my work has ever been put next to, on, or near! Thanks Jill!

I Walked With A Zombie

After finishing up my Curse of the Cat People poster a few weeks ago, I immediately started to think what movie should be next on my "to do" list. Since I'm such a big fan of the films of producer Val Lewton, I thought why not stay in his ballpark and try my hand at another one of his films?

I Walked With A Zombie is one of Lewton's best films--creepy, moody, and odd, nothing in it is quite what it seems. The most famous scene in the movie is when the main character (Frances Dee) literally walks "with" a woman in a zombie-like state, escorting her through a windy, eerily-quiet section of woods, where they encounter a real zombie, Carrefour (Darby Jones).

As soon as I decided to do a poster for this movie, it was that scene I wanted dramatize. And for whatever reason, the first and only design I saw in my head was a two-paneled approach, the first featuring the women walking, the second being what they're about to see.

I also wanted a rough look, much rougher than usual style, so I pulled out my old tubes of paint and slapped down some globs of it, spreading it across the paper and then adding them to the backgrounds. Once I dropped them in, it gave me the exact look I was going for. Hallelujah!

After deciding to use the same typeface I used for Curse of the Cat People, the rest of it fell into place.

I don't think I'm going to get bogged down into doing posters for the entire Lewton horror series (I just can't get that excited about, say, The Ghost Ship or Isle of the Dead), but there are some others--including my all-time favorite Lewton movie--I'd like to have a go at, eventually...