Fiona

This is another portrait of a dog who needs a good home, Fiona.

From The Vault: Satan Girl - 2006

Since this whole week has consisted of female portraits, I thought it was only appropriate to finish it off the same way.

This is just me fooling around; obviously influenced by the artist Coop's "Devil Girl" character and not wanting to spend too much time on it. I like the design of this piece a lot, and maybe if I had put a little more effort into the portrait it would have turned into something special, transcending its humble initial inspiration.

Time Out New York: Olivia Munn

Last week, I was asked to do another "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York, this time actress/host Olivia Munn, who is mostly known for Attack of the Show, but has just started doing segments on The Daily Show.

When doing a portrait of someone famous for their looks (Google "Olivia Munn" and see how many pages of images you find), you really just try and make them look as glamorous and/or dynamic as possible. So I kept it fairly simple, putting her in a dotted red dress, with a slight tilt to the whole thing.

I'm not sure what the background means (nothing, really), but it looks good, and for whatever reason seems to fit with the portrait.

Katy Perry #2

Like I mentioned yesterday, I was so inspired when working on my first portrait of Katy Perry to do a second one.

Halfway through I decided to use the same exact patterns I used on the first one, except here I flipped them. I think I like it just as much this way! Ms. Perry is so photogenic its kinda hard to go wrong.

I still haven't heard much Katy Perry music (though "California Girls" is undeniably catchy), but that doesn't matter--after that charming video I saw of her, I don't even really care about the music. I'm a Katy Perry fan.

Katy Perry

I've never had an opinion one way or the other on Katy Perry, and before last week it had never occurred to me to try a portrait of her.

But one night while mindlessly surfing around teh internets, I came across this video of Ms. Perry (and her adorable kitty Crusty) which is a message for a little girl named Faith, stricken with brain cancer. I guess she's a big fan of Katy Perry, and somehow this got to her, so Katy arranged a beauty salon session for Faith with her personal stylist.

I was so utterly touched by the gesture that I was instantly inspired to do a portrait of Katy Perry, the results of which you see above. She's undoubtedly a beautiful woman, and she has a sweet, old-timey sexiness that appeals to me, so I added some old-fashioned patterns, to her dress and the background.

I was so inspired that I did a second portrait of her, which will show up here tomorrow!

Julie

Special Bonus Post!

After doing my portrait of Diesel, one of the beautiful dogs that's currently residing at the Baldwin Park, CA dog shelter, I got the chance to talk to some of the wonderful, caring people who are trying to find homes for these dogs.

I told them I wanted to help out in some additional way, and since my Diesel portrait bopped its way around Facebook, I thought I'd try again to use my art skillz to get garner some more attention for another dog who needs a home. In this, case, a sweet little MinPin named Julie (who you can learn more about here).

I'm happy to report many of the dogs residing at the Baldwin Park shelter found homes over the weekend, but of course there are still more who didn't. So I'm gonna keep going, doing what I can...

I Like It Rough

This was one of those faux-vintage paperbacks that, if I must be honest, doesn't look very vintage: no way would you see a book cover like this in the 50s and 60s, which is the period I mostly draw from.

But this was the image and design I saw in my head, and it came together with a bare minimum of fuss. Once I started putting the elements together, it fell into place very quickly. Sometimes when you have something this minimal there's a temptation to add stuff to it, but I didn't really go through that this time.

When searching for a title and tagline, I found it in a book called Dope Menace, which is a collection of sex-and-drugs-themed paperbacks. The book title is kinda rough, so I thought the only way to make it palatable (for lack of a better word) would be to pair it with the image of a dominatrix--that way its the woman who is clearly, unquestionably, in charge of the situation (details of which are better left to the imagination).

The tagline from the book, "Sweet as sin and twice as dangerous" (I added the "!") doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about it, but of course you weren't supposed to.

Diesel

Special Saturday Post!

Diesel is one of the beautiful dogs that needs a good home, currently residing at the Baldwin Park, CA dog shelter.

My good pal Laura Menck posted his pic on her Facebook page, and his handsome, smiling face really spoke to me. So I worked up this little portrait, conveying the friendly attitude that clearly resides on his face. I only wish I could do more.

If you are in the position to open your home to a new dog, you can find more info about Diesel and many other deserving animals here.

From The Vault: Tom Waits - 2007

I was putting together a mix CD for Darlin' Tracy of Tom Waits songs (he's her favorite), and I always make up a little label for them so she can easily refer to it to see what's on the disc. Normally I'd just find some picture on Google but I must have been feeling ambitious, doing an all-new portrait for it.

Nothing terribly exciting here; but I think it looks good, and the likeness is right. Pretty good for something like a half-hour's work!

Rihanna

I've always wanted to do a portrait of singer Rihanna--there's something about her features that I find, well, completely captivating. Not only is she simply gorgeous, I find there's a delicate quality to her face, like she's made of porcelain or something.

Anyway, I wanted to try and convey that here (I didn't care whether she has/had any new project out this week) with the thin dark outline and perfectly-spherical earrings, with the whole round-shape motif repeated in the background.

I really had fun working on this one, and I thought it came out great.

12 Minutes To Murder

I'm not sure why I go through these waves of ideas for faux-vintage paperback book covers. I hadn't done any for months, and now I can't crank them out fast enough.

Case in point, this one, whose title and image just popped into my head while I was jogging, almost completely formed. Most of the elements are from things I've seen in books, but in any case they usually don't form themselves into something so finished.

I got home and later in the day I tried to put this together, getting it as close as what I saw in my head. Its more of a design piece, but that's what I was going for. I like it because, to me, it looks actually vintage, more than other ones in this series, at least.



(P.S. I was watching 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea as I was working on this, so for the author of this fake book I took two of the film's stars and smashed their last names together, Kirk Douglas and James Mason)

Capital G Portrait

After a long break, I was commissioned by The Concept Farm agency to do another portrait for Capital G bank , my 29th such piece for them.

These are always a lot of fun to do, because at this point I've done so many of them there isn't a lot of discussion needed; I know what Cap G and Concept Farm are looking for, and they know what they're going to get from me.

I basically couldn't wait to work on this, so I got to it almost immediately and turned it in even sooner than Concept Farm expected. I was happy with it, they were happy with it, and I hope I get to work on portrait #30 soon!

Devil In A Blue Dress

I had originally wanted to this newest entry in my faux-vintage paperback series like I've done most of them: a real title, author, and tagline with new art. But when I working on the portrait, the slinky dress worn screamed out to be bright blue to me, and once I had decided that I couldn't think of a better, more iconic title.

So that meant I had to make up an author (which are always mash-ups of names found on various books or DVDs on my bookshelf) and a tagline. I have to say, I really like the tagline: it sets a real scene to me ("She sang in a two-bit club...just waiting for the right man to walk in!").

From The Vault: Bob Odenkirk - 2008

Back in 2008, I got contacted by someone who was putting together a book of interviews with, if memory serves, famous comedians and comedic actors. He wanted little portraits of each subject at the beginning of each piece, and asked me if I would be willing to work up a sample.

Now, for those of you who are not freelance illustrators, this probably sounds somewhat reasonable, but if you are an illustrator, this seems like a weird request--my website has literally hundreds of examples of my portrait work. As a professional, you wonder, can't this guy just look at all those and figure out what they'd look like?

He didn't have much to spend (another warning sign), but the book sounded so cool, and I so wanted to be involved in it, that I agreed and did this straightforward portrait of actor/comedian Bob Odenkirk (who I knew from Mr. Show, and can be seen now on Breaking Bad). Nothing spectacular here, but I thought it turned out pretty well--plus, it was done in the exact manner (proportions, color, level of detail) that was asked for by the prospective client.

I turned the piece in after just a few days, wanting to show I was capable of doing what could have been dozens of portraits in a very short period of time. Then...nothing. Months went by before I got any sort of feedback. Finally, I got some terse email telling me I wouldn't be needed for the project, and that was the end of that. I was disappointed but also a little relieved, since I got the feeling this project would not be as good as it first sounded. Ah, the life of a freelance artist...

Edward Norton

I'm still having fun doing these portraits of the week, so I'm continuing on, this time with actor Edward Norton.

Mr. Norton is in a new film called Leaves of Grass (not based on what you'd think), so I knew from the beginning I wanted a leafy green look and feel. As I usually do, I tried both color and black and white portraits, but decided it looked better monochromatically.

I must admit, even though Norton does have a new movie out, the main reason I did this was to make my friend Mara happy. She has had a huge, ongoing crush on Mr. Norton, and I kept joking with her that some week I'd get to do a portrait of him for Time Out New York. But, even after five years and multiple projects, the Hot Seat column and EN never crossed paths.

Now that I'm only doing the Hot Seats sporadically, the chances I'll ever get to a portrait of Ed seems slim to none, so I thought why not just go ahead and do one myself? You're welcome Mara!

What I Did Today To Save Energy

My Darlin' Tracy recently started her first Facebook page, What I Did Today To Save Energy, where she (and other people) post what tiny thing they did that day to save just a little bit of energy. Being the Queen of Statistics that she is, she also posts various little facts about how save energy; some obvious, some surprising.

I realized that she needed some sort of avatar for the page, and the idea of an energy-saver lightbulb above a piggy bank seemed so perfect that I couldn't wait to get working on it.

This pretty much looks exactly what I saw in my head, and I like it a lot because its different than the stuff I usually do. It now sits at the top left of Darlin' Tracy's page, and I couldn't be more proud!

Seagull

Like a lot of people, the various animals affected by the Gulf Oil Spill have been on my mind lately, so I wanted to do a simple little portrait of one of them, in this case a seagull.

When doing animal portraits, I try and keep the extra bells and whistles to a minimum, and just do a straightforward portrait. The closest I get to any sort of design element is the sky/cloud effect, drifting from blue to white, as the seagull floats gently across the frame.

Monster PSA: Louis Jourdan

When I retired the Monster PSAs as an ongoing series back in March, I had every intention of bringing them back, but I decided to let authentic inspiration strike instead of contriving to come up with a new "message" every week.

Obviously, the situation in the Gulf has been on my mind--its on everyone's mind--and morphed into the phrase you see at the bottom of the poster. It didn't take too long to find a perfect subject to pair it up with--actor Louis Jourdan, who had an amazing film career long before I became familiar with him, as the mad Anton Arcane in the 1982's Swamp Thing (I also loved him as the bad guy in 1983's Octopussy).

In that film, Jourdan oozes arrogance as he tries to take control of the serum that turned Alec Holland into Swamp Thing, and of course it all goes horribly wrong, as it always does when one thinks they can bend nature to their will.

From The Vault: D For Delinquent - 2004

Another faux-vintage paperback cover; this one's a lot less reliant on a sexy image, going for something more cutesy (even though the title suggests something lurid and unsavory).

I think maybe the subject could use a little more detail, especially where her cheek meets her arm; maybe that's why I never put this one on the website at the time.

Time Out New York: Alexander Skarsgard

Sooner than I expected, I was asked to do another "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York, this time actor Alexander Skarsgard, who is currently starring in True Blood.

I knew I wanted some splash of red on here, but not make it look like blood specifically. I like using the subject to bifurcate the frame and have two separate fields of color; it's a look I think almost always works, and I think it worked again here.

Swivel Chair

I have no idea what this portrait "means"--I had a really hard time getting the woman and the chair to looking like much of anything, and for a while I dabbled making this one of my faux-paperback book covers.

When I just couldn't make that work, I decided to cut my losses (there's a point where I feel like I should move on to something else if I just can't "crack" what I'm working on) and leave it as just a portrait.

Mistress of the Moor

This piece started out as one my usual faux-paperback book covers, which, graphically, always harken back to the 50s and 60s era of crime and/or sex books.

But as I toyed around with the portrait, I realized it worked best in black and white, and it had a more gothic romance feel, so I decided to just go with that and do a full-out gothic romance book cover.

My usual M.O. is to use the title, author, and tagline of an actual vintage paperback, but none of the books of paperbacks on my shelf were romances. So I turned to my friend Amy Bias' excellent blog, Women Running From Houses, which features all sorts of classic gothic romance covers.

I settled on Mistress of the Moor, whose title and tagline seemed to match what I had put together--the sad-looking girl amidst a dark, foreboding forest. I tried not to go crazy on the design, since it wouldn't really match the style. So once I found the appropriate font, I had finished my first faux-gothic romance!

George Romero

I had an incredibly hectic week, so I didn't have time to work on anything too ambitious, but I did make the time to do another Hot Seat-style portrait, this time of legendary director George Romero, whose new film, Survival of the Dead, comes out this month.

I originally did the portrait of Romero in full color, but when I added the zombie-ish shapes and the sickly green background, it worked better when he was in black and white so I changed it. The only hint of color I kept the reflected green highlights on his glasses.

I'm really happy with how this one came out, and doing these pseudo-Hot Seats are a lot of fun, even if I do an actual one, like I did this week (come back on Thursday!).

From The Vault: Possess Me Not - 2004

I really like the portrait here--the angle, the colors--and it works well within the design.

The only problem I do have here is the choice of color for the title--I'm sure I went with red to match the background, but since it (and the author's name) are on the woman's back, to me it looks a little too much like its a bloody brand, which gives it (to me) an unpleasant, if completely unintentional, feel. I should have gone with virtually any other color, if only to stay away from that look.

I think I still have the layered file of this piece; maybe I need to go back into it and fix such an obvious mistake, just to see if it works better.

Estee Lauder Storyboards #2

Here are a couple more of the storyboards I did for Estee Lauder via The Concept Farm agency.

I really like how these came out--they're obviously a lot looser than the stuff I normally do, but I feel like they're still recognizable as my style. I really enjoyed the process of doing these, I hope I get to do more!

Capital Thinking - Spring/Summer 2010

One of my regular assignments that most people never get to see are portraits I do for Capital Thinking, a magazine produced exclusively for Patton Boggs LLC.

Each issue features a Q&A segment, and I do the portrait for the subject in question. In each case, the art director I work with on these lays in the type around my portrait, a nice effect!

Estee Lauder Storyboards

I had a new artistic experience this week, doing my first-ever set of storyboards for Estee Lauder.

These were done through the ad agency The Concept Farm, who I have done work for before. I've always enjoyed working with them, so when they asked if I was interested in doing some storyboards for them I jumped at the chance.

I was asked to provide nine illustrations representing key frames from a How To video using Estee Lauder products, with the agency providing me descriptions of what should be seen in each panel.

Since storyboards don't need to be finished illustrations, just a visual guide as to what the final product will look like, the nine pieces didn't have to look like my regular work. So while there is a generally "realistic" look here, they're obviously a lot rougher and looser than my usual style.

It was a lot of work in a very short period of time, but I really enjoyed the process and it was fun using my skills in a slightly different way. I hope these are not my last set of storyboards!

Tenement Girl

Another faux-vintage paperback cover, this one's a bit more racy than usual, but something about the subject being monochromatic I thought helped make it work.

I originally had all the text in grey, with the only color being her hair; but after messing around with it I found that I liked this approach better--like the Tenement Girl in question is in the middle of Hell itself.

From The Vault: Peeping Tom - 2004

Since I'm back in the mode of creating my faux-paperback book covers, I thought I'd dig out some older, mostly unseen ones for the next couple of From The Vault installments.

Of all the ones I never put up on my regular site, I think this one is my favorite--it has a cheeky charm that I like. Sure, there's the sex angle, but the look on the woman's face cracks me up. In addition, the font really seems to capture the tone.

Not knowing what the design will be as I do the portraits, I put in all the detail on the figure, only to obscure most of it with the logo. I was sort of frustrated, especially since I was doing it to myself, but I had to admit this was the best way to go, lost detail or not.

Russell Brand

This is my first Thursday without having a new "Hot Seat" to show off. I wanted to fill the spot with something, so I've decided to keep doing new portraits of contemporary celebrities, in the same HS format.

So to start off I went with Russell Brand, comedian and actor, who is currently starring in the new film Get Him To The Greek (a quasi-sequel/spin-off to one of my favorite movies, Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

Since I don't have to please anyone but myself with this, I realized I could do anything I wanted, take any approach. And since Russell's most recognizable feature is that ridiculous tsunami of stringy hair that sits atop his head, I decided to concentrate almost exclusively on that.


I'm not sure how long I'll feel the need to keeping doing Hot Seat-esque portraits, but for right now I'm having fun, so I'll have another one ready for next Thursday!

Zorro

I was watching the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro last week, and of course it occurred to me that the title character is the perfect subject for my style (I kinda can't believe I've never gotten around to Zorro before).

This piece is a lot less ambitious than a full-on, custom poster or anything like I'd normally do--I had other stuff to work on that day, and I couldn't spend all the time needed to do up a whole poster.

So I settled on this basic portrait, but I'll get back to Zorro at some point soon...

Miss Dolly Goes To Washington

Today is Dolly's birthday--she being the extremely photogenic pup of my pals Laura and Ric Menck.

To celebrate the occasion, I made up this movie poster, imagining a Muppet Movie-style adventure, with Dolly trekking across the USA on her way to Washington, to fight for animal rights, culminating with her making an impassioned plea on the steps of the Capitol.

During the trip, she meets all kinds of famous faces (like Casey Affleck, Natalie Portman, and Naomi Watts, who I found via Google on a list of celebrities who are avowed animal rights supporters). To portray Laura and Ric, I cast Cate Blanchett and James Cromwell, and I felt adding the ageless Betty White as the lovable but foul-mouthed "Grandma Menck" would make this movie a must-see.

Behind the scenes, music would be by Sir Paul McCartney, the effects would be by ILM (nothing but the best for Dolly!), and it would be directed by Louie Psihoyos, who made the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.

This piece was a total blast to work on, and its pretty close to what I saw in my head when I first conceived it. Happy Birthday Dolly!

Sin Street

After not having done one of my faux-vintage paperback book covers in a while, I did one just as a lark--then I found myself working on this one just a week or so later. Frequently my mind works like that.

I had fiddled with how to illustrate the main character, never quite settling on the right way to go. Then I set it aside and went for my daily run, and during the run the look you see above popped into my head. I realized that scratchy, all-black-and-white feel would be the perfect contrast to the brightly colored background. Once I got home, it was all downhill (in a good way), and the whole piece fell into place very quickly.

Unlike the previous paperback cover, this one is more like the other ones in the series--the title, tagline, and author are all from a real vintage paperback book, with an all-new cover.

From The Vault: Marvin Gaye - 1994

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Leaving all the mid-tones out gave this piece a, if I may sound horribly pretentious, a gritty immediacy that I really liked. I had just purchased Gaye's classic What's Going On album, and I was listening to it a lot while working on this.

I remember one time I was showing my portfolio to one of the art directors at Columbia Records/Sony Music. When he got to this piece, he said, in amazement, something to the effect of "Wow, how do you do this?" After hearing something like that, I was sure that I'd be doing CD covers for the legendary Columbia Records in no time.

Ah, 1995 version of me: how naively optimistic you were...

Time Out New York: Michael Emerson

My final "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is actor Michael Emerson!

After five straight years (plus about a month), Time Out New York is changing their back page features and told me that I will no longer be needed to do a weekly "Hot Seat" portrait. Disappointing to be sure, but after five years and over 250 portraits, I figured this was going to happen eventually.

This is my final regular portrait, of Michael Emerson from Lost. Nothing against Mr. Emerson, but I wished it had been a subject I could've gotten a little more energized over. I don't watch Lost, never did, and actively don't care about it, so combine that with the knowledge this was my last piece kind of left me a bit demoralized. I barely remember working on this, and it was just last week.

Overall, I don't think its too bad; I just wish I could've really gone out with a bang, you know?

Orson Welles as Macbeth

I had started this off thinking it would be another "old school"-style portrait, with just a simple black and white illustration of Orson Welles as Macbeth, from his film 1946 film adaptation.

But of course I can never resist adding some text (most of the time), and I liked how the stark red letters looked on top of the similarly-stark-looking shot of Welles as the title character.

Universal Monsters: Dracula's Daughter

I keep telling myself--and everyone else--that I won't do any more of these Universal Monster posters, since I don't want to overdo it and there simply aren't any of those classic monster films left that really energize me creatively.

Yet I can't quite stay away from this format, since its so much fun to plug in the new elements and see what I can come up with. In between some other projects, I realized I already had two key pieces of art--Gloria Holden and Edward Van Sloan--finished (from the Holden Monster PSA poster and the Universal Dracula poster, respectively), so a Dracula's Daughter poster would be almost pure effortless fun.

In the end, I don't think this one quite matches up, quality-wise, to the others in the series, but since neither does the movie, so it all kind of fits.

I Am An American

Like a lot of people, I was pretty horrified at the new immigration laws passed in Arizona a few weeks ago.

For days afterward, I did some more reading about the situation, and thought about it. I wanted to say something about it, but wasn't sure what. Finally, I decided, like I frequently do, to stay away from any sort of protest-y statement, and try and say something positive from the other side of the debate (like I did with my Polar Bears Say Vote Obama poster).

So I decided the poster would have a simple, declarative statement--I Am An American--over a picture of different people, all of whom make up this great country. I asked a friend of mine to pose for it, and then used only simple red, white, and blue (okay, and a little black) to do the portrait.

I originally had a lot more design elements on this, because that's my normal way of doing these things. But I realized that all the bells and whistles took away from the basic message, so I fought against all my own instincts and kept it as simple as possible--even going so far as to use Helvetica for the font. Basic, basic, basic.

No one race has the monopoly on being a patriot or to be called an American.

From The Vault: Marilyn - 2004

This is a pretty straightforward portrait, coming off having seen one of Monroe's early films, the noir classic The Asphalt Jungle.

Since Monroe is one of--if not the--most recognized American icons, I never really got inspired to do a portrait of her, but this has a pulpy simplicity that I like. Maybe could use a little more detail, but I think the contrast and the placement is what makes it work.

Time Out New York: Chelsea Handler

Back in the saddle again! This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is comedian/host Chelsea Handler!

I didn't want anything too complex for this; just a simple glamorous portrait. The background color isn't one I use much, if at all. But it matched Handler's eyes and I thought it looked good, especially when I added the slight glow behind her.

That hair took forever!

Old School Spencer Tracy

I was going through portraits of old movie stars, sort of just meandering around looking for ideas.

During my first year or so with this illustration style, Spencer Tracy was a frequent subject. I was an am a big fan of his films, and his craggy, serious face was a great match for my angular, rough style.

So I when I did this piece last week, I tried to use my digital tools to replicate the way this piece would have looked if I had done it via cut paper and glue, like I used to. I kept the details to a minimum, using more hard, straight angles, and had just the one gray tone.

To finish it off, I even dropped in a piece of construction paper, to give it that extra bit of roughness. In the end, I was pleased it came out looking so close to those early pieces!

The Ghost

This piece started out with me just sort of goofing around with the main image, of the woman brandishing the two guns. After messing with it, it sort of grew into a full-fledged fake movie poster.

I was trying out a couple of different designs, when a central white figure with a monochromatic blue background popped into my head, and at that point I just worked towards that goal. I eventually settled on what "kind" of movie I wanted this as-yet-untitled movie to be: a 70s style adventure/thriller, with exotic locations, great stunts, and shadowy figures.

So I added each one of those elements--somebody falling from a building, a creepy guy draped in shadows, and a mysterious symbol meaning...something. I loved the way all those elements contrasted with the flat white figure (whose appearance eventually inspired the title).

Truth be told, it doesn't look all that vintage, despite the fact that it uses the same cast as my fake 70s sexploitation movie Sisterhood of Sin, but what the hey. Near the end of the process, I thought about adding a "From the people who brought you Sisterhood of Sin" blurb, but I decided that was too cutesy and I left it off.

Overall, I'm really happy with it--its pretty close to what I saw in my head, and I think this looks pretty cool. I'd see this movie!

The Razor's Edge

I've mentioned here before that W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge is my favorite book; I've read it a few dozen times and it never ceases to enthrall me.

I like it so much, in fact, that I created a whole blog devoted to my collection of Razor's Edge editions (called Principles of Psychology), and I've even tried my hand at designing a new cover for the book.

The first time I tried it, I thought I did okay but in retrospect I think I was a little heavy-handed with the whole "man on a spiritual journey" motif, so I had it in the back of my mind to try it again, the result of which you see above.

The picture is from the collection of my late, Great Uncle Fred (1901-1997), who I've also mentioned here before and whose stories and photos of his adventures thrilled me as a child.

When going through some old photos my parents had down in their basement, I saw this one, and it immediately struck me as the perfect image for The Razor's Edge. Not only does it feature the kind of "man looking into the horizon"-type image that's perfect to represent the story, but the photo itself (which I had to crop a lot here, since its horizontal) is simply a beautifully composed image--I love the heavy darks at the top and bottom, with the strong white of the water in the middle. Uncle Fred was a damn good photographer. (An aside: none of us are sure, but that might even be my Dad in the pic!)

I saw no need to use any of my illustrations in this cover, preferring it to be a simple graphic design piece. I had a lot of fun figuring out what font to use, and where to put Maugham's name, the title, and the book's epigram ("The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard").

I think with this version I hit a nice balance between making the book look like the enduring classic it is, but not making it look like a museum piece. I find The Razor's Edge just as relevant today as it (presumably) was when it debuted in 1944. The fact that its still in print to this day I think proves that.

So, I really like this new cover I worked up, but who knows? I might feel the need to create another one, just like I'm always compelled to re-read the book...

From The Vault: Mother's Day - 2006

Since its Mother's Day this weekend, I thought I'd post an old piece that was done as a Mother's Day present.

I don't remember the name of the family this was for, but I was contacted by the husband of this woman, commissioning me to do a private portrait of his wife and their child as a Mother's Day present.

This piece was so complex I had to do it in stages, and build it slowly bit by bit. There was something like fifty different layers of elements, and I wanted to make sure this piece has a gentle smoothness that a lot of my work frequently doesn't have: hard edges on a child's face just looks weird! I also left out any solid black on the piece, to give it a more gauzy feel.

I thought it came out pretty well, and apparently it went over really well as a gift.

Time Off New York: Bob Dylan

This week's "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York is not Bob Dylan!

No--for the first time in five years, I didn't have a "Hot Seat" portrait to do. The subject was artist Sheperd Fairey, who provided his own portrait, so I had the week off.

So I decided to do my own Hot Seat-type portrait, and as a subject I chose someone that I would dearly love to illustrate but am sure will never show up in the magazine's, er, back page--Bob Dylan!

All of Bob's projects in the last decade or so--his albums, his Theme Time Radio Show, etc.--have used a particularly "old-timey" aesthetic, and I tried to replicate that here. For that mane of crazy hair that frames that famous face, I drew it all in, one hair at a time, to give it that wild look that's so famous.

Rest assured, the Hot Seat portraits will be back next week!

Tyrone Power

I was watching the 1946 film version of The Razor's Edge (my favorite book), and I got inspired to work on this simple portrait of its star, Tyrone Power.

Power was ridiculously good looking, and Hollywood quickly plugged him into every leading man part they could (he famous played Zorro in 1940's The Mark of Zorro, among other films). But Power was desperate to act, to play some meatier parts that required more from him than his good looks.

To that end, he fought to play the spiritual-seeking Larry Darrell in Edge, as well as a conman/loser in the creepy 1947 film Nightmare Alley, which features Power as nothing less than a circus geek, biting the heads off chickens by the end of the film (really).

I've been doing a lot of text-centric stuff lately, so I wanted to do a simple black and white portrait. But of course, in the end, I couldn't quite help myself and hit the little "T" button in Photoshop...

The Reluctant Nudist

I haven't done one of my faux-vintage paperback book covers in a long while, so I figured it was worth trying my hand at one of them again.

This one is more like an old-timey "nudie" book rather than a mystery/thriller. I usually use an actual book title, tagline, and author alongside new artwork, but in this case I decided to make it all up myself.

As much as I like the artwork and design, and I think my favorite part of the whole thing is the tagline. It makes me smile every time I read it.

Deco

I have no idea how this image came to me--it simply popped into my head as I was looking through some old photographs taken by my late Great Uncle Fred (1901-1997), who traveled extensively during his 96 years.

He had a photo of a giant statue, of a man pulling back the string on his bow, ready to fire. As soon as I saw that picture, this image of the statue--mostly in black, but with a few highlights--in front of a day-glo background popped into my brain. So I just tried to get it down as best I could.

I added the second background color to give it more of a sense of movement, but for better or worse its pretty much what I saw at that moment.