Time Out New York: Zach Braff

Last week, I was asked to do another "Hot Seat" portrait for Time Out New York, this time actor Zach Braff.

I toyed around with this one quite a bit, but eventually settled on the hot/cool contrast of the blue portrait with the orange background. I added a (very)faded mosaic effect, but otherwise I wanted to keep this simple, clean, effective.

Monster PSA: Evelyn Ankers

This Monster PSA was done as a request from one of my "fans" (feels weird, typing that), who specifically I asked I give The First Lady of Universal Horror, Evelyn Ankers, a turn.

Besides starring in The Wolf Man, Ms. Ankers appeared in literally dozens of other Universal horror/suspense movies of the 40s. From what I've read of Ms. Ankers, she really wasn't that into acting--it was mostly work, a way to make money, and when she got a little older (and horror films were mostly on the outs) she packed it in and never looked back. (Later, when he was living in Hawaii with her husband, she was asked to appear in Hawaii 5-0, which was just starting up production. She turned them down)

Whatever her feelings about being in movies, it didn't really show: she was always a welcome presence to this horror/monster fan. But I'm betting her advice would have been close to what you see on the poster.

Monster PSA: Lon Chaney Jr.

This Monster PSA is a bit more serious than the others; since fans of the late, great Mr. Chaney know that he suffered from alcoholism; and Lon's inability to get a handle on led to the dimunition of his career, and eventually early death.

I remember seeing the 1972 cheapie Dracula Vs. Frankenstein, which featured an aged, bloated Lon in a few scenes as a mute hulking brute. The movie itself is glorious, Z-grade fun, but seeing someone who I loved as a child used this way made me sad--Bela Lugosi's scenes in Ed Wood movies looked like acting triumphs by comparison. Lon died shortly thereafter.

So I thought, out from under all the various make-ups Lon endured, this is the kind of advice he would dispense if he was sitting down with someone, one on one.

Monster PSA: Dick Durock

Not too long after completing my Adrienne Barbeau PSA, I thought why not complete the mini-Swamp Thing run and feature the man himself, Dick Durock?

Mr. Durock has many, many credits to his name, but to people my age he's really known for his work in various levels of make-up and rubber: as Swamp Thing of course, but also as Battlestar Galactica's Imperious Leader, and as "Frye's Creature" on The Incredible Hulk.

That must have been marinating in my head for a couple of days, because suddenly the tagline popped into my head, fully formed. I couldn't wait to put this together once I had it!

Of course its a bastardization of the classic "three chords and the truth" line, and at first I was content with this just being a silly goof on that. But then it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, there's an actual point here: considering how many god-awful CGI fests Hollywood keeps pumping out, substituting charm and characterization with spectacle, maybe all you really need is a rubber mask and the truth.

From The Vault: Hung My Head - 2006

I dunno, I must have been in a really bad mood when I did this.

Christopher Nolan

This week's portrait is of Dark Knight and Inception director Christopher Nolan, who is by this point of the most famous--yet little seen, publicly--movie directors out there.

Doing this in black and white seemed a no-brainer, but I decided I did want some little drop of color, so I added blue to the eye and had a very muted blue background. It was originally a lot bluer, but after playing with it for a bit I thought it looked better even more muted, with more gray.

While I'm looking forward to Inception (and I have enjoyed, to various degrees, his other movies like Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige), I'm more happy that, now that its here, that means Nolan's next film will be Batman 3. I knew from reading about this stuff that Nolan always demanded time to make another movie in between Batman sequels. So now that that film is out of the way, the third Batman movie can really get underway!

Monster PSA: Adrienne Barbeau

Unlike the last Monster PSA poster I did, which was inspired by the tagline first, this one was driven entirely by the fact I love Adrienne Barbeau, and desperately wanted her to be part of this series.

From Escape From New York to The Fog to Swamp Thing, Ms. Barbeau was a recurring...er, face in the movies I saw and loved as a kid. But not only was she a sex bomb, but she was tough--equally adept at firing a gun or kicking your head in as she was at seducing you. So for the tagline I wanted to reference that part of her on-screen persona.

As I write this, it occurs to me my last two Monster PSA posters both featured cast members from Swamp Thing. Surely, that's simply a coincidence...?

Charles Schwab On Investing: Summer 2010

Another issue of Charles Schwab on Investing, another chance for me to do something really fun and different!

Sly

Yet another portrait of a dog who needs a good home, Sly. This was one a special request by one of the people trying to help the (not-so) little guy. How could I say no?

From The Vault: Wish You Were Here - 2006

This was done for a magazine client; but time has erased my memory of just what it was for. I do remember that it was about this specific woman (whose name, again, escapes me) and the magazine wanted her lounging on a beach chair on a prototypical Summer day.

So that meant I had to stitch two pieces together to get the portrait (head + body), and overall I think its fairly seamless. The colors are maybe a tad too saturated, but overall I thought it came out okay.

Helen Mirren

Actress Helen Mirren has a new movie out, a spy thriller called Red, but I didnt't really care about that--I just wanted to play with the contrast of her bright white hair and a totally black background, which was what I saw in my head when I first thought of doing a portrait.

Of course, Ms. Mirren's hair isn't quite that white, but again it was the contrast I was most interested in. I briefly considered adding a Hollywood Glamor-type light fade in the background, but finally decided this was fine the way it was.

Jerry

Yet another portrait of a dog who needs a good home, Jerry. Jerry's off-kilter mug completely melted my heart once I saw it on Facebook. If circumstances were different, I'd be on a plane right now on my way to California to pick him up. I find him completely, utterly charming.

John Wayne

I watched the classic film Stagecoach for the first time over the weekend, and as I listened to the accompanying commentary track, it occurred to me I never did a portrait of the film's legendary star, John Wayne.

Even though Wayne did many films other than westerns, its that genre he's most known for, so I pretty quickly decided I wanted a classic, full-figure shot of him, in front of an impossibly blue sky.

Since we're so far away, this doesn't immediately click as Wayne, but that's okay--the overall design of the piece was the thing I was most concerned with, and that's what I got!

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.