PHILLY FALL PREVIEW

The Philly Inquirer moved their HQ to a new location, the former Strawbridge & Clothier department store building. In a nod to their new home they wanted an illustration for the Fall Arts Preview that felt like a department store from back in the day.
I'm super pleased with how this came out. It was a nice way to start a Sunday.

They were even kind enough to include a bio.

And all the elements were broken out into little headers for the different features.

Thanks to Sterling Chen and everyone else for a fine design job.

And they also had me create some online elements so you could "shop the store" online.

You can check that out here.

ANCHORS ASTRAY

Need to catch up on posting some recent work, here is a job for the Improper Bostonian about a young persons experience on a cruise. I've never been on a cruise, so I learned about many cruise things. Like those towel animal things. And that you can buy a book on how to make those animals, but its only for sale on the ship!
 Below is a spot that shows those creepy little towel animal things.

BATHROOM NIGHTMARE

I recently illustrated a hilarious story about a DIY bathroom renovation gone horribly wrong. Unfortunately, I have some experience in this area so it was easy to call upon memory to help come up with images. 

First they needed a full page illustration with a disaster feel. The final is above and below are the sketch ideas.

The Psycho, inspired by the film of the same name. Although looking at it now, it reminds me more of the chain saw/bathroom scene in Scarface. A Flood and The Mole

They really liked the Flood and the Mole so I tossed out the ideas I had for the spot and used the Mole as basis for the spot. Here's the Spot final.

If you want to read the whole story, check it out here.

SOUTHERN FRIED HIP HOP U HEAR ME?

I had the pleasure to do a quick turnaround piece for the Oxford American this past week. It's a portrait of the Southern hip-hop artist Ms. Peachez. "She" is a controversial cross dressing man from Louisiana who uses stereotypes of poor southern blacks to poke fun at hip-hop hits and the perception of the South in general. Or, at least thats what I think she's doing. Decide for yourself here and my favorite here.

I love doing pieces for Oxford American because they basically leave it up to you to deliver. No sketch approval phase, nothing, just straight for it. But with this freedom you can drift, I did an almost finished piece before scrapping it and starting over.

After thumbnailing a bunch of different directions, including some really bad ideas like a Ms. Peachez brand tub of fried chicken ala KFC. I decided this image below would be the one.

It was too busy, so I cropped it and started dropping in some flat color areas to see if it would level out a bit.

Something still wasn't right. It was a little too detailed and looked like some weirdo coloring book uh, boring. So it was back to the drawing board.

And the final piece. I thought a more traditional, almost, formal portrait would balance the zaniness and of the subject. Well, that and some cute flowered stretch pants.

Bringing the Heat

New piece for Oxford American's music ish. A portrait of The Black Haze Express. This was a perfect assignment for me. Illustrating a super rare almost non-existent funk group. They released only two 45's in low pressing numbers. They are most famous for Won't Nobody Listen which was included on the "What it is?! Comp from a couple years ago.

Black Haze Express is really one man Sam Dees. Who has written and recorded tons of hits, mostly for other people. Like One in a Million by Larry Graham.  Needless to say there are like, two lo-res photos in existence of these guys and that's where we illustrators come in.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Cover of this weeks Stranger. This almost never happens, but I had posted the B+W sketch of this piece for fun some time ago. And somebody calls and wants to use it. Hooray! Getting paid for something you already did for fun is, well, pretty fun. Thanks Stranger!