MISTER JANUARY

Even though we are half way through 2011 I still feel like it just started. But 2012 is coming, as evidenced by the fact that I just finished a piece for the NPR calendar for 2012.
The assignment was pretty wide open and I sent these two sketches.

To my delight, they chose the burnt eggs one. This is sort of based on my personal NPR "driveway moment". In the morning I make eggs sometimes for Teddy and Oskar. While I'm sipping my first coffee I'll tune into NPR and I've burned a lot of eggs because I was so engrossed. This happens a lot. And it doesn't help that I don't eat eggs myself (yuck!) and I only learned how to cook them properly a couple years ago.

For various reasons we decided to make the gorillas into bears and I came up with this.

They thought the smoke was a bit heavy so I added a little texture to it.

And lastly, it was decided that the bear could look like he is enjoying himself a little more, so I added extra enjoyment.

They chose it for January which seems fitting. I was super psyched to work with everyone at NPR, everyone I had contact with had a great sense of humor and good suggestions to turn this into a fun piece. 

And with all the flack that NPR has been getting from the Republicans, I was extra happy to contribute to their fund raising efforts.

For the record, ALL the funding that NPR receives from the Government would pay for 44 seconds of the Iraq war. But I digress....

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.

PROCESS- START TO FINISH

I recently did a job for a pitch for the Vendy Awards to come to Los Angeles. The client wanted a couple sketches to show the Los Angeles people what they had in mind. After I sent in the sketches, they wanted to combine all three concepts together into one piece. 

Normally, this is a nightmare descending into mediocrity, but in this case, the suggestions were good and the final piece is better for it. 

Below are the original thumb nails, followed by the sketches and then cleaned up and color dropped in with Photoshop.  The client asked for the wrestler guy to be driving the taco truck and the type style and copy added from the third one. I have also included my the untouched drawing of the wrestler as a taco truck driver followed by the finished piece.