Clouds are at war

Experimenting with some different brush strokes. Trying to get a more natural media feel. It's fun to try a couple new things.

Cherry 2000

I gotta draw more, just haven't been drawing enough stuff. Gonna try to get something up everyday to stay loose. We'll see how it goes. Gotta give it a try.

Illustration Wars

As the picture says, I love illustration. When I was in school I remember constantly hearing the old adage that if you can find a job doing what you love then you will never work a day in your life. The only problem with that saying is the finding the job part. Working as a freelance illustrator is something that I love beyond words. It fills me with outrageous joy to get an assignment, but time flies all too quickly before I reach the deadline and I'm done. Unfortunately jobs come to infrequently and I just can't support myself on freelance alone. But that will always remain the dream, to be able to live off of my love. In another attempt to remind art directors that I'm still alive and available I drew a new promotional piece, hope it gets me some work.

Attention Detention

This is a piece I did for Charlotte Magazine last month. It was for an article about over diagnosing ADHD in kids. They were super fun to work with and I really like how the final illustration turned out. I used my nephew miles for reference, he’s such a trooper. Check out the article here.

Just Thinking

This is a piece I did last month for Cleveland Magazine. It was for an article about how Cleveland sports fans don't have much to cheer for these days. I really enjoyed working on it. It's interesting because until I took some photo reference for it I never understood what an odd position this actually is, it's not at all comfortable, I can't imagine having to hold it for any length of time. Anyway I was very pleased with how this turned out, the Cleveland people were great, hope I get to work with them again soon.

Animal Magnetism

So I got called on again to do the cover art for the Seven Days Weekly in Vermont. Since I just worked with them a few weeks ago I really wasn’t expecting to hear from them so soon. In fact last week when I was sending out my St. Patrick’s reminders I didn’t bother sending one to them because I thought it was too soon. I guess another artist fell through at the last minute and they decided to contact me. Obviously I was excited to get the gig and having worked with Seven Days before I know that they would be a pleasure to collaborate with. I’m really happy with how this one turned out. I don’t usually draw a lot of animals so this was a fun change of pace. And since it’s different from my usual figure and background style I think this will be a good piece to add the portfolio. If you have the time, check out the Seven Days site, they have a bunch of great articles. I really liked being the go to guy so I hope that Seven Days calls on me again in the future, they were great.

St. Patty's

The worst part of being a freelance illustrator is that you have to wear all the hats in your business, including promotional guy. Every month or so I have to remind art directors that yes, indeed I am still alive and would very much like to have some money. I realize that most publications that use illustration get inundated with submissions from various artists, but I wish I could just go a little longer without having to send out samples. But I guess I've been pretty lucky in that I've been getting any work at all in this economy, so I cant really complain. Anyway, here is my green beer guzzling Irish Obama. Happy St. Patrick's Day!