I Just Can't Face Myself Alone Again

Spent a good part of today working on this as a tattoo for a friend. I had about 70 pictures of water towers, but none of them really struck me as interesting. Ended up 90% of this thing out of my head, and nearly killing myself in the process. No wonder Brian Wood barely ever draws his own comics anymore...this urban shit is hell to draw. And while this pales in comparison to my last drawing , I have at least remembered why I loved ink so much.

Two days before I leave and there is so much to do. Have to go out to Lincoln Square tomorrow to get razors, because I am tired of nearly gnawing my face off daily with Walgreen's generic double edged. Hopefully they will also end up carrying a mustache wax that doesn't melt when it is snowing (or when someone kicks snow in your face).

I am hungry, thirsty and tired. I am still recovering from my multi-week "hell week". Going to Indiana is going to be a well needed (and hopefully deserved) break. And the first thing I plan on doing when I get back is to update this whole website, as well as finish some long-over due projects for myself (and yes, that includes the ectoplasm drawing).

I have become completely obsessed with the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Tortoise's cover of Springsteen's "Thunder Road".

Turn The Radio Up And Throw My Ashes Out The Window

So, I am going to do something I haven't done in a long time, and that is do a process post about the new Type album cover i did for Matthew Mitchell. The only real art direction I got (which is a lot, considering the client) was that "Mitch" just wanted a closed-in shot of his face half-decayed. Needless to say, this was right up my alley.

After spending almost a month figuring this thing out and finally getting it on paper, I was extremely happy with the inks. So there lies a problem; how can I not fuck it up with color? This has been a struggle of mine for years, and i finally now feel like I am actually getting a hold of it.

First I laid the flat colors down, nothing too fancy here. For some reason I felt that this was really going in the right direction, even though it was no different from what I normally do. Now looking back it was probably the satisfaction of making a layer folder called "dead-eye".

I then did a few multiply layers for the "dead" sections of the face. I did this the same way I used to ink templates for color, but digitally (if you don't know what I am talking about, go back a few months in my posts). I had a hell of a time picking out what "dead" colors would be. trying to get a good balance of green, blue, and grey.

So, let's forget about the dead side of the face for a minute. I knew I wanted to have four variations in every color; a flat middle tone, deep shadow, light shadow, and highlight. I have done this on the last few images I have done, and been rather pleased with the results. I laid out each template layer in a separate color, using the same "ink template" that I was just talking about and used layer opacities to see where I was going. Doing color templates like this kills my hand on a wacom, and I wish I could just do it with ink but quite frankly I can't afford using 15 sheets of paper for every fucking drawing.

The first color layer I put in was the light shadow, just to round out the features and to give myself an idea of where to go next. ( I became obsessed with the chin a little bit)

Now I added the deep shadow (making sure it wasn't TOO deep) and the highlights. Basically the main colors were done.

I laid the "dead face" layer folder back over to see how it was going, and finished up the glasses frames.

This is always my favorite part, and is made better by CS3. I laid in some circles under the eyes, and rosed up the real fleshy parts of the face. It looks really pink here, but thats because I knew I was going to desaturated the entire image with a hue overlay in the end. I also threw in some white highlights to make a few parts pop (I hate that term..."pop"...makes me cringe everytime an art director says it).

I then threw down the overlay gradients; browns, blues, and whites to fill everything out a little more. These are all controlled by different layers of opacity for multiply, screen, and lighten layers.

Finally I put in the lenses of the glasses. I saved these for last because I knew that dulling the colors around the eyes was going to change the image a lot, and I wanted to make sure everything was in place before I put the lenses in. And as I mentioned in the last post, I LOVE DRAWING HIGHLIGHTS IN GLASSES LENSES! And to top the whole thing off, I laid a blue hue layer over everything to desaturated some of the brighter colors.

This may in fact be the best thing I have done in years. Initially John and Mitch wanted me to do a back cover for the album, with the back of Mitch's head. But after finishing this, I realized that nothing I could do on the back would come close to matching the front and it would just be overshadowed in the end. Everyone agreed to just keep the front cover and add nothing else. I still can't look at this thing without beaming. I can't wait to see it run off on a 12" record sleeve.

And now all I can do is hope that the next thing that I end up doing even comes close to this.

____

In other news, Alex from Head Bang Image ( a salon in Chicago) asked me to think of some ideas for their new store. The whole look of the place is an odd mix of glam and modern rock n' roll...not the easiest things to work with without making everything look cliche and overdone. So far I whipped up these two roughs. I am super pleased with how the girl turned out, but really need to work on how the text lays on her head to make it look more "shaved in". And the text on the bottom one is just atrocious, and if I ended up doing this one for the final I would absolutely be hand drawing the hair. I still can't stand how hair looks done with a wacom, on my work or anyone else's.

I am a busy little beaver, and only have 3 days before I climb on a bus to southern Indiana. I can't believe how much I have gotten done in the last few weeks.

The Trees Forgive Me, The Pebbles Forgive Me

Finished this the other day for More Magazine, on an article about Reeve Lindbergh (daughter of Charles Lindbergh; Spirit of St. Louis, the Lindbergh baby, etc). It was a quick job, but it made me feel that at least to some degree my colors are starting to really match well with my line work. I could have done all the line work with my wacom in a few minutes, but since it seems like ALL I EVER DO anymore is use my wacom, I decided to do this in ink. I really enjoy drawing the reflections on glasses.

I was going to wait and do a progress post about this, but couldn't really stand not showing anyone immediately. It is for a cover for a new Type album....and I have got to say, this kind of makes up for all the shitty work I have been doing recently. Matthew Mitchel (of Skallander, who's album this is for) just pretty simply wanted a drawing of his head decaying, or aging, or something along those lines. I kind of went out of control with this thing, and it took me almost a month to actually get down on paper. The original is like 15" X 15" and I can't stop looking at it.

In other news, I am obsessed with the new Snapple Green Tea and yesterday found two new flavors I didn't know existed. Mango is pretty iffy, nectarine is amazing, and I haven't tried the pear yet. I think I just prefer the regular green tea the most though.

And in other pointless news, I watched 6 hours of Lost the other day in preparation for the new season. I would have watched more, but Rachel "Cabbage-Patch" Adams had to go to the gallery and do some work. Quitter.

Speaking of, the button show that I was making is tonight at Lloyd Dobler Gallery from 6-10. Apparently there are button grab-bags? I don't really know what is going on with the whole thing, I just know I will be there. If you are in the city, you should try and stop by:

1545 W. Division. 2nd floor

t: 312.961.8706

Shadowgate

I am in the holiday spirit. I don't know what did it...maybe it was talking to both my brother and my mom within an hour of each other, maybe it was putting the final touches on my holiday wish list, maybe matt from x-entertainment has finally come up with a computer virus that infects his readers with Christmas glee. No matter how it happened, it happened nonetheless. And for Christ's sake, SANTA IS COMING!

My family handles Christmas oddly...we don't really celebrate anything, we open presents and eat donuts, and that's about it. We used to get a tree (and once a tree that needed to be taken out of our two story living room by cutting it down) but we haven't had a tree in at least 5 years. We used to eat turkey, but for the most part we have all succumbed to vegetarianism in one way or another...so, that's out of the picture too. We basically have a day around Christmas that is for the most part just another birthday for the 3 of my family members.

I don't really have many good holiday memories...I remember some ridiculous presents though. I remember my dad buying a new tv every other year for most of my childhood, saying that it was a gift for the family when really he was the only one that ever watched them. I remember watching my brother play Little Nemo for NES straight through on new years night. But in all reality, most of my memories of Christmas are making fun of other people in my family...this is how we work. Sky blue sweaters, expired packs of carrot seeds, visa card holograms, bedazzled sweaters, that weird throw thing my grandfather sent. Oh, and I also remember that damned Ghostbuster's Firehouse play set...but I am still far too scarred to ever talk about that.

But my brother earlier today reminded me of by far the most confusing thing that happened in my childhood Christmas memories. My brother wrote the following email to me after I had edited my wish list:

"in this family, the more you ask for it, the less likely you will be to get it. i.e., shadowgate"

And the story goes like this:

In the winter of 1989, the thing my brother wanted most in the entire world was the NES game Shadowgate. Now, my brother was 12 at the time..and basically all he cared about was videogames. He was OBESSESED with videogames, and Christmas was usually the Nintendo jackpot for the both of us.

He mentioned how much he wanted Shadowgate probably every day of the 24 days of December leading up to Christmas. My parents would smile and say "oh, you want Shadowgate?" and my brother would almost piss himself in excitement. I remember my father taunting him almost relentlessly about it, which basically meant that the game was already bought and my brother had nothing to worry about (in my family if you ask for it, you get it). My father went so far as to draw pictionary style notes on post-its, taunting my brother even more about the now holy gift of Shadowgate. My brother was out of control with anticipation.

Christmas finally came; my brother at this point was nearly in tears to get his hands on the game. We opened all of our presents, but there was no Shadowgate to be seen. Was this some sort of trick? My father was known to hide gifts until the last minute. But alas, there were no more gifts. My brother and I were apparently the only ones who seemed to have even remembered that the game was ever asked for. I don't really remember my brother's reaction to this whole thing...but since he brings it up on an almost yearly basis, I assume it pissed him off pretty good.

We never really figured out the real reason as to why Shadowgate never appeared, my father died before divulging the mystery. My mom says that they just simply couldn't find it (this was back in the day when Nintendo games were literally stripped off the shelves during Christmas season). But as to why my father relentlessly taunted my brother is unknown to everyone in my family.

This still sticks in my memory as one of the most confusing things my father ever did. Was he just simply being unthoughtful? Did he think it was funny? Did he know damnwell that he would never find the game, or did he assume that it would be no problem to locate it? As far as I can tell, now 18 years later...this was very plainly child abuse.

The following is what my memory serves as the pictionary style taunt that my father had drawn of Shadowgate. Now mind you, I was 6 at the time. I can't remember much of anything from when I was 6...and I am still waiting on my brother's confirmation that this is at least similar to the original drawing. But as far as I can tell it's pretty close:


Some men take secrets of buried treasure, family secrets, murders, etc to the grave. My father took the secret of why the hell he ruined my brother's Christmas 18 years ago. This is one of those things that I clearly have marked in "what not to do to your kids" folder in my brain.

The Moon & Nothing More

Made these on a whim last night for Lloyd Dobler's button show. I wasn't really all that happy with my last designs for the buttons, at least not what the end result looked like. I wanted something iconic, that still you wouldn't expect to find on a 1" buttons, and this is what I came up with. I have been obsessed with the concept of small moons ever since a Piers Anthony book I read at the age of like 10-11, where a character had a small moon that spun around her head all the time (we're talking smaller than a golf-ball). Jesus, Piers Anthony? Harry Potter? What is this blog coming to.

That's pretty much all I've got for you. Hell week is still popping it's head up, but nothing unmanageable. And now I have started having terrible dreams about having no money, which are totally not awesome in anyway. Maybe if I stopped making buttons at three in the morning and started doing real work....

I Hate Perspective (in any form)

For Penthouse on an article about a director sleeping with his actresses. I don't really know what happened here, but at some point while doing this thing i became very unhappy with it. Though, I am pleased with the actual drawing...well, at least the perspective. Doing Perry Ellis made me re-learn perspective, which I had forced myself to unlearn over the years (though, the really dope apartment interiors that I did never made it to the final cut). And now at this point I can basically do perspective drawings without thinking....what is this drawing here? 3 separate horizons, each with 2 points? Two years ago I would have torn my hair out doing that. Also, i blame the shear ecstasy of color and gradient love on the door and frame on CS3. Also, my apologies for miserable self-exploitation in deer drawings.

The week of hell is coming to a close, with a few new things popping up along the road. My back hurts from leaning over my drafting table so much, my dog is pissed because I haven't taken him out enough, I am under-slept, under-hydrated, and under-fed. And the sad part is all I really want to be doing is reading fucking Harry Potter. I am a pathetic person. (I should also add here that doing a google-image search for "harry potter costume" was maybe the most entertaining thing I have done in a long time)

Survival Tactics and First Snows

Two posts in one day, both with new work!? What's happening to the world? This is the fourth and final illustration in a series I did for a client. The story was about a couple who got stranded in the frozen north. Due to the quick turn around on work, I ended up doing this all on the wacom...and uhh, a bit sloppily I might add. This is the best one by far, but thats probably due to how much I love drawing starved wolves. Photoshop CS3 is the best thing that ever happened to me...it handles gradients so so smoothly. And this whole thing also reminded me how much I love drawing snow scenes, or maybe just using white...I'm not quite sure. I am also super happy with the colors on this particular image...though, I didn't do anything I don't normally do....so I am going to blame that on the awesomeness of CS3.

And speaking of snow scenes, today is the first decent snow we have had in Chicago. 2 inches in a few hours, and no sign of it stopping. I don't think there is anything I really like more than working while watching the snow fall outside. Took Ichabod for a quick walk in the snow...which surprisingly he loved every second of. This may be the first time he has seen snow in his 5 years. They raced him in Florida, so who knows kind of weather the big guy has seen. He totally freaked out, and ran full speed (okay, not full speed...considering full speed is FULL SPEED for a greyhound) dragging my clumsy ass behind him. I didn't get my boots resoled this fall, and I am now paying the consequences.

And now speaking of boots. I was making a list the other day of things I love in art (illustration, comics, literature, traditional art, etc). There is a part in Pope's "Heavy Liquid" where S is making his way to his ex's to ask her about doing the statue. Somewhere in there, his ex talks about how he looks the same, and is still wearing the same boots that he just keeps getting resoled over and over again. I have always loved that part.

So, the work continues. It is only Tuesday and already I am looking forward to a few days off. I have a slew of deadlines from all over the place, all due before or on Friday morning. But it's not all bad; one is another piece for Penthouse, and another is an album cover for Type Records (unless John has forgotten all about me, due to my constant tardiness with Type deadlines).

One Inch Buttons

Did a set of 1" button designs in a rush last night, for my friends over at Lloyd Dobler Gallery. Nothing too exciting, but still fun to do. I only really like the girl and the cat.

Ended up getting Photoshop CS3, which has basically fixed all of my complaints about every Photoshop in the past. I am still trying to work everything out, and get all of the settings to be what I am used to...but so far so good. Oh, and I totally forgot how much I love Adobe Bridge.

Remember my broken iPod? I spent a good half of the day yesterday with Sharlene trying to fix it...and after the use of super-glue, a cut up eraser, a balloon animal air pump, a box cutter, dentistry tools, and a set of glasses screwdrivers; we resurrected my old beat to shit iPod from the grave. And while, it doesn't really work all that great, and sometimes you can only hear out of the left-side...it is still a start.

I realized a few hours ago how desperately in need of money I am. Biggest complaint about being an illustrator: the 60 day grace period between finishing work and receiving payment.