Goofy Portrait Sketches

American Illustration 29

A month or two ago I applied to the American Illustration 29 competition. I submitted a portfolio of ten images, called it a night, and waited patiently. Today, I was very humbled, ecstatic, and honored to find out my Dropped Drawers piece was selected to be in the American Illustration 29 annual. I can't begin to describe this -- I'm just so happy and relieved to know that all of the hard work pays off. My heart is in this work, and I'm glad and humbled to know that it's appreciated!

Rodarte

I'm doing a new piece with Rodarte's fall '10 collection. Here is a study I did today in preparation for it.

Updating Old Work

It's pretty common for artists to revisit old work and update, especially when your on a rapid learning sprint. College is one of those sprints, and it seems that the more you learn about your interests and explore them, the better you get at finding your work to be it's outlet. This was a piece that I did, but didn't know how to resolve. It was a bit garish before, and more of an exercise in combining rendering with graphic shape. Add some stars, contrast, resolved color and you "might" have a finished piece.

New OUT Portrait

Alan Cummings is sort of amazing, and I can't wait to get this issue of OUT to read his contribution! This one was very fun, I hope y'all like it.

Nina Ricci and Versace Final

I finally finished this one! I've been really reeling in the problems with long term pieces, and I'm ready to shake that habit. Faster and more expressive work is approaching the horizon, and I feel ready for the change. But I hope you enjoy this little fashion/lifestyle piece about fashion-forward aliens with a vendetta against the démodé ones.

New OUT Portraits

Two new portraits for the March issue of OUT magazine. I'm working in a different technique then I used to, with sumi ink as well. I hope you like them!

Nina Ricci and Versace

So I'm working on a new piece with looks from Nina Ricci's fall '09 women's collection and Versace's fall '10 menswear collection. I'm also working in a narrative context, (a gang of nasty space-fashion kids are picking a fight with you, watch yo' back). I have a few prelims that I'm working on, trying to see what kind of feel I can get. They in no way represent the level of finish the finals will have, as the finals will neither feel cartoons or comic books. But I say GO FOR IT when your doing prelims, amp up the tude! Let me know which is your favorite?

P.S. The last piece has some concept art I googled as a background layer. That was just to get an idea of what a space city would look like in the image -- trust me, it wont be in the final and neither will it even have a resemblance to it.

Eisley Cover Silver Spring

I don't do this often on this blog, as I usually keep it to my work. But occasionally I find something that I really want to share, and this is one of those occasions. Eisley is a band that I've appreciated for some time, and I usually listen to their music while I work. They recently revealed that they had split from Warner Bros. Records and had become an entirely independent act. In the same post on their blog, Trolleywood, they released a video of a one-take performance of the Stevie Nicks penned, Fleetwood Mac original "Silver Spring". I can't get over this performance -- it's poignant and beautiful, and I feel excited enough to spread it around. I hope you enjoy it!



You can find the video for download here.

Elie Saab

This week has been a lot of fun, working so hard really begins to pay off, especially when you have fun and remain conscious of what the task at hand is. This a piece with a proposed promotional use for Elie Saab's fall 2009 ready-to-wear collection.