I BLEW THEM UP!

I decided to try something different by working on some small scale drawings. This little series (which is posted on my blog Scritchy Pictures) contains drawings the size of postage stamps. I realized how much I like the the way lines look when they are blown up from a small scale, and all the little distortions that you notice in the enlargement. I used a 01 and 005 size micron pen and a very fine brush and black higgins ink for the washes.

I just put this image on my blog. I'd been working on it (on and off) for about two weeks and finally finished it. It's part of the artist's book I've been working on and it's four pages put together. Scanning it was a HUGE pain which I had to attempt twice. I ended up doing 6 scans to put the whole image together. I guess I could have just taken a picture of it, but I figured I should just go through the trouble of scanning it because at some point I would want a high res version.

Today I need to post some back-logged entries on the blog. Also I need to start working on something to submit for the next show at the Current Gallery. I don't want to miss the dealine this time.

In the meantime, here's a few pictures I took while working on the piece shown above. The dog played an active role in it's creation.









"Is this some kind of critique?"

Donald and I went to the American Illustration release party in New York on Thursday. Overall it was a great night, despite the drive being a bit grueling. It's a lot of time traveling for such a short trip, but we needed to get back that night. We met a lot of well known illustrators which for me was a little surreal but I didn't feel nervous talking to them oddly enough. We also saw some former college instructors at the party as well. I gave out a bunch of postcards to some illustrators and also got a few cards. It's all about connections, and that was a pretty fun opportunity to make some. I'll probably send out some of my remaining postcards to magazines and stuff this month. Things have been crazy lately and I've been finding it hard to get everything done. I've fallen badly behind on my blog and have not met my goal to finish this artist's book that I wanted to finish by the end of October, but that is mainly due to the holiday cards we've been trying to sell. I've already sold a few sets, so it's a good feeling. Now I just need to sell MORE. Time to work now!

Latest Published Illustration

Here is my latest published illustration in the Riverfront Times. The cheese people you see are the Suspicious Cheese Lords, or my interpretation of them. In reality they are "a male a cappella ensemble that performs concerts and provides church service music for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Although specializing in music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, their repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant to original compositions." (excerpt taken from their website)

The assignment was completely open, so I just went with it. The hardest part was figuring out a good composition in which to fit the image and text together. Below is the original and then the printed newspaper version.