I've continued to keep up a steady work pace for a few days and have gotten a pretty good amount accomplished. I finished a new drawing today and have 9 more sketched out that are ready to be inked. I like being at this point because now I can just have fun with the drawing part, now that the sketching/compositional placement part is over.

I am feeling confident that I will have at least a few good pieces to submit to an upcoming gallery show.

If you happen to visit my blog periodically, you may have noticed it has been a while since I posted any new work or any news bits. Well, I have been doing work but have been keeping in "under wraps" for now. I have slowly and steadily been building a body of work that I plan to send to galleries in the hopes of eventually showing in some of them. *fingers crossed*

Getting illustration work has been difficult lately and I don't know whether to attribute this to my less than stellar self-promotion or the bad economy (a thought that just recently hit me) or both. I did send out some emails today in the hopes of getting some responses, but chances for that seem slim. I will just have to make a postcard soon and keep on trying. If I did manage to get into some galleries and even sell some work, I think that would more than make up for the lack of success I am feeling right now about illustration. The thing about galleries that I don't like is the waiting. Waiting for a response, waiting for a call for entries, waiting for a show date, waiting waiting waiting.........

I'm not good at waiting.

Yesterday I managed to do a drawing from start to finish and it was nice. I will try to replicate that experience again today, and maybe the day after that and so on.......

it never hurts to aim high.

Here is the most recent assignment I've done. It was a cover for the Pittsburgh City Paper.


here's the final cover


here's the article


here's the sketch

Hyphen Magazine

Just wanted to post these pics of Hyphen Magazine which I currently have an illustration in. It was for the recipe section about how to feng-shui your computer desktop. I've also posted my sketch for the illustration.

I have started to do some drawings that I suppose could be a series because they are similar in tone and style. Maybe I will make more, larger ones too. I haven't worked very big in a long time. A moleskine and a 8/12 x 11 piece of paper is about the largest I have drawn in quite a while. Time for a change I think. Baby steps though......

Also, today I was thinking about the way that I've been working. I usually sit down and do a drawing and will finish that drawing before I start another one. I never really thought about this, but it's true. I guess if I start to do larger drawings, I may begin to work on multiple things at once, which will be a change for me. I don't know why I feel the need to finish something before starting something else. Sometimes I get bored working on one thing at a time, and doing multiple projects at once might be a good thing to try.

I cleaned up my work area today and tried to consolidate all my paper into one pile. Now I have a better idea of what materials I have to work with. I also have some masonite gessoed and ready to paint on. Not sure what I will paint or when that will be, but it should be interesting returning to painting.

I See Spots

Today I was going through my contact list of publications and art directors, trying to decide who I need to send new promo stuff to etc, when I remembered something potentially valuable an art director once told me. I had sent this guy some jpegs of my work via email, and he had commented back saying that although he liked my art, he didn't have anything for me to work on at the moment. Regardless, he told me that I should keep him updated and also consider adding some black and white spot illustrations to my website because that is what they usually gave to first-time illustrators. A long time has passed since that original email was sent, and I did eventually do some black and white spots (and color ones too) for various assignments, but I realize that this might be a good idea to further explore. I think I will work on making some simple black and white spots this week, nothing too conceptual, and just have fun with it. I just need to decide what to do. I can even do them in my sketchbook.

just a mini post

I just wanted to post a little note today because I have been starting to get productive again after having a little bit of a slump. I am always happy when I am working and actually liking what I'm producing. There are always of course times when I am producing but I am dissatisfied with the result, and then I feel like I've wasted time. I'm sure we all know that feeling. This past week has been pretty good though. I hope to keep this pace up for a while. I have done 3 new pieces in the past 5 days and I will post pictures when I am happy with them all. Two of them I am only about 90% happy with right now, so when I am done tweaking I'll reveal the final.

happy drawing!

It's so easy!

I just thought I would post this because it's funny. If you are an artist, you will probably find it funnier than a non-artist. I got this book a few months ago at our free book place in the city, fully intending to cut it up for collages and stuff. But when I looked at this page, I had to save it. The book is called 'The Mother's Encyclopedia' and it's basically a how-to parent book with some really funny stuff in it. Unintentionally funny I'm guessing. The section on answers to questions children ask is particularly amusing. This page was in the children's activities part of the book. Wish I had seen this years ago. I could've saved a lot of money on tuition. Just kidding...



A bowl of fruit......how unconventional!

Illuminate

The print ad for 'Illuminate,' an art event here in Baltimore that I recently participated in.

Baltimore Magazine April Issue

Here's a scan my illustration from the current issue of Baltimore Magazine. The article that accompanies it is about the fear and superstition surrounding the 13th floors of hotels. I also posted the sketches for the illustration as well.

Love and Circuits

Just did an illustration for the music section of the Baltimore City Paper. The article was about the release of a 2-disc compilation entitled "Love and Circuits" with 57 tracks by 57 different artists. Below is my illustration and a scan of the final print.

Art Non-Stop

I just wanted to post a picture of the piece I put into the Art Non-Stop show that happened here in Baltimore last Friday. It was held at Load of Fun on North Ave. and even though I didn't get to go to the opening, I heard it was a success. Sorry, the photo is at an angle to avoid the glare from the flash.

In Home: In Response

Went to the opening of the 'In Home: In Response' show last night, which I had a piece in. There was a lot of interesting work and it was displayed in a row house (going with the theme of the show) using some creative installation methods. Someone was interested in purchasing my piece, so I ended up selling something, which was nice.





"Island No. 2" - mixed media - SOLD

Cover

Just finished working on a cover yesterday for the Pittsburgh City Paper. My original illustration of step-by-step how to draw a poor art student was used as part of a larger composition created by the art director.

Today I hope to start working on some new promo pieces to send out and put on my website. But before I do that, I need to get some more art supplies, namely pen nibs. All the ones I have are either clogged, rusted, or bent and completely useless. I wish I could buy them in bulk from somewhere.

Here's my most recent published illustration from the Pittsburgh City Paper. I posted a large image so you can read the article as well. It's pretty interesting.

Things have been busy around here lately. The past couple weeks I have been occupied doing illustration work for various publications. I was contacted by Baltimore Magazine to do a color spot for the April Issue. Then a few days later I was contacted by Pittsburgh City Paper to do a b&w spot, and then the following day I received another assignment (a 6"x6" color illustration) , this time from Hyphen Magazine who I had contacted earlier in January. I successfully finished all the work yesterday, although at one point it got slightly confusing about dates since the order in which I received the assignments was not the order in which they were due. Thank god for post-it notes.

I haven't done much art lately. I spent quite a bit of time on the new website, and the past couple of days have been dedicated to contacting art directors. I plan to make some new illustrations so I can contact a wider variety of publications. I think if I do more portraits of well known people in the media, that will open a lot of possible publications I can submit to. Also, I would like to do some illustrations relating to health and well being, as well as something on the topic of the environment/going green. Better get working.

New Site!

Check out my new official art website! I've given it a total renovation, complete with frames (which I just learned how to do in Dreamweaver) and new content. Simply go to the link on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

Nice While it Lasted

My goal of posting a new piece of art everyday for one year has finally been reached! January 21, 2008 is the last daily entry. Thanks to everyone who took the time to look, and please come back and visit again. Even though I will no longer be updating daily, I will still post occasionally when I create something new.

-Jon

The New Year

Things have been very busy lately with the holidays and all, and I am just now getting to update this thing. I didn't do much drawing over Christmas vacation, so I had a lot of catching up to do when I returned home. I have created a substantial list of New Years resolutions when it comes to my work. I would like to do some more collaborative work that could possibly be part of a show, and also create my own body of work to be shown somewhere. I need to overhaul my website, be more tenacious when it comes to sending out promos, and also finish updating my contact list so I can be more efficient with the promos. Those are just a few things on the list, but it seems to go on and on. I am nearing the 1 year mark for my art blog and will not be updating it daily once I hit that mark. I think in order to be able to accomplish many of the things on my "to do list" I will need that extra time. However, I will update the blog occasionally because I do think it's a good thing to keep up. Below is a picture of some recent drawings that can be seen on the blog.

I've been feeling very tired lately, which I think is in part because of the cold weather. I've been wanting to crawl into my bed instead of sitting at my work table. Well, last month I managed to finish my art book that I was working on for a long while, so that was one thing accomplished. The other big thing is Pangoland Studios (aka me and Donald) got our holiday card orders sent out, which kind of turned into this massive feat of persistence and stress combined. But we did it and now the next thing to work on is Valentine's day cards, our website, and getting more exposure and customers. I submitted to a gallery show recently, and now I just wait patiently for a response. It's always hard waiting.....

I have been trying to get my postcards out (leftover ones from the American Illustration party) but I need to get postcard stamps first, which should come in the next day or so. I also need to update my website, which I have been contemplating giving a complete face-lift. We shall see. But for now I gotta stop typing because my hands are getting cold.

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.