Sunday Soul Scream 2024

I had quite an undertaking recently with this year's Sunday Soul Scream advertising project but my hand miraculously lived to tell the tale. This isn't the first time we've done 2 illustrations (one main poster and one calendar poster) to help promote Jonathan Toubin's summer residency at Our Wicked Lady but this calendar poster was definitely the most intense due to the amount of acts Jonathan got for this summer's events. We had been toying around with the idea of using King Kong imagery for a few years and we finally did the damn thing and I'm happy with how we pulled it off. I especially love that we used a narrative to connect the 2 images, which we have never really done before.

Sunday Soul Scream is every summer Sunday (Memorial Day to Labor Day)

Our Wicked Lady

Doors 7pm. Live music 8pm. Free dancing from 10:30pm - late.

 

Pen & Ink Demo/Class

I'll be teaching a pen & ink class on Labor Day weekend at Touchstone Center for Crafts so I went out to the Laurel Highlands for their annual open house to do a little demo for guests while they were visiting the school. I had this old photo of Glenn Campbell that I really love and between the great light/dark contrast, he was bit older in the photo so I thought his wrinkles and folds in skin would be helpful for showing some different mark making techniques.

Always love to get out to this area of Pennsylvania to get some nature time with my friends out there. I've attached a link below to the class information and sign-up. We won't be working outside in my class but we'll still get to be in some beautiful surroundings while we work and the studio is looking pretty swanky these days. Did I mention it sits above a creek and you get to hear the sound of running water while you work? Sounds nice, doesn't it?

https://www.touchstonecrafts.org/workshops/painting-drawing-workshops

 

Engines & Transmissions

A couple illustrations for some merch for Engines & Transmissions, an auto body shop in Corning, NY. It's always a pleasure to help out with projects like this for businesses in my hometown. I'll be sure to post images of the finished products when they are available for purchase.

Welcome to Jonestown 3

This is my third year in a row making the poster for Welcome to Jonestown and this time around we have thrown James in some Saturday Night Fever situation. Always a light-hearted project to work on, outside of the fact that every single one of these events has donated the proceeds to an ongoing humanitarian crisis. This year proceeds will be donated to aid in Ukraine and Palestine.

Process pics below. I think the title lettering was the part of the project that really locked me in the most. I've been noticing over the last few years that the drawing aspect of my projects hasn't been the most enjoyable aspect of it but instead it's been all the lettering. There's very few illustrations of mine anymore that make it to the final stages without some lettering included somewhere on it.

 

Phil Ashworth Dot Com lives!

 

PHILASHWORTH.COM has risen from the dead! Click the link and take a spin through the new and improved site. Some classics you've come to know are still there and some newer work has been added. The web-store has also been updated with some new prints. 

10 Years of Soul Clap & Dance-Off Posters Opening

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Soul Clap Poster show opening. It was nice to meet so many people that have been looking at these posters for years and had such kind things to say about all of the work. It was also the first time I've been able to look at all 47 posters together and it was a wild feeling to see 10 years of my life on a wall. 

The show is up in the gallery at TV EYE in Ridgewood, NY until April 19th. 

 

Showtime!

I did one of these shows back in 2017 when we had only been at this for 3 years and had about 15 posters but now after 10 years and 47 posters in total, Jonathan Toubin and I decided it's time to get these babies back up on a wall for round 2. The poster shows kicks off at 7pm, March 22nd at TV EYE followed by live music from Joe Bataan and then all night dancing with dee jays Jonathan Toubin and Tenosh.

 

Soul Clap & Dance-Off 17th Anniversary Bash

The 17th anniversary bash for the Soul Clap & Dance-Off is upon us, folks! A big aspect of this project, outside of the party turning 17 this year, was that this also marks the 10th year that I have been doing this gig. It was a pretty wild feeling to wrap up the 47th poster in this series and think back to the first one I ever did; It's pretty weird and a little embarrassing for me. And you'll all get to see it up close and personal soon enough..wink wink.

The poster went through quite a few revisions and eventually it was decided that using a previous likeness that I put together for Joe Bataan's Elsewhere show in 2018 was worthy of a 2nd treatment, just with an updated setting and a redraw of Joe so I could see where I've maybe made some improvements.

The big bash goes off on Friday, March 22nd so get those tix while you can!

 

Sun Ra Arkestra at TV Eye

Did a little poster surgery recently for a Sun Ra Arkestra show that took place at Ridgewood-based venue, TV EYE, back on January 19th. I had done a drawing of them for a Soul Clap & Dance-Off anniversary show back in 2018 and due to short notice I didn't have time to draw up an entirely brand new poster so I pulled from my old drawing. I initially traced out the band from the older poster and then created a brand new background with text and then just copy and pasted them on there in photoshop. 

I really tried to squeeze in their singer, Tara Middleton, because I felt bad I left her off last time due to time constraints and feeling overwhelmed at the idea of fitting every single member in there and unfortunately, time won again. But, I did go back after I submitted the job, and did finish the drawing of her and placed her in the poster (it's not great and probably better I ran out of time). But it did make me stop and notice how much these posters have changed in the 5 years since I last drew a poster for the band. Sometimes you lose track of change when you are so in the thick of things but it was nice to see them side by side and notice that things have improved on them, at least in my opinion.