NY Night Train Haunted Hop 2022

Jonathan Toubin is bringing his annual HAUNTED HOP back big time for 2022. And to coincide with the triumphant return of his Halloween bash at the gargantuan Queens, NY venue, Knockdown Center, I whipped up 2 posters to promote this party to end all parties. Since we had a baby leather daddy, inspired by the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post illustrations, for his NYE party for the start of 2022 it feels like a logical progression that we have a skeleton leather daddy, inspired by the work of Tom of Finland, for the Halloween bash. Scroll down for process pics, which you will notice have different bands and order of bands playing due to working on these while we were still finalizing plans.

 

Road Dog

Still chipping away at the pandemic series. I've had this idea for a minute and I think after we all received that $1200 stimulus check last spring, right in the worst of it in NYC, I think this image clicked for me and I was able to really flesh it out. Because, it sort of felt like Death himself was offering a pittance of comfort as we barreled into one of the bleakest moments in recent human history. Also, I'm just not a huge fan of excessive condiments.

                                            

One Last Snack

As we enter the final days of "Character and Narrative" let us reflect on the things that almost were before August 15th. I had intentions of putting this lil' guy in the group of pieces I was bringing out for the show but time just ran too short and I couldn't land on a composition I liked so, I regretfully put it aside and got the pieces I was 100% sure on finished up. Luckily, Touchstone Center for Crafts reached out to me after I returned from Colorado to submit a couple pieces to their annual fall benefit and I knew exactly what piece I was going to submit. 

As much as I really wanted to include it in "Character and Narrative" I think I just had to walk away from it and give it time to be worked out in my head. I told some of my students this past summer that I like to think about my work in a cinematic way, in which I take a lot of my cues from how cameras frame a shot to convey an emotion. There's one shot that I particularly love and that is the classic, close-up angled shot from old horror movies when something bad is going down. And that was really all it took to lock the final look down. This, and another piece, will be for sale on October 18th at the Annual Touchstone Fall Benefit at the Pittsburgh Field Club. 

Haunted Brown Latte Throwdown V

Another Halloween is here and that means it's time for another Haunted Brown latte Throwdown! My good bud Trey Kirchoff has been throwing these bad boys for the past 5 years, mostly at his coffee shops, Passengers Cafe (RIP) and Coffee Coffee Coffee in Cleveland, OH. We used to collaborate on a ton of stuff when he lived in NYC so I always whip up something for him to use for promotion so we can keep the collaborative dream alive. I've included a few others along with our poster for this year in honor of 5 years of the Haunted Brown. 

HAUNTED HOP 2019 EDITION

Here's my latest poster for the GREATEST HALLOWEEN PARTY IN NYC that goes down at the KNOCKDOWN CENTER on OCTOBER 31st (unlike all these posers throwing their party the weekend before or after). These posters are always a fun challenge and sometimes a frustrating challenge in how I can balance a buttload of text along with a fun image. I think I've managed to keep them entertaining while mostly being informative these past 3 years. 

Jonathan Toubin always brings the heat every year and they just keep getting bigger and better. If you've never seen The Make-Up live and have always wanted to, I suggest you bite the bullet and do it this Halloween. Be sure to get your tix asap! Link is included below along with some of my process pics. 

TICKETS!!!

Ikebe Shakedown Record Release Poster

I recently completed this illustration for the Brooklyn-based band, IKEBE SHAKEDOWN, who is having a record release show in JUNE at ROUGH TRADE NYC. This piece was one of those freak times where everything just moves so smooth from sketch to finish, maybe a little too smooth? The gang gave me a few pics for reference and a song for a sample of the album's sound and I just immediately went for these sketches of this skeleton cowboy in a neon desert. I know it doesn't seem hard to translate your sketches into a finished piece that completely mimics the look of the sketch but I guarantee almost every artist you talk to will say something is lost in the process and they almost always love their sketches more. This was one of those really rare times where I feel like I got as close as possible to getting the piece right where I wanted it from sketch to finish. I will enjoy that feeling for a second and acknowledge this may not happen again for a very long time. Thanks again to Vince and the band. Process pics below.

Beak Glass

One of my good buddies from the motherland of Corning, NY who now lives way up yonder in Portland, Maine hit me up recently about needing an illustration to slap on t-shirts and stickers for his glass blowing studio and you know I'm always there for a friend. After we decided on a sweet art trade, it was on! Dave now has this illustration and I am the proud owner of some magical glass blown pipe wizardry. Check out Dave's amazing glass work and then check out them process pics below.

We decided after this first round that, even though Dave loves all the crazy metal band fonts, his work doesn't really scream METAL! More psychedelic weirdness, so we started on a new approach incorporating Dave's nickname/studio name and some drippy honeycomb patterning. We still kept a small bit of that scratchy/veiny lettering in the end.