Chosen Winner AI 42 Annual Book

Received a nice bit of news the other day that the poster I made for the annual NY Night Train New Years Ball was chosen to appear in the AI 42 book. This poster was a lot of fun because I was trying to play around a little more with the mixed media technique I had started to use a little more frequently on the Soul Clap posters and it was also a bit stressful due to an entire re-working of the poster with a whole new central figure after the headliner had to pull out. So, it feels good to know this was the judges choice out of my submissions. A big thank you to American Illustration and all of this year's judges.

 

Soul Clap & Dance-Off 16th Anniversary Bash

New poster for the big ol' Soul Clap & Dance-Off 16th anniversary party. Jonathan Toubin and I have talked a few times about using R. Crumb's Keep on Truckin' illustrations as inspiration for one of the Soul Clap posters and it finally felt right this time. 

I first jumped in to work on these starting with the 7th anniversary poster so every time there is an anniversary gig it's a nice little reminder on how long I've been doing this. I'm sure I never pictured doing this pretty consistently for 9 years and honestly, I probably just assumed it was going to be a one-off thing like some collaborations can be. But, here we are. Crazy stuff. 

The anniversary bash goes down on March 24th, from 8pm-4am. This will likely sell out so scramble for those tickets quickly right here: TIX

 

Soul Clap & Dance-Off - Friday the 13th Edition

First illustration of 2023 is here. Jonathan Toubin is bringing his Soul Clap & Dance-Off to Austin, TX to the 13th Floor this Friday, the 13th. Since the party landed on this spooky date we had to squeeze some black cats and ladders in there. I also thought it'd be pretty slick to get eyes moving through the piece by taking the look of dance step diagrams and change it into a guide for how to avoid all the bad luck placed throughout the illustration. And, for anyone that is curious, I drew up Texas icon Barbara Lynn for this poster since the dance-off is going down in Austin.

 

Arizona Road Trip

Since I got a smart phone about 10 years ago I have grown more and more disenchanted with the act of taking photos and I've especially disliked the way photos taken at night look on the iPhone. My partner took note of this and surprised me with an old Olympus Stylus Zoom camera she found on ebay and I finally busted it out while we were driving around northern Arizona a few months ago. It should come as no surprise if you've noticed my process for making illustrations that I am somewhat of luddite and after seeing the results of the first 2 rolls of film I've shot in over 20 years, I have a feeling nothing about my ways is going to change any time soon.

 

"Signs on The Road" #7 - 9

Recently wrapped up a few more pieces in the "Signs on The Road" series. I was originally thinking I would only make 6 but, the world keeps turning and I keep writing down little observations so I'm thinking this will just be an ongoing series until I'm absolutely tired of making these. I can't claim credit for one of these because I pulled it from Neil Young's "Sail Away" one of my favorite songs off Rust Never Sleeps. It felt like doing a cover song that fit in with the concept of an album I'm working on.

There's a pic of the 8 out of 9 pieces I have (1 of them sold last year so I no longer have that framed original) down below so you can see the time changing through the series. 

 

Couldn't resist that lizard on a bike!

This was a quick little gig for a friend's Dad who retired just a couple weeks ago. She reached out and mentioned she wanted to have a little poster for everyone to sign at the party and gave me some ideas on what she had in mind for the look of the poster. I looked over some photos she sent me of his office and I immediately latched onto the toy lizard on a bike. I knew exactly how I wanted it to look and that was about it. Had a good time playing around a little and trying some stuff out I don't normally do with my regular client work.

 

Preliminary Sketches

Over the last year I've had a growing desire to get back into painting on my free time so I've been gathering photos, both digital and film, of possible subjects I want to work on through the cold winter months. This is a small selection of places I'm strongly considering and some preliminary sketches. 

The first two photos are from my day trip through Holbrook, AZ, a very interesting and surreal place, and the last 2 are from Rochester, NY and Durham, NC. The restaurant in Durham, NC was my cousin's place and they sadly had to close their doors due to a terminated lease back in the fall. Rumor on the street is the building will be demolished for...you guessed it, luxury apartments. I know, same old story everywhere right now. We figured we should immortalize the beloved restaurant and the building that housed it since they both will no longer exist in downtown Durham.