Nude of the Day Rejects Part 3

Today is the 2-Year Anniversary of Nude of the Day!

Just in case you forgot, I'm celebrating the anniversary with a 2 for 1 Sale.

Click on image for details of the Sale.

Not to disappoint the lovers of the non-nudes, here is a new installment of Nude of the Day Rejects:

Amelia




Candice


Isis


Jim


Kika


Main Event


Kenita



Tony





Related Posts: Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 1

Moleskine 5.0 Part 2

Today is Drawing Day 2009.

Help promote art by drawing today and putting your results online. You don't have to be an artist to participate, just a lover of art. Click on the banner above for more details.

My contribution is the remainder of my Moleskine 5.0



Composition sketches for another Dover project, due out at the end of the year.



Did another stint at the NYC Veterans Affairs hospital in February, a volunteer event organized by Joan Chiverton. Here's the sticker to prove it.


Sketches for spots for a Cover for a McGraw-Hill business book and another Dover project.



Short sketches form the Society of Illustrators.


More sketches for yet another Dover project. This one, unfortunately, was not aproved by the powers that be.




Quick landscape sketches from a short trip to Brattleboro, VT in April.







Related Posts: Moleskine, Moleskine continued, Moleskine 2.0, Moleskine 3.0, Moleskine 2007: A Year in Review, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 1, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 2, Moleskine 5.0: Part 1

Nude of the Day Rejects Part 2

Once again I dropped the ball on posting due to lots of deadlines. I'll make it up throughout this month.

Thursday night Jazz & Sketch sessions over at the Society of Illustrators underwent a small change in 2009. They are now modeled after the old 3 on 3 Thursdays only with two models. What that means is that the models dress up in all sorts of crazy costumes and bring along all sorts of props. Unfortunately for me, I can't use the drawings on my Nude of the Day Blog. But the plus is that I have content to post here with another excuse to mention Nude of the Day. Here is a small selection:

Amelia




Kika


Darlinda


Also, two weeks ago I posted my 700th Nude:


If my constant mentions of Nude of the Day haven't convinced you to head on over and check out my latest nudes, maybe the 2 for 1 Sale to celebrate the 2-Year Anniversary will.

Click on image for details of the Sale.


Related Posts: Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 1

Freelance work for Dover Publications Part 2

I've been really busy with all sorts of deadlines for Dover Publications, hence the lack of updates for a while. Some of the stuff I did for Dover over the summer has recently come out (I got my copies of the Treasures of King Tut's Tomb Stained Glass Coloring Book yesterday).


I did this in June, right around the time the Indiana Jones 4 came out. Tried my best not to look at Indy stuff while working on this obvious Indy rip off. Dover even used the Indy font. Hope I don't get sued for this.
Treasure Hunter Sticker Activity Book (Amazon link)

The premise of the sticker books is that I create this blank image and sets of reusable stickers that kids can use to make their own compositions/illustrations with.


I'm also working on a number of stained glass coloring books. They are printed on vellum and kids can color them and then put them up to a window to mimic stained glass.
Greek and Roman Gods Stained Glass Coloring Book (Amazon link)
The cover of Zeus (Jupiter)

Ares (Mars) - god of war.

Herakles (Hercules)



Treasures of King Tut's Tomb Stained Glass Coloring Book (Amazon link)
Cover of Tut's gold mask.

One of his thrones.

A guardian goddess.


And another sticker book of a James Bond/Jason Bourne type spy.
Secret Agent Sticker Activity Book (Amazon link)
Cover (the one I sent them, may not be the one they choose to use):

The bare image, sans stickers:

And a page of stickers (tried to sneak one of me in there):



I'm currently working on another sticker book and another stained glass coloring book.

Moleskine 5.0 Part 1

Happy New Year everyone.

It's been a pretty busy year so far. Lots of deadlines keeping me from posting more regularly. They're also keeping me from regularly sketching in my Moleskine. I started this in May 2008. I'm about two thirds of the way through it. There a a lot of work-related sketching in this one. And lots of messes.






The page on the right is my girl-friend Rebecca Silvers taking over a page (and then showing much concern after I told this would make it online one day).



Some short sketches form the Society of Illustrators. If you look close enough you can pick out arms, hands and faces.


These are some sketches for a project for Dover about the Greek and Roman Gods (I'll be posting some examples in the near future).






On the right a compsition sketch for another Dover project.


More messes from the Society of Illustrators.




Goofing off at an art retreat in October 2008.




The sketch on the Right was done from reference stolen from Greg Manchess while at the art retreat.




A bad drawing of Rebecca (in which she looks like Sandra Bernhardt) which is SO not the case.



I went to Chicago on Halloween weekend to check out my best friend Lana Crooks' Solo Show. There the sticker from the Field Museum to prove it.


This sticker was my pass to draw at the NYC Veterans Affairs hospital. This was a volunteer event organized by Joan Chiverton in mid December. A few illustrators from the Society got together and drew the patients at the VA Hospital to try to ease their pain. We gave them the portraits afterward, but I managed to take a few shots and will post them in the near future as well. This was a great event and I may get another chance to participate next week.





Also, Today I posted my 600th Nude on Nude of the Day.



Related Posts: Moleskine, Moleskine continued, Moleskine 2.0, Moleskine 3.0, Moleskine 2007: A Year in Review, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 1, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 2

RPG Compositions 2 and Society of Illustrators Jazz Sketch Show

Sketching some more compositions for RPG's on my lunch breaks at work. Here is a new batch.











Thank you for all the comments on the first batch. I should have a little more time in the new year to attack these babies and turn them into finished illustrations.


Also, I have a nude up on the wall of the Society of Illustrators part of the Jazz & Sketch Group Show. See Related Post.

This painting of the beautiful Piera was also on the Nude of the Day Blog: 11.24.2008.

Nude of the Day Rejects

I'm sorry for not keeping up with with the posts over the last few months. Part of it is I was busy finishing up some work. And I spent most of October traveling (Art Retreat, Wedding, visiting my best friend Lana in Chicago for her solo show). I didn't do much art at the Art Retreat so there was nothing new to show. And the only thing I remember of November, besides being sick for two weeks, is Thanksgiving (which was AWESOME!!!).

So with no new art to share, I was stuck trying to figure out what to put up here on the blog. Two days ago I was hanging out with my friend Joe Bluhm and the Society of Illustrators Sketch Night and he, inadvertently, helped me come up with a topic for this post. About two years back, Joe put together a great book of his drawings from his days as a Caricaturist in the theme parks in Orlando. He called the book Rejects because the drawings tended to take a lot of artistic license, and the tourists with no sense of humor rejected the drawings. I know you guys are probably tired of me writing about my Nude of the Day Blog, but I have my own share of rejects that never make it to that blog (mainly because they are usually portraits, heads and generally not very nude drawings, and therefore won't fit in with the Nude of the Day theme). Here is a small selection of my Nude of the Day Rejects:

Kika


Nikki


Piera


Alexis


Sara


and Jim



And some sketches of the models in costume around Holloween time:
Doug



and Stephanie


Also, As long as were talking about Nude of the Day (I know I'm bad) might as well plug the Holiday Sale I'm having throughout December. Click on image for details of the Sale.



Related Posts: Best of Nude of the Day: Preview, Best of Nude of the Day: Year One - Order Yourself a Copy
, Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 2

Sketching Compositions for RPGs

Ever since I picked up my first Magic: The Gathering cards back in high-school, I was into sci-fi and fantasy role playing games. Not for the chance to be in a different world, pretending to be a monster or a goblin (I've never touched Dungeons & Dragons), but for the Illustrations. I haven't played the game for over 10 years. I don't think I even remember how to play it anymore. But every time a new set comes out I scour the interwebs for the art. I have several friends that illustrate for Wizards of the Coast (the company that publishes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons), some even make a decent living from it.

It's always been my goal to work for WotC but my portfolio does not reflect this. So I've been playing around with compositions and sketching out ideas that I'd like to eventually turn into a portfolio for RPGs. Here are some doodles I did last week on my lunch break at work:








What do you think? Are there any that jump out at you? Any I should develop further or forget about?

Freelance work for Dover Publications

Wow, it's been over a month since my last update. Not good.

I went off to California last month for a little break from NY, and came back to a mountain-load of work.

Thanks to the referral of my good friend Scott Altmann, I've been working on coloring books for Dover Publications. Between working a full-time job (almost full-time, I've been at lest an hour late consistently over the last 3-6 months), and helping out at the Society of Illustrators, I've been burning the midnight oil working on the books for Dover.
The first one, Extreme Sports Coloring Book, is coming out October 17th. Amazon has it for pre-order. I'm not too crazy about the cover...

(not my font choices)

...but some of the interior pages turned out pretty nice.







I wish I had more sketchbooks to show, but the Dover work kinda took over my life in the summer time, so I haven't been able to do much personal sketching. Hopefully this will change as I better incorporate my freelance work into my already busy schedule.


In other news, the good folks over at Spectrum plugged my Best of Nude of the Day: Year One book in their ComicCon International coverage. That's very nice of them, especially after I got hostile with Arlo Burnett.


Also, I created a Facebook fan page for Nude of the Day. If you are a member of Facebook, head over and become a fan of the blog. I will be updating the page with my favorite images and will notify fans of upcoming promotions and special offers.

Best of Nude of the Day: Year One - Order Yourself a Copy

I'm about to get on a plane to San Diego for the annual ComiCon and I wanted to let everyone know that I'm bringing advance copies of Best of Nude of the Day: Year One. You can pre-order a copy for yourself today, and I will ship them out when I come back from California in early August.

Best of Nude of the Day: Year One
40 pages - Softcover
7x7 inches

Pre-Order Yours Today!
$25.00
(Free Shipping in the Continental United States!)

Canada, Mexico Add $5.00 for Shipping		International Add $10.00 for Shipping
$30.00		$35.00

I'll be sending out Pre-Ordered books in early August.
If you can't wait that long you can always order directly from Blurb.

Best of Arkady...

Year One

By Arkady Roytman

Book Preview

The only thing about ordering from Blurb is that they charge for shipping. That may not be worth it for all the people in the United States, but may cost less for the folks in Europe.

Check out a 15-page preview of the book on the Blurb website.