Moleskine 2007: A Year in Review

I've been thinking about this post for a while now. I started up this particular Moleskine in late 2006 as a larger version of my pocket Moleskines. After some subway and museum sketching it turned more into an idea/sketch book. I started working out sketches for current and future illustrations and gallery paintings. In one case, the sketches turned into finished work. The majority of the work here was created in 2007 and the book is largely filled up. After looking over it in early 2008 I decided to take a page from Baron Storey and a few local friends and work back into and on top of the pages. This will be an experiment to see what kind of ideas may come from embellishing, adding onto, and in some cases, destroying what's already on the page.



Composition sketches of John White Alexander paintings from the MET's "Americans in Paris" Show (Dec. 2006)



Sketches for an illustration of the Egyptian Goddess of War, Sekhmet.

detail:



A sketch for a project with Matt Black's theater company, Marrow.


Sketches for potential illustrations.

detail:


More sketches for the Marrow project.










A very unflattering portrait of friend and fellow illustrator, Rusty Zimmerman (sorry buddy).


Trees in Central Park, NYC.





Character design for a future illustration.

detail:


Sketches from the Coney Island SideShow.



Sketches for a cover illustration and spot for Knowledge Arcana online magazine (never published).


...and the under-painting for the spot illustration.

detail:





Sketches form the Society of Illustrators Jazz & Sketch (3 on 3 Thursdays).



San Diego Zoo Sketches (See Moleskine 4.0 post).









More sketches for the Marrow project.


More versions of the sketch from last post.

detail:





Word association exercise used to come up with an idea for my painting of "Underneath It All".


...and a taste of things to come: Sketches from the Society of Illustrators Jazz & Sketch.




Related Posts: Moleskine, Moleskine continued, Moleskine 2.0, Moleskine 3.0, Moleskine 4.0, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 1, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 2

Spectrum 15 List

Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art published the list of all the artists that got into Spectrum 15.

I didn't make it this year (which was expected), but I'd like to congratulate all my friends that did get in.

About 200 works of art from Volumes 12-15 will be collected together for a Best Of exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in late 2009.


Related post: Spectrum 15 Award Winners Announced

Some Sketches from 2007

I'm a little late on updating the blog because I'm working on a deadline (and rocking no sleep). Here are some warm-up sketches of monkeys (for said job):


And while scanning stuff, I threw in some sketches from 2007. The first one is my take on a character my friend Cody Tilson created for a sketch trade. I don't think I ever posted it.

Drawn with sharpie, coffee, watercolors and white-out on a shipping label from work.


And the second I did while relaxing at an art retreat.

Also used watercolors, ink, sharpie, ball-point pen and white-out. I like to make a mess with whatever I have at hand.

Also a special thanks to www.tangente.org a Canadian website for linking to me yesterday and driving a whole lot of traffic my way. The text is all in French so I can't read it, but I did get a lot of traffic from Canada, so I'm

Spectrum 15 Award Winners Announced

Last weekend while I was partying it up at the Society of Illustrators with friends at the Book and Editorial Show for the 50th Annual, another annual was being judged in Overland Park, Kansas (Spectrum 15).

The Spectrum website teased us with pictures of the judging while it was happening.
And a few days ago they released the list of Award Winners.

A big congrats to my friends Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon (Kurt lived 2 doors down from me in the dorms at the Savannah College of Art and Design) for getting the Silver Medal in the Editorial Illustration Category. At the pre-mentioned SoI party, Zelda congratulated me for for getting into Spectrum 14, and told me that it was her and Kurt's first year entering Spectrum. Not a bad first year. Here's a link to their Award-Winning Piece.

I doubt I'll make it in this year, but we'll have to wait until late March to find out.


Related post: Spectrum 15 List

Moleskine 4.0

This one is a long time coming. I neglected it for a few months. Haven't been drawing on the trains very much (too busy catching up on my sleep on the train rides to work).


I started paying more attention to hands rather than faces in mid 2007.






After drawing the chubby guy with the goatee I got freaked out because he looked a lot like me. Unfortunately it did not help me get my ass out of bed early and head to the gym as much as I thought it would.










When I was in California for the Comic-Con in July, my friend Lana Crooks and I took a break from all the madness of the convention and spent Saturday at the San Diego Zoo.















Some gestures of nudes from the Society of Illustrators Jazz Sketch Sessions.










And some ideas for a new painting.




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