I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving.
It's been a while since I posted, and after an eventful Autumn, here's a very quick highlighting of recent art and humor on the drawing board...
A couple of years back, I created a series of caricatures and humor for the Ralph Lauren Polo Bar restaurant in New York City. It was a project that continued for a while, tying in with RL's advertising and social media. (My process for writing the humor for them can be found here.)
The owner of a new, upscale dinner club in Norwalk, Connecticut had seen these cartoons and caricatures, and contacted me in October. He wanted something similar (in terms of caricatures) for his establishment, and we discussed the scope and terms of the project.
After discussing this and the intended purpose of the drawings, we decided to use a little less distortion and to make an effort capture more likeness in the style. I began with a larger format 18" x 24" piece depicting the owner's grandparents, (who inspired the restaurant). It is being framed and hung in the entry area, near the maître d'. Now, I am doing 8"x10" illustrations of the dining club's members, which will be also framed and hung throughout the restaurant. (Each couple will also receive a framed print of their own.)
(The owner's grandparents)
(The owner, with some of the framed caricature illustrations)
I'm drawing these by hand, but digitally, using my Wacom Cintiq. With the latest digital brushes, I can create India ink drawings and watercolor washes, which allows me to create artwork identical in appearance to things I created with traditional brushes, ink and bristol for years. This saves time and effort, (particularly versus packing and shipping physical art). I email the high resolution artwork to the client, and he has them printed at a top notch local printer, and then matted and framed.
There will be 70 framed caricature pieces with roughly 125 people, in total. I'm about halfway through at this point.
A couple of early reviews of the establishment:
The last article mentions me, and oddly, the reporter said that I worked at Pixar...not sure where he got that…(I am currently illustrating a book for a Pixar executive, detailed in an earlier blog post.) Typical journalism these days. :)
Sounds like good food.
(Update 2/14: The owner just requested 30 more illustrations. I'll get to have some more fun).-----------------
This is a large 18" X 24" humorous illustration created for a longtime client, global technology leader,
Capgemini, headquartered in Paris, France. I have worked with their Vice President in charge of Marketing several times on
previous pieces, and this was written and drawn for a retiring executive. After discussing the life and accomplishments of the gentleman to be depicted, the various vignettes were written, sketched, and then approved.
I created the color artwork, and finally, I sent a high res CMYK (publishing standard 4-color process) file, which the client had printed locally and then matted and framed for a party in Denmark, for the guest of honor.
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The publisher of FREESKIER (a magazine I've read since I was in college) launched a new magazine called "The Grom Guide", for kids and and families. The magazine editor contacted me in September to discuss a cartoon feature, starting with a two-page in the first issue.
I was given the freedom to write and draw whatever I wanted, as long as it covered skiing and snowboarding, depicting kids with their families. As someone who has skied and snowboarded since I was a kid, this was right up my alley, and I had a great time playing with it.
The first issue is in news stands, drug stores, ski shops, and other tawdry establishments.
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Over the past several years, I’ve been working with a large group of medical doctors in California who have been in the midst of a battle with the state government regarding health insurance coverage for patient treatment. Many prominent insurance companies, including Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United healthcare have been lobbying for lower patient visits and placing a severe cap on reimbursement for appointment charges. The companies have pushed and lobbied for legislation that requires extensive paperwork for each patient visit, making it a money losing proposition for many of these physicians, and their medical practices.
Here’s the latest in the series, a political cartoon created for the fight against this...
Update: Three weeks after the cartoon was created, the physician's group called me with terrific news...The legislation was killed shortly after the editorials appeared. Victory!
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A piece created for regular client, Thrive in San Francisco.
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I’m currently working on illustrations for a book of humor, and the arrangement this time around is a little different than usual. Rather than being hired by a publisher or author, I am partnering with a publisher and a poet. The publisher contacted me, and their idea was to do something along the lines of the popular humor book by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss. After reading some of the poems by the humorous poet, and I was taken in by his wit and range. I am having fun with it, and need to fit more of it onto my drawing board to make the agreed upon schedule.
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Another advertising cartoon for California biotech firm, List Labs. This one is aimed at their clientele...people who spend time behind a microscope. It takes me back to my time as a biology major at the University of Illinois...but we didn't have attachments of smartphones, allowing for easy photos of those microbes, etc.
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A couple more 'New Yorker' cartoons, (also shared with the folks who market them for me at Cartoonstock.) ...
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Some photos from a Fall trip to the Summit Area for some mountain biking.
The Aspens were ablaze with color, and we spent a few days unwinding.
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Lastly, I sent our family Christmas card off to my printer in California. (One of the few printers that still uses CMYK process for accurate color - not just the RGB colors on one's monitor.)
The caricatures that you did for the restaurant are quite stylish, with the expressive lines and splashes of watercolor wash. The “innovative idea” business cartoon and the dog Christmas card cartoon are hilarious! Keep up the good work.
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