On the Digital Drawing Board

What has been an incredibly busy pace over the past several months has calmed to a much more manageable 30-40 hour/week schedule the past two weeks. (It is usually the case, as summer vacations with some corporate and publishing clients begin kicking in.)

I love this time of the year for that reason, as it gives me a chance to catch my breath, and also spend some time with my family.

Speaking of that, we just took a 10 day Atlantic coast beach vacation...lots of fun, sun, surf, seafood, boating and relaxation. We're all back recharged and ready to go.

Here are a few things that are on the board or were completed recently...

Two cartoons commissioned by London-based ICB, a manufacturer of roofing and sidewalk materials.

A political cartoon commissioned to help fight the re-election of a Representative in California

Some political cartoons for long-time client, Merk Investments...

Two pieces from a book I'm illustrating for New York author, Peter Millrose. It will be a humorous look at online dating, and will include 35 cartoons...

Lastly, two animated videos created for global consulting firm, Towers Watson, Inc. The artwork and in between movements are the extent of my work...the animation and music were handled by some colleagues in New York, (same folks that I collaborated with for the Intel Corp commercials.) 

Obama & Reagan have something in common

I don't know if you saw the news story regarding an Irish reporter asking President Obama a question...and the outrage it drew from other reporters. Outrage over interrupting a President with a question? Apparently today's media has no memory of how other reporters have treated previous Presidents.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160019/Neil-Munro-Obama-bickers-heckler-speech-favouring-immigrant-workers.html

Neil Munro, the reporter in question is only carrying on with a long-standing tradition of reporters interrupting Presidents... and best of all, this guy Munro is consistent with his answers to fellow reporters. ('Just questions you should be asking'. "I'd give you my name but you'd misspell it.") I also love the fact that he had a good reason for jumping in to ask a question...unlike most Presidents, Obama almost never takes questions after a briefing. I was in the White House rose garden with some other editorial cartoonists back in 1987, (and got to meet Reagan, Vice President HW Bush, Education Secretary Bill Bennet, etc.) Reagan was speaking to us at his podium, when Sam Donaldson popped up over the fence (uninvited and on. a ladder outside the fence, no less) and started heckling Reagan, which he did often back then. He yelled questions about Iran Contra and Oliver North.Unlike Obama, (at an event where reporters were invited and expected), Reagan was polite enough to stop what he was doing to answer Donaldson. Eventually, one of the cartoonists called for the group to go inside, and Reagan concurred...which really upset Donaldson.

A large political cartoon that we all created and gave to the President.

A separate cartoon Tom Toles created, with an empty word balloon for the President to finish:

It's amazing that the press seems to forget how rude and nasty Donaldson was, (and later with HW Bush), and additionally act as if this sort of "heckling" is unprecedented. How dare this guy Munro (who was invited to the press pool) ask President an actual question? 

I found a video of the event: (Donaldson heckles Reagan at the 11:38 mark)

Intel Corporation Animated Video - a sequel.

Just a little update... A few months back, I created a characters and artwork for an animated video and commercial for Intel Corporation. Its purpose was to introduce a new range of touch screen retail technology to their clients, such as clothing and shoe stores, restaurants and movie theaters, hospitals and bus/train transit stations. --A shorter version was made into a commercial.

Recently I was asked to work on a sequel to introduce more technology. This one entailed the depiction of a sporting goods store and its owner, (which Intel requested I model upon Dick's Sporting Goods & Galyans)...it also required creating a new main character to go along with Bob and Michael Caine. (The English guy talking with Bob in the back seat.)

We just wrapped up this past week, after 4-5 weeks of work between myself, a storyboardwriter and animator team with an ad agency in New York. My initial illustrations were shown to a group of Intel executives in a series of meetings, with a number of additions and revisions made. Here is a small sampling of scenes and illustrations, (and a rough cut of the animation to follow):

This is a retail touch screen station that will be used in sporting goods stores.
 The thing is, it does not exist yet. Therefore, I was asked to play
 industrial designer to some extent, designing an aluminum checkout station that will
 house the various Intel-powered touch screen technologies being introduced.

Characters placed into the scene and animated to
 demonstrate the touch screen technology.

Here's a 'rough cut' of the new video. (In my opinion, the little girl kicking a soccer girl and golfer will be adjusted by the animator to include more "in between" illustration frames.)

I just received word from Intel and the ad agency involved that a third animated video will be produced sometime this summer...

Drawing Board wrap-up

It was a very hectic month, as evidenced by my lack of posting here. Here's a quick sampling of some of the recent work gracing my board: (Click images to enlarge).

One of a series of cartoons commissioned by a Seattle ad agency, for Vertafore Corporation.

-------------

A series of cartoons created for London-based IB corp. I worked with their executives to write and draw some cartoons for their international advertising campaigns.

------------------------

 

 A step-by-step process for a cartoon created for regular client, CGNet, a pioneer in cloud computing. 
I worked with the CEO on this, which was his vision; a busy Rube-Goldberg-like cartoon, 
showing how  services offered by his firm might otherwise be handled -- in an-old school manner.  

          1) A first draft with a rocket depicting cloud computing. 2) We decided a hot air balloon better fit the antiquated objects around it, (steam engine, carrier pidgeons, toy train). 3) The character who "built" the set-up was proud of himself and standing in a spotlight...also, the coloring was meant to look old. 4) We removed the spotlight, gave him some tools and then brightened the color scheme.

A cartoon on the Fed's spending policies, for Merk Funds (link)

-----------

A caricature commissioned for an awards cermony honoring Maurice Fiorio,
head of the Fiorio Hair Salons and School. (Being a guy with simple tastes
 in hair care, I wasn't sure who he was until I Googled him for reference photos).

 

 

 

 -----------------

 

 

One of 18 illustrations from a children's book going to the publisher this month...

-------------------

It's shaping up to be a busy summer...Several large projects are in line, including two children's book illustration jobs, along with a humor book about dating which will entail around 35 cartoons, and plenty of artwork and character design for a third animated video commissioned by Intel Corporation.

We'll try to have some fun here in between, with a caption contest or two, as well as some new features...

April Showers

With soft but steady rain drops pitter-pattering on my studio windows, I'm reminded of Annie Lennox crooning the opening of her 80's song for the Eurythmics, "Here Comes the Rain Again".

It's also a fitting metaphor for the activity within the studio right now... a new animated commercial for Intel Corporation, as well as  three books to illustrate, and over a dozen other corporate client projects.

I feel very fortunate to be this busy, and after taking a multi-day ski trip a little over a week ago, (first break since Christmas), I'm refreshed and ready to have some fun with it all.

--Meanwhile, here's a sampling of what has been on the Wacom digital tablet over the past two weeks:

A political cartoon created for a column in the San Francisco Examiner, link

Another, for a column in the S.F. Examiner last week, (link).

A patchwork of currencies -- a cartoon for Merk Funds (link)

                                                           (Click images to enlarge)

         

 A cartoon on Ben Bernanke's dalliances with the Gold Standard, (link)

   One of several advertising cartoons for  Zoom Info

One of 42 cartoons (yes 42!) created for a book to help doctors effectively maintain and market

their websites. The book is by medical industry executive Ann Kaplan -- and just went to the publishers.

 (I previously illustrated a humor book for her covering the pitfalls of cosmetic surgery...link).

A cartoon for Energi USA, a California HR and insurance firm. 

A scene from an animated corporate presentation for Towers Watson in New York.
As usual with animation, I designed the scenes and characters and drew the artwork, but left the
 technical aspects of animating it to others. (Honestly, lining up repeating frames in order
seems tedious -- and I chose this profession to have fun.)

Here's wishing a Happy Easter and Passover to everyone!

On the Digital Drawing Board

It's March already? Even with the extra 'leap day' lengthening February a bit, it seems hard to believe.

I thought I'd surface for a breath of air after a busy month to share a few of the projects recently wrapped up...

A book cover illustration for California author, Michael Brown.

Click to enlarge

One of a series of three marketing cartoons created for an insurance company. 

A poster for Florida-based Career Directors International, for their annual conference. (Link)

One of six cartoons created for the Boston social media company, Hubspot (Link to cartoon)

The monthly cartoon for The Michigan Association of School Principals

Political cartoon on the Greek bailout, for Merk Funds. (Link to cartoon in column)

Another political cartoon for Merk Funds...here Ben Bernanke is taking the Federal Reserve to new heights. (Link)

An advertising cartoon for a long-time client, California technology firm, CGNet.

A public service cartoon, (while not all of my work is funny, this one is intentionally not funny),
commissioned by the magazine, "Cancer Monthly".

It looks March is arriving like a lion in terms of work, with 14 client projects on the board right now, including some corporate ads and three new book illustration jobs. It could go out much the same way, as I was notified yesterday that Intel Corporation would like to do a sequel commercial/video featuring the character I created last fall.

It may be a little while before I'm here again, but in the meantime, I hope you have a terrific month!

Helicopters, helicopters, everywhere a helicopter

...Or maybe that's just the way it seemed in my studio during January.

This past month brought many new clients, and among them was Erickson Air Crane, a company based in Portland that manufactures large scale helicopters. The gargantuan machines, characterized by an opening just underneath their doors are used for many tasks -- some that I had never would guessed involved a helicopter.

I was commissioned to create roughly 40 helicopter illustrations and a map showing their company's presence around the world. As you might imagine, it involved a lot less humor-writing than usual...and more straight illustration, but it was a great deal of fun.

A few examples of illustrated events or locations:

Sears Tower, Chicago: They aided in construction and continue to do periodic A/C replacement.       

                                     (Click to enlarge images)

Logging and transmission line construction, Italy

     

U.S. Capital Building, Washington DC -
 Statue of Freedom placement on dome.

Firefighting in Hollywood, CA

Firefighting in Sydney, AU

Rhino in Malaysia: This past Christmas day,
 (covered on CNN) They saved a rhino trapped in a deep hole.

Vancouver Olympics: remember the lack of snow
 for those winter games? Their helicopters brought snow
 in from outside, allowing the ski events to happen.

A helicopter with its various devices for service

The Dancing Moose: In the Flesh

I received a phone call recently that was a bit of a surprise. In fact it was so surprising that if it had come roughly two months from now, I would have guessed it was an April Fools Day prank.

The caller was a gentleman from Boston who is the editor of a prominent business magazine. He told me that his wife is a ballet dancer by profession and she had read my blog. He further explained that he and his (at-that-time) fiance liked my 'Dancing Moose' illustration very much, and wondered if I'd mind if she had a tattoo created based upon the logo/illustration. He assured me it would be placed in an area where only she and he would see it. (The mind runs quickly to images of where that might be...but I didn't ask.) 

He asked how much I would charge for the use, and I told him no charge - I was flattered that he and his wife enjoyed my moose enough to have it reproduced in such a unique manner. 

 

I sent him a larger, high resolution file for the tattoo artist to use for reference. (Below).

 

 

Well, flash-forward a few weeks to after their recent honeymoon: She went ahead with it. I later received a photo of the 6-inch tattoo...and here it is, 'in the flesh'. It looks like the tattoo artist did a pretty good job recreating it, and also moved the left "arm". It is a slightly different ballet pirouette, and  I get it...my classic pose was tough to draw behind the antlers while making also it clear it was not part of the antlers.

To the caller and his wife, (who, at his request, will remain anonymous here): Thanks for taking the time to contact me and let me share in the fun.