Tennis, anyone?

I just finished up the cover for Seattle Weekly:

The cover story is about a Seattle high school tennis coach, but the illo didn't have to directly reference the story.

The art director thought he would want the coach in there, but when he saw the roughs, he liked the one with just the girl.
I think it turned out pretty well. -J

Who wouldn't want more Bjork?

Here is the final for the Seattle Weekly piece. It may get printed in black & white, but the art director said he wanted to push for colour.

I think it turned out pretty well, though you can see the texture of the paper better in higher res/larger versions. -J

Bjork

I'm working on an illustration of Bjork for Seattle Weekly. Here are the sketches I did for the art director:
I wanted to make sure to get a likeness, even at the sketch stage, and it was a bit tricky. Basically, Bjork looks different in virtually every photo of her. I think I was able to figure out the distinctive bits.

The art director picked the middle sketch, with the wispy hair. I'll post the final when it's finished. -J

More Drawings ...

I've been working on a lot of stuff lately, but nothing that's really at a stage to put up on here. So, I thought I'd throw up a couple of nice warm-up drawings that I did recently.I was focusing on the hair in this one, trying to find a balance between the 2-colour stylization, keeping it natural-looking, and avoiding too many extraneous brush lines. I think it came out pretty good, but the inking is a little shaky overall.

More Sketchy Goodness...

I'm still trying to get a better handle on the whole "likeness" thing so that I can diversify my portfolio a bit. There was a photo of Dean Wareham in the new issue of Exclaim! that I thought was pretty interesting, so I thought I'd draw him for practice:

I think it turned out pretty well, though it is pretty straightforward. If I took it to finish and worked out the shadows and such, I think it would bump up the stylization a bit. Hopefully this makes up for the three week drought in posts :) -J

PS - The photo was by Michael Lavine.

Small Drawing, Small Post

I was warming up the other day, and I thought I nailed this head. I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd throw it up.

-J

License to Kill

Finally, I finished the Bond illustration. I'm trying to go back to muting my colours a bit more. I also played with the half-tones for a more delicate effect, rather than just a round highlight area, which I also think has been too punchy in my work lately.

-J

Sneak Peek

I broke my rule last week and didn't post. The reason is because I didn't have anything to post. I've been trying to get this piece done, and things keep coming up to push it off, so I'm still not done.

However, this week, rather than post nothing, I'm just going to post a piece of the work-in-progess. I'm going to have it done before next Thursday. There! I've said it on the Internet, so it has to be true!


-J

Hammer Time

Last week, I did my first job for Time Magazine, a b/w spot of a warthog for a mock progress report. A quick, fun little job. The piece will run between 1" and 2" square as part of the report logo.

These were the roughs I did: ... and this was the one the art director picked, which I re-drew in ink. They actually were prepared to print the sketch, but I did the inked version as well:That's all for now ... good times :) -J

*Note: The pun in the title is ... unfortunately ... intentional. I'm sorry.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel...

Sorry, no drawing to post this week. Two reasons:

1) I didn't draw much over the holiday weekend. Family, food and related goodness.

2) I just got an assignment from Time Magazine for a spot illustration, and I need to work on the sketches.

I will, however, definately have something up for next week.

Cheers -J

Bond in Progress

Not much this week, I've been busy with other things ... I'm working on a practice illustration based on Casino Royale. The image is a study of Daniel Craig from the movie. I think the likeness is there, but needs to be stronger. Hopefully I'll be able to put the actual illustration together a bit more quickly after Christmas.Happy Holidays! -J

The King

Jack “King” Kirby.

I finally broke down and bought Essential Fantastic Four vol. 1, collecting the first twenty or so issues from the early 60's.

It’s blasphemy, but until this week, I had never read a comic drawn by Kirby, and had only been exposed to his work in bits and pieces, or through verbal description of his greatness. And I honestly didn't get it.

Now I get it. This dude could draw. "No shit," all the comic folks would say. Well, better late than never. How this guy could design so many characters, monsters, and machines while pencilling multiple books at the same time is astounding. And the drawing is rock solid.

But hey, I'm the last guy on earth to figure this out, right?

Anyway, reading Kirby made me like the Fantastic Four, so I drew them this week. Just a sketch, so no rendered shadows or anything, I tried to focus on structure. You can't hide bad structure in a line drawing. I reinterpreted their costumes a bit, but for the most part they’re pretty true to the originals.I know Sue's hands are a little funny, but my thinking was that in the finished, inked drawing, they'd be starting to go invisible. Torch's legs are a little funny too. Overall, I think it's a pretty good sketch.

-J

Blog ret-con ... THIS is the first post ... no, really

I've decided I'm actually going to start using this blog. I don't know how many people will read it, but I feel like committing to it will help me organize myself in terms of my own work.

I'm going to try to post at least once a week, always with a drawing. Today, its some heads I drew.

I'm constantly working to improve my memory drawing, which is critical for comics, so I didn't use reference for these. I think they turned out pretty good, except the inked head is a bit fat, plus a couple other things I don't like (struggling with hair) but I'm going to try not to rip apart everything I put up here :)

I'll have some more stuff next week.

-J

Inaugural Entry

Hi everybody (uhhh.. somebody I hope)

My first blog entry. Huzzah!

-John