Harvard Business Review

Back in November, I did a collection of illustrations for Harvard Business Review, and I thought I'd post a few of them. The one above was the big one, a portrait of business guru Peter Drucker. HBR was considering it for the cover, but eventually chose to go with photography, so this pic was used as a full-page alongside the feature instead.

I also did a handful of spot portraits of various CEOs to accompany their thoughts on Drucker. They were pretty small on the page, but I was pretty happy with how the drawings turned out, so I thought I'd post them here a bit bigger.





In the meantime, my primary project is still the Billy Bishop graphic novel for Penguin. It's a long haul, but I think it's coming along well.

Patriotic Penguin

A commission for a friend of the family ... a birthday gift for her boyfriend, who is an RCMP officer.

BILLY BISHOP

It's official!

I am writing and illustrating Penguin Group Canada's first original graphic novel, a biography of Canadian First World War hero Billy Bishop.

The as-yet-untitled YA graphic novel will focus on Bishop's early life and career as a fighter pilot. Publication is scheduled for fall, 2011.

Dead DJs

Last month I was asked to illustrate a promo poster for an event at a particular nightclub in New York. They were pretty clear on what they wanted ... the DJs being featured at the event drawn as superheroes.

I was also asked to find a way to incorporate each DJ's particular signature brand, company logo, or prop into the costume designs. Each DJ needed relatively equal treatment in the poster, save for one, who owns the club in question. And, of course, likenesses were important. Oh yeah ... try to get the nightclub logo in there too.

They called me on a Friday ... and needed the full-colour final for Tuesday. But we worked out a reasonable fee, so the work began.

I thought the sketches turned out pretty well - I put a lot of work into designing distinct characters based on the DJ's, incorporated a lot of stuff they wanted, and they layouts were pretty cool. Those are some tiny heads to capture a likeness on, but I was going to worry about that more in the final when I'd be working at a larger size.

The art director liked them, but it turned out there was someone else I needed to impress. The DJs' representatives rejected it, and they scrapped the idea entirely. Now, illustrations get killed - no biggie, it just happens sometimes. Could the folks at the club have checked with the artists' reps before asking me to do something so specific? Maybe ... but you live and learn, and next time I'll know to ask.

In the meantime, this is the only forum in which the sketches will ever be seen (a little too specific to use for another illo) ... and it was too much work over too short a period of time to let them just sit on my hard drive.

More sketches ...

The first two are from my Moleskine sketchbook, the other two from my larger sketchbook. Each has their own flaws, though I think the masked Wolverine is the most wonky.

Beta Ray Bill

I'm waiting to hear back from an editor about a big project at the moment, so in the meantime, I've had some, well, time. And time off is always a good opportunity to experiment! This pic isn't a huge departure from my current method, but I did try a couple of new things.

The character, Beta Ray Bill, is a pretty obscure dude from Thor comics. He's basically an alien who's a convert to Thor's religion, and was so badass that Odin awarded him his own hammer. To be honest, the original reason I did this drawing was to make up for a terrible con sketch I did of Beta Ray Bill, which I occasionally come across when someone visits my website through the link. I ended up liking the drawing enough to finish it off as an illustration.

Stylistically, the main thing I was trying here was an overlaying texture to make the drawing feel more like it's printed on newsprint. You can see it much better in this detail, where you can see it looks like some of the paper is coming through.

Lastly, for what it's worth, I thought I'd include the original ink drawing. I think I did a decent job with the lineweights (I did it pretty quickly, like just under two hours from start to finish), and the colour kind of obscures that.

So there you have it. Beta Ray Bill!

Sketches

I've been feeling lately like I should be less "precious" about this blog. It can be hard for me to put work out there if it isn't my best work. But then, if I only posted my strongest work on this blog, it would be redundant, because that's what my "proper" website, johnlangart.com, is for.


When I visit an illustrator's blog, I'm expecting something more personal, more intimate, and less polished. I like to see what's underneath the polish. Why should my blog be any different?


So the images in this post are some drawings I picked out of my sketchbook that I thought might be worth sharing. Not perfect, but cool enough in their own right.

The astronaut is my favourite of the bunch. I was in a Starbucks when I drew it, so I did the best I could from memory, but regardless of accuracy, I liked how it turned out.

Silver Dallas

I recently did another illustration for Dallas CEO. The article was about "tin ear" syndrome, which is when a CEO or executive is either disregarding or not paying attention to his business environment, likely leading to disaster. An example was an Insurance company CEO who spent $80,000 renovating his office after the company posted a loss and announced layoffs.

I was pretty happy with how this one turned out, particularly with the colours. I've been unsure about my colours lately, but I think this is a step in the right direction.

Westword Ho!

I recently did the cover of Westword, a weekly newspaper in Denver. The feature is about a local developer who is being sued as a result of problems in his buildings.

The art director had the concept and composition pretty much nailed down when he contacted me, so there wasn’t much interpretation on my part. I mostly shifted things around a bit to be able to see the guy’s face a bit more, and tried to put as much character in the face and hands as possible. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. - J

Bloody Freelancing

I recently did a pin-up illustration for my friend Ian Daffern. Ian and I worked on Shock Effect together for DC Comics' Zuda.

The image is of Lance, the lead character from Ian's webcomic, Freelance Blues, which he writes with Mike Leone, and is illustrated by Vicki Tierney. Cool stuff - you can check the comic @ www.freelanceblues.com.

Meaningful words...

I’ve been meaning to start posting more often again. The image above was a piece I did for Dallas CEO (D CEO) back in December. I’ve been doing some more editorial work lately, but I can’t post it until it’s been published.

I’ve also been working on my new comic project, BRAIN FEVER, which I’m writing and illustrating myself. I’ll be posting some teaser drawings for that project soon as well.

New Secret Project ...

More to come ...

SpeakEasy's Comic Book Show

I will be participating in the upcoming SpeakEasy's Comic Book Show! I'll be showing original artwork, as well as large full-colour prints from Shock Effect.

Time & Space:
Thursday November 6th, 8pm-Midnight
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen West
Second Floor Lobby

There will be a ton of awesome Toronto comic talents there, so check it out! Here's the official scoop:

Toronto is home to some of the best known comics artists in North
America. We have an active and vibrant community putting out some of the highest quality comics to be found anywhere. The SpeakEasy Comics Show features an eclectic mix of Toronto’s talented comic book artists - from those who do newspaper strips and political cartoons, to underground comix and mainstream superhero comic books! The event promises to display an exciting cross-section of the comics community here in Toronto, as well as a glimpse into how good comics are made. As the old cliché goes, there really will be something for everyone.

-J

Spy-tastic!

I recently had some new work in a gallery show with my illustration collective from school, One Track Hand. The show was called "Mirror Mirror," and the theme centered around the idea of "alter ego."

So I took the opportunity to try some new things, and did a couple of mock 1960's spy movie posters. I started by coming up with a loose story and a title, then trying to come up with poster elements and colours that would fit with that story.

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, and I'm almost certainly going to be using some of the new techniques I developed in my future work.

Enjoy! -J

Fragment Press ...

I forgot to post this stuff, but after the MoCCA convention in New York, my indy comic book Fragment that I put out a couple years ago got some press ...

The Comic/Gaming/Manga/Technology podcasters GeekNights reviewed by comic on their show. You can take a listen here: GeekNights

Also, the comic weblog Neilalien listed Fragment as one of five comics to check out from the show. You can take a look at his post here: Neilalien

Also, I've got some big news coming up in the next week, so be sure to check back soon! Exciting!

Cheers -J

Some Recent Work ...

I apologize for the gaps between posts - things have been busy ... plus, I need to wait until the illustrations are published before I can post them.

I've been doing a lot of work for Dallas CEO (or D CEO), which has been pretty fun. The art director lets me do some interesting stuff that wouldn't necessarily get approved by other magazines.

Case in point is the illo above. It accompanied an article on how CEO's need to defend themselves against politicians who had been essentially badmouthing big business. With one of my sketches, I went with a "slings & arrows" idea, and that's the one he approved. It was a lot of fun to draw!

I also recently did a large (half-page) portrait of Simon Fuller for Billboard Magazine. At the time, he was about to be presented an award for his achievements, so Billboard did a feature on him. The magazine was also full of ads taken out by various studios, recording agencies and individuals congratulating Fuller. Also a pretty cool job.

I'll try to post again sooner rather than later :D

Cheers -J

Canadian Family

I recently did a batch of illustrations for Canadian Family. The article was on "amazing moms", so they wanted to show a bunch of superhero moms. The image above is the final for the full-page illo.

These are the sketches I sent the art director for the full-page. The had pretty much worked out the ideas for all five of the images, and for this one, they wanted three super-moms rising up together. For the one, I wanted to get a bit more dynamic and superheroic, rather than simply rising up - and that's the one they ended up choosing.

These are the finals for the four quarter-page illustrations. I thought they turned out pretty well. As I mentioned before, most of the ideas were determined beforehand, so I just had to figure out how to translate it into an illustration. The sandwiches one was mine, though :)


These were the sketches for the quarter-pages. Rather than do multiple compositions for the ideas they'd already worked out, I just gave them a bunch to choose from, including my own ideas, and allowed them to choose the four they liked best.

A pretty good job overall. I really enjoyed the full-page, particularly, as it was really fun coming up with the poses, and creating the characters

American Illustration

I was just recently notified that an illustration of mine has been chosen by American Illustration for their web gallery. Although it isn't as prestigious as being selected for their annual print publication, less than 3% of about 7500 submitted images are selected for the web gallery.

Being recognized by American Illustration has been a goal of mine for a while, so I'm pretty happy about it! The image that was chosen was an illustration I did back in November for Business Week, for an article on workplace safety.
-J

Giant Patriot ...

Just did this pic for the Miami Herald, for their Superbowl coverage, which came out today. The story was, of course, the New England Patriots going into the game undefeated againts the New York Giants, who surprised everybody by making it to the Superbowl in the first place ... and not really an even match.

It was a bit of effort getting the sketches where the editors wanted them, but in the end it turned out really well.

Strange Business...

I thought I'd post an illo I did last week for The Stranger in Seattle.

It was a pretty straightforward job - they wanted a portrait of M.I.A. with no background, so that they could wrap some text around it.

I was pretty happy with the way things turned out, both with regards to the drawing and the colour. I'm starting to use a bit more feathering in my linework, and I think it's adding some depth to my drawing.