Vince Dorse Art Blog

My Illustration Ale Bottle

2012-02-06T17:05:00.005-05:00

Here's my limited edition, Illustration Ale bottle, sitting in its place of honor on the shelf above my drawing desk.

I had a great time meeting the other Illustration Ale artists at the Toonseum Saturday night. All the labels looked fantastic, and it turns out Scott at East End Brewing is running a very green, very earth-conscious operation down there. Awesome.

As you know, proceeds from the sales of these bottles go toward helping the Toonseum. So if you missed the release party, feel free to stop in at East End Brewing and pick up a few bottles for yourself. And for those of you who did make it, thanks for doing your part to advance the cartoon arts in Pittsburgh.

Also, to the lovely young lady who had me autograph her bottle, thanks again. You truly made my night. -v

Illustration Ale Release Tonight!

2012-02-04T13:31:00.002-05:00

What...a little snow gonna stop you from heading downtown tonight to check out the new East End Brewing Company Illustration Ale release at the Toonseum? Hope not. I'll be there. And I'm told many of the other past and present Illustration Ale artists will be there to hobnob, autograph bottles and decimate the hors doeuvres table.

This year I was asked to do a label and decided to stick to my comfort zone -- cute and creepy. My label has a tipsy mummy drawing goofy things on his sleeping buddy's face. If you've ever passed out at a party you may sympathize. I'll have a process breakdown of my label in an upcoming post.

Here's the Post-Gazette's article on the project.

And here's the Toonseum's official YouTube promotional video for the event.

See you there. -v

Happy Groundhog Day!

2012-02-02T12:31:00.002-05:00

I think Phil Connors summed it up best: Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream of spring.

What would you do if you had one day to live over and over and over, repeating ceaselessly, no end in sight? I think I'd really work on being a much better illustrator, drawing illustration after illustration, studying the masters, trying to learn from my mistakes, perhaps realizing, along the way, that I'd never be quite as good as I want to be.

Oh god. That is my life.

Ciao! -v

Come Celebrate My First Beer Label for Illustration Ale

2012-01-30T18:53:00.004-05:00

A few months ago I was asked to take part in a fund-raiser for the Toonseum, Pittsburgh's only cartoon museum. Every year East End Brewing brews its very own Illustration Ale and asks local artists to design the labels. This year, I was one of those artists along with Mark Bender, Jasen Lex, Nathan Mazur, Ed Piskor and Dave Wachter who all cranked out some really fun labels (as you can see from this teaser image). There's a nice write-up about East End Brewery's involvement with local cartoonists in this post on BrewsReporter.

Now the Toonseum is holding a big, opening bash to celebrate this year's batch of Illustration Ale and you're invited. Tickets aren't cheap, but then again, how often do you get a chance to rub elbows with some of Pittsburgh's most talented recluses? Not to mention the food, drink and your complementary bottle of this limited edition ale. Read all the details in the Toonseum's official press release below:

The ToonSeum, Pittsburgh¹s museum of to the cartoon arts, is proud to announce the 2012 edition of Illustration Ale, a robust Belgian style beer brewed exclusively for the ToonSeum by Pittsburgh's own East End Brewing Company.

Illustration Ale is a 700-bottle limited-edition Belgian specialty ale created as a fund-raiser for the ToonSeum. Two dollars from the sale of each one-liter, swing-top bottle will directly benefit the ToonSeum. The beer is a bottle-conditioned ale, brewed with a spicy farmhouse ale yeast which adds nuance to the rich dark malt character.

As with the May 2010 release of the first batch of Illustration Ale, each bottle bears a label created by one of six Pittsburgh cartoonists and graphic artists, making for a unique six-pack collection. This year's labels were designed by Mark Bender, Vince Dorse, Jasen Lex, Nathan Mazur, Ed Piskor, and Dave Wachter.

"Once again, a group of Pittsburgh artists created spectacular work for Illustration Ale. The labels provide fantastic images for people to ponder while they enjoy their beer," says East End owner and brewmaster Scott Smith. Specially illustrated labels on beer bottles has become a brewing tradition, and Smith, who enjoys his cartoons almost as much as his beer, has worked closely with many local artists (among them Wayno, Jim Rugg, and Mark Zingarelli) to design labels for his beers.

East End Brewing and the ToonSeum will unveil the 2012 Illustration Ale with a special tasting session at the ToonSeum on February 4th at 6:00pm. Guests will not only get the first sips of the special brew, but will also be able to meet past and present label artists, have their bottles autographed, and enjoy the current exhibit, Funky Turns 40. A bottle of Illustration Ale will be included with the purchase of a ticket.

Food presented by: Nine on Nine, Taste of Dahntahn

Tickets for the event are $30 (members pay only $20) and can be purchased online at www.illustrationale.eventbrite.com or at the ToonSeum reception desk, 945 Liberty Avenue Downtown during regular business hours.

So, if you want to spend a nice evening looking at fantastic cartoon art and sampling (what I'm told is) a fantastic local brew, stop out next Saturday and say hi. I will be there with my usual glass of diet ginger ale, pretending to be cool and sophisticated. -v

Sometimes The Universe Smiles On You

2012-01-25T14:32:00.004-05:00

You may not see any evidence of this -- I know I'm hard-pressed to produce it sometimes -- but I'm constantly working to improve my drawing skills. Whether it's studying other artists' work or self-imposed sketching regimens, I'm almost always working at getting better. Especially where drawing the human form is concerned. So when I started catching articles online about a couple classic books on drawing the human figure, I took note.

Back in the 1940s, illustrator Andrew Loomis created a series of densely-packed drawing instruction books that have long been considered standards in the field. Lauded by the American Academy of Art as "one of the most brilliant contributions that figure drawing has ever received," Drawing The Head and Hands and Figure Drawing For All It's Worth have been essential books for any artist or illustrator seriously studying and recreating the human form. You can read extensive reviews on both books (at the links above) on one of my favorite art blogs, Lines and Colors. Thank you, internet, for once again providing me with priceless knowledge.

The problem with these books is that they'd been out of print for years and very hard to get your hands on. When I started to do research on them, I found that ebay had only a few to offer -- and they were upwards of a hundred bucks each. But then, right before Christmas, they announced these out of print classics were being reprinted and released for around thirty bucks! This was fantastic news. But other issues got in the way and I had to put off the purchase. One of those things was a broken washing machine.

The Washing Machine Component

Right in the middle of a weekly load of whites, my friend's washing machine conked out. She called Sears for an estimate and a service call to her house to repair the washer would be at least as expensive as buying a few out-of-print Loomis books. Seeing as how I'd soon be able to buy the Loomis reprints at an affordable price, I figured I'd try to help her save some cash too. So, in a fit of softheaded generosity, I agreed to help her fix her washing machine. And really, what more efficient way to get something done than have a complete novice bumble around with unfamiliar tools for a few hours?

Recalling her basement is chock full of dusty old fix-it-yourself manuals --the sort that Time/Life Books released in encyclopedia-sized sets back in the 80's. -- I told my friend that, before we started tearing apart a major appliance, I'd help her look through her basement for some basic home repair books.

Disappointingly, we couldn't find the home repair books.

But sitting there on a shelf with other dusty art books once owned by my friend's mother (an artist herself) were early, hardcover printings of Andrew Loomis' Drawing The Head and Hands and Figure Drawing For All It's Worth! I couldn't believe it (pictures posted as proof)! These things had been sitting there for decades undisturbed (the cover price on these giant tomes was only $5.95!!) yet they were in fantastic shape!

My friend noticed my gaping maw and told me I could have the books. Free of charge. Yes! Now I didn't even have to spring for the reprints! So the lesson learned here is that sometimes, when you put positive energy out into the universe, it boomerangs back at you. Or, more succinctly, if you're desperate to get your friend's washer fixed so that she might be willing to wash a backlog of your winter laundry, you might just trip and stumble into some awesome, late Christmas gifts with little to no effort on your part. Score!

One final addendum: We did end up doing a bit more research online about washing machines and were able to fix it ourselves after ordering one thirty dollar part. Thank you, once again, internet. -v

The details surrounding the death were fuzzy.

2012-01-10T13:35:00.003-05:00

Hey, my cute little Grim Reaper design is now a cute little Grim Reaper felted-wool fiber sculpture courtesy of runredrun. This woolen angel of death has a removable scythe that you can stalk your friends with (crafted by me out of paper, sticks and unchecked nihilism) and it goes up for sale this month at Spookytime Jingles. It's a great gift for anyone who'd love a little reminder of their mortality sitting on their desk every day. -v

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T11:41:00.009-05:00

Hope everyone had a safe, happy, new year's eve. I went retro and played Password with some friends at an intimate get-together / Candace party (hint: the correct password for prevent is inhibit, for some reason, in case you play the game). And I spent the days leading up to that party on this Happy New Year card for another friend.

Here's the quickly-scribbled napkin sketch I did at a restaurant and then quickly crumpled into my pocket for later. When I got home I tried to flesh out the caricature a bit more. This first pass looked a little too much like a grown up Marcie, so I sketched a few more versions to work out the kinks.

Here's the final pencil sketch. It's a much better caricature of my friend and her cats. I scanned it into Photoshop, inked it and colored it, fixing some perspective glitches on the fly. The end result is up top. Has my friend responded with unbridled joy at being drawn in such a manner? The password is negative. -v

I'm Occupying The City Paper

2011-12-21T12:47:00.008-05:00

Had a last minute gig to do a cover for the Pittsburgh City Paper this past weekend. As usual, I jumped on it. Lisa (the CP's art director) is a pleasure to work with and she always throws me something interesting. This is the image I handed in -- a timely, holiday piece -- and, beside it, a photo of the actual cover (out today, with minor modifications to the layout). If you can't possibly think of any better way to spend your next five minutes, you can read through my process below.

I had only the weekend to get this done, so I was thrilled that Lisa had already mocked up her idea for what she wanted. Basically, a composition based on the traditional nativity scene, but modernized to include Occupy Protesters on Pittsburgh's Mellon Green. I wondered, briefly, if appropriating someone's revered religious iconography to make a political statement could potentially cause controversy. But when has that ever happened? On to the sketch!

This was my initial sketch and it went through without a snag. I got big points for adding in the protest sign (to replace the usual shepherd's staff) and the hoodie (to replace the normal veil). My band-aid had to get editorial approval (we certainly didn't want offended riot cops to come and knock our heads in), but in the end, it stayed. A victory for the people! I was asked only to add some hay on the ground (it appears in the poem beside the illustration and it evokes the manger scene more literally).

After polishing up the pencils a bit, I just inked the whole thing in Photoshop, aiming for a brushed-ink, comic style. The hay was coming on way too strong, though, so I decided to change up the color a bit so it wouldn't compete with the other elements in the image. At this point I decided I needed to mock up a masthead so I could make sure the illustration fit within the final cover dimensions. So...

Here's how it looked after laying down a very simple night sky and some basic grass. Then I just started coloring the figures. I was trying for a natural, watercolor feel. I started with the rat because he was the most fun, but after working on it a little while that little Guy Fawkes baby really found a place in my heart. Now I want a baby Guy Fawkes.

Here I painted in the hay, darkened the sky a bit with a soft, cloud-like brush and added some stars. I had to re-create the Mellon logo as a stand-in for the iconic Christmas star and couldn't help wondering, the whole time, why is this the logo for Mellon? Not my problem. So I just kept going.

At the eleventh hour, actual controversy erupted: Did the nail at the bottom of the protest sign make it look like "WE ARE THE 9.9%"? To be fair, the 9.9 percent in this country are a legitimate group whose voice needs to be heard. They are, simply, the 9.9% at the near-top of the scale who make more than everyone else, but embarrassingly less than the top 1%. Only a Christmas miracle could help them. Alas, it didn't come. We decided to nix the bottom nail on the sign to clear up any confusion. My apologies to all the billionaires who read this blog. I gave it my best shot. -v

Paypal Doesn't Care About Poor People

2011-12-20T14:12:00.005-05:00

...but their P.R. department must, because they've recently relented on one of the worst decisions they've made to date: blocking families in need from getting donated gifts.

Basically, Regretsy, a site dedicated to the promotion of disastrous do-it-yourself crafts, decided to take donations for Christmas presents for children who might otherwise have missed out. And the promotion worked like a charm. Regretsy raised so much money that they were in a position of not just being able to send toys out to needy kids, but a small, monetary gift to those families as well. Heartwarming, right?

Paypal shut them down.

I'll say that again in case you missed it: Paypal shut down the charity donation site intended to help give poor people a better Christmas. Because of (what turned out to be) a bunch of of trumped up, fictional red tape and rules, Paypal froze the account and basically tried to shut down the entire promotion. According to a post on the Regretsy blog, much of the initial resistance by Paypal was their own misunderstanding of what the Paypal "Donate" button could, and couldn't, be used for. As an uptight, Scrooge-like Paypal executive explained:

PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
REGRETSY: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
REGRETSY: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.

Well. At least the cats have a shot at a decent Christmas. If you're an adult and you can bear some salty language now and again, you can read all about it in hilarious, frustrating detail on the Regretsy blog. I particularly loved the part where Paypal demanded Regretsy return all the donations, but Paypal kept their fees anyway! By the way, if you're a kid, stay away from that Regretsy post. Santa wouldn't like it if you went there.

But Jacob Marley must have visited Paypal in the dead of night and convinced them they were being jerks, because they company eventually reversed its decision and decided to unfreeze the account and allow the charity to complete its mission. Paypal even donated a little themselves. I can envision the pale, ghostly face of their public relations manager wailing out a desperate warning to the Paypal execs, "Repent! Repent!" Scrooge was saved, but the jury's still out on Paypal. -v

How's About A Fuzzy Zombie?

2011-12-13T11:01:00.004-05:00

A fuzzy zombie is not a new mixed drink. It's another felted art doll design I did for runredrun. Just a little zombie out for a stroll. The woolen version of this little guy is on sale right now at SpookyTime Jingles. The perfect gift to come shambling out of a stocking, hungry for brains, this Christmas morning. -v

I'm Getting Under Somebody's Skin (Part 1)

2011-12-11T17:55:00.002-05:00

I know this seems like something that should've been posted back in October. Bear with me and you can get back to your cocoa and Christmas carols in two minutes.

A friend of mine who, like me, is a huge fan of Halloween (the holiday) asked me to put together a design incorporating a bunch of iconic Halloween imagery; bats, skeletons, jack o' lanterns, black cats, etc. to be used as the basis for his next tattoo. I love drawing that stuff, so this was a fun assignment. There was really no other direction, so it was tough to get started...too many directions to turn. But, eventually, I landed on something I thought would highlight all the various elements.

I just got the first photos from the actual tattoo process. I was a little thrown off by the horizontal flip of the design, but apparently the tattoo is on the side of my friend's leg and the tattoo artist thought it would sit better "facing front." At the design stage, the exact placement was still up in the air, but I agree with the decision. I think he did a perfectly fine job of flipping it. Looks painful, doesn't it? Apparently, it wasn't too bad. But the colored ink comes next. I'll keep you posted.

Below are some work-in-progress shots of the design stage. Stay tuned for more steps in the tattoo process. -v

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T11:49:00.004-05:00

It'd been a while since I drew one of these hand-turkeys. Decided to see how it would look if I used Photoshop along with a stylus and graphics tablet. Meh. I think my crayon-and-construction paper version was just as good.

Have a great Thanksgiving. -v

PSI's Drawing Under The Influence Show Rides Again!

2011-11-20T13:22:00.003-05:00

...and this time, I'm in charge! I've been working with the folks at Art Institute of Pittsburgh to help organize Pittsburgh Society of illustrator's second exhibition of our Drawing Under The Influence show this December. The show, as you may recall, is comprised entirely of the artwork from PSI's latest illustrator directory -- which doubles as a handy mixed drink guide (perfect for all you art-loving tipplers out there). We had a successful run with the exhibit in Shadyside this Summer, but this time I'm chairing the show. So, really, disaster looms.

You've seen my Shirley Temple and Sleepy Hollow pieces on my blog and website, but now you can see them up close along with fifty other illustrations from some of the most talented artists in Pittsburgh. As well, since AIP is an art school, after all, we'll be setting up a few displays that outline the process some of these illustrators took to get from the idea stage to finished art. If you read this blog, you probably enjoy work-in-progress stuff (or long-winded artsy-types). Either way, the exhibit ought to be right up your alley.

Opening reception for the show is at the Art Institute Gallery, Friday, December 2nd, from 5:30 to 8:30. There will be some sort of hors-d'oeuvres (Ah, nertz, I still have to call the caterer!) and a few drink samples straight out of our Drawing Under the Influence directory. It's a nice way to kick off the holiday season and, frankly, the more people that show up, the better I look. I, myself, will be there. Most likely, at the book table, selling copies of the directory for a measly $5. Stop by and see me. And if you catch me embezzling funds, you get a free directory! -v

Six Degrees Of Driving Me Crazy!

2011-11-14T00:20:00.008-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted here. I've been working on some secret projects (Seriously. I'm like a Bond villain now) so I don't really have many new pieces to post. But while searching through my hard drive for something to post, I stumbled on an illustration I never put up! So here we go...

This is an editorial illustration I did for a science journal about the phenomenon known as "six degrees of separation." An interesting concept. But how do you illustrate it? Well, turns out, there's a ton of ways to illustrate it. -- but only one gets you the paycheck.

I tried every angle I could think of before the deadline hit, and each one got the (very polite) thumbs down. Finally, I decided to combine the "science" of connectivity and bonds with the "six degrees" concept and they went for it. Good thing, too. As I recall, rent was due. Why didn't I go with that idea in the first place? Because I'm an idiot.

So, if you feel like wandering through my creative process, I posted a bunch of the rejected roughs below. You can trace each one of those rejects, in six steps or fewer, to a corresponding fist-sized hole in my studio wall. -v

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-29T12:14:00.004-04:00

From the entire staff here at Vince Dorse Studios, from the custodial staff to the accountants, from the concept department on up to the illustration bigwigs, we want to wish our thousands of loyal blog followers a very spooky Hallowe'en.

That means Happy Halloween to all six of you from me and the cat.

Since this is the big Halloween weekend and most people are already squeezing into their sexy zombie costumes, or sexy firefighter costumes, or sexy spongebob costumes, this post probably won't get a lot of play until Monday morning. But I'll break down this scarecrow illustration anyway because my Saturday nights are an abyss of loneliness and boredom. Thanks for the invitation to the costume party, everybody I know! And I was even going to wear my sexy illustrator costume.

You may notice the illustration on the left here is roughed up to look vintage, but I didn't really break that down in the work-in-progress images. In case you're interested, it's basically just a lot of painting in wrinkles. Seriously. Not much to it. For all the steps leading up to that, you can follow along with the images below.

The whole concept of the Pumpkinhead Scarecrow was created as a doll design for runredrun. Under my work-in-progress steps you'll find images of my original design as well as a photo of the finished, wool art doll. He's sweet and he's spooky. And if you want to see more of his ilk, you can head over to runredrun.com and check out all the other little monsters.

More Monsters Find Loving, Haunted Homes

2011-10-18T23:51:00.007-04:00

The best part about designing these felted art dolls for runredrun.com is that I don't have to do any of the heavy lifting. I come up with a concept, I draw a sketch, I email it to my friend and ba-boom! it gets turned into a cute, creepy little wool sculpture you can set on your desk, bookshelf or mantle. Yeah, mantle. They're that classy.

My mummy design was turned into a felted art doll last month at runredrun.com as well as the little vampire you may remember from my previous post. Just this past week, both the mummy and vampire ended up being adopted into a loving home of monster fans. If you enjoy these little guys as much as I do, you should follow the runredrun blog to see all the new monsters as they're created, some work-in-progress images, a gallery full of cute, creepy creatures and info on which ones are for sale. Happy Halloween. -v

Vun! Vun Vool Vampire! Ah ah ah...

2011-10-12T09:12:00.008-04:00

I was out buying art supplies and stumbled upon a tiny, wooden coffin. I knew if I designed a tiny, little vampire to stuff into it I could convince my friend at runredrun.com to sculpt it. So I bought the coffin, sketched out the very simple design you see here and gave them to my friend.

She accepted the challenge and -- though the spats and collar were wisely dumped for a number of reasons -- she recreated my design in felted wool and he's even cuter than my original sketch. You can see a few more of my friends Halloween-themed creations and runredrun.com as well as details on where to buy these little cuties.

Inside info: If the suspense was killing you and you want to know the truth, the spats looked like sweatsocks so that design element was dumped right away. As for the collar, the vampire's head was so enormous it completely obscured the collar. And now you know the rest of the story. -v

Happy 3rd Halloween, Max!

2011-10-09T21:06:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year when I send off a personalized Halloween card to my good friend, Max. This is his third Halloween and I'm looking forward to the photos of the costume -- always a surprise. This kid, he doesn't even realize how good he has it yet. He's got at least a decade of trick-or-treating ahead of him before the neighbors start eyeing him up as some sort of trouble-making weirdo lurking around their porches looking for handouts. Some of us aren't that lucky.

So this time around, to celebrate his third Halloween, Max gets a trio of revelers enjoying the holiday. I know he doesn't really read or appreciate these cards yet, but his dad's hanging on to them. "I'm keeping them in a safe place," he tells me, "You know...in case you ever amount to anything." That's sweet.

I hope Max gets a wheelbarrow full of candy this year and that he has as much super-spooky-fun as I did when I was a kid. Same goes for everyone reading this. Have a great Halloween this year. Try to enjoy it like you were three years old. -v

October's here and the countdown to Halloween begins!

2011-10-01T16:24:00.005-04:00

October blew in with an icy rain this morning and I couldn't be happier about it. This bodes well for a chilly, grim Halloween season -- just the way I like it. The leaves are changing, there's woodsmoke in the air, and a few of the houses on my street have already got their cardboard jack-o-lanterns taped to their front doors.

So, in keeping with the season, I decided to do a quick breakdown of my process for my Sleepy Hollow piece. This illustration was done for the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators directory, Drawing Under The Influence and will be hanging in the gallery at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh this winter. As well, the directory is still for sale at the venues where the show hangs. Ok, on with the work-in-progress steps...

Step 1) I start with a pencil sketch. I'm targeting the children's market so it's a fairly cartoony sketch. But it's a ghost story, so it has to be spooky too. Hopefully, my choice of colors will help that.

Step 2) Next I lay down a base color to help establish an eerie mood. There's gonna be a lot of deep indigos and midnight blues -- I want the forest to have a sense of foreboding -- so I work from dark to light, starting with the shadows.

Step 3) With all those brooding blues and greens in the background, Ichabod and his headless pursuer -- the focal points of the piece -- have to be rendered with contrasting, warm colors. So, layer upon layer, I build up some reds, browns and yellow-greens on Ichabod and his horse, Gunpowder. The Horseman's warm tones will come mostly from his fiery pumpkin.

Step 4) That flaming gourd also serves as one of my two light sources, the other being the moonlight. I keep all of that in mind while I'm painting in highlights and shadows -- the direction of the cast shadows, the temperature of the highlights and how the forms shift color as they move from light to shadow.

Step 5) I decide the Headless Horseman needs a ghostly mist swirling around him, so I paint that in with a soft brush at low opacity. A few more random shadows to add mystery and I'm done.

When You Think Football, You Think Vince Dorse, Natch!

2011-09-22T11:55:00.004-04:00

Clearly hip to my legendary, almost encyclopedic knowledge of American Football, an ad agency recently asked me to create some comic art for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The concept? Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is a superhero, flying around Pittsburgh, keeping an eye on the city. Right up my alley.

The deadline was tight -- like, overnight tight -- but I felt pretty comfortable with the comic book/superhero framework and figured I could get it done. I did. But I watched the sunrise from my computer desk the morning it was due. Literally. That's the glamorous world of freelance illustration, kids.

The comic is slated to show up in the Gameday Magazine during five (5!) Steelers home games and is currently on the Steelers Facebook page as part of a "how does the story end?" promotion. You can check it out here at this link. (side note: getting samples of your own work is notoriously difficult. if anyone goes to the game and happens to get a copy of the magazine with my comic in it and doesn't happen to want it, I'd be happy to have a copy myself. so let me know, thanks!)

Below are some of the work-in-progress steps to getting this thing from sketchbook to print. The lettering was done by the fine folks at the ad agency, and -- I noticed -- they also tarted up my Steelers "bat-signal" in post. Collaboration. The life blood of the illustration biz. -v

Got 20 Minutes and 20 bucks? Make A Birthday Card!

2011-09-17T08:38:00.006-04:00

Here's an artsy-crafty project you can do if a friend's birthday is coming up and you have no idea what to get him. Just follow these simple steps to learn just how I did it so you, too, can look like a hero come the day of the party.

Step One: Get a friend who likes robots and buys stuff from the Apple App Store. This is key.

Step Two: Draw two terrible robots and trace them haphazardly in Adobe Illustrator.

Step Three: Print out your drawing. Now, try to carefully cut around the robots' arms but do a fairly lousy job because your X-acto knife is dull and you're too lazy to change the blade for something your friend is probably going to throw out anyway.

Important: Remember the twenty dollars in your list of craft supplies? Take that to the store and buy a couple of iTunes gift cards. Just go do it. The gift is worthless without those.

Step Four: Slip the gift cards into the notches you cut in the robots and voila -- don't say wallah -- you have your robot birthday card. You could try mailing it but someone at the post office will likely open your envelope and take the cards. So just hand it to your friend next time you see him.

And it's that simple! You can follow these basic steps to make cards of your own. I suppose you don't have to use robots. I guess it would work with dinosaurs too. -v

By the way, if you like retro-robots, there's some fun stuff here.

My Tribune-Review Review and The Interview That Never Was

2011-09-11T17:38:00.002-04:00

Thanks to my inclusion in Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators' Drawing Under The Influence : An Illustrator's Guide to Mixed Drinks (a mouthful, to say the least) I was contacted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. They wanted to feature my Shirley Temple piece in a review of the book and ask me a few questions about the piece.

Well, the review went to print today and you can read it by clicking this link. As it turns out, they ended up NOT using the Shirley Temple image I created for the article. I suppose, in the end, an illustration of what could be interpreted by some as a drunken nine-year old girl might have been a little too edgy for a conservative newspaper. That's fine by me. I live on the edge. That's why they call me The Loose Cannon.

But I also noticed that my short, bite-sized answers to the Trib's questions -- an unselfish attempt by me to give plenty of column space to my fellow illustrators -- just cleared the way for those illustrators to go on and on endlessly about their art (I'm lookin' at you, Rhonda Blabbermouth Libbey) No, Rhonda's a good friend and an excellent illustrator. You should check out her work here.

Besides, if you're reading this blog post you know I'm a blabbermouth too. And if I had to do it all over again, I guess I'd answer those questions with a bit more depth…and breadth. So here it is, the long version of my answers to the Trib's questions -- the interview that never was:

Trib: Why did you choose this drink?

Vince: The Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators isn't just a group of professional illustrators. They're also a group of professional drinkers. I, however, am a real lightweight. The strongest thing I ever order is iced tea, so my knowledge of alcoholic recipes is just about nil. And since my illustrations are geared toward the children's market anyway, I figured I'd better steer clear of the hard stuff…though, I guess if you look at the illustration, it might seem like I'm endorsing underage drinking. Which I'm totally not. But I do encourage old-timey, underage mock-stupefaction. Can't get enough of that stuff.

Trib: What inspired you to create your piece?

Vince: Same thing that inspires me to create almost every piece I do -- the need for money. More to the point, my desperate addiction to food and shelter. Keep in mind, this drink recipe book is also PSI's artist directory. It's going out to hundreds of art directors and publishers in the hopes that they'll choose some of us for future assignments. So being in the directory is part of a marketing strategy.

As for artistic inspiration, you can't illustrate a Shirley Temple without drawing a depression-era curly-haired schoolgirl. And in the absence of any alcohol whatsoever, I see nothing wrong with the notion of said schoolgirl getting completely blotto on a sugary non-drink like the Shirley Temple. I seem to recall getting just that gonzo every Halloween during my pre-school years. I mostly blame Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

I'll also admit, though, that part of me really gets a kick knowing how many people will look at this piece, not think too deeply about it at all, and become instantly enraged due to a misunderstanding. I don't mind enraging people who refuse to think. And maybe, somehow, the wise editors at the Trib knew that as well. -v

Drink It In! Shirley Temple Illustration at Gallery Show and in PSI Drink Directory

2011-08-27T22:26:00.006-04:00

My Shirley Temple piece is hanging in a couple shows this year (details in a minute, hold your horses) as part of Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators Drawing Under The Influence media blitz. The group just released its latest artist directory and this year it also happens to be a bartender's guide/drink mix recipe book. It's a handy little guide to both mixed drinks and some of Pittsburgh's most talented illustrators. I have two spreads in the book -- both non-alcoholic -- and I'll be breaking down my process for the Shirley Temple in this post.

First, more on the shows. There are, at this point, two planned shows. Drawing Under The Influence is going on right now at Gallerie Chiz in Shadyside. The opening was last night and it was very crowded and very loud and I barely got to talk to anyone. So, if you came out to say hi and I missed you, my apologies. Crowded rooms make me feel like Dr. Banner fixing a flat in the rain. The show at Gallerie Chiz runs through October 1st and features a lot of fantastic illustration by local artists as well as my Shirley Temple and Sleepy Hollow pieces. The next show will be at Art Institute of Pittsburgh and I'll post details about that when they shore up.

Now, more about the book. Close to 60 illustrators from the Pittsburgh area have spreads/drink recipes in the book. The range of contributors runs from some newer talent to some of the most seasoned illustrators in the business. Most of the time, when I work on an illustration, I'll share my early sketches and progress with other illustrators to get their valuable opinions. It invariably makes for a better piece in the long run. Lots of the illustrators that I bounce ideas off of have spots in the book and they look great -- talented illustrators like John Blumen, Pat Lewis, Jamie Huntsman and Craig Mrusek to name a few (Craig doubled as bartender/mix master at the opening last night and did a great job). These books are available at Gallerie Chiz while the show is running and will be available at our AIP show as well.

Below are my Shirley Temple work-in-progress images and some shots of the directory. Cheers! -v

Real Tales of a Turkey Stampede!

2011-08-27T18:27:00.003-04:00

So this happened today. Outside the door to my studio. About a jillion turkeys walked by, acting tough, trying to intimidate me. It worked. Anyway, they hung out in the back yard for a bit then it was over the hill and off to their next adventure. Sorry about the blurry photos...they move like the wind, those turkeys. -v

It's Just No Fun Without You

2011-08-20T20:47:00.004-04:00

Here's a cute little heartbreaker of an illustration that rarely fails to elicit a sympathetic "awwww" from the people I show it to. Mostly the women. A guy "awwwed" once and three other guys standing nearby beat him up. It was crazy.

Tell you what...that monkey party does look like fun. But that one little monkey is just too sad to enjoy it. I guess he misses his monkey girlfriend. Maybe it's his monkey ex-girlfriend. It's been such a long, lonely time since he had anyone special to throw poop at. Sigh. Wonder why they broke up?

Anyway, this was a gentler take on an earlier gag of mine where two guys were staring down into a barrel, one of them saying, "I guess it's a lot more fun if the monkeys are still alive." I was probably in a bad mood that day. Regardless, the whole thing got me thinking, once again, about the origin of the phrase. Luckily for me, the internet lives in the same machine where I do all my art. So I typed in the question and the answer was about what you'd expect. Read all about it here.

And when you're done engaging in illicit etymology, you can take a look at my work-in-progress steps below. Have fun. In fact, have a whole barrel of it. -v

Hang Up And Drive - A Friendly Reminder

2011-08-13T19:27:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted in a while (tight deadlines!) so I'm posting this old gag to quell the rumours of my demise.

Has this gag been done before? I have no doubt.

Has it been done better? Possibly.

But has it been done specifically about the woman who lives in my neighborhood, drives a VW convertible and can't keep her eyes on the road because of the scintillating conversations she's always involved in while driving? Probably not. So here's a friendly little reminder to everyone out there who just has to take that call right now this second -- it can wait.

Life's short. Slow down and enjoy it. And drive safely. -v

You're The Cat's Pajamas : A History

2011-08-03T20:48:00.010-04:00

When I was planning to post this image, I realized I honestly didn't know the etymology of the phrase, the cat's pajamas, though I'd heard it -- and used it -- my whole life. Yes, it makes me sound like a grandpa, what of it? Anyway, I looked it up and stumbled across a fascinating story.

Apparently, the phrase was coined by Thomas A. Dorgan, an American cartoonist popular in the 1920s. He was known for a few different comic strips and panel gags, but his true legacy may be the words and expressions he created or popularized through those strips -- things like dumbell (for a dope), for crying out loud, cat's meow, cat's pajamas, hard-boiled (describing a tough guy) and, yes, even twenty-three skidoo. Whatever that means. This guy's lexicon is half my vocabulary and, until I took the time to look up this one phrase, I was really only aware of him peripherally for his illustration work.

About that: Notably, TAD (as he signed his cartoons) lost three fingers on his right hand at the age of 13 in a factory accident (kids had it tough in the late 1800s) and took up drawing as therapy. A year later, at 14, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Bulletin. Fourteen, for cryin' out loud!

While you peruse my work-in-progress steps below, I'm going to start working on some new slang phrases to popularize. I was thinking twenty-four skidoo. Eh? Eh? -v

The Adventures of Super Pup In 3-D!

2011-07-31T17:49:00.004-04:00

I completely forgot to post this. The third little Halloween critter from my promotional illustration was sculpted into a cute little fiber doll by my friend at runredrun. If you feel like taking a look, there are a few more photos of this little guy in the runredrun gallery.

I'm actually working on some new Halloween designs for her to turn into fiber sculptures and they'll be up on that site (and this one) soon. Only 91 days 'til Halloween! -v

Sad Dog For A Dog Day Afternoon

2011-07-25T11:57:00.004-04:00

Sorry this post is late. I was busy melting into a puddle on my floor yesterday. Sweet potatoes, it's hot! And maybe that's why this puppy got antsy and stuck his nose somewhere he shouldn't have. Who knows? But it's obvious he acknowledges his transgression and longs for forgiveness.

So there it is. The classic, ancient battle with one's dark half and eventual quest for redemption represented by a sad little puppy in a mid-century, American kitchen. Gosh, it's hot. It's so hot. -v

The Captain America Movie! Finally!

2011-07-17T19:26:00.004-04:00

I've been waiting for a Captain America movie since I was a kid. And yeah, I've seen the ones with Reb Brown and Matt Salinger and yeah, I'm kind of trying to forget they exist. But this new one with Chris Evans and Hugo Weaving looks very promising. You don't know how hard I'm hoping they don't screw it up.

I plan to see the flick on opening day. And I want a friend of mine to go that day too so I can discuss it with him afterwards. But he lives in another state and he's even cheaper than I am. So, to make sure he goes, I'm buying his ticket. That's right. I'm actually sending him the money for the ticket so he can go. And this illustration is the "card" the money comes in.

I'm more accustomed to the uniform Cap wears in the comics, but since I'm pushing this movie I decided to go with the new, Hollywood version of the uniform. It's actually not too bad a costume. Much better than Reb Brown's motorcycle helmet and transparent shield. What were they thinking?! Anyway, work-in-progress steps below. -v

Dan Santat's Sidekicks Is Out (thanks, in part, to me)!

2011-07-11T16:47:00.008-04:00

No, really. Dan Santat, creator of Disney Channel's The Replacements and illustrator of one of my favorite children's books in the last year, Oh No!, has just released his long awaited graphic novel, Sidekicks, and I actually helped him make his deadline. Here's how it went...

Santat, one of the most popular children's books illustrators out there, was juggling a few deadlines and needed help flatting (I'll explain later) some panels in Sidekicks, his very own graphic novel about crime-fighting super pets. So he put the call out on his blog and a few of us stepped up. It's cute animals and superheroes. How could I resist?

Ok, anyway, flatting is just a fancy term for laying down a flat-color underpainting that the finish artist goes over with highlights, shadows and texture. Flatting is a necessary process, but it can also be time-consuming and tedious. And when you have other deadlines to meet, flatting is something that can be handled by your assistants...or sidekicks. In this case, Dan was assisted by myself and maybe five other talented artists out there on the web (check out the above link to Dan's blog to see who else participated).

So, a big thanks to Dan Santat for giving me a try and trusting me with his artwork. I haven't received my complementary copy of the book yet, but I'm going to assume it's pretty entertaining (at least what I've seen of it). So maybe you'd like to give it a try. Meanwhile, I have some very basic work-in-progress steps below showing my part of the process. -v

Drilling My Way Into The Pittsburgh City Paper

2011-07-06T23:11:00.004-04:00

Just a simple, black and white illustration for this post. My first for the Pittsburgh City Paper. This image accompanied an article on the controversial Marcellus Shale Drilling operation and the proposed legislation that would make it easier for people to drill for natural gas within city limits.

I'd be lying if I said that rendering skyscrapers and industrial equipment is my forte. Regardless, I was on a tight deadline and didn't have time to convince the art director that another valid interpretation would be a bear wearing pants. So I forged on, relying heavily on reference photos and dumb luck.

It all turned out ok in the end. I had a great time working with the City Paper's art director on this and hope to do it again soon. Below are some work-in-progress steps. -v

My Village Of The Damned Poster In Hollywood Theatre Benefit Show

2011-06-30T18:16:00.007-04:00

Most Wanted Fine Art is holding an art show/fundraiser for the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont featuring works by local artists this July. As a fan of both the Hollywood and the concept of neighborhood theatres in general, I was pleased my Village Of The Damned poster was accepted into the show.

I've been working on a series of retro-scifi posters for some of my favorite horror movies. This one's a tribute to Village Of The Damned, one of the finest "creepy kid" movies of the past century. There's something fantastically unsettling about hyper-intelligent fourth-graders that can read your thoughts and control your mind. I was about halfway through this image when a friend tipped me off to the fundraising event for the Hollywood Theatre.

If you'd like to see the image up close (or purchase it for some unknown reason) it will be hanging in the Hollywood Theatre, Dormont, along with the works of over 50 other local artists through the month of July. The opening reception on July 2nd is free, and there will be music, short films, an exhibit by John Lysak and other fun. Most of the details can be found at the Facebook Event page.

All of the artwork in the benefit show will be for sale if you should feel inclined to help out the Hollywood Theatre and keep the tradition of neighborhood movie houses alive in Dormont. Though, I may have subconsciously priced my poster just high enough to ensure I'll be taking it home to hang in the spot on my wall I picked out for it before this whole fundraiser thing even started. -v

UPDATE: I just got back from the opening reception at the Hollywood Theatre and it seems some mysterious benefactor has purchased my Village Of The Damned poster. Was it a fan of classic sci-fi movies? Perhaps a civic-minded individual who wanted to help out the Hollywood Theatre? Or could there be someone out there who actually enjoys my art!? Much like the Great Tootsie-Pop Riddle, the world may never know. But a big thanks to that shadowy stranger for helping make the event a success. And remember, the show's up for the rest of the month if anyone else would like to purchase some of the art and give a boost to the theatre.

Esoteric Houdini Gag Thrills Dozens!

2011-06-22T22:07:00.003-04:00

The gag was a risky proposition from the start. It presupposes the reader has active knowledge of a decades-old food mascot and the forensic details surrounding a celebrity death that occurred in 1926. I figured they were both pretty popular in their day so I had a shot at funny. Misfire? I don't know. I like it. And if only one per cent of the people who see this get a giggle, that's fine by me.

In a further attempt to suck even more humour out of the gag, I've deconstructed the illustration process in some work-in-progress steps below. -v

Halloween Panda has been soft-sculpted (and is for sale)

2011-06-14T12:38:00.003-04:00

Much like my Halloween Kitty (whom I discussed last month), my Halloween Panda has been sculpted out of wool by my friend at RunRedRun and is up for grabs on SpookyTime Jingles, the Halloween Artisan's blog.

It's a lot of fun seeing my drawings slowly turn into fuzzy little three-dimensional critters over the time-consuming felting process. I did a few additional design sketches to help flesh out the felted doll, but the end result is always a collaboration, style-wise. Regardless, he's pretty cute. Check him out here. -v

Powerless by Matt Cody is Out in Paperback (And Still Awesome!)

2011-06-08T21:01:00.003-04:00

I happened to notice one of my favorite YA novels, Powerless by Matt Cody, was recently released in paperback and it inspired me to do another illustration. If you haven't read the book yet, first of all...why not?!? Secondly, I won't ruin any surprises for you by explaining anything about this image. But if you've read Powerless you know this is something that happens somewhere around chapter nine.

I've been thinking about doing this illustration for a while now, ever since reading the book. And to be completely honest, this scene doesn't actually take place in the written text. It's something you have to infer while reading about some other, related action. And that's the thing about Powerless. Not only does the written text create vivid pictures in your mind's eye, but the stuff that happens between the lines inspires visual imagery so real that it really gives you the sense of being there, in the book, side by side with the characters.

Visit Matt Cody's site here. And buy Powerless in paperback here.

And here's another thing I recently found out -- I'm psychic. Because months ago when I read Powerless I told my friends, "If they don't screw it up, this would be an incredible movie." And it looks like my prediction may soon come to pass as Powerless has been optioned for the screen. I guess there are probably a zillion hurdles to jump between a book being optioned and the movie finally being made, but I'm hoping for a smooth transition from paper to screen. And, to tell you the truth, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Cody at last year's New York Comicon and I can't say enough nice things about him -- talented, generous with his time, smart, kind...tall. Very tall. For the three friends and I who went to the Comicon that weekend, Matt made it a very special visit and I don't think I thanked him enough.

So thanks again, Matt, wherever you are (hopefully polishing off the final draft of a Powerless sequel if my psychic abilities aren't on the blink). -v

Real Tales Of Gardening Mishaps

2011-06-05T01:19:00.009-04:00

Luckily for everyone involved, the cartoon to the left never actually came to pass. That's just a glimpse into a horrible, possible future if not for a crisis narrowly averted. I was helping a friend dig out a garden patch behind her house today. Outside. In the heat. I know, it sounds crazy already. But get this -- I started digging up jagged bricks, broken glass and twisted, rusty metal things I can't even describe.

Who puts this stuff underground?! Some kind of madman is my guess. Anyway, after nearly killing myself tilling soil in the sun for two hours, I went inside to get a drink. And what do my eyes see sticking up out of my sneaker? What is that...a twig? I reach down to brush it away and ZING! It's a rusty old, crusty old two-inch nail that just missed puncturing my foot by a sixteenth of an inch!

Who knows what kind of virulent poisons that thing would've injected into my bloodstream on its way out through the top of my foot? Didn't they used to say you could get lockjaw from stepping on rusty nails? I don't even know what that is but it sounds horrible. I think I almost died today. This is why I don't go outside. Click the photos below to see the size of the nail that almost killed me. Am I overreacting? I don't think so. -v

Update: New Balance has still not offered me a sponsorship deal. Nuts.

This tree is having none of my nonsense.

2011-05-30T10:40:00.006-04:00

Every once in a while I peel my carcass out of my desk chair and go for an evening stroll. Lately I've noticed this tree eyeing me up suspiciously.

He's got this distrustful look on his face every time I walk by. "Keep walking," he says. "Nobody's buying your health-conscious walking-guy routine, so finish up your act and get back to your drawing."

He's a tough customer. I may have to find another route so I can avoid him. Happy Memorial Day. -v

Hulk Hate Greedy Marketing Ploy...and so do I

2011-05-18T00:07:00.004-04:00

I'm really enjoying the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon on a cable channel called Disney XD. It's a fun, animated version of Marvel Comics' Avengers with strong plotlines based on comic canon, fairly decent animation and convincing voice acting. I planned to purchase the DVD box set of Season One as soon as it became available.

So it was a bit of a disappointment to stumble onto Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Volumes 1 & 2 the other night at Target. Priced at fifteen smackers apiece(!!!), the two separate volumes contain a total of only 13 episodes (seven on Volume 1, six on Volume 2) which is, by my count, only half of the entire first season. Extrapolating from that, you'd have to assume that for just the first season of this cartoon, purchasing it piecemeal like this, you can expect to pay somewhere around $60. Keep in mind that neither disc has what you'd call a treasure trove of extra features (on both discs a producer and story editor try to explain to you what makes Marvel heroes and villains so unique. No, I'm serious). Maybe you've got money to burn, but sixty bucks for one-season's-worth of 22-minute cartoons doesn't fit into my budget.

So I'll be taking a pass on these discs in the hopes that someday Disney Home Video releases a more reasonably-priced box set, maybe with some decent extra features.

And, as I did with the fantastically rebooted but poorly marketed Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated series, I'd suggest you skip purchasing these DVDs. Maybe the studios don't realize how bad the economy is...or maybe they do, and that's why they're gouging us on these cartoons. Regardless, if you're a fan of superheroes at all, you should check out the Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon, Sunday mornings at 10, on Disney XD, There are worse ways to spend a Sunday morning. And for those so inclined, there are probably worse ways to spend the next five minutes than checking out my work-in-progress steps below. -v

My Halloween Kitty Is Up For Sale

2011-05-13T18:52:00.002-04:00

Technically, the needle-felted art-doll version of my Halloween Kitty is up for sale. As you know, every once in a while I do designs for my friend at runredrun which she then turns into adorable felted art dolls.

Well, runredrun was recently invited to be part of an artisan collective online where she's selling her creations. Visit SpookyTime Jingles and click on the runredrun avatar to see how she turned this Halloween Kitty into a very cute, very fuzzy, three-dimensional figure. And If you have the dough, go ahead and purchase it. I've seen it in person and the photos don't do it justice. Also, I can guarantee I'll be doing a few more designs for her that will end up on Spookytime Jingles, so if you're as big a fan of Halloween, hand-made goods and cute little critters as I am, check back there every month. -v

Families, Fun and Fitness? Sign Me Up!

2011-05-13T17:27:00.003-04:00

I was commissioned by a local grade school to create a t-shirt design for a recent event. Falk Family Fun Fitness Night was touted by the Phys Ed department as an opportunity for families to come together, play games, enjoy outdoor activities, and get fit. There was trail hiking, basketball, yoga, tai chi, zumba and family tag games. I'm told it was a rousing success.

No doubt an enormous part of that success was my brilliant t-shirt design. The brief called for "a family having fun and getting fit." That's pretty much the only direction I got other than the clients' intent to get the design printed on orange t-shirts. So this is what I came up with. The work-in-progress steps are below, as well as a photo of the finished t-shirt (modeled by the very picture of fitness himself). -v

Mother's Day Gags, Part Two

2011-05-08T10:13:00.006-04:00

Here's my other, kinder, gentler Mother's Day card design for this year. It's intended for people who might not enjoy (or understand) sarcasm (grandma) and, thus, the perfect card to come home to after church or brunch or a walk in the flower garden or whatever it is grandmas like to do on Mother's Day.

The work-in-progress steps are below if you care to see how I put it together. Nothing fancy, really. I wanted something that was sweet -- something akin to an old Disney cartoon -- but also wanted it to have an aged, retro feel -- like you tore it out of an old Mad Magazine (or Esquire or Playboy) you found in a dusty attic somewhere. Pretty sure my grandma never read Mad or Playboy but I think she'll like this anyway.

The toughest part was coming up with the gag. I knew I wanted the classic "baby animal mistakes something for its mom" gag --you know, like the old porcupine/pin cushion schtick -- but nothing I doodled was cute enough. A friend finally suggested the funny hat punchline, inspired, no doubt, by all the wacky hats at the royal wedding -- so thank goodness somebody pays attention to that stuff. -v

Mother's Day Gags: Part One

2011-05-02T22:53:00.008-04:00

In between paying jobs, I like to draw personalized greeting cards for my friends and family (which I simultaneously submit to art directors in the hopes of scoring paychecks in the process). And this time of year is bursting with opportunities for that diversion (Easter, Mother's Day, graduations, etc.). It's good practice and it gives people the impression that I'm a sweet, sentimental guy. The whole thing is win-win for me.

Anyway, since I judiciously avoided the irony of mailing out either Earth Day or Arbor Day cards, I'm now posting the first of two (yes, two) Mother's Day cards -- thereby making up for all the natural resources I conserved in the past month.

This first one is a simple, desert island gag. It's a little passive aggressive and possibly only funny if you know my mother, but it's way too edgy to send to grandma. I'll post her much sweeter card next week. In the meantime, enjoy this gag and the work-in-progress steps below. And when you're done reading this, go buy something nice for your mother. -v

Superheroes Exhibit Opens At Toonseum In May! Two Free Passes Up For Grabs!

2011-04-22T12:03:00.008-04:00

Squeeze into your tights and leap over to Pittsburgh's Toonseum for the Superheroes: Icons & Origins exhibit this May. Focusing on legendary heroes from both Marvel and DC, Superheroes explores the history of characters as legendary as Batman, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman (to name a few) with rare original sketches, comic pages and covers by master artists the likes of Neal Adams, Gene Colan, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Todd McFarlane, Frank Miller and John Romita.

Toonseum director, Joe Wos, assures us the Superheroes exhibit is crammed full of entertaining and informative features: biographical information on the artists, a time-line interweaving historical events with Superhero introductions and plot-lines, connections to classical mythology, the science behind the “super”, and retrospectives of the changes that each character has undergone in the hands of different artists and eras.

Superheroes: Icons & Origins runs from May 6th through August 28th, 2011, at Pittsburgh's Toonseum.

Free Passes! It doesn't cost that much to walk in the door at the Toonseum and see a roomful of amazing comic/cartoon art just about any day of the week. Nevertheless, I have two free passes that I'd like to give away. So, if you want these passes here's what you need to do: Share this post. I don't care how you share it (facebook, twitter, digg, whatever), just share it. Then (and this is the important part) email me a link to where you shared it along with your postal mailing address. The first email I get with a link to the shared post gets two (2) free passes to the Toonseum. (Offer applies to comic geeks living in the contiguous United States only.)

Fake Batman Cover. I've done a couple other posts about the Toonseum. In each one, I have a little fun at the expense of museum director, Joe Wos. To date, I've made him into a cantankerous museum director and a lecherous museum director. But this month he hits the big time and finally achieves the status of evil museum director. And he has the dubious honor of getting his chops busted by The Dark Knight himself! Technically, that makes him a full-on super-villain.

I designed the illustration to look like an old comic book from the '70s that you might find at a garage sale, complete with bizarre, pseudo-psychedelic cover art and that weird, grey-and-blue Batman costume. I never understood how he was supposed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals dressed in powder-grey and baby-blue. In any case, the work-in-progress steps are below. And if you enjoy the process of creating comic art, then I hope to see you at the Toonseum this May. -v

All Your Eggs In One Big Basket

2011-04-17T18:05:00.002-04:00

Though I don't really celebrate Easter, my family back home still gathers 'round a ham every year. I do my part by sending out personalized holiday cards. As usual, I took the cute route with this adorable Easter Bunny and his outsized egg. Bonus points to me for getting it done early, so the cards will arrive on time this year. Below I've posted some work-in-progress steps. Wherever and however you celebrate the holidays this year, I hope your skies are sunny and your eggs are enormous. -v

Attention Lady In White Fans: Frankie Goes To Tuscany!

2011-04-10T17:25:00.002-04:00

The last time I extolled the virtues of Lady In White (one of my favorite movies) I received a very nice, thumbs-up message from Frank LaLoggia, the film's multi-talented writer/director/producer/score composer.

Yesterday morning I was thrilled to find yet another message from Frank in my email. It seems the renaissance man has released a collection of original music titled Frankie Goes To Tuscany. If you locked me in a haunted cloakroom I might describe it as an eclectic mix of jazz, new age and pop mixed with some really evocative soundtrack scoring...but I've never been comfortable labeling things. So ignore all of that, visit the Frankie Goes To Tuscany website and listen to the samples. I like this stuff, maybe you will too. And while you can download the album for a decent price, you also have the option of ordering it directly from Frank in Italy (anybody else jealous of this guy yet?) and Frank will personally sign the CD for you.

Now, while Frank's latest endeavor from sunny Tuscany may seem worlds away from the creepy atmosphere of Lady In White, I couldn't help but be inspired by his email to sketch up a quick homage to that horror masterpiece. So here's Frankie Scarlatti, dressed in his cement-covered Dracula costume (if you don't know why he's plastered with cement, watch the movie). It was a quick turnaround on this, but my work-in-progress steps are below for anyone who's interested.

Beethoven Rocks!

2011-04-07T15:02:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine is in the midst of teaching her grade school kids about Beethoven. Since both of us are fans of the old Schoolhouse Rocks! educational shorts, we were lamenting that those cartoons aren't around anymore for the current generation of school kids. That's when she decided to take a page from that notebook and start fiddling around with funny little songs about Beethoven. Of course, they were a hit with the kids.

While she was busy writing hilariously abridged versions of Beethoven's life, I was charged with doodling a little caricature of the composer reminiscent of the style of those early 70s cartoons. We both had so much fun working on this that it'll probably be an ongoing project. To the left is a short sampling of some of the stuff we came up with. Below are the very simple work-in-progress steps for the Beethoven caricature. Pencils, inks, flat color to simulate an animation cell. Look forward to more of this silliness in the future. -v

Penguins That Aren't In Pittsburgh

2011-03-25T21:42:00.006-04:00

Once again I had the pleasure of putting an ad graphic together for a chain of grocery stores in the Midwest. Two years ago it was a bicycling panda, last year it was a family of picnicking cows. This year I got to work on this clan of penguins enjoying the winter weather. Below are my work-in-progress steps.

The art director gave me a little sketch of what she wanted, as well as the proposed layout of the ad copy. Frankly, I love it when art directors know exactly what they want. There's no time wasted on guessing or trial and error. So I was able to jump right in and sketch out a rough using the dummy ad copy as a compositional guide.

After getting the go-ahead from the a.d., I start by laying in background color in Photoshop. I'm just blocking in base colors at this point. The sky is a blue-to-black gradient. And knowing I want sort of a retro, 70s Christmas Card-feel to this thing, I use the pen tool to create some swirly stylized gusts of wind in the background.

Next I use a soft-edged brush to paint in all that snow on the pine trees. It's a huge time-suck, and maybe there's a faster way of doing it, but I like taking my time on it and making it look just right. And though the ground cover will be mostly obscured by the ad copy, I didn't want to just phone it in. So after brushing in some blue shadows with a textured brush, I also throw a crisp, glistening snow texture on top of it for an extra-chilly feel.

Now onto the wind gusts. Plain white swirls against the sky look awful, of course. So my plan is to use a crunchy, crinkly texture to mask out some of the swirls. I ended up using some sort of rough rock texture to give the swirls an icy, wintry feel. But it needed more. So I drew a classic six-pointed snowflake with a hard, round brush, saved the drawing as a brush itself, and then carefully placed the snowflakes in the sky to look as if they're being carried along by the frigid gusts of wind. I guess I could do more to push the retro feel, but I really like it at this point. So now I move on to the characters.

This illustration was done, at size, 24-inches across. It had to be big because it was going to be blown up to banner size in some stores. But it was also used in point-of-purchase displays and posters. Since there would be different layouts, the art director asked me to keep the penguin family on separate layers for maximum editability (is that a word?). So here's a breakdown of the character illustration.

1) Pencil sketch, scanned into Photoshop and tweaked for contrast.

2) I Inked the characters in Adobe Illustrator.

3) Back in Photoshop I block in the base colors.

4) With various brushes I paint in highlights and shadows. Then the characters get dropped into the snowy background. And it looks like I already have my Christmas card image for this year. -v

Ace Reporter, Brenda Starr, Investigates The Toonseum

2011-03-08T21:57:00.005-05:00

For 70 years, Dale Messick's Brenda Starr graced the funny pages of America's finest newspapers. Now she'll be gracing the walls of Pittsburgh's Toonseum. Director Joe Wos and staff are bringing the ravishing redhead to Pittsburgh in an exhibit of Messick's art that includes rare, "pre-Brenda" strips, vintage ads and an intact storyline from the 1965-66 run of the strip.

A pioneer in the industry, Messick's given name was Dahlia but she changed it to Dale after having her comic strip rejected by syndicates on the basis that she was a woman. Seriously. Joke's on those old codgers, I guess, since Messick eventually became one of the most influential and popular cartoonists in the world.

The Toonseum's Brenda Starr: The Art of Dale Messick exhibit will run from March 11th to April 23rd. As well, in honor of National Women's Month and the Brenda Starr exhibit, the ToonSeum will also be presenting a host of lectures and screenings focused on women and female characters in comics, including Messick, Brenda-expert Trina Robbins, Mary Blair, and Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As usual, check the Toonseum website for details and times.

Oh, and don't worry. My goofy illustration of Brenda Starr matching wits with evil museum director Joe Wos isn't part of the exhibit. That's just something I did for fun. If you're interested in how I put it together, I've included some work-in-progress steps below. But to really get a sense of how sinister Joe Wos is, you'll have to visit him in person at the Toonseum.

1) Sketched out the original gag in pencil

2) Moved some elements around and inked it in Photoshop

3) Dropped in some basic colors in Photoshop

4) Aged the image a bit by tinting it yellow and throwing a half-tone texture on it. See you downtown. -v

To Market, To Market, Jiggity-Jog

2011-02-25T19:04:00.003-05:00

Marketing. Ugh. It's part of my business to market myself and -- I'll admit it -- it's my least favorite part. Well, maybe price haggling is possibly worse, but trying to figure out where to spend your advertising dollar gets more difficult every year. I'm about to resort to a sandwich board and a big bell.

Luckily, for me, I have a friend who's mere weeks away from his MBA in Marketing and every once in a while he throws me some suggestions. His latest: "Why don't you put some share buttons on your blog so people can actually Tweet your stuff or post it on Facebook?" I believe he silently added, "you idiot" but I can't be sure.

I realized he was right. So I took his advice and now you have the ability to post my stuff on Facebook, or re-Tweet it or whatever you want to do. There are share buttons in each individual post, as well as buttons in the sidebar that should allow you to share the entire blog. Ah, technology.

So, a big thanks goes out to my friend, Mike, for his insight. I'm hoping to take advantage of everything he's learned before he starts charging me for his wisdom. If you'd like to benefit (free of charge) from his wisdom, feel free to visit his marketing blog, File Under Marketing. -v

A Hanging In Texas

2011-02-22T12:38:00.006-05:00

I just received a forwarded photo from Kevin Russell of The Gourds and Shinyribs fame. Looks like the gig posters I worked on with a friend are getting some circulation. That's one of them hanging next to Kevin at a recent Shinyribs show at the Phoenix Saloon in New Braunfels, Texas. I've uploaded another image of the poster since the photo's kind of blurry.

The poster was co-conceived by myself and a friend of mine who knows The Gourds/Shinyribs backwards and forwards. Done in Adobe Illustrator, the image portrays Shinyribs frontman Kevin Russell as a giant, roadside attraction that you might drive by on a long haul across the United States. You know -- one of those gargantuan metal statues that loom overhead like friendly (if unsettling) giants keeping a watchful eye on you as you make your way through middle-America? The concept was to evoke the sense of classic, retro Americana that Kevin's music feeds on (and into). If I recall correctly, those are grackles perched on him.

If you haven't heard The Gourds or Shinyribs yet, you might want to give them a listen. If you had to label it, I guess you'd call their stuff "alt-country" or something like that. But since I don't label I'll just tell you it's well-written music played by talented musicians. They don't come this far east too often, but if you're ever out in their neck of the woods, you should try to catch them live. They always put on a good show.

Here are some links to The Gourds Official Site and Kevin's Shinyribs Reverbnation page. Enjoy. -v

Using Comics As Business Correspondence

2011-02-19T18:04:00.002-05:00

For some reason I always have a difficult time getting in touch with Don, the guy who keeps my website up and running. I had some trouble with the site recently and couldn't get ahold of him. Mix in my natural paranoia and tendency to overreact, and you get this comic strip. I sent him a copy, but as of yet I haven't heard back. My finger's hovering shakily over the panic button. Work-in-progress steps below.

1) Rough pencil layout.

2) Inked in Photoshop

3) Colored in Photoshop

4) "Aged" a bit

Don, if you're reading this, none of us can afford to pay the ransom. Sorry. -v

Meow Meow Meow Means I Love You

2011-02-14T00:16:00.003-05:00

Yes, I drew another cat. So sue me. It was for a Valentine's Day card, time was running short and the monkey just wasn't turning out cute enough. None of my gags were working either. So I went with this retro, Dick-and-Jane kind of thing. Eh. If nothing else it'll teach me to start drawing earlier than the night before the card goes out. Work-in-progress steps below -- sketched in pencil, colored in Photoshop. This one goes out to all you crazy lovers out there. Happy Valentine's Day. -v.

Toonseum Has A Great Year Planned!

2011-02-06T21:05:00.003-05:00

As a valued member of Pittsburgh's Web-Press Corps (what?) I was invited to a very nice event at Pittsburgh's Toonseum Friday night to see a preview of the exhibitions they have planned for 2011. Aside from stuffing myself with free food (I know!) I discovered that Executive Director, Joe Wos, has some great things planned for this year.

First, for anyone who doesn't know, the Toonseum is Pittsburgh's only museum dedicated to promoting the appreciation of cartoon arts and artists. It's a compact space, but the walls are filled with animation cels and inked comic pages from some of the best cartoonists in the history of the business, depicting classic characters like Charlie Brown, Bugs Bunny, The Fantastic Four and Ziggy.

So what's up for this year? Well, let me give you a quick overview of some of the shows planned for 2011:

February: 50 Years of Charlie Tuna

March/April: Brenda Starr - The Art of Dale Messick

May/July: Superheroes - Origins and Icons

July/August: 40 Years of Ziggy

August/November: Overture - Behind the Scenes of Looney Tunes

December/January: One Fine Sunday In The Funny Pages

The Superheroes and Looney Tunes shows sound awesome. And that Sunday Funnies Show is an exhibition of artwork featuring different newspaper comics, all published on the same Sunday. Great concept. Can't wait to see it.

I'll try to have more details about each show as the dates approach. But until then, feel free to visit the Toonseum website and find out what they're all about. And if you're just looking for a diversion on your lunch hour in the city, the Toonseum's located right in the Cultural District downtown. And if you stop in, don't tell 'em Vince sent you, because I really made a pig of myself with that free food the other night so my name's mud there for a while. -v

Let It Snow, Already!

2011-02-03T23:58:00.007-05:00

The weather lady keeps warning us we'll be snowed in during a vicious winter storm -- but I've been waiting a few weeks now and zilch! Stop panicking the locals, lady! The grocery store's dangerously low on milk, bread and bathroom tissue. While we wait for the looming storm, I thought I'd post this wintry illustration and some work-in-progress steps.

1) As usual, I start with a pencil sketch. I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach this piece, so I ended up sketching in way too much detail on the snowflakes. Did I waste a bunch of time? Maybe. But better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

2) In a shocking move, I then abandon all that laborious detail work and trace the pencil-line with color in Photoshop. Mostly blue, to convey the feeling of cold, with some warmer spots around that little meatball kid. Underneath all that I threw in a gradient and then roughed it up a little with some blending and brush strokes.

3) Then, as it turns out, I do need all that pencil detail in the snowflakes after all. Brilliant! So I flipped the pencil layer back on and painted around my sketch to add some dimension to the snowflakes. There's probably an easier way of doing all this, but time's on my side. I also painted in the kid.

4) Finally, I smudge in a shadow underneath our little friend to ground him. And, speaking of ground, I also threw in a crispy-crunchy snow texture over the background to push that icy-cold feeling. And as I look out my back door, I see that most of the crispy-crunchy snow in the yard has melted. Step it up, weather lady. -v

Happy 93rd Birthday, Grandma!

2011-01-28T15:57:00.002-05:00

Well, another year has rolled 'round and it's time, once again, for me to sketch out a birthday card for my grandma. This year she gets a precocious kitty with a head for numbers. I hope she likes it.

At first I was going to tie the illustration in with some famous invention from 1918, but the only one of note that i found was the Browning Automatic Rifle. I don't know a lot about guns, but I hazard to guess this kitty cat wouldn't look half as cute holding a Browning Automatic Rifle as his does playing with yarn. So I went with the yarn. Grandma will no doubt appreciate that.

As usual, I've posted some work-in-progress steps below. Nothing fancy this time, really. Just a pencil sketch scanned in and painted in Photoshop. I wanted a natural look and I think I got it. Hope it helps my grandma have a happy 93rd. -v

Don't Buy The New Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated DVD

2011-01-24T19:00:00.005-05:00

The DVD for the latest Scooby Doo cartoon series, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, hits the shelves on Tuesday, January 25th and I want you to do yourself a favor: Don't buy it.

Not that it's a bad cartoon. Actually, I think it's a really entertaining reboot that's fun, spooky and honors the original 1969 series. Visually, it's kind of a nod to 60s psychedelia with it's garish colors and surreal texture overlays. And there are just enough inside jokes to keep fans of the original series grinning without forcing everyone to take a trip down memory lane.

So, why shouldn't you buy it? Because Warner Home Video has decided to release only a small portion of the first season -- the first four episodes -- for $9.99. That means if you want to get the entire first season (16 episodes) and are forced to purchase it four episodes at a time, it'll cost you a whopping forty bucks! It's a fun cartoon but forty bucks for a season's worth of 20-minute episodes is beyond steep. It's gouging. And besides being greedy, it's destructive. Because, unlike the original Scooby series, Mystery Incorporated actually has a few running sub-plots that build toward the climax of the season. Chopping it up and leaking it piecemeal destroys the flow of the narrative and, ultimately, ruins the fun for everyone. So what do you do? Here are some options.

The show is running in repeats now on Cartoon Network, so try to catch it there. Here's a schedule:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/schedule/index.html

And if you'd like to get a taste of what the show's all about, here's a link to an episode Cartoon Network is streaming online. It's not the first one, so be forewarned -- you'll be jumping in in the middle:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/index.html

For those purists who want to start from the beginning, you'll have to do some searching and maybe Tivo an episode or two. IMDb has the episode list, in order, right here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1660055/episodes

It really is a fun series and I hope you get a chance to enjoy it. I just don't think you should have to pay through the nose to do that. Rooby Roooooo! -v

Thank You Beary Much, Grandma!

2011-01-13T17:59:00.003-05:00

Once again, my grandma sent me a nice little Christmas gift. She always remembers me at Christmas and it always helps make my holiday shine a little brighter. So, as I've done before, I took this opportunity to make her another thank you card. The work-in-progress steps are posted below for those interested. Thanks again, Grandma.

1) A really rough thumbnail quickly followed by my rough sketch

2) The polished sketch, just pencil on paper, then scanned into Photoshop

3) I warmed up the tone of the line and then brushed in some color

4) Still using very loose watercolor brushed in Photoshop, I add some warm browns

5) Highlights and shadows help model the figure. After this step I just painted in some tall grass as the bear's feet and cleaned up my line a little. And there you have it. A very grateful bear. -v

Gag For A Birthday Card

2011-01-03T23:09:00.002-05:00

I have a friend whose birthday shows up right after the holidays and I almost always run out of time to get her a card. You'd think, after all these years, I'd just make it a part of my Christmas shopping and buy a birthday card along with the wrapping paper. But I blow it every time.

So I cranked out this little gag cartoon the night before I had to get the card in the mail. No, it's not hilarious. It's more of an inside joke. And now that I see it, even being on the inside I don't find the gag all that funny. Ah well, better than nothing. Below are the work-in-progress steps.

1) The pencil sketch

2) The inking (done in Photoshop)

3) Rough colors and blending (Photoshop)

4) I drop in a textured background I painted to look like watercolor.

5) Voila. Done. Happy birthday. -v

Comic Strip Wrap (Christmas Wrapping Part 5)

2010-12-25T12:08:00.006-05:00

This is the last major wrap-gimmick for me this year: A pile of gifts turned into a comic strip. First, here's the comic strip. I drew it for a couple of friends of mine who love Christmas, comics, cartoons and other fun stuff. Specifically, I turned them into cute little comic strip characters and wrote a Christmas gag around them. Fun, right? Below are the work-in-progress steps for both the comic strip and the wrapping paper gimmick.

1) First step is the pencil sketch, as usual. This one's pretty loose because Christmas was approaching and I didn't have time to do a finished, polished sketch the way I normally like to do. So the inking was done on the fly over some very rough doodles. Some panels (like the final) were pretty involved, so I made sure to tweak the sketch a bit before inking.

2) The inking was done in Photoshop. I was aiming for a very sweet, kid-friendly feel for the piece. So the lines are bold and bouncy. I did the lettering and word bubbles in Illustrator and imported them before step three.

3) Knowing I wanted this to end up looking like an old Sunday comic, I Paint-bucketed some desaturated colors and kept things simple.

4) After the color was in, I aged the entire piece by throwing a lot of off-yellow onto the piece. This way it looks like newsprint that's been sitting in your attic since 1979. The final step (which can be seen at the top of this post) is adding the half-tone texture to the illustration for that old printing press feeling. Now, on to the gifts.

1) I started by laying out the gifts I planned to give my friends in some semblance of a grid. Noting the size and shape of the gifts, I wrote the comic around that. Probably not the easiest way to write a comic, but I had an idea and I made it fit.

2) While I was busy writing and drawing the gag in my computer, I also began wrapping the gifts. I used this yellow, newsprint-type paper to give the comic an aged feel.

3) Once the comic was done, I used the packages to size the panels, printed out the line work, carefully cut out the panels and glued them on seamlessly. When they were finished, the packages looked like they were wrapped in paper with a comic strip printed on it. Since it's Christmas morning I can tell you it went over big. As I always hope, my friends had an agonizing time deciding whether or not to open the gifts and risk ruining the comic. After watching them meticulously cut through each gift's paper carefully with a pocket knife, I then rendered their efforts virtually pointless by handing them the full color comic, matted and framed. Merry Christmas. -v

Turning Someone Into A Peanut (Christmas Wrapping Part 4)

2010-12-22T18:53:00.004-05:00

Nothing like the Sunday Funnies with Linus and his good friend...Daryl? Here's the deal: a few years ago, as a Christmas gift, I drew good ol' Daryl into a Peanuts illustration. She loved it. So, since then, I've drawn her into a number of scenes and comics as a little Peanuts character. This year the illustration also ends up as box art on a gift from another friend: hand-felted art dolls of Linus and Daryl from runredrun. Follow along, won't you, and see all the steps it took to complete this multi-level Christmas gift.

1) First, a look back at some of the other Peanuts art I did featuring the gang's new friend, "Daryl." This first one is, of course, the skating scene at the opening of the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

2) This is another Christmasy image of Charlie Brown, Daryl and Linus hanging out at the wall. I tried to match the look of watercolor backgrounds with hand-painted cels of the characters on top, but it's all done digitally.

3) When my friend at runredrun told me she was making Linus and Daryl dolls based on my old Schulz send-ups, I knew I needed to create a new image that would work as both a framed illustration and as box art for the dolls. So I proportioned a new sketch for both purposes and started with the pencils. The pencils relied heavily on Sunday comic compositions by Charles Schulz. As usual I wanted to make it as authentic as possible. So I pored through old Peanuts collections to find just the right neighborhood scene. And, of course, the Daryl character is basically a Peanuts girl in a blonde wig. You just don't mess with good design.

4) So the next step was inking the pencils. I did it digitally in Photoshop, but tried to use that same loose, sometimes shaky inking style that Schulz was known for. Again, authenticity is the key.

5) I continued aping the Peanuts look by picking colors found in the actual comics -- or close to them, anyway. I liked it, but I thought giving it that roughed-up, newspaper look would give it a warmer feel.

6) So I aged it. I used the halftone screen filter for all the colors, giving it that old printing press feel. And, to complete that effect, I knocked the colors off-register to fake the look of printing plates slipping during the press process. Now onto the "wrapping" part of this project.

7) As I said before, I set this project up so that it could be used as a printed illustration and box packaging. So I placed the box package template over the illustration in order to see where my text would go.

8) Finding a font online that mimicked Charles Schulz' unique lettering was fairly easy. So I downloaded it and created the masthead for the doll packaging.

9) Finally, here are the dolls, standing near their packaging. I love the look of these dolls and the way the label turned out. These will be a great surprise for Daryl come Christmas morning (as long as she stays off my blog until then).

For more shots of the finished dolls as well as some work-in-progress shots, you can read a fun and informative post over at runredrun. Happy Holidays! -v

Scavenger Hunt Robot (Christmas Wrapping Part 3)

2010-12-20T11:56:00.004-05:00

Ok, here's a bit of fun. My friend who likes robots is getting this put-it-together-yourself paper robot from me for Christmas. But the robot isn't the gift, really. The robot will be scattered in secret locations around his house, each piece containing instructions on where to find the next piece. The third and final piece of the robot will tell him where to find his actual gift. And on the slim chance that he actually reads this post, I can't reveal what the gift is (though it'll probably be some kind of robot). Work-in-progress steps below.

1) this was the rough sketch of the robot, which I then scanned and placed in Illustrator.

2) After tracing my sketch in Illustrator with the Pen tool, I colored it, printed it and cut it out.

3) Here's the leg support piece, cryptically inscribed with instructions to find the torso.

4) And, finally, here is the horrible cell-phone photo of the assembled robot.

After he finds his actual gift, he can spend the next few minutes assembling his paper robot and marveling at how clever his friend is. -v

Clumsy Grandma (Christmas Wrapping Part 2)

2010-12-18T16:06:00.003-05:00

I'm not a monster. I don't think it's hilarious when old ladies slip on the ice...in general.

But I have a friend -- we'll call him Greg -- and Greg has a mother with the unfortunate habit of falling at the most inopportune times in the most inopportune places. Like in hotel lobbies on the first day of a family vacation. Or leaving funerals.

There was one recent Sunday morning Greg went outside to find his porch covered in donuts, the front of his house splashed with coffee and his mother's feet sticking out from behind his shrubs. She'd gone to the bakery before visiting and somehow slipped off the stoop while waiting for Greg to answer the door. Don't worry, she wasn't hurt. The thing is, she's fairly resilient. No major injuries, really. But someone really ought to teach her how to use her feet.

This Christmas card is my way of gently poking fun at my friend who will undoubtedly be picking his mother up off the ground sometime this holiday season. I'd like to think it'll occupy an honored place on his mantle. Let's just hope his Mom doesn't see it.

Work-In-Progress below from sketch, to inks, to color. Enjoy the holidays and remain upright. -v

Goofy Santa (Christmas Wrapping Part 1)

2010-12-15T12:35:00.005-05:00

Every year, despite having a ton of other actual work to do, I find myself wasting precious hours trying to cover up my poor gift wrapping skills with some sort of artsy camouflage (see Batman/Joker/Bigfoot wrapping from a friend's birthday last year).

So, first up this year, is a very simple Goofy Santa Christmas card for a friend who loves Disney. It's really just a little colored pencil sketch, but I needed to post something this week so I figured I'd throw the work-in-progress steps on the ol' blog.

Step 1: I have this old, mealy, yellow paper in a drawer in my studio that's perfect for making things look aged. I'm not even sure how old this paper is. I think it came with the studio. So I drew Goofy in a Santa hat and started in with the Prismacolor pencils.

Step 2 & 3: It's really just layering in color on top of color, very simple stuff. I wanted to capture as much of the paper texture as possible so I used a very light hand.

Step 4: The paper looks old, yeah, but I needed it to look a little more vintage. Not having the option of tea-staining it at this point, I just followed some of the folds in the paper with some sienna and ochre pencils. Now it looks warm and toasty. In the end, I decided the composition was horrible (big blank space, bottom right) so I threw a border around the thing and dropped the classic sprig of holly in the corner. The best part about this card is that, thanks to the paper, it feels like it's going to fall apart in your hands. So fragile. It'll be a Christmas miracle if it makes it through the mail. -v

Holiday Depression, One Step At A Time

2010-12-06T12:17:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure why people get depressed around the holidays, but I suspect it has something to do with feeling guilty about not getting me enough presents. So cheer yourself up this year and buy me something cool. And while you're planning your Christmas shopping, I'll take you through my process for this very sad image of a very sad girl.

This is my progression of roughs. I wanted an image of a sad girl, so I tried a few different scenarios: sad girl in her car, sad girl in an elevator, sad girl at her desk, sad girl in a coffee shop. I basically just followed this melancholy woman through her miserable day, trying to pinpoint just the right moment of sorrow. Nothing really worked until I doodled the sad girl on her couch, hugging her teddy bear after an unbearably dismal day at work. Great. I love it. Now on to the painting.

1) The first step is tightening up the rough doodle into a workable sketch.

2) I wanted a soft, feminine feel for this piece, so I filled the background with a gentle pink. It's a bit cliche, but sometimes the old conventions work the best.

3) In Photoshop, with a rough brush, I start adding in both texture and lighting to the background to add visual interest and to focus attention on the girl.

4) Again, sticking to soft, pastel colors, I block in a cool, minty green for the couch to contrast with the warm pinkish/purple of the background.

5) Still using the sketch as my map, I add in some flat colors for the girl, bear, tissues and ice cream carton.

6) After the base colors are painted, I model the figures and objects with highlights and shadow. After staring at the piece for this long, I begin to empathize with the girl and start feeling really depressed. So I dial up some smooth jazz on iTunes and make it much worse.

7) I paint in the cloud and raindrops using the sketch as a reference. Just some darker blues and desaturated reds to make it look kind of ominous.

8) I lose the pencil sketch and play around with different cropping options. I also decide the cloud is hanging too high above her head and bring it down. Last thing I do before cropping it is throw in some noise and, basically, I'm done. She looks miserable and I couldn't be happier. -v

Avengers Assemble and Please Try Not To Stink!

2010-11-25T14:43:00.003-05:00

Have you seen the new Avengers cartoon? Earth's Mightiest Heroes? You know what? It's not entirely terrible. It's leaps-and-bounds better than that horrible, awful Avengers cartoon they put out in the late 90s. Normally, I'd put a link here so you'd know what I'm referencing, but I refuse to put you through the torture of watching even a small clip from that horrible cartoon. Now, let's never speak of it again.

So I've been watching the new Avengers cartoon lately and actually enjoying it. They seem to be sticking pretty close to the accepted history of the characters, so that oughta please the fanboys (he says, sitting beneath the 15-inch Spiderman action figure posed heroically on the shelf above his art table). I might not like it as much as that old Justice League Unlimited cartoon, but maybe that's just my slight preference for Superman and Batman over Captain America and Iron Man.

Anyway, I was watching the Avengers cartoon and remembered how much I used to like Captain American when I was a kid (I was so patriotic back then). I used to draw Cap all the time in my school notebooks. So I decided to try a sketch. I have to admit, after months and months of drawing puppies and bunnies and little girls with flowers I'm a little rusty with the superhero stuff. So let's just call this well-deserved practice. Not to mention I'm still working out the kinks of inking digitally. I'll probably end up doing a few more of these things just to get comfortable with it. The work-in-progress steps are posted below, but the whole thing was really just an illustration exercise, so there's not much going on here.

But speaking of superheroes, if you happen to be off work Friday you have a veritable cornucopia of choices for animated action. If you're a fan of Cap, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk, I think Disney XD is running an Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes marathon, starting at 3, and culminating at 830 with an hour long "Gamma World" special where the Leader turns everyone on Earth into some kind of Hulk-monster (yikes!). And if you prefer DC's heroes, Robin, Kid-Flash, Superboy and the rest of the Teen Titans are premiering their new Young Justice series with an hour-long pilot on the Cartoon Network at 7. It's Christmas come early for comic book geeks. And you can bet a mountain of Vibranium I'll be watching. Hope you have a nice holiday. -v

Run, Turkey, Run!

2010-11-21T16:41:00.007-05:00

This is Thanksgiving week, so I've been busy planning my traditional dinner: baked beans cooked in the can over a hobo fire and, for the main course, a thin soup made from water, salt and an old cartoony boot all enjoyed whilst sitting in the middle of an abandoned train yard on an old railroad tie. Mmm. That's the comically tragic life of the lonely illustrator, kids.

But I've also been busy working on some book projects and random illustrations. Here's one I did featuring a terrified turkey making a last break for it before he has his holiday cut short by Farmer Gus. The work-in-progress steps are below.

As for Thanksgiving, I hope everybody gets a chance to enjoy themselves, relax or shop or visit with relatives or sleep -- whatever floats your boat. Most of us get the day off (some of us, the whole weekend) so use it wisely. And for everyone who has to work on Thanksgiving, I'd like to apologize on behalf of America's Consumer-Driven Socioeconomic Machine. It's a vicious beast and it's always hungry.

Step 1: The basic sketch, pencil on paper. I didn't bother with a background. I just figured I'd come up with something once I started coloring it.

Step 2: I'm just blocking in colors in Photoshop using a basic round brush. I leave the sketch visible to use as a map.

Step 3: Once all the colors are blocked in I begin modeling the forms with light and shadow. In this first image you can see the farmer and fence are just about done, but I've just started painting fluffy blue shadows on the sheep.

Step 4: At this stage I've thrown more detail into the sheep faces and replaced the sketch outline with a painted, blue line. You can also see the start of my work on the turkey. He went from flat color to modeled form and now he's getting his feathers, one by one. I also threw a texture onto the cloud form in the background to make things interesting and added a barn to balance the piece. A few more details and you get the final piece (at the top of the post). Here's hoping everybody -- this turkey included -- has a great Thanksgiving. -v

Pomp, Circumstance and Process

2010-11-12T11:57:00.005-05:00

A good friend of mine recently graduated with his doctorate (and here I sit drawing pictures). So I made him a graduation card. Just a simple image and a cute take on the old "caps in the air" tradition. Honestly, when I graduated, I held on to my cap and kept my head down. I was deathly afraid I'd get hit in the eye with the corner of someone's plummeting cap.

Ok, just a quick review of my steps. First up is the pencil drawing. I actually did it on textured watercolor paper just to see if it would give the sketch a rich, hand-drawn feel. I'm on the fence about the results. Next I painted in some very amorphous clouds. They didn't need to be too detailed so why waste the time? Next step, a textured brush in Photoshop and lots of layering of colors gives me the base for the cap and gown blues.

Again, more layering in of colors, this time the gold of the tassels and trim. I decide the original pencil sketch is tight enough to leave in the piece, so I don't paint over it completely. Next, I paint in the dog and, for all intents and purposes, the piece is done. I tweaked the contrast a bit to help things pop, but that's about it. At the last second, I decided to try out a different color combination and just hue-adjusted the blues to reds. I like them both. So as long as the dog doesn't come down and hit someone in the eye, everything's going according to plan. -v

A Monster Drawing...And A Story About Monster Drawings

2010-11-11T14:28:00.007-05:00

This is just a quick monster drawing I did to accompany this post (work-in-progress steps included).

When I was a kid, maybe seven or eight years old, one of the other kids we hung around with was diagnosed with leukemia. We'll call him Rich. I didn't know much about leukemia at that age, just that things were suddenly different with Rich. He was a skinny kid to begin with, but I recall him getting thinner as he got sicker. And I remember another friend and I visiting Rich at his house when he wasn't able to get outside to play anymore. It was dark in the house and Rich spent a lot of that visit resting in his bed. I also remember the day my parents told me Rich finally succumbed to the leukemia. Not a great ending to that story, but it all came flooding back when another friend sent me the following item.

There's a young man in Kansas by the name of Aidan who, like me, has always enjoyed drawing monsters. It seems that Aidan has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. But unlike my friend's childhood leukemia, Aidan's is curable...at a cost.

Aidan's parents aren't wealthy and his dad has had to take a lot of unpaid vacation time from work to help care for Aidan. Until recently, it looked like the family would have to sell their house to pay for the medical bills. But that's when Aidan's aunt decided to throw a Hail Mary pass and sell prints of Aidan's monster drawings online to help pay for the chemotherapy and other medical costs. The amazing thing is the plan has started to work. Check it out:

You can read Aidan's story here. And you can buy prints of Aidan's Monsters here .

Sometimes monsters can be really great to have around. -v

The Headless Horseman Howls A Happy Halloween To You!

2010-10-31T20:42:00.005-04:00

Happy Halloween. Hope you had a spooky one. Here's another wool doll design I did for my friend over at runredrun. It's my old friend, the Headless Horseman. The doll was designed to be displayed headless or with an evil jack-o-lantern atop his shoulders. Below are some work-in-progress steps for the concept illustration and the photo of the finished doll.

First step in the illustration is a pencil sketch on paper, as usual. Like I've mentioned before, I'm partial to a five-fingered hand, but the fiber artist wanted to work with the more cartoony four-fingered hand. Fine by me. He's a ghost anyway, so who knows how many fingers he had?

Here I've finished inking the sketch (digitally) and started to paint in some color. Standard hard-edged brush in Photoshop, layered over and over to blend. I threw in a warm background knowing the Horseman would be wearing a lot of cool colors and I wanted to get a feel for the contrast early on.

Most of the figure is finished in this step, so I started beefing up the background. I wanted to echo the feeling of a page ripped from an old, dusty book so I "burned" the edges around the page with a textured brush in a dark umber, low opacity. I also threw in a passage from the Washington Irving tale on a layer behind the illustration.

The "yellowed page" look was ok, but not intense enough. So I doubled the "burned edges" layer and painted in a light glow around the figure to separate him from the page. This looked just about finished. So I tossed in a little noise, added a logo (see top of post) and there you have it. One vengeful hessian and his grimacing gourd.

And here is the finished doll. I think it's a pretty good 2-D to 3-D translation. You can see a few more pictures of the doll in the gallery at runredrun.wordpress.com. Enjoy. -v

Cat Burglar On The Prowl

2010-10-28T13:17:00.002-04:00

I wanted to fill my October posts with Halloween/horror-themed images. This cat burglar wasn't intended as a Halloween illustration, but he's out at night, wearing a mask and carrying a bag of...goodies. So this'll do. The Cat Burglar was a pretty simple piece done in just a few hours the night before deadline. For anyone interested in seeing how I put this image together, I saved some of the steps and posted them below.

This is the all-important napkin sketch. Just a doodle in pen or pencil on a napkin or in a notebook during lunch. Yeah, it's hideous. But that's how most of this stuff starts out. Hideous.

After I scanned in the original scribble, I traced over it in Photoshop. You can see I cleaned it up a bit and tried to nail down the personalities of the cats. As for the burglar, I don't usually play with anatomy this cartoony, but the concept seemed to warrant it. So...goodbye bones, hello noodle legs.

I didn't save any of the steps leading up to this colored background, but you get the general idea. Lay in a nice, blue ground, then start painting color on top using the sketch as a guideline. The clouds were just overlapping brush swirls and the roof is just a scalloped shape painted over and over in perspective. I needed this to be a simple illustration (time constraints) so there's nothing really complicated here.

Sometimes I leave my original linework in if I've taken some time with it. But this was just a loose sketch and I always intended to paint over the lines. Most of the linework is obscured in this stage and the cats are starting to go in, one by one. For simplicity's sake (and making it much easier to edit) I painted each cat on a separate layer. This is where most of the detail work came in and I wanted to make sure I got it right. After the cats and burglar were painted in with all their hilights and shadows, I adjusted the color of the image to add more blue (see image at top of post). And that's basically it. Three days 'til Halloween. Hope you have your costume ready. -v

Halloween Treats (a spooky work-in-progress)

2010-10-20T23:38:00.006-04:00

Here's my latest promotional postcard. I know some of you have seen the image before and maybe some of you have even received it in the mail. But whether you've seen it before or not, I guarantee you haven't seen the work-in-progress steps I've posted below. So there. And you thought this post was gonna be nothing but old hat.

I really didn't have anything in mind when I started this image. I was at a bookstore on an overcast October day and I had Halloween on the brain. So I doodled this cute little puppy in a superhero costume. Just plain old pencil on paper -- the way most of my illustrations start. The trick-or-treat thing felt right so I continued with the cat and panda (or maybe they're actual, human kids wearing phenomenal animal costumes accessorized as a superhero, witch and skeleton. who knows?). I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to compose this image, so I actually ended up drawing each figure in full, planning to arrange them in the computer later.

And here, of course, is the composited scene. I sketched some porch boards and there you have it. Three sweet trick-or-treaters out for some Halloween fun. I had some vague ideas about the background, but that could wait until later. At this stage it was safe to start laying in color.

So here's the image with the color started. There's not much to say about this, but people seem to enjoy seeing "unfinished" illustrations in progress. So here you go.

At this stage, I'm still playing around with the background. You can see the progression of backgrounds from 1) dark, ominous void to 2) the street on the edge of forever and finally to 3) a pleasant little suburban lane on Halloween. After that I cleaned up the line work a little and played with the lighting and voila! Done. With only a little more than a week to go until Halloween. -v

Happy 2nd Halloween, Max!

2010-10-15T13:35:00.005-04:00

October has rolled around again and it's time for my young friend Max to celebrate his second Halloween. Last year I sent him this handmade wild thing card I drew with ink and watercolor. Chances are, that card was quickly smudged with chocolate and disposed of properly.

But this year I'm going head-to-head against his peanut butter cups with this cute, Halloween Bear card. How could anyone resist this little guy? As with last year's card, this illustration was done in natural media. This time it's all colored pencil. I worked on a heavily textured watercolor paper which, in hindsight, made it a little tougher to lay down the colors the way I wanted. But, in the end, I like the natural feel of it. And, really, Max won't mind. He'll probably end up using it as a napkin.

Below are some of the work-in-progress steps. The process starts with the basic, pencil sketch and then I just keep layering on colors. Here's hoping we can all enjoy Halloween with the enthusiasm of a two-year old this year. -v

The Doctor Is In…sane!

2010-10-11T12:23:00.008-04:00

Here's another wool doll design I did for a friend that turned into a very cool piece of 3-D art. This time it's a warm and fuzzy version of Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A fantastic story that seems forever-relevant.

The photograph is, of course, the finished doll done by my friend. It's a pretty elaborate doll and it took long enough to construct that I started feeling guilty about designing so many details into it. But the finished piece is worth it. The good doctor has a collared shirt with a cravat, a vest, a tails coat lined in purple to match the vest, cuffed trousers and, so help me, spats. I love spats. If I could somehow bring spats back into popular fashion, I would. No other article of clothing seems to capture that air of elegance and utter nonsense.

If you'd like to see more images of the doctor and his alter ego, visit the gallery on the runredrun blog. Don't forget to check out the work-in-progress photos of the doll. And if you'd like to hire Alex Patho Jr., the skilled photographer that took these fantastic pictures, visit him at his pathophoto site.

Finally, at the bottom, I've posted some work-in-progress images for my design. Those are my first pencil sketches (and subsequent ink line) for Jekyll and Hyde. Early on, Hyde was slightly more human than he turned out to be in the end (and, curiously, somewhat muppet-like). But as my friend constructed the doll, we kept pushing for him to look more monstrous. "Make his teeth bigger!" I'd say, or "Lose the whites of the eyes so they look like cold, dead shark's eyes." Somehow, though, as his cranial proportions became more distorted and his facial features more extreme, he got, well, cuter. And isn't that really the most dangerous kind of beast? One that hides his murderous intentions behind a disarming veil of cutesy-tootsy? -v