For a Change of Pace- Mad Scientists!

I am a huge fan of the 1927 Fritz Lang classic METROPOLIS. As regular visitors to the blog will know, I am also a huge of German Expressionism- particular the artists who contributed work to the turn of the 19th century periodical SIMPLICISSIMUS.

So, seeing as how I have not done any personal work in a while, I decided something that would be fun to pursue would be a series of illustrations based on the characters from the film produced to have the same time-faded yet graphic look of those great old illustrations. It's a new challenge for me, as they involve more strenuous use of layout and flat color. At any rate I've enjoyed the results so far and wanted to share the first illustration with you.

This is Rotwang (it's a german name for Rosy cheeks, but still seems very tongue in cheek) the principal mad scientist and antagonist of the film. I wanted to catch some of his maniacal glee in the illustration really enjoyed drawing his robot hand.

Hopefully I will be posting more characters soon.

Hope you made it out to ARTCRANK!

But just in case....here's how my poster ended up! It's reversible!

New Work: The Beginner

This time I actually get to put up work for illustration friday on time! Challenged myself to get this piece done as soon as possible- the better to reach quick deadlines with.

The metaphor is simple- the beginning is a single brick and at a new job surrounded by more experienced bricks. Had a lot of fun with this one and got to try some new software for me like google sketch up. I'm including some rough work below.

New Work: The Lesson

Hi all! Did this piece over the weekend- was hoping to get it done for Illustration Friday but other work came up - que sera sera.

This illustration is based around the concept of "the lesson". Since so many folks have taken to learning new habits and tricks via youtube I thought it would be fun to push the idea to its next logical step. Plus I got to draw awesome sweater wrinkles! Enjoy!

ARTCRANK sneak peek!

Hey everyone! You should be marking your calendars- St. Louis ARTCRANK is coming! The show will be occurring at the Atomic Cowboy from May 12 to the 14th. Full details and a roster of participants HERE.

Yours truly will have a print at the show this year! Here is a sneak peek- with a display of the full-poster to come later.

See you at the show!

NEW YORK TRIP SKETCHBOOK!

WARNING: Some of these sketches are of the Nude female form- I know I have been hearing from some younger fans lately so I just want to make that clear from the getgo- it's all tasteful, but I don't want an upset parent calling me up.

I just got back from my semi- annual trek out to New York and am happy to say I finished up another sketchbook (more images of that to come)! I wanted to share some of the sketches I made with you.

The American Museum of Natural History:

Figure Drawing from The Society of Illustrators:

Central Park (trying out this awesome new pen I bought):
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: