INTERSECTIONS!

Woohoo!

I have officially been published by the St. Louis Beacon! Be sure to check out the first in a series of illustrations based on neighborhoods in St. Louis.

Here is the link-

http://www.stlbeacon.org/uneasy_street_maplewood/intersections_maplewood

I want to thank my amazing editors at the Beacon, Robert W. Duffy, Donna Korando, and Susan Hegger! An amazing paper with an amazing crew.

My Favorite Hits Vol.1

Hey everybody-

I am in the process of getting a lot of stuff ready, so it may be a bit before I can get some more work up on the blog (more to come, I promise)! In the meantime, I wanted to post some links on the blog.

I was talking to my friend Louise Smythe the other day and mentioned to her my admiration for the illustrator Carlos Nine. She told me she had never heard of him, so I sent her some images and she was, like myself, blown away by the work. I was surprised by this- apparently a lot of Americans still haven’t heard of this awesome artist. This set me to thinking- how many other artists are out there that are amazing but not known across the spectrum of fans.

After thinking about this for a bit (and some inspiration from fellow bloggers posting their favorites) I decided to start posting some of my inspirations, starting with this group here. I will continue this list from time to time, and hope to present a wide variety of folks for you all!

Hope you like them!

Lets start with the amazing Carlos Nine:

http://www.carlosnine.com/

Image from CarlosNine.com

An amazing South American Artist, it’s a shame he’s less well known in the US than in Europe. One of the most-inspiring figure morphing artists around.

Eric Powell

http://www.thegoon.com/index.php

Image from darkhorsecomics.com

One of my comics heroes. If you have never read the goon, do yourself a favor and go buy one of the TPBs. NOW. It is incredible work, and Mr. Powell’s story in itself is incredibly inspiring. He worked his way into comics the hard way, and you can see his hard work and determination in the incredible paintings and drawings he produces.

Ryan Sook

http://ryansook.com/

Image from ryansook.com

I first saw Ryan Sook’s work in the Arkham Asylum mini-series form the early 2000s. Absolutely incredible line work and distortion. Do yourself a favor and check out his AMAZING SITE.

Guy Davis

http://www.guydavisartworks.com/mainFrameset2.htm

Image from guydavisartworks.com

A self-trained artist who does amazing work! Possibly one of my favorite character designers, and a brilliant pen and ink man.

Coconino (not exactly one artist, but an incredible collection!)

NO IMAGE – BUT GO CHECK IT OUT: AMAZING

http://www.old-coconino.com/

An excellent European resource for European illustrators and cartoonists. Be sure to check out the classics sections: http://www.old-coconino.com/s_classics_v3/mng_classics.php

A treasure trove of work from Winsor McCay to Grandville to Simpliccissimus.

And finally, a less traditional source of inspiration:

DER GOLEM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golem:_How_He_Came_into_the_World

A Silent black and white film created by Paul Wegener in 1920. While it does contain various stereotypes form the era, the film itself is an archetype of the horror film genre, and features a distinct and inspiring sense of design in black and white, similar to other amazing films from the era. I believe the film is in the public domain and can be found online, or DVD. Well worth your time to watch it.

That’s all for now. I also believe this might be my longest post to date. More to come!

Cheers!

on a side note. Congratulations to all the recent grads of this year's Illustration Academy. I visited for lecture week and was once again blown away by the program. Amazing work. Amazing program.

Breaking Rules

I was at work the other day and had an itch to do a drawing. On my break I drew this- an astronaut vampire fighting a zombie barbarian. I want to make a note of this- I completely broke alot of the rules I've set up for my work with this. Cross-hatching everywhere. No reference. An axe instead of a club for a barbarian. It was completely for fun- and a great way to experiment with media. I was happily surprised with the result, and decided to post it here.

Let me know what you think! Successful experiment? I'm excited to draw another.

EXPLORATION? ZOO? INDEED

Took a break the other day to do some quick sketches and studies at the zoo. Must go back soon.

shout out to mike hirshon here.

Old Man Washburn Strikes Again

And now, a post inspired by my colleagues at the Summer Studio and the fine folks at Drawn! This is Sam Washburn at age 100. As you can see I finally get an epic beard, but no mustache. I also lack hair on the top of my head. Male pattern baldness. Just waiting for it to hit me. And of course, I'm still drawing animals in suits. Very important to my life of course.

The medium here is very mixed. I used oil, pen and ink, acrylic, etc. Wanted a chance to experiment. Think it worked out well.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!

You might notice some things have changed on the blog. This is related to some exciting news- I have a new website! You can check it out here-

www.washburnillustration.com

In order to keep with my design aesthetic, I have adjusted the layout of the blog. I have some exciting things planned, and hope to keep you excited and surprised!

Cheers!

Sam

VIKING FUNERAL!!!!!

Jon: So I'm starting up this band with some friends at home.

Me: Oh really? What are you guys playing?

Jon: It's  a mix of Heavy Metal and Video Game inspired music! 

Me: Sounds Righteous! What's it called?

Jon: VIKING FUNERAL!

Me: ..... 

so of course I'm doing illustrations for you!

Some Further Sketches from the Trip, and a Plug for the Illustration Academy

Sorry for the delay on these! These represent a more visual re-portage approach that I took on the trip (props to Doug Dowd). I bought a new moleskin and colored markers for this and was real excited to experiment. Here are some highlights-

they still have mammoths in Spain, no foolin'

It was a great trip, and I'll try to post some more of the bounty from it later. 

I'd like to take a minute here to give a shout out to Francis Vallejo, an incredibly gracious host and a classy guy. Check out his stuff, it rocks! Francis was kind enough to host me on my visit to the Illustration Academy for Lecture Week. And what week it was! For anyone interested in becoming a better image maker, I can only point you toward this program and say that it changed my life. I attended the whole session last year and had to come back this year- a good call which has me primed and ready to jump into the rest of the summer. I cannot stress how great it was. I got to listen to my heroes, meet up with old friends, and make new friends at the same time. Amazing.

Find a Problem- Solve a Problem!

One of the challenging aspects of illustration is finding ways to develop your skills on your down time. As a student I often found myself frustrated. I had a lot of fun ideas of what I wanted to draw, but felt confined to a specific assignment. Eventually, I found joy in solving the problems given to me, and actually found comfort and success working with perimeters and and guidelines that forced me to use critical thinking. As a graduate, I often find a lack of this critical aspect. My ability to draw an illustration improves, but the critical thinking involved in connecting the illustration falls to the wayside. THIS IS A PROBLEM. As an editorial illustrator, my ability to come up with a strong idea is just as important as my ability to craft it. To tackle both problems, my amazing teacher John Hendrix suggested the following: "go to the New York Times Opinion page. There are always two opinions, one illustrated, one not. The one not illustrated is all yours!" And so, with that in mind, I jetted over to the NYT online and found an article to illustrate. 

The article I chose for this illustration was a critique on the overabundance of coin designs in the U.S. The author took issue with the fact that the U.S. mint has been on something of a design spat lately, coming out with various designs for the dollar coin, the famous fifty-state quarter series, and the various redesigns of presidential portraits on our coins. He claimed this had the effect of confusing our national identity. A national identity crisis over coins? Sounded like a fun challenge.

I brainstormed and sketched out several ideas for this- the vast majority were flops (though i was rather fond of the idea of Washington brawling with Adams on the side of a one-dollar coin) but soon enough I remembered that there was one character that screamed National Identity:

From there I had to think of a way to connect that with confusion and coins. Well, stores provide variety, right? And a graphic image like those on a coin would probably be seen hanging on strings just like paintings or posters. Add a touch of my beloved surrealist tendencies and my idea was complete.

From there I produced a number of thumbnails, trying to get down an idea for the composition I wanted to use. This is actually one of my favorite steps in the process, as it is brimming with creative possibilities.

Following this I took photo reference to work off of for my sketch.

After taking quite a few photos I took out parts to draw from and produced a finished sketch. I put this sketch in photoshop to make a quick color study. I do it this way because it gives me alot more time to experiment before I move into the final stage.

For this illustration I decided to go for a traditional approach and experiment with watercolors. My reference in hand, I sat in my studio and started painting. 

After some good ol' fashioned pigment pushing (followed by refining pixel pushing as a last step in Photoshop)I came up with this final image:

Viola! One good exercise with a quick turnaround that allows me to practice all the major components I need to develop to feed my self and put a roof over my head. This, combined with traditional figure drawing, reading alot of news and history, and sketch-booking is  a great way of keeping up your skills. DO IT! 

As for me, I think I owe John a coffee for this advice...

image of Uncle Sam produced by James Montgomery Flagg

Time Abroad- Good Thing I Had my Moleskins

Hi there!

I just got back from a post-graduation trip to Europe- and it was amazing. You can't find some of the great examples of sculpture and painting over here that they have to offer, especially in Paris and Rome. I've fallen in love with the work of Rubens again, as well as Goya and Daumier. I was also fascinated by some the sculpture I saw, which I plan to study from for awhile. ALSO I visited the armory at the Spanish Palace (AMAZING).

I brought two moleskins with me for the trip, the standard size, with a red cover, and a pocket size for quick drawings and experiments. It was great having the resource with me close by for when inspiration hit.

Drawing is something that is definitely therapeutic for me. I'm happy to be pursuing something I can work on at any time. Doug Chayka made a great post on the Illustration Academy blog on sketchbooks. CHECK IT OUT!

Also, check these out

I will make some more posts on these later, and some onsite drawings, but for now some work produced on the plane ride over and in the pocket moleskin. 

They were showing "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on the way over. Keanu Reeves was boring me to tears so I had to stay awake somehow.