Tabloid! My illustration of the Movie

About a week ago I read this review over on npr.org about the new Errol Morris film "Tabloid" and was so intrigued that I knew I had to draw an illustration for it.

The idea of a camera focused on a camera focused on a crazy woman blew my mind. My creative urges soon got the better of me and I ended up pursuing what I originally envisioned as a spot as an epic "splash page" image. I like to think it functions well as a triptych.

I had a ton of fun researching costume and printing presses for this one- and decided to pursue a very flat color scheme based around some of my love for old screen print books.

I'm including the rough and some close-ups below.

IF: Stay

Normally I would add this with the other sketch pages on the twitter feed but for this instance I wanted to add this one in for this week's Illustration Friday theme. Still enjoying these sketch pages.

New Illustration- Basta Bunga Bunga

I read this article in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago and was sorely disappointed that it had a photo-montage accompanying it instead of an illustration. I am certain that the story would have been perfect for someone like John Cuneo.

At any rate, I took it upon myself to mak an illustration for the piece, which involves the frivolous misadventures and sexual escapades of the current Italian Prime Minister. Wanted to post this asap, but hope to update this with sketches and some more process later today. Had a lot fun with the armor- which is usual for me.

Some Recent Warmups/ Experiments

Thought I would share with you all some recent warm-up sketches/color studies I have been doing. I've been wanting to practice better color-relations and have been especially influenced by old cartoons like Mission Hill and Doug lately.

I always enjoy the graphic results of using flat colors, and this lets me explore interesting patterns too. I've been posting these almost daily over on my twitter feed, and hope to keep doing so as time allows.

Cheers.

Summer Myth Illo

Had some free time last week and put together this illustration for a contest Jillian Tamaki had over at her blog. The theme was "summer myth" which of course fit perfectly with some recent sasquatches I illustrated.

Hope you all enjoy.

New Spot- Keeping up with the Market

Finished up this spot for practice the other day- based upon an article call "A Billion Prices Now" for the New Yorker. Christoph Niemann drew the original spot for the magazine, and I knew there was no way I could top that. I instead focused on a different aspect of the article- the speed of this new program that collects information on the economy and how it compares to the traditional collection of data for the GDP. A few rough ideas later I hit upon the tortoise and the hare and the rest was gravy. Rough work below.

Because Life isn't just about Editorials...

Produced this character design for an upcoming BIG illustration I want to do. For the full effect, crack open a PBR and enjoy while perusing this guy.

Followers of my Animals in Suits blog will probably recognize this guy from his proto-version over there.

Sneak Peek: A New Comic by the Brothers Washburn

I figured I would give you all a sneak peek of what I've been up this week- a new comic! Noah and I are doing this as part of the next Ink and Drink Anthology "Blasted!".

I'm not going to spill any beans on the story, but will let you glimpse this sneak peek...

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!