If you are lucky enough to live on the islands of Hawai’i, you will find a few of my illustrations in the newest issue of Honolulu magazine. Each year they give out their version of the “Worst Things of the Year” called the Sour Poi Awards, and this year they had me illustrate that article with a full page illo and a few spots. Here’s some of that artwork: Click for a closer look… READ MORE
As an illustrator, and especially one who does a lot of caricature work, I often spend a lot of time preparing reference for a given project. I’ve written before about how the internet and image searches like Google image have revolutionized that process in recent years. In the “old days”, illustrators had gigantic “morgue files” stuffed with clipped pictures of people, places and things where they went to find reference for some given subject they needed to draw. I used to have two file cabinets full of celebrity pictures clipped from entertainment magazines that I’d pull out when I needed to do caricatures of somebody.… READ MORE
Penthouse Magazine assigned me a series of illustrations to use as a “header” (pun not intended) for a new monthly feature column by musician/celebrity Dave Navarro. These spot illustrations will accompany Dave’s articles in each issue. The one above is in the latest issue, and I have two more “in the can” as they say in the biz for future issues. READ MORE
In the traditional business model of goods and payment the seller hands the goods to the customer, who then hands over payment. That works pretty well when the transactions take place face to face, over a counter where the goods get examines first and the payment is in currency that goes right into the cash register. Conflicts and questions are asked and answered right on the spot, and if they cannot be answered or resolved the seller and buyer go their separate ways with their goods and money in their respective possession and no one is out anything except a little shopping time. As a… READ MORE
One of the things that director Ray Griggs wanted me to do for the animation segments in his movie “I Want Your Money” was to add in some MAD style background gags. One of the gags was making fun of the fact that Obama has a pop culture celebrity image like that of no other president and is perceived as playing up to it. Thus I had some fun putting his face or head on recognizable pieces of famous art or awards. You can spot a couple of them in this picture, including CG versions of some of the ideas I suggested in that vein… READ MORE
Last week the Sunday Mailbag question was about how I seem to do a lot of political type work. Well, it IS an election year, and so I’ve been getting my fair share of projects relating to politics. I must say the conservatives are spending a lot more money than the liberals this time around… almost all my projects recently have been for the right side of the aisle. Here is a the progression of one from last month. This more painted style caricature of Sen. Harry Reid is being used for some kind of campaign promotion: This is one of a few rough sketches… READ MORE
Me and “Weird” Al Yankovic Some time back the lovely and extremely talented Sandra Boynton commissioned me into doing a caricature of “Weird” Al Yankovic for his 50th birthday. I was deleighted to do it because 1. Sandra is one of my favorite cartoonists and a wonderful person, and I was flattered to be asked. and 2. “Weird” Al is to music what MAD Magazine is to comics, and I’m a longtime admirer of his. Here’s the complete story if you want more details. Shortly after Al received the artwork I received an email from him saying how much he loved it and how he… READ MORE
For the freelance illustrator there are two tasks that are absolutely essential for being successful: Finding new clients Keeping the clients once you’ve found them The first one is all about marketing yourself, doing appealing work and targeting the right clients with your promotional efforts, and is universally considered the hardest part of being a freelancer: Finding the work. The second one is at least as important as the first, however. Once you find a client, doing ongoing work for them is one of the cornerstones of building a successful (and stable) freelance business. One cannot rely on a constant influx of new clients providing… READ MORE
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