Piggy Bank Illustration for the Pittsburgh City Paper

Whenever I do an illustration for the Pittsburgh City Paper, I'm given crisp, clear instructions by their art director, Lisa, and it's always a great work experience. So when she asked if I had the time to doodle up a tall politician placing a piggy bank high on a shelf, out of reach of a short politician I jumped at the chance. 

This one's an interior spot illustration, in color, for this week's City Paper. With newsprint, I normally opt to ink the lines in black and use big, flat areas of bold color so it really jumps off the page. Very comic booky. But this time I felt like trying the technique I usually reserve for my children's illustrations. Very soft, penciled lines, faux watercolor tints. I ran the idea past Lisa and she told me it would print just fine. That's good news. That really frees me up stylistically for any future City Paper assignments. 

Below are some process steps for the illustration. Nothing too crazy. Pencils, digital color, layered shadows and highlights. Now I'm off to grab a small stack of City Papers to sign for my adoring fans. -v

Another "Masked Man" for the Pittsburgh City Paper

This here's a spot illustration I did last week for the Pittsburgh City Paper. The article is not, as you might assume, about animal vivisectionists. It's actually about a government watchdog group that might need to be neutered politically. That's right, I doodled a metaphor. 

Anyway, as much as I enjoy doing illustrations for the City Paper (and as much as it's an absolute breeze working with Lisa, their art director) I'm starting to worry they don't trust my nose-drawing abilities. Below are crops from the last three illustrations in a row that I've done for the City Paper. Can you spot the trend? -v

Hot Dogging It for The Pittsburgh City Paper

For the second time in the past year, I was asked to do a cover for the Pittsburgh City Paper. A big thanks to Lisa (Art Director) for trusting me to handle the serious subject of a high-speed hot dog chase with the gravity it deserves. You can see the actual cover on the City Paper website, but if you stick around here I'll show you some of my steps in putting it together.

So the illustration is for a story on food trucks and how hard it is for them to exist and operate within the law in Pittsburgh. Lisa's idea was to have a "generic food truck being chased by a cop car." We banged around a couple of fun ideas and came up with this image, inspired by '70s cop show car chases (mostly because I didn't feel like drawing boring modern police cars what with their aerodynamic curves and such). Here's the pencil sketch and the comic-book-style inks, done in Photoshop. If you look at the image while playing the theme to Starsky and Hutch, you'll get the full effect.

The next step is flat colors (in Photoshop) followed by some highlights and shadows to add depth. I love doing goofy retro cartoony stuff, so this piece was right up my alley. As Lisa pointed out, the cop looks like he's shouting "Why I oughta'…." which, if you know me, is one of my favorite expressions. Can't wait to do another cover for these guys. Which reminds me…

Will my next cover also include a scarf-wearing bandit like these last two? Seems to be a recurring theme for me. If so, great. Maybe it'll earn me some much-needed street cred. -v  

Nobody likes to work "on spec", if you can believe that malarkey.

Hey, here's a heavy post. But probably, in many ways, a public service.

Alec Longstretch, a cartoonist and illustrator, publicly responded to a request for spec work (that's work-for-free, for you non-freelancers). Part of his response:

"Why should a freelance artist absorb the risk for YOUR concept? Whether or not your idea is going to be successful is YOUR gamble, not ours. If you want talented people to develop good ideas...you should pay your creators."

I know I've been approached a few times about illustrating stories or pitches for free with the promise of back-end profits should the project become successful. It's a pretty iffy situation. Maybe everyone who thinks it's fair for artists to spend days or weeks working on a project on the off chance that someday they might be compensated should read the rest of Alec's post. It may be enlightening.

And, while I was writing this, I happened to come across a post by marketing professional Sharon Hayes who listed Seven Reasons she can't work for free. Again, just some food for thought for anyone who might be thinking about approaching someone else with a work-on-spec project.

I know this isn't one of my usual, fun posts with drawings and bad jokes. My money's on this being the least popular post I've ever put on this blog. And there are probably a few people reading this whose dreams I just crushed. But information like this is actually good for the non-artist. I think, in the end, it'll improve things between creatives and their clients. 

Or maybe they'll just beat us with sticks. -v

I'm Occupying The City Paper

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

...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

Six Degrees Of Driving Me Crazy!

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

Drilling My Way Into The Pittsburgh City Paper

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

Huckleberry J. Mudflaps vs. The Native New Yorker

As I've previously mentioned, I just came back from another trip to New York and this time I was accompanied by some friends -- one of whom had never in his life been to The Big Apple.

Now, I don't think it's out of line to call this friend of mine a hayseed, seeing as he hails from Pigknuckle, Iowa (or Dirtburp, Nebraska or some other such pastoral region of these United States) and is known far and wide as Corncakes Hawkins, the best durned hog-slopper west of the Missisip. So I guess I should've seen trouble coming when ol' Corncakes ran afoul of a local woman who had much better things to do than play musical chairs with some yahoo in overalls.

You see, as the temperatures reached into the high two-hundreds that day, we decided to stop into a Barnes & Noble to escape the heat of the afternoon. "Lookit all these books," said my friend, "why, I'll bet you could stack 'em as high as the moon!" After convincing him to stop stacking books, we found a small table in the cafe where we could rest our weary bones. We were, however, one chair short.

Seeing a lovely lady of advancing years reading at the next table, my friend barreled over to her and bellowed, if I recall correctly, "Ding dangit, lady, I needs me this here chair!" The woman was justifiably taken aback and, in an elegant, New York accent, informed my friend that if he absolutely needed the chair he could take it. However, she added, she was suffering from a back injury and would very much appreciate it if she could keep the chair so as to rest her feet and relax her lumbar region. Sciatica, you see. A perfectly understandable response.

Well -- and I guess you saw this coming -- my friend stomped around red-faced in the cafe, flapping his arms in outrage (causing chicken feathers to fly mysteriously about his person) and shouted profanity-lace epithets best left to the imagination. "Dadburned guernsey-smoocher" is the only one I'm willing to repeat. In the end, we found another chair and Corncakes was able to sit and read the latest edition of Poor Richard's Almanac until he calmed down. I shudder to think what that innocent, genteel woman from New York now thinks about us coarse, uncultured boobs from the west, but that's what sometimes happens when cultures clash.

At least, that's how I remember the story. My friend might have a different take. -v

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me...

...and now I know it's L3 Brashear, thanks to this high-tech and slightly paranoia-inducing illustration I just completed for them.

As I've said before, I don't know exactly what they do (something science fictiony, I gather) but it looks like they've got it covered. It looks like they've got it all covered.

They're probably monitoring this blog right now. And I think that's a good thing, a real good thing, Anthony. -v

Brewer/Dorse Art Battle Heats Up In The Wall Street Journal

Admittedly, I started this whole thing. I was discussing caricatures with illustrator Mark Brewer. We agreed, practice makes perfect.

And if you've seen my blog before, you already know I've practiced with a few Brewer caricatures. That's him to the left. I think he looks just fine. Some would argue I made him look like an insane, caffeine-addicted troll, but that's just a matter of taste.

Last Saturday I got an email from Mark saying, "Wall Street Journal, money section, payback." So I grab a copy of the WSJ and there in the Money & Investing section is my handsome, smiling face...slapped onto the body of a badly-dressed, 600-pound biker with tattoos and a do-rag.

Of course, you realize, this means war. -v

He Dyed So That Chocolate Bunnies Could Live (and have their heads bitten off)

My mother will tell me this illustration is sacrilegious.

I will counter that by stating it's an editorial comment on the supplanting of traditional religious iconography with modern-day secular symbolism as a result of rampant consumerism and spiritual ambiguity.

But really? This is how I remember Easter as a child: Lots of praying in a hot church, plenty of talk about rising from the dead. But mostly it was about seeing how much of my Easter candy I could stuff down my throat before Monday morning.

For the record, I really couldn't stand the giant coconut eggs or the marshmallow peeps...but I ate them anyway. That the concentrated sugar in my system didn't blow my head off like a champagne cork is yet another Easter miracle. -v

Global Warming gets a Facelift

This global warming cartoon earned me a lot of illustration jobs a few years ago, but I decided to update the style so it'd fit in with all the new stuff on the website. Now we'll just cross our fingers and hope this new one's a goldmine too. -v