September 2011
1 post
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Atomic orbit
Atomic orbit explained:
Atomic orbit illustrated:
August 2011
5 posts
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Picture This sketches
Here are some of the first sketches for the NYTimes video, most of which made it to the final product. Picture This is currently the number two most viewed in the Times’ video archive. Go ahead, watch it again…maybe you can make it number one.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/08/15/science/100000000999724/picture-this-cancer.html
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Picture This
Today the NYTimes launched the first Picture This video to accompany a very complex article about cancer research. How do you make it easier to understand? With a video of an illustrator using simple drawings to explain the content. Which illustrator? Well…
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/08/15/science/100000000999724/picture-this-cancer.html
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While cleaning out my flat files...
I found this screen print of the tampon cowgirl spokescharacter from a few years ago. I did these on the shiny side of freezer paper and it took the ink surprisingly well…
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Football
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Sometimes...
…Twitter is more noise than anything.
July 2011
5 posts
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Pen and Paper
A dear friend just finished his MFA at Bennington and asked me to do a drawing for the cover of the reader that features work by all the graduates. It’s pretty nice to do something so simple, just pen and paper (and a little white out)…
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Leftovers
Here are the rejects from this assignment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-turn-of-mind-by-alice-laplante.html?ref=books
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Play Golf!
How dare they talk about Social Security when they refuse to fairly tax the rich, and while the people are still waiting for someone to go to jail for causing this shit sandwich we find ourselves in…gross.
“The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.”
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Moving pictures
I had lunch with an illustrator friend at Society yesterday. We sat for nearly three hours talking about the biz, which included animation. I don’t aspire to be an animator at all, but I do love the idea of illustrations that move. Back in December I did 20+ spots for Golf DIgest’s iPad app launch including some that had very simple moving parts like this:
As simple as this was, it...
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Bested again
Lucy and I have this new game where I draw up to a line (you can see the line across the paper) and then she finishes from where I leave off…kid is getting pretty good.
Happy 4th!
June 2011
7 posts
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Missed Connection
About once a week a week I take a few minutes to read Missed Connections in the Craigslist personals. Unlike the much sleazier Misc Romance, Missed Connections is fairly innocent, and some are so sweet and wistful that I find myself checking on old posts hoping these ships passing in the night were able to signal one another. Some are gross, to be certain, due in large part to the fact that men...
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Harry Potter readymades
In honor of the new movie, and every other artist doing some kind of Harry Potter thing, and Marcel Duchamp’s birthday next month, I created these Harry Potter objets trouvés…
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Ugh...
…traffic.
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Refined bathroom humor
I keep playing around with this…it’s better than the original version, but still not perfect. I think the denouement moves too quickly.
No, I’m not serious.
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Three from my sketchbook
Louis Prima’s music was never one of my favorites. I liked it, but it never did for me what Hoagy or Artie Shaw or Fats Waller could. And then one night, during a PBS fundraiser, I sat for an hour grinning like a fool at the tv, so riveted by Prima’s performances that I plunked down $90 for a DVD of the broadcast. It’s really something you have to see to get. The way he orbits...
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Weiner dog
Remember this Weiner?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omM2s4wBPRQ
I almost sent lewd photos of myself to this man when I saw his speech about funding 9/11 first responders. I was really disappointed today with the news…
I had high hopes for Weiner. Like Spitzer, here was a guy who looked the Lloyd Blankfeins of the world in the eye and asked them if they felt lucky…ah well.
But...
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Taffy? Me neither.
Saltwater taffy? Blech.
And yet I stood captivated before the new taffy display at my supermarket. It’s epic. Candy is beautifully designed, this isn’t news, but I never saw it with taffy…my eyes have been opened…
May 2011
3 posts
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Mmm, clasps.
Nobody knows why they love the little things they do…I have no idea why I love the smell of original black label Chapstick, but I do. Similarly, I adore these:
I think I can remember playing with my grandma’s coin purse, and that may be it, but I may be filling in my own blank, I’m not sure. But for whatever reason, the simplicity of the design or the nearly frictionless slide...
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78???
Dear Cosmo,
I think you may be making this out to be more difficult than it is…
December 2010
1 post
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Happy Merry!
Without fail, my holiday cards cause me stress. Not my personal cards, my work cards. Some years I send my seasonal wishes out by email, some years (when I plan my time better) I send actual cards. I am a tried and true sucker for Christmas and a quick look around my office would give me away…
So one would think that my card-making would be a joyous event, something to look forward to at...
November 2010
1 post
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For three weeks...
I have been working non-stop, and soon I will have something real to post, but in the meantime…here is what several weeks of rejects and countless sketches looks like:
October 2010
3 posts
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New Jersey and Me, Perfect Together
I like it here, in New Jersey. I considered NY many years ago, but there’s something about it I find exhausting. I love being so close that I can go anytime, it’s a privilege to be a half hour away, but living there isn’t for me. And I seriously thought about moving to Santa Cruz a few years back. It’s expensive as all hell, and then there’s all the hippies, but I was...
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Good ol' Tip
Tippy has been selflessly serving artists’ sense of whimsy for generations…finally, I think I might get to post some new sketchbook work this weekend. Or maybe I’ll finish the animation I’ve been working on. Or maybe I’ll just play ping pong and eat donuts and read Jetta.
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I Love Charts, #3
Here is my third submission to I Love Charts, and my first venn diagram.
September 2010
7 posts
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Atlantic/Pacific poster
I briefly joined a band last year, then abruptly quit…which is a long story I’m not interested in telling. But I stayed friendly with the guys and did a poster for their show last December at Bowery:
And so nearly a year later they asked me to do another poster for their record release party in October. I was happy to be asked but between illustration and school and preparing to...
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Collaboration
Lucy asked me to draw a girl. I started it but Lucy took it and finished it…sweet high heels.
Me 35, Lucy 5 1/2.
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The Seven Deadly Dwarves
Lust. Wrath. I’m bored.
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I Love Charts, #2
My second chart was posted today.
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Thanks, I Love Charts
This was an illustration I did for The Washington Post a couple of years ago. I modified it a little and sent to I Love Charts who posted it today. It’s been reblogged a lot since, which is pretty neat…
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Sketchbook
This past month marked ten years that I’ve been working. I did my first job for The NYTimes Book Review two months out of school and since then I’ve done over 2000 assignments.
August 2010
7 posts
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Seeking Recommendation
A recommendation for my illustration blog here would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Studio tour
My blogging hero (she knows who she is) did a great post about her workspace. So here is part one of my studio tour:
1. The ever-shrinking space on my desk where I draw.
2. It’s tough to see but since I never empty my pencil sharpener there is a small mountain of shavings piling up outside the hole. Eventually it tips and there is a similar pile on the floor under my desk.
3. Gouache,...
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Animation sketch
I’ve always enjoyed the idea part of illustration. Maybe as much or more than the actual illustration sometimes. I put in a lot of time thinking, and that process can get a little wonky and the ideas can sort of collapse on themselves. I’m sure most artists can relate…
This moves a little too quickly. When I finish it properly I’ll post it again here and on my work...
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Sketchbook find
I was flipping through my last sketchbook and I found something exciting - an early version of the tampon cowgirl spokescharacter (a few posts back).
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Drawing - Part 3
This is the last of it.
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Last in a series
So here is the last of the spokescharacters…and the most deliberately gross. I silkscreened this on the shiny side of freezer paper and they turned out pretty sharp. I am debating about posting a comic strip that I’ve worked on sporadically for years. It would give more context to these characters, but the thought of putting them out there for public consumption makes me a...
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Signage
This is a bit shorter than the first draft, and still a little rough around the edges, but you’ll get the idea. I get these pictures in my head and I need to get them out, even if they’re not quite right yet.
July 2010
6 posts
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Drawing - Part 2
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Drawing - Part 1
Part 1(of 3) in a series of drawing puns. I love invisible pen animations…it’s tricky to time them so they feel natural, some are better than others. More to come.
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June 2010
7 posts
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