Album Cover Art: It's a Lost Venue...

And I thought that I'd lost this stuff, until I stumbled upon it hunting up reference online the other day...

We illustrators used to have a great place to work – no, not on the breakfast-in-bed tray watching Bonanza reruns (although I did some of my best work that way)...I'm talking about the beautiful twelve inch square canvases called record album covers. It was like doing art for mini-billboards, compared to the postage-stamp formats of app buttons and website graphics...Here's a cover I did for WB back in about...well, before the millenium.

When I did this one for Dyer/Kahn Studio in L.A., I remember the big AD decision was whether the tough, sexy open mouth should be painted or airbrushed, but Toto (whoever that was) liked it rough.

check out more of my "classic" illustrations in the illustration section of my website

Postcards

...probably every illustrator has a box (or boxes) of old promo postcards floating around, stacks of ephemera destined for the landfill, but momentarily taking up closet space. Here are some of mine, from newer (pay no attention to AOL addresses...), some older, some practically prehistoric...

Two very early postcard promos for Heaven, Brad Benedict's groundbreaking 70's diner/store in LA...this rocker was my 2nd published illo for "L.A. Weekly"

for the Paramount Hotel

...this one, from when the ol' timers sat around in internet cafes
..."We Unite to Create Decadent Western Art." Now they're designing animation too!

for "In L.A." magazine originally

oops...if you want some of these, I have plenty I could still stamp n' send...

Here's a Nice Piece of Work...

Take this tour to check out a really remarkable piece of illustration and design (thanks to JFadink).

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Here's That Christmas Pig You Asked For!

Merry Merry! from the airbrushed Paper Moon days...these days though, we keep it vegetarian!

"Toto Mes Heroes"

I recently found this illo promo from '94 picturing all my heroes. I have a lot more heroes now including women of course, but these are still good. Notice no Yeshua, Buddha, Lao Tzu... Back then, you couldn't find a picture of Heinz Edelmann...I've added one in memorium. Click on the key below for legibility.

A Website Update

This is to announce that I've just completed an update of my website, with the help of Mike Perkins at Setstatic. Aside from a new palette, there's lots of new material to see in Animation Design & Art Direction - with a whole new Development Art & Design page (featuring three new projects); a bunch of new Word World, Season Three; and an all-new Online Design page. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks, Mike.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. A surgeon. My old schoolchum, Howard Kotler, wanted to be a surgeon too. We both did a "premed" program in highschool, and Howard helped get me a gig as a gurney boy in an emergency room. But when a motorcycle crash victim came in the door, the blood went out of my face. A doctor had to escort me to the cafeteria for a banana and a chocolate milk. I decided I'd better do something else with my hands, so I kept drawing pictures like I always had.

Dr. Howard Kotler contacted me recently to see if I'd be interested in helping with some artwork for a project he and some other doctors have been heading for a few years, Operation Sunrise, a non-profit mission that provides reconstructive surgery to kids with cleft lips and palates in medically under-served countries.

Their work is amazing and life-changing for the kids who receive their expert care. Howard does something with his hands, too. His work gives kids a new beginning, so it was all I could do to give them a new image. It isn't much in comparison, but I faint at the sight of blood.

Please visit the Operation Sunrise website, and help out if you can.

Before the Lion thoroughly consumed Koko, cryptic paintings like this one from Arizona didn't hold much hope...

Speaking of stars...Holly Hunter, Faye Dunaway, and Glenn Close from pre-PS days...

The high desert makes me think of Sam Shepard. Here's a portrait of him from years ago, and years later I met him in Astor Place. He'd always been a hero, and when I thanked him for everything, he said, "Not everything." We have some history in common, in fact, in this painting he's wearing one of my old shirts...

Here are the finishes to those sketches below (for PC World magazine, 08/09): One about your boss checking you out online; the other about storage ("cloud") sites that disappear overnight, and take your files with them.

Here are some value roughs from a recent assignment for PC World magazine that demonstrate illustration process:

The opener is about prospective employers researching an applicant's character online.

I like to give a few choices- the second article is about online storage (cloud) sites that go bust without telling you...

The finishes appear in this month's (August '09)

issue.

Happy Cool Father's Day

This spot from the NY Times Circuit Section days...in honor of the cool dads out there.

one of the very first color illos from the deep past...supposedly based on an actual occurrence.

• I came across these doing some housecleaning...my very first dig experiment, 'edo tuffo," and my first 2 dig illos...circa '98