Early morning illustration for Alleen Barber about Traffic Networking solutions with current technology in the NYC area. Thank you Miss Barber! Sometimes I like a real fast deadline because it forces me to use limited palettes and work with the time constraints to make my client happy. Of course, I'd rather have a couple of days to noodle on an image, but I enjoy a good double-rush sometimes and Newsday is always good to me.
It's the witching hour again...Fall promotion! Since it's August, it's the right time to be e-blasting and mailing out postcard bulk-mailings to garner the attention of art directors who can use my work. The subject that seems to be hot for now is the Debt Ceiling and how all the parties involved really mucked it up because of partisan politics. The people always seem to suffer while Republicans and Democrats refuse to work together or do what is best for the country. I tried to work in the effect of the Tea Party on the process too. It's all very whimsical in this illustration, but the subject is rather contentious. I love "hot button" issues.
The next mailer I plan on doing is for Halloween and it will go out in early September. That one should be a lot of fun.
I'm finally back on track with the work I had done for an e-book at the end of last year for See Here Studios up in San Francisco. Here's one of the possible covers that I'm waiting to see if it is approved or changed. Last year this project got sidetracked at the end of the year so I could meet deadlines for the company I have a temporary day job with. The work I do at this company sucks up a good amount of time and was pretty demanding, so this project got shelved for some months. I'm now back to work on finishing up all the work and will be posting the images here over the next couple of weeks.
I just made an illustration for Aaron Huffman at "the Stranger" up in Seattle to be used as promotion for the newspaper. A bunch of different artists were asked to create cards in their styles to be put together later. Here's my "Queen of Diamonds".
A few days ago I did this quick Op Ed piece for NY Newsday about what parents and their kids are doing with the extra week this Summer, before going back to school. I had a more complicated sketch and then the art director said something about "getting the kids out of the parents hair for Summer", and I thought...why don't I just pare it down to that? It turned out to be exactly what he needed for the spot.
I went after work tonight to place flowers on Farrah's star on the walk of fame. It's about a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment here in West Hollywood. Usually I never do things like this, but I really was sad when I heard that Farrah lost her battle with cancer. I have a lot of memories of Farrah back in the day, as everyone my age must have. I cannot relate to all the creepy Michael Jackson fans crying crocodile tears and going on like they had some personal connection to him. I appreciate his music and all, but he stopped being musically creative or relevant about 2 decades ago. He spent the last 20 years of his life a grotesque drug addict who constantly whined about his lack of a childhood while going on insanely expensive shopping sprees with various underage boys. He surrounded himself with sycophants and enablers and died a one-dimensional cliche'. It's hard to have any respect for a person like that, so I can't feel all that sad about what was a very slow and painful suicide. Now Farrah, on the other hand, strived her whole career to better herself and rise beyond just being a pretty "jiggle girl" known for her flowing blonde locks and perfect teeth. She pushed herself to be a better actress much like Marilyn Monroe did when she left Hollywood to study at The Actor's Studio in New York. Farrah won over critics with her performances off Broadway in Extremities and then winning an Emmy for her performance in The Burning Bed. You have to respect a person who strives to evolve and improve themselves.
Since I am basically "half-Texan", I have a little pride about this gal from Corpus Christi. She may have been the epitome of the California girl, but Texas never forgot her. Farrah was an ideal and certainly a huge American icon of the 70's, healthy and tan and a smile a mile wide. I moved to Texas when I was 12 from New York. At that time Farrah was just becoming a massive star and I saved my newspaper route money to buy the Farrah Fawcett iconic poster and t-shirt (of the same image). I had gone to Catholic School in New York, but when I moved to Texas I had to go to public school for the first time. All the boys were wearing the Farrah t-shirt and our Principal would suspend any boys who didn't turn their shirts inside-out. I wanted desperately for guys at school to like me so I wore my shirt proudly one day. I made sure the principal saw me wearing it and when he got one look at Farrah's prominent nipples he told me that I had 2 minutes to change my shirt or turn it inside out, or he would suspend me for the day. Of course I refused and got sent home. That day I earned some major street cred. Thank you Farrah!
Here's an illustration I did this morning for my hometown newspaper, The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. It was about 90's bands like No Doubt and Counting Crows, who are gearing up for big national tours again.
I just heard about this lady and thought her stuff was so funny it deserved a post in my blog. I also wrote her a fan letter after I saw this because it really takes balls to pull off a character like this. I haven't laughed this hard at a comedic actress's work since Amy Sedaris' character Jerry Blank on "Strangers With Candy". Anyway, she's pure silliness and I really needed her tonight. Ann Randolph's Website More skits on YouTube from Ann Randolph
This week I did a halfway decent "Obama as Atlas" illustration. I'm pretty satisfied with the likeness and hopefully art directors will feel behooved to call me for more. I really wanted to go wild with the caricature, but I basically stayed in an area that was in-between conservative and "caricaturey". It's an image that a lot of regional magazines and newspapers won't feel is too distorted and more user friendly since I just want to keep the work 'a comin' in. I just got a small illustration about the performer "Nelly" to do next. Let me know what you all think if you can.
I just re-designed my website and now that I officially have a decent animation section I dredged up some character designs from a project I was working on for Wildbrain up in San Francisco called "Coal Miner's Cousin". It was an online animated show about a jewish country singer and her redneck jewish family. It just seemed like a good time to get some of this stuff up, instead of having it collect dust. I'll probably be posting a few more panels and characters from that project in the next few weeks, so check it out.
Here's a cover I turned in last friday for the newspaper Isthmus. It's about how the Republicans are looking for the next Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal essentially and they see Congressman Paul Ryan as the next one in line for the job. Many thanks to Carolyn Fath for using me on this one.
My good friend Janet Hamlin's courtroom illustration work was just mentioned in a bit called "New Rules" on his show "Real Time with Bill Maher". Max and I were watching this, and I saw her courtroom art and yelled out, "That's my friend Janet's Work"!. He grabbed his handy camera and "voila", here's what it looked like. Although, I do agree with Maher that courtroom illustration in the modern world is starting to make less and less sense. It is one area of illustration that is obviously going to become a thing of the past. One advantage that illustrated courtroom art has over just a quick cell phone pic is that it manages to interpret, through the illustrator, the mood and climate of the courtroom and all the players involved. A pic can't always express that.
Aaron Huffman asked me to do a blatant homage to Peter Bagge in this illustration for an article about radio royalties for performers. I tried to make it more of a hybrid than a blatant copy of Bagge's work. It's somewhere in the middle.
In these really hard times I am so grateful to have 2 restaurant review columns to illustrate each week. For the past 7 1/2 years I've illustrated more than 1000 newspaper columns for both The Miami New Times and also The Broward/West Palm Beach New Times in Florida. Thank God for Pam and Michael Shavalier for always keeping me as the illustrator of those columns. I've had to draw everything from sushi to pizza to crawfish to vegetarian dishes and the entire gamut in between. Asian fusion, to french bistro...The corner Deli to very high end cuisine. Half of the dishes I haven't a clue about. I have no idea what they look like and taste like. I usually google to find it or check to see if the restaurant has a website. Sometimes I just focus on the atmosphere and the overall experience. All in all, I do love illustrating for a regular column. Over the years I have illustrated for 13 newspaper columns and some end early and some last a very long time. When I illustrated for Joe Bob Brigg's column "Joe Bob's America", it ran for 10 years and went from Creators Syndicate to the New York Times Syndicate. Sadly, the NY Times Syndicate had no idea how to promote a humorous column like Joe Bob's and they ended it after a 10 year run. they only had it for I think about 2 years. I've also illustrated for an astrology column, a psychotherapy column and a DIY column. But as time wears on, I worry about the newspaper industry and as cartoons get cut, and the fat gets trimmed so they can stay alive, I worry that the columnists will lose their columns and I'll get dropped along with them. My fingers are crossed that newspapers will make the transition to the internet and find a way to survive and eventually thrive.
I did this piece for NY Newsday recently, but it got altered quite a bit and became something else. I did like the original piece and decided to post it here. What do you think?
Max shot this marquee in his neighborhood. He's always telling me how the movie theatre is combining movies on the marquee that have these hilarious outcomes. Case in point, "He's Just Not That Into You, Slumdog Millionaire". I would give that movie 2 thumbs up.
Hey there movie lovers! I just finished a spot illustration for Carolyn Fath over at Isthmus in Wisconsin. Here's the fruit of my labor today. I usually don't get too excited about The Oscars anymore, but maybe they'll be better this year? Anyone having an Oscar party? Max and I are completely open.
I just ordered a new postcard mailer and decided to send out an image about "Flu Season". Especially while it's hot. I'm deep in the middle of massive promotion on a daily basis now since work has slowed, and many newspaper and magazine budgets are cut down to a mere nub. I have a series of simpler pieces going out all week that are fun and only going to a targeted group of clients and people who've expressed a lot of interest in the past. But, this postcard is a fairly big mailing for me. At least 1000 folks.
Here's a quick set of illustrations I did over the weekend. The drawings are somewhere between caricature and portrait, mostly because of the time crunch in getting all 13 finished and then the 2 maps. And they had to be used as icons throughout the supplement, so the readability factor was important. I love the show a lot and can't wait for the final season, but it's a difficult show to explain to anyone. The story almost makes zero sense...but, it's fun. It's no "Battlestar Galactica" is all I'm sayin'!
The Intoxicating World of Illustrator, Cartoonist and Cage Fighter... Joe Rocco
I'll try to post as often as I can, the things that I'm doing, and what inspires me. Please feel free to add to my blog anything you can offer. I love cross pollination. Come pollinate with me!
