Freelancing
August 15th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
…or “A Theme Park Caricaturist’s Long Journey Down a Freelance Path” The following is an article I wrote for the latest issue of the International Society of Caricature Artist‘s quarterly magazine Exaggerated Features. It is one of a series they call “A Master Piece”, meaning articles written by past winners of their highest honor, “Caricaturist of the Year” aka the “Golden Nosey” (which I won in 1998 and 1999). Its focus is advice on ways a live caricaturist can branch out into a career in freelance illustration: I’ll never forget my first summer drawing caricatures. It was 1985 and I was a new artist for… READ MORE
June 13th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
Of the many interesting things that happened with respect to self-publishing my book, one of the most surprising was finding a very unexpected market for it: wood carvers. Apparently caricature is something many wood carvers are interested in, either by actually carving caricatures out of wood or using some of the principals of exaggeration and expression found in caricature art in carving fictional characters and anthropomorphic animals. I have several woodcarver shops that buy books directly from me wholesale to sell in their shops, or at their booths at the many trade shows and conventions dedicated to this art. Last month at the Pittsburgh Cartoon… READ MORE
April 18th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
Clicky to Embiggen… Last week in the Sunday mailbag I promised to post about a recent job I completed that reminded me (again) of why I turn down most jobs that involve doing caricatures of the actual client, or their employees. See that post for the reasons why, but here are the gory details of the job that resulted in the final art above (I have changed the names to protect the guilty): I get a call from a company that works in the film industry that wanted me to do a parody/homage of the classic Animal House movie poster, only with caricatures of their… READ MORE
April 9th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
I did the cover of the latest issue of the UTNE Reader, now on news stands. The folks at UTNE favor my “colored line” style, as I used is a few previous covers for them. Here’s a peek behind the scenes of this freelance project. The job: design and illustrate a cover depicting how President Obama’s immigration reform policies are contradictory, both making easier and harder to become a legal immigrant. The editors wanted a large wall on the border with a crowd trying to get in, and Obama looking like he’s welcoming them but still has the wall. The proplem was they wanted me… READ MORE
March 25th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
Clicky to embiggen… Every once and awhile I pull out some artwork from an old job that might be interesting to share. These two full page illustrations were for InfoWorld magazine circa 2005. The story was about Bill Gate‘s “plan” for the future of computing. The concept was that Gates was supposed to be not just predicting where computing was going, but was supposed to be one of the chief architects of that future. We decided on making him the coach of a football team. I personally wanted to make the players into robots with computer screens for faces, etc. because it seemed to make… READ MORE
March 15th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
Well, not until Sunday but I’m betting most people will be celebrating tonight and tomorrow night. The above is an illustration I did for Warner Bros Consumer Products last summer for some T-shirts or other merchandise for this time of year. You can order one here if you are so inclined. Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend! READ MORE
March 4th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
Clicky any to Embiggen… This is going to be a killer week with a cover for the Utne reader due and trying to finish up a five page parody for MAD, plus the back cover of a trade publication that is going to be a really fun parody “homage” to a famous movie poster coming up right after that. There might not be a lot of time for blogging this week. In the meantime, here is my latest Marlin Co. workplace poster illustration. Final above, below the pencil roughs and inks. The assignment…an illustration of a teenager multitasking on several electronic gadgets… gaming on the… READ MORE
January 24th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
I got a big box in the mail the other day, containing The Absolute Ultimate Gutters Omnibus Volume 3 in all its hardcover and glossy, oversized page glory. So-so cover art . . . but otherwise a handsome book. If you are not familiar with The Gutters, and you are a fan of comic books at all, shame on you. It is a series of single page comics that parody, criticize, and sometimes utterly savage, the comic book industry, its culture and subject matter. It’s sometimes funny, sometimes vicious, but always on target. Written by Ryan Sohmer, the art is done by guest artists making… READ MORE
