Spirit Newspaper Article: Lacey's Law

I just wanted to share a link to a story I've written recently for the Spirit Community Newspapers about my cousin Lacey and her legacy. Please click the link below.

http://spiritnewspapers.com/house-bill-laceys-law-p1195-113.htm

On Sunday, October 10, 2010, we will be holding the Fourth Annual Lacey Day at Holy Name Church at Gaul and Berks Streets. It's always a huge fantastic block party, inside and outside. The Doo Wop group, The Exceptions will be singing live. There are great prizes, food, drink, and a huge group of positive people coming together to celebrate Lacey's life. For more information, please visit: http://thelaceyfund.org/

Caravan Festival Poster 2010

Recently, my buddy Aaron Luis Levinson (Grammy-winning producer and all around music nut) hired me to design and illustrate this poster for the upcoming Caravan Festival he put together for the Electric Factory (Oct. 21, 2010). Aaron has a natural ear for great music, especially bringing artists together. I'd work with Aaron over and over again. He believes in music like religion. When he puts projects together, he always tries to bring people into the mix that can bring something unique and fitting to the table. He's proven this with his eclectic and popular albums "The Philadelphia Experiment", "The Harlem Experiment", and all the work he does for Range Records. We've talked time and time again about this community-based concept, not only for the music, but packaging and promotion as well.

Halloween Show at Proximity Gallery - October 1

The Philadelphia Cartoonist Society and the Autumn Society are teaming up for a show at Proximity Gallery on October 1, 2010. This will be a Halloween-themed show with over 30 artists displaying work. please click on the photos below to see closer details from some of the pieces from the drop off day.

James Heimer, myself, and Sam Heimer (the curator)

Here is a detail from my piece, entitled "7 Crows":

Please stop by Proximity on October 1 for the opening or some time during the month of October when the gallery is open. Proximity is located at 2434 East Dauphin Street, Philadelphia, PA 19125. For more information , please contact Janel Frey at 267.825.2949 or e-mail: janel@proximityart.com.

PBR Crate - Final

I finally got a chance to get these photos and scans up on the web here. I finished the Pabst Blue Ribbon vintage crate a couple weeks back. Thanks to my buddy Gravy for his patience and Pabst's generosity for all the sponsorship they've given me and the Philly Cartoonist Society over the years. I drew all the images on sticker paper, inked them with waterproof Micron pens, then colored them with waterproof markers, like Prismacolors. I also used some white colored pencil for highlights. Then I cut out the shapes with an razor and stuck the pieces to various sides of the crate. Then I used waterproof ink for the "Pabst" lettering on the top of the crate and the ink coming from the pen of the "Jeff" cartoon. Thanks to Joannie for challenging me to be a little more careful with the ink and not settle for laziness. When I was finished laying it out, I sealed the whole crate with about five coats of high gloss acrylic polyurethane. Since the sealant was water-based, I had to use all waterproof materials on the initial drawings. I used the water-based so it didn't yellow the sticker paper. Anyways, below are the final scans and then photos of how they look on the crate. Now I just have to get it back to Pabst...

Historic Trauma - Cleopatra

With the "Cleopatra" exhibit currently at the Franklin Institute, I guess it's no surprise that Advance News Magazine for Nurses picked her for their "Historic Trauma Cases" section this month. I was a little worried, because a great artist and good friend of mine Paul Palcko used to do all of the illustrations for this section of the magazine. Those are some really big shoes to fill. I remember a painting Paul did of Bessie Smith for this section some months back that was awesome. I had to make it clear when I was assigned the illustration that I had a completely different style than Paul, and I couldn't even pretend to draw like he does. Thankfully, the editor and the Illustration department head understood.

I did the original illustration in pen and ink.

Then I touched it up digitally with a smooth vector halo and added warm colors in Photoshop.