Historic Trauma Cases # 3

Recently I was given assignments to draw Steve Allen and Frédéric François Chopin for my job at Advance News Magazines. I thought it was interesting, both being piano players. I know very little about Steve Allen aside from the Tonight Show and the CDs I have with him playing as Jack Kerouac recites poetry. Steve is finished here in the style of all the other Historic Trauma illustrations...

I know even less of Chopin, but I like how intense he looks in the one known photograph that was thought to be taken in 1849, the year of his death. I referenced that photo, which can be found all over the internet. This drawing is still in its rough stages, but I wanted to give an early stage of the process before I pretty him up with ink and color. So this is Frederic as he now sits in my Moleskine sketchbook, waiting to become a final draft. This is usually what my final pencil sketches look like before I get feedback and approval from editorial staff...

I think I have John Lennon coming up in the next couple months. That will be some fun drawing time.

Fishtown Shad Fest 2011 - April 23 at Penn Treaty Park

This coming Saturday I will be at Penn Treaty Park (on Delaware Avenue) for Shad Fest 2011. This is the 3rd year I'd reserved a table. I hope the weather holds out and brings a crowd. I will have new Fishtown T-Shirts and ladies' softball tees for sale. I will also have some of my comic books I'd be happy to sketch in.

By far though, I think the most fun item I will have at my table is a limited edition silkscreen printed gig poster I illustrated for Shad Fest's headlining act, Black Landlord. For those who don't know Black Landlord, they are a full-on funk/hip-hop group based here in Philly led by Maxx S-Williams (formerly of The Goats and Incognegro). There will only be 100 prints. Each will be hand-signed and numbered and up for sale at the festival.


I went over different concepts with Maxx. We discussed several versions. One was a spoof on "Where the Wild Things Are" with him in the wolf suit on a boat labeled "MAXX". But we decided this concept, inspired by Slim Pickens' famous Dr. Strangelove scene, was way more fun (except we had him riding a giant fish instead of a bomb). Joannie helped me out with the blue and orange color scheme. I wanted something festive that'd pop on the white background. The awesome dudes at AwesomeDudes are making the screens and will be doing the printing this week, so we can have them hot off the press by the weekend.

I am a patient boy. I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait...

These past couple months I have spent many hours sitting in the waiting rooms of hospitals and doctors’ offices with Joannie, mostly Temple’s Foot and Ankle Institute. I can only play so much “Angry Birds” before my mind starts to turn to oatmeal. And I can’t bring any large-scale drawing projects with me, because there’s just no room for that kind of work. But I have started bringing a small Moleskine sketchbook. So in between bouts of spanking all of Joannie’s opponents in online Iphone Scrabble, I’ve been noodling around with “throw-away” drawings that don’t take too much concentration. Since January, I’ve been very gratefully gainfully employed at the University of the Arts, and also keeping part-time hours at Advance Newsmagazines. I am happy to be working, but my drawing time has definitely taken a hit. With everything around me being so regimented and work-focused lately, these waiting room visits have actually become a good time to come up for air. It’s been really nice to take this time to escape into quick and tiny sketchbook work, especially while sitting in a crowded waiting room. It’s sort of like hiding in plain sight. These moments make me remember that initial joy of drawing I had when I was four.

Anyhow, this piece was drawn in a small sketchbook while sitting at the Foot and Ankle Institute yesterday. I did it with colored Micron pens. It started out as a guy singing with a cat, but I decided to turn him into a gravedigger once I put the bowler cap on him, and the cat became a gas lantern. Please don't ask why a gravedigger would wear a tie. It seems like back in the old days, a lot of fellas wore hats and ties no matter what line of work they were in.

Sketchin' at the River

Past few months have been kind of crazy between several jobs, freelance work, and family stuff. Sometimes life requires that drawing has to take a back seat to other responsibilities. It's cool though, because everything in life ebbs and flows. It's just the way it is.

So a couple Sundays ago, I found myself awake super early to run an errand. I could have went back to bed, because I had a couple hours to kill before running more errands that would last all day.

Instead I decided to take a moment for myself, so I grabbed a coffee at sunrise and went over to the old Greenberg piers on the Delaware River in my neighborhood. The tide was pretty high, but it looked like it was going out.

I sat at the edge of the pier listening to my Ipod, sketching away, and this is what came out on a two-page spread in the sketchbook:

I really like drawing old tymie deep sea divers for some reason. This guy is escaping. The words came from an E.L.O. song on my Ipod (at least that's what the lyrics sound like to me). Because I was tired, lost in the drawing and my Ipod was so loud, I didn't notice that the murky green water of the Dirty Del was rising to the edge of the pier. A tugboat cruised by on the channel and gave way to a residual wave that splashed over the edge of the pier, spitting onto my shoulder and head. I came out of a daze and realized that my feet were partly submerged. The tide was coming in, not going out.

I laughed out loud. It was one of the best drawing times I had in a while.

I picked away at the black lines in the background with a 01 Micron pen over a week or so on my lunch breaks. I could have used a brush or brush pen, but sometimes it feels good just to make little lines and get lost in a drawing. Afterwards, I did a scan and some quick and dirty Photoshop colors. This was the end of it...

I hope I have more awesome drawing mornings like this in the near future.

More Bottles...

My buddy Kyle Margiotta bought these old bottles from a roadside yard sale a while back. For his birthday, his lady commissioned me to do handmade labels for them (much like the bottles from the World's Fair show last year). The fake elixirs the labels advertised were suggested by Kyle himself.

Since Kyle is such an amazing artist and friend, I am honored that my work will be kept in his personal collection.

AGE OF REPTILES

The Age of Reptiles show (curated by Anthony Pedro) closes tonight. If you haven't been out to see it yet, please get there. A whole bunch of PCS members and Autumn Society members have some really decent work in the show paying tribute to what Dan Rather called "History's Greatest Generation" - the Dinosaurs!

Here is my contribution to the show:

"No Extinction" by Jeffro Kilpatrick

For more information and to watch a video of the show's opening, please visit the Autumn Society's site by clicking HERE.

Historic Trauma Cases # 2

As stated here back in September, I have been drawing the spot illustrations for Advance News Magazine’s “Historic Trauma” articles. These articles run in several medical magazines and seem to focus mainly on cases of famous people’s deaths. It seems there are usually some kind of conclusive statements that express how the person’s life could have been saved if they were alive today or if their ailments were treated differently.

The editors have me work in with old-tymie sepia tones and antique cross-hatching and brush work. It’s always a challenge when doing portrait work to somehow make it your own, especially when you are looking at someone else’s photo(s) reference. After all, photography is an art form, and you never want to completely rip off another artist.

President William Howard Taft

The Apollo 1 Astronauts (Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Pilot Roger B. Chaffee, and Senior Pilot Edward H. White) who died during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center.

John Thoreau (Henry David’s Brother)

Father Vincent Robert Capodanno, Jr. (The Grunt Padre)

And Charles Dickens (my favorite of the bunch)