One of two coordinating pieces that I’ll have in Bottleneck Gallery’s “Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em” show that opens next Friday. (My copyright doesn’t appear on the actual print.) Really looking forward to seeing all of the art in this show!

Friday, October 5th, 7-10 at 60 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Partial proceeds to benefit the American Red Cross. (Clever charity choice … ha.) If you can’t go, the art will be on sale online the following day.

Every time I get Burger King onion rings, there’s always one lone french fry stowed away in the pack.

I guess they realize the rings are the best thing BK’s got, so that’s their best way out …

I’m using my Pete Townshend doodle for my next promo mailer to send to art directors, so I ended up recoloring it for more drama. This palette is inspired by all those super-cool Philips record shop posters from the ’50s and ’60s. (They had some killer artists!)

I love how prominently his eye is featured now … also, since the card is rectangle, I crop the bottom off, so I moved the music notes and records up to the top … I like it even better that way on the full version here.

Also, I had to do a design for the back … it’s not totally done yet, but here’s an idea of what it looks like … I think the broken neck should be Townshend’s logo or something. :)

(BTW, this isn’t the Part 2 that I spoke of before … consider this Part 1b. I’m still trying to decide how/where to post the second part of the original illustration that I did already.)

“They’re On to You”

My print for the Alfred Hitchcock tribute show at LA’s Gallery 1988 (Venice), which opens in two weeks on Friday the 13th. (Niiiiice.) 18x24, 3-color screenprint.

I was halfway through this when I discovered that one of the old NORTH BY NORTHWEST alternate poster versions had Hitchock’s head on Mount Rushmore (d’oh!) along with the other guys (I used to have this one), but I did it anyway … I’m sure someone else at some point has also put his head up there. (Considering the fact that Hitchcock made the entire film just so he could have a chase scene across the Rushmore faces, drawing him on there was pretty much a no-brainer.) Oddly enough, it was mainly the house that I wanted to draw anyway … as I said in my previous post, I badly want to live there.

I considered doing something half-graphic design/half-illustration, but I feel like everyone does that … especially in regards to movie prints, so I did something in my natural illustration style which leans a little towards the ’50s (which is when NXNW came out) anyway.

Incidentally, I started on three films — this, REAR WINDOW, and THE BIRDS — and decided to use this one for the show, so later in the summer, I’ll put the other two coordinating prints for sale right here.

(This post has been updated on 4/9/12 with a revised image.)

LIVE AND LET DOODLE

Haven’t done a teaser in a while, but I’ve been completely slammed the last couple of weeks (which is nice for August … it’s usually dead, kinda like the poor fella up above), so I thought I’d drop one for the Bond guys who (patiently) check in with me every week.

New 007 print (#5!) very near on the horizon …

ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET HOLIDAY ROMANCE!

A tiny side project while working on the OHMSS edition of my big James Bond redesign series. This is in a different illustration style, but you’ll see from the actual OHMSS quote poster that this very much coordinates. Although not the same flat simplified drawing style, I followed some of the same rules. For example everything - shadows, highlights, etc. - were all achieved still using the four-color (gold, purple, green, white) palette. Also, this one gave me the opportunity to use an alternate quote (“Merry Christmas, 007”) that I was debating over for the main poster.

I was thinking about what an odd little Bond film this is. Besides being the only George Lazenby outing (bummer), it’s so much deeper. Much more like the books. It’s a complicated romance with a suicidal woman! It takes place at Christmas! But with a horribly tragic ending! I wasn’t born yet when this came out, but I imagine movie-goers everywhere were left sitting in their seats when the house lights came up with a giant WTF?? on their faces. So I thought of making a poster that makes it seem like a different kind of film. (Kind of like this movie trailer I love.) So this is my James Bond holiday romance poster … with a sinister touch. Also, the woman holding the gift is sort of a representation of the girls at Blofeld’s allergy clinic (hence the medic alert bracelet and the poison package) as well as Tracy in her awesome little skating outfit. And the plaid is a nod to the excellent scenes with Bond in a kilt. (More, please.)

This also marks the first one of these that I drew entirely in Illustrator … without sketching out on paper first.

Should I make this a series? (Of Bond films or otherwise?) 

As per usual, this is an homage only and not for sale.

CLASSICAL GAS (archive piece)

Illustration commissioned by Barnes & Noble for their music department. It was to be used on gift packaging, but I actually have no idea how or if it was ever used. (I got paid, anyway.) I have long loved to do portraits in colored pencil so this was a fun twist on that, as it’s really more of a still life than a group portrait. I’m a total classical music addict - I’ve played classical piano since grade school and fantasized about being a composer (but I had no talent for writing music, unfortunately) - so this was a project I could really throw my heart into.

I have no idea why I’ve always called this piece “Classical Gas” - other than I just love that song and this color palette seems fiery (gassy??) and fun, so …

The music is real, although honestly I picked it based on visual aesthetics, so it would sound like a bunch of nonsense if you actually played it. Oh, and as with most of my portraits, I worked my name into the layout. :)

(l.-r.: Beethoven, Liszt (my fave!), Mozart, Chopin, Bach)

MOONRAKER Teaser

Been trying to finish two Bond posters at once - one in the original film series - and a one-off design for a friend who’s been going through a rough time and is in need of cheering up. With the other stuff that I’m working on, though, they’ve both been hovering at 97% finished. Ugh. (It doesn’t help that I’ve made the layout for MOONRAKER so damn complicated.)

Anyway, MOONRAKER is the poster I’d planned on showing a making-of post of how I come up with what goes in it and how it’s finished, so I gathered some images for that. Stay tuned for that. Hopefully I can post at least the final MOONRAKER print before the week is up, but in the meantime I thought it would be funny to show a teaser sketch from it, as this couldn’t possibly represent James Bond imagery any less. If you’re familiar with the film, you’ll most likely get it, but I doubt anyone stumbling across this sketch will say, “Hey! Some James Bond art!” :)