Logo designs and exhibitions

Above are several logos that I recently designed, just a few of the many created over the years. I really enjoy this type of assignment.



Here are some of the designs that I developed while designing a logo for a local museum, the Krasl Art Center. Three final versions were submitted and the last one on the lower right was chosen. I added a figure to the presentation to show scale as I suggested the the logo could also be transformed into a large metal outdoor sculpture for the front of the building.



A newspaper clipping announcing the new logo. I built a model of the logo and created this photo to show just how the sculpture version would look in the outdoor setting, however, the sculpture idea was rejected by the Acquisitions Committee.



The new logo was unveiled at the opening of the Text As Art exhibition. Above is one of the posters that I designed for the show.



Other posters for various exhibitions of my digital art. The poster at the top was for an exhibition of parodies of famous artists, the image is my version of a Dali painting.



A poster done for am exhibition of my sculpture and digital prints at the Epic Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan.



The catalog cover for an exhibition of my acrylic abstract paintings and carved wooden masks at Gallery Sakiko in New York.

Some recent design and illustration projects

A drawing of downtown Fayetteville, NC done for City Center Gallery and Books and a book cover for a collection of civil war war letters. Both images were first drawn in ink then scanned into the computer where color was added using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0



This drawing was done on rice paper using a brush and pen with india ink. I enjoy experimenting with various paper surfaces to see what interesting effects can be created. The drawing was scanned into the computer, then color and the other elements were added.



The final version of the poster which was used in two sizes, 13 x 19" and 8.5 x 11".



Gloria and I went to a winery in Grand Rapids where she lives, we made our own wine and even bottled it. This was part of a French Club activity and it was a fun experience. Here are some of the labels that I designed for the bottles. For the one label I used Gloria's cats, Blackjack and Schicklefritz who really does have a black heart on his side. For the upper left label I used a painting that I did while living in Paris. The lower two were created by using permission-free old engravings from the Dover book "Antique Playing Card Designs".



Here are two of my latest illustration experiments. On both, I first scanned line drawings into the computer where I then worked out the design and color. The computer is a terrific medium for experimentation as you can do several images of the same subject for evaluation. This would take a great deal of time when using traditional painting mediums.

back from sacramento, cd recording, podcast interview

back from sacramento
ladies and gentlemen, i survived that ridiculously long flight to sacramento. no offense to all my west coast people, but i'm good if i don't fly west for awhile, unless i can be completely knocked out for the whole trip! LOL on the way there, kimpossible and i took some tylenol pm (thanks for the suggestion on that phil) in hopes of being knocked out for the duration of the flight. um wrong answer. a cute lil boy in front of us found a way to make the most piercing noise to express his dissatisfaction for THE ENTIRE first leg of our flight. now seeing as how his parents were having a hard time handling him, i have to be truthful. i normally don't try to handle other people's children, but the thought of pinching that lil boy like your mama used to do in church crossed my mind more than once as it became apparent that there would be no sleeping on this flight.

while i'm venting let me say that all this charging some airlines are doing now is getting out of hand. charge to check your bag, charge to eat, charge to drink. i'm wondering if we're gonna have to start paying to go through security too! (end of rant)

on a more positive note, been back from sacramento for a couple of weeks and now it's time to get geared up for nywc pittsburgh. gotta give some sacramento shoutouts!...to kimpossible, my manager, sister, and friend, thank you for your insight, the laughs, and your encouraging words. i appreciate you! to my sacramento volunteers destiny and ashlee', thanks for helping a sista's merch table to run smoothly. to clete and the bigstuf crew thanks for the great video behind the poem. looking forward to doing it again in pittsburgh. to spencer...not even sure if you're on myspace but thank you sir for that run dmc shirt! you get mad respect for naming those run dmc songs on demand! and to phil and natalie thanks for letting a sista utilize your studio to record the new poem i wrote for nywc "seriously ridiculous" which can be downloaded on my myspace.

podcast interview
thanks to kevin gibson from worshipodcast.com who interviewed me a few weeks ago. we talked poetry, writing, worship, and i'm sure i told an ignorant story or two! :) check out the interview in it's entirety at www.worshippodcast.com

new cd recording
at the beginning of this year, i had the chance to be a part of a live recording for sublime, the high school ministry at north metro church in kennesaw, ga. well the cd is complete and you can get a hold of it at www.isublime.com. you'll find poems "you," "to worship you," and a scripture piece called "inside out" on the cd along with some songs you'll recognize plus some things written specifically for the project. shoutout to rob greene (got the cd in the mail. thank you!), the sublime staff and students, and the band from the live recording.

ignt youtube video
ok so between my tries at video blogging and the things i've typed here, you have probably figured out that my airplane adventures can get kinda ignorant. lol well courtesy of kimpossible, you can now experience for yourself what's it's like to sit next to me on a flight. this footage was shot on the second leg of our flight, after the no sleep debacle during the first leg. enjoy! lol

What does an 80 year old illustrator do ?

NO MORE STORYBOARDS !!!!
For one thing, I've had over forty years of tough storyboard deadlines and I'm happy to leave this part of the ad biz to all of you younger artists ! In the last year that I did storyboards, every assignment was an overnighter. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed doing this type of work, it's just that the deadlines were getting to be impossible. Actually, I work very well under pressure and for me to throw in the towel, you know how ridiculous it was getting.
I know of many illustrators that just would not do storyboards because there are a lot of negatives connected to this type of work. There's not only the pressure, frequently you must work when you least feel like it, and that might even include working on Thanksgiving Day. Your work must also be very consistent, it's not acceptable to start out rendering a series of frames very detailed and tight, then end up working very loose on the last frames. This can be a real problem when facing a very tight deadline. Also, you NEVER miss a deadline or you are through with that client. On certain assignments you may be required to dig up a great deal of reference material which will take precious time away from rendering frames. When doing work for certain automotive accounts I would often rent the specific car model and then photograph all of the necessary reference material which the clients rarely supplied.
At times you may even wonder how the agency's client ever approved the idea, some scripts can be downright weird.
The positives are that this type of work pays very well. Often my work used to come in on the weekends, leaving me the whole week to paint and pursue my fine art interests.







































This series of frames were done for Delphi, a client of McCann Erickson in Detroit. The art director was Wayne Graydon. He's an excellent AD and was always a pleasure to work with.




















All of my renderings are done using markers on high quality layout paper. This is very important as on certain papers the markers will not blend well. I found the best paper to be Beinfang Graphics 360. I always flip the paper over, the markers work much better on the reverse side, try it, you'll be amazed at the difference. Incidentally, I prefer using Chartpak AD Markers for all of my renderings.




















I know that some artists do storyboards on the computer. I've tried it a few times, but for me it just takes too long, I guess I just love those squeaky markers. As an artist, if you love doing watercolors like I do, rendering with markers would be a medium that you would be quite comfortable with.
The renderings below were done for an ad campaign for Y & R in New York, but I'm not sure of the client. I believe the art director was Michael Brennecke, another top notch AD that I did a lot of work for over the years.







I enjoyed rendering these ads very much, it was a fun campaign. There were a least a dozen of these and I did them all about 15" x 15" in size. They were all delivered over the internet at 150 dpi. I had slow dial-up at the time and it took a LONG time for these to go through.








My advice to budding storyboard artists is to keep your renderings fresh and clean, don't overwork them as they will just get muddy. Try to develop a fast, loose style, and in between assignments, do a lot of watercolors !

Thanks for viewing my blog. I will most likely post at least two or three times a week, probably Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Next time I'll be showing you some of my most recent illustration work, some illustration experiments as well as a few new logos that I've designed.

Welcome to my art and illustration blog !

I will show you many examples of my illustration work throughout the years, even sketches and preliminary drawings if they are available. My graphic design work may also be of interest to you as the work includes a variety of assignments such as automotive catalogs, logo designs and the design of an automotive magazine.

















While working in an art studio I even managed to squeeze in teaching full time at the college level and was head of the Advertising Department at the school. I taught classes in graphic design, illustration and cartooning. One of my first successful ventures was doing a series paintings for Ford Times magazine which actually led to ad agency art directors giving me a lot of illustration assignments. I will post many examples from that era. For the last forty years I have specialized in doing storyboards and animatics, servicing major clients in the US and abroad.



















Several years ago I became interested in digital art, it was quite by accident as I really had no intention of buying a computer. I used to ship all of my out of town assignments by package delivery services and one day a package arrived very late and another was actually lost ! My clients were furious and I had to redo a big storyboard project overnight. The agency said that if I wanted more work from them I would have to buy a computer so that I could deliver the finished work over the internet. I complied immediately and everything worked like a charm after that, no more late or lost packages. During some down time I began to experiment with computer art and was astonished at the possibilities that this medium offered, I've been hooked ever since. Ive created many limited edition prints which I exhibit in galleries and museums. Commercially I've done book illustrations and CD album covers which I will share with you. I am a sculptor as well and will display some of my pieces in later posts.


























While living and working in Paris I wrote several "How to" books for Watson Guptill Publications and will post a few of the step-by-step demos for line drawings and color illustrations from the books. You'll also see illustrations and storyboard work that I did for French ad agencies. While in Paris, I had the opportunity to exhibit my paintings in all of the French painting salons, some of the paintings even ended up being used in magazine ads. I had a great time in France and even was sent to Madrid, Vienna, Singapore and Jakarta on special assignments. I have traveled extensively and will share some of the watercolors and ink sketches that I did on the spot as well as paintings that I did later in my studio. My most recent series of abstract acrylic paintings and figures studies will also be posted.
Thanks for viewing my blog and I hope that you will be a regular visitor.

Andre 3000 Benjamin Bixby Clothing Line Launch

Had a chance to swing through the Atlanta launch event for Andre 3000's clothing line Benjamin Bixby on Thursday, October 16. Inspired by 1930's Brooklyn style, the line is complete with tweed, old-style suspenders, and crisp, clean, button-downs. An excellent reflection of Andre's cool eclectic style. Check out the pics!

Upgrade Your Social Life: Salsa!

Okay, if you've been checking out my blog the past couple of months then you know I've been wanting to get my salsa on for quite some time. Well, I went to two really cool salsa events so far and had to reportback on them. I LOVE salsa! It's a great way to meet people, and the best way to learn how to salsa is to get out there and dance! No leaning against the wall!

Shout out to Raymundo, for deejaying at both events and for teaching me the bachata. Thanks to Julian for the thorough salsa lesson! I felt like I nearly knew what I was doing. :) Thanks to Marvin for being a great salsa partner! Here's more info:

Salsa @ Paris on Ponce – Antique store Paris on Ponce houses a free salsa lesson and party every last Sunday, from 1 to 5pm. Free snacks, free water, free vino, and live performances. www.salsapop.com (check out the pic!)

Havana Nights - Every second Friday at Salsa Havana, 8:30pm until you can't dance anymore! $5 cover. 1 hour lesson.

Voting Do’s & Don’ts

We interrupt your regularly schedule program of reporting on social upgrade shenanigans to report on a more important topic!

VOTING!

In the state of Georgia, Monday, October 6, is your LAST DAY to register to vote for the November presidential election. Check out the following do’s and don’ts to make sure you can cast your ballot.

DO get registered! No excuses! You can register online, at your local public library, election office, and at your college registrar’s office. If you haven’t registered, DO IT TODAY! If you know someone who hasn’t registered, gently apply some good old peer pressure. It’s for a good cause. ☺

DO make sure your current address matches the address on your license. Voting in a county different from the one you live in can cause your vote not to count.

DON’T wear t-shirts, buttons, headbands, jersey socks, or earrings tricked out with the face or name of your favorite candidate. Direct quote from the Georgia secretary of state election site: No person may campaign; distribute literature of written or printed matter of any kind; wear campaign buttons, signs, pins, stickers, T-shirts, etc.; circulate petitions; or perform similar activities within 150 feet of the building in which a polling place is located. Check the polling place policy in your state.

DO your research. Be an informed voter. Make yourself aware of the issues not only on the presidential side of the ballot, but the senate, house of representatives, judges, and other pertinent races in your county and state.

Check out these sites:

Nationwide: Rock the Vote, Vote for Change
GA residents: Ballot, Georgia Election Guide 2008

Upgrade Your Social Life: 5 Fav Atlanta Live Music Spots

It is officially fall, which means it’s time to explore some social options that cater to the arriving cool wind. The live music venue is a great place to start. My first live music show in Atlanta was at Centennial Park for the now defunct On the Bricks series. I saw Kanye West and John Legend for $5. I probably also filled my tank up for somewhere near two dollars a gallon…but that’s for another blog. :O Since then, I’ve been hooked on checking out live shows and Atlanta’s social scene has much to offer if you want to see your favorite song performed live onstage. Here are my five favs for live show venues in ATL.

The Tabernacle – For me, the purpose of the live show is to get close to the stage where the speakers are so loud I can feel it in my chest. A typical Tabernacle show will be standing room only near the stage, with seats available in the balcony.
+ If you can stand the crowd you can get close to the stage and see a great show.
- There will be lots of smoke, and ladies, unless you plan on spending the evening sitting in the balcony you might want to leave the heels at home.

Chastain Amphitheater– Imagine listening to Jill Scott with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra while watching the sunset. An outside amphitheater, Chastain seats hundreds while maintaining an intimate concert experience.
+ You can’t go to Chastain without packing a picnic. Break out the basket, the candles, some wine and cheese, and enjoy great music under the stars.
- The show will go on rain or shine, so you may want to bring rain gear or extra cash for a poncho, just in case.

Sugar Hill – A soulful concert venue, Sugar Hill showcases local and independent stars, as well as national headliners. Located in Underground Atlanta, Sugar Hill can be standing room only or cozy with couches near the stage. There is also a seated balcony.
+ You’ll see some of the best soul artists in this venue and it houses regularly scheduled music shows such as Harmony in Life and a Tuesday jam session.
-Ladies you might want to pack a flat shoe in that too big purse of yours. Seats are usually limited.

MJQ –You may have passed by the metal shack door that is the entrance to MJQ and never knew that some of the best partying in Atlanta was taking place beneath its doors. MJQ is an underground club venue where your favorite deejay’s favorite deejay, spins house, hip hop, reggae, and old school.
+ MJQ is about dancing, not holding up the wall. Ladies, no heels necessary. Throw on a sneaker or a Timberland if you want to.
- There will be smoke and sweat. Don’t ruin your good clothes or your good shoes.

Churchill Grounds – One of the best live jazz venues in Atlanta, Churchill Grounds’ The Whisper Room is an intimate music venue where you can hear straight-ahead jazz by local musicians as well as featured out-of-town musicians.
+ Intimate room with skilled jazz musicians playing almost every night of the week. Great date spot.
- There will be a door charge and a table minimum.