MIDTOWN ARCHETYPES

So, I finished my Midtown Archtypes series. Well, not really finished it, but I've done enough to fulfill the assignment it was originally intended for. I'd like to leave it open to continue. I considered doing another 1 or 2 for the assignment, but I agreed on 8 as a final number with Joel last week, and honestly, I need to stop myself. I could sit around making these all month. You can click on over to my gallery to see them>> laurenrae.carbonmade.com

IN PROGRESS: MIDTOWN ARCHETYPES

Recently, I've been working on a series of illustrations chronicling the artsy-fartsy archetypes of midtown Memphis. They're all caricatured and vector--very different from the Beale Street postcards. Here's a sneak preview:

BEALE STREET POSTCARDS

The postcards are finished--12 in all, featuring disgruntled bartenders and jaded street musicians. You can peruse them all in my gallery: Lauren Rae's Carbonmade: Beale Street

Beale Street Visual Essay Progress

I'm doing a visual essay for Illustration 5 documenting a place I frequent, so I'm documenting Beale Street--specifically the people who are and atmosphere of working there. This is what I've got so far.

MCA's December 2010 BFA Exhibition Card

This is one my recent assignments at my internship--the BFA Exhibition card for December 2010. A little nerve-racking, as there is always some heated discussions about the show cards among the graduating seniors, but overall, I like it. I hope they do too.

MCA's 2010 Zap Card

So, I recently started an internship with Combustion, a local design firm that handles most of Memphis College of Art's design work. The internship is supposed to be just for Graphic Design students, but being that I'm an Illustration student, I get to draw and design. It's a fun job. My first assignment was to redesign their "zap card;" a mailer they send out to prospective students to keep them on the mailing list.

Superhero Coco: Skeletor

My buddies from Illustration class at Memphis College of Art have been geeking it up again. The latest collaborative baby is Superhero Coco, a blog where illustrators are encouraged to submit redesigns of comic book characters. Every 2 weeks, they pick a character, and everyone submits. The results are posted every other Saturday. I haven't yet participated because, frankly, although I don't refute that I am a dork, I just don't know shit about comic books. I always had my nose in a Calvin & Hobbes anthology or a Mad Magazine as a kid. But as this week's character was Skeletor, I decided to give it a shot.

Happy Birthday, Derrick!

So, Mr. Derrick Dent just turned 24 today! Derrick is one of my best friends, a fellow founding member of the Rozelle Artists Guild, the mastermind behind Project Sketchbook, and the male counterpart to the portrait artist for hire super duo known as Holterdent. Other than that, he's also a badass illustrator and could be accurately described as giggly. So in celebration of his conquest of his twenty-fourth year of life, I drew him up a little gift.



Did I mention he also shares an enthusiasm for Law & Order? It's the two of us as L&O detectives. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, D-ROCK!

The Curse of Yama

I got this commission for a book cover in May, but being as my summer has been chaotic--filled with jobs lost, new jobs started, commission orders doubling, apartment hunting, packing, moving, & unpacking--I'm just now getting to it. So voila!




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Curse of Yama: Book Cover

Preliminary sketch for a cover illustration for Curse of Yama by local author K. F. Ridley.

Conjoined Twins Woodblock Print

I printed my conjoined twins woodblock print. The color/texture is a digital print on Somerset Soft White.

Conjoined Twins Woodblock

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Quetzalcoatl vs. Tezcatlipoca

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In Progress Screenshot

I just found this screenshot whilst clearing off my desktop. In progress of the Jay Reatard Obituary illustration & the color comp thumbnail.

Click here to see the finished illustration.

Jay Reatard Obituary: Finalized

I finished my spread on Jay Reatard's obituary. I really like the front page illustration. As always, click for a bigger image.

Ex Libris: Color Comp

I did some test prints of my Ex Libris litho plate today. It looks okay. Hopefully it'll print better the more I ink it. Here's a test print and the Photoshop colored version. I'ma print the color parts on Epson & print the plate on top. & learn how to register in the meantime. Woo!

Jay Reatard Obituary: B&W Comp

People Watching

This is a guy I see at my favorite watering hole a lot. He's squatty, bald, with a big Jew nose and dark circles around his eyes. He's always wearing the most hideous turtleneck sweaters, drinking gin, and talking absolute bullshit about religion, politics, philosophy, society, and every other pseudo-intellectual topic a pretentious turtleneck-wearing douchebag would try to discuss at a bar on a Friday night. I've also noticed that he is always with a woman, although I'm quite sure he's gay, and she is always eight times drunker than he is. She's usually just giggling and agreeing with everything he says really emphatically. Actually, they might always be drunk because they need to dull the pain of his nasally, high pitched voice and condescending tone... Or they might just literally never get the chance to speak or contribute to the conversation because he never stops talking. I haven't figured out what to name him yet.



This is a guy that works at Huey's. Nevermind which one. He has a haircut that you usually only see on lesbians, swooping right into his eyes, and he always has this face on like he's about to cry. This drawing doesn't really look like him; I really only used him as a base, but when Take My Breath Away hit the chorus as he walked by, I had to draw him.

Commission: Jason M. Vawter

I recently got a commission for an illustrated portrait. Here's the original photo:


& here is my interpretation:

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How did I do?

Brief Interview with MAD Magazine Illustrator Tom Richmond

1. How long have you been drawing? Did you always know it was what you wanted to do?
I've wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember, since before I started going to school as a kid. Comic books got me interested in drawing and storytelling. I've never wanted to do anything else.

2. Do you come from a family of creatives, or are you the odd one out? Were they supportive of your interests?
I am the only person in my family with any creative skills at all. I'm a total genetic throwback... or the mailman's kid.

3. Did you go to school for illustration? If not, what did you originally attend college for, and what happened to change your mind?
I went to the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN, where I learned traditional illustration and fine arts. No cartooning classes were offered.

4. When did you begin working regularly for MAD Magazine, and how did you get involved with them?
My first piece in MAD appeared in October of 2000. I've been working regularly for them ever since. I started seriously pursuing work from them about a year earlier, and after a lot of sending in my latest work, meeting with the editors and art directors and some begging, I was given a shot with a MAD job.

5. Do you enjoy working for MAD? How, if at all, is their working relationship with illustrators different from other employers you’ve worked for?
MAD is like most other clients in that there is an art director, an assignment, preliminary pencil reviews and direction and final art delivery. However the dynamic with MAD is different in that they expect a lot more input into the job than just drawing the images. Their artists function as visual "writers" as well, and an integral to the humor and delivery of the MAD experience. It's more involved and more fun.

6. Describe your process, from start to finish, on a completed illustration. Go as in-depth as you wish.
See this series of blog posts for that answer: http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2006/07/15/diary-of-a-mad-job

7. How has your process changed or evolved over the years? (For example, do you now use digital processes in place of handskills for some steps?)
I have incorporated new techniques into my work, while keeping the central look or "style" consistent. Certainly i think my skills have improved, from composition through to color use and more effective drawing.

8. Do you have any major stylistic influences? If so, name them.
The usual suspects among the classic MAD artists: Wally Wood, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis. Other comic book artists like Ty Templeton, Hilary Barta and Bruce Timm. Also illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Maxfield Parrish and especially Andrew Loomis.

9. Did/Do you have a mentor? If so, who, and how have they helped you?
I'd have to say if I had a mentor it would be Sam Viviano, the longtime MAD artist and current art director. He has taught me more in the time I have worked for MAD than I ever learned in college or through other experiences.

10. What are you working on now?
Currently on the drawing board I have a movie poster job, an advertising poster, a series of spot illustrations for a magazine and a graphic novel I am just getting started on.

11. What’s next for you?
Whatever comes my way. I'm getting involved more in the movie and TV business, so possibly animation and futher images for film might be in the cards in the near future.

MADly,
Tom