Jay-Z: Decoded

This past summer I received my first freelance book illustration job, and it was quite a doozy. I was hired by Rodrigo Corral Design to illustrate Jay-Z's memoir Decoded which just hit bookshelves on 11/16/10. Here are some of the originals next to their respective pages in the book. All of these were done in graphite. More to follow soon.

Tata Gala 2010

Here's my entry for the 2010 Tata Gala.  20"x30" charcoal and acrylic on Strathmore 500.  It's a Maenad with a vineyard on her head and wine pouring out her mouth.  I'd drink it.

Never Say Die

So I found this awesome beer at Total Wine called Old Rasputin.  It's an amazing imperial stout, but even better than the beer itself was the packaging.  It inspired me so much that I just had to do a portrait of the mad monk.  This was done in charcoal as a live demo at the fundraiser night for the Illest Of Ill show.

Gloria

It feels like it's been forever since the last time I had a chance to draw from life. Today I decided to drag myself over to f.e.w.s. because it was the long pose session. I feel a bit rusty, but I guess that's only to be expected. Did a warm up of about 20 minutes and then a portrait in about 2 hours.

Samedi mockup

Here is what it might look like if it were printed and on your sexy body.

Baron Samedi

This is my pitch for the t-shirt design for this year's Illest of Ill here at Ringling. In case you were unaware, Illest is an annual student run show that is currently in its 5th incarnation. Each year only the best of the best works of illustration by underclassmen are chosen by a world renowned guest illustrator/judge.

About the shirt: The LOA are the spirits of voodoo who act as intermediaries between humanity and the creator god called the Bondye (Bon Dieu, or good god). Baron Samedi is the leader of the Guédé loa, the spirits of the dead. He's the ultimate party animal in voodoo, with nonstop swearing, filthy jokes, and an ever-present glass of rum and big fat cigar. Samedi will dig a person's grave and greet them when they die. If he refuses to dig their grave, then they cannot die. He will also ensure that corpses rot in the ground so that they cannot be brought back as zombies.

Article about my portrait

Capitalist Suicide

This is my first attempt at printmaking. It's a linocut with a monotype for the money. I didn't have access to a printing press so I burnished it on with my key fob, but I kind of like the streaky effect that resulted.

Captain America

Lately I've been obsessed with Captain America. I think it started when I read The Ultimates...such a good comic. Anyways here is a bust of Cap and the charcoal study for it. I might do a painting as well.

framed

Here he is all framed up.

Philippe de Montebello

Well it's been quite a while since my last update, sorry about that. Things have been quite busy though, which I'm very grateful for. Here is my latest painting that I just finished at 7:30a.m. this morning. This was done for the Ringling Library Town Hall Lecture Series (same as the Bill Clinton portrait from last year). This time it's a portrait of Philippe de Montebello, the longest serving director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I will be delivering it to him on 3/31 so I'm pretty relieved that I finished it tonight/this morning, but I'm still pretty nervous considering his credentials. Hopefully he approves of it. Enough rambling, need some shuteye before class plus I'll have to go pick up my suit from the tailor, then write a paper due tomorrow that I have yet to start, and then drive up to Tampa to pick up my little bro who's coming to visit during his spring break/my hell week.

1st figure painting of the new semester. 2 class sessions so far but we might get this model again in this pose sometime in the future.