Iran Away From That Country With The Bomb

I like this composition a lot more.  It took me at least a whole day with this new sketch because the bomb was shaped like a penis (which is fine, but it's not the statement I wanted to make).  The action and emotion is more apparent in the figures and I like the wings of the bomb as armrests (a lot more subtle than a bomb shaped crown!).  

I will start inking this one today or tomorrow and hopefully start another editorial soon.

In honor of Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are is now on DVD.  I cannot give enough kudos to this movie.  The production design by itself blows me away.  I've been working on editorial illustrations for some time, so I felt like taking a break by drawing what interests me: monsters.  Not Hannibal type monsters, but just beastly, fangs and claws types.  It's great to test and push me on shape relationships and silhouettes since I'm not bound to the human anatomy.

Why Ahmadinejad and Nuclear Weapons Don't Mix.

Actually, I don't like the idea of nuclear weapons at all.  No one should have the power to do what the US did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The article came from Slate and it explained why it's a bad idea for Iran to have enriched uranium leading to nuclear weapons.  Ahmadinejad has always worried me as a leader, since he pledged to dismantle the state of Israel.  Now imagine this zealot with a bomb.  Yeah...scary stuff.

This is kind of a rough sketch (for me).  You can see some things I haven't worked out (the playdoh clump I call Ahmadinejad's hand), but overall I like the mood and the composition. I'm trying to work faster, which means I have to do battle with the perfectionist in me. 

P.S.- There's some repetition of imagery in the crown.  Too much?

http://www.slate.com/id/2244428/

All the Colors of the Rainbow

I really wanted to play around with symbolic color.  I won't go into all of my color choices, but it was a conscious decision to have the windmills green tinted or to have the politician's suit brown in one pass (symbolizing the 70s or something outdated).  I liked the idea of the people being blue in the face from blowing so hard.  I'll look at these for a bit and then make my final decision.

The Year of the Tiger! Rawr!

I'm planning on creating a Tiger character.  I don't have much experience with animal anatomy so I'm pouring over photographs and videos to learn how these great beasts are put together. It's amazing how close the big cats are in construction to their domestic counterparts.  The end result I hope to achieve is somewhere between the Lion King degree of abstraction and the more simplified animals that Nico Marlet designs for Dreamworks.

There are 3,200 tigers left in the wild....in the world.  That was a startling fact to be confronted with.  Tigers have been my favorite animal since I was five and wrote a story in kindergarten about a tiger who lived in a trashcan and mauled those that came too close (no joke).  I read Calvin and Hobbes, ate my Frosted Flakes, etc.  All this time I've marveled at these creatures, in zoos, national geographic, or in abstractions like Master Tigress in Kung Fu Panda. Tigers were always there. 

Now we are coming to a period of time that might not have tigers.  In this, the year of the Tiger, we should really be aware of their shrinking populations and find a way to help rebuild.  

Incidentally, the UN has declared 2010 the year of Biodiversity.  Not just tigers but other species are disappearing from our planet due to habitat loss, climate change, and man's intervention.   

The World Wildlife Fund site for Tigers:

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/tigers/year-of-tiger.html

The UN site for 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity:

http://www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/

and finally, back to the WWF for a resource about things we can do, whether it be writing a letter to Congress or donating time/money.

http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=can_home&linklocation=topnavdropdownmenu

What to Do with Politicans who Don't Move on Climate Change

Here's an editorial I'm working on for a Newsweek article about (paraphrasing) the need for citizens to take action to fight climate change on their own. In that way, they're not waiting on politicians who have special interest groups holding them back. The article was also a call to arms to vote out politicians who don't make climate change one of their top priorities.

The final will be in color and will be integrated into the existing article (maybe adjusting the original's type).

My Sister's Doll in a Slightly Larger than Doll-Sized Chair

I started this painting in late December but the holidays delayed it. This is by no means a finished painting, but a demo (took about four-five hours). I try to paint things that I'll be utilizing in future illustrations. In this case, it was the doll's hair. I had to really try not to paint every hair, instead opting for shapes or clumps of hair. Painting this was a nice, calming exercise in the middle of a stressful week.

P.S.- I think there was a time in which I could sit in this chair. That's pretty incredible considering a doll is almost big enough for it.