the Shades

So every time I look out the window, there he is, just staring at me through the cracks of his blinds as if I’m the one that’s been doing something wrong by watching him all day. Like I don’t have the right, or even the responsibility, to want to keep an eye on my neighbours – to know what they’re doing all day, in their houses, with their shades drawn closed.

the Rebel – Never Yield to Popular Opinion

Never yield to popular opinion. Go against the grain. Go against the flow. Forge your own path. Fight your own fight. Be an individual. Be your own boss. Make your own destiny. Make your own rules. Think outside the box. Etc.

And here’s a closeup detail from this week’s inspirational/motivational idiomatic illustration:

I don’t usually work in this manner, but for this illustration I worked in a colorized line art style. I first created a tight black and white sketch and then recolored the linework and painted in the background colors digitally.

It’s Business time

Hot of the presses and just in time to meet people. I’ve just received my business cards from Design Your Own Cards (they don’t get a hyperlink because this isn’t a promo piece). The concept behind this business card design was to create a modern version of the classic traditional business card. This is to tie my branding to the new direction my work is taking – a digital version of traditional illustration.  I went with Design Your Own Cards because they were one of the few affordable companies that was willing to do a three color print. This, intentionally wasn’t done with full color digital printing like most people are using lately. This is old fashioned, raised ink printing on grey linen card stock. It has a rich tactile quality, as well as a durability that is lost with the modern digitally printed cards.

The one drawback of going with a traditional printing process verses a digital one is the unavailability (or rather economic unviability) of small print runs. I have a lot of business cards now; It’s time to get out and meet a lot of people.

the Helping Hand

I’ve done two interpretations of the theme ‘Capable’ this week. The first was that we are capable of anything if we think positively. The second truism, and the concept behind this illustration is that although we are capable of anything, sometimes we need a helping hand. This version isn’t as overtly optimistic as the other one, but I think it still contains a positive message about support, and an optimistic look to the future.
On a side note to the painting, that’s two pieces started and completed this week and it’s only Tuesday. They both have pretty different style approaches, feel free to leave an opinion in the comments of either post as too which of the two you prefer. (you can see the other illustration here)

Positively Capable

The theme word of the week is ‘Capable’. In an personally uncharacteristic turn towards the optimistic, my interpretation of the topic, and the concept behind this painting, is that the secret behind being capable of anything is to think positively. On the technical side of this positively positive illustration, I’ve tried a new way of laying down paint and I’m pretty happy with the results. Though the composition of this illustration is very designed and graphic, I’m trying out the same technique right now on another piece which has a much more elaborate composition and background to see if it will work there too. That painting isn’t far enough along yet to know how it will turn out, but I will have the finished work up later this week and you’ll be ale to decide for yourselves.

**Update** Here’s the other illustration I’ve done for this topic, same color pallet, but aside from that, a pretty different approach. Feel free to leave in comments as to which version you prefer and why. Thanks.

63 People and a Dog Who Are More Popular Than Me

Social media sounds like a lot of fun, everybody’s ‘getting connected’. What’s it like when you don’t have any cyber friends? The word ‘popularity’ makes me think about both those in the cyber world who are, and those who aren’t. It also makes me wonder if all this social connectivity is really all that fun. Here is a painting about the internet, the web of social media connections, and of 63 People and a dog who are more popular than me.

Here’s a couple closeup details of some of the more popular people:

And here’s the sketchbook drawing of me, a dog, and 62 other people (secret: one of the people in the final is a digital duplicate flip).

**Revise**

I’ve also made an infini-pattern version of it:

On a personal note, I’m trying to become more popular (ie. not spend all my time doing drawings on the computer and spend a little more time being ‘virtually’ social). I’m trying to respond to emails in a more timely manner, and to even use Facebook and Twitter on occasion. If you wanna help me be more popular follow me on either of those social platforms, I’ve included handy boxes below to make it easier.

Thanks,

-jeff

The Move

With the January 2012 launch of my new all-in-one website (where you’re currently reading this) I killed off a couple of my old site locations – my old blog site, and my even older blog site. Even though I’ve removed all content from those sites, google keeps sending people to a 403 lack of permission error page at those locations from their search results. To clear up some confusion for the viewers I decided to create a nicer, code 404 page, for people who get directed there. While I was at it, I also decided to combo that task up into creating another digital gouache painting for my new tra-digital illustration portfolio.

Above, is web version which greets visitors to any of the old links pointing to megahappyfunland.com or blog.jeffszuc.com, and bellow is the full painted version of the piece. There is actually two versions, as you can see, I would love some feedback on which people prefer. The negative space, stripped down minimal version was actually created second, through removing all the work I had done. They create very different atmospheric effects, and though I think the empty space version is a little more sophisticated, I hate to think I painted in all those houses for nothing.

the Twirl

I feel it’s also a little to easy to fall into one’s usually safety nets when working on assignments. On this piece, in order to push myself, I laid out a few ground rules before I started thumbnailing; no mater what the conceptual direction, my illustration would include at least three people and a complex background.

And so it is, with at least three people and a background, this concept for this piece is based on the word ‘Twirl’. The theme for this piece is grounded in the hair twirl. The underlying idea for this piece based on body language – the flitting hair twirl, the ‘social mirroring’, and the couple who are obviously disinterested in each other.

My sketch for this started off really rough while I worked out the composition.

From there I cleaned things up a bit before blocking in some color.

Then the next step is to destroy everything and paint over, then paint over again and again until many hours later, voila! except for some details to make it pop, it’s finished.

As always, I’m just trying to experiment and to learn something new. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

HOW Mag Piece

Here’s an illustration I have in this month’s issue of HOW Magazine. I’m a huge fan of HOW Magazine so I was thrilled when they called. I grew up reading it and their sister publication PRINT. The back issues of  which, as well as my Juxtapoze  and Applied Arts Magazines were amongst the many items I had too, with heavy heart, leave behind when I moved to the United States. I wonder if I could have negotiated a subscription on top of my illustration fee.. Is that kind of thing ever done?

Here is  a detail pic from the piece, the full illustration is in my portfolio here.

Prepare

I found a two for one motivation to create something today. I’ve been really busy with the paperwork side of things ever since I got back from the holidays and felt like I needed a creative break this afternoon so I turned to illustration Friday for an excuse for a little sketchbook drawing. This week’s topic was ‘prepare’. I racked my brain on it for awhile until I thought up my two-for-one concept of pairing it with a flickr ‘what I wore today‘ post.

It’s cold out now and this is what I have to put on to prepare for the winter outside. From the toe up: Black Sorel boots, black Naked and Famous jeans, black Kennith Cole jacket, black Banana Republic fingerless hobo gloves, black wool scarf from UniQlo, a black wool tuque that was a freebie from the last place I worked, a black leather messenger bag for my laptop and sketchbook, and finally, my black AKG headphones to keep my ears warm.