Sketchbook's latest

Just one of many scans culled from my multitude of sketchbooks. Slowly but surely the sketches will be archived digitally and in the meantime, here's another fun little item from months back.

CCS Student Show 2010

Another year, another batch of fresh faced graduates. The annual CCS Student Show has gone up and come down to much trepidation and fanfare. Now the grads are out there making a go at it. What a wonderfully bright, brilliant and talented lot we had this year. May they go out there, pursue their dreams and one day look back fondly at how much they grew up and grew together. I sincerely believe that education is a collective process. This current class pushed one another and will hopefully continue to push beyond their own personal bounds now.

Mascot design

For a recent project for a college town eatery known as Menna's Joint, I was asked to help re-design their mascot. After several incarnations, the client agree upon a design and I handed off the actual building of the mascot to two of my more industrious Illustration students in Tom Chouinard and Dave Williams. I think they did my drawings justice by bringing it to life. They worked long and hard on it.

#043

'Twas nearly a year ago that I started this Sketchbook project. Over 25+ sketchbooks later, I'm still drawing away when I can.

requests?

Generally I view my sketchbook stuff as being personal and what spills out is what I'm feeling at the moment, what strikes me a fun, quirky or otherwise. Coming upon the very last page I posed the question of what should I draw and these were two of the things suggested to me.

Thanks to Monica Petiprin & Amanda Prosch respectively.

#042

Just another sketch...

Sketchbooks are piling up like Fall leaves here, so I'd better at least post ONE doodle to keep the masses happy. Trust me, there will be more to come. It just takes time to cull them, scan them and finally post 'em.

Still kicking

Rest assured I have not fallen off of the planet. The sketchbook drawings continue to fly despite my schedule of trying to work and teach. Here's just one of the literal hundreds of drawings I've done for the Sketchbook Series since my last posting. Insomnia can be a productive artist's best friend at times.

More sketchbook stuff

No particular themes. It's just me hanging onto the marker and letting it go where it wants to go.

Bernie Fuchs passes away

Just this previous weekend on September 19th, one of my illustration idols in Bernie Fuchs passed away at the age of 76. He was always required reading and viewing when I was in school. The more I read about him, his impact upon American culture- I understood how important this man was to the field. Not only was he an amazing craftsman and artist, but he actually worked in the Detroit hey day of studio art. He drew cars, made them art, and then transcended this market when other art directors took notice. From there he went on to do work for some of the most visible clients in advertising including Sports Illustrated, Coca Cola, TV Guide, and others.

His book shown here, "Ragtime Tumpie" I use in my class today to show my students how gorgeously this man worked. I hope to pass on some of Bernie Fuchs' scope & vision onto the next group of young illustrators. He truly was an innovator, an amazing artist, and someone I admired from afar.

Summer sketchbook

More images from another two day sketchbook.

Art Spiegelman at the MOCAD

I just had the distinct honor of seeing acclaimed cartoonist/ story teller/ graphic artist Art Spiegelman lecture at the MOCAD. He talked about the history and future of comics as well as showing off some of his impressive works. One very poignant part that stuck with me was how influential MAD magazine was to him. It's a sad reminder to think of where print publications have come (MAD is now produced quarterly as opposed to its high of nine issues a year), but then knowing that a book like Maus can still be groundbreaking and award winning gives us hope that print is not about to fade away just yet. I was lucky enough to get a signed and sketched copy of it for my library and will treasure it and its author's genius.

Majestic Cafe renderings

It's not exactly every day I get a call to do an interior design project, but just recently I was asked to be a part of the re-design of Detroit's historic Majestic Cafe. It had been a long long time since I've done anything so architectural and so accurate, but it was fun envisioning the space, the new furniture, fixtures and trappings.

HIBM Awareness

A few months ago I was asked to stand up in some very close friends' upcoming wedding. One of them has HIBM (Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy), which is a progressive muscular disease which can lead to total disability within 10-15 years. They, along with many others have worked non-stop to raise awareness through their HIBM website. They're hoping to raise some money to cure this dreaded disease. Please take a few moments of your day, look at their website and even in this tight economy, go to their link and pledge a dollar to help meet their $1 million dollar goal.

sketchbook's latest

Still cooking along.