The Big O

At Platform Studio's we've been busy getting ready for our May 11 opening. Having an Oprah Network film-crew do a segment about us certainly doesn't hurt! Pretty funny to hear the great and powerful Oprah talking about our figure drawing group (shameless plug: 7-9:30 Tues. Wed. Thurs.)

Check it out here.

Here are some images for a mural proposal. Funny thing about moving into the big city is that suddenly I am interested in landscapes...

Click them to see the full-sized foliage.

Ink and brush work.

The South-Lawn Icon

Hello 2012! I keep hearing that this year is our last, so I figured I'd look back a year, rather than forward...

I was invited to participate in The Callbox Project in Washington D.C. a while back. I'd been fascinated by the religious tradition of icon paintings for a while. This project was the right opportunity to paint some icons of my own.

I'd once met a young man who spent a while in prison. He didn't turn into an animal, join a gang, or hatch a "so-crazy-it-might-just-work" escape plan. He taught himself to read so that he could help his daughter with school once he returned. He kept is head low, got out, and was living a very normal life when I met him. I was deeply impressed by his accomplishment, which he achieved despite his deeply unhelpful circumstances at the time.

Kate Clark, the formidable artist and project curator, installed my work across from the White House...not bad! Thanks Kate.

One box is closed, and one box is open.

Yep. That is a Top-Ramen offering.

Free-Hand Farm Hand

Here's a little work I didn't get around to posting until now. The first image of a CSA basket is a logo for a fine Portland farm. The second image was for a manual about better management practices. I enjoyed the challenge of creating interesting images from abstract, dry business leadership concepts.

Both of these are ink and brush drawings (or paintings? I think of the process as drawing...)

ZombieDraw

Happy Halloween!

I was finally able to attend one of Aaron Miller's illustration workshops, and this month was a zombie-draw session. The model, painted up with makeup and prosthesis, looked rancid and undead. Unfortunately, from my angle I was unable to see a lot of the makeup, but I was still able to make a nice conte' and acrylic sketch.

Enjoy. (click to enlarge)

Taco Time!

Hungry folks rejoice, because Big Star has a taco truck! They asked me to paint it, and I gladly agreed.

This was, of course, a big project made trickier because I painted it outdoors. Chicago's weather is no friend to an artist working with oil based enamel. But launching into a chilly October, I'll certainly miss those scorching summer afternoons before long...

Some cheesy Chicago laws are preventing the truck from hitting the road just yet, but its live for catering and events. Lets all cross our fingers that the city get some sense, or payoffs, or whatever it'll take to let the food trucks get cooking...time to give Portland a run for its money!


The great looking photo above was taken by Bill Guerriero. Take a look at more of his fine photos at his Flickr stream.


I wanted to create an image that notes the burbon-bar style of Big Star while recognizing that the truck is sort of a booze-free entity of its own. Style wise, its sort of a child of Big Star, rather than a direct extension of it. While I was designing the images, the truck's menu hadn't yet been decided. So I tried to evoke some classic ingredients of taqueria cuisine.

(All these pics get bigger. Click 'em!)


I realized very quickly that drawing a big old al pastor taco just wasn't going to work in a sign-painter style. A taco would just look like a pile of mush, lacking any eye-catching hook. I decided that the images should promise the food without illustrating the simple looking dish. So we've got a rooster on the bottle, along with an onion, garlic, and cheese.


Some Chillies too.

What would Mexican food be without maize? The painted area and windows make up an awning that flips up when the truck is serving food.


We talked about having mariscos and drinks. Again, a simple painting of seafood stew didn't look nearly as appetizing as it tastes, so I stuck to the ingredients.


Keep an eye on"Consuelo's" Twitter feed to find when and where the truck will be serving.

Welcome To The Jungle

I've been painting. This 'Jungle' painting below was created with open acrylics, which allow a certain amount of blending. I wanted to create an image that you could relax with, to just let your eyes wander...which you won't experience until you click to see the full picture.


Here's a detail of the little man in the center. He's about the size of a nickel.


I also, finally, tried painting from a live model. This was a 1.5 hr pose. My goal was to get comfortable painting very fast, and to not get overly tedious with the paint or blending.

This little study isn't perfect, but there are some portions that I am really pleased with. Painting from a model was a lot of fun, so there will be much more in the future. Click the pic to look closer.

Muralizer -The Reckoning

Another season, another mural. The brewers at Lagunitas (yum,) teamed up with Big Star and Publican to brew The Zephyr, a new summer beer that launches today. The owners used The Violet Hour's ever-changing mural wall, directly across from Big Star, to celebrate the new brew with Zephyr inspired art.

The eminent tattoo artist Hannah Aitchison created a lovely black and white illustration for the project, which I was in charge of translating into a mural. I wanted to stay as faithful to her image and drawing style as possible, so I focused on designing around the central image (which didn't have the decorative border at that point,) in a way that enhances and compliments it, rather than competes for attention. A simple, graphic, summer-time interpretation of the Zephyr rail line (the beer's namesake,) was the theme.

After a lot of chalk, sweat, grid work, paint splots, and worried glances at looming storm clouds, the mural came out exactly as I'd hoped and the neighborhood seem to enjoy it.

Enjoy the images by clicking to enlarge, and take a swig of a Zephyr to toast summer's arrival.