bnagel

I am very clumsy and will break just about anything I touch…  unless I want to break it.  Then I usually just break myself.

For example, when we were remodeling our bathroom.  With the very first swing of the sledge hammer, I knocked the old ceramic soap holder off the wall, and sent it smashing into my own foot.  The rest of the day went pretty slow.

And thats just one little example.  I don’t even want to get into the day I nearly got a hammer stuck in my head.

I’ve never liked the idea that wilderness has to be untouched by people in order to be important or interesting.

My wife and sister in law are starting up a business called I do Redo.  Its a bridal consignment sale.  You can check out their website at www.idoredosale.com. I did a bunch of their graphics and I think they turned out pretty good.

First is the logo showing a typical table at the sale full of wedding items like shoes and vases.

Next is a business card.  Most of the design and colors come from their website.

Next is a post card.  Once again the design comes from the website.  I also created the three icons used on the card.

And here is a screen grab of the website

I just watched Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and thought this week’s Illustration Friday word fit quite well.   Its strange how they can be so connected to the rest of the world through their fame and stardom, but yet so confined in their own little world of pain.

I’m also trying to fulfill a new years resolution of mine to include more people in my illustrations.  Apparently I’m also including more of the color blue.

The New Yorker is having their annual Eustace Tilley Cover contest.  If you don’t know, Eustace Tilley was the first New Yorker Cover, and every year, for their anniversary they have a contest to modernize Eustace.  I have chosen Tiger woods gazing at his next girl in the reflection on his club.  I tried to keep the same pose from the original cover by having Tiger use his club to examine the girl, much like how Eustace uses his monocle to examine the butterfly.

I could go into how, in my opinion, Eustace and his monocle represent the new entitled and educated class that had the time and money to spend their days examining butterflies.  And how butterflies are a symbol for our changing position over nature where we objectify and categorize nature while putting it on display in little glass cases to show off to our friends.   But I won’t get into that.  I’m not even sure how it would be relevant.

click here to see the original cover and learn more about the contest.

For some reason I always think of renewal as washing away the past.  It always seems to involve water.  And it also means turning things over and looking at them differently.  So, I’ve done both.

Here is a recent project I just completed for a group in northern Manhattan.  I really enjoyed this project, especially since I went to school in the area and really miss it there.

This first one is a typical street scene highlighting the people and a few things the group does.

The second illustration is for the cover of their book.  Its a skyline shot of Washington Heights, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan.

The third illustration is of a building cut out showing some of the things the group does.  Another layer of information and text with be added on top of all these drawings.  And they should look pretty good in the end.

A little double meaning here.  I’m not real happy with the illustration though.  Its missing something but I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps I don’t like the drastic contract between the hard lines of the planet rings and very sketchy ground or perhaps its just the ground that has no depth and or character.

I love chips.  In fact, when it comes to chips, I may have a problem.  Salty, crunchy, perfect.  I think I’ll go get some now.

As for the illustration.  Its just a generic Mexican restaurant with a basket of complimentary chips.  However I did want to experiment with an old technique where the main object of the illustration is the area with the highest contrast of light and dark.  I think it worked pretty well, especially considering how busy the rest of the illustration is.