Forsaking All Others
Over the weekend, the spouse and I caught Married Life starring Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan and the wonderful Patricia Clarkson. While we both enjoyed this neo-Hitchcock period drama very much, I loved the opening credits sequence. This was created by the Venice, California based Prologue studio. Loverly:
Paint Chips Ahoy
How often do you see a TV commercial that truly captures your eyes with beauty and subtlety? The Sherwin Williams campaign with animated paint chips does that for me. These play frequently on The Weather Channel; every time they come on, I sit and stare — they’re almost hypnotic. Wish I could say the same thing for other W.C. advertisers such as Newsmax or Crazy Critters.
Child Life, 1959 Style
Here are a few scans of the May 1959 issue of an obscure ’50s kiddie magazine called Child Life. All three are nice examples of stylish child-oriented book illustration of the era, but the magazine didn’t credit any of the artists — so any help on the IDs would be appreciated! This mag was a birthday gift for Christopher, my 1959 baby.
Alice in Wonderland, and at LitKids
I’ve been working on getting a swell Alice In Wonderland print up at LitKids. This is a tough one — out of the 30 prints I’ve tried so far, only about eight are good quality and sellable. The combination of a complex illustration and our dry weather means that my silk screen is getting clogged earlier and the images are coming out faint. I might have to put LitKids on hold until our weather gets moister.
The ones that did come out are really nice, however. I love the interplay between my design and the tinted John Tenniel illustrations from the 1946 edition of Through the Looking Glass I used. Next step: getting it on the Etsy front page!
Doggies Need Haircuts, Too
Something we fished out of the trash: an Oster electric dog clipper in its original box. It was missing a few parts, but I did manage to scan these swell illustrations from the instruction booklet. Who knew small animal grooming was so complex? I love the very ’60s character of the drawing on the bottom.
Good Humor Man
On the occasion of his dad’s 80th birthday, illustrator Drew Friedman shares a batch of vintage book covers from the man in question, Bruce Jay Friedman. I remember enjoying the elder Friedman’s The Lonely Guy’s Book Of Life in college, and I’ve always been a fan of Drew’s stippled portraits of borscht belt comedians and b-movie actors of yore (and now we’re Facebook friends!). It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the two were related. Happy birthday.
Turning Over a New Leaf
After a year, I think it’s time to give a sneak peek of my new venture — one that grew out of my frustrated inability to find work as an illustrator. I’m not going to dwell too much on the negative here, but lately it has been very difficult to find any freelance work at all. Last year, I put a lot of time and effort into sending out dozens of self-promotional postcards, only to find a chorus of crickets chirping in response. It was depressing as hell, but instead of throwing myself off a cliff I decided to channel that creative energy into something that’s on my terms. I’m making my own art and will try selling it on Etsy.
The photo below is the first fruit of my efforts. It’s a drawing of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables screen printed atop facing pages from the book that bears her name. This was an, how we say, interesting experience. Many of the prints came out off-register and with blobby looking lines, but I might be deluded enough to believe those elements add to their funky handmade charm. They’ll get more professional looking in time. Anne is the first, but I have great designs ready for five more characters. The process has been an expensive learning experience, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. Each print is completely unique, and I think there are a lot of factors involved (nostalgia for printed books, new mommies wanting something special for their kids) that might possibly resonate with the Etsy crowd. Most of all, it’s a lovingly handcrafted project that totally reflects my style, not something someone else imposed on me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s already a success.
The Etsy store is not officially open yet. I want to get another character printed up so it’s not just Anne sitting there by herself. The shop ought to be going live in a few weeks.
Rick Astley, Plagiarist
Found on twitter, a flickr set of designs that copied other designs. It appears that many designers, especially the ones that do trendy indie rock concert posters, are hoping that their target audience is too ignorant to notice when an attractive illustration is a copy of an earlier, more effective piece of art.
This somewhat relates to something I noticed when listening to Rick Astley’s Greatest Hits collection (don’t laugh; I think Stock Aitken Waterman were geniuses at what they did). Compare the opening percussion on “Never Gonna Give You Up” with the opening percussion on “Whenever You Need Somebody.” The bugger is that these two songs sat side by side on the same album. Say it ain’t so, Rick!
For a little extra ’80s awesomeness, I’m adding Rick’s “Take Me To Your Heart”:
Friday Fun
Christopher had the day off work today, so we decided to head out to Scottsdale and Tempe for some outdoor fun. Our first stop was Desert Botanical Gardens. This place is a a total snowbird tourist magnet, but it’s also a Phoenix area institution that reminds us of the beautiful flora and fauna that can still be found around here. C. had free passes, which included a special butterfly exhibit. The butterflies were great, and several of them were oddly attracted to my green shirt. After the gardens, we went thrift shopping and I found a set of small brown melamine bowls for my secret project. Then it was lunch at our favorite Mexican eatery in the area, La Fonda (a place that has stood in the same Scottsdale strip mall since I was a wee one!). We then drove to nearby Tempe to view the lake pouring water into the Salt River, and an exhibit on Chuck Jones at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The Jones exhibit was fantastic. It was mostly paintings and cericels from Jones’ personal collection, along with pencil drawings and other wonderful artifacts from the Warner Bros. cartoon vaults. A nice day — now I’m exhausted!
Inspiration: The Night Zoo
I’ll put the cover of The Night Zoo by illustrator Bob Staake here as a little pick-me-up to get me going through the week. Staake drew these animals on paper, cut them out with an x-acto, then arranged and spruced them up digitally. It falls into the kind of whimsical and charming stuff that I dig.
My own creative venture is coming along well. Despite a few mishaps, I hope to have it live this Spring. It seems like I’ve been working on this thing forever (just over a year, in fact), but the light at the end of the tunnel is appearing. Better make sure it isn’t a train.
They’re Fantastic, Made ‘o Plastic
Just finished scanning and uploading a bunch of random imagery for my Ephemera, Ads Ads Ads and Cool Vintage Illustration flickr sets. A few came from a Modern Plastics magazine annual from 1966 that C. recently acquired — including this lovely ad for Plexiglas (one ’s’ thank you). These also went into the Vintage Industry flickr group. Ephemeral fun for all!
Foxy and Brassy
Now that Christmas is over, I can reveal the main gift I gave to Christopher. Design Within Reach sells these Bosse brass animal figurines, reproduced from Viennese designs originally sold in the ’40s. Knowing how he loves animals and midcentury mod design, this was perfect for him. I got the fox pictured above — so cute (and tiny)!
Fine Feathered Friends
I’m pleased as punch with the illustration for our holiday card for this year. Best wishes for the season, everyone.
Witches’ Night Out
It’s Halloween! What spookiness will be planned? We’re having our yearly ritual of turning off the porch light, avoiding the neighborhood kiddies, shutting ourselves into a back room, and watching a scary movie. Because needy little sugar-addicted brats are the scariest things on earth! Here’s the only Halloween decor we have at the homestead:
Despite the avoidance of trick or treaters, I want to state that I am far from the Halloween version of a Scrooge. Earlier this week, I uploaded some scans of these terrific vintage “You’ll Die Laughing” cards that my friend Julie sent me a few years back. These wonderfully dark cards were illustrated by Mad man Jack Davis. Check out the four that I have in my Kiddie Korner flickr set.
Finally, I’ve also posted a Halloween-themed edition of my online comic, Two Bunnies and a Duck. I’ve been plugging away at the biweekly Two Bunnies for almost two years. While the project serves as a good way to keep my drawing and Photoshop skills honed, the thing barely gets any visitors or comments and it’s very discouraging. Please visit and, if you want to cheer me up, leave a comment. Thanks. Boo!
John Strejan Update
Remember that groovy Lady Godiva painting I posted about a couple of months ago? Shortly after acquiring it, I was having some difficulty finding any info on the painting or its creator, John Strejan. After posting a photo of the art on flickr, I heard from Strejan’s nephew. He confirmed that the painting was indeed by his uncle, painted in the ’60s before he became well-known as a pop-up book artist. Furthermore, he shared photos of four other paintings from the same period!
Love these. Mr. Strejan must have had a thing for full-figured gals.
