New image for sale on Society6

I haven't added any images to my Society6 store in ages, so it's about time! This was a cover I did three years ago for the Weekly Alibi and I've always been fond of it. It was for a feature article about fast food culture in America -- Considering how much Americans (and Canadians!) love fast food I figured having a mischievous cherub taking aim at the hearts of consumers with a ketchup-tipped arrow would be appropriate.

When I was in college the Harvey's value burger was a nice treat. At $1.70 (or was that $1.20?) it was considerably and suspiciously cheaper than the regular burgers. I don't think they serve it any more and I don't want to think too hard about why that might be. Cutting the beef with sawdust? Serving old patties? All I can say is that they were delicious and economical and never sickened me.

McDonald's fries are the classic choice, but I find myself gravitating towards the Swiss Chalet version. The bits of skin on the Swiss Chalet ones indicate to me that I'm eating real potatoes -- so wholesome! New York Fries serves Butter Chicken Poutine and it is terrifying. The large has 970 calories and 47g of fat.

Mmmm.

SXSW for Alibi

Hello, Austin! The Weekly Alibi asked me to do an illustration for their article about South by Southwest. The author recounts what SXSW is like from a musician's point of view -- the road trip, the concerts, the meetings, the hanging out.

After having worked for the Weekly Alibi for years, I almost feel like I'm developing a particular style for their magazine. Kinda whimsical, bouncy, and fun. And a predominantly warm colour palette. Because New Mexico is probably warm a lot of the time. I wish my artistic decision was based on more than that, but there you go!

One more thing: the author of the article wrote that their Toyota van smelled bad. Those are bad smell fumes. Not any other kind :P.

New Macleans illustration on newsstands next week

My latest illustration for Macleans. Look for this one to come out next week, subscribers will already have it. Nothing beats having an illustration published and mailed to my door three days after I've emailed it to the art director!

I got this job the same day another job was due (one I'm really excited to share, that'll be an epic December post!). I was exhausted but I don't turn down work. Well, in about five years I've turned down two jobs and that's it. In fact, this other job came in during the same aforementioned epic project -- I can't say no!

The subject of the illustration had one of those iconic green turtle sandboxes, where he first showed his love of construction sites and building things. I knew I wanted to use the sandbox as the framing device. It's fun to do a non-rectangular frame to mix it up from time to time. I've noticed that I use water in a lot of my frames, so this time I wanted to include it in a different way. The subject lived on a lake and enjoyed fishing in the summers and hockey in the winters. Sometimes I depict things too literally, it's tough for me to make stuff even a little abstract. I think I managed to do it a little in this one. Baby steps!

Back to the tiredness. You know those times when you're so exhausted you have to shake yourself awake every five seconds, like you're a teen in a Freddy Krueger movie? That was me on this job. I'd been pulling sixteen hour days for eleven days straight and I was coming off of an all-nighter leading up to this. My definition of all-nighter = awake for twenty-four hours straight. I realize that some people define it merely as staying up all night and going to bed the next morning or afternoon. That's sad. Anyway, by the end of this job I'd been up for about thirty-four hours. I felt a little rough. I think you can tell by the following sketch (which was for my purposes only, I don't submit sketches in this state to art directors!):

And here's the sketch after I attacked it with my Wacom tablet:

Inking something with a brush becomes really challenging if you are nodding off every five seconds. The brush started diving into the paper of its own accord. Tryin' to screw with me! But I totally won. I beat that double-zero sable brush by technical knock-out. It was close, though...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Beer-o-ween! This is a group of spots I did for Alibi magazine's Hallowe'en issue, for their "Bewitching Brews" feature. A really fun, weird concept! I enjoy doing a series of spots, though I don't often get the chance (I did a series of twelve spots for Alibi before, but those were in black and white). It's a fun challenge to use the same colour palette in different ways and to include certain design elements to balance them out (lightning, bats, smoke, moon n' stars).

Sketches:

I love everything about Hallowe'en. I love the shapes and colours of all the different kinds of candy, roasted pumpkin seeds, the iconic look of classic monster movies (check out James Rolfe's Cinemassacre Monster Madness for some great reviews of horror movies new and old!), trick-or-treating, those hella heavy UNICEF boxes we wore around our necks to collect people's change... Later on I went to artsy college so the fun became creating awesome costumes using the paint, cardboard, glue, and duct tape that we already had on hand. One year I was Kabuki (from a comic by David Mack) and another year I went as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill.

Here's the cover I did a few years back for the Weekly Alibi's Hallowe'en issue. I got to illustrate those fabulous classic movie monsters and I couldn't have been more pleased to do it!

When I was a kid my mom sewed our costumes so we always had sturdy, quality stuff. The piéce de resistance was a witch's hat. My mom bought some sort of thick, synthetic fibre string that she unravelled to make a long, tangly bird's nest of witchy hair that she sewed into the hat's brim. My classmates were always impressed!

Pictured below: Sleeping Beauty fairy godmother costume (modelled by my sister), witch costume (modelled by me, and sewn large enough to accomodate the inevitable winter jacket -- This is Canada, after all!)

Happy Hallowe'en!

"Lucille" on Jazz and Draw

"Jazz and Draw" is a blog created by Philippe Debongnie. It's a great space where jazz and the images that were inspired by it can be enjoyed together. Phillippe has featured my illustration "B.B.'s Lucille" on his blog, and I couldn't be happier! If you love music and art, visit "Jazz and Draw" and tell M. Debongie I saw hi!

B.B.'s "Lucille".

I'm excited to report that I'm collaborating with author Ryan W. Cox and whiz-bang illustrators Zela Lobb, Dushan Milic, and Andy Potts on a project! It's called "A Circus Mind" and it's pretty darn cool. Ryan's written some poems inspired by great songs, musicians, and bands. One of which, "B.B.'s Lucille" I've had the privilege of illustrating.

Here's the story of B.B.'s Lucille, as told by B.B. himself. It's lovely stuff.


In the sketch I had ghostly images of two men fighting in the smoke, but I decided to simplify the image.

Ryan's book has many, many poems in it so it will be awhile before the project is done -- But it's shaping up to be quite a journey!

Pop-o-matic Bubble: Shameless magazine cover

Who remembers "Trouble" the game with the Pop-o-Matic Bubble(tm?)? I created this cover for Shameless magazine, a grassroots Canadian publication for young women and trans youth who are active in arts, culture, and current events.

I used Trouble to illustrate the game of Canadian politics, where politicians are racing around in circles stomping on each other in order to grab seats and "win". Our girl here is a bit tired of the rigmarole and is getting set to burst the bubble.

Sketch!

Click to enlarge and see the silkscreen-y glory

And here's a close-up to show the handcrafted silkscreeniness of the piece. I hope some of the detail shows up on the cover!

This is a cover I did for Shameless a number of years ago. I was so pleased when the editor got in touch with me to do another cover for them! It's interesting to see how my work has changed over the years. I've started using a warmer colour palette and my technical skills with silkscreen printing have vastly improved. I think my drawing has gotten a bit better, too!

I am glad I got the chance to work for Shameless again and to revisit my first job with them. Seeing how I've evolved over the years is very motivating. I'm gonna keep on truckin'!