Sunday, January 31, 2010

ROYAL FLUSH Magazine Presents: Conan O'Brien vs. Jay Leno! FREEBIRD vs. FRENEMY





HOT OFF THE DIGITAL PRESS! I just teamed up with the Royal Flush Crew and Josh Bernstein to produce these beauts. Josh is the editor, designer and all-round driving "tour-D" force for ROYAL FLUSH MAGAZINE, one of the hottest up and coming illustrated magazines in the country, for reals. Check out RFMAG.com to believe the hype. I did the illustrations in my new digital style and Josh designed the stellar backdrops and killer slogans. Can u guess what font he used? Hint - it's a beverage. T These particular slogans "FREE BIRD" and "FRENEMY" were the result of intense deliberations by the Royal Flush Team. Thank you Mike and Chanks for your great ideas! Along with producing a gorgeous, entertaining magazine, annually for now, Royal Flush is committed in 2010 to creating kick-ass weekly web content as well. So stay tuned... Find us on the web, or Facebook and see for yourself.

Well, NBC screwed up BIG TIME and Conan is paying the price, losing the job he'd always dreamed of having. Sad. But, if you saw the last episode of Conan's Tonight Show, you know this guy's head is in the right place. And he's going to be bigger than ever when he comes back on TV. You can't help but root for him. He ended his run with an unforgettable show (ex. sloth skeleton from the Smithsonian spraying beluga caviar onto an original Picasso) and with a heartfelt, classy monologue about the whole situation with NBC. He took the high road, then promptly strapped on a guitar and strode forth into an star-studded version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's anthem "Free Bird", featuring Will Ferrell on vocals, backed by, amongst others, ZZ Topp, Beck and Ben Harper. Whatta killer close!!! That's how you do it!! Conan is primed to rise again, to even further heights, hopefully soon in the Fall of 2010. However, his "Frenemy" Jay Leno comes off looking scummy, with blood stains on his half moon chin, all the while saying that him and Conan are friends and he feels really bad about it. Right...

Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer...chin distance!! Why didn't Jay just say to NBC "The Tonight Show is Conan's. I'll go find somewhere else to go do my thang." The rationalization Jay gave Oprah was fuzzy math. It wasn't the truth. Leno saw an opportunity and took it. Good for him. The true baddies are NBC. But going along with something still makes you complicit in the act.


Below is a look into the making of the illustrations. Started with sketch, black inks, digital coloring and a lot of elbow grease.















O'Brien getting the Tonight Show was a bold statement, clearly trying to shift an old institution to the next generation. Conan never got the chance to make it succeed, but he is THE talk show host for this generation. NBC will regret this decision for decades to come.



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

21st Century Style

Howdy - Started to experiment with a new style recently - Bold, black inks and digital coloring. Really digging the results! Love the graphic simplicity. Kinda remind me of Hanna Barbara/Dexter's Laboratory. I'm currently updating ALL Shapes, past and future, like this one below, and Ramburger in title above. Other SHAPES being updated include The Fronyon Man, Rooney Fruits, Scoopy, Dr. Broccoli and Queen Nadya. Opening up a whole new era. I plan on continuing with this style in other projects as well. I've been staunchly old school over the years, but am softening to the digital age of art. Will always create traditionally but this gives me another tool in the toolbox, i think giving my works a 2010 feel. Gotta keep up with industry standards. But besides that, i really find them appealing, so it's a win-win. Much to post in the coming weeks. Thanks for stopping by!