Inspiration: I met the Walrus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk

Back in 1969, 14-year-old Beatles fan Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto. Armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, Levitan convinced Lennon to do an interview. 38 years later, director Josh Raskin created an animated film using Levitan's original interview recording.

Written directed and animated by Josh Raskin
Pen illustrations by James Braithwaite
Computer illustration by Alex Kurina

Love the combination of Barithwaite's 'yellow submarine-ish'pen + ink drawing with victorian ad cuts, newspaper articles and photographs.
Also love how Raskin animates the character of Jerry Levitan solely by opening his mouth like an old fashioned marionette.
A lesson in less is more.
Beautiful and witty.

New Work: Prints

I've been silk screening up a storm this weekend.
Love being with my squeegee and ink.
Completed a 3rd edition of my underwood typewriter
and printed 2 new pieces Birdie and Eloise shoe.

New Work: Aries girl

This is an illustration I just finished for a book I'm working on.
It's published by Penguin Books and will be released in the Spring.

Candid Obama shots

Happy Election Day

Go Obama Go.

New Work: Ad for Air New Zealand

Here is the full ad as it appeared in Extra magazine.



Art direction: Ron Spohn at Spohn Design (nice guy)

Animation of my typewriter

Marc Whiteway and I have begun collaborating on some animations using my illustrations and his flash skills.
Here's the first one.

Dwell Bedding

I'm working on a Baby themed gift card.
For colour inspiration I've turned to the baby collection of Dwell Bedding.
I love their sophisticated palettes and interesting colour combinations like the grey, ochre and turquoise in top sample.
Gorgeous.
Have you ever seen more a sophisticated rug for a newborn?

New sketches: Shoes

New Work: T is for Tap dance

New Work: Financial Post Magazine

Art director Brianna Freitag

Sarah Palin Flow chart

from the fabulous swiss miss.

New work: Peggy Olson from Mad men

Mad men

Am obsessed with Madmen at the moment.

Michael Bierut 79 Short Essays on Design

I'm reading Michael Bierut's 79 Short Essays On Design

It's a collection of his essays which have previously appeared in Emigre, Adbusters, I.D. and mostly on his blog Design Observer.

Anyone who saw Michael Bierut in the documentary Helvetica knows that he is both hilarious and really smart. His humour and insightfulness come through loud and clear in these essays which range in topic from art to politics to commentary on revered figures from the 'design pantheon' including Paul Rand and Tibor Kalman.

I really groove with his insistence in the first essay that designers (and illustrators by extension) should push themselves to learn about much more than design. As he states " The more things you're interested in, the better your work will be."

Real Simple "How to Dress" Story

I have 6 illustrations in this month's issue of Real Simple magazine.
Here is the opening illustration for the story.



ps. I'm back from New York and can be reached at 416. 515. 0628.