Roll Back (The Portland Mercury)

Here is an editorial piece I did for The Portland Mercury about removing a planned streetcar extension in the Portland area. Click here for the full article.

Wordstock Feature - Portland Mercury

A few weeks ago, Art Director Suji Allen at The Portland Mercury asked if I'd like to do a feature piece for the upcoming Wordstock Festival. The article would need about 10 author portraits with some extra character to them. After a few drafts, I decided on a style that I thought would work well, and some notes on what I'd like to do for each author and proposed it. Suji and the Arts Editor were really into it and had some great additional suggestions. I started with the Charles Yu illo and they were still really into it so I continued with the rest. Heather greatly contributed to these with simple, bold and loose coloring. They liked the look so much, they decided to run one (Zachary Schomburg) on the cover! I always enjoy doing work for the Mercury and it was nice to have a much larger than usual contribution to this issue. Below are the 10 author illustrations. 

You can view and read the Portland Mercury article online here. 

Find out more about Wordstock here.

 Isaac Marion

Diana Abu-Jaber

 Steve Almond

 Jennifer Egan

 Anne Enright

 Lauren Oliver

 Michael Ondaatje

 Zachary Schomburg (also used as cover art)

 Daniel Woodrell

Charles Yu

Here are a few photos of the printed paper. It's a great, balanced layout put together by the Merc:

Recent Work Update

Things have been busy lately. Here is an update of some projects I've worked on recently or that have recently been published:

Frosh Student Guide 2011 Cover // Offbeat // Art Director: Elsa Hahne

This is one of my favorite pieces this year. I loved drawing the giant gumbo dish. It was great working with Elsa on this, she pushed the crab bits larger and larger and I was happy to go along with it. I played with some layer options to get a nice glow to certain areas of the color. I worked with Elsa on the text color and placement to ensure this would work as a good, eye-catching cover.

Beer on the Bayou // Offbeat // Art Director: Elsa Hahne

Another fun piece for Offbeat about one of my favorite subjects, beer! You can read the full article here. This has a lot of good information on the growing craft beer scene in Louisiana. My wife, Heather has begun coloring some of my work and she did an excellent job balancing the hues and adding just the right amount of pop to the right areas of this one.

Queasy Rider // Portland Mercury // Art Director: Suji Allen

Full article here. This one ran in black and white in the paper, but color online. Heather did the color for this one too.

Just Crazy Enough to Die // Portland Mercury // Art Director: Suji Allen

Another quick weekend illustration for the Mercury. Here is the full article online. Suji knew exactly what she was looking for, so this one came together pretty easily.

X-MEN Variant // Comix Gone Rogue // Publisher: Edwin Vazquez

This is a great project I was invited to submit to. Basically, some comic companies released blank covered comic books with just the masthead (presumably for industry signatures or sketches). Edwin distributed these to a variety of great artists (not necessarily mainstream comic artists) to fill in the cover as they see fit. Fun stuff! NSFW - Other variant submissions and more info can be seen here. 

The Logic of Sex Laws - Portland Mercury

Here's another illustration for the Portland Mercury.

Portland Mercury Editorial Illustrations

Here are a few recent editorial illustrations I did for the Portland Mercury. There is a section on their website that has all the images I've done for them, kinda neat: http://www.portlandmercury.com/gyrobase/ImageArchives?by=2431044&section=22100 . Also the Art Director over there, Scrappers, recently did an interview on Escape from Illustration Island, IT'S GREAT STUFF!: http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/2011/03/02/efii-podcast-episode-73-art-director-justin-scrappers-morrison/

Bikes, Brews, Banks, Oh My! - Portland Mercury

Here are a few spot illustrations I did for the current issue of The Portland Mercury. I like the black and white versions a little more than the color versions.


READ THE FULL ARTICLE WITH COLOR IMAGES ONLINE HERE.

Cycle of Violence - Portland Mercury

New editorial illustration for the Portland Mercury! Check out the article here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/cycle-of-violence/Content?oid=2940638

Kicking Our Own Ass - Portland Mercury

Here's an illustration for the latest Portland Mercury. Full article here. I did this character a few months ago, and they had an update on the story that the character worked for - so there ya go!

Crisis Comes Home - Portland Mercury

Here's a new illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. The article is online here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/crisis-comes-home/Content?oid=2625752

Fixing the Future - Portland Mercury

Here's another one I did for the Portland Mercury regarding Oregon's current brokeness. I had a bit of extra time on this one, which was nice. I took some reference shots for the 'pose' and had a little more time to think about the composition. You can read the full article here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/fixing-the-future/Content?oid=2574437

Shoot the Horses - The Portland Mercury

Here's an illustration I did for the Portland Mercury. They loved the illustration, but decided not to run the article in the end. The Merc posted it on their blog though: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/05/13/best-illustration-we-never-got-to-run

Portland Mercury - Curiouser and Curiouser

Here is an illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. It was a simple one, but I'm happy with how it turned out: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/curiouser-and-curiouser/Content?oid=2264200

Loan Shark Hunting

Here is a new illustration for the Portland Mercury. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, and it started with an awesome concept from the AD.

I tried something a little new with this one, I inked it on watercolor paper. Usually I just ink on sketch or bristol paper. It's kinda hard to tell the difference when it's all finished, textured and colored.. but the ink on the paper looked really cool. So yeah, paper does make a difference.

Read the full article here.

Portland Mercury - Houses Not Handcuffs

Here is a new black and white illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. I did the line work with a nib and speedball ink, then filled in the rest of the blacks and did a wash with a sumi brush and sumi ink.

Full article here...

CRC in the Crosshairs

I did this editorial illustration for an article in the most recent Portland Mercury. This was a combination of pencil, ink wash and digital manipulation and color.

You can see the illustration in context and read the full article by clicking here.

Smoke and Fire - Portland Mercury

I did a new editorial illustration for this week's Portland Mercury. You can read the full article here. The color version is online and the gray version is in print the printed article this week.

I used a few different tools for inking this. It's been a while since I used a nib, but I used a HUNT 99 for most of the line work on the city image. I filled in the blacks and did the line work on the rest of the image with a size 0 sable brush from Rosemary & Co. Also, I added a bit of spray effect for the flame using a toothbrush. Coloring was done in Photoshop.

Money Talks - Portland Mercury

New illustration for this weeks Portland Mercury. Read the article here.

Portland Mercury - Budget Cuts

I did another illustration for the Portland Mercury out this week. This was a fun one to draw/ink. You can see the illustration in the context of the article here.

Portland Mercury - There goes the Neighborhood

Here is an illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. It was a fun job, and I got to work with the new art director over there. Good deal. Read the full story here.

House Poor - Portland Mercury

Here is another illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. You can read the full article here.