Crazy4Cult New York!

Crazy4Cult 2012!! In NY!!  So easy to get to from Philly!  And yet on that day, I am up in Vermont!  However, the day had many other wonderful things happening not in the general perusal of this little blog.  Let's just say it involved a change of the face book status:).   So I've been pretty disENGAGED with my blog over the summer, so much so that this piece for one of the biggest shows of my year, has opened without promotion from me, and the piece has already sold! I finished this about two months ago, and then had in the studio itching for release only to be late to the party.  Yarg!!  Anyhow, the show has done really well, and great to see the NY press coverage.  So here it is, "The Path of Shaun", 9" x 12", ink and gouache on paper.

Like the maps I've been doing of late, I think the dogged pursuit of simply following the character tells a lot about the movie.  In this case, a pretty intense back and forth between a few places, the Winchester, Shaun's house, Liz's house, and all of the zig-zaggier path come when the zombies come and Shaun gets out of his rut.  It's a sort of dry approach - but I think of them as doing two things: they allow the viewer to follow the experience of the entire movie in a really condensed frame, with some fun little details, and humor, and they also have a bit of an info-graphic/anthropological study feel.   I do try to shape them for clarity, but when you start connecting the dots, these patterns start emerging from the plot in a very simple stripped down way.  There not all that much control in these very controlled piece and that's really fun.  I'm working on more movie maps for a two man show in January at G1988's Venice location - and those are getting really crazy!:)

There's some fun little details around the Winchester.

photo by HalfBaiked

Apparently, the line went three quarters of the way around the block!!  Hats off to Jensen and Katie at G1988 for putting this all together and doing a lot of great promo work!!

Recent illos

"Wild Flag," The New Yorker, April 2, 2012

"The Dark Knight Rises," The New Yorker, June 4-11, 2012 

"When Key Employees Clash— Experts: Jim Southern and Peter Kelly," Harvard Business Review, June 2012

Here are some pieces from the past few months. "The Dark Knight Rises" illustration and the HBR portraits are on newsstands now. 

For fun, I put together an unedited, behind-the-scenes look at the making of a few illustrations. You can see the Wild Flag process here.

New Website Up and Running!

The new site is up, a little cleaner, a little easier, more work, more . . . pizazz?  Anyway, have a look - I'm still in sort of a beta testing period.  So there maybe some small changes yet to be done, but it feels good to have it up and working.

"North by Northwest Passage" for Alfred Hitchcock Show, "Suspense and Gallows Humor"

"North by Northwest Passage"

22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 I've loved "North by Northwest" for a since the first time I saw it - the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota.  So - I thought I'd throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie - the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn't find reference for (but for "North by Northwest", I figured I'd take a little liberty).  Also not included are the 1212 Michgan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood.    Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.  Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the '51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the '52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in.  I took color from the footage to get some of that "technicolor" feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass' opening credit arrows to show the action.

Anywho - the show opens at the Gallery1988 Venice location on April 13th!

(detail)

progress - pencils to color blocking, to black line on top

The remnants of my notes.

"It's a Magic Trick"

This takes me back to my days at Pratt! Watch illustrator Lynn Pauley teach her signature line technique to students at Delaware College of Art and Design in the video below. The actual drawing starts at the 3:45 minute mark.

Figure Drawing class for Animators and Illustrators from eatmysocksoff on Vimeo. Filmed March 2012.

jasharawan.com 4.0

I just revamped my website—check it out!

Rumbletoid

My friend and Philadelphia consiglieri Josh Longo is now posting for LostAtEMinor and was very generous in throwing up some of my Freddie Mercury portraits for the New Illustration section.  VIVA FREDDIE!! And thanks, Josh!  But enough about me - let's talk about Josh.  Josh is an industrial designer and teaches at Pratt in the ID studios next door to the Communication Design Dept and sometimes stops by my class on Mondays.  We share bus rides back and forth from Philly to Pratt in Brooklyn - and like schoolgirls on a sleepover, we say we should sleep and then talk the whole time.  

     Josh has a pretty amazing CV based mostly on his 3D work in Longoland, but for the past few years he's been doing what most of us illustrators talk about, but never REALLY do - and that's branch out.  He's been developing his 2D work and is doing some amazing stuff.  Not to say that Josh wasn't already great at drawing - he was - but moving from drawing as a preliminary for 3D work, and doing drawing and painting as a finish in and of itself is a really interesting difference.  It's been fascinating to watch.  We have a lot of similar influences and his stuff has inspired a lot of the more recent painting I've been doing and vice-versa, which is a blast.  The way he attacks pieces and compositions reminds that it's supposed to be fun - that the if a piece doesn't have intuition, that it's probably lacking in inspiration, too.  If you haven't already, check out rumbletoid - and check out his sketchbooks.

Citizen Conn

"Citizen Conn," The New Yorker, February 13 & 20, 2012

My first full page for The New Yorker illustrates "Citizen Conn," a new short story by Michael Chabon. I'm a big fan of Chabon's—The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay inspired my senior project at Pratt and a while back I did a few illustrations that ran in "The Escapists," a Dark Horse comic series sequel to Kavalier & Clay. This short story is a return to the world of comic book creators for Chabon.

I had longer for this piece than a typical NYer illustration and much of the time was spent conceptualizing. Here are the thumbnails:

(click to enlarge)

Four of thumbnails were chosen and developed into rough sketches:

(click to enlarge)

There was some debate among the editors as to whether to go with a literal scene from the story or not. As a result, two of the roughs were asked to be developed into final inks.

(click to enlarge)

The literal direction won out in the end (although I went back to the drawing board one more time!).

"Citizen Conn" appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show

This weekend I had the pleasure of setting up my "One Hour of TV a Week" Show at Gallery 543 in Building 543, a communal space for the headquarters of URBN Inc (which for the uninitiated encompasses Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People and Terrain) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard .  The space is . . . pretty amazing.  Coi ponds?  Yup.  40 ft tall bamboo indoors?  Yup?  Handy parking for WWII era aircraft carriers?  You better believe it.  You can also get a good cup of coffee and tasty lunch if you want to make a day of it.

I want to extend a big thank yous to: Lauren Addis for her support of the show and allowing me to do an extended setup (and make an extended mess), Josh Longo (of Longoland fame) for helping paint boats and put on the finishing touches, and most of all to Michelle Provencal who not only put up with my turning our apartment into a disaster zone, but who also helped out this past week with all the last minute preparations that I never would have been able to finish on my own (as well as my manic stress-isodes).  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

On to the show!!  So - some of you may recognize a few of the pieces from the "History of the World" show that was up earlier this year created with Owen Sherwood.  Initially, this show was going to be my half of that show, but - I like doing work - and wanted to repurpose some of the more autobiographical pieces from "History" into a different slant. So with a few new pieces and tweaks on old ideas, here's the "One Hour of TV a Week" show.

A little stage setting . . .

Is that . . . ? Yes, you're correct.  That is an aircraft carrier
looming outside of that large glass window.

"I'll Stop If You Stop", Latex Paint (thanks Josh!)

"National Little League" and "Bicentennial"

"I'll Stop if you Stop" detail

"I Hate Brian Smith", 6" x 6" drawings on paper.  

The story is - I got beat up by Brian Smith a lot.  Many bloody
noses - most of them deserved - I was a tag-along crybaby.  And I'm
still trying to get the last word in 23 years later.  Eat it Smith.

"Cancer" and "Magic 2"

"Magic 2" detail

"Cancer" detail

"A Concept of Four at Two" and "Magic" with the model planes I made and painted,
with help from the lovely Michelle Provencal.

p.s. - Do you know how small the landing gear is on a 1/144 scale plane?
About the size of this "I" with two "O"s on either side.  Teensy.

On the left are two new paintings - "Duplex" and "Ghostrunners" (shown in
my previous post)

"Duplex" detail - That's our old duplex featuring our upstairs duplex mate, Mrs. Maynard.
She was a nice old lady who kept to herself - we rarely saw her but well into her seventies she'd be
out shoveling snow at five in the morning if there was snow to shovel.

"Mango's, 1988", Latex Paint.  This is my squad from 1988 when I was ten and my
first team after I left National Little league for Twin Town Little League in the hinterlands
of upstate NY.

My little workstation for people to make cannonballs featuring: gliders as a reward for cannonball making,
my old D&D wallet (thanks Kate Glasheen), a vintage Queen postcard (thanks Colin O'Higgins), an old gas can I love (thanks N.C.), Wiffle Ball boxes (thanks Jen and Jed Heuer) and some childhood favorite books from Mom and Dad.

And to finish, I'll take an aircraft carrier and jet combo.

Make it a double.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show Dec 6th!

Im getting ready for my new show at the URBN campus in building 543 next week!  At this point it's half panic, half excitement getting ready for the install.  The show is really based on a lot of childhood images: little league, toys, fights . . . ahh . . . the good times.  So if you're around the city of Brotherly Love on December 6th (or anytime through the first week in January) swing by the amazing URBN campus down in the Navy Yard (pretty amazing in it's own right) and check out the new stuff!

"Ghostrunners" 22" x 22", gouache on BFK

Black Star

"Black Star," The New Yorker, December 5, 2011

Mos Def and Talib Kweli formed Black Star in the late 90's as a response to gangsta rap. They are currently on tour and will be at New York's Best Buy theater on December 3rd.

I just read that Mos Def is changing his name to Yasiin. He'll always be Ford Prefect to me...

Stevezee

Just sent my piece out for the Bill Murray show out at Gallery1988 opening November 3rd!

Here's a little of the piece in progress.  Fun to do a big portrait!

"Stevezee" 24" x 24" Gouache on paper mounted on wood panel

Gillian Welch

"Gillian Welch," The New Yorker, October 24, 2011

Here's my illo of singer-songwriter Gillian Welch for this week's New Yorker (along with some early sketches before I went in a "more Gillian / less cowboy hat" direction) and here's a song from her latest album, "The Harrow & The Harvest"—



She's performing at the Beacon Theater in New York on Saturday, October 22.

Video Gamery

"Forget-me-not", an homage to the blessed konami code, savior of the weekend Contra player.

"Nailbiter on Custom Track 'Hunter'"

As a kid who grew up with NPR, and only one hour of TV a week my only contact with video games was at friends' houses.  It was much treasured.  So here's my two contributions to the genre from the iam8bit show and the video game show at Gallery1988 Venice opening Friday the 16.  God bless Nintendo.

House of Bamboo

"House of Bamboo," The New Yorker, August 29, 2011

Here's a quick NYer illo I did for Sam Fuller's House of Bamboo— "starring... Robert Ryan as the ruthless kingpin of Tokyo's post-war underworld!"