With that mug and those socks, I’m not sure how kids could resist hearing his story. It’s unfair, really.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

Yeah, I said fella. He’s a boy. You’ll have to take my word.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

Never missing an opportunity to work with a client that constantly tells me I deserve a Caldecott (seriously, she’s very kind and complementary), I took on the banner gig and had a heck of a lot of fun populating the piece with a menagerie of beloved children’s book characters. You’ve got the Frog Prince there, and one of the Three Little Pigs; the now real Velveteen Rabbit on the other side of the book from one of the Three Blind Mice who got corrective eye surgery. Then of course there’s Anton the Psychic Tiger, Triceratops from the book “Triceratops,” and Carl, the Fox Bookie.

Carl was late because he had business to attend to. It’s best not to ask about Carl’s business.

Anyway, above is a fun little progress image I made, showing the illustration in sketch stage, then inked, then watercolored. If you want to see the completed image, head over to Vintage Kids’ Book My Kid Loves! And spend some time exploring the site, you’ll be very glad you did.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

Boy howdy, there has been a flurry of activity between this post and last. Hopefully I’ll soon get around to a longer post about my trip to London and gallery show there, but for now I’ll just say it was great. Even the part where the drunk guy in the pub bathroom accused me of being Canadian, asked if I played Sudoku, then literally kicked my butt out the bathroom door. I assume he was some sort of Lord or something. Just like Downton Abbey! SO EXOTIC!

For now, here’s a quick(ish) portrait of my favorite eccentric French Dadaist composer, Erik Satie. He’s regarded as the father of ambient music, coining the term musique d’ameublement (“furniture” or “wallpaper” music) to describe a genre of music meant to be played in the background. Satie is also the genius behind the three Gymnopedies compositions, a snippet from the first of which can be heard here. And he owned over 100 umbrellas. Hero.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

With one more week until the big gallery show in London, I decided the self portrait on my bio page needed an overhaul. I’m not one to toot my own horn (I hire immigrant laborers to do that. Dutch flugelhorn quintet, pay them in mayonnaise), but I think I did a heck of a job capturing my rather striking visage. The enigmatic expression, chiseled features. Talk about a work of art, right?

Didn’t do such a bad job with the guy in the cardigan, either.

In other news, those of you with iPhones may be interested in following me on Instagram, the fun photo-sharing app. You should also follow me on Pinterest, especially if you like illustration and macaroni and cheese recipes.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram!

]]> http://www.zackrock.com/blog/2012/01/30/send-in-the-clownfish/feed/ 1 http://www.zackrock.com/blog/2012/01/20/cover-song/ http://www.zackrock.com/blog/2012/01/20/cover-song/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:04:58 +0000 Zack http://www.zackrock.com/blog/?p=1305

The final piece of the puzzle before I head to London for my class’s gallery show at Foyles Bookstore. For the book cover, I wanted to strike a vintage chord without going too far overboard. I’m no Saul Bass. More of a Saul Guppy.

I also wanted to introduce Melvin himself, give a sense of his personality before the story even begins. Hey! What a fun-loving, musical goat! Who’s also ambidextrous! Huh. Okay.

For the strictly-hypothetical published version of the book, I hope to have the purple area of the tuxedo cut out, exposing a small part of a completely purple and velvety hardbound cover beneath. I’d also hope the sunburst design surrounding the tux would be stamped in gold foil, and that the book itself would be sprayed with some sort of consumeristic pheromone that would force anyone within a 10-foot radius to buy a copy. As long as we’re in the realm of the hypothetical here.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Late last night, after spending a few days recovering from my big MA hand in and acquiring the world’s wussiest cold (if colds are jazz, I’ve come down with Kenny G), I realized I hadn’t done any actual work in days. So I gave myself three hours to draw something, and lo, this is what I came up with.

I put a bunch of splotches of dark blue and brown down first, then waited for the splotches to tell me what to do. Same method of creation used for this fella, this guy and these dudes. From now on, I’m letting splotches guide all future decisions. If it something doesn’t pass the splotch test, I don’t do it. And I’m going to be really tyrannical about splotch divination, too. A regular Splotch Test Monster.

Ah, good to be back.

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

[click for larger image]

Two days ago, the final assignments for my MA were submitted to my professors. After a year and a half of dedicated study and work, I’m left torn between being super excited about finishing, and feeling a little lost. I have been wanting to get an MA in illustration ever since I left my undergrad, and have spent the last seven years researching programs, applying to them, and saving towards tuition. All that work and dreaming, to have it all over. Feels bittersweet.

Also feels like Heimliching out a half-chewed wad of broccoli. After 70+ hours a week in my suffocating studio, I can breathe again! I can go outside! I… I can walk! I CAN WALK!

And I can finally go birdwatching again!

And eat out!

And play games!

So much to do!

Then why the heck am I on the computer? ADIOS!

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Just in time for Christmas, here’s the final version of the sketch I posted a few weeks back. I’m sure many of you can empathize with the condition these goats have found themselves in. Just wish I had the foresight to give one of the goats a canister of pepper spray.

Initially, the goats were to be surrounded by logos for the various stores they patronized, but I found the logos cluttered up the page too much (plus, I wasn’t a huge fan of how they turned out). If the book ever gets published, I’ll instead include them as a pattern for the front endpapers, with Melvin’s favorite album covers patterning the back endpapers. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak.

Here, Melvin’s adoration of music is introduced, as we see him experiencing a transcendent moment listening to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.” You can tell it’s Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” because I got the score online and reproduced it (almost faithfully) on the scroll of notation enveloping Mel. Beyond that, there are 13 other musical references and/or puns on this page.

How many can you spot?

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Remember, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook!