Happy Birthday Mr. Cash

Johnny's my favorite. Hands down.

For an amazing story that I wish was mine, click here:
http://www.drawger.com/marcart/?section=comments&article_id=2768

Floyd Landis

This is Floyd Landis, the "winner" of last year's Tour de France, Tour of Georgia, Tour of California, and I think Paris Nice. I've always liked Floyd because he's a kind of anti-Lance. Where Armstrong is studied, calculating and carnivorous in his approach, Landis always seemed to be more of a seat of his pants kind of guy. His victory in stage 17 of the '06 TDF was as inspiring as any athletic achievement I'd ever seen, and it seemed as though the torch had been passed from Armstrong to Landis when Floyd won the Tour last year.

Then came the positive testosterone test and Landis' claim that maybe it was the beers and Jack Daniels he drank the night before his stage victory. See, even in the midst of a scandal, there was still something to like about him. I mean Jack and beers the night before a big mountain stage?

This was commissioned by Bicycling Magazine in the days after Landis was still thought of as the legit winner of the '06 Tour de France, and it was to be used as the cover. The day after, Landis' test for testosterone came back positive, so I changed the mood of the piece to a more somber tone. It was bumped to the interior as a small spot illustration.

Rick Rubin Final

Here's the final art for the Rick Rubin sketch I posted below. Man, this took a looooong time! I intended to use this as a promo postcard, but I'm not sure if I want to do work that's this involved. I like how it came out, though.

I looked at a lot of Van DerWeyden, Memling, and other Flemish masters while I worked on this. I also had the pleasure of listening to all the bands/artists while I worked, which added some inspiration. Even Justin Timberlake. Just don't tell anybody I did that.

If you're wondering, on the left there's the Dixie chicks, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, and Johnny Cash. On the right, it's Anthony Keidis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, and Justin Timberlake. And that's a Slayer t-shirt Ricky's wearing.

Whew!

Al Hirschfeld..........The Line King

Steve Brodner posted a link to this over at Drawger. My thanks to him. It made my day.

Outkast Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rick Rubin(sketch)

I'll expose myself here as a music geek. I'm a big fan of certain music producers. While alot of people like to play name that tune with the radio, I like name that producer. It's not as hard as it sounds after you get to know someone's sound. Think about 80's era AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Bryan Adams. It was all John "Mutt" Lange, who's married to Shania Twain (who has a similar sound.If there's a musician you like who seems inconsistent from album to album, it's probably because they're surfing producers. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not.

Now my favorite guy is Rick Rubin, whose Zelig like presence in music has more of a zen feel. That is, once you know he's produced a band, you say "yeah, yeah, I hear it now", but it doesn't hit you over the head like alot of guys whose fingerprints almost obscure the artists voice. Rubin cofounded Def Jam, worked with the metal band Slayer on their most memorable album, and plucked Johnny Cash from the waste bin, shined him up and let us hear what a treasure we nearly lost. Listen to Cash's American Recordings from the 90's to hear what I'm talking about. He tried the same thing with Neil Diamond with excellent results.

I've included just a few of the more popular artists Rubin has worked with here:The Dixie Chicks, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Beastie Boys. I would usually try my best not to have this many people in a piece, because I think it waters down the impact of an image, but I'll try to make this work.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello 1-3

This is an incredible example of silouette animation that I first saw on linesandcolors.com - a great site that hilights artists of all stripes.
Enjoy.

Norman Mailer

Here's the final Norman Mailer portrait. I looked at fair amount of early Chuck Close paintings and daguerrotypes while I was working on this. At first I was going to try to include a concept that would make reference to Mailer's latest book, but the further into the painting that I got, the more I enjoyed just having the focus itself be the...well, focus, I guess.

I struggle with wanting this sort of piece to have photorealistic elements while still leaving evidence of the hand that created the work in brushstrokes. Working digitally, it's easy for people to dismiss a piece, thinking there must have been a button I pressed to get the end result.

When I can, I try to have my caricatures have the feel and dignity of a well painted portrait. I suppose you could say it's like dressing up a chimp in a tux, but it's what I do.