Float your boat

Quick piece for the WSJ about making sure your money is insured, if your bank went under. These are mad times. mad! I really like the challenge of painting money - and all the better when you can freshen it up a little. here's and a process shot.

One punch death

Cover for this weeks City Pages. The story is about a man who ends up in a drunken bar fight, punching a guy once, and killing him. It was kinda tricky to find the right concept because it was important to be sensitive to the victim, i didnt want to depict him at all if i didnt have to. Its also not like the man meant to kill him, it was a total accident - and he's paying for it with jail time.
In the end everyone loses, which is a good reason not to fight, i suppose.
The chalk outline cast like a shadow seemed like the right solution - i liked the connection it suggests. The AD was clear he wanted something pretty graphic - had to channel my inner Tomac to get those shadows right ;)
Couple of roughs as well, there were lots more:

I had the extreme pleasure of working on a really cool project with Lesley Q Palmer and AARP last month. Essentially, it was setting AARP's stance on Social Security straight, as there had been some false information in the media about their view points and concerns.
The problem:
The youngest boomers are late 40s, which means for the next 20 years (approx until around 2025/2035), these boomers are making lots of $$ and funding the system. Even though some older boomers are starting to tap into their SS benefits, there’s still several years of boomers putting $$ into the system. Once 2025/2030 comes, and the last of the boomers retire, not only are they NOT paying into the system, they are taking $$ out, and so are the older boomers. This leaves generation X (which is a notoriously small generation) trying to pay for the HUGE generation of boomers social security benefits. So when the last of the boomers retire, the bottom totally falls out of the system.
My initial sketches played with the idea of Social Security running out, and also a little on it being sustained - as its possible, there are just steps that need to be taken...Lesley liked the "Americana" nature of the last sketch, and because the story was changing and growing in that direction, it made sense to develop some more with that feel. Here are a few of my attempts to marry "American" and retirement - there were more, but im fearful this blog post may go on forever.The last idea was perfect - mixed the elements we were hoping for, and still said "time is running out" - *sigh of relief*
I sometimes draw things in illustrator before i paint them, just so i know lines are straight and ellipses are right etc. heres a few that didnt make the cut:upon further inspection, it needed to look a bit more like a hat, so we went back and i paid a bit more attention to my sketch - Heres the final: and Lesley's wonderful layout:and some details from within:Thanks very much Lesley for the great project and great input. and thanks for reading, if you made it this far.

playing catch up -

I have been a bit lax on posting recently - sorry - summer is always a busy time, but im going to make an effort to catch up on some recent projects -
the first was a spot for american lawyer, about the rise of minority lawyers - well specifically, how minority lawyers are slowly coming out of the shadows and reclaiming some space. things are getting a bit more even ... well they're not - the gap is still mind bending, but a little better all the time.
Next was a piece for inside counsel about electronic contracts - those little "i agree" buttons that everyone clicks without consideration are actually enforceable by law. Only, they arent, really. the contracts are easy to break. people even agree knowing they wont follow through. Trying that whole juxtaposing real and graphic with questionable success. fun piece though, i like remembering how fun it is to get a piece a bit messy.some roughs: (was really hoping the fingers crossed one would be picked - oh well!)

Cakewalk

very quick spot illos appearing in todays LATimes op-ed.
Smart layout (and copy) from Jim Brooks! Thanks Jim

Got this covered

I have a couple of covers out there this week -
The first comes from Westword, and the wonderful AD Jay Vollmar.
Jay came to me with his idea already in mind (I'm pretty sure he has a bit of a reputation for smart ideas) - The cover focused on cronyism and an unending stream of corruption in the city - and Jay's concept was perfect - two hands in an infinite shake. I've been pretty into Deco period work lately, and really wanted to get across a "stately, old Fortune magazine" type feel to it. Sometimes (rarely) a piece turns out exactly how you want it to. a perfect mix of graphic and painterly.
I added the cover type for effect - but Jay's layout is better (cant seem to find a large enough version of it online) - couple of ideas below:Also - I was asked by Miami New Times to do a cover for their feature story about doctors who remained in Haiti, helping repair it - here were some concepts -They also pitched their own idea which i mocked up - in the end they ended up going with one of mine: (seen here with mocked up type (theirs is nicer))and then I got some good news that the story was also being run by Broward New Times, and the AD Miche had picked the Miami editors idea, to put on his cover - neat! Here it is below:I paint a lot of hands - so its fun to try new things all the time.