Best(?) of 2024, Pt II!
Hold on to your hats, it's a humdinger of video posts!
Following the first half of the 2024 round ups, here’s the final, easy to digest….uh, digest of posts containing (previously paywalled) drawing demos and other videos from a lifetime ago… 2024!
Part I of this series can be found here…
Next up on this leisurely shlep down memory lane, this next post contains a drawing demo of a dude who probably already faded in people’s consciousnesses, which may work in my favor here!
This was on the morning that Minnesota Representative Tim Walz was announced as Harris’s VP pick.
I had never heard of this dude before this day, which is why I chose him as a warm up that day. Doing a caricature based on the first impression is the closest to live caricature you can get in the studio.
Nothing political to see here...
A few days ago when Tim Walz entered the national spotlight, I only caught a glimpse of this affable looking Minnesotan I’d never heard of or seen before and had a thought involving something along the lines of, I wonder what the political cartoonists are gonna do with this guy?
Side note: This post was a reminder to me of why I so rarely do anything political. Literally almost immediately after this posted, I received in my email inbox a thoughtfully crafted note from someone named Flora Kirchart, who I do not know, yet took the time to offer some unbiased constructive criticism:
My response:
Bless her heart.
Moving on… Back in August I started work on a Mad magazine article. Those come in less and less frequently these days, which is a dang shame. But when they do, I put everything I’ve got into them, taking WAY too much time on each, effectively reducing my hour pay for these things into the low double digits. And that’s not including my denial of that number dipping into the single digits! Or my overthinking. But, they’re some of my favorite jobs, and I’m happy to spend way too long on them.
This post contains a video of some of the early sketching for characters in this one pager:
I miss magazines.
With the prospect of new magazine illustration jobs becoming fewer and farther between, what was once a major part of my (and, dare I say, my illustrator generation’s) marketing focus seems to be becoming more anomalous.
Next up contains a demo drawing of 70s TV icon Phil Donahue, who had died recently. Not sure why I chose him for a demo, other than he was in the news that day, and seemed like a timely drawing to do.
Outside of the demo, this was a particularly fun post to do- I’m a big fan of crosswords, and for some reason that day I decided to pontificate about The NY Times Crossword, and my borderline fascination with Rex Parker and his daily acerbically hilarious accounts of said NYT crosswords:
NYT Crosswords, a new book, and a sketchy goodbye demo
**Also, arbitrary Latin plurals bug the hell out of me ("arbitrary" in the sense that yes, that is how you pluralize the word in Latin, but we're not speaking Latin, are we? So stop). I'm looking at you, TOGAE, lol what a dumb-looking word.
Side note: I’m quite certain Rex would have had strong feelings about my blasé use of the word ‘ASCERBICALLY’. My guess is that it’d be something about it being a lazy alternative to the much smarter sounding ‘SARDONICALLY’.
Next up is a good meaty post about that Mad article I was doing sketches for, some blathering on about a fun freelance job I’d just finished (a video of which came soon after this post), and a video unboxing of a big fancy new drawing tablet from Xencelabs, that replaced my cracked Wacom Cintiq Pro.
New Mad magazine sneak peek...
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Next up is a pretty weird one, a post and accompanying video of one of the odder commission requests I’ve gotten. Read on….
One of the odder commissions…
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Last up, a post announcing the release of my newest (now best selling) book, and a quick video that isn’t a drawing demo or anything (finally!), but a kid dressed up as my character Rube for Halloween. Love this one!
Book Birthdays, Halloween Costumes and Book Covers
Earlier this month was the official launch date of a pretty cool project I did a crap ton of work for about this time last year.
That’s it for 2024! Next up, a few things I’m working on to share:
An update on the book cover I wrote about and shared drawing video of earlier this year, now available on Amazon!
Progress updates on the new 3D stuff I’m working on and the outlook of all that bidniss!
Updates on a fun video game project I currently doing drawings & paintings for that hopefully don’t violate the most thorough NDA I’ve ever thrown my name onto!
More drawings that Flora Kirchart will hate!
Whatever else I feel like dumping into future more-than-likely longer-than-necessary Substack posts!
As always, signed and personalized books and commissions available!
