PULP

Earlier this year I got the opportunity to collaborate with photographic dynamo Neil Krug on two illustrations for his and Joni Harbeck's upcoming PULP ART BOOK. I have been a huge admirer of Neil's polaroid work since first seeing it on Flickr, and although these are still in-progress, I thought I would post some of the sketches and pin-up drafts so far.

Nerding Out

I had the good fortune to get a call from Nick Vogelson at OUT magazine last month for an article on the crossing-over of nerdism into mainstream American culture. Through the eyes of the writer at events such as the San Diego Comicon, I was left with a certain reverence for the pop culture pile-up that these events seem to inevitably lead to. The first few sketches were essentially riffing on this idea of fictitious comic book and film worlds colliding, first with each other and then again with the world around them. The rough pencil ideas were scanned and re-drawn into the more legible sketches in Photoshop, and once the hallway version had been approved I did my best to retain as much of the loose, crowded quality of the rough sketches as possible.

Overall it was an incredibly fun assignment, and really any day I get to draw Skeletor sleeping on someone's lap at a bus stop is a good day. I think it's the issue should be on stands now, thanks again to Nick for the opportunity.

Conchords

Here is a new self-promo portrait I just finished of New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, along with a bit of the process from sketch to digital paints. Owenfreeman.com has also just been updated with a bundle of new sketches and illustrations.

Also in case you haven't seen it there is a fantastic Drawger post by Yoku Shimizu detailing the process of a new portrait she did for Golf Digest. Can't recommend it enough.