Eliza Stein Restaurant Drawings

Note: These are proposal drawings for a new restaurant opening on the Lower East Side…

Illustration Friday: “Tango”

Tango? I was stumped. When I can’t figure out what to draw, I usually just draw a bunch of bugs. So there you have it: Insectango!

The Giants’ Tarot!

By Raven Kaldera, published by Asphodel Press.

It’s here! I loved working on this project because I got to use traditional Tarot symbols along with Northern mythology, which I’ll admit I knew very little about before starting. I learned even more from reading the guide that comes with the deck.

These are the three cards I illustrated for the deck.

At least twenty other artists contributed, along with Raven Kaldera, the author, but if you want to see the rest of ’em, you know what to do 😉

http://www.asphodelpress.com/ntshamanism.html#tarot

Illustration Friday: “Hollow”

I see a lot of couples like this on the subway. I can never tell if they’re angry, or if they’re just content to sit together without touching or looking at one another. Either way, it always strikes me as hollow.

…drawn in colored pencil and watercolor, photographed, colors adjusted a bit in GIMP.

Illustration Friday: “Shaky”

I pulled this line drawing I did during a night out at the Draw-A-Thon, of a model who wore this amazing papier-mache Hindu god monkey suit and mask and danced around instead of posing in one place. He was pure shaky that night and I just tried to push it further with some bright colors, all digital this time (GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program)

On a (shaky) tangent, I am always torn between two approaches to the weekly word from Illustration Friday. Do I take it literally and try to show the word in action, or do I try something more abstract, where I look for the word’s essence? There is an entire chapter about that in one of my favorite books, Understanding Comics, where Scott McCloud tries to draw abstract representations of words like “cold,” as opposed to drawing a shivering person or an iceberg. I tried to do more of that this week, with some bright jarring colors and lines…

Illustration Friday: “Worn”

Because of summer in New York City, I can’t separate the word “worn” from “out.” 

In Midtown there are dozens of people who wear sandwich boards, carry billboards on their shoulders, and pass out flyers for one business or another. I sketched this woman, one of many who advertise Mens Suits 1/2 Price. She looked pretty worn out from standing there all day, and the Mens Suits are also somewhat related to “Worn,” especially if they’ve been worn already.

And here’s a bonus doodle. He won’t be so worn out once he drinks the coffee…