The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

the good On a side note: Obama was blue, because he started off as the multi armed Indian God, "Kali." It was going to be another little gouache portrait, with the necklace of skulls, and the heads of "The Axis of Evil" on His belt. A very time-consuming illustration abandoned temporarily for paying work; And maybe abandoned permanently now that someone did the same thing (kind of) on the cover of NewsWeek. the bad.. Been trying some more caricature illustration, something that always gave me trouble. Looking through my book the other day, noticed there was not much in the way of caricature. Not from the last few years anyway, I think it's because all of the work I do, I draw from my head. So, I wanted to take a little time and try something that's not a bug or a monster... Here's a little thumbnail page of the gouache sketches, and some enlargements to follow. Practice, practice... in the words of the the great Conan The Barbarian, (from Nietzsche, I think) "If it doesn't kill me it will make me stronger" All Illustrations © Bill Mayer 2010 For the love of a good line.... While working on a new business pitch for Y&R, I did these little New Yorker-ish line drawings. They wanted a kind of New Yorker direction... and I'm not sure that I can actually show anything from the new biz stuff... But these were a few of the drawings that spawned themselves while waiting for input from the art director. Always loved black line and solid black, so strong, graphically. -bill

"Lady Gaga"

The other day, I was playing around with doing some little gouache portraits. Have not been called on to many of them lately, and they were never a strong suit for me, so a good thing to practice on. I picked a sort of Pop-Surreallist style for this little portrait of Lady Gaga, because it seemed to fit conceptually. Sort of the new madonna in a way. anyway, thought I would share. Always good to try something new. Gouache on Watercolor paper, 5''x7'' © Bill Mayer

Staying Sharp #4

Okay a great way to stay sharp. take an object from your studio and do ten sketches :10 min.... The keys are so dull and cold let’s try something a bit more ….festive….. Candy Corn works for me. Right brain thinking....So it's a little exercise I started when I was in art school...Doesn't have to be brilliant, ( and sometimes there not) just a great way of staying fresh and keeping the ideas flowing. Honestly this little set of drawings only took :10 but then another 20 minutes to scan them and figure out how to post them....but you get the idea.

Staying Sharp #3

Okay a great way to stay sharp, take an object from your studio and do ten sketches :10 min.... for me; ( insert some lame joke about unlocking the creative psycy) ...So a key works..... Right brain thinking....So it's a little exercise I started when I was in art school...Doesn't have to be brilliant, just a great way of staying fresh and keeping the ideas flowing. Honestly, this little set of drawings only took :10 but then another 20 minutes or so to scan them and figure out how to post them....but you get the idea.

The Bad Egg

The Bad Egg © Bill Mayer 2010 I woke up Tuesday morning with a little idea for a story, I had thought about exploring the Goldfish / Death of Frogs style a bit and what better way to do it than in a sweet little story. I came into the studio and painted a few illustration’s . When I stuck those on the scanner at 11:30 I started writing the little story down. I finished it and printed it out at 12:00 just in time to read it to Lee over lunch. She liked it so when I got back from lunch I did a few more, then went for a walk up the mountain. I walk everyday , it’s a great way to clear the head. When I got back I showed the story to my grandson Forest and he edited it, we had our editor artist meeting around 4:30 when he got home from school, He suggested adding a few more frames to flush it out a bit. Wednesday and Thursday morning I finished adding the new frames ,designed a cover title page and back cover. The last children’s book I did for Simon and Schuster took a year and a half of waiting drawing and revising this was a real treat to do the whole book in two and a half days. Thursday after noon I got some direction from the Harford Stage thumbnails I posted last may, you remember those? I barely did myself. But finally on to final sketches and hopefully finish. This little exorcize was pretty fun. Not sure if it would be a Caldecot winner but I hope you will enjoy it just the same. This story may not be for your kids ,I guess it's really more of an adult folk tale. It's a loving story about parenthood and how all of the love and caring will sometimes not keep the baby from eating the parents.And yes Yuko, been thinking about a name to use, maybe not Japanese name though, I was thinking Edgar Oddskin .Edgar for Edgar Allen Poe,it's the 200th anniversary and Odskin because it just sounded funny and Odd ....or maybe Sal Monelli...or Sal Monella? The End ?..... Well maybe for the parents.When I read this story to Lee she said...YES...when I showed it to my niece in Los Angeles who has a one year old,she said "Oh no...., you don't have to kill the parents..." Let me know what you think. Many apologies for having to show these twenty inch sreads as three inch spots but I think you can get an idea how it would go. right now rethinking some of the images seem a bit repetative and I could explore more of the size relationship to the ants and the objects compositions in the spreads. Here is a link to Issue presentation love to here your suggestions or comments. (SEE FULL BOOK HERE= http://issuu.com/billmayer/docs/the_bad_egg )

The Monster That Did My Math

"The Monster That Did my Math" was picked by "Georgia Center for the Book" as one of the 25 books all young Geogians should read. This was the first list created by the group in hopes that it will serve as an instigator and stimulus to connect readers to the writers of these books, One of the illustrations was a past Gold Medal Winner in Society of illustrators 2008. It's a great little story about a little boy that makes a deal with a monster only to realize that everything comes with a price. Danny Schnitzlein’s wonderful book was so filled with great imagery, that I can’t really take all of the credit for these little illustrations. He is really quite a genius. He made it easy for me to come up with these crazy illustrations. The globe-like head and sharp pointy teeth, even down to the number line tail, are all in the story. The large open cape was designed originally to hold all of the text that accompanied the illustration. ”Boo hoo,“ growled the monster, ”I’m feeling your pain. This awful arithmetic is draining your brain.” This little spot was designed for the title page, When it appeared in the book the art director had stripped it into a colored background .I always liked the way it appeared on white. All illustrations © Bill Mayer 2008

Goldfish in Black & White

So, waiting on approvals the other day, thought I would try out a few more brush drawings. I picked the goldfish because I was looking for some graphic elements that would lend themselves to the brush... Bought me a new Winsor Newton Series Seven brush and did these little sketches I thought I would share. Winsor Newton Series Seven is an old stand by for me but can't resist a little trip to the art store to get some new toys, and nothing works quite as well as a brand spakin new one. next time I thought I would try some different subjects, maybe a little more conceptual, adding color. But here's the first batch, hot off the scanner...couple more that were not on Facebook, enjoy...