SILA 49- Patrick Nagel Award For Excellence

Dellas Graphics No resting on the laurals but sometimes its nice to sit back and look at a selection of pieces that get into a show. This was such a diverse group, I just thought it would be good to post as a sort of review of my work over the past year. I have been enjoying experimenting with different styles.. with some limited success as far as medals, but personally very rewarding. I was surprised and delighted today to open up the box from SI West and find, along with all of the certificates a couple of nice awards. A Bronze medal for the Illustration of the little guy with the hammer (Wrong Headed) I did for SooJin Buzelli.. and the Patrick Nagel award for excellence for the Dellas Graphics, (Death of Frogs 2) I did for Jim Burke... Plan Sponsor The Bad Egg Evenflo "Sad Cow" Hide and Sheep Piaui Magazine The Rotten Earth Piaui Dellas Graphics Hartford Stage Mother Jones HarperCollins

Staying Sharp #6

Okay a great way to stay sharp, take an object from your studio and do ten sketches :10 min.... I like staying sharp, but Lee took all the sharp objects out of the studio... So a Google-Eye 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.

Illustrators 53

Society of Illustrators advertising and Institution opens Friday. A couple of my favorite pieces were in this years show. I thought it would be a great time to revisit those illustrations. The Dellas graphics frogs always a highlight of my year turned out surprisingly fresh. The Sad caw still makes me smile. Overall I was thrilled to get five pieces in the show. A great honor any year just to be included with so many great illustrators it is truly inspiring. Presently at work on a couple new candidates for this years calendar. We’ll see how they shake out…. DEATH OF FROGS This year I did the usual 50+ thumbnails, and Art Director Jim Burke’s favorite turned out to be "The Death of Frogs.” I thought it would be funny to have the grim reaper appear as a skeleton of the animal he was coming to take to the other side. I played around with having him sitting at a table but I just did an IHOP frog recently. So we ended up with a simpler, more graphic illustration of the Reaper hanging over the innocent frog on his lily pad. Having a long deadline can be dangerous; as this job sat around I had some time and asked Jim what his next favorite thumbnail was. And he picked the one of a Heron with a frog sitting on his nose. I did a bunch of these little drawing. Then I tried a more unexpected version with the Heron coming down instead of the normal way, I added some dark rough spatters (spatters make anything better) around the edges. I knew as soon as I did it, this was my favorite one. And turns out it was Jim's favorite too. So this year as it turns out I may have two Dellas Graphics Frogs. This little experiment I think may have found another style to play around with and with some conceptual direction, may have some strong marketable potential. The Rotten Earth I have had this idea for a painting in my head for a while. Ever since I read Blood Meridian, a novel by Cormac McCarthy. It was his fifth book, but my first introduction to McCarthy. There was a description in the book of a bush the Kid comes across. The heads of native infants impaled on the limbs, their soulless eyes staring out. When the Fragile Planet project came along it seemed like a great fit. What I had in my head was the Earth as a fragile child crying black tears, pooling underneath. A sad and somber piece. I did some little thumbnails and this gouache sketch on corrugated board as a study for a painting, and then decided I liked the study as the final piece. 10 THINGS WE KEEP DOING WRONG My intern Sojung told me how famous Soojin Bazelli was and I was so nervous trying to do a great job for her. The most obvious idea was the one we ended up finishing. The idea was like banging your head into the wall or hitting yourself with a hammer over and over. My first little thumbnail was just a head with lumps. Soojin asked for the hammer to make it more obvious. It’s like watching some ludicrous Three Stooges skit of Moe taking a pipe wrench to Larry’s nose. My kind of humor… EVENFLO-THE SAD COW This was a fun little project that landed on my lap, and it was so painless creating this little character. The only snag was when we went ‘round and ‘round about whether cows have horns. In the end, no-horns won. The cow is sad because no one is buying milk anymore, they are drinking Evenflo chocolate formula. I know what’s next. Chocolate formula for kids? ALL MATERIAL © Bill Mayer

Staying Sharp #5

Okay a great way to stay sharp, take an object from your studio and do ten sketches :10 min.... (insert some lame joke about unlocking the creative psyche) I like staying sharp, but Lee took all the sharp objects out of the studio... So a Clock 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.