Willie Nelson and the newborn

3 Months ago I became the proud father of a little baby girl... and while my wife was in labor I was sketching Willie Nelson.
Well not the entire time...
My wife was all set to go into the Hospital, ready to be induced so we could get that beautiful little baby out into the real world.
I had the bags all packed, and was just waiting for my wife to come down the stairs, and out the door we would go.  I checked my email quick before hand and had a wonderful job offer from Christian Williams and the good folks at The Utne Reader.  Another cover, this time featuring Willie Nelson and Mary Louise Parker. The topic...weed...the Governments weed.
Well I knew what I was gonna do that night. Pace back and forth a bunch of times, do the crossword puzzles in those trashy gossip mags my wife gets, and do some sketches of Willie and company. I burned right through the trash crosswords, ashamed of the gossipy knowledge I possess. Next I searched a ton of pics on the good ol' Ipad and a sketching I went.

Hospital Sketch of Willie and Mary Louise Parker

Approved Sketch

Since I couldn't sleep, due to excitement, my wife in horrible pain(cue the epidural) and the nasty ass recliner I was trying to sleep on, I decided to burn the midnight oil.  I turned out a few sketches, the better being the actual basis for the approved cover sketch.

Later that day we welcomed into our lives a little baby girl, Kara. Life has been amazing since she has been here. I have been quite busy ever since.

That being said, maybe you'd like to see the actual cover before I start getting all sentimental.

July August 2013 Utne Reader Cover Art

Ah and now in the background I hear the call of duty...Diaper DOODY.

The Party's Over...for Mitt

Printed image with article.

Sometimes it pays to have a Twitter account. 

 A famous artist once told me "Twitter is awesome, apparently it opens the sky and makes it rain $."

This is true.  This past week artist Leah Tiscione, whom I follow on Twitter contacted me, asking if I would be able to complete a few caricatures for the NY Post. She was slammed with work and wouldn't be able to take the assignment.

I was flabbergasted!! I just love that word.  I've followed Leah's work for a while and was first introduced to her stuff in the greatest book known to man, "The Alphabet of Manliness" by Maddox, a comic book by Maddox and to boot she also does a ton of work for the Post.

First off I was flattered she even acknowledged my existence on Twitter and second that she even considered me to take on this assignment.

Leah put me in touch with Maureen Callahan from the NY Post and I was given the job.

It was a major crunch time job, but I wanted to "get er done!" I wanted to do a good job for Leah( couldn't make her look bad for suggesting me),

Maureen( if I pull this off, it can lead to more work), and myself, because I'm selfish(just kidding).

I pulled an all night'er and was able to complete the job and was happy with the final product.

The subject of the article I was to illustrate for was how Mitt Romney is now the punching bag of his political party for not winning the past election...basically a pinata.

Maureen pretty much laid out everything in front of me and told me what they were looking for.

Initial Sketch, yes Sarah Palin looks like a man and Mitt looks like he had too many botox injections.

Final Approved Illustration. The Mitt pinata being bashed by Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich.

So Thank you Leah for opening up the sky and making it rain money!!!
And thank you Maureen for giving me the opportunity to illustrate for the NY Post!

George Lucas is a rich man

Hey did you hear the news? A few months back, the man behind Star Wars, this dude named George Lucas sold his VHS collection to Mickey Mouse.

Yea I'm told he got a few bucks for them, and guess what...Mickey Mouse is gonna make new moving pictures of the Star Wars.

I drew a  purty pictures of this Lucas fella.  Like to see it? Here it is!

This here is what we call a sketch

I like the way this man wears flannel.

Hey Tough Guise...

Welcome back to the wonderful word of McBlahg.  Today I am going to post an Illustration I have on the current issue of Utne Reader.

I was contacted by the wonderful Editor of the mag, Christian Williams, who gave me another opportunity to create a cover for their next issue.  They were knocking around ideas for the March/April ish which had a feature about masculinity.  Basically its about how the old image of a tough guy/men who don't deal with their emotions, can be damaging or dangerous.

To convey this image, Christian proposed "Mad Men" character and symbol of a cool tough guy, Don Draper in his office reading the landmark book on feminism "The Feminine Mystique" with tears runing down his face.

Jon Hamm who plays Draper has such a great face to draw.  The man has a gift for expression.

There is a ton of reference for Mad Men out there, I tried to nail his office as best I could.

This was another great job, I had a lot of fun working on.  Thank you once again to Christian and the good folks over at the Utne Reader.

OOHHH YEEAAAA!!

   Bout time I got around to updating the McBlahg.  I've decided that whenever I get a little bit of free time , I will post something, whether it is new, old or random.

Today I am posting an illustration I did for a friend who harassed me for over a year to come up with a tribute to his favorite fallen wrestler. Yes indeed, I'm talking about the great Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

Now my friend was quite shaken by the death of his childhood idol.  I think he may have actually shed a tear when he snapped it to a Slim Jim that sad day.  He asked me to come up with a tribute painting, something that would immortalize the only man who could get away with wearing day glow, cheetah print spandex and still kick the crap out of you.

After a year of "thinking it over" I was finally prepared to take on the challenge.  My wife and I laughed about a couple ideas as I sketched them on a scrap piece of paper.  his way I could tell my friend I had actually started on his masterpiece.  

Initially the idea was to have Macho Man riding a rocket propelled Slim Jim up to Heaven while playing a  Harp which has Slim Jim's for strings.  That idea was nixed for being too "jerky."

Instead I simplified it, added some Angel wings and a WWF championship belt.  I couldn't make a mockery of this enigmatic gentleman.

Macho Man Goes to Heaven.