William Reichold

William Reichold
Northside, Pittsburgh, PA
1986

A Must See Show.

Two incredible artists in the same gallery.

Opening tomorrow through March 3.

Go. Enjoy.

http://potteryandpaint.blogspot.com/

Today, I have been crowned . . .

. . . his majesty, "The King of Random Thoughts".

Therefore . . . I give you . . .

"Banana".

Thanks to artist extraordinaire Lauren Chaikin for bestowing this honor upon me.

JAE IS AWESOME TOO!

 

I love that he has the same glasses as me . . . 

Illustration Friday: Round

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Marker.

Sketch of model Phat Man Dee from Dr. Sketchy Cleveland.

 Pose from above.

In addition to her comedic burlesque act, she is an amazing Jazz vocalist and was voted #2 Best Local Jazz Act in the Pittsburgh City Paper Poll of 2010. An an interesting mix and another entertaining night at Dr, Sketchy.

Take me back to more Random Thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Vanity

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Marker, digital.

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Illustration Friday: Silent

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 Digital.

Keep Drawing

keep drawing from studio shelter on Vimeo.

Illustration Friday: Stripes

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Quick sketch. Ball point pen and cheap PhotoShop color.

Illustration Friday: Scary

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Quick sketch. Ballpoint pen.

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

Just before the May, 1998 Macworld in which Apple unveiled the very first iMac, my department and I were nervous. Apple was in terrible shape; we just weren't sure what to expect. So we crafted an email of our concerns and sent it to sjobs@pixar.com - we rolled the dice. We expressed our concerns about the Mac and all the rumors, but expected no reply - we knew it was a long shot.

Amazingly within a couple hours, we received a reply . . . from Steve. It simply read:

"Have no fear.

Steve"

We didn't. And we don't.

Thank you Steve.

May you rest in peace. God Bless you and your family.

Olympic-Themed Bingo Dabber

Them: We'd like you to design a dabber commemorating the 2012 Olympic Games in London for our U.K. customers.
Me: Awesome. I'll start some concepts.
Them: Wait. We didn't obtain the licensing agreement with the Olympic Committee. So you can't use the Olympic rings, medal images or the official mascots.
Me: Umm, okay . . .

One 30-second sketch on the back of a note pad, two hours of illustration, one trip through legal and an email across the pond . . .

3D model of the approved design.

I love days like this . . . 

Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British television series that has been in production since 1960 and is currently the longest running soap opera in history. We designed bingo dabbers with caricatures of some of the more memorable cast members that have a long history with the show as part of the "Classic Corrie Collection". The product was a smash in the U.K. and we were asked to design the "Corrie Today Collection" to follow up. More images to come.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful

Your new favorite artists turn the conventional pin up on it's pretty little head with dozens of drawings, paintings, and photos filling Tremont's swankiest salon.

Special appearance by HilarAtease, Cleveland's premiere comedic dance company. Specializing in hilarious burlesque, and vaudeville entertainment.

Friday, August 12 · 7:00pm - 11:30pm

Studio Le Beau

2360 W.11, Cleveland

Join us for our big summer party!

London Air Raid Drill, 1940

Pencil Riot

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Digital.

Cruise the Galaxy!

I found this link on the Juxtapoz Magazine's website. An entire series of Star Wars propaganda posters created by different artists . . . Check it out HERE.

Take me back to more Random Thoughts . . .

Stellar

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I know a few!
Beautiful decorative work on her and the cover; an amazing illustration.

James Jean: Mirada

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A new design from the incredible James Jean. This was actually only a sketch that was rejected for another take on the concept. See the images HERE. Now please excuse me . . . I am going to bang my head against a wall somewhere.

Typographic Star Wars Posters

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Very fun, creative typographic Star Wars posters from
H-57 Creative Station.

Check out their site here.

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Illustration Friday: Afterwards

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A last minute entry for this week. Digital.
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Illustration Friday: Racing

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A quick, last minute entry. Pencil, marker, diigital.
Return me to more Random Thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Spooky

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A scan from my sketchbook. I didn't have the chance to do a finished illustration, but here's a couple concepts for Illustration Friday, "Spooky"I've had a couple people email and ask me "What's the deal with the smoking in a lot of your illustrations?" Well, the simple truth is, I have no clue. I am not a smoker and never have been. But growing up around a family of smokers, it's permeated my conciousness . . . perhaps it just adds a little flavor or character to the image . . .

Take me back to more Random Thoughts . . .

I love Mad Men . . .

"We're creative; the least important, most important thing there is."
- Don Draper

It's been a busy few months . . .

When a friend and colleague had to ask me to do another "you're the only one that can do it" project, he could only smile at me and then bless me with these words . . .

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Digital.

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Illustration Friday: Brave

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Digital.

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Extensive Notes From My Morning Meeting . . .

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Hey - At least I understand what they mean . . . I think.

Uniball GEL Impact RT Pen (awesome to sketch with), Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Marker (also awesome to sketch with), a little PhotoShop for flavor and to remove profanity, on whatever paper I had at the time.

Return to more Random Thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Perspective

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Digital.

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Illustration Friday: Propagate

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Flair Pen on Graphics 360 Marker Paper, Digital.
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Fashion Assassin

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Ink and marker from my sketchbook.

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It's good to be king . . . even if it's for just a little while.

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I have an incredibly talented crew of designers, illustrators, animators and production artists. Each year, we literally produce thousands of graphics and illustrations for the charitable gaming industry, i.e. bingo. If I could submit work from each and every one of them I would. This year I saw a specific opportunity to enter a series of package designs to Graphic Design USA's American Package Design Awards . . . and here are the results.

Congratulations to my illustrator Mike Koch for consistently creating work unlike anything our industry has ever seen. We knew we had something special when he showed me his concepts and we gave the project the attention it deserved. It's good to be king . . . even if it's just for a little while . . . until the next project!

Take me back to more Random Thoughts . . .

"Never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment" . . . or Welcome to Jack's Sketchbook

Click on images to view at a larger size . . .

Frank Zappa

On several blog entries, I thank "Jack" for his input and art direction . . . Jack Snyder and I work together and is one of the most talented artists I have the pleasure to know. I appreciate and relate to his sense of humor and unique way of looking at things. Jack is a music aficionado, having worked in that business for a long time before becoming a full time illustrator and is incredibly knowledgeable. He started a blog "Jack's Sketchbook" in which he posts an illustration of a musician on their birthday and other related images.

Allen Toussaint

He's posted a variety of artwork and various quotes along with the images. It's a fun blog - check it out! Okay Jack . . . the pressure's on! Whose birthday is it tomorrow?

Illustration Friday: Confined

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Something quick and graphic for this week.

Thanks for the art direction Sarah!

Digital

Take me back to more Random Thoughts . . .

"Entangled" Redux

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Pen and ink on Graphics 360 Marker Paper.

For Illustration Friday topics, I suppose it's the same for a lot of artists. Sometimes the concepts come right to you and at times it's a struggle. The "entangled lovers" concept came to me early on, but until last night I didn't know how I wanted to render it.

I started in my sketchbook with some simple, figurative organic lines intertwined, or "entangled" if you will. I liked the idea of one figure embracing the other from behind, rather than a more "conventional" pose. Then came the difficult part - refining and editing until I could convey the imagery in the most economical and hopefully elegant way possible. After roughly 30 re-draws with the brush pen, I settled on the final image shown above. I probably could have kept refining it, but I have heard it said somewhere that art is never finished, only abandoned.

The concept that caused me to literally laugh myself awake is shown below. You can see I started rendering it digitally after the original sketch, but after the Tiger Woods doodle shown in the previous post, I decided to run with that instead of finishing the rendering.

So there's a little insight into my creative process. From an entangled house cat, to an entangled golf icon, to entangled lovers . . . Enjoy!

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Entangled

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I was heading a completely different direction for this weeks IF entry. After a lively conversation about Tiger Woods at lunch, I doodled this during a 5 minute phone call.

A co-worker convinced me to post it "as is."

Original art for sale!
Ball point pen on copier paper.
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Illustration Friday: Music

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What I thought would be a quick, last minute entry before the holiday turned into a huge pain in the arse. It will be interesting to see how many people recognize the imagery.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Digital.

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Unbalanced

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My eyesight is so unbalanced, it's impossible for me to use the old 3-D glasses.

Ball point pen, cheap PhotoShop color . . . drawn and colored very quickly.

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Skinny

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Another quick sketch for this week.
Ball point pen.

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Illustration Friday: Fast (2)

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Faster than a speeding . . . or used to be. It's tough getting old.

Digital.

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Illustration Friday: Fast

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A quick sketch for this week. Ball point pen on copier paper and cheap trick PhotoShop motion blur.

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Germs

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"Good evening, ladies and germs," Berle would say to his audience. "I mean ladies and gentlemen. I call you ladies and gentlemen, but you know what you really are."

Digital.

Thanks to Jack for the art direction!

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Infinite

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Hell has been described as a lake of fire . . . but also as the complete separation from love and God . . . infinite loneliness.

Ball point pen, Sharpie marker, collage, and digital on an office notepad.

Take me back to more random thoughts . . .

Illustration Friday: Strong

(click to enlarge)

For some reason I like to sketch coffee cups . . . no idea what that's about.
Take me back to more random thoughts . . .