In The Marketplace

There’s no better feeling than coming across your artwork in the marketplace—especially by surprise. One day as the wife, kids, and I were strolling through Borders, we hit a trifecta and saw three unsuspecting products hosting artwork supplied by yours truly.

1. On the clearance table leftover from the holidays was a box containing a jigsaw puzzle of the legendary leg lamp from the movie A Christmas Story. I could tell right away the cover illustration of the lamp on the box and the puzzle itself was from art I created for Warner Bros.’ Consumer Products Division several months before.
2. Then we saw The Game of Life (board game) customized with artwork I did for the Wizard of Oz 50th Anniversary.
3. Finally, we came across a logo design book called The Secret Life of Logos that featured a three of my logos as case studies a few years back. I had totally forgotten about it and there it was just sitting there on the table.

Honestly I think this is one of the best perks of what I do. Sure, I get to kick back and draw all day as a means to put some food on the table and some gasoline in the car, which is pretty great. But it gets even better when you’re out with friends and come across your artwork in the marketplace. It’s raw evidence that the work you do every day in the confines of your studio all alone, day after day, in sequential hours of isolation is actually circulating in society and contributing to the ebb and flow of the consumer conditioned society in which we thrive. Plus it’s cool to say while pointing to a billboard that towers stark and triumphant against the summer sky, , "Hey, I did that."

Dark Nova

Last fall I got to dive deep into my imagination and develop graphics for an iPhone game for some good friends of mine based in San Francisco. They’ve currently announced that the game, known as Dark Nova, has been submitted to Apple’s App Store for approval.

One of the first points of criticism users can express in an iPhone app is the look and feel. It seems that folks who carry iPhones also carry a high expectation of high visual standards, so I made my best effort not to let them down.

As a game, Dark Nova is an imaginative situational environment where you buy ships and cargo, encounter aliens, and try to live long enough to make a profit based on your intuitive decision making skills. It seems very much like The Oregon Trail game we played on Apple IIe’s in elementary school.

Some of my favorite elements depicted here include the title screen (that’s a custom, manually drawn typeface I designed just for the title of the game), the alien banker with fleshy tones around the lips and eyes, the commander in a moment of vengance, and all the various eclectic designs for ships.

For more information, check out DarkNova.net. They should have a really nice icon pack I created for Mac OS X available for download soon!

The Obesity Feature

Fresh off the newsstand, I just picked up the March 2009 issue of Popular Science issue that has my most recent favorite illustration series in the marketplace.

The article is about scientific reasons why obesity is a huge problem in our culture and opens on page 46 with a large headline above the writer’s byline which is just above my illustration byline right next to it (yes!). Across from the headline page is the opening full-page illustration that goes with the topic of artificial sweeteners making us fatter (top image).

On page 48 is the next illustration of a large man in quarantine and under scientific observation to go with the topic of viruses adding fat to our waistlines (left).

Third, I did a spot for the section on lack of sleep facilitating fat accumulation (left). We all need angels to do their worst to get us get to sleep at night.

Finally, the last artwork was for the idea of how the environment affects our weight (left). The way the character is literally piped into his environment is slightly disturbing to the same degree as when you see Violet Beauregarde encounter the physical side-effects for disregarding Willy Wonka’s admonishment against trying chewing gum that is still in development.

This is definitely the best project of the year thus far. Many thanks to Popular Science for having me work on this conceptual series while giving me plenty of freedom to interpret and have fun with the subject-matter.

Feature Interview in Grab Magazine

It’s always an honor when someone comes across your artwork and is compelled to invite you for a feature interview to discuss your process and inspiration. For some reason this honor is heightened when that someone is an art magazine published in Rome and distributed throughout Europe. Maybe it’s because we grow up learning of the rich history of aesthetics in art and architecture that were born in that part of the world; maybe it’s because that refined, bustling, modern culture encased in old-world design details is foreign and just out of reach for us as Americans where everything is relatively new.

Grab Magazine, art directed by Luca Panzieri, showcases modern artists and trends. Visual content is appropriately high and lets the art do the talking, while text content is kept to the minimum essentials. They gave me first billing in the order of artists and five beautifully designed pages. My interview is translated into Italian, which is very odd to see yet extremely cool at the same time. (Read the English version here.)

Also, you’ll see a new personal work I created especially for this interview. It’s called Rooftop Tea Party and I’m extremely pleased with how it turned out. The details really shine in the printed magazine. Many thanks to Luca and Grab for featuring me in the magazine.

Artistic Freedom

Recently, I had a college art student contact me and pose an interesting age-old question about commercial art. The question posed was: what are your views on artistic freedom vs. commercial art? Below is my response.

Basically, a commercial artist is always available to freely pursue his own conceptual ambitions artistically on his own time as any fine artist can, but once he’s under commission to create art for a commercial project, his conceptual goals target the intended consequence of the client’s ambition(s). Does this stifle creativity? Not necessarily. It merely shifts the intent of the art. The artist still must employ his conceptual, compositional, and rendering abilities skillfully and creatively to produce the work intended. Can creativity be stifled under the employ of another? It can. Sometimes a client can assume part of the artist’s creative role by conceptualizing and directing various details of a project. In cases like this, which for me are thankfully rare, the client chooses to rely on his own creativity and conceptual problem-solving skills, well-honed or not.

When I think of the debate between the validity of fine art vs. commercial art, I think of Michelangelo. He was commissioned by the most powerful commercial organization in the world at the time, the Roman Catholic Church, to paint the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. The client’s required subject matter was limited to the Old and New Testament of the Bible and the history of the Apostolic Church, however Michelangelo still had the creative freedom to interpret, conceptualize, and render according to his imagination. It’s a commissioned work and yet considered one of the world’s greatest fine art achievements.

Instead of commercial vs. fine art, I think what we’re really debating is the integrity of the message or intention behind the art. We value an individual’s artistic expression much higher than we do a company’s artistic expression in the art world because a company has an underlying motive to make money. Terms like "sold-out" are sometimes assigned to artists who have a profitable motive. As a working artist, I wade in the abundance of freedom in the hundreds of open-ended choices I’m instinctively answering each step of the way on a project. Freedom is everywhere for me.

Looking at 2008

Routinely assessing your work throughout your career helps you see where you’re heading and to make course corrections if necessary. For me, I tend to forget about projects I’ve completed as I can quickly move from one project to the next, so as I review the work, I am reminded and encouraged of the blessing it is to participate on such fun and challenging projects and to work with quite an array of wonderful people.

In 2008, I logged 102 projects, which is up from last year by exactly 14. I’m surprised by this increase, because the fluctuation of work was much more dramatic than in years past, expressed by some drawn lulls followed by floods of work only to be floating back in the doldrums again some weeks later. Client budgets were a bit smaller this year, but still fair and reasonable despite a trepid economy. I still (perhaps naively) believe that if you do the best work you possibly can within the time constraints allowed, success will follow. And this year really proved that once more for me.

I’ve put together a portfolio containing 56 of the 102 projects for your viewing pleasure. I welcome any critiques and comments you may wish to offer, but more importantly, I hope you enjoy the viewing. Check it out at tysonm.com/bestof2008.

All the best to you and yours in 2009!

Atmospheric

My style of illustration requires relative attention to perspective, light, and shadow—even if it is forced upon improbable figures and forms that can only be dreamed up in the dark, uncharted corners of one’s mind. Anyway, when I set out to establish my style, I purposely incorporated such attentions to keep my illustrations somewhat technically challenging as I knew this pursuit would endure and evolve for years to come.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the air a bit and exploring what’s known as "atmospheric perspective." The greater the amount of dust, fog, and other molecules stirred up the air, the more faded and dull objects tend to look as they recede in the distance. This piece I recently completed for an audio/video components calendar really shows a thicker, more dense atmosphere than usual. It fondly reminds me of a clear, hot, sunny day in southern California with a fair amount of CO2 emissions floating in the air. The look really helps the composition as it pulls the background buildings back and forces the foreground characters to pop up front.

On another note that is reflected in this piece, I’ve also had an interest in illustrating robots with clear heads. I know—weird.

Directory 25

Fresh off the press and delivered to the door, The Directory of Illustration no. 25 hosts my ad for 2009 on page 306. For those of you who don’t warm yourselves by the fire of the graphics industry, The Directory is a nationally distributed source book of illustrators delivered to 20,000 art buyers all over the country.

Last year, I blogged about the conundrum of advertising in books like this when my ad for 2008 was published in volume no. 24. Ultimately, I have found it to be a worthy investment in the long term for my business. These books are always hardcover-bound, printed on high quality glossy coated stock, and contain some of America’s best illustrators working today. Art Directors and Designers have been known to hang on to these volumes for reference and inspiration for years.

The piece I used for this year’s ad was originally produced for an editorial about targeting online risk of theft in the banking industry. When asked how he found me, the Art Director said he saw some of my work from a previous Directory ad a while back, visited my portfolio online, and bookmarked my site for future reference. When he got this editorial that needed some art of little fantastical gremlins doing their worst to break into a huge, black safe, he remembered an artist who’d be perfect for the job—me.

I must say, I love illustrating imaginative characters like this and I really like the dramatic angle and perspective I ended up doing. This turned out to be one of my favorite artworks in 2008, making it a solid choice for this year’s ad.

Happy Halloween 2008

Every year, the Mangelsdorf’s conjoin the Saturday before Halloween and ramble off in Cousin Aaron’s Halloween mini-van sleigh across the countryside garnished with the beautiful crimson, orange, and golden leaves of Fall for a visit to a local farm called Gramma’s place.

The truth is, the drive only takes a total of five minutes as my neighborhood soon bleeds into farm country, but the ride is very magical with the as the van is filled with laughter and chatter as the amazing scenery flooding our eyes through every window—and it’s still plenty of time to for Aaron and me to listen to the first 30 seconds of ten or so tracks of new music we’ve been dying to introduce and ingratiate upon each other’s ears.

Once we arrive at the farm, Aaron orders a juicy, fat bratwurst hot off the grill and the rest of us fan out in search for the perfect pumpkins we intend to knife and disembowel later. In the distance there’s a giant compressed air cannon firing the stemmed orange specimens at an old school bus off in the field. The sun-beaten, rust-speckled vehicle looks as if years ago it solemnly wandered away from an entire herd of wild school buses, knowing it was time to die, driving miles and miles across unfettered farm country and ultimately lying down in this field with the moist earth against its undercarriage and the dry sun pulling its soul to the sky like the dew on a tin roof slowly but surely evaporating into the Fall air. The grumble of a diesel engine quickly interrupts the solace of my ponderance as the farm tractor pulls close with a hay-ride wagon in tow. We pass on climbing aboard because this year is all about the pumpkins.

My daughter Tessa does really well pushing our wheel barrow as we stroll among the piles of pre-picked pumpkins. Once we put our third one in, it’s a bit much for her to balance, so my son Evan takes the reigns for the remainder of our visit. The deliberation is short and fine picks are decided upon quickly. These beautiful, brilliant-orange pumpkins are completely unsuspecting as they have no idea of the macabre torture and mutilation they will soon endure.

Arriving home, we unload the sleigh of gathered goods, get all the mud and grime off, and begin disembowelment. We carefully save the pumpkin guts for the ladies to sort out the seeds to salt and bake later this evening.

The evening continues smoothly along as Aaron’s fiancee, Miss Jenny, rolls out fresh homemade dough and bakes gourmet pizzas for us. We get to choose or own toppings, of course, from fresh sliced pepperoni, garden fresh tomatoes, various varieties of cheeses, grilled sweet onions, minced garlic, and more. They turn out amazingly and we savor each bite as the pizzas are voraciously consumed.

Next, we carve our chosen specimens with great care and precision at our dining table. Freshly baked pumpkin seeds crunch between our teeth. The air is filled with music, giggles, and gregarious conversation as our carving knives submit to our intent on the orange surfaces placed before us.

Finally, our bidding of subtractive creativity is carried out and we bring our brand-new jack-o-lanterns out to the front porch for their first lighting. We stand together in the cool dark air and compliment each other’s work while gazing into the glowing heads on the front steps. It’s mesmerizing and there’s a feeling of satisfaction among us for a day well spent. Soon we say goodbye and promise to do this once again this time next year.

Happy Halloween!

The Official Process

I bet you’ve always wondered what steps I follow from the beginning to the end of each illustration project. Below is brief overview of how the magic happens.

Once I get an assignment, the first and most important thing I do is get on the phone with the client and gather information. Finding out the parameters of the project is key—not only the desired subject matter or initial idea, but also the intent. How will the art add value and meaning to the piece(s) it accompanies? What freedoms can we take; what ideas are available to explore; what critical elements need to be included; what physical reproduction circumstances need to be considered?

Next, I get good ol’ fashioned paper and pencil out, sit at my drawing table and quickly rough some thumbnails to brainstorm ideas, really focusing on basic composition. Once a plausible idea rises through the scattering of pencil scribbles, I define it better in a larger sketch that I then scan into the computer and pass to the client via email.

After the client and I agree to the sketch, it’s time to render on the computer. In Adobe Photoshop, I use the scanned sketch as a reference template to block in the shapes and lines I’ll need to define all the objects in the scene. Since my approach derives from traditional airbrush technique, this “blocking” step is similar to creating all the masks necessary to isolate areas for painting with the addition of selecting basic foundation colors for each object. For me, a typical illustration in Photoshop can have 100 layers or more depending on the complexity of the piece.

After the blocking stage, it’s time to add texture, light, and shadow. This is my favorite step in the process as I get to witness the art actually come to life and artwork’s elements begin to interact in the illusion of space. From a technical standpoint, I’m using Photoshop’s airbrush tool to paint in each object while rifling among Photoshop’s various selection tools, loading custom created alpha channel selections, and loading custom Bezier paths to create refined masks to brush in and define areas within the main objects blocked in previously. Sometimes, I go to Adobe Illustrator to create more complex masks more quickly and precisely and bring those into Photoshop for use.

The rendering process is a very evaluative one as well. As I get deeper into the artwork, it’s critical to keep checking and ensuring the overall piece is going the direction you envision. It’s easy to get so focused on the details that the big picture can become disjointed or misaligned in tonality or color. In fact towards the end of the project, this evaluation takes over as you finesse details, contrasts, color temperatures and overall continuity.

Once the rendering stage is completed, I email a low-resolution sample of the art to the client for review, and after approval, the high resolution file is posted for the client to download. Another illustration filled with challenge and wonder completed!