WTWTA

TRAILER just came out today. Seems like it does Sendak justice. I've read a lot of trash talk about the CG already, but those people are clearly retarded right? What do you think?

I mean when you inspect a picture like this one there are small indications that make it stand out as CG (the colors in the eyes for example). But when you watch the trailer it's clear that there's some fantastic art direction going on here.

BILLY MITCHELL IS GOD

I just watched The King of Kong on Netflix this weekend. It's a documentary about a group of world class gamers from back in the Pacman era, and the controversy surrounding a newcomer claiming a world record Donkey Kong score that hadn't been beaten in 20 years. Great stuff. But the best part to me was this guy named Billy Mitchell, who played a fantastic villain in this world of nerd prestige. I had no choice but to make an illustration of him. Here's the first progress shot, and the trailer for the flick. Go find it.

SHANNON'S SHOW RECAP

Just posted a recap of my girl Shannon Bonatakis's latest gallery opening. I'm a proud papa. Check it out HERE.

FAIL!

So between working full-time for an apparel company, steady freelance work, "normal human" responsibilities and sketch-a-day, I am freakin' beat kids. So you'll notice that my page conveniently no longer says "sketch-a-day", and that's because I reluctantly tap. I'll continue to post sketches, progress shots, thoughts, inspiration, etc. but I was really feeling bad about not posting daily and that's no good. Time to get my biz in order.

So now I'll be focusing on making the work I need to make, and not worrying about posting little things I'm not all that crazy about anyway. I just took on a big project co-creating an animated series (that I currently can't talk about), my shiny new website is about to get taken off the back burner, and I have new illustrations and merchandise in the works. Good stuff! I'll keep you all posted for sure. Sorry I'm a huge pussy and my truly quick sketches aren't worth posting. Let's get a sketch-battle going soon. I'm down.

-JH

GUESS THE MUSICIANS

These were all requests by commenters (one is Shannon's). First one to guess them right gets something in the mail. If I didn't mess up the likenesses this should be easy right? I'm scared. Get it right.

OFF THE WALL

Off The Wall MJ, as requested by Jack Gregory. I'm not sure if he knew it or not, but this is my favorite incarnation of Michael Jackson by far. Yes, better than Thriller. Did anyone see him make his big "comeback" today? I think a true comeback for the king of pop might require a time machine at this point. It's been a bad couple of decades for Michael Jackson fans, hopefully he can finally get some help soon.

Keep the requests coming!

KAREN O

She told her "no no no".

SPANK ROCK

No it's not Urkel. But if you must make the comparison he's more like Stephan Urkell. These music sketches are just going to be quick face studies of varied musicians I think. Likenesses are definitely not my strong suit, but I need to draw out of my head a bit less.

I'm beat. Just finished helping Shannon ship out the last pieces, and we got our first night off in a looong time. Sleep...

IGGY

I'm going to do a music theme for S.A.D. this week. Starting with the living Godfather of Rock & Roll (according to Henry Rollins).

FASHION ILLUSTRATION

Here's something I wrapped up recently, it's a logo/illustration for a startup clothing company. I'll link to them as soon as they get their new site up.

MAD ELEPHANT

This is something I made for a political web ad campaign I was working on with Todd Berger of Cypher13. It never saw the light of day, so I'm sharing now. Pretty scary elephant right? Well, if you would have told me 4 years ago that we'd have a beloved black president, and that the RNC chair would be saying things like "off the hook" trying to trick someone into thinking he's cool, I would have told you you're batshit crazy.