A comparison of historical and modern forms in chess pieces, including one Persian pieces and others from the Lewis Chessman sets.
They happen to be on show at the Metropolitan Museum’s Museum at the moment.
Checkmate
FHM Magazine – Darknet
I relished the opportunity to paint a full color spread for FHM Magazine! Although there’s a bit of painting in my folio, it might not be the first thing that springs to mind when some people think of my work. Some specific influences were suggested and I worked with a thick, robust finish to make a contemporary set of images feel a little other-worldly and other-timely.
The feature was a heavy, dark exploration of ‘Darknet’, an underground peer-to-peer network of crooks engaging in a breadth of illegal activity, including child pornography and drug trafficking. Many thanks to AD Christian Ferriero.
Below the cut are some cool detail shots scattered about the feature.
Happy Lunar New Year 2012
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! This year being the year of the water dragon, here are ten of them for good measure.
Click to see them a little larger -
An Act of Tolerance
If you were to pick up a copy of the lates, you might my work playing rhythm to a feature on an experimental procedure to eliminate reliance of patients on immuno-suppressant drugs by transplanting donor’s bone marrow along with the transplanted organ. It’s called ‘An Act of Tolerance.’
A special bonus for visitors here, an off-cut from a series develop for the article -
I developed the core images with reference (and apologies!) to Blake, Matisse. Many thanks to Editor Elie Dolgin for the guidance.
The Dirty Three for Rolling Stone Australia
I have the review page illustration in the latest Australia this month. They’re a band of contrasts. Jim White, Mick Turner and Warren Ellis can be frenetic, wild, chaotic, passionate. Their music can be just as very heavy, brooding, atmospheric, sweeping, tender and fragile. I wanted to straddle their stillness with their fury in the symbols and composition, but also in the form itself. Weighty, immovable, fully rendered paints floating impossibly, immovably, against a fluid, dynamic, vital flow. Ki. Eyes open, eyes closed. Focus and attention; open acceptance and tight embrace. Clean, masterful and dirty, rebellious.
It is particularly thrill to return to the pages of Rolling Stone after having recently seen the exhibition at the Society of Illustrators and sitting in on a comprehensive presentation by Senior Art Director Steve Charny. Steve went into the history and legacy of illustration for the Rolling Stone Review page and its evolution over the years with the magazine. It is fascinating to watch cultural shifts, fueled or reflected in pop culture and music, run parallel, pushed and pulled by movements in the responsive accompanying illustration assigned. The page offers a rare opportunity in editorial and publishing illustration to pair one artist with another and at its best, the results transcend. View a .
Thank you to AD Cam Emerson-Elliot for the opportunity and my patient studio mates for the big mess! It was a luxury and joy to engage the music and the band, honey on chocolate. Below follows my initial trails, familiarizing myself to the geography of Rolling Stone magazine’s infamously narrow and tall window on their feature review page, and some process shots from the studio doing wall.
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