No Man's Land

Image with Pulp magazine Adventure logo

Earlier this year, for about two months, the Society of Illustrators had an exhibit of Robert Lesser's Pulp Art collection. To this day, it's the one show that really stood out to me while working there. I was amazed by these oil paintings- quickly slapped down by artists like HJ Ward, Norman Saunders, Rafael De Soto, etc. And despite some reviews here and there I've read about the work, I think the craftmanship is remarkable. Sure, they are a bit rushed, but they had to be in order to survive in that line of work. Ever since that show I've been wanting do something along those lines.

Doing a Damsel in Distress/ Femme Fatale on the cover only seemed right. At the same time, to go in with my heavy blacks and leave them with the job of defining shadows in this creepy jungle. Despite the lure of a sexy figure, that trail can't lead to anything good.

Final image without text

Initial thumbs and reference from my sketchbook

Pencil sketches under a layer of inked tracing paper

Linework

Also, don't ask me why, but after inking this, I realized those two bird have appeared in drawings of mine before. I can't help it. I like those two birds.

Speaking of birds, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has a nice week. I'll be in touch.

The New Gold Rush

Here's a new illustration I did for a recent issue of Penthouse. It was for an interesting article about 20-30 year olds going back up in to the mountains above LA to pan for gold just like the 49ers use to. With the economic crisis we've been in, people are willing to try anything to get some extra money. I, personally, think it's an awesome idea.

Big thanks to Art Director John Faraci

Sketch

Layout

Backpacker | Gone Astray

Here's another illustration I did for Backpacker's Survival Quiz. This issue's theme was the risk of becoming lost in the wild.

Layout

Big thanks again to Jackie McCaffrey for the awesome Art Direction!