This is one of several illustrations I’m working on for a short-stroy Sci-Fi anthology a friend of mine has written. You can read the story for this drawing here. I’m working on the inked version of the drawing next. I’ll post it when it’s done.

Tags: Illustration, steampunk, ink drawing

Another process video showing how some one builds their art.

The making of Ephemicropolis from Peter Root on Vimeo.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

This is a wonderful short film done in a very gothic, victorian, “silhouetted steampunk” by director Anthony Lucas. A well told story and absolutely captivating illustration style. Learn more about the film and it’s creator here: jaspermorello.com/gazette

Tags: Illustration, steampunk, victorian art, airships, silhouette, Gothic

A lot of people think that working for yourself is like a vacation. Well, it could be, but then you wouldn’t be working, would you?

During the past almost ten years that I have worked freelance, I have found that you have to take it seriously and run your operation like it’s a real business, not a hobby. To make it work long term you have to still do a lot of the things you’d do if you were working at someone else’s company. Like get dressed, be at work at a regular time (when normal people are working—if your clients are in Australia, then sure, work at night) don’t spend the day surfing the web, and most of all, meet your deadlines.

I found this video at FastCompany. If you are contemplating freelance, it has some good advice about how to approach the business or working for yourself.

Tags: Freelance business, working for your self, working from home

I love to watch video’s like this, and see the process other artists and illustrators use to get to the finished product. It’s one thing to see a piece of art and marvel at the completed piece and appreciate, or recoil from the concept and idea behind it, but to get to watch it made, is like performance art.

Tags: Painting, Illustration, art

I love this quote:

“Different typefaces are like like having different actors in play or different voices in an audio book,” Simonson says. “The variations in typeface influence the personality of the book. Sticking to one font is much like having the same actor play all the different parts.”
Read more at Wired.com

One of my hobbies is brewing my own beer. It’s a fun diversion from my graphic art, but I can’t help having a bleed over. I like to design my own labels for my beer. Here are three new labels for three batches I brewed so far this season.



I’m going for a retro/traditional look with some modern elements. I used Chaparral Pro for the serif face and Myriad Pro for the san serif.

This is amazing. All these little ice sculptures of human figures, set out on steps for people to watch melt. Neat.

I love the Supreme Beings and have listened to them for years, but only recently did I deceide to have a look at some of there videos. I really like the treatment of this one, “Strange Love Addiction.” Great song too.

The Folks at Free Geekery, sent an e-mail to alert me to the fact that they have a mighty list of 101 type faces for Designers. These are all free type faces, although several ask for credit or permission if the font is used commercially.
Grunge
Handwriting
Familiar
Tech
Unique
Fancy
Bold
Clean and Simple
Simple with a twist
Oddly, Free Geekery, is the blog page for a "[Reward] Credit Card eduction" website.

I've been a fan of Roy Lichtenstein's comic book pop art for years. I always wondered how many of his paintings were taken from comic books and did he copy the comic panels directly or make changes to them to improve the composition? Well now there are some answers, thanks to David Barsalou and his Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein project. Originally an exibit at the Springfield Massachusetts Gallery, he now has a flickr site that contains a ton of the source material. It's an interesting deconstruction of the wonderful work Lichtenstein created.

A really interesting read is the Great Bazooka Bubble Gum Wrapper Myth of 1961, A look into the controversy over whether Lichtenstein stole Andy Warhol's idea. Neat.

"... So, I went home and called Andy - no, I think, I went right over to Andy's house... and so, I said, 'Prepare yourself for a shock.' And he said, 'What?' I said, 'Castelli has a closet full of comic paintings.' And he said, 'You're kidding?!' And he said, 'Who did them?' And I said, 'Somebody by the name of Lichtenstein.' Well, Andy turned white. He said, 'Roy Lichtenstein.' He said, 'Roy Lichtenstein used to... ' - as I remember, he used to be a sign painter for Bonwit Teller, and here's where I'm a little bit confused because Andy... couldn't get anybody to show his early cartoon paintings, so he went to Gene Moore and Gene Moore said, 'Well I can put the paintings in the windows...' He put them in the 57th Street window... As I remember, the implication was: Andy felt that Lichtenstein had seen the paintings in the window and gave him the idea to do his paintings..."