Just got a pile of stuff out to Creative Quarterly, a wonderful, well designed publication by Charles Hively that really speaks actively to the design, communications, marketing and illustration world. There is a great aesthetic of strong, good design that has a sense of humor and fun...not totally bent pinkie perfection--swiss /academic design, but with the right balance of smart, humorous, witty work. Charles also creates and publishes 3x3 which has a similar sensibility exclusively for illustration. I think he is developing a publication that takes on Communication Arts and transcends all the others (Print, How, etc.). So, we wait and see on this one. The 3x3 show I got into at least gets mentions from my friends etc. that they saw my work unlike the other shows where a stunning silence happens from friends, clients etc. 3x3 is soon too...hopefully there will be some time to enter a bunch of the valentines a group...hmmm.
I am on the illustrations with a slightly different headset than Memento Mori (which I was reviewing this a.m. for Creative Quarterly). The Memento Mori work was inked in, scanned and that was it. No sketches. No rework. Just plain guts on the page...And what I have now is the let it fly--ink on paper which I might do more than once! Then its scanned in with other bits and pieces that are assembled in photoshop in a higher than usual dpi (either 400 or 500 dpi) to size. Then, I erase and patch the black and white prior to even thinking about color. Color is a whole other thing... I am using non photo blue pencil for sketching and my new friend, the pentel fine line whiteout pen (acquired in LA! at Famima, that cute japanese store). So, in the tradition of logo design technique we learned in school (draw on paper, get a piece of glass and put it on top of the sketch, paint negative and positive with plakat--back and forth).
Now I am back to that approach, only with my pictures. The tiger is being recolored and doctored...with a redraw of some clouds and some consideration of texture/activity at the bottom of the page. The more I doll it up, the more it doesnt help the image. To take clues from indian art, a flat color in the background isnt a problem, nor are flat color borders are good too. Totally work either flat and flat, or flat with thin patterned borders. So, need to go back in with that in mind.