Ninja April 30th, 2007
There’s this great site out there, called Fist-A-Cuffs, hosted by comic book artist, Sam Hiti. Here illustrators team up and duke it out with other tag teams. Round 5 ended 2 days ago with team SKIN AND BONEZ as the champs.
This site cracks me up…
Ninja April 30th, 2007
Since Spring is definitely in the air + the flowers are blooming, Penguin + I have decided to put out another print. =) We’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback, + we’d like to thank you for your enthusiasm!
I still need to do some tweeks before we get it printed, but here is the (Cliff Notes) process for your viewing pleasure.
Daydream Believer
I started out with a sketch of a tree + scanned it in.
Using the pen tool, I made a silhouette of the tree.
I then added in some squiggly lines (still using the pen tool with squiggly lines on the overlapping layer).
And it’s essentially more of the same (drawing more objects on separate layers, using the pen tool). I thought the squiggly lines on the tree were a lil’ too high contrast, so I changed them to a dull grey. I also reflected the tree horizontally. I then added in the swinging girl, butterflies, and grass (in that order). I didn’t have any pencil sketches for any of the other parts of the illustration; I drew them freehand in Illustrator.
Enjoy! And I’ll keep you posted when we finally get this printed! =)
Ninja April 25th, 2007
When I first learned about this twin set of illustrators, I was terribly amused (I’m still not sure as to why) that they shared genetic information as well as a passion for drawing. They were raised in different settings, studied at different schools, but collaborate on their ongoing experimental comic book series, Bipolar.
Tomer was born in Israel, studied at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and currently works out of London. He has won multiple medals from the Society of Illustrators, the Society of Publication Designers, American Illustration, and Print magazine. His clients include MTV, Rolling Stone Magazine, Spin, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time Magazine.
Asaf was born in Israel (which I feel silly repeating considering they’re twins), studied at Emile Cohl in Lyon, and currently works out of Tel Aviv. He has worked on graphic novels with both Didier Daeninckx and Etgar Keret. His clients include Rolling Stone Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, and Time Magazine.
Here are a few of my favs from their portfolios.
Tomer
Asaf
+ buy Tomer’s Refugees print All proceeds from this special limited edition print will be donated to the International Catholic Migration Commission.
Related postsNinja April 25th, 2007
My old prof, Gerry Beegan, is curating an upcoming show. Go check it out!
Beauty is in the Streets
Curated by Gerry Beegan
Opening reception Wednesday May 9, 5 to 7 p.m.
Mason Gross Galleries
Beauty is in the Streets is inspired by questions about the power and diffusion of the printed image. The show juxtaposes a private collection of posters of Che Guevara with work by contemporary artists and designers produced in response. One of the inspirations for the show is Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Posters: Advertisement, Art, Political Artifact, Commodity.
The artists and designers involved include Anton Vidokle, Aleksandra Mir, Carrie Moyer, Stefan Saffer, Experimental Jet Set, Henry VIII’s Wives, Pedro Lasch and Josh McPhee. In addition to image-making, the artists’ work encompasses wall text, animation, performance, interventions in public spaces as well as a collaboration with students from New Brunswick High School and graphics undergrads.
The show is inspired by questions about the power and diffusion of the printed image and involves a poster collection and work by artists and designers produced in response to these images. The posters are a private collection of Che Guevara posters. By juxtaposing these designed objects with pieces made in response to them, Beegan hopes to explore some of the complexities involved in placing designed objects in a gallery, or indeed in a collection. The show will be traveling to the Bronx River Art Center in New York in the spring and Ellen Lupton at MICA is also interested in taking it.
Interestingly enough, the Dutch designers Experimental Jetset are one of the contributors and are notorious for only using Helvetica in their work, which is mainly type based. Well, for the upcoming show, they will be doing their first ever (as far as I know) non-Helvetica piece! Which will also be entirely image based, shock-horror!
Related posts
Penguin April 25th, 2007
So, Ninja and I have been talking, and we want to start a webcomic for the site. My illustration skills are not nearly as good as Ninja’s but I will try my best. To that end. I’d like to hear some ideas for stories. Leave ‘em in the comments!
-Penguin
Related postsNinja April 24th, 2007
To my oncology researcher, belly dancer friend, a very BIG happy birthday to you! I thought I’d send some joyful memories your way. Oh, Italy!
Ninja April 24th, 2007
In September, I took some photos of this tree down the street. It reminded me of this story of 3 blind men who went to feel an elephant. They had been born blind and never had sight. So when they felt the elephant, based on their limited experience, they all believed an elephant to be something different. One had felt the legs and thought an elephant was like tree trunks. Another had felt the tail and thought an elephant was like rope. The third had felt the ears and thought an elephant was like a blanket. This tree had mushrooms growing at the bottom near the roots, a vine with mysterious neon berries wrapped around the trunk, insects mating further up, and thin, scraggly branches atop. While I was taking these photos, I was thinking what these 3 blind men would think the tree was if they felt the different parts.
Related postsPenguin April 23rd, 2007
NvP is looking for artists to beta test the community aspects of the page.
The idea, is that we want to afford everyone the same chance to print their work, just like Ninja has. But considering our limited finances, we won’t be able to print everything that is submitted to us. Instead, we’re going to go the whole Web2.0 route and let you decide what’s printed and what’s not!
So, how do you participate? It’s easy. Go to participate from the front page and upload your work. Then, let your friends know about it and have them vote on it. That’s it!
We’re pretty new at this whole Web2.0 stuff, so we’re definitely going to need your help in making this a great place to share your work.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin April 23rd, 2007
Due to popular demand. I’ve changed the commenting system. Now, the only requirement should be that you enter your name and email address. This should encourage open discussion.
Ninja April 20th, 2007
Hallo, hallo! I hope you’re enjoying your mornings. A few friendly folks have asked about the monsters’ origins, so I’m going to show you the steps behind the monsters. Meet the latest monster, blot number 7. His name is Ralph; I named him after a wonderful Art Director I used to work with.
I recommend starting off w/ a pencil sketch, scanning it in, then using it as a guide. I, um, don’t do that though (I’d like to, but there’s that whole problem of not always having access to a scanner). Using the pen tool in Illustrator, I draw the central body first and then expand from there.
Look, now she’s got legs and wellies!
Add the head.
Then throw in an arm for good measure.
Using Illustrator’s pen tool, draw a curved line. Open the stroke pallette, set the line’s stroke to 4 points and select the option to have curved corners on your stroke.
Using the pen tool, draw the umbrella top. Oh, and draw a lil’ wellie for your monster! Oh, It’s a lil’ late in the game, but I should mention that you should use layers. Draw elements on different layers, and lock layers when they’re not in use. This way you can move elements around without affecting the ones on the layers underneath them. Also, label your layers! This is key for when you go back to your document to edit it. It takes the guesswork out of figuring what item is on what layer. You can also color code your layers (right click) and assign the color. This way you can have all the “girl” layers one color and the “umbrella” layers another color. You can also stick layers into folder sets, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Add a cyan background color so the elements pop.
Save your file, open it in Photoshop to rasterize it. This is now your background layer.
Select the monster’s wellie using the magic wand tool. Hit apple + j to duplicate it onto another layer. Use the move tool to move it up and over to the left. Then hit apple + e to merge this layer down with the background layer.
On another layer, use the paintbrush tool to draw in the hair (I normally draw the hair in Illustrator, but I was kind of lazy this time and did it in Photoshop).
Now open the blot supplied by Stefan. Hit apple + a to select all. Copy and paste into your working document. It will appear on a new layer. Go to edit > transform > scale to shirk it down. Select “multiply” from your layer pallette’s blending mode. This will make the blot’s white background appear transparent over the cyan color. It’ll save you the trouble of silhouetting this complex shape.
Using the paintbrush tool, draw in the little fellow.
Assesorize him. Give him some additional rain gear (still using the paintbrush tool, just with a different color).
Draw in some ears.
Print out what you’ve got so far. Place a piece of tracing paper over it. Using a black sharpie, write the words. Have some onomatopoeia fun—I used “plick,” “plock,” “drip,” and “drop” alternating. Scan it in (I was at work, so I was able to use the scanner there. I started the vector part at home last nite, so no scanner access). Adjust the brightness and contrast (if needed). Hit apple + i to inverse the image. Copy and paste this into your working document. It will appear on a new layer. Move it to the desired position. Select the “screen” blending mode for this layer, and it will appear as knock out type.
And here’s the final image. Enjoy! =)
Feel free to ask questions or comment. I’d love to hear from you! Comment on the blog or write me at Ninja [at] ninjavspenguin [dot] com.
Related postsLimited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
