Hinton Geary Accepted to Society of Illustrators

Normal, OK: Hinton Geary, ink and collage on found fabric.

I'm pleased to announce that Hinton Geary from the Normal, OK series has been accepted to the Society of Illustrators 51st Annual book and exhibition. Ever since I learned about the S of I, I've wanted to be a part of it. My painting Let's Make Some Undies was in the student show in 2005. This will be my first time showing at the Society (or anyplace in NYC) as a professional.

Hinton will be in the Book Illustration category, representing Normal, OK: The Book (which you can order by clicking here).

The exhibition opens at the Society of Illustrators in NYC on January 28th 2009. The awards ceremony for the Book and Editorial categories will be on February 6th. God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be there.

David Foster Wallace (1962 - 2008)

David Foster Wallace Considers the Lobster. Acrylic, ink and collage on paper, 2006.

Los Angeles Times obituary for David Foster Wallace.

David Foster Wallace at Wikipedia.

Lyle Lovett Portrait Illustration

This is my entry for the BookMooch Journal "A Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love."

Lyle Lovett, ink on paper, 2008. Click image to see full-size.

I'm really enjoying this marker sketch process. They're either cheap markers or old markers, so in either case they dry out quickly. That gives me an opportunity to layer colors like I would with glazes in painting.

Join BookMooch! It's a great way to match old books with new readers.

The BookMooch Journals are an offshoot of BookMooch. Read more about the journals here.

Related: I've been updating my Flickr page. Pop in for a visit, yeah? The Mooch Journals have a Flickr pool, too.

Illustration Friday: Foggy

Let Things Be Foggy, ink on paper, July 2008.

I began this sketch during my stay in Canadian, Texas over the Fourth of July holiday. I don't have any major shows planned or new projects in progress at this point, so I feel a mite bit purposeless. (It's been a long time since my schedule was this open.) Plus, I'm exploring some less graphic, more painterly stylistic ground. This foggy place is the perfect environment in which to let some new ideas germinate.

See more of Illustration Friday here.

Here is a snapshot of my desk upon completing the drawing, where you can see my collage sketch:

Not What I Meant

Not What I Meant, acrylic on wood panel, 2008. Click image to enlarge.

A few years back I came into a whole pile of these 8 x 22 inch wood panels. I think they were raw cabinet doors that hadn't been shaped and finished. Usually I paint on them vertically, so this is the first time I've used one in its wide format. Just in time for Illustration Friday: Wide.

Not What I Meant, detail view.

This panel was actually a so-so painting several years back. (In fact, it was one of a series of paintings I did that turned out so poorly that I realized I needed to go back to school and learn to paint. Hence: graduate school.) To start the painting you see here, I sanded the previous painting's surface, then added the red and blue. I scratched the fish shapes away with an exacto knife (and many many blades). It's so satisfying to transform a failure into a success.