Quick Digital Portrait-Andy Kaufman

I'm just feeling it creatively right now. If I could draw and paint 24 hours a day I would. A lot of times as a creative person you get in what I like to call that "sweet zone." You just feel like ideas are coming at you all the time and you just want to create.

A few weeks ago I just had this sudden desire to do a digital portrait of comedian Andy Kaufman. No sketch done first in pencil, no scanning...just my Wacom tablet, Photoshop and a self-imposed time limit of 45 minutes.

The above is the result. It not only captures his likeness but some of that childlike wonder Kaufman had in his expressive face.

Turner Classic Movie Portraits-Audrey Hepburn

A few months ago Turner Classic Movies started following me on Twitter. I think it was because of my often-tweeted about profession of love for old movies and classic stars. I began illustrating TCM's Star of the Month.

Even though Audrey Hepburn wasn't Star of the Month when I did this illustration TCM gladly retweeted it to thousands of their followers.

Doing these monthly portraits has become something I look forward to and something that TCM and their followers seem to like also.

Illustration Friday-Moustache

Illustration Friday's subject for this week was/is mustache. I immediately thought of Salvador Dali. I like to think he might even like the surrealistic way I depicted his 'stache being drawn.

Illustration Friday-Wild

The word this week for Illustration Friday is "wild." Who embodied that word better than the recently passed Jonathan Winters? I decided to do a relatively quick illustration of Jonathan from his role as the crazed truck driver in Stanley Kramer's all-star comedy film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Every time this comic genius was on the screen he stole the scene. Nothing was funnier than when he singlehandedly destroyed the gas station.

Illustration Friday-Egg

Okay, I went for the obvious here. Several years ago I did an illustration for a business magazine where Humpty was wearing a 3 piece business suit. I had so much fun doing that I thought it'd be fun to revisit the character.

My second choice was to do Vincent Price as the TV Batman bad guy Egghead.

Animal Shelter Piece

For the last few years I have donated illustration work to a couple of different animal shelters: One here in Georgia and one down in Tallahassee, Florida. The piece below is a new cover for a brochure that won me an Addy Award a couple of years ago.

Speaking at The University of Georgia

This coming Tuesday, September 20th I will be speaking to a group of young people at The University of Georgia. The professor has asked me to talk about magazine cover and children's book illustration.

I have some portfolio material I'm bringing, including a great deal of my work on a CD. Having been a teacher several years ago at The Art Institute of Atlanta I'm really looking forward to this.

I illustrated and had printed a postcard that has the above image on the front of it. That card has all of my contact info on the back. I'm going to hand one out to each of the students. I think it's important and could be a good thing for these guys to have a link to a working professional in the business.

....and if any of you UGA kids are reading this now don't hesitate to leave a comment here or to contact me anytime.