Miller Time!

Well, I was certainly serious about my resolutions but nobody told the folks I work for. Holy crap, last week was nuts. The previous week, I got in quite a bit of writing and lots of time at the gym. But this week...No time for writing or drawing. Certainly no time for reading or TV. I didn’t get anything done on the website and it was only by sheer will power and determination that I got in my three workouts. Suzanne and I had our first 10K training session on Saturday morning in 5-degree temperatures. I had no idea how out of shape I was and couldn’t even run a mile without stopping to catch my breath, which felt like ice cold razors in my throat. Three days later, I think I’ve caught a cold. Man, I hate this time of year.

Since I haven’t had any time to do anything, I thought I’d resort to my old stand-by of posting old artwork. The piece above is one of three drawings I did a couple years ago for some students at the Ad Center (Now called the Brand Center) which is part of VCU. It’s a highly-regarded post-graduate school for people interested in working in advertising. These students wanted to do a series of print ads using drawings with a “Frank Miller” vibe to them. They’d become enamored with the SIN CITY movie and had gotten hooked on Miller’s drawing style.

That’s one of the things that drives me crazy about doing freelance illustration. I’m always asked to draw like someone else. Sometimes it’s fun (as in this case) but most of the time it’s just irritating and the results are never satisfying. I was asked last week to do some storyboard illustration and, despite my crazy schedule, I was about to agree to it. Then the words, “...we’d like you to match this guy’s style...?” entered the conversation and I ran away, screaming.

This one, though, was kind of an interesting challenge and I was excited about the project. Unfortunately, though the clients were thrilled, this was the only piece out of the three that I was happy with. So I gave them a break on the price. I learned a lot about using negative space to define shpaes with this series and I was very happy to have done it. This assignment also has the distinction of being the first freelance work I was actually paid for doing. I’ve been stiffed more times than I can count and it was very satisfying to have someone happily and willingly hand over money for something I drew.

Okay, that’s it. Back to work. Hopefully, I’ll have something more interesting to post later this week.

Happy Inauguration Day, everybody! Good times lay ahead.