Unpublished Ideas

In my last entry I mentioned submitting a cover design to the good people at The New Yorker. My idea was rejected but they were nice enough to take a look and one day I'll try again. I've got a list of ideas but not enough time to make them a reality.

The illustration above is a detail of my cover submission. The idea came from the protests and riots that were following the torch prior to the Summer Olympics in China. I took Picasso's Geurnica and altered it to include riot police with a horse, a runner with torch, Tibetan monks, protesters and both the Tibetan and Chinese flags.

I did a series of ads that ran in all the major magazines including The New York but one day I'll do a cover, promise!

To Do List

I've been very bad at keeping my blog up to date but I've been busy illustrating. Autumn is on the doorstep, if not today it will be tomorrow. With work and trying to keep your head above water you can sometimes you lose track of the things you'd like to accomplish. I figured this was as good a time as any to write down a few jobs I should aim towards. A lot of work just comes your way but sometimes you have to go out in this business and get the jobs you want. In no particular order, here are a few that have been on my mind.

1. The Atlantic Monthly - A very fine magazine that I just haven't been in yet.

2. Mad Magazine - Mad is always nice enough to take a look at my work but they have some fine fine illustrators at their disposal. I'm a huge fan, my first introduction to comic books was my Dad's 1960s Mad Magazines. Unbelievable covers then, and now.

3. The Tim Horton's winter coffee cup - I've been called to quote for this job twice now and for one reason or another it didn't work out. If the art director on this project is out there I'm looking for you.

4. Rolling Stone Magazine - No explanation necessary.

5. The New Yorker cover- A couple years ago I was working on sketches for a cover that I never had the time to finish. Then one day I saw the exact same idea on the cover by another illustrator. You snooze you loose. I submitted my first cover submission last year and the fine folks there were nice enough to send me a rejection letter. I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I really didn't expect they would respond.

I'm going to leave it at that for now. There are tons of projects I'd love to work on but this is a start, I'll do this again soon. Nothing like setting the bar nice and high.

John

New Harley Davidson Giclee Print Available

My Harley Davidson "See America" artwork is now available as a signed Giclee print. The image is 8" x 10" with a 1" white boarder. You can purchase them directly through me for $40 US plus $10 shipping to the lower 48 States or feel free to pick one up on Ebay. My Ebay ID is johnperlock or look for Harley Davidson Giclee Print.

Altpick Talks To John Perlock

I'm happy to say that this summer has been keeping me very busy with illustration work. I've wrapped up a project for Scholastic, another painting for Maisonneuve Magazine (on shelves now!) and three more for Boy's Life Magazine with still lots more to go.

The big news today is that the illustration website, Altpick has posted an interview with me in their members' spotlight. It will be easy to find on their front page from July 14th - July 16th. After that it'll be available in the spotlight archive.

http://altpick.com/spot/john_perlock/

I've very pleased with how it turned out and hope you get a chance to read it.

In The Navy

In the Spring of 2008 I was asked if I had a couple of days to spend on a project for the US Navy, the Experimental Diving Unit to be exact. 15 months later the job is finally complete and I'm just waiting to see what they did with my artwork. There were nine paintings in total that were going to be put together to show the past, present and future of the NEDU. If you see these paintings in an ad let me know, I'd love to see how it all worked out. Above are a handful of the paintings. I'll post more later!

One Down, Seven To Go.

The second installment of the Dave Bidini project with Maisonneuve is finished. At least my part is. The art was submitted earlier this week and everyone seemed very happy. I'm not sure when the summer issue comes out but I suspect sometime in July.

Speaking of July, I have projects scheduled right up until the end of it, not that there's not plenty of room for more.

This week I'm finishing up sketches for a page in a Scholastic reader. They're having he students dissect advertisements so I'm creating a fake ad for them to take apart.

I'm also starting work on another two American Revolution stories for Boys' Life Magazine. Since 2006 I've regularly illustrated Thomas Fleming's stories of the American Revolution in that magazine. So that's six more paintings in the coming months.

Spring Ahead

The Spring issue of Maisonneuve Magazine is out and I received my copy in the mail last week. This is the first installment of a project I'm very excited to be a part of. Canadian writer Dave Bidini is writing four pieces for this magazine this year and I've been hired as illustrator for the series. On page 54 you'll find our first installment. I'm not going to spoil the article, you'll have to pick up the magazine if you want to read Mr. Bidini's article. We start work on the second piece in this series this week. I can't wait.

This issue of the magazine also launches an updated look for Maisonneuve with a brand new logo by art director Anna Minzhulina. Anna is responsible for bringing me into the Maisonneuve Magazine world. Thanks again Anna.

Spring Spot Illustrations

The labors of Winter seem to be popping up now that it's Springtime. I was visiting the newsstand yesterday and found the latest issue of Outdoor Canada. You can find a spot illustration of mine that accompanies a short story about a father and son bonding on a fishing trip. This was the second time in a few months that I've had the opportunity to work with Outdoor Canada Magazine and their art director Sandra Cheung so thanks to everyone over there. I look forward to doing it again soon!

Canadian Lawyer Inhouse Magazine Cover

To all my lawyer friends out there, watch out for the new issue of Canadian Lawyer's Inhouse Magazine with my "High Stakes" cover. Thanks to art director Bill Hunter for the opportunity to do this piece. I've done covers for the folks at CLB Media Inc. in the past but this is the first time I've done a piece for Inhouse Magazine.

I thought of my friends who had died of exposure..

"...And I remembered other ones who had died from the lack of it." - Nick Cave

I heard Nick Cave's song "Darker With The Day" a couple of days ago and thought this quote was appropriate for a book recommendation I had planned on writing here.

First, let me backtrack to the 1980s when I was learning to draw from comic books. Alan Moore's Watchmen was always on my list of books that I had to read but never got around to it. Fast forward to 2009 when the movie was due to be released. I finally struggled through every page. It was torture to read but I continued because I figured there was a great ending to justify the 20 years of hype. Nope. I personally thought it was terrible.

On the other hand I recently found a comic artist/writer I'd never heard of. I found Rutu Modan's Jamilti & Other Stories one day and was curious enough to read it. I'm not going to spoil any surprises but it's really a fantastic collection of short stories. I searched for more of her work and ended up with Exit Wounds which again was just amazing. I don't know anything about Rutu Modan but if I had a couple bucks in my pocket and was heading to the comic book store I would be bringing anything by her home with me. You can find her books published by the fine folks at Drawn And Quarterly.

March Email Promotion Day

Today my March email campaign was sent out. If you got my email advertisement and came to visit let me first say welcome. I've only been blogging for a little more than a month so this is still new to me and can only get better. My plan is to share news from my studio and other fun bits as they come along. Feel free to subscribe to my blog and I'll do my best to make it worth your while.

Thanks for stopping by!

John

I Miss The Shamrock Shake

It's March now and I've been busy. Up above this you can see a snippet of a digital illustration or McDonald's beloved Grimace. It's a portrait of Grimace as the Laughing Buddha (patron saint of restaurateurs). March seemed like a good time to share this because I'm sure everyone is dreaming of Shamrock shakes as Saint Patrick's Day approaches. This was another digital experiment to see what I can do with Photoshop. You can see the full illustration and original pen and ink drawing by clicking my "archive" link on the right and side.

Yesterday I completed a cover for In House Magazine from Canadian Lawyer. It's my first time working for them but I have done covers for other magazines from CLB Media Inc. Years have gone by and I haven't done any work in Canada, only the US but this year the Canadian Magazines are keeping me quite busy. Thanks to my Canadian art directors.

I'm hoping to announce any day now that the Spring issue of Maisonneuve Magazine will be out with my illustration for Dave Bidini's story. Keep you eyes peeled.

The Joey Ramone Experiment

I've been playing around in Photoshop in my free time and have come up with a few interesting pieces. The first is a series I'm calling The Joey Ramone Experiment. It's an experiment because I made 5 or 6 different versions based on the same sketch and I couldn't decide which one I liked the best. You can find a handful of them in my Flickr photostream (click on the "archive link on the right hand side of this page). If you have a favorite or you hate them all please let me know.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnperlockillustration/

Dave Bidini and Maisonneuve Magazine

I'm happy to announce that I will be in the Spring issue of Maisonneuve Magazine. Writer Dave Bidini, formerly of The Rheostatics, has written an article for this super cool magazine and I had the honor of illustrating it. The plan at this point is to have me illustrate an article of his in each issue this year. I'm thrilled to be working with both Dave Bidini and Maisonneuve on this and can't thank art director Anna Minzhulina enough.

More info later...

Giclee Prints Of Leica Classic Camera

This is an oil painting I did of a Leica IIIc rangefinder camera. I found this particular camera for sale last year in a shop. I snapped some quick photo reference before some lucky photographer bought it. As of Wednesday this week, gilclee prints of this German classic will be for sale. The image size is 12" x 15" with an additional 1" white boarder all around and will be signed below the image on the lower right hand side. These prints are made with archival inks and papers for $55.00 USD plus shipping. If you prefer to do your shopping on Ebay, you can find them at the following link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190286796867

Rod Blagojevich Joins The Peanuts Gang!

I wanted to post this little Rod Blagojevich cartoon I did before the former Illinois governor disappears from the news. His hair kind of reminded me of Charles Schulz' Peppermint Patty. That's the whole gag. I'm sure we'll be hearing more from Mr. Blagojevich sometime soon.

Fishing Outdoors In Canada

The new issue of Outdoor Canada Magazine is out with an article called "Waypoint" that features a spot illustration of mine. The story is about today's anglers longing for the good old days when fishing wasn't about how much technology and equipment you can get on your boat.

This was the first time I've worked with Outdoor Canada. It was a real treat to work with art director Sandra Cheung on the project and I hope to do it again real soon.

A Brief History Of Illustration Reps

January 2009 marks a first for me. For the first time in my career I'm no longer represented by an agent. I spoke with agents all the way back in my Ontario College Of Art And Design days and had signed with Toronto's i2i Art Inc within a few months of graduating from school. I moved on from i2i Art Inc a few years ago to join The Newborn Group in New York City. This was a very appealing group for me at the time because of the strong stable of realistic illustrators. After two years I just didn't feel like I was getting much benefit out of the business relationship. I left the group last year and with all the time it takes to break an artist/rep relationship I'm officially on my own now. So, if you go to the Newborn Group's website and find me listed as a new artist it's just a very outdated website.

On The Horizon In 2009

2009 is already promising exciting projects along with the publication of a number of projects leftover from 2008. Here's a taste of what you can watch out for.

Outdoor Canada Magazine

- Any day now you should be able to find my spot illustration of an fisherman longing for the good old days of worms, peanut butter sandwiches and lounging on the dock.

Navy Experimental Diving Unit, US Navy

- A year long project for a half page ad! It's a long story but this collection of nine paintings should be seeing the light of day in the coming months.

Maisonneuve Magazine

- I'm not going to give away too many secrets here but I've just signed on to do a few pieces for this super cool Canadian mag. More to come....

There are also a number of pieces on the drawing board. Some will be ready any day some who knows.

Signed Giclee Of Boys' Life Art

So this is day two of my blog and figured I should probably post something about my work. Last year I had a number of requests for prints of my work so this year I'm going to try and have more signed Giclee prints available. The good news is the first one is ready to roll. This was an illustration I did for Boy's Life Magazine's December 2008 issue. The story was about the relationship between a Native American boy and an English settler just prior to the Jamestown massacre. I did three paintings for this story but this was by far my favorite depicting the two boys hunting turkeys. The prints are 18.5" wide by 12" tall with a 1" white boarder all all around. They are signed just below the image. These are available for $55 USD plus shipping so please feel free to contact me if interested. They're also available on Ebay if that's were you prefer to do your shopping. I can make custom prints of most of my pieces so if something catches your eye so just drop me a line anytime.

Yesterday I received a call for a very exciting project on the horizon so stay tuned. Now it's back to work.

John Perlock Illustration Studio Starts Blogging!

My name is John Perlock and I've been working as a professional illustrator for close to ten years and blogging for close to 10 seconds. I'm hoping to use this space to provide any interested parties with updates to what I'm working on, where you can find my work and any other interesting tidbits I can offer up.

My online portfolio can be found any time at http://www.johnperlock.com. I update regularly so feel free to visit anytime.

More to come soon but now I have to get back to drawing.

John