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.