Society Of Illustrators Opening Reception

This year marks the first time one of my paintings has been included in the Society of Illustrators prestigious annual exhibition. Having never been to New York City it was the perfect reason to go for the first time. My wife an I made it to the opening reception on January 6th and had a great time. The work included in the show was exceptional and I was proud to be included in the group. Here are a few photos from that night including the first original painting I've ever seen by J.C. Leyendecker and the amazing Norman Rockwell piece over the bar.

The show runs for most of January so be sure to see it if you're in New York.

Circus Circus

In 2010 I was asked to paint two circus style advertisements for BC Gold, points cards for the British Columbia casinos. The first painting was of the trapeze artist and the second was of the strongman. The strongman art disappeared along the way and I never saw the final advertisements. So I took the original sketch and brought him back. The original strongman was found on the casino floor surrounded by slot machines and his weights were BC Gold cards. I decided to strip him of all that and go more herculean with him securely footed in the clouds heaving his old-timey weights into the air.

10 Years and Counting....

Happy New Year To Everyone!

2010 is here and with it comes my 10th Anniversary as a professional illustrator. During my third year at OCAD I started sending out my portfolio and postcards. I would regularly contact magazines in Toronto by phone and email but I also contacted many potential clients through the school's job listing board. The first job I remember was for The Love Connection's host Chuck Woolery in 2000. An agency was creating a dating website named after Chuck's phrase "2 and 2". The idea was that online daters could send each other postcards online. I illustrated 3 of the 9 postcards but I don't believe the website ever went live. They did tell me that Chuck was very pleased with the pieces I submitted and that he had more ideas for me. Call me any time Mr. Woolery!

I'm sure there were little paid projects prior to this but if I had to name a first assignment this would be 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.

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