Nuked

Last month, I was contacted by Maxim to do a few illustrations for an upcoming feature about a soldier's recollections of war in the Middle East.

I was drawn to the psychological intensity of the piece, and tried to put some of that into this illustration. I had a lot of fun drawing and coloring this, so I was a little bummed when I found out that the editors decided not to run it, even after several rounds of changes (note: this is my original version), because it didn't portray the American soldiers in a flattering enough light. I understand, though I was pretty bummed out about it.
Sometimes good work gets killed for no great reason. A couple other examples of pieces that never saw print in their commissioned publications are "Nobody Move," and "Sex in the Digital Age," which were both assigned by Playboy ("Nobody Move" eventually was used on the cover of Communication Arts, softening the blow to my fragile ego.)

It doesn't bother me very much when something like this happens, although I would really have liked to see what this piece looks like on the printed page.


Have a great week!

Frank

Suspicious!

Hey guys,

I made this illustration for Ebony magazine a couple of months ago. I haven't seen it yet, but have heard it's out this month. It was a really great experience working with Lynnette Galloway, the magazine's Associate Art Director.

You can probably guess what the story is about. I'm attaching some of my sketches as well.

Have a great week,

Frank

The Last Last Unicorn Cover

Hello!

Here's the sixth and final Last Unicorn cover I did for IDW's 2010 series based on Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. I've included images of my initial comp, the sketch, and the final drawing, made with india ink & gouache. Bonus points if you know where the Prince's pose came from.

--Frank

Last Unicorn 5th Cover

This is the 5th of 6 Last Unicorn covers I did for IDW back in 2010.

If you look closely, the composition looks like the head of the Red Bull, complete with smoke coming out of his nostrils.

When I finished this cover, there was some mild controversy with the publisher over the nudity. Originally, I was under the impression that this cover never ran, but I recently came across someone selling an issue on Ebay (I don't have a copy of the issue).

I also included my version of the king based on how I interpreted him from reading the book. It's unofficial, but I like him better that way.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy! There's only one cover left in the series.


Frank

3rd from Last Unicorn

From July 2010 until about June 2011, I tried an experiment: No internet in the studio. The results of this were mixed -- for one, I had no distractions from my work, but for another, things like checking email and blogging new work became a hassle.

Consequently, I didn't do much blogging during that time. And so it happens that every once in a while, I realize that a piece I did during the internet dark ages is actually pretty good, and should probably be posted on the blog.

Such is the case with the Last Unicorn covers #4-6.

Today, I'm posting the 4th cover in the series, along with the drawing. I'll post the other two in the next few weeks, as well.

Take care,

Frank

Gen Y

Hey guys,

Here's a piece I totally forgot doing earlier this year, until I stumbled across it on my hard drive. It was an experimental piece on the subject "Generation Y," for SooJin Buzelli at Plansonsor. Also pictured is the final graphite version of the drawing (featuring a cameo by illustrator Scott Brundage and his dog), and a progress sketch.


Happy New Year!


frank

"The 2011 Spectrum of Villainy"

Last weekend, 16 small, black and white ink drawings I did ran in the New York Times Magazine. The article was about the spectrum of villainy of different film evildoers from this year.

Here are a handful of my favorites, some sketches, and some tonal versions that we didn't end up pursuing.




It was a really fun job to work in just black and white, with the special challenge of knowing the pieces would print at less than two inches high.

Here is a link to the online version of the article, where you can see all 16 drawings.


Thanks for reading!

Frank

Society of Illustrators

I was fortunate enough this year to get to participate in the Society of Illustrators competition this year as a judge for the "Book" category, as well as to have two pieces selected for inclusion in the annual.
The first piece is a personal drawing in graphite, ink, and watercolor called "Fighter." It's in the "unpublished" category.
This second piece was done for a Runner's World feature, and is called "Because it's Steep." I blogged about this one previously, here.

Zeit Magazin Cover + Feature

Hey guys,

A short while back, I did a pretty big job for the German magazine Zeit, about "How to be a good father." The job totalled about 7 full-page pieces, and here I'm showing my favorite three.

While I don't know what it's like to be a dad, I do live in Park Slope, a neighborhood of Brooklyn that's well-known for its stroller population. As a result, I am able to observe how humans interact with their offspring on a daily basis.

Sometimes, Zeit has a two-part cover; that is, there will be a "teaser" image on the front cover, then a second, follow-up image on the inside. The follow-up, in this case, was the happy dad with his three kids sitting on the grass.

I had a lot of fun doing the drawings for these. I was especially happy with some of the line work on the second cover image, but my favorite part of all the pieces in the series was this closeup from the opening spread.

It seems like the last few times I've visited classrooms in the past few months, I've been asked to talk about thumbnails and sketches, and the differences between the two. So for that purpose, I've put together a jpg comparing my thumbnails on this job to the final sketches.

The way I like to think about it is: thumbnails are just describing the general idea, while sketches are also communicating details about how I plan to handle the composition. It's also where I try to iron out any drawing problems that occur.

Also, two of my sketches are references to Rockwell pieces.

thanks for reading,

Frank

World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky

Earlier this year, my first "children's" book was released by Workman Publishing. Mark Kurlansky, famed food writer and oceans expert, wrote World Without Fish for (and with) his 10 year-old daughter, Talia.

The book is written for kids aged 9-12, about ocean conservation. It's a very well-written book explaining a serious subject to kids, and what they can to do help counter-act overfishing, among other things, that are adversely affecting our environment.

This book was really fun to work on, partly because it brought back a lot of memories for me of going deep-sea fishing with my grandfather while growing up. We lived off the coast of Southern California, and would often take his boat, the Sea Lion, out towards Catalina Island to spend the weekend

fishing.

All in all, I did a front cover, an inside jacket cover, seven full-page illustrations, and 11 single-page comics chronicling the story of "Kram & Ailat," that introduce each chapter. Kram & Ailat was written by Mark, and adapted to comic form by me.

The book looks very beautiful, to which I credit the Design Director, Raquel Jaramillo. From day one, she had a real passion for this project, and her vision really paid off. Though there's been a lot of praise in the press for myself and for Mark, there's been almost none for her significant contribution.

If you have a kid in your life who's 9-12 that you think might be interested in science, the ocean, or sea life of any kind, you should consider getting him or her this book. LINK to Amazon

Thanks for reading,

Frank