Pocket Mike and Ryan

Issue #one of an imaginary infinity?

Pocket Mike and Ryan. it’s a fictional comic series based on the premise that my friend Mike fits in my pocket and we fight crime and injustice and sometimes on his birthday he gets massive cake and beer, since he is so small. This year we are fighting the givers (basically good ole boys, its a regional dialectical sort of situation. Im sure national graphic will send linguists soon) of Bruce County who used to harass us for skateboarding, listening to punk, grunge alternative, and for generally being weird in high school.

Bonus line drawing!

this is the line drawing that i mentioned a moment ago.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...for kids.

So, its been a while since my last bloggogram into the intersphere. Last time I mentioned I would be working on a kids book of sorts. The first artist was Red Hot Chili Peppers. Going with the red theme, on the other side of the spectrum, is the red right hand of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I wanted this book to represent a broad cross-section of artists, and what better way to show that, than to follow up the Red Hot Chili Peppers with another band that I love, who despise the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“I'm forever near a stereo saying, 'What the fuck is this garbage?' And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” - Nick Cave

to fans, are they actually good seeds?

Seems logical to me. Maybe Faith No More soon, since they also have an axe to grind with Kiedis and crew.

colouring book version

oh hai! I havent been around in a while! here's a book im going to do.

hello from the other side!

other side of what, im not sure and neither is adele. it just sounded cool, so she sang it.

ive been busy working on a lot of corporate and educational projects with non-disclosure agreements, so they will never see the light of day, beyond in board rooms and testing facilities.

that said, the wheels have been spinning on long gestating personal projects that i will share in the blog section before assigning them their own page on the site.

the first of these projects is called red, blue, green, rock and roll and will be a journey across the color wheel and rock history in storybook and colouring book formats. like the rock and roll hall of fame it will include anything that has the rock and roll vibe, including metal, blues, punk, hip-hop, rap and anything else that I love as a music fan. its designed to be fun for kids, with some winks to the adults who get the context.

which brings us to our first page:

now to those of you in the know, for a period of time before moms were grooving to under the bridge downtown, the chilis were a little more raucous and ribald……and wore socks on their nethers, back when hillel was in the band. (not pictured, hillel slovak, nor Josh Klinghoffer, nein jack irons, nyet Dave Navarro)

In cases where there have been different members of a band, ive decided to go with their most recognizable lineup, and in the case of the chillis, that means John Frusciante. i may have to break my own rule though, if the situation calls for it. I have ideas for dio and ozzy.

so its kids book and singsongy, and doesnt really mean anything for a kid being lulled to sleep by its dulcid tones, whilst the adult reading it aloud gets a little smirk. right? OR its entirely innapropriate and there will be a grows up book, and a kids version. You tell me?

AND, when? If? published, there will be a colouring book version.

as rickety cricket once said, youre going to need the red.

Dinosaur Jr., Danforth Music Hall: Process

Howdy howdy gentle reader.   So, heres the thing:  I got to do a monkey fighting poster for Monday to Friday Dinosaur Jr. !!! 

Announcements aside, this is for those of you who might have an interest in the goings-on and behind the scenes shenanigans* of Illustration, or it may be for me to share some rough and unused illustrations, or maybe no-one is out there listening at all, and I am a voice shouting soundlessly into the void. 

*Please note, this blog does not contain shenanigans.

Step One: Have lots of fun.

I did this piece for portfolio (and for fun) and it turned out to help open the door a crack with Dinosaur Jr. management, and about a month before the concert, I was asked to send in some sample concepts.  I sent in about 8 ideas, not doing any research on what Dinosaur Jr posters look like generally, so that i wasn't pandering or apeing a look.  After I sent in the ideas, I looked at their previous posters and saw that 5 out of the 8 of my ideas weren't for DInosaur Jr., and Dinosaur Jr. agreed. Most of the ideas I still like, just for a different band. BUT, we found something that was already in the original.  A girl and her monster.

Too guitar.

Pizza party.

The monster throwing the horns was a little guitar-centric, and we went with the pizza party concept.  Where did I get this idea, you may very well be asking, although it is just as likely that the thoughts running through your mind pertain to pizza and the acquisition of said foodstuff.  My answer is this; who knows where thoughts come from, they just appear; and just order the pizza.  It was decided that I refine this concept beyond the chicken scratch phase.

Keep it simple.

Keep it slightly less simple.

The more detailed version was favored by J. (as i'm not allowed to call him, as I didnt communicate with him or the band directly) and Mr. Mascis gave the poster approval to move forward.  So with the assistance of Amy at 7s Management and the team at Champion Printing; move forward we did, with great efficiency and peak speed, turning around a gig poster and printing it in the space of 7 days.

Ta Da.

Also thanks to 7S Management, I hand delivered the posters to the sold-out concert at the Danforth Music Hall as a guest and enjoyed one of the giants of Alternative Rock as a fan, and also got to see the fans enjoy the art I had created for the musical artists we were all there to experience, and quite the sonic experience it was.

Merch!

Floor seats, and lack of photography skills; but whatever, im here for the concert not for proof of it.

At The Drive-In silkscreen poster

Oh the places you could have gone.

So, here's the announcement that I have been excitedly sitting on since February, now made bittersweet by the cancellations. My At The Drive In poster that I was to present to the band at the At The Drive In - Toronto - SOLD OUT! The Phoenix Concert Theatre concert, along with another little surprise that I will continue to tuck under my hat in case the shows are rescheduled. Limited run of 50 signed and numbered prints, and I have 30 sitting unclaimed. (I would also like to announce my disappointment because i don't get to see the band this Friday) Thanks to Elliott Lefko at Goldenvoice and Chris Topping for making this print possible.  I have to say that i LOVE the silkscreen print, the paper, the texture of the ink, the process....I'm so excited to make more of these for different artists and events.

Iggy Pop in progress

I thought i would try showing how a poster comes together for me, hopefully it is of interest to you, oh gentle reader.   This is a self-promotional piece, building portfolio to show potential clients what I am capable of, so there are no suggestions, no art direction, or revisions as would be the case in a normal client driven piece.  I basically picked Iggy Pop because his "post-pop depression" album is #1) amazing under Josh Hommes production, and Iggys collaborating/backing band is fantastic.  I've never given an Iggy album a go from start to finish, but this one is on repeat without skipping a track; and #2) they are all coming to Toronto this April the 8th, so i figured it was pretty timely.

That said, step one was concept and then pencils and ink.  Conceptually i had him as a pez dispenser, it's just that simple.  At first i thought he would be surrounded by little candies and more would be popping out of his...neck?  Then i figured its his last album so one last little treat for us all

so there's the bones of it 

I also considered drawing it in illustrator, which seems to be the more commercially viable way to do it these days, but i dont like how the smooth vectors look.  Anyways, on to colouring, which is pretty self explanatory, just picking a palette and organizing the colours in layers for screenprinting at 18" x 26", and thats where we are now, awaiting font choices and text layout.  I will get back to it once i'm past the client work i have moved on to, which is priority :)

so close yet so far.

DINE ALONE X Limited Edition Poster

The kind folks at Dine Alone Records also gave me the chance to illustrate my first officially sanctioned silkscreened rock poster.  This went through a few concepts (at one point the skull was going to be Gwyneth Paltrows' head, forever answering the question "What's in the box?") but thanks to the art direction of the DIne Alone team I came up with the print below.

Go here to buy it! 

Dine Alone X

18" x 26"

2015

DIne Alone Lullaby Album

It was a big year for Olive Industries, particularly in the work I did with Dine Alone Records.  What started as a gig illustrating their A-Z's of Rock n' Roll children's book, quickly branched into 2 other projects.  The first project the book led to was the honour of being asked to illustrate the Dine Alone and Sparrow Sleeps album covering popular DIne Alone Artists in the style of Lullabies.  Net proceeds go to Sick Kids foundation.  You can pick it up HERE.

More details on the other Dine Alone project to come, stay tuned!