Worst Day

I recently took part in the ten-paces blog's special swap with MICA's Illustration Department and Allan Comport's Junior Concepts class on the theme of Best Day/Worst Day. Each illustrator was paired with a student to exchange sketches with and I was matched up with Sara Jabbari. As an alum I jumped at the chance to contribute and I know that I would have been stoked to have this opportunity when I was a student.


Here is my final for Sara's sketch

and Sara's final for my sketch

Let Them Eat Stake

I just want to say how ashamed I am of that pun, double so since I'm generally pretty anti-pun. I just really wanted to draw some vampire hunting and then that stupid pun stuck in my head.

Wonder Woman 107 Covered

Here's one of those things that I wasn't quite able to share with you yet. After years of meaning to do so I finally managed to pick a cover to do for the Covered blog. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to drawing Wonder Woman but she's kind of great and I love how these old silver age books don't take themselves too seriously.

11/14 Girl

All the work I’ve done over the past few weeks I’m not allowed to share with you yet so I drew you a lovely hipster girl. She is full of contempt. 

Sleep On The Dance Floor

I took part in Ten Paces and Draw's new mixtape project, illustrating The Postelles "Sleep On The Dance Floor". Illustrating songs is one of my favorite projects to give myself so this seemed like a natural fit.

I tumblr now, tumblrs are cool

Hey folks just a heads up that I've created a tumblr, you can find it at http://tylerdraws.tumblr.com/ I'll still keep this page going as my main outlet, but I think I'll be using the tumblr for putting up quick sketches, photos, things I like, and in keeping with the general tone of tumblr an endless stream of hilarious gifs and/or fan art.

Coffee Date

This piece was an example of something that doesn't happen nearly enough. Originally I was inspired by this article over on Rookie Magazine, a great little article/interview with the authors fist kiss, and there were disembodied spectral heads kissing in the background, but as I was working the image of the cute little coffee date just worked better. So since this was just a quick personal piece I decided to scrap the concept and go with it. And no I'm not going to go into details of my own first kiss on the entirely likely likelihood that the person I shared it with reads this blog.

Also it sure as heck doesn't need my endorsement but I'm kind of in love with Rookie magazine, and you should be reading it.

By A Whisker

Here's little something I recently had the opportunity to do for the folks over at Motif Magazine to accompany Fiona Murphy's article about the connection between feeling feminine and shaving "By A Whisker". The entire issue is available on their website and as a free iphone app so make sure and give it a look. Now I don't have a huge amount of experience in the non-facial shaving department, but I get the feeling off going out of the house and having something little make you feel entirely unkempt. I have this semi-reoccuring dream about showing up to interviews wearing a tshirt and gym shorts.
Thanks to Lara Cory for being a great Editor to work with.

Cute and Gruesome

I recently had the opportunity to contribute another piece to the Ten Paces and Draw blog, this weeks theme being monsters. This was really interesting for me because before I spent most of my time drawing well dressed people and such I spent most of my time drawing monsters, so this was a kind of road not taken moment.
 
 Here is my final based on this sketch by the very talented Michelle Romo

And as it worked out Michelle ended up with my sketch, which turned our marvelously.

Finally the Ten Paces folks have opened up a shop over at Society 6, where you can purchase a print of my monster piece as well as many other amazing works. Every print sold will help support the artists who contribute and help the blog grow, so why not head over there and pick something up.

Brewery Spotlight Prism Brewing

 Hey there folks, sorry I disappeared for a bit there, August is always a bit nuts for my day job and I have a few things in the works that I'm really able to share yet. In the meantime here is something that I am finally able to share. This is for an article the rather wonderful Draft Magazine's Brewery Spotlight of Prism Brewery in North Wales PA. They are a brewery who are marketing their beer by matching the alcohol by volume of each brew to the color spectrum. Special thanks to a great art director Jessica Daynor. This is kind of a big deal for me because it's really my first project with a national rollout, so theoretically anybody out there can pop into their local news stand or book store and pick it up.

Dream Date

Sorry for disappearing for a bit there I moved up to Seattle and have been trying to get settled, and mostly I'm still not. I recently discovered the Ten Paces and Draw project and had the opportunity to participate in their latest theme "Dream Date." What happens is that one person draws the sketch and then they are redistributed and someone else takes it to final. It was a blast and thanks to the folks over there. I'm really hoping to contribute again soon.



So here is my final based on this sketch by Rachel Dougherty




And here is my sketch taken to final by the amazingly talent Alyssa Nassner

Pink Do-Over

One of the reasons that I decided to switch from painting to digital work was that I was completely frustrated trying to match colors post scanning. Recently I was going through some of my older work and came across this painting and was curious to try and redo it via digital means.



So what do you guys think, preferences?

P.S. A special welcome if you're arriving here as one of the people that I recently sent a postcard to.

I Only Have Eyes For You

So I needed a little break from teen novels and embarrassing moments and such and this song had popped into my head the other day, thus werewolf/medusa prom date.

Pretty Little Liars #1 "Beer Baths Are Good For the Pores"

So after the Gossip Girl project someone suggested that I check out Pretty Little Liars for the next one. So here's the first of an undetermined number of illustrations based on the book. Teenage sexual tension between Emily and Maya leads to hooking up in a photo booth at a party only to be discovered by Emily's boyfriend, awkward teenage emotion ensues.
I've realized that recently my colors may have been becoming a bit overwhelming so I think I may need to tone it down a bit.

Embarrassing Moment #3 "Hot Spot"

An embarrassing moment story illustrated this one based by "Hot Spot" Traumarama! from April 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine. So girl is at a pool party, doesn't want to get out of the pool to use the bathroom, so she doesn't. Boy she's crushing on swims over and notices the warm spot, boy proceeds to shout out to all attending the party that he is staying in that area of the pool because it's warm.

Or if you don't like that story, it's just a nice summer pool party illustration.

Embarrassing Moment #2 "Class Act"

Another embarrassing moment story illustrated, this one inspired by "Class Act" Traumarama! from April 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine.
Summary: girl texts boy to come over after school, them intends to text mother to say "I have a boy coming over but it's okay because he's ugly" but sends it to the boy by mistake. Embarrassment/hilarity ensues.

Gossip Girl

Here's a little project that I gave myself over the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure I should put this out there but I'm a huge fan of the show and I decided to read the first novel in the Gossip Girl series and create a cover illustration and a couple of potential interior spots for it. While working on the project I described the book to someone as "Waiting for Godot for the Teen Vogue crowd", which is a description I'm going to stick by.









I think I really want to do more covers for Teen/YA books, so if anyone has any suggestions that'd be great.

You know you love me, XOXO

Playing with Matches

Here's another from the children's book class, illustrating a story from a classmates past. So basically two girls skip school and play with matches. Last weeks animal piece was looking kind of out of place in my portfolio so I decided to do another, and cheetah -> cheatah -> cheaters because I'm hilarious.

Nature Hike

I'm taking a children's book class at PNCA and while sketching I got really frustrated that children weren't looking like children but rather boxes with giant heads, so after that and having been looking at a lot of Richard Scarry lately this is what came out.

Embarrassing Moments #1 "Mud Bath"

This is a project I've wanted to try forever but never got around to, illustrating the embarrassing moments stories from teen magazines. There's something so wonderfully absurd about them that they're kind of wonderful. This is based on this one from Seventeen Magazine; basically boy goes in for the kiss, girl falls in a puddle.
The inclusion of the spectral figure was because the whole thing was coming off as a bit of an unwelcome advance thing going on, and now it has this kind of supernatural vibe which I kind of like and may just abandon claiming the source text.

Appreciation Button/Life Off GIve Away Results

Here's little something that I did for work the other day, it was quick and I guess I still have my spaceman on the brain.

Speaking of congrats to mighty and @rebzdeladisco you won the give away for copies of Lift Off, contact me with you mailing details and I'll get those out to you.

If you didn't win don't fret, I'll have copies with me when I'm wandering around Stumptown in a couple of weeks so track me down there and I'm sure we can work something out, or if you're not going to be there check in with me after the 19th I may have some copies.

Firestar

The piece I did a while back for the Cornered blog went up today so I guess it's okay to share this here now. It's based on corner art from Firestar #1

Also a reminder that the give away for my Lift Off Comic ends on friday so make sure to comment on that post here

Lift Off comic/giveaway

This is a projet that's been kicking around my head for about a year and over the past few weeks I've finally forced myself to sit down and do it. It's a nice little mini-comic that's mostly about spacemen. My primary impetus is that i'll be attending the Stumptown Comics Fest in a few weeks and wanted to have something to give out or trade or what have you. Unfortunately I don't have a table so I'll just be wandering around, you should say hi if you see me, I'll probably be the guy looking overdressed with at least an 60% chance of bow tie.









Speaking of saying hi, this leads me to the second part of this post. All the cool kids seem to be doing giveaways these days so I'll be giving away copies of the book to 2 lucky people. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered to win. You can also retweet my twitter announcement (@penguinsdawn) for a second chance to enter. I'll be picking one winner from each place next friday April 1st and send them out.

Self Portrait Riding a Charizard

I think this is pretty self explanatory.

Missed Connections

I had the opportunity contribute a couple of illustrations for this week's Willamette Week to accompany an article called "The Portland That Wasn't" about craigslist missed connections. I was pretty psyched because it's totally right up my alley. If you happen to be in and around Portland you should pick up a copy because a. it's a great paper and b. it's free.

Dr Sketchy PDX

Last sunday I attended the Portland branch of Dr Sketchy, it's something that I've been doing for the last few months and I'm amazed at how much more I'm enjoying life drawing now that I'm not in the classroom setting. Though the pretty ladies and costumes and drinks can't exactly hurt. This is my favorite drawing from Sunday night.

Poster for Conversations: A Discussion Series

One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to design posters for events at the university, here's one for an upcoming panel series that I was asked to do this week.

Site Redesign

I recently relaunched my website with a new design, if you get a chance you should check it out. http://www.theartoftylerparker.com/ Plus it should now be viewable on mobile devices.

Underwear Dance Party

Nipples are a weird thing to draw, you don't want to put too much thought into them but you can't really just throw them on. This was a lot of fun. mostly just throwing all the random things in the background. Also if someone wants to name all 4 albums featured in the piece I'll throw some sort of prize for your way.

Last year I really wanted to do a post a day but that ended up being entirely unrealistic with moving across the country and everything else, so I've decided to try this a little differently this year. I feel like setting the bar at at least once a week is much more realistic.