Tyler Parker

Worst Day

2011-12-16T19:17:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-02T14:03:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-15T01:38:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-03T10:45:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-31T23:07:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-26T18:59:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-08T22:11:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-15T15:46:00.004-04:00

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

2011-06-24T17:01:00.003-04:00

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

2011-06-03T13:12:00.002-04:00

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"

2011-05-26T21:48:00.004-04:00

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"

2011-05-20T00:48:00.003-04:00

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"

2011-05-11T13:47:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-04T16:55:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-20T13:31:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-13T15:43:00.002-04:00

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"

2011-04-06T19:19:00.005-04:00

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

2011-04-03T02:16:00.003-04:00

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

2011-03-30T19:34:00.003-04:00

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

2011-03-26T20:36:00.006-04:00

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

2011-02-21T18:56:00.001-05:00

I think this is pretty self explanatory.

Missed Connections

2011-02-10T02:25:00.003-05:00

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

2011-02-02T00:06:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-23T14:54:00.005-05:00

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

2011-01-20T23:03:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-16T21:54:00.003-05:00

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.

Wizard People

2010-12-02T14:27:00.005-05:00

I went to see Deathly Hallows Part 1 opening weekend and it was really great and made me want to do some Harry Potter art. I in no way feel ashamed to occasionally indulge my geekier tendencies. Can't wait until July for part 2.
When I was drawing the original for this one of my staff saw me working and assumed I was working on a self portrait, I'm not entirely sure how to take that since I'm pretty sure i'd make a lousy Ginny Weasley.

This even has two figures who are, in fact, actually touching; progress, progress

He seems like a respectable chap.

2010-11-10T16:28:00.004-05:00

Back from my brief vacation to Baltimore, had a chance to get some work done while I was there and then finished this one up over the last few days.

Ill Lucid Onset gig posters

2010-10-20T16:33:00.003-04:00

I was recently contacted about doing some gig posters for the local portland based band, Ill Lucid Onset, They were great to work with and gave me complete free range for the project. I have to say that I've been wanting to try my hand at gig posters for a while so I was pretty excited to have the chance, hopefully this is something that continues.

People In Places

2010-09-16T15:00:00.005-04:00

I've been looking back at some of the ladies that I've drawn in the past and was reminded something my bud Sam Bosma said a while ago about it doesn't matter how cool a character is that he doesn't give a damn unless they're in some sort of environment, so thought I'd try to put them somewhere. Also I've been really exploring what I can do in digital. I've been working completely flat for so long that it's been a challenge to thinking about making form this way again. Been looking at the great process post by the aforementioned Sam Bosma and the always great Meg Hunt and found them to be really helpful. Really love some feedback on this one.

Also finally working on drawing some dudes.

In other news I switched my art related flickr over to here in case anybody cares.

This one even has a dude in it.

2010-08-04T00:19:00.005-04:00

...and a background

I'm more or less settled in Oregon now and have finally gotten to get back to work (which feels pretty great). I still feel like the part of my work I like the most is the pencil drawings and I'm not quite sure how to rectify that. Fun story this started as a digital piece, with which I proceeded to get frustrated, started a painted version, which at about 5 hours in I realized that there were two sweat droplets and was abandoned (painting over gouache never seems to work) and basically started the digital version all over again. I think I miss the critique world, maybe I need to look into studios in the Portland area or just make some art friends.

New living place, less than new work

2010-07-10T23:19:00.003-04:00

Sorry I disappeared for a bit there, I kind of moved across the country. I'm still getting things unpacked/settled and hope to be able to get back to work now, but in the meantime here's a little something to hold you over that I've had on my computer for a few weeks.

Thursday THORSday

2010-06-03T16:54:00.003-04:00

Enchantress

Hela

For the record I still hate puns.

Thor's ladies are pretty great to draw. I'm still not entirely sure I understand how Hela's headgear is supposed to work, I suppose it doesn't really matter when you're a Goddess of Death.

Also here a quick Thor and Loki just because.

Black Canary

2010-04-05T20:47:00.002-04:00

The guys over at Project Rooftop announced Black Canary as their latest redesign which is pretty exciting since she's a really fun character. I always really liked the old Black Canary design with the mask so that was the first thing to come back. In my redesign for some reason the first thing that came to mind was some sort of victorian/dandy feel, probably because of the character's inclination towards corsets and such, and ultimately came out with this Dandy meets Masquerade Baller meets Hipster, but alas still not proper trousers for Black Canary this time.

Amazon-ish

2010-03-21T21:35:00.003-04:00

This is from a few days ago while I was subbing, I don't understand how teachers can watch the same video 5 times in a day and not go nuts. She makes me think of the greek or more accurately wonder woman mythos amazons.

Big week of interviews ahead, cautiously hopeful.

Trying not to be lame.

2010-03-14T22:52:00.005-04:00

Dear internet, sorry for dropping of the face of the earth for the past month, I've been focusing pretty much exclusively on the job hunt (which is still in progress) and seemingly never ending application and now some hope inspiring phone interviews I haven't really had a chance to do any real work. For the time being I can't guarantee any sort of frequency with post but I'll do what I can.

About the only time I have to work these days is when I'm substitute teaching so here are some fashion-y ladies. I don't know where to take these but I'm really enjoying doing them.

A student saw my drawing and described them as angry hipsters, I think I'm okay with that.

The folks over at Project Rooftop recently relaunched their site and suggested that the next contest they're doing is Black Canary (still waiting for the official details) and I realized that the lady from a couple post ago was a good starting point for the redesign. I had this idea of what if Black Canary was Victorian/Dandy-ish though I'm worried she looks a little like an olde timey hooker. Also I like the old drawings of Black Canary with a mask. Also she still doesn't get pants.

Back From Holiday

2010-02-10T21:11:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the sudden lack of posts I went on a little holiday to Baltimore to visit some folks (which after some car trouble ended up lasting a bit longer than expected). Easing back into the posts with a fashion-y girl post.

I had intended to work on the comic today but realized I had left my notes at home so that's on queue for tomorrow.

Comics Time (yes plural)

2010-02-02T21:12:00.004-05:00

I decided to give comics another try and started a new one today based on an idea i've been throwing around for a little while. These are the rough thumbs of the layout and the text/notes which have been censored to preserve your future enjoyment.

This got me thinking about the other comic project I attempted and I've decided to offer the graphic novel from my thesis, that I posted a preview of so long ago, as a pdf download so people can finally see the whole thing. It's available here (right click to save as). It has some problems but there's are probably a few people out there who actually wanted to see it.

Gordon

2010-02-01T20:44:00.004-05:00

Fun fact I'm sick again which is awesome.

This is my ukulele, his name is Gordon. He was named after both the Barenaked Ladies first album and Commissioner Gordon from Batman. Maybe I can play him for you sometime.

Alice Final Finally

2010-01-29T23:28:00.003-05:00

Here's the finished version of the Alice in Wonderland piece, I was going to post the progress pics from the week but ultimately the finished version is what matters. This is basically my most elaborate purely digital piece so any feedback would be really helpful/appreciated (like even more than usual). Took a lot longer than I thought it would, almost quit and just painted it a couple of times but ultimately stuck with it.

p.s. trying flickr for the photo hosting because blogger/picasa's tendency to wash out really whacked this one out so we'll see how that goes.

2010-01-27T22:01:00.002-05:00

I haven't forgotten the post a day pledge but I'm working on a more complicated piece (the alice one I started a while ago and abandoned) so I'll be posting a final with progress shots from everyday probably friday. You can see the first one here http://twitpic.com/zsjwc

Colored Denim Dress

2010-01-22T23:45:00.003-05:00

Not sure the colors on this are quite right yet.

Peter Pan

2010-01-21T22:24:00.002-05:00

Here are a few quick Peter Pan design sketches from today, not sure where these are going

Marvel Girl Colored

2010-01-20T00:18:00.003-05:00

Bah missed my before midnight deadline by 15 minutes, it was around 10 and I realized that I only work I'd done today was something I can't share here yet so I thought i'd color my Marvel Girl from last week. Then I started tinkering with the texture work and suddenly it's later than I intended. Oh well.

I was thinking that if an X-men movie was based on the Jim Lee era stuff they should cast Christina Hendricks to play Jean/Marvel Girl/Phoenix.

Antler Girl Colored

2010-01-18T23:44:00.003-05:00

I intended to have more than just a colored version of the antler girl today but it took a lot longer than I thought it would, still maybe needs some work (I think I want to play with the texture a bit.)

Some days it just doesn't happen

2010-01-15T23:15:00.004-05:00

I have a fairly sizable pile of crumpled up papers next to my desk, this is the only thing from today I didn't hate. Did manage to get a surprising number of job application done today though.

Antler Girl

2010-01-14T23:32:00.004-05:00

Busy day I have two projects in progress that I can't share yet and was teaching today so I was worried I wouldn't get a chance to post but here I am. A little close to the deadline of the end of the day but I hear that these days anything before 1:05am counts as tonight so I guess I've got time to spare.

Someone told me about a year ago that antler girls are over, I don't care. Maybe they can be vintage by now or something. I realized that these last few girls would be fun painted and put in ornate round gold frames so I may start searching thrift stores for some frames like old time-y portraits.

Another Vintage Lady

2010-01-13T22:29:00.004-05:00

I have this amazing book about hairstyles of the world/history that I've been looking at quite a bit lately because I realized that I use a lot of the same hairstyle. I'm stuck right now in the 1700-1800 European hair section because it's awesome. I was going for kind of 17th century meets new wave/punk but I think I may have just ended up with pirate hooker.

Somewhat Georgian Colored

2010-01-12T23:45:00.004-05:00

Spent most of the day driving around trying to find supplies and working on an assignment so here's a quick coloring of the vaguely 18th century lady for a few days ago, just barely squeeking this in before midnight. Still working on the digital color business, and there are parts that are more successful than others but a good practice.

Marvel Monday [slash] Music Monday

2010-01-11T21:49:00.003-05:00

Around some parts of the web it's Marvel Monday an activity that I've been meaning to take part in for quite some time. So here's a quick Marvel Girl drawing (probably the best of Jean Grey's costume decisions)

Bonus here's something that I've did a while ago but forgot about until someone reminded me. I'm taking part in this project called the nomadic playlist (a project I happen to be holding up at the moment with my next addition cause I'm lame), it's a traveling sketchbook and thumb drive where a song is illustrated in the sketchbook and added to the thumb drive. This is my page for Mount Eerie's Voice in Headphones and I will update with my next one once I stop being lame.

Somewhat Georgian

2010-01-08T21:43:00.003-05:00

Started off as a Marie Antoinette/Georgian type woman and became um... something else.

Military-esque Jacket

2010-01-06T23:01:00.002-05:00

I need to come up with some real projects.

Shaggy Dress Girl

2010-01-05T22:08:00.005-05:00

Still kind of mid crisis (though thankfully significantly less) and didn't have much time today to myself today so I decided to try and fix the legs and color the girl from friday's post.

Quick post before I collapse

2010-01-04T22:57:00.004-05:00

After a total of one consecutive day of my hopefully post a weekday goal I almost missed a post because of a slight family emergency. So here's a quick drawing I did today in a hospital waiting room, hopefully more substantial posts to come but now I'm off to bed. Please excuse the club hands.

Time to make a change

2010-01-01T20:30:00.008-05:00

It's been kind of a wild year what with grad school and moving back and forth between continents a couple of times and now doing the whole job hunt thing (p.s. if any knows of somewhere looking for a jr designer, assistant creative director, or that sort of thing please get in touch where isn't so much an issue as I'm looking to move somewhere else anyways).

So I was kind of awful at posting on a regular basis in 2009 so my biggest resolution for the year is to drastically change that. Since the goal is to make illustration my actual job it's time to start treating it as such so my goal for this year is a new post every day monday through friday. Just at least something; a quick sketch, progress shot, preferably something more substantial.

Right so lets kick this thing off, lately I've been at quite a loss for ideas lately and I realized that I've never done the illustrate classics type of assignments so it's as good a place to start as any. I've been working on this first one (Alice in Wonderland) for a week or so, restarting several times.

Some sketches trying to get the look of characters right.

Okay so I got the drawing and then decided to go straight to the coloring without inking, most because I was feeling lazy.

Ultimately I decided that was a mistake because when it came to actually doing the line work on my tablet things just looked wrong.

And I scrapped it and spent a good deal of time today inking this and plan to move onto coloring it next.

Bonus: here's another fashion-y girl drawing I realized after scanning it and looking at it again that the legs are wrong, but the parts look pretty okay on their own.

Shirtdress

2009-12-13T21:00:00.004-05:00

Here's another girl in fun clothes post, I have a couple more of these that are in various stages of completion that I'm hoping to get to soon. I've been pretty busy as doing the whole job hunt thing (if anyone knows of any sort of illustrators/Junior Art Directors/Designers/Creative/Editorial Assistants type positions please let me know) so I'm not posting as often as I'd like but I'm making it my goal to change that. Also I've decided that I need to work on some actual finished illustrations rather than these ladies so thats hopefully the plan for now.

This would be a tough character to pitch.

2009-11-30T20:25:00.005-05:00

I debated if I should actually post this one or not because it's kind of tasteless but here it is anyways. The idea is she's kind of a cross between Nico Minoru from Runaways and The Darkness but in a hoodie and vaguely modish dress. Still playing around with digital color and there are definitely pros and cons, I think they need to move a little more towards the hand done so I probably need to practicing my inking.

Digital experiement

2009-11-21T15:43:00.003-05:00

So I recently acquired a wacom tablet because I wanted to play with digital coloring a bit, mostly because of the frustration of trying to get colors to reproduce on screen versus painted. You may recognize this girl from the previous post and since she was just laying around I thought I might try coloring her, the version that you're seeing here is purely digital, retraced/colored everything. Still working on somethings and not sure where this technique is going or if it's going anywhere but totally up for feedback.

Another day, another lady

2009-11-11T00:56:00.005-05:00

Lately with the ladies I've been drawing I've paying a lot more attention to their clothing, I'm really enjoying making outfits for them because as your may or may not know I'm apparently an 11 year old girl. I'm still not sure where all of this is leading.

Also yes that's a batman pin.

There should be more here.

2009-11-08T21:44:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late since I've gotten back to the states I've been pretty overwhelmed between getting temporarily settled, substitute teacher and trying to find a real job I haven't had a whole lot of time for art work but I'm hoping that'll change so but in the meantime here's a couple thing out of the old sketchbook.

I also found a bunch of copies of this minicomic that I was selling in an exhibition shop so if anyone would be interested in purchasing one please let me know. I'm offering them up here first for only $4 each or perhaps we can work out some sort of deal.

Happy Wonder Woman Day

2009-10-25T22:48:00.004-04:00

So apparently in some places that are significantly cooler than where I currently am (namely Portland Oregon and Flemington New Jersey) it Wonder Woman Day. They're having some great events to benefit some really good charities and you can find out some more information here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23440. I wish I would have found out about this sooner so I could have gotten involved somehow, maybe next year. Anyways I was inspired to paint my own wonder woman so here that is:

Wolf Hat

2009-10-17T14:44:00.001-04:00

This is going somewhere, I'm not sure where yet.

What a beautiful face I have found in this place.

2009-09-08T16:44:00.008-04:00

Okay so I've been trying to wrap up the work for my course for the past few weeks and while working on that realized that I needed one more painting for the exhibition because:
1. Some of the earlier ones weren't as strong
and
2. May as well because I had the time.
Anyways here the final piece of work going towards my masters degree. This is one of the loosely based on a song type illustrations, more specifically for Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", except less plane and sea and more spaceship and cosmos. I've been obsessed with the song forever, way to many memories and such come along with it, and I'm kind of surprised I hadn't thought of using it sooner. Also was one of the biggest contributors to my picking up the ukulele (long story).
So I'll be constructing/installing the exhibition for the next week or so and then it runs from the 18th-28th (full details below). So if you happen to be in Brighton or somewhere in the UK and want a holiday, or more impressively somewhere else in the world and want an even bigger holiday you should show up.

And Also

2009-08-21T08:39:00.003-04:00

I forgot I recently did some sight redesigns/fixing to theartoftylerparker.com so you should take a look and let me know what you think/tell me what doesn't work or is wrong.

thanks
tyler

Rounded a corner and rounded corners.

2009-08-21T08:11:00.007-04:00

Okay so I'm settled back in the UK for a while as I finish up my MA and after a couple of moves I'm finally stationary enough that I've been able to get back to work. So here's a new painting that I've done over the last few days.
I'm still having some trouble getting the colors to reproduce digitally so I may need to play around with it a bit more.

It's no secret to people who know me that I'm a fan of rounded corners, I was sitting at my desk last night and had this moment of I wonder what my stuff would look like with rounded corners thus this happened:

I think that I might actually prefer it with the rounded corners and may try adding it to some other things that I've done.

New Minicomic

2009-08-02T22:39:00.006-04:00

Here's a minicomic I did a week or so ago for an mass drawing exchange and I thought that I post it here to share as well. It ends up being 8 pages and was accordion bound so it could be easily folded out. Looking at it now I think I really like the idea but would like it to be longer and not quite as rushed so I'm hoping to have time to redo/improve it sometime.

The Art of Tyler Parker v3.0 launch

2009-07-21T01:12:00.003-04:00

So I know that there hasn't been many posts lately what with the combination of my international jetsetting life style and working at The New York State Summer School of the Arts for the last 3 weeks, but here's a pretty big one. I've completely redesigned my website from scratch, put in new work and just generally changed it all. You can see it here. I'll probably be fixing bugs that I missed over the next few days so if you happen across one feel free to let me know.
Hopefully this can tide you over for a bit as I'll soon be in various forms of travel once again.

The Inhumans In Love

2009-06-14T11:46:00.008-04:00

So I had a few down days earlier this week while I was waiting for a end of term review and decided to do something for fun. I've had this idea lately of not especially heroic super hero moments. So in this case kind of a timid love things going on with Black Bolt and Medusa. For those who are not especially familiar with the characters the important bit to know is that Black Bolt doesn't speak because his voice makes everything explode and tends to level cities and such. I think I kind of love second tier superheroes like a whole bunch, maybe I can do some Alpha Flight stuff at some point what with my childhood love of that premier Canadian super group.

Anyways I leave for my visit back to the states of Thursday so posting may be sporadic for a bit again.

Graphic Novel First Look

2009-06-13T16:38:00.004-04:00

Okay so I've been promising a peek at the graphic novel I'm working on for a while so now that it's more or less in it's final stages (hopefully) I've decided to throw a few spreads up here. Trying to pick out stuff that doesn't ruin the story but is still interesting. Also leaving out all the text blocks and text for now even though it's basically taken care of, basically if there's a large white space imagine that there's text there. Expect a few more of these type's of post in the near-ish future as I continue to feel like sharing. Note these won't necessarily be posted in any particular order until I do a big here a final pdf type post sometime in the future.

Valkyrie

2009-05-24T07:40:00.005-04:00

Hey there, well I finished the painting for my book last night and all that's left is to figure out a cover, scan everything and the graphic design and type forever. I'm hoping to get all the pages scanned at some point this week so I may throw a few preview pages up here at some point.

In the meantime here's something that I did last week that I just got around to editing for the web. I needed a break from the book so I took a day off to just work on something else and had this sketched out from a little bit ago. Something funny happened to the background color when it was scanned that I can't seem to fix so just imagine it more magenta-y. So now that my life isn't as consumed with my absurd book-page-finishing schedule hopefully the updates can be a bit more frequent, as I'm sure I'll need a fair amount of breaks from the editing and layout processes.

Oh and also t minus 26 days until my US visit/vacation/temporary reprieve.

Houndstooth is really hard.

2009-04-30T18:32:00.003-04:00

Here is as promised one of those sporadic postings that I had promised a bit ago so that you know that I haven't fallen down a well or something. This was done for an exhibition which ultimately fell through, but at least I managed to get a piece I liked out of it.

There hasn't been much time for anything else new as of late as I am in the midst of my book and it's absurd self imposed deadline. Basically right now it amounts to 2 finished fully painted pages a day for the next what feel like forever so that I can have most of the artwork done before my visit back to the US. Maybe I'm post a few teasers here and there as I start to scan some of it. I feel like I should have some sort of sign off phrase for these post.

What I've Been Doing For the Past Week Or So

2009-04-06T16:49:00.003-04:00

Switching it up a bit for now until who know how long this thing will take, I've started working on a book as part of my thesis (and quickly becoming the majority of my thesis). For the past week-ish I've been doing these basic thumbnail/layouts as an entry into actually doing the book (posted small here as to not ruin the story). It's turning out to be a significantly bigger undertaking than I had initially anticipated, as the page count right now clocks in right at 60. Maybe not my best first significant foray into sequential art but should be a good experience. Expect sporadic at best posting as I work on this, partially because I'm not sure what kind of schedule this will take and partially because posting in progress might ruin the story.

I don't even like Captain America...

2009-03-24T13:46:00.004-04:00

So I managed to finish that paper surprisingly early and have a couple of down days since it doesn't make sense to work on my thesis work until I have the meeting with my adviser on Thursday, anyways long story short here's something new that was just for fun and has no real relation to anything else I'm doing.

I've never really been one to draw superheroes (with the exception of those occasional project rooftop submissions last summer) but I seem to have be reading a bunch of superhero books lately and was introduced to a couple of really great new animated show that are gorgeous (spectacular spider from the equally spectacular Sean Galloway and batman the brave and the bold, go watch them now they're really pretty and fun). I'm not sure why I choose Captain America, especially since he's always been one of my least favorites, usually him and superman pretty much top my list. I have to admit that I didn't really know any Captain America villains so I just used the wonderful all purpose henchmen of HYDRA. Oh and since there were way to many dudes I also put in Madame Hyrda, who I only know about because she's in a episode of X-men Evolution which I really like, shut up it's awesome. As always feedback is awesome.

In which Tyler makes excuses and pretends to be a comic artist.

2009-03-21T21:45:00.007-04:00

Howdy everyone, so I'm gearing up for end of term slash mid point of my course over here and as such have spent the past few weeks doing completely unfun things printing out everything bit of research and sketch that I've done in the last six months, cobbling together a reasonable in progress portfolio and now writing an obnoxiously long paper, which I am mid way through now and not sure when it'll be done (well before Wednesday I suppose since that's when I have to turn it in).

Anyways those are my super lame excuses for nothing new recently, however I do have this comic I did a little bit ago. I was asked by a friend of mine at SVA to submit a one pager for a comic collection he's working on. No info on the title or when it'll actually see the light of day right now but I'll keep you updated. This was a bit of an odd experience for me since I don't really have any experience in doing comics (I tend to be more on the reading way too many of them side) but it was fun nonetheless. So here it is, hopefully legit new stuff soon.

Littliest Bird finish

2009-03-09T16:44:00.003-04:00

Here's the finish to this one in all it's washed out blogger glory, but that seems to be a problem for everyone so I'm not going to worry about it. If anyone has any thoughts they are as always appreciated. I think I may take a bit of a break from these for right now and focus on creating an overarching narrative of some sort rather than these one shots, so expect sporadic posting for a bit again.

The Littlest Birds (Sing the Prettiest Songs)

2009-03-04T17:00:00.003-05:00

Okay so after a few weeks of distraction with class and some other opportunities I'm finally back on track with my actual project. Here's what I'm working on right now based on the Be Good Tanya's song The Littlest Birds (Sing the Prettiest Songs). Hoping to get it banged out in the next few days.

Texas Observer: Evolution vs. Creationism

2009-02-20T12:11:00.005-05:00

Here's something I did last week for the Texas Observer. It was for piece on Don Mcleroy who's the chairman of the Texas Board of Education and his connection to the creationism versus evolution "debate". It should be out now so if you happen to be in Texas pick one up. It was a little weird going back to doing the cut paper thing, since I've been pretty much exclusively painting as of late, so we'll see where that goes.

Maple Leaves finish... finally

2009-02-13T12:11:00.006-05:00

Okay so here's the finish that I promised over a week ago, apparently I did manage to get distracted. And by distracted I mean started the painting over because I didn't like the colors followed by a quick-ish freelance piece for the Texas Observer (I'll post it sometime after the issue comes out). Maybe I need to jinx myself more often, I could get used to a little more of this sort of distraction, the paying freelance kind not so much the having to restart midway through bit. Anyways what you think people of the internet? Thanks and hopefully more soon.

She said it was all make-belief, but I thought you said maple leaves...

2009-02-03T12:41:00.003-05:00

Here's the latest, it's based on the Jen Lekman song "Maple Leaves", hoping to have the final done in the next few days unless I get distracted.

They are zombies!... Finish

2009-01-30T13:08:00.004-05:00

Here's the latest. There are bits of this I'm really excited about, I like the really minimal line work and am trying to figure out the balance between this and the really pattern-y stuff like the last painting. I've also recently discovered mixing a bit of concentrated watercolor in with the gouache which really makes the colors pop, though you can't really tell in the scan on this one the pink is a bit brighter than it appears on screen (and even worse once publish to the web, anybody have any suggestion on how keep images from being washed out when put up here?). General thoughts/feedback/etc? Thanks everyone and expect more soon.

EDIT: Thanks to Mark and Justin for their help with the color problems, still needs a little tweaking but a vast improvement.

They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!

2009-01-28T09:11:00.003-05:00

Here's the latest sketch this one's for "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!" by Sufjan Stevens, this may have just been an excuse to draw zombies. You know the drill final to come if it doesn't suck.

You and I finish

2009-01-24T11:47:00.003-05:00

Here's the final for that sketch I put up a few days ago, still trying to get a hang of this painting business but I think there's some improvement here. Mostly just trying to get this whole using a brush for line work thing. I'm still at the point where I like the sketches more than the finals but I'm going to get the hang of this if it kills me. As always feedback is really appreciated and more to come soon.

Maybe I want to do what bunnies do with you, if you know what I mean

2009-01-21T09:08:00.003-05:00

Here's the drawing for my next painting, I've decided to stick with this whole painting thing for a bit see if I can get a handle on it. This one's from Ingrid Michaelson's You and I, which is a cute little song I also happen to be trying to learn on ukulele at the moment. I am a bit worried that I might just look like the bunnies are humping the people's heads though. Same rules as last time apply, will post the final if it doesn't suck.

Static Electricity finish

2009-01-19T12:31:00.003-05:00

As promised here the finish for that sketch I posted a few days ago, turned out alright I still have a lot of work to do on this whole painting thing. Mostly I'm having trouble getting the nice sharp lines of a pencil with brush. Feedback would be much appreciated.

what's going to be the death of me? static electricity

2009-01-16T11:32:00.003-05:00

So about once a year I get it into my head that I'm going to teach myself to paint and it's about that time of year again. I usually get discouraged after about a week or so, we'll see how long it last this time.

Anyways here's a sketch that I did last night loosely based on a line from the mountain goats song I love you let's light ourselves on fire, which quite frankly is one of the greatest song titles ever. I'm going to try and paint it over the next day or to and if it turns out alright I'll post it.

1/16 Skecthbook Scans

2009-01-16T10:09:00.004-05:00

A bit of new sketchbook stuff, been playing with gouache lately more to come.

first sketchdump of the new year part 2

2009-01-06T16:54:00.004-05:00

and part 2, mostly I've been just doing lots of exploration hence the vaguely schizophrenic appearance of the work as of late

first sketchdump of the new year

2009-01-06T16:46:00.004-05:00

I decided to scan my sketchbook from over the holiday now that I have access to a scanner again. I'm going to go ahead and split this into 2 post because there's a fair bit of stuff.

New Plush: Alan

2008-12-11T19:22:00.004-05:00

It's been way too long since I've made a new plush toy and I forgot just how satisfying it is to finish one. This is Alan, he's a deer and is probably around 15 inches tall (which is a really nice size to squeeze). Making this made me miss my sewing machine a bit but they're something nicely relaxing about the repetitive motion of sewing with a DVD playing in the background.

I Swear I'm Still Here

2008-12-11T19:04:00.005-05:00

Okay so not a whole lot to show right now the past month or so has been really busy working on my Masters, but the whole research side and not so much the fun lets draw monsters and dear and ladies side, though making mix cds and rereading "Love Is A Mix Tape" and "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Song You've Ever Heard" and some Nick Horby as research is definitely not the worst thing I could be doing. I have a few sketchbook things to upload because I think there's something to them but not really any finishes right now, I did recently finish a cookbook based on the genesis story for class but it's not in my possession at the moment so it may be a while til it gets posted.

Anyways sketch-dump time

I realized that I need to draw monsters more it's been way too long

I'm not sure what's going on with these next two but there's something to them I think is worth exploring.

And now something that looks nothing like the rest of my stuff.

Holy Roller

2008-11-06T12:49:00.004-05:00

Here's a piece that I did recently for the Texas Observer, they contacted me for something to accompany a book review. The review was for Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; Or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus by Diane Wilson and recounts her upbringing in the pentecostal church. It was a nice, quick and smooth assignment and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Cthulhu is love

2008-10-22T17:35:00.002-04:00

Yes i know there's a spelling error, Lovecraftian words are hard to spell off the top of your head.

green deer

2008-10-22T17:30:00.003-04:00

something from the sketch book, I've been drawing lots and lots of patterns lately and I think I'm going to start integrating them into my cut paper stuff.

How to make something disappear

2008-10-21T16:40:00.007-04:00

Hey everyone I'm still here and have finally managed to get settled in in the UK. I've mostly just been sketching for the last month or so, so expect some sketch dumps soon. But I've also been working on this book project thing based on the idea of surprise in a narrative. I used the idea of a magic trick but changed it a bit to fit into something a bit more me. Any ways here are the images, please note that the text does not fit with the image, as they are formatted to be bound (in fact I bound it today and it's being pressed as I type), so I've placed the correct type for each image below the image. Thanks for the patience everyone and expect more soon

Oh also I've finally gotten a phone in the UK so it is possible to get in touch with me that way I'll be putting that on my website in the next couple of days, though email is still probably a better way to get in contact with me.

so first the sketch

and then the finishes

Step 1: Hold a heart (mine in this case) at the very end of your fingertips in your right hand.

Step 2: Move your other hand over from above as if to take my heart.

Step 3: Just before you’re about to make the switch subtly allow the heart to fall into the base of your right fingers; do this move swiftly and smoothly to simulate a handoff.

Step 4: Carry on with this grasping motion, tightening both hands into fists at the same time, which will hide the fact that my heart remains in your right hand.

Step 5: Take your right hand (where my heart still remains) and make an elaborate pointing gesture at your left fist, throwing in some “magic” words, such as “presto-change-o”, “trust me” or what have you.

Step 6: Open your hands and reveal that my heart hasn’t disappeared…

Website Updated

2008-09-17T12:18:00.001-04:00

Finally got around to updating my website with a few pieces in preparations for my last mailing before I head to England.

Project Rooftop: ReVamp

2008-09-07T23:19:00.003-04:00

My submission for the latest project rooftop, this one was to redesign vampirella. This turned out alright but I wish I would have had a bit more time to work out the design but the last few weeks have been nuts. I admit that I don't really know anything about vampirella but in the course of researching her I tracked down some of the original vampirella comics, they're cheesy, lewd and hilarious and I would absolutely suggest reading them.

Girl and Deer Final

2008-09-04T23:53:00.002-04:00

Well here's the final for the sketch from yesterday I'm pretty happy with the way that it turned out and I think I'm going to go ahead and finish designing the postcard tonight/tomorrow so that I can get a mailing out before I head across the pond.