The house that death built (Happy Halloween!)

This is an older project that I wasn't sure I would ever share since it is a bit removed from my usual work. But it has been sitting on my desktop for quite a while now, staring at me, haunting me...

...so I figured it would be a good image for a post near Halloween :)

If I recall correctly, this LA Weekly article was about an architect whose houses seem to invite death. Multiple house constructed under this person's planning and supervision later became the sites of accidents and other less innocent events that resulted in people dying. Cue creepy music; it sort of sound like the premise of a Stephen King short story!

The paper's creatives had an idea that they wanted sketched along with whatever I could come up with; they wanted to see a blueprint skull. And you know I like drawing skulls!

Sketches:

(click sketches to enlarge)

The paper decided to go with the original idea and omit the drawing tools ( I was sad as it feels very flat without them):

 At this point, it was decided that the image should be charred to allude to the most recent house-related death ( a fire killed the owner).

Options I provided:

Thanks for reading! LA folks, maybe check up on who built your house...

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Recent education commissions

Here are a couple recent education assignments:

The first article deals with how education is currently focusing on the wrong areas. Apparently, a large emphasis is placed on HOW teachers approach their class material and not WHAT that material is; basically, teachers are being told: "Teach with this setup, test formats, etc; but you teachers decide what content students need for real-world application." Does anyone else see an issue with that approach?

It seems so as teachers and reformers are up in arms about it and how it makes for a non-unified education. There seems to be movement toward teachers collaborating across districts to create lesson plans that relate in an effort to improve a student's education.

Sketches:

 Solution: working together for a cohesive Common Core

 Problem: non-defined content with only a focus on standardized testing goals

Situation: structure without content

Final:

The second article deals with how schools are taking on learning management systems in an effort to streamline the various duties of teachers and the options they have for such systems. The article focuses mainly on open-source vs paid systems; open source is free but full of issues/bugs/lack of customer support, and the article favors spending a little for a better experience.

Sketches:

Choice: Paid system served ready-to-go vs aid that is free but incomplete

Situation: Having to invest effort to avoid paying

Mutual partnership: companies helping teachers with workload

Final:

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Digital Surveillance for Worth Magazine

Howdy! Here is a quick image I recently created for Worth magazine. It was great to work with an AD who was familiar with my work from the Alt-Weekly papers that basically jumpstarted my career as well as finally working with a magazine I've been trying to get my work into for years. The article was about how some parents hire private investigators to set up surveillance on their kids. This is usually done to protect them (bullying, drug use, etc), but it still brings up ethical issues...

Sketches:

I went for a pessimistic view of the subject matter as that seemed to be the nature of the article (and my own thoughts on the subject). No matter what age, who wants ANYONE accessing their private texts and phone calls. (Hello? Government? Are you listening?)

Final:

I wanted to play with fun juvenile colors while maintaing that dark ominous feel in the art. I submitted two versions (with and without the little trinket), and I was happy to hear this one was in the article.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Florida Likes Their Guns

          Last week I tweeted (@chriswhetzel) about how an old sketch from a couple of years ago was  kept and finally used by an AD I had worked with previously. I must say I was in a bit of an art funk when Miche called with that assignment; it seems Feb/March is my slow time of year, and I always feel like "this is the end of my career!" Anyway, it was very validating to have someone hold onto an old idea for so long and then ask to use it for the Miami New Times cover as well as for the New Times Broward. So it will be a short post as I didn't need to explore the subject matter with sketches; but I must say that guns fall into that "tech/machinery" category that I enjoy drawing.

          I was worried that Miche would have a hard time placing type on this as I worked with a darker palette and assumed light text would run over it, but he makes it look easy! Old sketch, color options, and final cover:

(click any to view larger)

          I sort of wish I had known the article focused on rifles; then I would have obviously made the gun aspects more akin to rifles (wood stock, maybe a scope, etc). But regardless, I am happy to see this sketch finally come to life (I never took it to finish for the portfolio as I was never sure if Miche would use it!) I can thank him enough for holding on to that grainy old jpeg!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Video Games Improving the Mind and Eye

          I have been lucky to do a few assignments for Scientific American over the last couple of years, and they always have fun subject matter to illustrate. However, I did not see an article about video games coming! As an avid gamer (and basically a full-time one during my childhood), it was a pleasure to illustrate this article as well as to learn a great deal from reading it.

          Evidence is starting to become apparent that video games can actually improve one's visual reflexes and mental processing speed; several books have already been published about these effects, and they are being weighed against the criticisms that video games lead to violent behavior, lethargy, and malaise. Since the article was subjectively leaning towards the benefits of gaming, I focused on their "improvements of the self."

Sketches:

#1: Effect on thinking shown as streamlined brain wrinkles made from controller wire.

#2: Effect on one's ability to process more visual information than a non-gamer shown as additional set of digital eyes.

#3: Focusing on the research of the article, this sketch depicted a researcher "seeing" the benefits of "gamer-vision." I was hoping to allude to night-vision goggles and how they enhance our vision.

          Patti (the AD) liked the third sketch best, and she asked that the scientist be changed to a normal person. With a wardrobe change and a smile for the image's figure, I worked up a final:

          Since the article seemed to focus mostly on adult gaming (something like 80% of gamers are adults), I colored this image to allude to those late-night games sessions with which most of us are familiar; this also worked well to reinforce the night-vision/enhancement aspect. I feel like the image successfully captures two goals for the client and for myself: to show the benefits of gaming, but also to share my thought that people out there may be seeing and treating life as a game without even realizing it.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Materials of the Future

I was recently quite fortunate to create two images for Popular Science's "Materials of the Future" article. I enjoy the magazine, and it was great to hear Todd the AD ask for mock propaganda/WPA posters with a contemporary feel. Working from short descriptive blurbs, I let my mind turn to the future...

We'll start off with the smaller image sketches for shoes that will produce electricity:

I really enjoyed this sketch of the shoes powering the mp3 player. Granted, the runner wouldn't literally have wires running over him, but they would have been transparent. Hmmm, maybe that should have been noted in the sketch, Whetzel.

Also, I should note that I was in charge of the taglines, so don't be too harsh on me for such unclever phrases. Gimme a break; I'm not on Mad Men.

I also liked this idea of the shoes showing their charge capacity, but again the wires may have been a deciding factor. Curse you, bluetooth and wireless technology; you make for difficult or absent visuals! 

This sketch is a bit more surreal in that tis probably doesn't actually happen (although I would totally wear them if it did). It is a more simplified concept focusing on producing power rather than using it.

And here are sketches for the larger image about how human ligaments and tendons will be replaced with spider-silk when injured or faulty:

So for the idea of this replacement material, I wanted to find a way to show its strength correcting a weakness. I also wanted to stay away from "x-ray" type images that you are always seeing when something internal to the body is discussed. After a bit of doodle-thinking, I found myself wanting to chop up the figure's limbs. What can I say? Concepting can be frustrating. But then I re-connected them with replacement ligaments, and this became the core concept of two sketches while focusing on silk properties. This sketch focused on spider-silk ligaments being 100x stronger than human versions.

Sketch #2 focused more on the healing aspect of the materials and less on its properties. It didn't really  fit my theme of invisible joints, but I was not sure what the article's focus would be so I figured I better include something more realistic and focused on recovery.

With this sketch, I was trying to find a situation to emphasize the "stretchiness" of the replacement materials (20x more stretchy!). I thought a soccer player contorting for a kick made for an interesting poster, and the blurb I worked from mentioned the probable use of these silks to correct sports injuries.

Here are the final images. There was an addition of the spider in the corner of the full-page opener, and I believe it was used elsewhere in the article as a little spot-illo of sorts. 

Full-page opening image

Half-page image

It was ablast to see this published in a magazine of which I am a reader. Thanks to Todd for a great assignment. Also, thanks to Li'l Petey Wonsowski for helping me get this project completed during a time-crunch!

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Mayor Bloomberg's Security Cameras

This time around, the portrait was to be of NY mayor Michael Bloomberg. It turns out he is pushing for the placement around NYC of special cameras that are able to detect concealed firearms. I grew up around guns, I support the right to bear arms (if done so in conjunction with common sense). Now, if Bloomberg just had a camera that could reveal who carries and who lacks that weapon!

The art director already had an idea in mind that was super fun and I eagerly agreed without trying to think up any other options; he wanted to show a Bloomberg portrait as if it were one of those "vintage" x-ray specs advertisements. Who doesn't remember these from being a kid? I certainly recall them on the backs of all those old comics my uncle gave me (which started an ongoing addiction :)

Due to time crunches, I had to work fast in order to fit this assignment into my schedule; luckily, the AD was very understanding that sketches wouldn't be as polished as usual. I drew up these roughs exploring the concept:

The AD went with #2, and we discussed how we could take the image more in a "spoof" direction. The text was a good start, but not really my forte. The bones in the letters went over really well, but my font selection was shunned :) We decided he would handle the text while I focused on making the image look "vintage" through halftone printing, paper texture, etc.

Here is the revised sketch I worked over; the likeness still isn't 100%, but  time was a factor, and I knew I could push/pull the features once I built them digitally:

I submitted two finals at different levels of "oldness." This is another project in which I experimented with using color in my shadows.

Detail of the the mimicked printing process (would anyone notice the little handgun on the glasses arm if I didn't point it out?)

(click to enlarge)

And here is the layout. Creeeeeepy!!!!:

(click to enlarge)

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Theaters Embracing Phone Use ?!?

Howdy doo!

An AD hit me up for an article addressing how movie theaters are pushing their accessibility on mobile devices. Being a devout online shopper, I was familiar with the mechanics of the process, but it was interesting to read about how all the "business" stuff works that allows you to buy a ticket on your phone.

Sketches:

(click for large view)

The section's illustrated article is usually in a long vertical format that can be a challenge in terms of composition. Of the four, I was happy with how three turned out; I thought Derek's selection for final would look great in context.

Final:

(click for large view)

As you may notice, I'm experimenting a bit, and I really like the more subtle coloring. Look out for more of this approach in the coming projects. I'm still refining it, but I think it has great qualities that make my work less aggressive (a positive for more whimsical concepts). Needless to say, I still enjoy some "in your face" limited color images as well, and I will still be using that approach when appropriate.

Thanks to Derek for great assignment, and thanks to you for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Predicitng Future Tech

Recently, I was contacted for a quick editorial about how difficult it is to predict the future of technology. The article was an interesting and fun read.

The sketches:

I liked the idea of "eating crow/lying" for this image as it cited several wrong predictions about telephones, computers, and tv being unpopular, but it was agreed that the crystal ball hit all the aspects of the article in a more general manner.

As you can see, I tried out a new palette for this image. I don't know why, but I had been really wanting to use magenta/blue for an image? Who knows where this stuff comes from. I was going to add a background silhouette of the figure to whom the hands belong to, but it seemed one layer too many so it was omitted for an easier-to-read image.

On an interesting sidenote, I listened to "Transcendant Man" , among other documentaries, while working on this project. Its an interesting look at the future of tech and how we will have incorporate it into ourselves OR incorporate ourselves within it. (Wha???)

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

I recently had a Steve Jobs portrait commission killed after an article rewrite. As part of a multiple-portrait assignment, I only had time for two sketches per person. The AD selected the first sketch, and the job was killed after I finished the final art.  Sketches:

As lame as it sounds, I am very grateful for what Mr. Jobs brought to the world through his vision. I've heard that Apple has had some labor issues, and I can't speak on that without more research. I only know that this man's vision has created products that beautiful and that I appreciate (although I always have to wait for price drops).

Thank you, sir.

And thank YOU for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Internet Piracy

August was great month because that was when I was contacted for a project about a band of lawyers basically blackmailing those who illegally download movies; the sample cited often is Person-X downloads a movie he/she may not be proud of watching (something adult-oriented), and these lawyers track them down and mail them a letter saying "Pay us X-dollars or we will take you to court and make you Asian schoolgirl fetish public knowledge." Although frowned upon by many courts, it it really a sad situation as people typically just pay the money to stay out of court where the case would most likely be dropped as was the case in many examples in the article.

In the sketch phase, I tried to hit all the various angles of the story to give the art directors lots of options.

In the end, they decided to work the piracy angle, and I was quite excited to take their selections to final. One suggestion was to add the "digital element' to the images by having the images feature pixellation. So I made the skull look like it falling apart (to some, being shot) and the waves of the ship image feature cresting/droplets of pixels. The spots use pixels as waves crashing against the ship and as the gun's spark:

Spot images in context. Thanks to the awesome Andrew Nilsen for supplying these! He used them almost exactly as I had initially pictured them in layouts while sketching.

As you may notice, the gun changed quite a bit from sketch to final; this happened while I was working and I realized "Hey doofus, this should be a flintlock in order to complete the theme in all the images. So basically, I worked up and submitted two finals of the gun: one modern 9mm (not shown) and one flintlock pistol. Yes, I did more work than I needed to on a pretty tight deadline, but don't you think it looks much better as a set?

So that's a great project that was a blast to work on, and it resulted in images I am really happy to have in the portfolio.

To read the article, visit any of the above papers websites. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris