The Dears

Here’s an illustration of The Dears to go with an album review in the National Post. Don’t get to use my Chrome yellow ink often enough!

And here’s how it appeared in the paper:

Deadmau5

Here’s a drawing I did for a friend of mine (Deadmau5’s sister) — a Christmas present for the man himself! I’m told he loved it!

Bruce Springsteen

I’ve illustrated another record review for the National Post, and this time it’s new material from the Boss. I was glad to hear the new material was old unreleased material, so I could have a chance to draw a young Springsteen (even though I’m equally indifferent to all his periods). Enjoy!

Bob Marley

Here’s a quick Bob Marley done for Wired magazine (ipad edition) this month!

Lil Wayne vs. Kanye

Here’s an illustration done for the new issue of Wired magazine (out today). In the article, they compare each artist’s antics and decide who’s more deserving of redemption with the release of their new albums. Quite a challenge to research Wayne’s most up-to-date tattoos. Almost missed his eyelids!!

Phil Collins

I did a portrait of Phil Collins for today’s edition of the National Post, where they reviewed his new album, Going Back. Strangely, it’s all motown covers, backed by the Funk Brothers (the session band that provided most of the music for Motown records). With the original band providing the instrumentals, the songs sound authentic and unchanged — but with Phil Collins voice replacing Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and The Supremes. It’s bizarre!

Check him out doing one of my favourite songs EVER:

Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the jacket I gave him, it’s the Motown records “M”.

Black Sheep

Another drawing and video this week! This time it’s Black Sheep, one of my most-listened-to rap groups of all time. Flavor of the Month is the first single I had heard from them (in the video below), but I remember The Choice is Yours literally making me get up and leave for the record store. I guess the drawing’s kind of an “engine, engine, number nine” pose...

Here’s some less-famous gems if you’ve played the first album as much as I have:

Off the Wall - Trespass soundtrack
The Legion - Jingle Jangle
Pardon Me
Who Dat?
(New) Dres — Forever Luvlee

And this is a cool recent video of Dres explaining the crazy intro to A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing:
You Mean I’m Not?

All the squares go home!

After flipping through my old Mojo magazines I decided I had to draw me a Sly (and I recorded it this time!). You’ll see if you watch the video that I used two different kinds of paper, not something I usually do.  I wanted to try and make this one kind of psychedelic and trippy with the colors, though it kind of came out the same as all my other ones do in the end. Anyway, I started on a porous paper to get some cool bleeds, but that paper wouldn’t allow for much detail without bleeding so I pasted the good parts onto some hotpress watercolor paper. Normally for a deadline I would do this in photoshop but since these are just for fun, I try to make finished originals. The hotpress paper had my sketch printed on it at about 10%. My brother did the video for me! Enjoy!

Oooh, and I know Sly played the keyboard more often, but I had some great reference of him in this white suit with the custom guitar.

Kanye West for Entertainment Weekly

And finally, Kanye West for the same issue!

Maroon 5 for Entertainment Weekly

And... Adam Levine from Maroon 5 for Entertainment Weekly’s fall music preview.

Sugarland for Entertainment Weekly

Sugarland, for Entertainment Weekly’s fall music preview this week.

Kid Rock for Entertainment Weekly

Last week I did some drawings for Entertainment Weekly’s fall music preview - a great gig. One of the first one’s I finished was of Kid Rock, but his new album was pushed back so the illustration was killed.
Above is the work I did by hand, below is the final art with some extra digital coloring. I like to work by hand where I can, but easy-editing makes digital my method of choice for most commercial work (coloring anyway). The colors in my palette were sampled from the layout by my art director, Michael Schnaidt, which you’ll see shortly!

The issue comes out tomorrow so I’ll post some more from the series then.

Quickies

Isaac Hayes

Biz Markie

Arcade Fire

I did this illustration for the National Post  today! 

Get it? They’re on fire. Because of their band name.

Fela Kuti

I’ve been meaning to attempt a portrait of Fela for a while. Since I finally got to it, I’ll also attempt a really brief bio in case I’m introducing him to anyone out there!
Fela Kuti created and named his own genre, Afrobeat — a hybrid of jazz,  funk, Caribbean and (his own native) Nigerian music. Backed by his band, Africa 70, he performed and recorded songs in pigdin English rather than his native Yoruba to be sure his political message reached as far as it possibly could.

His critique of the Nigerian military regime earned him many violent confrontations with them. Zombie was an insult to the soldiers, and despite being banned, became a huge hit. In 1977 the military retaliated with a brutal attack on Fela’s compound, where some 1,000 soldiers beat, raped and tortured its inhabitants. Fela himself received a fractured skull and his mother was killed, being thrown from a window. The government attributed the attack to “unknown soldiers” — and Fela used a song of the same name to respond. (Unknown Soldier)

Most of his releases contain songs over 15 minutes long (his lyrics not coming in until after the 10-minute mark) because, as he once said, “We dance long distance here, no three-minute music for me.”

You can see some great rare footage of him performing with his band here.

Other must-listens include:

Water No Get Enemy

Expensive Shit

Colonial Mentality

Currently, there’s also a fantastic play running on Broadway,

FELA!, a biography of his life. Antibalas, a group who’ve taken up where Fela left off in the Afrobeat genre, are the house band for the play’s run.

Today is the anniversary of his death, on August 2nd 1997.