Wednesday, July 08, 2009

An evening with the de Brunhoffs

This past Tuesday evening Laurent and Phyllis de Brunhoff a.k.a Phyllis Rose asked me over for drinks and fine conversation at there Upper East Side apartment. Little did I know Phylis had other plans. She was looking for another model for her on-going photo series that she calls the Holbein portraits. Being the ham that I am I agreed whole heartedly to take part. Here is a brief description by Phyllis Rose about here series. Its quite amazing!

PB: I started shooting these pictures when I got tired of photographing
Laurent, my resident model, as he was and started throwing upholstery
fabrics onto him to try to make him look like someone else. About the
same time I went to the Frick and was, as always, blown away by the
Holbein portraits of Thomas More and of Cromwell. So I started
photographing men with the intention of reproducing some of the
effects of Holbein portraits, especially the lighting, the palette,
and the gravity of the sitters. I increased my stock of velvets and
damasks on West 38th Street and from fabricguru.com. And I bought
some hats and fur pieces and significant objects (astrolabe,
telescope, skull etc) on eBay. I like to let sitters choose an object
they want to be associated with. Over time, I've moved from Holbein
as a model and gotten more promiscuous in my inspiration. Titian,
Rembrandt, Bronzino, and Veronese are important, too. Conclusions? I
think men have very few opportunities to play. Also I think they look
better dressed in velvet robes and caps than in what they're
encouraged to wear these days. In case you're wondering,
I can't do
women because their clothes are too complicated
and the jewelry has
to be good.

http://www.phyllisrose.net

Laurent de Brunhoff's Studio

Phyllis Rose's Studio



My portrait. I can't help but laugh at this photo.


Laurent looks on in amusement

Monday, June 29, 2009

New Photographer! Behind the Scenes.

MORGAN R. LEVY


I am always a fan of finding new talent and I believe I have found that in Morgan Levy's photography.





From Morgan's Blog Hopeful Monsters

"I am shooting a commissioned portrait this weekend which I am pretty excited about. Here is one of the backgrounds for one of two children. His paper costume is going to be a "space ninja" as he believes he is from a far off galaxy that exploded (Superman anyone?) and he and his brother were sent to earth in space ships and he is older because his space ship got here first. . . . Naturally. This image was created with support from Hekla, Iceland's volcano and the good people at NASA. The image is almost complete, some more small compositional things to tweak.

I had the good fortune to work with Morgan on
David Clement-Davies next novel SCREAM OF THE WHITE BEARS.
Morgan traveled to Iceland just where she photographed numerous images of the landscape which we used in the background image of the cover.


http://www.morganrlevy.blogspot.com

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Behind the Scenes: Photo shoot for ANXIOUS HEARTS by TUCKER SHAW




Photographer Jonathan Beckerman gives us a behind the scenes look at his photo shoot for ANXIOUS HEARTS by TUCKER SHAW.

Due out Spring 2010!

NERDS interior Sketches

Publish Post
Character sketch of JULIO "FLINCH" ESCALA

Now that the interior and jacket have been sent to the printer I have some time to share a bunch of sketches Ethen Beavers and I went through to get the illustrations in NERDS to be just right . . . for a nerd.

Dr. Jig and Ben Franklin Character sketches

Sensor Sketches.
To get to the next level these sensors test he readers worthiness to gain access. For example you have to wipe BOOGERS, SWEAT, and SALIVA among other things to have access granted. Gross.


More character sketches







Character sketches of JACKSON "BRACEFACE" JONES





Character sketches of HEATHCLIFF " CHOPPERS" HODGES


Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Evolution of The Unknowns cover

About the book, THE UNKNOWNS.

In a trailer park called Adjacent, next to the Folsom Energy Plant, people have started to vanish, and no one seems to care. At first Lady Di and her best friend, Tom Jones, barely notice the disappearances—until their beloved math tutor, Mrs. Clarke, is abducted, too. Mrs. Clarke has left them clues in the form of math equations that lead them all over the trailer park, through hidden tunnels under “Mount Trashmore,” and into the Folsom Energy Plant itself, where Lady Di and Tom Jones and a gang of other misfits uncover the sordid truth about what’s really happening there.


Benedict's sketches from 1st pass Manuscript.

Sketch I made before book was acquired to help acquire the book.

I had been a fan of Joshua Middleton's work for sometime and as luck would have it he was perfect for this unknown. Here is Josh's first sketch showing a wraparound jacket.


Only one problem. As beautiful as the image was when you separated out just the front cover. It didn't hold up. So in hopes of saving the image I reworked the composition. So that the front cover would work more effectively with the wraparound idea.

To make the cover have a bit of a science fiction, mystery edge I took Benedict's geometric sketches from the interior and add them floating on the jacket to add another layer of visual interest.

After a couple of revisions Josh delivered a color final.

But the colors where to vibrant which lessened the mystery angle of the image.
Thus darken the composition to help highlight the key action to help the viewer.


Next step I started working up type samples. All along keeping in mind,
"how do you make a math story visually interesting." Also at this stage the title changed
from FOLSOM ADJACENT to THE UNKNOWNS.




However we ran into a speed bum. The cover wasn't working as well as it needed to for the book. Again the mystery angle. With the current cover it wasn't working as we wanted it to. The cover was to character driven for what the story was asking for. So we quickly went back to the drawing board and re worked the idea. Here you my sketch revision. Which is totally not a Jame Bond influence . . . uh yes it is.



On last thing just to make sure the mystery angle was working. Marketing placed the text " A Mystery" on the cover. Which turned out nicely.





Next and final step place the cover copy in place. I like to place text in a way that fits into the world of the art. Complementing rather than intruding.




Bonus Math Problem!

Jonathan Beckerman NEW site


My brother just updated his photography website. He is an LA based fashion and book cover photographer. He and I have worked on numerous book covers together.
For example,
Struts & Frets,
The Girls,
Troy High,
Such a Pretty Face,
My Life in Pink & Green,
Anahita's Woven Riddle,
Car Trouble,
Rock Tease,
Hell Phone and
Breaktime to name a few.

Note: Give it a moment to load we are working on the loading time issue. Thanks

NERDS Site launched!


WWW.TEAMNERDS.COM

Thursday, May 28, 2009

BEA is Coming "BRACE YOURSELF"








The banners are up at the Jacob Javits center here in New York. They display our new logo and the new slogan for the upcoming WIMPY KID 4 book due out in October 2009. "BRACE YOURSELF" The title will be revealed soon.


NERDS PREVIEW BROCHURE—SAMPLE CHAPTER


Thursday, May 21, 2009

DAWGER features John Hendrix and Adam McCauley

Drawger.com!

Adam McCauley ( June and August )

http://drawger.com/atomic/?article_id=7867

Here’s John Hendrix’s article ( John Brown )

http://drawger.com/johnhendrix/

JUNE AND AUGUST trailer

Illustrator Adam McCauley put together this great trailer for his and Vivian Walsh's upcoming Fall 2009 picture book JUNE AND AUGUST. Check it out!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

WITH RAIN

With Rain from takcom™ on Vimeo.



Track by aus from the album Curveland.

Video by Takcom

Thanks Erik Price at http://awwhellnah.com

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

MAMA, IS IT SUMMER YET?


Nikki McClure works in her garden drawing from life.
Here she is working on the cover sketch for her next book
MAMA, IS IT SUMMER YET? ( Coming in Spring 2010)

Monday, April 27, 2009

I love this site


ABRAMS online catalogs. SAVE THE TREES

Hello Everyone,

Our Fall 09 Catalogs are now online so they can easily be viewed and distributed. I hope that someday this will be the future of catalogs. Think of the cost savings not to mention the trees.

To access the catalogs online, please visit the catalog page on our new website and click on the catalog that you would like to view: http://www.abramsbooks.com/catalogue.html

You can also use these direct links to view the adult and children’s catalogs:

ABRAMS (adult):

BYR/Amulet:

To turn the pages, click on the “arrow” that appears when you mouse over the right-hand or left-hand side of the pages to turn to the next page. Click anywhere on the document to zoom in. You can also click on the thumbnails below the document to quickly jump to any page.

Monday, April 20, 2009

A Truthful Portrait




In celebration of my 31st birthday Nathan Fox cooked up a portrait
of his 'favorite' art (evil) director.

Nathan and I worked on the cover for one of my favorite books
THE BIG SPLASH.