The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyEarlier this year, I received an assignment from Clubhouse Magazine, a magazine for kids published by Focus on the Family. They wanted a boy exercising the old school activity of writing a physical letter to help advertise Clubhouse‘s summer pen pal program for kids!
So, a little watercolor paint and colored pencil later, here it is as seen on the back cover of the May 2020 issue of the magazine, then my own scan of the original art.
Why the long face?
This sketch came about in a strange way. I just decided to see if I could fit three faces on the height of one page in my sketchbook. Mystery solved. I did it.
– Pinky and The Brain (1993 – 1998)
It’s hard to take over the world when your evil lab is overrun with evil cats.
I have been working on something over the past five months that I haven’t talked much about publicly, but today is the day to unveil it. The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) asked me to run their annual illustration competition this year, known as Illustration West. This is the 59th consecutive year of this contest, and I am honored that they have entrusted it to me.
So, as the Show Chair of Illustration West 59, I am pleased to announce that today is our launch of the Call For Entries!! Folks around the globe may visit IllustrationWest.org to see our amazing list of judges comprised of award-winning and highly respected leaders of the illustration industry, review the many categories they may enter, and check out the requirements for submissions.
I was also invited by SILA to create this year’s Call For Entries poster, which was thrilling and a little intimidating. I decided to work up a spoof of monster movie posters from the 1950s, setting it firmly in Los Angeles where our contest takes place!
I wanted to give a special shout-out to my buddy Andy Heckathorne for donating his graphic design skills to creating the type for the poster. It lends just the right touch of vintage monster movie nostalgia to the image!
I am absolutely thrilled with the people who agreed to be judges this year. While you can go to the Illustration West website to read all about them and see samples of their work, I’m more than happy to share with you the list right now:
The deadline for our call for entries is October 31, 2020, after which our judges will be busy reviewing the submissions in November, leading to a physical art show in Los Angeles in February 2021 where the winners will be revealed!
My thanks to everyone on our judging committee, and for my fellow SILA board members and staff who have been involved in helping to get the contest this far!
If interested in joining SILA, or just to learn more about this arts organization that was founded in 1953, visit their website si-la.org.
Well, at least it’s bear country on THIS page of my sketchbook. Grabbed a colored pencil, and once again explored one of the most fun animals to anthropomorphize.
Yeah. There’s not much to say about this other than that it’s a strange sketch from my sketchbook today. This is what comes from not leaving the house for weeks on end.
Thanks a lot Coronavirus.
Here in the States it is Secretary’s Day, or as the more politically correct term seems to be, Administrative Professionals Day. From what I have observed on those times I’ve worked at an office on this day, it’s a day when secretaries and assistants either get a free lunch or a Starbucks gift card.
So happy free lunch day all you secretaries and assistants! For many of you in quarantine, that probably just means you get to make yourself a sandwich.
Yeah, dinosaurs like to snack on tender morsels of man meat, but this caveman isn’t having any of it. In this age of Coronavirus, the dino needs to stand at least six feet away, which may or may not cramp his lunch leanings.
Not to mention, that drooling is DEFINITELY NOT sanitary.
