The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyNow that it’s August, we’ve officially reached those hazy, lazy days of summer. It’s the kind of time that is best spent in the shade by a stream with your best buddy. There’s a slight breeze, the sound of bees buzzing nearby, and without a care in the world.
This original 11×15″ watercolor and colored pencil illustration is for sale. $800, shipping included if in the United States.
Sidewinder, whippersnapper, feelin’ mighty peckish, high noon, marble orchard, consarn it, sassafras, fair to middlin’, all down but nine, and dagnabbit are all words that come to mind with today’s sketchbook drawing.
If elephants worked in the world of business, I imagine they’d make good CPAs. Having someone who never forgets being in charge of numbers seems like a pretty good bet.
Since April 15 is usually the day, it seems awfully odd to me to type this today, but 2020’s tax day is finally upon us TODAY. I think ol’ Uncle $crooge here is oblivious to that fact, because no doubt he owes a few sheckels to Uncle Sam.
You know, two cartoonists most influenced me when I was a child. The first was Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. The second was Carl Barks, the man who invented many characters for his Disney comics stories such as Scrooge McDuck, the Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose, Magica DeSpell, and the list goes on. He also invented the idea of ol’ Scroogey being able to swim through his three cubic acres of cash as if it was water off a duck’s back.
This is my take on a classic pose Barks drew his signature character in many times in many of the 500 stories he did for Disney comics. If you don’t know his work, definitely use some of your tax refund this year to pick up some of the great hardcover reprints that have been published by Fantagraphic Books in the past few years!
You know all about the other little piggies. This is the one who stayed home.
Earlier 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.
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.
