The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyIf you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
The cow and the farmer’s happy smiles will soon turn to frowns once that orange exhaust hits them.
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
This was my favorite image for the whole book. I just loved the flow of the poses, and who doesn’t love cows?!
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
Yes, I was thinking of safety issues when I left off the rearview mirror, but this van doesn’t have windows out the back, so it would have been pointless.
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
Clearly, this ServiceMan is able to fix a lot of different types of machines. It looks like if he had to, he was equipped to fix a cold, sick candy-spewing robot that gets milked in the kitchen.
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
The book itself was in a small square format. It was fun playing around with organic shapes in the background when I could!
Back in 2014, I was contacted by ServiceMax, a company in the San Francisco bay area, to create some art for a unique advertising project. ServiceMax is a tech company, and they wanted to showcase an iPad app they created that can help mobile servicemen with other companies to do their jobs better. The idea was to have a sales brochure disguised as a children’s book that ServiceMax intended to distribute at a convention for their industry.
Time was of the essence with this project. I had two weeks to go from pencil concepts to final art, and this all was while I was gainfully employed from 9-6 at an animation studio! Yikes! Under the guidance of art director Percy Chow, I proceeded to tackle the art with the idea of doing it in a throwback style similar to mid-century illustrators H.A. Rey and Syd Hoff. You know – that simplified drawing style and limited color palette thing that looks easy, but really takes a lot of work!
The challenge was fun. With those limitations for that art style, it forces you to be creative in a way you don’t normally think of when left to your own unlimited devices. So I tackled the art with simplicity, but thinking of flow and design since I could only use black, the white of the paper, and the colors from ServiceMax’s logo (light blue, dark blue, & orange).
Since the only way you would ever have been able to see this art before was to have been handed one of the books at that tech convention back in 2014, this remains the rarest book I have ever done! With ServiceMax’s permission, I am happy to share the art with you here on the ol’ blog.
For the next 10 business days (we’ll take the weekends off), I will be posting one page each day for your perusal. The story is about Max, the iPad with ServiceMax’s software on it, and how he helps out ServiceMan with his job of driving around repairing various mechanical devices.
Today, I present to you the front cover:
This year the National Cartoonists Society is having their annual Reuben Awards convention weekend in good ol’ Memphis, Tennessee. As part of the festivities, members were asked to create some Memphis-themed art that could be used for several purposes:
The choice was obvious – since Memphis is the home of Elvis (which is all I really knew it for, having never been to the city in my life), I chose to illustrate the Memphis Zoo with a slight nod to Elvis, of course. I present to you The King of the Beasts.
While this is not quite a velvet Elvis painting, it is a real painting nonetheless. I procrastinated a little in creating it, but ultimately decided it’s now or never. To ease your suspicious mind, I broke out my long-unused gouache paints, some of which needed a little reconstitution with the aid of some Kentucky rain. Basically the paints needed a little less conversation, a little more action. The only part created digitally are the words, so there is a nice painting there for one lucky bidder TONIGHT! Sales are final in benefit of the sick kids – bidders can’t return to sender.
Yes, that last paragraph was a little corny, but please don’t be cruel with your comments.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Today I thought I would use my abilities to indulge my secondary interest in filmmaking, which is film music. I enjoy film music so much that there is a whole category for it here on the ol’ blog.
I saw Disney’s new version of The Jungle Book on its opening weekend three weeks ago and was completely mesmerized. It has to be a pretty tough gig to take a beloved Disney animated feature, and create a new version of it that is live action, er, animated as well. Director Jon Favreau did a fantastic job of making something old new again not only with the story, but with the eye-popping visuals.
Aiding the visuals in a huge way was the music by veteran composer John Debney. The original Jungle Book was charming in large part because of the music that aided the storytellers. John skillfully wrote a beautiful jungle score of his own that immediately captures your attention, and then audibly gives the audience a nostalgic thrill by weaving in some of the well-loved songs from the original movie. It was enchanting.
It struck me that this was the fourth feature film collaboration between director and composer. Jon Favreau and John Debney first worked together on 2003’s Elf (a personal favorite Christmas movie), 2005’s Zathura, Iron Man 2 in 2010, and now The Jungle Book. Each outing has proven that they make beautiful music together.
I was so enamored with their latest collaboration that I felt compelled to get it down on paper. Ironically, I celebrate their digital masterpiece by using the traditional art tools of watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils. May I present to you, The Two Jons/Johns:
I for one can’t wait to see what their next project together will yield, but you can be sure it will be a swingin’ good time!
Oh, by the way, this is the second time I have illustrated John Debney. The first time was when he worked on one of Jon Favreau’s earlier films Iron Man 2. If you’d like to see that painting, CLICK HERE!