The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyA new article came out about me a couple of weeks ago. The folks at Shoutout LA asked me a few questions about my work, my mentors, and life in Los Angeles. So, I obliged them with some answers.
So, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a little light reading about an illustrator in Los Angeles by…
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.
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.
Dragons can sure be intimidating, but some lads are either too brave or too stupid to be bothered with intimidations.
Over on Instagram, folks have been posting the nine images people responded to the most in 2018. These were the favorite nine of my art that made the cut over there.
If you are on Instagram, and didn’t know that I was, you can find me there at https://www.instagram.com/
I tend to post more things on Instagram than I do here on the ol’ blog, so come give me a follow to keep up with all the fun.
Dr. Seuss first unleashed his wonderful Christmas creation upon the world in 1957 in the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Nine years later, the great Warner Bros. director, Chuck Jones, adapted the story in animated form for television that itself has become a classic enjoyed annually by children and adults alike to this day. It has since been translated into two feature films, one of which is currently entertaining people in theaters right now. For me, the Chuck Jones version remains closest to my heart.
The Jones one is the version that introduced me to the character before I ever saw the original book. The Grinch was delightfully mean, the Whos down in Whoville were pure and innocent, and stuck in the middle was the Grinch’s faithful companion, Max the dog. In the end, there was genuine redemption for the green meanie.
When I was young and had first entered the business, I wrote Mr. Jones a fan letter, telling him of my affection for his version of the story. I mentioned that I had even held Christmas parties at my home where I had my guests take a Grinch quiz, and then we would watch the film to mark off the correct answers. (I also had mentioned to him my love for his other Warner Bros. cartoons.) He responded by sending me a sketch of Bugs Bunny dressed in the Grinch’s Santa outfit which I treasure to this day.
So, just because I was feeling a little nostalgic for the ol’ emerald one, I worked up a little piece to post here this holiday season!
Here is the final offering in this year’s limited Monster Month posts…
Sometimes life can be tough for an ogre who has decided to buck (pun intended) the traditions of his kind to be a vegetarian. Living creatures no longer fear him, and thusly he is inundated with an infestation of deer. All that venison can be a sweat-inducing temptation, but he’s determined to stick with his principles, even if he constantly is stepping on deer droppings.
Thanks for following along with this October’s collection of silly monster sketches, drawings, and illustrations. We now return you to our regularly scheduled art.