Monthly Archives: August 2014

4 posts

I Pranked OK Go

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Illustration of OK Go Adds 503 New Band Members at Secret Audition

Last week’s illustrarticle featured one of my favorite bands, OK Go. I wrote and illustrated the story, “OK Go Adds 503 New Band Members at Secret Audition” – which you can read here: http://illustrarticles.com/exclusive-ok-go-adds-503-new-band-members-at-secret-audition/

okgo-clsup1 okgo-clsup2 okgo-clsup3

Click the above thumbnails to see the closeups of the painting.

okgo

A couple weeks ago, I attended an OK Go live show at Lincoln Hall here in Chicago. Basically, it was awesome. I bought the ticket back in May and later, the show was sold-out. The venue was tiny for a now popular band that originated in Chicago. The maximum capacity of Lincoln Hall is 507. It was a very intimate setting and I managed to get to the front. One of my favorite things about the band is their creativity. I love their videos and the way they interact with their fans.

This photo is of the audience at Lincoln Hall, which was taken by the lead singer, Damian Kulash. Can you find me in the crowd? Hint: I’m the screaming brunette in the center, behind the two dudes by the mic.

okgo-show2

okgo-show1

Can you tell that the show was very colorful? The band sounded amazing, too. Their new album, Hungry Ghosts, is coming out in October. At the last song of the set, the band invited some of the audience to climb up on stage to dance.

Here’s the photo I took while I was up there. It captured my perspective of that moment EXACTLY: trippy lights, confetti, jumping & screaming fellow fans, and the back of Damian Kulash’s head.

okgo-show3

Long story short, I sorta immediately got inspired and the result was this illustrarticle.

okgo-sketch

okgo-painting-wip

I had a show of my own coming up that weekend, Chicago’s Bucktown Arts Fest (my upcoming post), so I was pressed for time to finish. Still, I managed to get everything done.

My goal with this illustrarticle was to make OK Go laugh. Upon posting the illustrarticle last week, I tagged each of them in the IllustrArticles Instagram post, hoping they’d see the illustration and where to read the article. And, it sorta worked.

OK Go Adds 503 New Band Members At Secret Audition
OK Go Adds 503 New Band Members At Secret Audition

I cannot confirm nor deny whether any of them actually laughed, let alone read it, because I don’t know. But look:

 

okgo-damiankulashlikeDamian Kulash’s seal of approval! Printing this out and laminating it!

Cakewalk

Cakewalk

 

The latest story on IllustrArticles is about a trouble-making pastry’s run-in with the police. Read “Traffic Jam Caused By A Cake And Her Cups” here: http://illustrarticles.com/traffic-jam-caused-by-a-cake-and-her-cups/

 

Cakewalk-painting

Cakewalk-sketch

The above is how the sketch started off. I doodled it on the side of my sketchbook pretty quickly last week. It’s loosely modeled after California Street in San Francisco.

During my trip to SF back in March, I hopped on to a street car on California Street and held onto the side while riding down. The street cars don’t go very fast and stop constantly, but it seems strange to me that people are allowed and encouraged to just cling on to a pole and stand on the side while riding. So if you’re standing, there is no protection between you and the passing cars. Your only safety is your hopefully strong grip.

Cakewalk-oops

Things got a little intense as I was finishing the illustration. One paint brush was injured during the making of this illustrarticle. I must have leaned a little too hard on my new paint brush while inking and nearly dozing off at 1 a.m., a few hours after getting home from my job.

Cakewalk-wallpoter

IllustrArticles has its own new store! There are posters, and pillows, and bags, oh my! Shop for fun stuff here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/illustrarticles/shop

Plus, every time you buy something from the store, a new illustrarticle gets its wings.

Bark in the Dark

How do people even keep up with multiple blogs?

This blog here is more of a behind-the-scenes thing, in case it helps anyone. But my main focus is IllustrArticles. I’m pushing myself to take more in-progress photos.

In the past few years, I’ve been pushed by several people to try teaching art that I actually started to consider it, but then my thoughts were like, “Uh. What?” and “Uh. Thank you! Here, buy some of my artwork, instead! :D”

I was lucky that I had good teachers in high school. Teaching takes a lot of planning, dedication, and patience. Yeah, I couldn’t be a teacher. Or maybe I just don’t want to teach…? I don’t know – not even thinking about it!

Anyway.

Here’s an illustrarticle I’ve recently finished:

BarkInTheDark

It’s for a story about a dog I heard barking in the distance as I tried for fall asleep one night. A lot of dogs bark in my neighborhood. Basically, I don’t live in the Rogers Park neighborhood. I live in Rogers BARK.

After I wrote the story, the illustration started with this little sketch:

WDB-sketch

Then, it turned into an outlined final sketch:

WDB-outline

And then, a finished painting:

WDB-painting

Ta-da! Those little hearts were originally sketched out as dog skulls & cross bones. But right before inking the illustration, I realized that’s not the direction I wanted it to go. You can read the illustrarticle here: “Why Dogs Bark At Night”

An illustrarticle is it’s not quite a comic, not quite a blog. It’s an illustration with an article. Can’t have one without the other. Thought I should clarify that. New IllustrArticles are posted whenever important stuff happens. And sometimes, Thursdays.

“Bark in the Dark” illustration is available is a poster, framed print, tote bag, and more at the IllustrArticles shop.