I am one of Lürzers Archive's 200 best illustrators worldwide

A while ago I got an email from Lürzers Archive saying that I was nominated by an art director somewhere. I've always seen this book in the book store from some foreign place and wondered if i would ever be in there. You have to be nominated by an art director and then chosen by the Lürzers judges panel to be in this book so it's not "curated" per say. Haven't seen it yet because they were mailed to my parents house and i'm in Barcelona but it's cool to be in this book that I once gazed upon with student eyes filled with a thousand glimmering stars of hope. Our own Nimit Malavia is in the book too. congrats

My first Sci-fi illo for Irene Gallo!

This illustration is for a romantic time travel story titled "Time Considered as Thermite Burns in No Particular Order" on tor.com.

Everything about this project was like a dream-

I got the job e-mail around mid-night; The time machine in the story is disguised as arose-bush; The heroine is a read head...

Most importantly, it's a job for art director Irene Gallo.

I have always had much respect for Irene as she's someone who truly loves illustration and passionate about her job. Thanks to SooJin, I was introduced to Irene back at the 2010 Society of Illustrators NY Student Scholarship show. Very much to my surprise, she had me filed in her mind and thought of me when this job came up 1 year later.

Irene is very generous with her advices and help, be sure to say hi to her if you see her around at the society or AI party next time!

Modern Fairy Tales for The Times London

The Times in London called me for a quick turnaround for 6 illustrations based on modern fairy tales that authors had put a twist on. A very fun assignment. It's the first time I thought of putting freckles and blemishes on people. but then again i haven't drawn to many red heads. Still though I should start using them more for the monsters and uglies that i draw.



big opening illustration. Gone is the age that girls dream of becoming princesses. Here Cinderella longs for freedom from social engagements and the other realities of life.



Red Riding Hood is a poor, uneducated teenager turned celebrity rape victim.



The 3 Little Pigs live a dry, sarcastic life. I hate compromising things with fast turn arounds, like here there was no time to render shiny pig flesh.



Jack and the beanstalks are a band competing on an American Idol like show where the judges include the Giant who is like a certain former American Idol judge. and yes that is me as the giant and yes i basically look like that.



After her parents divorce the Little Mermaid puts on weight and longs for a Pop Idol prince until the day she seems him join in a civil partnership with his best friend Clive.

Honolulu mag new illo and first process post!

I was contacted by AD Cody Kawamoto from HONOLULU magazine for a really interesting illustration assignment. The article is about rehabilitating the troublesome wild donkeys roaming Hawaiian land and causing traffic and other problems. How often do one get to drawbad-asses? So of course I said yes.

The Final

I have been asked a lot about my process. So I thought maybe it's time to make a process post, it's actually quite straight forward and nothing magical-

The approved sketch-

I work half traditionally and half digitally. I enjoy this way of working as it allows me to create images with a wide range of media which are"incompatible" in nature. It also allows me to be really experimental with colors/texture and still able to deliver my work by the deadline safe and sound.

Usually after the sketch is approved, I go in and draw the line with pen and ink and the texture with various media like pencil, charcoal, crayon, pastel. etc

After I am done with the drawing board, I have everything scanned, composed and colored in Photoshop.

Ta-da!

The layout-

Thanks for reading!

Where in the world is Jason?

Last time I posted I had just fled the radiation scares in a post earthquake Japan. I was in the middle of the most grueling advertising project ever and was expecting a break but I got an explosion of new work while on what was supposed to be my re-up and recover month in Seoul. Now I am posting from Barcelona, Spain, where I will live for 3 months before trying out London.



for Management Today Magazine (UK). For a monthly column that defines a new buzzword. "Freemium" is where companies give out a barebones but functional product in the hopes that the consumer will pay to upgrade to the premium product.



For Westchester Magazine. Celebrity twitter accounts, including Martha Stewart and Donald Trump



for Management Today Magazine (UK). It takes many people to make a good manager.



For Backbone Magazine (Canada). Now that IBM's super computer has stomped the competition on Jeopardy it is being programmed to help doctors in hospitals, especially in the diagnosis area.



for Motortrend Classic Magazine. A man remembers driving through Australia's Snowy Mountains in his first car, a 1968 Mini Deluxe



Barcelona Catherdral viewed from down a side street in the Gotico district



Edward Chillida art near the Museum of of Contemporary Art terrace

2 creatures and a microphone...

okay, I lied about the microphone but here's 2 creature designs and a recently released card done for the World of Warcraft TCG  / copyright Blizzard Entertainment.
Thanks for checking it out!
-S.

New illo and update from HK!

Hi there, here is a piece I did for PLANSPONSOR May issue.

The story is about Value Funds have not done as well as expected in the past couple of years-I started thinking into the direction of expectation and disappointment and here are the sketches that I came up with.

I love working with SooJin because she always choose my favorite idea and enable me to give my best shot. Here is the final layout-

Sorry for not posting in a while. I am back at Hong Kong to visit my family and friends and have been indulging myself with good food and people.

Sketchbook Pages 6- Chris Whetzel

Doodles in a toned sketchbook. Obviously, I have yet to figure out working on toned paper, but here is the progress while I'm "in the trough."

 

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Baseball, audiobooks, Spectrum and lots of coffee.

A little while back I had the luxury of a nice two week deadline for Library Journal. A fun crowd scene requiring a variety of faces in a theater enjoying audiobooks that was just complex enough to let me flex some rendering muscles and take my time.

With two days left to work up the final, I had to throw my relaxed pace out the window to jump into a overnighter for Wall Street Journal.

WSJ's illustration was on the growing lack of interest in baseball among America's youth. My goal was to show that disinterest through several generations. Having done all my rollovers, this actually came relatively naturally. I love the idea of one part of an image remaining constant while things evolve around it. (Speaking of... I found out that my Ada Lovelace Day rollover was also accepted into Spectrum 18! Pretty much the same idea-> Image below).
    Having been what some would call "indoorsy" as a child, I had to do a fair amount of research about various sports equipment, uniforms, and heroes that would end up on posters. (Full disclosure: the extent of my baseball experience is signing up for tee ball as a child, going to games, hitting the ball, refusing to run, and sitting back down.)

50s/70's/90's/00's.  None of the above had a part in my own childhood.

Luckily Derick Gonzalez at the Journal was a bit more knowledgable and helped me out. I will take credit for the ever-so-subtle upgrade from old school to new school skateboard in the last two panels.

Again... replace all sports paraphernalia with Batman: The Animated Series/ make the boy chubby and pale.

Lots of fun working this one up.  Looking back, I kinda wish I used hot-press paper to calm the texture down. Still, I'm pretty stoked on how it turned out. Even better, it printed in full color (a gamble at WSJ) and by far the largest piece I've had in their paper.

So, one overnighter follows another now that my time was nearly up for Library Journal. I should say now that I know it's not exactly uncommon for an illustrator to do back to back overnighters, but hey, this was my first.

final approved sketch

Final and in context.

Even though I was dead-man painting at this point, I think it still stands up. Tried a lil something new keeping the headphones and media players unaffected by the darkness of the theater to pop a bit more.


And here is the Ada Lovelace rollover I mentioned that was also accepted to Spectrum 18.

-S