Elvis Impersonators and...Weimar Communists?

It's the fifteenth, which means a new issue of the Hypocrite Reader is due. This month's issue (topic: "Occupations") might be delayed owing to the early morning evacuation of Zuccotti Park, but keep your eyes peeled.

India ink on bristol board; digital post-processing

The above illustration accompanies an article discussing the role of shame in cultivating solidarity among activists, the first half of which examined the tensions between affectuous, part-time Occupy neophytes and more experienced, committed activists. Said article includes an anecdotal account of an Elvis impersonator posing for the cameras at Occupy New Vegas, the author doubtful of his reliability as a participant. I ended up using a simple big-small contrast to illustrate the displacement of other demonstrators.

India ink on bristol board; digital post-processing

"Weimar communists hawking newspapers on a street corner" was my (very concise) brief for this illustration. I'd thought about adding building or lamp post in the background, but decided against it because the inclusion of potentially confusing details outweighed the benefit of additional context.

Mr. President

Drawn in Illustrator CS5; original size: A1 (594mm x 841mm)

A strictly unofficial vector poster of Barack.

Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey

Drawn in Illustrator CS5

Quick-ish portrait of a Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, an endangered species located in central China.

Reconstruction

It's the fifteenth, which means it's time for another issue of The Hypocrite Reader. This month's theme is "Reconstruction."

Ink & wash on bristol board; digital colors

I had a thumbnail of this idea on paper about five minutes into concepting, but set it aside for some stupid reason, only to return to it when the more complex idea fell apart. I'm pleased with the way this one turned out in the end. The original article was about a letter addressed to one's future amnesiac self.

Ink & wash on bristol board; digital colors

The same can't be said for this one, which corresponds to an article that discussed Perestroika's superficiality. I had the idea worked out fromt the get-go, but botched the execution, partly for want of time. In hindsight, I should probably have drawn this in Illustrator instead.

Five Hours, Five Panels

Well, folks, it's that time of the month again, when I drag myself out of my hermitage atop Mount Suburbia, down some laudanum with a swig of scotch, and set pencil to paper for The Hypocrite Reader and her legion of illustration-hungry Investors. This time, I had the joy of wracking my mind on an article discussing the role of "[emotional] hunger strikes" in the context of relationships, which I thought was indistinguishable from protracted episodes of "the silent treatment," the author's arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. I set about doing one of my usual single-panel pieces, thinking that the article's point could be dispensed with concisely, but found my efforts unsatisfactory.

After several hours of furious head-scratching, scribbling, and muttered curses, it occurred to me that a multi-panel narrative was necessary in order to illustrate the extended privation such passive-aggression suggested, and promptly slept on the idea because, quite frankly, it was late, and I was tired. With an adequate solution in hand, the rest was straightforward pen-and-ink drawing, which, as the title of this post suggests, took five hours. You will find the results below: