It's Arrested Development

Here's a new set of portraits I did of everyone's favorite TV family...the Bluths! This project has been in the works for a long time now. After a hiatus in which I took on quite a bit of storyboard work as well as moved out of my apartment, I finally managed to sit down and finish all 9 portraits.
Before the fourth season (which was okay) aired, I re-watched the first three seasons. I think this is the third or fourth time I've watched those seasons through. It's just complete and utter comedy gold. So when I came up with a Brady Bunch-esque arrangement of the Bluth family, I decided to depict them in their heyday before the fourth season. In this big family portrait, we've got:

George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) with his prisonmade yarmulke
Lucille (Jessica Walter) with her martini and not-so-subtle wink
Buster (Tony Hale)
Gob (Will Arnett) presumably in the midst of dancing to "The Final Countdown"
Michael (Jason Bateman)
Lindsay (Portia de Rossi)
Maeby (Alia Shawkat)
George Michael (Michael Cera) who is admiring Maeby
And last but not least, Tobias (David Cross) who just blue himself.

I had fun trying to use a limited color palette. I felt like it helped tie them all together.
The piece is now for sale at my Society6 Shop at http://society6.com/cameronklewis/Its-Arrested-Development-vP2_Print
It's available as a print from 8x8" all the way up to 28x28" It can also be purchased as a framed print as well as a stretched canvas print.

I've also recently uploaded some older work to the store. The pieces "Crash Landing" "Good Ol' Fashioned Revenge Story" "Space Oddity" and "Spectator's Sport" are now available as prints,
Check them all out at http://society6.com/cameronklewis

--CKL--

City Guide 2013

Here's a new piece I did for the Philadelphia City Paper's City Guide 2013. The City Guide is the City Paper's annual publication for introducing residents both old and new to a potentially richer experience in the City of Brotherly Love with venues, restaurants, neighborhoods, and events. You can peruse the entire issue at http://issuu.com/phillycp/docs/cityguide_2013
Art director Reseca Peskin contacted me with the idea of drawing Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Bridge along with the city skyline behind it.
I sketched up a couple of ideas that would fit the bridge and skyline into the cover's layout. Right from the start, I wanted to do my first sketch. Luckily, Reseca and the folks at the City Paper agreed and let me go for it.

Sketches

With the go-ahead, I started gathering a whole lot of reference images. Since this piece was specifically for people in Philadelphia, I was determined to get all of the details just right. I know I'd be peeved if someone got my hometown wrong, so I really didn't want to disappoint.

Detail - Skyline

Although I was initially a bit intimidated by the architectural aspects of the drawing (despite the genetic predisposition possibly passed on to me by my dad the architect) I ended up really enjoying inking this piece. I especially enjoyed it because I got through a whole bunch of episodes of This American Life.
In order to get that detail I wanted, I did the piece as two separate drawings. One was just the foreground with the bridge and its base and the other drawing was of the skyline, which I then shrunk down to the appropriate size in Photoshop. 
The issue just came out and I'm incredible happy with how it turned out.

Thanks to Reseca and the folks at the City Paper for a great gig!

--CKL--

Star Wars Sale!

So I'm in the process of moving from my apartment and wanted to clear out some of my old Star Wars ink drawings I did back in 2011.
Here are all of the pieces that are currently available.
Email me for details!

"Artoo" - 5x7" Framed - $40

"Threepio" - 5x7" Matted & Framed - $50

"Sidious" - 5x7" Framed - $40

"Shut Down All the Garbage Mashers on the Detention Level!" - 5x7" Framed - $40 

May the Force be with you!

--CKL--

Miami Mercenaries

Here are a set of three spot illustrations I did for the Miami New Times (they also appear in New Times Broward-Palm Beach) They accompanied a fascinating article (which I highly recommend that you read HERE) about the prevalence of private security companies in Florida. So many of these companies set up in the Sunshine State because of it's proximity to dangerous (aka profitable) countries like Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Art director Miche Ratto contacted me about the pieces, wanting three spots of specific "scenes" described in the article. Instead of full color spots, she suggested black and white line drawings, referencing the drawings that I did for Alex Fine's awesome Hairy Baltimore book back in 2011.

The first scene is of a training exercise that former British soldier and Miami-based mercenary Andrew "Orlando" Wilson ran with the Mexican military. Soldiers were submitted to simulated torture, being hung over a makeshift latrine and waterboarded.

The second references the expereiences of John Walbridge Jr, a Vietnam veteran. As a member of the Green Berets in Vietnam, his unit was known for ambushing POW camps and escorting rescued POWs across borders. Walbridge went on to found OSSI, a very successful private security company based in Miami.

The last image is of a mercenary soldier from Hamed Wardak's very controversial private security company NCL Holdings guarding a cargo truck in Afghanistan.
Although researching all of the weapons made me nervous that the NSA was going to crack down on me, I had a blast working on these drawings. Without having to think about color, I really let myself get invested in the drawing.

Thanks again for a great gig, Miche!

--CKL--

Better Than Goofy Golf

Here's a new piece called "Better Than Goofy Golf" that I did for the new show at the Bottleneck Gallery, Where Is My Mind?
I chose to do a piece based on Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind because, besides my Spielberg obsession, it's a marvelous movie and is a prime example of a director at his peak of ambition and creativity. 

Because it's such a visually iconic movie, I wanted to do one of those well-known moments while staying away from Devils Tower and the arrival of the Sky Harbor at the end. I wanted to show the initial moment in which the aliens make contact with Neary in his truck that sets off his obsession throughout the story.

What was especially fun for me was getting all of the details right in the truck. I found out (via the Internet Movie Cars Database) that Roy drives a 1975 Ford F-250 for his job at Indiana Dept. of Water & Power. I dove into research and found some great images of everything from the grill to the side mirrors to the chrome details on the side. Unlike most of my work, I did this one entirely in Photoshop. I'm not sure if that's a direction I'll stick with, as I just love inking too much, but I feel like it was a great exercise for me.
The show is running at the Bottleneck Gallery at 60 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11249 from Friday July 12th through the 26th.  A portion of the proceeds from the show will be donated to Teach For America. 
Work from the show is for sale online HERE

"Better Than Goofy Golf" is available as a 13x19" limited edition giclee print through the Bottleneck Gallery at http://www.bottleneckgallery.com/collections/where-is-my-mind/products/cameron-lewis-better-than-goofy-golf. 
Printed 300 gsm fine art rag.

--CKL--

The Boy Who Lived

Okay, it's finally done. Finito. It's a wrap. The Harry Potter franchise poster project is complete.
For some reason, this one for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has been the one that caused me the most trouble from the beginning. I don't know what it exactly is that's made it so difficult. Maybe it's that the main conflict/defining moment from the film, which is something I've generally focused on in the top section of these posters, is simply not that big of a deal in the film. Most of the running time is  spent introducing and building the world.
My first run at Sorcerer's Stone was based around the showdown between Harry and Quirrell/Voldemort in the chamber where the Mirror of Erised is kept. Although I liked the imagery of Lily and James Potter in the mirror and what that means to Harry, I felt everything surrounding it was a bit boring.

Snapshot of Harry and the Mirror of Erised on their own

So after abandoning that idea, I decided to focus on a different important moment: when Harry is sorted into Gryffindor by the Sorting Hat. It's in this moment that Harry's fate for the next seven years is essentially decided.
Rather than crowd the Great Hall scene with all of the students at their House tables or the professors at their table at the back wall, I made it so that Harry was like the only person in the world in that moment. I've loved the look of the Great Hall set from the very first film onwards and was very excited to draw it.

Detail - Harry and the Sorting Hat

With this one done, the complete series of posters has been compiled into one big image...all eight films from Sorcerer's Stone to Deathly Hallows Part 2! In this image, it's especially clear how Harry is growing up through each poster.

I'm terribly pleased with the way that the whole series has turned out. It was a great exercise in style as well as a commitment to an extended project. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this whole series!

--CKL--

2013 Writing Contest

Here's some work I did recently for the Philadelphia City Paper, who I always enjoy working with. This time, AD Reseca Peskin contacted me to do the cover as well as an illustration inside the issue for their annual Writing Contest issue. The winning fiction story, which you can read here, is about a woman who works as a casino card dealer. When her child dies, she and her husband take a trip to New Orleans to help get their mind off of their loss.
Reseca had the idea for the cover of a black voodoo pin, which is used to relieve pain, pushed through the suicide king playing card. As for the illustration inside the issue, she had the idea of an airplane made out of playing cards.
When I began sketching, I went through several variations just to push the ideas.

Cover sketches

Plane sketches

We wound up combining the normal king face and my more gruesome skull king into one and going with the plane covered in the elements from the card rather than made out of cards.
I had a great time working on both pieces in all of their great detail.

Final

Final

Thanks again to Reseca for a great gig!

--CKL--