(M)ad Man

I feel like I'm touting AMC's original shows a bit much now that I've done a Breaking Bad piece as well as this new Mad Men piece. Still, the fact is that they are two of the most well-crafted shows on television. In fact, both won at the Emmys last night, with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul winning for their performances on Breaking Bad and Mad Men winning Writing and Dramatic Series.
With season 4 of Mad Men in full swing, I felt like taking a stab at a portrait of the man himself, Don Draper. Throughout the series, Draper has always been steadfast and confident, an enigma at his workplace. However, season 4 has shown the slight cracks in his facade as his family dissolves and his lifestyle catches up to him, something which was especially evident in last night's episode Waldorf Stories.
I wanted to show this version of Draper, alone and at the office after hours because there's no real home to go back to.It turns out Jon Hamm is really tough to draw. It seemed to be about lining up the features just right between the ridiculously good hair and the uber-masculine jawline.
After some struggling, I got what felt like the right fit. In wanting to show the weaker side of Draper, I also decided to show the stubble grown out a bit, his tie loosened, and wrinkles in his shirt. I feel like its really like letting his guard down now that's alone.When it came time to color, I fooled around with different color schemes for a while before settling on a palette that was softer and reminiscent of the 60s. Like my previous Predators piece, I decided to try out a very strong key light on one side of the face. When I was starting this, I took reference photos of myself and also looked at pictures from Scorsese's Shutter Island, because of its super dramatic lighting.I also began experimenting with more gradients and blurs, which is normally something I shy away from in fear that its over-Photoshopped. But I'm very pleased with the way they worked and how the gradients create a sort of film noir slice of light across Draper's face.Overall, this piece ended up being a real success for me in terms of experimentation and trying to capture a likeness.
Now for something completely different, I am working on an image for an album cover with knights and a dragon!

--CKL--

The Guns of August

I've recently begun doing banners for the Capital New York, an online publication which is still in its beta phase. Capital New York was co-founded by former New York Observer editor Tom McGeveran.
What's great about Capital New York, apart from just really solid writing, is Tom's goal to include illustration as an integral part of the site, which includes a new banner every week. Other artists to create banners have been Steve Broder (one of my illustration idols) and Alex Citrin. My first banner was a portrait of M.I.A. during her controversial performance at Governor's Island, where sound problems caused her to throw her mic at the sound crew and spit at cameras before a huge downpour started.
This time around, Tom wanted to cover the theme of "the Guns of August" meaning all of the big, flip outs that have happened lately, which includes JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, David Dinkins flipping the bird, and K Rod assaulting his father-in-law as well as the giant police shoot out in Harlem.
Part of the challenge with these banners is creating an image within such a specific format (708x145 pixels) as well as designing the image to fit nicely with the layout of the Capital New York site. With the sketches, I tried to include all of the subjects in the same melee, as though this were some kind of conspiracy of ridiculous behavior. I also really wanted to include the text "The Guns of August" because it just seems so ominous and cinematic.Both Tom and I really liked the first sketch. I was jumping at the opportunity to do such dramatic poses as well as the detail of the Harlem buildings in the background. Although we opted to change the poses of the three central characters as to not imply that they were all fighting each other.After we agreed on this composition, I went ahead with the drawing. Because of the size of the banner I did nearly the entire drawing with a Micron pen rather than my usual brush to preserve as much detail as possible.From the beginning of the drawing, I already had a color palette in mind. In looking up reference photos of K Rod, I really enjoyed the colors of the Mets jerseys (maybe because of the similarity to that of the Detroit Tigers) and I figured that they could extend to the entire image, including Slater's JetBlue uniform.I'm very happy with the piece and how well the colors ended up working. I'm especially happy with how nicely it fits into the top of the Capital New York site.I always have a blast working with Tom and Capital New York and certainly look forward to the opportunity again!
Stay tuned as I'm working on a couple of new pieces that I'm very excited to show.

--CKL--

Predators

First off, apologies for the lapse in posting. I recently just moved into a new apartment out here in Brooklyn and have been busy setting everything up along with entertaining guests for a couple of weeks.I also just redesigned my portfolio, as the previous version was over a year old and I didn't feel as though the black background was right for the images. So I did a total overhaul on that.
Finally, I'm getting around to some personal pieces. This first one is based on the new Predators movie, directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez. The original Predator from 1987 is one of my favorite action movies of all time and was subsequently ruined by the awful sequel and the ridiculous AVP films. So this new film felt like a return to form. (Watch the trailer)
With this piece, I wanted to focus on the two main characters hunted by the predators, played by Adrien Brody and Alice Braga, because we all know the formula in these films: whole bunch of characters get picked off one by one until the big showdown. With these two characters being military-based, I wanted to take the opportunity to draw the heavy duty guns they carry.Since the illustration is based on a film, I decided to take a cinematic approach to the lighting and color. I recently read Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Catwoman: When In Rome and was amazed by how cinematic every frame was. Tim Sale's work has always emulated a film noir feel, especially when paired with Loeb's gangster-themed stories for Batman. Taking a cue from Sale, I threw a super-strong key light on the left side of the frame, blowing out the linework along Brody's face. To counter this, I made the glow from the predator's targeting lasers create a red glow on the characters.Here is just the colors. I'm tremendously happy with the red reflected in the scope of the sniper rifle. It has a nice pop among all the washed greens and browns surrounding it.I'm very satisfied with the way this turned out. This piece felt very experimental with some new techniques in the lighting and washes in the background. I also had a blast figuring out the pixelated-style camouflage the army uses now for the monstrous gun in the foreground.There will be more pieces on here as well as my site in the coming weeks.
Also, go see Predators for some good ol' bloody violent fun.

--CKL--

Website Redesign

Hey all-
Just posting real quick to let you know that I just re-designed my online portfolio.
Be sure to check it out at
www.cameronklewis.com

I have a couple of new works that should be up soon.

--CKL--

The Least of Creatures-Arrow

So...I play music. Well, kind of. Slowly getting more comfortable with people hearing it.
I used to play drums. And then I moved away to college and tried guitar out. At the time, I was at the height of my immersion into country and folk with near-constant listening of Josh Ritter's Animal Years and Ryan Adams and the Cardinals' Jacksonville City Nights.
My tastes have definitely changed over time, though both of those albums are still very near and dear to me, and I think (and hope) that I've gotten to be a better musician.
This past year I started a band/group/casual musical venture thing with my very talented friend, Ari. We go by Swanfleet Imbroglia (Swanfleet being my nerdy titular contribution as it is an Elvish river in Middle Earth) At the moment, we're on a brief hiatus as she just graduated and is uber-busy filming and doing some theatre. Although this sucks, it sort of works out all right because it gives me an opportunity to do the weirder, heavier and more electronic things that I've been wanting to screw around with that just wouldn't make sense with the style of the Swanfleet songs.
Therefore, the Least of Creatures is born ("The least of creatures" comes from Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West) because going by just my name would weird me out.
The tradition with the last few Swanfleet songs was to edit vintage cartoons or educational films into music videos to accompany the song. In not wanting to do the exact same thing with the Least of Creatures, I decided to try animation out, as it's quickly becoming a serious artistic interest.
The first song is "Arrow" and I really had no idea what images would directly accompany the song rhythmically and still stand alone as moving image. I eventually decided to make it almost entirely type based with the lyrics and a huge homage to the great Saul Bass and his legendary title sequences, primarily for Otto Preminger.I worked on the images off and on for about two weeks before bringing it into Final Cut Pro to assemble.I'm very pleased with the results. I think the imagery is very simple and strong and the limited color scheme doesn't distract. So if you like the song, great. If you just like the image, great. If you like both, super-great!

Arrow from The Least of Creatures on Vimeo.

There is definitely more on the way so keep a look out.
You can follow The Least of Creatures on Twitter @leastcreatures

--CKL--

Space Oddity

After making Jim Cookie, I was still in a Star Wars/THX1138-induced fever of wanting to do space-themed images. So while I was working on another image that may or may not pop up on here one day, I came up with something about the first chimp shot into space (in 1961) named Ham.
I found some fantastic photos of Ham with his trainers and closely modeled parts of my image after them. I still managed to mix in some small doses of Jim Cookie with the Luke Skywalker influenced orange jumpsuit.After a marathon inking watching A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back, I brought the piece into Photoshop, where I moved his eyes so they would look more directly at his captors.
To make arms holding him down more ambiguously alien, I colored them all blue, an obvious contrast to the bright orange jumpsuit.I had a lot of fun playing around with the color and getting in close with all of the little details on the patches, screws and wires.. I think it wound up a fantastic finished piece, especially considering how fast it came together.
Until next time.

--CKL--

Society of Illustrators

The opening reception for the Student Scholarship Competition at the Society of Illustrators was tonight. 195 pieces were on display through two galleries at the Society and represented 46 schools from across the country. There was a tremendous variety of work, all of which was extremely unique and very inspiring. My piece based on Family Band was selected. I had done this piece back in either December or January after receiving a free copy of Family Band's Blessed EP and really digging the mysterious/ominous folk they were creating.
The piece was essentially about the music being a sort of death throe that acts like a beacon, or a sort of particular tone that's only audible to more sinister creatures, i.e. vultures. Getting reference for the vultures was fun, but pretty disturbing. They're unusually ugly/scary birds. But it was still obviously fun to draw them. And I just really like drawing guitars.
The show will be on display at the Society through May 29th. I highly advise going to check it out (128 East 63rd Street) There is some really incredible work on display with some fantastic unique and individual voices. This is the future of illustration, folks. And it's looking good.
All photos by Bryan Dechart. Check out his photography here.