Art show at Cherry Sprout!

"J. Titus Bloemkamp and his trusty sidekick Mr. Marvelous first met on the transoceanic ship, the "Bellerophon," where they spent a choppy winter stowing away below decks beneath sacks of potatoes . . ."

Come out to Cherry Sprout to see the opening of my new show "Family Portraits" featuring work from the last year as well as stories by myself and Aaron Greyson of San Diego.

This event is in conjunction with Cherry Sprout's "Celebration of Love" in the park next door featuring the musical stylings of

The J.E. Love Company
The Original Duke of Hominy
Alan Singley
Pillow Fight
Larry Yes and the Tangled Mess
and Blake the Singing Sensation.

Music, art, sun, fruit, drinks, and anthropomorphized characters. What more could you want?

Cherry Sprout is located at 722 N. Sumner St., Portland, OR 97217. Right off Albina between N. Killingsworth and N. Alberta St.

Cafe Amor

These two gentlemen were actually sitting on opposite sides of the coffee shop I was at, but I thought they should meet in a drawing. Now they're in love.

Askewed Likenesses

And another one from last week's session. I wish this pose had lasted longer because I really would have liked to render it further. Sometimes 25 minutes can really race by. This model had a really interesting face so I focused more attention on trying to get her features right, but I don't think I quite got it. It definitely looks like somebody, but who? Suggestions are welcome in the comments section.

Foreshortened

Last week I finally made it back to PNCA for the last Wednesday night figure drawing session. I was about an hour late, so I didn't get to warm up with the short poses, but I eventually got into a groove. Here's one of the ones that I don't mind showing to you.



I realized that I love doing drawings of people in foreshortened angles and contorted poses. It just makes for a much more interesting composition and even hints of a narrative.

Dangerous Art Show

I helped Stephanie put together this flyer for a group art show we're putting on at the Emerson Space Case. We're looking for all kinds of art so please submit if you can! If you live in a different city there's still plenty of time to mail your art to us. Inquire for address via email please.

For more information as to WHY? we're putting a Michael Jackson inspired art show check out the Emerson Space Case blog.

ALSO there's a few new things to share with you. A Sketch A Day is now more technologically friendly! It has been optimized for maximum viewing on the mobile device of your choice, and it now has it's very own facebook page. Search for "A Sketch A Day: Art by Ilan Schraer" on facebook or click the LIKE button in the column to the right of the screen! I'll be posting updates, photos, and links to all the projects I'm working on right now, as well as links to other cool art blogs and things of interest.

Ezra Part Deux

I was so bummed about losing my original drawing of this in my last sketch book that I decided to do a new one. Again, this is my late grandfather Ezra Masliah, now in technicolor!

Uncle Arnold

Here's a portrait of my Uncle Arnold from a picture that was probably taken in the mid-80s. He was an awesome painter and ceramicist, and sadly was lost to skin cancer about 20 years ago. Although I was very young at the time, I have fond memories of visiting his art studio/converted warehouse in Berkeley,CA and seeing his art. His work was gestural and figurative, serious and funny at the same time, and I still think of him as an inspirational figure in my life and in my work. He's missed by many.

Just a sketch

Here is one of the ideas I had for my book cover before I decided to do the whole thing on the computer. It was fun but it's a bit crowded and hard to get a clean drawing with colored pencils. This'll be the last one of these you see for a while.

Book Cover #2

This was actually my first design for the book cover, but it felt more like a poster than a book illustration and the class liked the other one better. So there you go. I debated for a long time whether to keep it like this or more simple like the one below.

20,000 Illustrations Under the Sea

I recently finished an illustration fundamentals course taught at PNCA by local artist Ryan Bubnis. We were given many options for our final project and after much deliberation I decided to go with designing a cover for a classic novel. Curiously I decided to do 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. Curious because I've never read the book. I decided that this was to my advantage, recalling Eastern European film posters for American movies that I've seen. You know, the ones where it's obvious that the artist has never seen the film? These often yield spectacular results, so I thought the same could be true for mine.

Part of my reason for taking this class was to push myself to think about art and illustration in different ways. To get out of my comfort zone a bit. Having always loved the simplicity of mid-century book covers I decided that I wanted to take a stab at it for myself. This really forced me to boil down the plot of the book to it's core elements, and play with those to maximum effect. Below is my final piece:



There are a few different incarnations that I'll post in the coming days, but ultimately this is the design I settled on. If I had more time I would have liked to play around with rendering it in more traditional media, but for now this is what I have. What do you guys think? Would YOU buy this book?