Magnify

If there's anyone who will be under a magnifying glass this NFL season, it's Michael Vick. This illo is for Associated Press's annual NFL Preview page. Our original concept was to have the eagles tearing Vick apart (saying basically nature hates him) but we changed it up a bit to give the guy a chance.

Another fun little note is this illo was completed in just one afternoon (about five hours). Its far from perfect in my eyes, but anyone who's in the business knows sometimes you need to make things work in the time your given. Ironically these type of gigs are usually the most fun and I wouldn't want it any other way.

More moleskin sketches

Lately I've been pushing myself to do 20-30 minute drawing exercises in my pocket moleskin sketchbook just for kicks. The sketches aren't planned, I just put the pen to paper and see what happens. No erasing either... if I make a mistake part of the challenge is to work right through it. Of course what usually results is series of comical what-have-yous from within the surf fishing culture. Here are a few creations below:
(ARTIST NOTE: Disappearing Rod was linked to illustrationfriday blog for the subject "Caution". Enjoy fellow artists)

Glow Sticks
If you fish Montauk Lighthouse at night, you'll know immediately what this is all about. If you don't, listen carefully: Bass DO NOT need glowsticks on your line to see you your lures at night. They hunt by movement and silhouettes. Any given night you'll see dozens of these glowsticks casting through the air. I imagine when a school of bass swim around the point, they take stories of UFO's and strange happenings with them all the way down to their southern relatives at the spawning grounds.


Snags
We've all been there before... late at night, your buddy says he gets a monster hit, lifts his rod and he's snagged on a rock. Usually the joking begins and he'll hear about the said experience the rest of the night, or recieve a comic illustrating his experience the next week just to keep him honest. The victim will ALWAYS stick to his story though, swearing it was a trophy bass. Maybe he is right... and just maybe, it was the fish's plan all along.


The "disappearing" rod trick
This is a common thing in New Jersey during the warm summer nights. A fisherman drags his gear out deep into the twilight, baits his rod with a nice chunk of fresh bunker, casts his rig out, and rests his rod in a sand spike near the waters edge. He turns away and continues the same ritual with his second rod a bit further down the beach. Suddenly his other setup unknowlingly rockets out of the sandspike and disappears into the rolling surf. The next morning you may find this fisherman at your local tackle store telling stories of world record stripers ripping surf rods out of the ground like godzilla but truth behold, there's a 99 percent chance a brown shark caught him sleeping. They take the rods to their winter grounds where they show off and laugh hysterically. Seriously.