www.dannyzabbal.com

The Book

I’m hard at work oscillating between Journey in the 6th Dimension and this as-of-yet unnamed short story book. When you hop back and forth you start to discover strange things about your work habits. For example, I spend as much time on a full comic page as I do on one tiny illustration. That’s not necessarily surprising, though when I hold them up side-by-side I can’t see the discrepancy in hours

In any case, everything is chugging along smoothly.

Below is an illustration for one of the sample chapters Etan and I agreed on. We thought we’d start with Eugene Linder-Flowman, I think mostly because he strikes the right balance of the mundane and fantastic. This, as you can probably tell, is one of the more exciting images the story evokes. I enjoy the composition, although frankly I’m not too sure if I’ve pushed it too far and weather or not the coloring is appropriate. Experimentation will answer all questions, great and small. If I learned anything from concept art, you never nail it on the first try.

Still, I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have so please let me know.

Nick Derington

Boy I tell you, I really like this guy’s work. Everything is so solid and confident, and his subject matter rides the a subtle wave of abstraction.  Peruse his flickr set and you’ll definitely agree. Also, make sure you drop by his website www.nickderington.com. You can scope out some his previous work and, if you’re as intrepid as I think you are, go and buy some of his books. I say, festoon your walls and shelves with his art, because it’s super-cool.

Gabriel Silveira

He’s a man who hails from São Paulo, Brasil (where my grandma was born). More importantly he’s a man who’s illustration is a compelling combination of clean drawing technique and very sharp design.  Despite inability to speak Portuguese, I understand his language. His work is clean and crisp, and his subject is always expressive and energetic. Still, a lot of his work has a subtly aged finish to it, a veneer bends the character of his work away from the wacky and towards the appealing.

Make sure you check out his flickr gallery as well as his portfolio site. The portfolio is in Portuguese, so you’ll have to click on Trabalhos (Works) to access his material.

The Book

When I was a boy there was a kid in my fourth grade class called Gavin. I don’t remember his last name, but I remember we were pretty good friends. We’d hang out on the weekends, play video games, and go to each other’s respective birthday parties. When I turned ten he got me an educational hydroponic science kit. He was a good friend, I suppose, but he had this one quirk that I never understood. This bizarre affectation that, since then, has mutated and been absorbed into my character.

Whenever Gavin didn’t have anything interesting to say, whevener there was a brief silence, he’d put on a scottish accent and yell, in his best early ninties rap-rhythm, “Yo DJ, spin that orange!”

I never understood what exactly it meant. Never. So great was my incomprehension that I came to adopt it as my own anthem for non-sequiturs. Anytime I see something that’s disjointed, or doesn’t seem to fit with my worldview, my inner-monologue slyly whispers, “Yo DJ, spin that orange.”

I said it today when I took a long look at this drawing. It makes sense, in the context of the book, but outside of that I would have never guessed that I’d drawn it.

MUTO by BLU

A favorite of mine. I’m sure the majority of you have seen it, but for those who haven’t, enjoy.

Visit BLU’s site: http://www.blublu.org/