Blog update

I'm now blogging at johnwtomac.com/blog Please update your bookmarks. I look forward to seeing you at the new site.

Attention ETF Shoppers

Here’s another quick-turnaround, spot illustration for Barron’s. This week the subject is Exchange Traded Funds. This particular story looks at one research firm’s evaluation system that may take away the guesswork out of choosing an ETF based on certain objectives.

Strong Like Bull

I survived the move to Bay Ridge and I'm happy to have a handful of projects to keep me busy as I settle into the new studio. It definitely beats hauling furniture and boxes up and down flights of stairs. Here's the first of those projects to see the light of day, a spot illo for Barron's. It ran with a semi-annual feature on Zacks Investment Research's ranking of stock pickers. Right now, everyone looks like a hero thanks to the nearly two-year old bull market. The full story is here.

Movin' Out

After three years in Park Slope, the wife and I are moving a few miles down Fourth Ave to Bay Ridge.

While we are getting settled, I will be unavailable for commissions with shorter deadlines until Wed., Jan. 19.

Until then, the best way to get in touch with me is via e-mail at john@johnwtomac.com. I can also be reached on my cell phone, (607) 280-7016.

Thanks for your understanding. I look forward to working with you soon.

The Road to the Super Bowl

With the NFL Playoffs starting this weekend, this seems like a good time to share a recently completed project for the Dallas Observer

In early December, I was contacted by the alt weekly's extremely talented, art director Alexander Flores. He had an idea for a pin-up and art deco-inspired image for both a rack card and cover for a special guide being produced for "The Big Game" coming to town in February. He had just received on of my postcards and thought I'd be perfect for the job.

Alexander was kind enough to pass along a few images for inspiration, like this, this and this, as well as a thumbnail sketch, seen below.

I proceeded to a tighter version...

...which was tweaked a little more before heading on to the final.

This was a fun project to work on and at times it felt like Alex and I were thinking with the same brain. I hope to have the pleasure of working with him again.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of football, one more thing.

Happy Holidays

Here's this year's Christmas card, created for the most demanding of clients, my wonderful wife.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Moving Forward

Perhaps the most intimidating words an art director can mutter are "do whatever you want".

Doing whatever you want is pretty much the opposite of what illustration is. Sure there are varying degrees of freedom on any assignment, but usually there is a story or product or service that plays a role in determining, at least to some degree, what the art is going to be.

So I was a little nervous when Darren DiLieto asked me to create some artwork for his site, Hire An Illustrator, and told me I had free reign to do whatever I felt like. Unlike personal work, this was actually going to be seen by people and used. There would be no burying it if it was a total disaster.

At the same time, its also really cool to have someone put their faith in you to create whatever you want, knowing that the results will be good. So the fear subsided and excitement took over.

I picked up my sketchbook and returned to some earlier, half developed ideas that I had on how the future sucked. How we lacked all the wonderful things promised by Popular Mechanics and assorted futurists in the 1950s. The sort of things I had come up with while working on this. The jet pack seemed to be one of those things that never materialized. How nice it would be to fly into Manhattan from Brooklyn without sitting in traffic or waiting for the train like the some 19th Century man. It's 2010 we should have jet packs by now. That thinking inspired the sketch that turned into the image above.

Of course as I finished this up, I saw this. Maybe there's hope for the future after all.