View from the Zoo

These illustrations certainly made me think twice before biting down on my gummi bears. Who would have thought that a balloon dog and a candy bear would have insides other than sugar and air? Illustrator Jason Freeny obviously had some prize winning ideas. These ads for BrainOBrain Jumeira, picked up the grand prix award in the outdoor advertising category at the Dubai Lynx 2009 advertising festival. Jason kindly answered a few questions:

Q: Who is Jason Freeny?
A: I am a 38 year old designer with two kids living in and around New York City.

Q: What inspired you to do the anatomical series? What were you thinking?
A: Anatomical series began with the idea for the balloon dog. I had used the balloon dog in another illustration and decided I wanted to see what it would look like if it were a real living creature. Most of my work starts that way… «What would it look like if…?»

Q: How long did it take to complete the images?
A: The balloon dog took me almost a month to construct and complete. I can usually only work at night so this plays a role in the long process. If I had attacked it as a regular 40hr a week job it would have taken a little more then 2 weeks. I have sped the process more and more with each illustration seeing as I now know what I am doing.

Q: What were the reactions to the illustrations?
A: The reactions were quite unexpected but very welcome. I have been an artist for almost 20 years now and it wasn’t until a year or two ago when these works began bringing attention to my stuff. The fact that people love these so much really brings me joy.

Q: Can we buy the images?
A: I sell prints from my website. The early works are an unlimited edition but I have begun creating limited runs on some of my new works. I am testing the market…

Q: Any future projects that you would like to mention?
A: I have many toys in the works but only 1 or 2 I am allowed to speak about openly at this moment. I recently teamed up with Toy2r to produce a limited edition anatomy toy of their iconic Qee figure. This is an honor for me seeing it was the Qee and designer vinyl that really influenced a lot of my newer work. The Qee is slated for a 2010 release. We are also working on a production run of my BBQee sculpture… I have a spread in the upcomming premiere issue of WIRED UK out on April 1st and will be participating in a contemporary illustration book out this July published by Harper Collins. I look forward to many more collaborations in the future.

Q: Anything that you would like to comment on?
A: To this day I have only participated in one public gallery showing. I have been rejected or overlooked by every gallery I have submitted to yet my work has become quite popular virally. This does not upset me, but brings up the question of the stigma that digital art still has to this day of its relivance in the art world. Is it art YET?

Thanks, Jason!

I buy a lot of books about illustrators and illustration. While there are really good books out there about the more popular illustrators, I also love to look at self published books by artists that I admire and that inspire me. Nowadays with the possibility of inexpensive one-off printing it is possible to share one’s work with friends, clients and other artists which is exactly what Rob Dunlavey has done with his two volumes of characters and designs, that I happily purchased at lulu.com.

«The two portfolios that you are referring to (that you proudly own) grew out of my intensive sketchbook habits. By working regularly and somewhat obsessively in sketchbooks, I aim to capture fleeting ideas that can really only find life through working with materials » Rob explained. «This is a very interesting time to be an illustrator because of the way the Internet has infiltrated all levels of our business. There are so many different avenues for self-promotion to explore. One of these avenues is the application of imagery to various types of objects and self-publishing. The self-published portfolios grew out of developing portfolios on issuu.com. As a person who loves actual books and magazines and who imagines his imagery functioning most happily in that realm (as opposed to a completely screen-based experience), issuu is a great simulation. Anyway, it was an easy task to slightly reconfigure the issuu pdfs for publishing on other systems such as lulu and blurb.»

Rob is a prolific artist. His latest series of drawings revolve around these three themes which can be seen on flickr:  Crystal Cities, Owl and the Tern: A Love Story, and Things with Wheels. Check out our two-part interview with Rob here and here.

Egads! Medieval penguins! For Illustration Friday’s theme of «legendary» I dresssed up my favorite couple for the occasion.

Ice fishing season is slowing down and I’m dreaming of summer already. To tide me over, I found this ad (which doubles as a poster) in the latest Communication Arts magazine by Colle+McVoy in Minneapolis. Created for Takemefishing.org to encourage kids to check out the site, they hooked this illlustrator, too. Just to show you that you never know what you can reel in.
Derek Till, art director; Tim Blevins, writer; Mike Caguin, creative director; Aesthetic Apparatus, illustrator; Chris Peters, art producer. Via Communication Arts.