Links!

I finally put some links into the sidebar of this blog. I split them up into three sections: 1) Homies - other friends of mine who are illustrators, including some of my classmates from the Pratt illustration program. Making this list made me realize that I need to create an updated links page on my comics site so that I can list all of the AWESOME cartoonists I know, which would be a list THREE times as long as this one. 2) Leaders - these are contemporary illustrators, whose work I admire the most. 3) The Greats - in my opinion, these are some of the greatest illustrators who ever lived!

If you see some unfamiliar names on there, please follow the links, they are all highly recommended!

2010

Here is an illustration I drew for the archive of 2010 blog posts on my personal site. I create one of these each year, and with each one I try to visually show what is in store for the upcoming year. Well, in 2010 I'm pretty excited about Pinball (though astute followers of the silver ball should immediately notice something wrong with this playfield design) and I'm going to be working pretty hard on my personal life, as well my professional life.
I thought this post was going to be all about how I'm trying to stay focused on comics this year, so I can finish up the next chapter of Basewood. I thought there wouldn't be many illustrations coming out of me this year, but a few 2010 illustration projects have already reared their heads, so I guess I'll be posting some stuff on here after all!

Swim Team T-Shirt

I recently designed this 3-color t-shirt for a swim team that my Cousin coaches. They are making a trip down to Florida for some intensive training, so I thought it would be good to have a 'gator gag.

AlecLongstreth.com redesign!

Well, after many weeks of toil, I am finally ready to reveal my totally redesigned illustration portfolio website! For those of you actually viewing this blog at its URL, you can just hit some of the new navigation links at the top of the page, and for those of you reading this from an RSS reader, just follow this link!

When I first sat down to redesign the site, I was having trouble trying to figure out what image I wanted to use for homepage. I wanted it to really reflect me and the kind of illustrations I want to be doing. Luckily, I remembered an old piece of advice that Aaron always used to tell the CCS summer workshop students: "you have to draw what you LOVE!" And well, I love drawing wizards and dragons and tree forts. So I cast myself as the wizard and then tried to fill my imaginary tree fort with as many personally meaningful objects as I could, so the space would reflect me. I really like how the image came out, and I don't think there is anyone else on earth (besides me) who could fully understand what every object in the drawing means to me.
Anyway, if you have a minute, take a lap around the new site and please let me know if you find any bugs! ALSO: a huge thanks (as usual) to Nate Beaty for some last minute help tightening up my coding!

Microcosm Publishing 2010 Catalog - Spot Illustrations

As promised, here are the spot illustrations that I did for the upcoming 2010 Microcosm Publishing Catalog. Again, these feature characters from the Isle of Elsi book I'm working on. If you're curious, you can check out their first story over at Dark Horse Presents. The first spot shows Draziw the Wizard making some zines with his wand. If only it was that easy!

Next we have Nogard the Dragon and R.J. Jr. delivering some zines!

And lastly, for good measure, some of the 'ites (as I call them - actually Stalagmites and Stalactites) mailing off a letter. It looks like some zinesters had their way with that mail box!

This one isn't actually going to make it into the catalog, but I thought I'd post it just the same. It depicts one of the wolves giving a ROCK show for all the 'ites. ;)

I'm almost done wrapping up a big illustration project, which I will post on here as soon as it's done. There's more on the way!