Sad Day

You may have noticed that things have been rather quiet (dead) here for the last month. Well, this three-man blogging collective has decided that it's time to bring The Plundering to a close. Don't fret, as I'm sure the blog will be reincarnated one day, but for now, you can catch both Josh and Frank at their respective blogs, which happen to be on their websites: www.joshcochran.net and www.frankstockton.com.

As for me (Nathan), I have something different in the works which will hopefully be the spiritual successor to The Plundering. It's name? Ahem...

...The Blundering.

For our last post, we decided to take a fond look at a few of our favorite comments from the past year and a half:

(a quick note to those perusing the dusty archives, apologies for all the missing image links. My website files were accidently deleted and I was unable to recover some images.)

******

"Frank came out in Commarts? I admire your courage." - James, 2/21/06

"it would have been cool to see other art on the wall instead, its so typical of you to put your own drawing." - Soon Yi Kang, 2/26/06
To Josh about an illustration of a room with art on the wall

"Your work has more insight than the other two hacks who share this site." - Anonymous, 3/24/06
to Frank

"drop the buddy-system already." - Anonymous, 4/14/06
to Nathan and Frank about blogging with Josh

"...just cant wait to see what he does if he ever has to paint something. haha" - Anonymous, 4/20/06
to Josh

"Your drawings make me drink. Excellent." - Pasto, 9/13/06
to Frank

"Nathan posts on this site too??" - Ken, 2/21/06
sadly, there were a few of these...

******

Well folks, it's been emotional. Thanks for sticking with us.

Will Hung Lives On!

These are two posters I finished a while back. This first one is for a travel insurance company. The concept that they wanted to convey is sort of vague....but basically they wanted to show the cycle of a problem resolution. I had a couple of sketches that showed a "cycle". In the end, the client ended up picking the easier solution. I drew myself in here somewhere with Nathan's patented Will Hung pose :)

I should also mention that this image was originally an idea for a personal piece which I sold recently at a group show here in LA. I'm not sure if that's considered cheating...but oh well.



This is for a "No Smoking" campaign. I'm not sure if anyone has seen the film "Thank You For Smoking"...but this is a similar idea, to stop smoking product placements in Hollywood films. I sent the agency that first idea and they sort of changed the colors around to come up with the blue (faux printed) version at the bottom.

Death in the Parks

I've been working on an awesome project for Outside Magazine the last couple of weeks.




The assignment was about different ways in which people have lost their lives in our National Parks over the years.

I worked closely with the art director and the editors to make the pieces upbeat in order to contrast dark subject-matter.

The art director I worked with had a "comic" theme in mind for the pieces, which immediately made me think of the old EC Comics stuff from the 50's like Tales from the Crypt.


These three images are from the first story which will print on three separate spreads. Two more single-page stories will run when the article comes out as well. I'll keep you posted when the issue is on newsstands.


Speaking of which, the 6 pieces I did for Esquire a couple of months ago have finally hit the stands. If you get a chance, pick up the magazine--they really look fantastic thanks to the designers totally kicking ass on it.


thanks!

Frank

Bug

Happy Monday,

Over the last couple of weeks I've been fortunate enough to get some tonally varied assignments. I love the challenge of switching gears from piece to piece once in a while.

Last week I got a call from Colin Tunstall at Esquire asking if I was available to do an illustration for a review of William Friedkin's Bug. The review was about the up-and-coming actor Michael Shannon's intense and frightening performance.

I tried to communicate this in the sketch and then on the final, implementing more texture than I usually do and compositionally trying to create the sense of anxiety that I got from watching the trailer, which you can view here.




In other news, the new issue of Swallow just hit stores (finally). Be sure to look both ways before running across the street to get it.
thanks for reading,

Frank Stockton

Red Envelopes

[click image to enlarge]

It's always nice to buckle down and write some comics, especially since it's hard to make time for it these days. Much thanks to Brian Rea and Sam Weber at the New York Times OpEd for providing a financial reason to put aside illustration for a bit and make some comics (twice!).

Oddly enough, this month looks like the month of comics for me. I'm currently writing a comic for an Italian magazine, the upcoming Meathaus publication (which will feature comics by Frank Stockton as well) and possibly another anthology if I have enough time. I hope somebody somewhere enjoys these stories.

******

Here's an illustration of performer Allen Johnson that I did for The Stranger over the weekend.


Speaking of The Stranger and live performances, Josh and I both got to see editor Dan Savage perform along with Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, and Ira Glass at the LA stop of the This American Life tour. It was awesome. If anyone has Showtime and can record the premiere of This American Life next week, I want to be your friend.

Made in China

Hello! I just got these new tote bags in from China. Mark Miller and I were both asked to created seperate series for The Outfit. (Mark is a genius. We went to school together) I actually had one more design but it was sort of weak and didn't make the cut.



I approached this project really in the same way I do my silkscreens. Everything was mostly hand-drawn. Layers were created in Photoshop and the files were sent off along with specific Pantone colors to the silkscreeners overseas. We went back and forth a bit....initially they had a hard time matching the transparency of my colors but eventually, everything got worked out. The Outfit took the samples and went to various tradeshows here in the States...including a really big one in Las Vegas where a lot of different boutiques, and larger stores (including Urban Outfitters and various MOMA's) placed orders.



Patterned lining as well as pockets on the inside...



These will probably retail for around $28 or so...I heard the first run of 1500 are already sold out. But those of you here in LA can catch the launch party March 17th. Might be fun. More info here


p.s.
Those of you wondering what a tote IS..

It can carry:

1. Groceries
2. Books
3. Paintbrush
4. Sandwich