Who needs life-drawing sessions when you can just jump on a subway platform and draw the performers (while listening to sometimes decent music)? One of my new favorite things is to spend a weekend evening finding great performers to sketch. You lean against a support beam with your sketchbook propped in your arm. After a few minutes, the performer notices you there, but keeps playing. You see people tip him, hover around you, dart their eyes from your page to him.

But the greatest moment of tranquility is when a train speeds by. It stops at your platform. Everyone boards it. It leaves. And the only two people left are you and him. And his music fills the space, echoing down the halls where bodies used to be. It’s like having a private show. But its more of a dialogue. A conversation.

People come down the stairs and it repeats itself. And before you finish up and hop on a train, you go in to tip him. Sometimes he’ll ask to see what you drew. Sometimes he’ll even stop playing to see what you drew. But everytime you’ll get a genuine smile, or a nod of appreciation, and you’re off to the next platform to do it again.

PS. Bring small bills.

April 30

Joss Fury, Director of The Avengers Intiative

The Avengers comes out this weekend! I’m very excited, and I think it’s going to do extremely well. Joss Whedon needs to get his due, and the Avengers will hopefully be a career moment for him. Nick Fury is not the Director of SHIELD as far as I’m concerned; the leader of earth’s mightiest heroes is Joss Whedon.

April 22

The sketchbook I’m keeping has a dual purpose of being a journal. I love maximalist design, making use of every little space on the page. Text is an incredibly simple way to achieve that. Every time someone wants to look through my sketchbook, I’m embarrassed by the writing I have in it. A solution is to make the text small, scrunched next together, and sentences are cut in half by the art so it can’t be read straight through. So if you are really inclined to read it, you’re going to have to try very, very hard. If not, then, well, at least the pictures are pretty.

April 2

March 26

I’ve decided to make these Mad Men comics into prints, and would like to kick off the announcement with a giveaway! They will be printed on 11”x17” paper, full color of course! Here’s how you can enter to one of these covers as a print:

A) Copy and paste this link into your browser, and Retweet it from your twitter account.
https://twitter.com/#!/jeremywins/status/184277947925012480
B) Copy and paste this link into your browser and Reblog it from your tumblr account.
http://jeremywinslife.tumblr.com/post/19952799157/ive-decided-to-make-these-mad-men-comics-into

Conditions

Entrants may do both (A) and (B) to increase their chances of winning. Limit 1 print per entrant.
Any retweets or reblogs of previous posts (from March 20th) are not eligible. Entrants are encouraged to retweet or reblog the above link.
Winners will have their choice of print, starting with first place to third.
Winners must provide a United States address. Applicants may be US or non-US residents, but I will only be shipping to a US address.
The last day to enter is Sunday, April 15th!

Thanks for the responses I’ve gotten for these already! If you’d like to see the images larger, visit them here. Did any of you catch last night’s premiere? It was one of the funniest episodes of Mad Men I’ve ever seen and I can’t stop laughing at Roger’s impression of Megan back at the offices. We’re getting into some sitcom territory with his scene with Harry as well. Too funny, I love it.

March 20

Mad Men March Madness!

Mad Men will be here in less than a week! And it has been off the air for 18 months. Man, am I glad to see it return. I’m a huge fan of the show, the time period, and wanted to somehow celebrate how entertained I am by the series. I have a love for the golden age of comics. Sometimes I wish I was a freelance comic book artist in that era, when comics were new, exciting, and uniquely part of being American. Romance comics were in fact hugely popular in those days, easily surpassing sales of superhero comics. And at some point, they dropped off, were replaced by horror, war, and other genres eventually.

I love the women of Mad Men a lot. Their clothes are amazing and they all look stunningly perfect in every frame. This is a total excuse to draw some of Don’s romances in seasons 3 and 4. In a lot of articles, people tend to talk (or remember) the iconic scenes of season 1 and 2. The smoking of cigarettes, drinking of alcohol, womanizing, subtle racisms, the Belle Jolie campaign etc. But S. 3 and 4 are hardly on people’s memories, and they have some of the best episodes of all time! So I focused on the women of S. 3 and 4, but maybe I’ll revisit this project and get every one of Don’s flings (including Mrs. Barrett and… DORIS!) Next week, I’ll talk about my process (with an OVERLOAD OF MY SKETCHES). #MadMenMarchMadness!

March 13

The animated series I’m working on, “La Familia Figeroa”, has been an incredible project to work on. Character development is extremely difficult, especially for a comedy series. Kleber, one of our main characters, was the most difficult to develop. And with notes from producers, TV networks, and my own neurotic head, it took us a long time to nail down exactly what makes Kleber interesting. Below I’ve posted some more sketches from production.

There were some highs and lows, but we ended up with something that meets a medium of its previous incarnations. “La Familia Figeroa” still needs backing, so head on over to Indie GoGo. And for 3 lucky donors, I’ll be creating original character turnarounds, so you will have the most awesome gift that our production can give.

Original Article

March 7

The New Yorkie

I don’t usually record my process for my illustrations. I’ve been working on coming up with a New Yorker style cover illustration with that unique sense of irony. They aren’t easy to generate! When I was done with the inks, I did run into a Bizarro cartoon that horrified me, but because I have the dog in a stroller, I at least upped the ante a little bit. So strange that we used the same looking dog!

Being the eternal art student that I am, I pulled from so many artists’ advice to get the insight necessary to make this piece. Daniel Krall gave an answer on tumblr to not create “puppet style” compositions. The first sketch I came up with was too linear. It might’ve been a great sketch to capture my idea, but is definitely not an interesting composition. Enjoy!

Original Article

March 5

I’m happy to finally be able to talk about the animated series that I have been developing for some time now. My producers William Caballero and Victor Cruz have put together this Indie GoGo page to raise some funds for some already gorgeous animation. I’ve never seen my artwork go from concepts to animation so fluidly, and it’s a wild surreal experience to be a part of.

La Familia Figueroa (Indie Go Go FINAL) from William Caballero on Vimeo.

Part of the prize package is that you can be drawn in the style of La Familia Figeroa, by me! But hurry, there’s a limit of only 3 backers who get this perk, so become a contributor today.

March 3

When I was in high school, all I did was draw characters making out. Now that I’m older, I’m way better. At both. If you saw those old illustrations (or kissed me) you would be very embarrassed for me.

Original Article