Jason Raish Illustration Blog: January 2011

New Year's mix
Tuesday, January 25, 2011

this is from december. a spread for the Chicago Tribune about holiday workouts.

the following are reworked illos for my children's portfolio. any comments welcome. my problem is i always make things too extreme or grotesque or detailed or etc... for children's work so i need to know what i'm doing wrong. You can see the whole shebang here: http://www.jasonraish.com/childrensbook.html

i had the cover and a feature in the December issue of W.E.B. magazine in Korea

I have an interview in this months Advanced Photoshop magazine from the UK. well at least it's on sale now in the US. http://www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/

I have a feature in this months Computer Arts from the UK. don't know when its on sale in the US though. http://www.computerarts.co.uk/

Posted byJason Raish at 12:12 PM 0 comments

NY Winter 2011 - NY Bye Bye
Sunday, January 23, 2011

Final assault on NY.

HDR photo of 2nd ave F train station with no gay effects

I visited my old mentor John Nickle's studio in park slope brooklyn. His wife Jana was my boss when i worked at FIT too. He is mainly a children's book illustrator. He does a bunch of children's books every year and has everyone's dream job basically.

http://www.johnnickle.net/

painting from his children's book "Never take a shark to the movies". this one is never take a giraffe to the movies.

a painting in progress for a new children's book

In 2006 the book that he wrote and illustrated "The Ant Bully" was made into a movie. It featured the voice talents of Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Paul Giamatti. It was made by Tom Hanks company so they rode in tom hanks private jet back to NY from the premiere in LA. this is an illustrator's dream.

their dog Felix is a greyhound something mix. He is inbtwn a small dog and a big dog. He's been in some pet clothing runway shows. I gotta admit he's pretty cute. Last time I saw him he had bandages on all his paws because he was jumping up and down on a mandolin slicer that got onto the floor somehow and cut up all his feet.

He's wearing his "festa" collar. nice touch i think.

from "Never take a shark to the dentist"

editorial illustration from back when he used to do editorial.

from "Things that are the most in the world". this is hottest

Someone around the corner from melissa's house is not very Bob friendly and it wasn't me this time.

I spent like 6 hrs hand filling out 250 postcard to mail to clients since i was in the US finally and could mail these economically. It's pretty brutal but its ok cuz i already got a job from this that pays for this 4 times over.

going away again dinner. At Pio Pio, a Peruvian place in hell's kitchen. they are famous for their chicken and boy was it deeeelish. over 20 people ended up coming out to say bye. thanks ya'll!

I always love the F'd up rag tag motley crew that i rustle up. Yumi, Diana, Phil, Brown, Brian Morales, d. joseph

Jan Jan, Karol, and Micaela. Micaela is comin to tokyo next month.

Jennie Ambong. last time i saw her i smashed her dorky black frame glasses, too bad she didn't have any this time or else i would have gotten those too. and is that a life aquatic hat? if it is/was then i would burn it.

oh come on mel, you know what im sayin', come on mel. she says that's her smile. We go way back, I know Melissa from 1999 my freshman year at Albany. I stayed at her house all week, thanks mel.

Jan Jan and Karol bought me some dirty mags, which i could go to jail for having here

Karol is from Chile, Jan Jan is from Jersey or something lame like that

these guys. monu and sonu. the punjabi bandit brothers. their rapid fire speech attacks will leave you open and defenseless to any kind of counter. I know sonu from 1999 Albany, the very first day. He was carrying a single slice of paper in a grocery bag. hahahah. These are two awesome guys.

back and melissa's house there is this guy. he's melissa's friend's. his name is pudge. way to give him a complex and make him totally give up on life. Anyway that's it for NY. who knows when i'll be back. Thanks everyone for coming out to see me. Hopefully next time I don't have to work so much so we can really kick it.

Posted byJason Raish at 4:45 AM 0 comments

NY Winter 2011 - Work and Play
Monday, January 17, 2011

I had to work a lot while i was in New York and upstate. I can't afford to say no to jobs. That's why there aren't a lot of pictures and why i had a lot less fun than i should have, plus I'm from NY so naturally i wouldn't be taking as many pictures of stuff.

they don't really have delis in asia

or my love, bologna and cheese, always there for $6.50.... WHAT! when the F did bologna and cheese sandwiches become $6.50! i was amazed by how much everything went up in price in NY.

like this chicken cutlet sandwich, another staple food but it's like $5. what the hell.

they tell me there was a huge bed bug problem in NY.

vietnamese sandwich on 12th st.

I visited my friend John Jay's studio on Meserole in brooklyn. He's an illustrator and teaches at FIT. I wasn't in school when he started though. He's sucessful, has agents in NY and Paris, and maybe more. After this visit I really want to get a studio. Maybe in HK.

www.johnjayart.com/

some stuff he was working on. below is more of his work

graphic novel

we went to the society of illustrators sequential and uncommissioned opening uptown on 63rd and Lex. Edel Rodriguez always have smart stuff. the guy on the right is Nimit Malavia, he's young and coming up fast so what out for him
http://nimitmalavia.com/

as always tight work from yuko shimizu
http://www.yukoart.com/

this guy sam makes some awesome stuff
http://www.sbosma.com/

after the opening its upstairs to bar where all the top dogs of illustration are boozing it up.

party time at Fat Buddah on ave A and 13th st. with a bunch of buddies i haven't see in a while.

it seemed like everytime i went out i was getting drinks spilled on me. is NY really 400x more spilly than Japan? probably, cuz they respect personal space more

some of a section of the FIT crew, except for who the hell is that girl in the front?

it hasn't done this in tokyo in the 2 winters i've been here.

grey's papaya hot dogs are now like $4.75 so its not really worth it for me anymore cuz i could eat like 10 of these.

halal lamb and rice with white sauce and hot sauce from sammy's cart somewhere on 6th ave near 4th street. oh how i missed this. and then immediately remembered how unhealthy and weird it makes you feel afterwords.