Jason Raish Illustration Blog

I am one of Lürzers Archive's 200 best illustrators worldwide
Sunday, May 29, 2011

A while ago I got an email from Lürzers Archive saying that I was nominated by an art director somewhere. I've always seen this book in the book store from some foreign place and wondered if i would ever be in there. You have to be nominated by an art director and then chosen by the Lürzers judges panel to be in this book so it's not "curated" per say. Haven't seen it yet because they were mailed to my parents house and i'm in Barcelona but it's cool to be in this book that I once gazed upon with student eyes filled with a thousand glimmering stars of hope.

Posted byJason Raish at 10:28 AM 1 comments

Modern Fairy Tales for The Times London
Monday, May 23, 2011

The Times in London called me for a quick turnaround for 6 illustrations based on modern fairy tales that authors had put a twist on. A very fun assignment. It's the first time I thought of putting freckles and blemishes on people. but then again i haven't drawn to many red heads. Still though I should start using them more for the monsters and uglies that i draw.

big opening illustration. Gone is the age that girls dream of becoming princesses. Here Cinderella longs for freedom from social engagements and the other realities of life.

Red Riding Hood is a poor, uneducated teenager turned celebrity rape victim.

The 3 Little Pigs live a dry, sarcastic life. I hate compromising things with fast turn arounds, like here there was no time to render shiny pig flesh.

Jack and the beanstalks are a band competing on an American Idol like show where the judges include the Giant who is like a certain former American Idol judge. and yes that is me as the giant and yes i basically look like that.

After her parents divorce the Little Mermaid puts on weight and longs for a Pop Idol prince until the day she seems him join in a civil partnership with his best friend Clive.

Posted byJason Raish at 10:12 AM 2 comments

Where in the world is Jason?
Friday, May 13, 2011

Last time I posted I had just fled the radiation scares in a post earthquake Japan. I was in the middle of the most grueling advertising project ever and was expecting a break but I got an explosion of new work while on what was supposed to be my re-up and recover month in Seoul. Now I am posting from Barcelona, Spain, where I will live for 3 months before trying out London.

for Management Today Magazine (UK). For a monthly column that defines a new buzzword. "Freemium" is where companies give out a barebones but functional product in the hopes that the consumer will pay to upgrade to the premium product.

For Westchester Magazine. Celebrity twitter accounts, including Martha Stewart and Donald Trump

for Management Today Magazine (UK). It takes many people to make a good manager.

For Backbone Magazine (Canada). Now that IBM's super computer has stomped the competition on Jeopardy it is being programmed to help doctors in hospitals, especially in the diagnosis area.

for Motortrend Classic Magazine. A man remembers driving through Australia's Snowy Mountains in his first car, a 1968 Mini Deluxe

Barcelona Cathedral viewed from down a side street in the Gotico district

Edward Chillida art near the Museum of of Contemporary Art terrace

Posted byJason Raish at 12:34 PM 0 comments

Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Radiation Fun
Monday, March 28, 2011

The big earthquake hit 232 miles from Tokyo, but I was working on a huge advertising project so i just had to continue working through the aftershocks and the threat of nuclear radiation. I ran to the bathroom with my laptop many times that day during a big aftershock (what we deemed to be the safest place in our tiny tokyo apartment) in order to keep working. That project literally could have killed me. The exciting life of an illustrator right? Eventually after the radiation scare got bigger and all the foreigners I knew were leaving Japan i decided there is something going on here and maybe i should get out too. So on came the triumvirate of stress of moving my whole life out of a country, the biggest ad project i'll ever work on, and the stress of aftershocks and radiation. I had no time for any of this, i had over 3,000 animals to draw in 10 days!

bread and some other kinds of food was no where to be had even in tokyo. they were talking rolling blackouts until the summer.

a refugee scene and mass exodus at the Narita airport. that line goes faaaar back and around corners. It took two hours for me and everyone else to check-in for flights to Korea. everything was over booked and every flight was bumped and everyone was p!ssed and stressed. I am now living as a nuclear refugee in Seoul at my friend's house for a month until i move to Barcelona.

for my whole earthquake story see my travelblog: www.MisadventuresofJason.blogspot.com

another full page illustration for Risk magazine about financial terms I know nothing of. Thank god the AD boils it all down for me. instead of darwin's evolution of man they wanted the evolution of swap pricing with monsters. it's a pretty good day when you get to draw monsters for hours. We had a hard time nailing the evolutionary stages. At first i went too early with a single eyed blob organism and then there was a phase where it looked like a baby growing up into an adult as opposed to evolution.

spot for THE (time higher education) in the UK. its dealt with something about possibly losing funding but that it wasn't really a big deal if people relaxed and the title of the article was "The end is not nigh"

Posted byJason Raish at 11:02 AM 1 comments

Godzilla and Jeopardy - Jason Raish
Saturday, February 26, 2011

Washington Post Sunday Outlook cover. Article is about human brains vs. computers, knowing things vs. just looking it up online, etc... It asks how important is knowing things now that its a click away on your iphone/ipad/smart phone/computer? IBM's super computer Watson went up against two human Jeopardy contestants and blew them away. It did get some questions wrong. Watson was the only contestant to miss the Final Jeopardy! response in the category U.S. CITIES ("Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle"). Rutter and Jennings gave the correct response of Chicago, but Watson's response was "What is Toronto?????

Boston's Weekly Dig cover. they used my Japanese new year's card image for that week's cover.

Network world spot about next generation firewalls that can monitor employees computer actions.

Network world lead image about flattening your servers in the new year and starting from scratch.

Posted byJason Raish at 10:42 AM 0 comments

Artist Inspiration - 原田泰治はらだたいじ Taiji Harada
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I discovered this Japanese artist the other day at the post office here in Tokyo, Japan. I saw a sheet of his stamps on the counter and instantly fell in love with his paintings. Then a few days later i saw one of his paintings on the wall in the Ryokan I stayed at in Nagano! So i have to share this with the rest of the world! His name is 原田泰治 (はらだたいじ) or Taiji Harada in English.

this is the sheet of stamps i saw and bought and scanned.

these are the scanned stamps. would love to have a print for my wall.

The painting I saw on the wall of the Ryokan in Nagano

detail of that painting

Posted byJason Raish at 5:42 AM 2 comments

Leading off 2011

....were a bunch of other illustrations but here is what i have for now.

full page illustration for strategic finance about knowing your IT stuff and spotting your weak points.

spot for Emory Magazine about the evolution of man and how humans aren't the only ones that have caring and empathy just because we have morality and religion.

Posted byJason Raish at 4:28 AM 0 comments

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/