The Art and Illustration of Michael Slack
I just wanted to post a link to my free, cut and fold,holiday download.
Nothing says” the holidays” like dinosaurs and bicycles. Festoon your tree, mantel, or rearview mirror with a Slackart cut and fold Dinosornament. Guaranteed to bring you and your loved ones at least fifteen minutes of crafty yuletide cheer.
You can download it from my website.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Exploration, experimentation, discovery, playfulness, have all gelled into a creative gelatinous goo that is surging through my brain. The past month or so I’ve been experiencing an artistic high point where exciting things are happening on all the creative fronts. By “happening” I mean personal artistic strides, not high profile projects, or big paying gigs. On the personal art front I’ve been filling up sketch books with odd creatures. I’ve also been experimenting different ways to reproduce them digitally and traditionally.
This is Kartik. A semi-divine, mythic toad creature.
This has also spilled into my commissioned work. It has been exceedingly fun working on all the new projects that have come in. Approaching them with this rediscovered playfulness, has resulted in some pieces that I think are pretty darn cool. I have also just finished the first round of sketches on a new picture book for Bloomsbury. I’m playing around with compositions and graphic elements that I hope will add a fun visual component to the look of the book.
I seem to have stumbled onto this little path and I want see where it goes.
This is a sample of one of the pieces I did for an upcoming activity book for Klutz Press. I would have loved this book when I was a kid. Kids can create strange creatures by interchanging different body parts and then trace them.
Got this poster in the mail a few weeks ago. It was a piece I did for Weekly Reader. It is a police lineup that tells kids how to identify different types of germs. I particularly like the Fungus guy.
This is a piece for an upcoming science textbook. It accompanies an activity where students create “Planimals”creatures that have both plant and animal characteristics. Looks like it could also be used as a fun border for a note pad.
Thought I would throw in some rejected sketches. I always find it interesting when I see other illustrators rejected sketches. These were rejected characters for Mac Worlds Macalope podcast.
A very important element was left out of the illustration brief. It was that the creature needed to have the head of a classic Macintosh computer. Here is the final approved piece.
Autum is here. Leaves are falling. Multi hued piles spread across the sidewalk. Fathers sharpen knives for carving. The costume’s final stitches are sewn. All Hallows eve is close at hand. Traditionally a time to take stock of the years harvest in preparation for winter. In that spirit I offer up a few tid-bits that should keep you visually satiated for the bitter months ahead.
First up are these new print sets. I’m calling them Mod Monsters. No, they don’t wear parkas and cruise around town on scooters. They are a nod to the golden age of modern design, and my latest attempt in shape exploration, and simplification. It is quite liberating to focus on creating fun shapes and limiting the color palette to only three colors.
There are four prints in the set. Each set of prints comes in a ready to hang custom paper frame. Yep! That’s paper. The cutting, scoring, folding and assembly, of the frames is rather labor intensive, but it makes for a nice little touch. Right out of the pack you can stick em on the wall. If you get sick of looking at one of the monsters you can display a new one by changing the order.
Three of the characters I turned into 1 inch buttons. Both items are now on my website.
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I just finished up a commission of two small paintings. Commission isn’t entirely accurate. Paint on demand would be more suitable. I had a minor mix up. I sold a painting and before I could mark it as sold another person purchased the same piece. The second collector was very gracious and we worked out a plan. I sent along sketches from an intended series of bug paintings. He chose his favorite of the sketches, I dusted off the paint bottles and whipped up these critters.
It all worked out well, and it was nice to push the liquids around for a change.
ROAD-BOT: Making roads stronger with recycled electronic parts. A new illustration for Boy’s Life Magazine.
Today I’m the guest blogger for Lerner Publishing’s, Week of Grossness. There you will find some behind the scenes info about the new Gross Body Science book series. There is also a “how to draw a grumpy virus” lesson, along with some other nifty tidbits. Kids can enter their own virus drawing to win a book from the series and an original drawing by yours truly. Check it out.
Here are a few new illustrations I have just finished. They accompany true or false questions.
Can you guess what the questions are that go with the images? 
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My wife and I recently took a vacation in Bermuda. We had a great week.
Great snorkeling. Beautiful scenery. Lots of scooters, and Brit’s in knee socks, ties and sport coats.
Strong tea, mini sandwiches, and a hurricane named Bill.
They were boarding up the windows at Bermuda International Airport as we were waiting for our flight. It’s the first time I’ve ever been sealed in an airport.
A view of Hurricane Bill taken from inside the Airport.
It’s taken me some time to get back into the swing of things. My brain and body like vacationing. Even when its vacationing with a hurricane. When I get back the last thing my brain and body want to do is stare at a screen hunched over a desk. I’m generally a very focused freelancer. A get up and go straight to work kind of guy. This past week though I’m coming up with just about any excuse not to be at the computer. Creating a thousand goofy errands to run, projects around the house that were in the “I’ll get to it eventually” folder, have magically become very important. What I realize is that a vacation needs to be two weeks long.
Lots of news to report. I just received my freebie copies of the “Ghoulish Goodies” cook book I illustrated for Storey Publishing. The book features over 70 recipes perfect for, Halloween, kids’ birthdays, and horror movie nights. It will be out in August. My favorite recipe is for the creature feature cupcakes that are photographed on the cover.
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These two illustrations were accepted into to the 3×3 Magazine children’s book show.
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This piece was accepted into Communication Arts Illustration Annual 50. It’s the first time I made it in.
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I’m happy to announce that I’m now represented by Lori Nowicki at Painted Words Illustration Agency. I look forward to working with her on many wonderful projects.
It does when there’s 10,000 moon shows clogging up the cable channels.
Thanks a lot Buzz!
Here is a new piece I have just finished for Boy’s Life Magazine. The story is about using coconut fiber for various auto parts. It is my first addition to the visual used car lot of Odd-Rod art. Could you imagine Big Daddy’s late-night tv ad? Big D standing in front of a fleet of grossly out of proportion hot rods, a giant inflateable Rat Fink atop a broken-down outhouse of a show room. This is a real throw-back piece for me and made me think this would be a perfect opportunity to finally write something regarding my artistic influences.
Whether it is a bio for a book, a presentation to school kids, or an interview on a illustration blog, there is one question that I ( and every other artist) is asked.“Which artist has influenced you the most”?
The first few times the question is asked the instant response is, “there are so many it can’t be narrowed to just one artist”. The formula answer is as follows:
1.Go down a list of artists that you have latched on to through various stages of your artistic development.
2.Tack on professional peers you admire
3.Plug your creative buddies who’s work you find exceptional.
The list always changes , as it should. Artistic inspiration is not static. After being asked the question many times, I started to feel like I was dodging the question. Was it really impossible to find one artist who’s influence is ever-present, sitting behind the scene of every piece – or did I just not know the answer. I started a mental “tree” chart of my creative past. No surprise it was the bizzaro version of the formulaic list above. I didn’t start taking art “seriously” until I was in high school, so that is where the most obvious branches ended. Frances Bacon, George Groz, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, well I guess Dali is in there also. If this was the end of the list then what drew me to these artists? What I realized is that to find ones most influential artist one has to look at one’s creative sensibilities. I was drawing before I even knew about Ernst and Groz, so which artist really spoke to my sensibilities? What images made me want to put pencil to paper and create as cool of pictures as they were making.
As a kid in the 70’s there was nothing more cool than UGLY STICKERS. The images on the stickers were truly gruesome. Weird monsters with eyes bulging out of their heads. Salivating mouths, on mangled and mutated bodies. Each creature had a common name like Jeff or Karen which added just enough humor to make these hideous images funny. There was a thrill buying them. Partly from the anticipation that the pack you were about to open had your most desired sticker in it, but mainly, buying them felt like you were participating in some illegal activity; purchasing illicit material that was intended for people much older. There were many other edgy monster items lurking around at time. I had my share of odd-rod stickers and even a Big Daddy monster hot-rod black light poster. Still there was something about the Ugly Stickers that stood out. They were straight up monsters, and exceptionally detailed to boot.
Basil Wolverton designs
Norman Saunders designs
There were three main artists that created the monsters for the stickers, Basil Wolverton, Norman Sanuders, and Wally Wood. Of the three,Wolverton and Saunders designs were my favorite. In the end there were just more Norman Saunders designs in the set that I liked. It was these funny/scary images, and the excitement around them, that sparked something in my developing perception of the world that made me want to create something equally powerful.
Now when the question of “most influential artist” comes up my answer will always be, Norman Saunders.
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You can find out all about Norman Saunders here.
You can find out all about Basil Wolverton here.
Everything about Ugly Stickers here. Be sure to read the article by Pete Boulay. It is a wonderful insight into Norm Sanunders involvement with the Ugly Stickers phenomenon.
Maybe the most talented 5 year old ever. Rudi is just as crazy about monster as I am. Check out his blog with all of his excellent drawings.
Watch out Tim Burton. RUDI’S GOING TO SWALLOW YOU WHOLE! I love the central character’s sombrero – boat head. It’s a monster mutiny.
It must be in his genes because his Mom is super talented as well. She make’s the most beautiful and intricate cut outs. Check out her work.
