Two More Corporate Commissions

Here are two more commissioned pieces from companies who wanted to use them as gifts for colleagues who were either moving away or retiring.  Both are done on 16X20 illustration board using ink.  The top one was commssioned by the Coca-Cola Company, and the bottom one was commssioned by the Centers for Disease Control, both in Atlanta.

95.5 The Beat T-Shirt Design

Meet The Beat, (11X14, ink on paper). This is a T-Shirt design commissioned by Atlanta-area radio station, 95.5 The BEAT, "Atlanta's New #1 for Hip Hop". They wanted a line drawing image of all their DJ's grouped together as a sort of dysfunctional family. I received great photo reference, and the client was a pleasure to work with, but I was in Panama City Beach, FL. working at my retail location when the job came in, and not in the comfort of my studio. I did the entire drawing in the wee hours of the morning, while sitting on a bed in the condo I rented, using a basic drawing board, markers, and scratch paper. Sometimes you just have to make due with what you have and where you have it.

Classroom Illustration

Class of 2006-2009, (16X20, ink on illustration board. This was commissioned by a company called Dynamex in Kennesaw, GA. It's a retirement gift, and they wanted the honoree to be portrayed as a teacher, and the colleagues as students. I came up with the idea of turning them into children, partially to help with the complicated composition of the drawing, but also because I think it makes it a funnier piece.

New Retirement Illustration

Beach House, (16X20, ink on illustration board).
This is a retirement piece commissioned by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. It's a basic group shot with personal elements added. I wanted to show the retiree sort of surrounded by craziness and ready to retire, in a playful kind of way.

New Commission from the Coca-Cola Company

Hockey Golfer, (16X20, ink and watercolor on illustration board). Here is another commission from the nice folks at the Coca-Cola Company to honor a retiree, or someone who is accepting a job elsewhere in the company. They wanted to show both of his interests in golf and hockey, as well as a reminder of Coca-Cola. I recently drew at an event at the Atlanta Athletic Club, where the legendary Bobby Jones used to play, and saw all of his trophies and awards and old photos and paintings. I wanted this piece to look a bit like the traditional paintings of Bobby Jones I saw there.

Wedding Illustration

Bride and Groom with Dogs, (11X14, ink on illustration board). This couple wanted a very funny illustration done for their wedding to reflect their whimsical personalities. The girl is a cheerleading instructor with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the guy is apparently really into vampires. Any time I can draw dogs, I'm happy.

Beach Caricature

Beach Family, (16X20, ink, acrylic on Illustration Board). This piece was commissioned by a client as a gift for her mother on Mother's Day. These are all the grandkids playing on the beach, obviously. I do a lot of beach scenes so it's getting easier and easier to draw sand and water. I've always hated drawing feet, because I think they're really hard. So I really tried to focus on them with this piece in an effort to get better.

New Commission

Talladega Couple, (12X16, ink and wash on illustration board). This guy commissioned me to do this piece for his girlfriend's birthday. The setting is the Talladega Speedway in Alalbama, a popular diversion for folks here in Atlanta. Also, they are wearing hats from The Varsity Drive-In, a beloved and historic fast food joint in downtown Atlanta. Remarkably, this guy happened to live within five miles of my house, making him, I believe, my closest proximity client ever. I didn't know where he was from until we arranged the delivery. Weird.

Arlington, Texas Map

Arlington Map, (8X8, ink on Bristol). This was commissioned by the good folks at MapCo Marketing for a client who needed a map to his parking lot for clients attending events at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. The final was to be reduced to 4X4 and printed on the back of parking permits. I gave them a color and a b/w file in case their needs became different. This was a fun job because I used to live near Arlington and have driven every one of these roads personally. Plus I've witnessed the new stadium going up for the past few years when I've travelled back there for the Texas State Fair. I even got to draw Six Flags, where I first got my start in caricatures. Talk about deja vu.

New Retail Location!

Here are some pictures of my new retail location at Pier Park in Panama City Beach, FL. I just returned from working a few weeks of Spring Break there myself. It's a one to two artist sidewalk location on the boardwalk just across the street from Tootsies Orchid Lounge and a stone's throw from the beach. I drew Spring Breakers from as far away as Canada and as close as Alabama. Fellow artist Wade Collins will be finishing up the next two weeks and then we are under contract for the summer months when we will be utilizing other artists.

Another Holiday Commission

Golf Cart Kids, (11X17, ink and acrylic on illustration board). Here's another one from last Christmas that I forgot to post earlier. The client wanted to get a caricature of his kids to give to his wife for Christmas, and wanted a whimsical depiction of them riding in their golf cart. The little boy really did have an Alfalfa spike in his hair.

Line Drawings

Here are two seperate line drawing pieces which show different uses for caricature illustration. The first is Great Food, Great Times, ( 8.5X11, ink on illustration board). These guys were opening an Italian restaurant and contacted me for a caricature they could use for promotions and menus. They let me decide on the theme and they were quite happy with the result. Just Married, (8X8, ink on illustration board), was commissioned for a wedding in Birmingham, AL. The client booked me to draw at their reception, but also wanted the bride and groom drawn ahead of time so that the image could be pre-printed on the paper that I would be using. That way, everyone who was drawn would always remember the happy couple.

Ink Wash Illustration

Down on the Farm, (11X14, ink wash on illustration board). This was a commissioned piece by a lady in Alabama for her parents on their anniversary, and she was nice enough to send in this wonderful picture of them receiving it. The copy shown here isn't fully faithful to the original, which had lots of subtle tones in the wash. I get a lot of requests for tractors in my illustrations, and in fact they have even surpassed motorcycles in popularity.

Charter Business Caricatures

This is a series of small 5X7 ink caricatures I did on Bristol Board for Charter Business which they used in some sort of presentation package. They wanted something in each drawing to convey the subject's interests or region in which they work. Some were easy and some where very difficult based on the sometimes limited information I was given. I'm usually not a big fan of putting names on caricatures, because I feel like the caricature ought to look enough like the subject to render the name moot, but this is what they wanted so I had a bit of fun making up different fonts for the names.

More Charter Business Caricatures

Recent Commission

PFE International Team, (24X36, ink on illustration board). This was a large piece commissioned by PFE International. They wanted an illustration showing all their employees standing around their envelope-stuffing machine. I went to their office and took pictures myself of all the employees. They wanted two people who no longer worked there to be included in some way, so I decided to make it look like somebody drew their pictures and taped them to the machine. The American flag was the client's idea, since PFE has operations in many countries, and I have to say that it really worked out well in tying all the figures together. Sometimes I have good ideas, and sometimes my clients have good ideas. In this case, we both did.

And Another Commission

Putt-Putt Golfing, (11X14, ink and acrylic on illustration board). Here's another gift caricature commissioned by a lady for her father's birthday. I was given photos of the man and his wife and their dog and asked to create a funny golfing theme. I decided that miniature golf would be pretty comical, especially if the man of the hour was swinging and missing the ball while his wife is dutifully recording his score. I was really happy with the bodies and the color contrast I achieved in this one.

And Still ONE MORE Commission!

Family Caricature, (16X20, ink on illustrati0n board). This family has commissioned me several times for illustrations, but this is the first with their two kids. This one was commissioned by the wife for her husband for a Christmas gift. She delivered the baby literally a week before I delivered the project!

Holiday Piece

New Year's Eve at Rockefeller Center, (10X24, ink on illustration board). This client was wanting an illustration that could be separated for different members of his family, so they could each own a piece of the original. Apparently they were all going to meet in NYC at Rockefeller Center. This was a challenge because I needed to portray them all in this horizontal format, while still making it look like they were in Rockefeller Center amid the tall landmarks. I added the famous Christmas tree, the flags, and the sculptures of Prometheus and Atlas, and then tied each group together using the Christmas light string. I think it worked pretty well visually. Below are the three separate drawings. Above, they are all together.

More Maps!

Here are two more examples of caricatures of landscape. The first is a screen capture of work I did for a Georgia Department of Transportation project involving cartoon maps on interactive touch-screen kiosks that has since been tabled due to the massive state budget shortfall. The second is a map of East Haddam, CT. Both are hand-drawn, with digital embellishments.

Cartoon Maps

Cartoon Maps, (27X35 original, 24X30 printed, ink on illustration board).
Here are a few close ups I took of some of the cartoon maps I've illustrated over the years. They are hand-drawn and colored, and the graphic work is done on the computer.

Two New Retirement Illustrations

National Peanut Board Retirees, (16X20, ink, acrylic wash on illustration board). Here's two more commissioned by the National Peanut Board through the ad agency Lawler, Ballard, Van Duran, in Atlanta. The fellow on the top is a chef and world traveller, so I took the liberty of including a few well-known architectural icons in the background. I originally drew the Eiffel Tower, but they said he had never been to Paris, so I had to substitute the Statue of Liberty instead. As far as the second piece goes, I have no idea what anything means. I just drew what I was told to draw.

Carabiner Employees

The next few posts contain caricatures of Carabiner Communications employees commissioned for use in a new section on their website. The following is an excerpt from their news release:

Carabiner Caricatures and Fun Bios Capture the Agency’s Lighter Side
Summer Heat Making Your Office Feel Stiff? Atlanta Caricaturist Justin Galloway Gives PR Pros a Chilled Essence
ATLANTA (August 4, 2008) – To celebrate summer and provide a fun way for clients and co-workers to get to know each other, Carabiner Communications, a public relations firm that serves start-up and fast-growth technology companies, launched a new “Fun Bios” interview series online. The new website section features employees’ caricatures by Atlanta artist Justin Galloway and discusses the “carabiners’” first careers, their first cars, favorite celebrities and which rock star they’d love to be for a day.
The Atlanta agency’s growth brings together account directors as far flung as California to resources in Florida, Tennessee and the Georgia coastal region. According to Peter Baron, principal, Carabiner Communications, the fun bios were the perfect way to connect carabiners across the distance. “Sharing the caricatures and fun bios help co-workers and clients get to know more about our talent beyond just our serious sides,” said Baron.