Bal Ingenieux: 4th Annual poster

It's that time of year again to unveil the Bal Ingenieux poster!  Each year I try to pay some tribute to the Illustrators who came before me from Cleveland's own, Kokoon Arts Club.  They were a group of Artists of every discipline who band together from the late 19 teens into the 1960's.  Many, fabulously talented Artists exhibited together, studied together and once a year threw these amazing costume balls that quickly became the place to be in mid-century Cleveland.  

The Bal Ingenieux was brought back as a kind of tribute by Ingenuity Cleveland and for the last few years I've had the honor to create a poster for the event.  This year I decided to go a bit more jazz age and kinda Futurist for this piece and it all sprung from this dress.

This photo is from one of the Kokoon Art auctions from the 1930's.  Not exactly the style you think of when you imagine a dress from the Thirties.  It does however fit very comfortably in some of the art from that period.  See Viktor Schreckengost if you would like to see some of the best examples of that style ( proud Clevelander and someone I was EXTREMELY fortunate to meet when I was a student at CIA).   Check out his Jazz Bowl series:  

It's graphic, playful and just moves your eyes all over the place!  

Another inspiration for this piece that may be a bit out of left field but once you see the art I think you will understand, Laura Dumm is another fellow Clevelander who I've also been EXTREMELY fortunate to meet through our regular Drink and Draws. Her and her husband Gary Dumm (himself a GIANT in the Indie comic world) keep churning out some of the most lively art you can ever set your eyeballs on.  What struck me is their use of color and pattern, I frequented dummart.com for inspiration in the early phases of this piece (and you should to!).    She is certainly not a contemporary of the Kookoon Arts club but her and Gary certainly imbibe that spirit!

So there ya go another year's Bal Ingenieux on off the board on on the wall.  As you can see the event is this coming weekend and if you are able to go I would highly recommend it.  For more information check out balingenieux.com

And be sure to check out some of the in process drawings here!

The power of Terry compels you

As you've seen on our Facebook page, it's that time of year again.  Ingenuity Fest in Cleveland, Ohio!  We will be doing our 30th and LARGEST mural we've ever attempted and our friends at Voix de Ville will be pitching the biggest little show in town all next weekend!!!  

I'm one of the featured artists for the Voix de Ville tent.  Last year I created their logo as well as giant billboards that go outside the tent.  For this year's festivities I created this little diddy.  

This little character is Terry the Tinkle toad, he shows up occasionally at the performances, stirs up mischief as well as the audience for the next show.  The drawing is all brushed ink and once it was done I paired it with a photo I took of the back of a rusty sign and it seemed to fit.

 SO!  Come on down to the Port of Cleveland next weekend and partake in an amazing event!

Ben: The Monster At The End Of This Book

I was recently asked (months ago) to participate in a gallery show at Bay Arts by my friend Erin Schechtman.  The general theme of the "Old Friends Gallery Show" was to reference a beloved childrens' book.  I immediately knew I wanted to do something for Grover in The Monster At The End Of This Book, I just had no idea what.  Having planned on doing it at the last minute, like all of my projects, I had plenty of time to ponder my approach.  The more I "pondered" the less I thought about the story and more about the title.  "Monster At The End Of This Book" taken out of context sounds much more like a classic pulp novel than a children's book.

And that's sort of what happened.  Here is my Pulp/Film Noire version of Sesame Street.  Work in Progress at my personal site : NeedYourDisease.com  

-Ben

Bal Ingenieux 2014!

That time of year is here again, Bal Ingenieux is coming back to Cleveland!  The annual fund raiser event for Ingenuity Cleveland filled with live music, Vaudeville entertainment, costumes and just a ton of awesomeness.  For us at the RBMC it's an event close to our hearts, it was at the fist Bal Ingenieux that we did our first live mural and got absolutely addicted to it!  

All in all it's an amazing event, if you are anywhere close to Cleveland you should go, it's like stepping back in the past.  You can find ticket info here.

I have been fortunate to be asked for the last three years to provide the poster for the event.  To be part of a grand Cleveland tradition is really humbling in the best kind of way.  If you are interested in the past year's posters you can back track at least last year's in this blog OR I'll be posting the whole process back at my Facebook page, here and linking them onto the Rust Belt page as well.

Hey Look another Dr. Sketchy Poster

Hey look! It's another Cleveland Dr. Sketchy poster! 

For shits and giggles, instead of using photoshop this month, I created the original version of the poster in Illustrator (the one following this bable). 

The image above is the no text version of the poster that I tweaked for this blog because ..well why the hell not!

-Tim