Max Kornell's Illustration Blog

Bear with Me wins 2011 SCIBA for Best Picture Book

2011-10-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

This is what I drew before Erin and I went to the SCIBA (Southern California Independent Booksellers Award) dinner last night. I was nervous.

This is what I drew after we got home (my picture book Bear with Me won the award!)

Characters

2011-07-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

Owen and Gary

2011-06-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

For my birthday my mom created these dolls based on the characters in my book, Bear with Me. Best birthday present I've gotten in years!

Bear with Me - The Making of a Picture Book

2011-04-10T20:11:00.001-07:00

Jury Duty

2011-01-25T13:12:00.000-08:00

I had jury duty last week. We didn't get into a courtroom, but I had a chance to do some drawing.

Jeff Lebowski

2010-05-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Dude

Clint Eastwood II

2010-03-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

So I took the watercolor of Clint Eastwood that I did a couple weeks ago and put a layer of clear acrylic down to seal it... then I had some fun with oil paints.

Sandra Bullock holding Sandra Bullock

2010-03-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

The art director at The Santa Barbara Independent emailed me this awesome picture of Sandra Bullock holding the cover I painted of her!

Clint Eastwood

2010-02-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

There was a great article in the L.A. Times a while back about the different ways to be a genius. One way is to be like Picasso: just have a burst of genius when you're in your early twenties and keep doing it. The other way is the Clint Eastwood method: do some average stuff for a long time, but keep growing and getting better all the time. Eventually both ways come to rest on the same plateau. Is it true? Who knows, but I sure hope so. And thanks to Mr. Eastwood for setting the example.

For all you illustrators out there, this was done on cold press watercolor paper mounted on plywood. I glued the paper down before I did the painting. No matter how much water I used there was no buckling and after I was done I can coat it with acrylic if I want and work on a sturdy surface. Plus, I seem to like plywood these days.

The Dude

2010-02-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent asked me to a second cover during The Santa Barbara Film Festival. This time it was one of my favorite actors, Jeff Bridges. The Dude himself!

Obama

2010-02-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

It had been a long night (which came after a long day at my regular job) working and reworking an illustration on a imminent deadline. It was a month of nights like that that made me weak, like I had to fall asleep right away or I might just faint. Whoa is me.
Anyway, I had a sudden urge to do a watercolor of Obama. Against my better judgement, I set up my watercolors and found a photo in the LA Times. And for twenty minutes I forgot about the long night behind me and the early morning in front of me. It was just me and Obama.

And when I was done you can bet I went right to bed and slept well.

Sandra Bullock

2010-01-31T22:14:00.000-08:00

My old friends at the Santa Barbara Independent (in fact, the very same art director who gave me my first illustration job ever! Alex Abatie, you're the greatest!) called me to do a cover illustration of Sandra Bullock for their film festival issue (they're doing two issues, I'm going to paint Jeff Bridges for the other one.) When the painting was almost done it semed a little blank. Then I realized I had no clouds in the sky. I hopped in the car with my oil paints at my side, sunset fast approaching. My eldest daughter, Psipsina and my son, Ajax wanted to come along. We drove to the top of the hill in Mar Vista and raced around until we found a place where I had a good view of the fading sky and they had some room to run around. It was great to have some company while I painted. What good kids I have!

P.S., Congratulations to Sandra Bullock, Oscar nominated at last!

Spot Illustration for Replacement Contractor magazine

2010-01-25T21:59:00.000-08:00

I got called for a spot illustration. They needed the sketches the next day. It was an article about the pros and cons of owning the building where you operate your business. These are my sketches. (#2 was based on one of the major pros that was listed: you can make additions to your own building any way you want.)

They chose #3. I did a watercolor. I like these little jobs with a quick turnaround. It's like the difference between watching an episode of t.v. or reading a thick book. Sometimes I'm in the mood for one, sometimes the other...

Bear with Me

2010-01-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

Bear with Me, written and illustrated by Max Kornell.
Due out from Penguin, Spring 2011.

Storyboard Samples

2009-11-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

Work shown here was done for Santa Monica based advertising firms The Viral Factory and Denizen Co.

Client: Qualcomm

Client: Alcatel

Client: Del Taco

Client: Samsung

Client: Amberwatch

Client: Proactive

Client: Qualcomm

(shooting boards)

George Clooney

2009-09-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is a painting of George Clooney I did for my LA Weekly comic 'Los Angelopolis.'

This was a new process for me. Here's what I did:

First, I primed a piece of illustration board with black gesso. Usually I use a brush, but if I'm in a hurry I use an old card. Blockbuster in this case but an old art school I.D. works best.

Next I draw the image lightly with a pencil. I don't have an image of this stage because pencil lines on black gesso are hard to see (even in person!)

When the pencil drawing looks reasonably like the subject, then I am ready to paint. I like to paint white over black. I don't know why. Maybe because I did a lot of lino-cut printmaking in college... I just seem to get more interesting shapes and lines when I'm thinking this way. Basically, it's a continuation of the drawing process.

I have caricatured George Clooney before, so I started off with a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with his features. The joke I'm doing for 'Los Angelopolis' depends on George looking heroic and dashing, which is not hard to do with this guy, just add ten percent to the chin.

After the black and white image is done I put down a slushy acrylic mixture to warm up the face, particularly the side planes where I knew I would be dealing with shadows.

The final step is oil paint! My technique for finishing with oil is to smush around a bunch of colors, then add a few details here and there. Not much of a technique really. But if the black and white underpainting (drawing, really) bears a likeness, so will the final painting.

This is how it appeared for publication:

AAN Award

2008-06-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

The AAN Awards were this weekend and I got second place in the cartooning category. It's exciting, my first award for art.

Another Recreational Drawing

2008-06-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

This is Centinela just south of the 10 Fwy. I had to call it quits when somebody parked in front of me and blocked my view. Probably for the best, I never know when to call it done.

Recreational Drawing

2008-04-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I do a "recreational drawing" which seems a bizarre thing to call it and reminds me that when you turn a hobby into a job strange things may happen. Anyway, this is ink and watercolor. I was sitting/standing in the driveway of a tiny apartment complex looking down Chautauqua Blvd onto the PCH and little bit of ocean. The red and orange stuff on the side is from testing a brush the day before. I would have started with a fresh sheet of paper if I had known it would turn out decent.

Coachella musicians

2007-11-07T14:04:00.001-08:00

I did about 30 caricatures for a movie poster for a documentary about Coachella, the summer music festival near Palm Springs. It was a ton of work but in the end, the movie did not get a theatrical release and they used a graphic by one of their designers for the poster/DVD box. I was disappointed I didn't get the exposure I had expected (and for the fact that only me and a couple guys at Goldenvoice actually saw all the drawings.) But it was excellent practice and by the time I was done I was much more comfortable with watercolor and I felt confident I could caricature just about anybody.

Los Angelopolis

2007-11-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

"Los Angelopolis" is my cartoon for the LA Weekly. It runs about once a month and I have "creative freedom," as long as it's L.A.-related.

For this one I modeled for the obnoxious ego-talker and had lots of fun wearing a suit and posing around.

My first good illustration

2007-11-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

I did this caricature of David Bowie for the LA Times a few years ago. It was my first job for a big shot paper so tried to impress their socks off. I had admired Barry Moser for quite a while (he was a teacher of mine at RISD) and I think the stark black and white with the line-gray background was my tribute to him.