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Just recently finished up this editorial illustration for the digital launch of Smash (the teen version of Tennis Magazine). It was for a piece called “Stress Test” about dealing with the top 10 pressure filled moments in tennis. Here's the link to the article to check out the full story and the new publication.

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Check out more of my freelance illustration work at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com.

I had the pleasure of sitting down and really getting to hear Mark Federman, the principle of East Side Community High School, speak passionately about education, the arts, his school, and most importantly near to his heart, his students. This guy is the real deal. He's been living out of a tent on the street in front of his school for over a week now to raise awareness for his school. All because of a promise that he made to his kids as a mentor and leader that they all look up to and admire. KOHL's is giving away ten million dollars that will be split up between 20 schools, each getting 500,000 and Mark really wants this for his. It's a voting game. Unfortunately they're on the low end of the technology spectrum(due to current funding) which makes promoting this cause all that more of an uphill battle against many of the private schools currently holding the top 20 positions. It would be really unfortunate to see all of these awards only go to privately funded schools and not deserving Title 1 schools like East Side High that really are desperately in need of a boost like this to change the lives of the students there permanently.

Mark and I spoke for about a half an hour, but it didn't take more than a few minutes to see the energy in Mark's eyes even though he'd only had three hours of sleep the night before. He introduced me to their current arts program and all of the things they currently pull off with a non-existing budget, including a full gallery that they do student exhibitions in for the community to help raise money for the arts. In fact, pretty much anything that is outside of the lean and stripped down "norm" has to be personally funded out of his own pocket and other teachers at the school. We both conversed on our passion for a solid balance of technology with the arts in the classroom. This money would help fund a new mac lab where his students can access the equipment they need for a proper introduction to the graphic arts, computer illustration, and video production. In addition to this he has a pretty extensive list filled with after school programming, some fine tuning, and just making the overall experience a better one for his students.



So here's whats up. I need you to vote for very a deserving school that really needs our help and has lit up many faces on a street nearby where I live. In exchange I'm going to give you my work for free. This will not cost you a penny (I'm covering shipping costs too). Only about 30 seconds of your time will be needed for the voting. Mark has literally been camping out and living in front of the school for the past week in order to raise awareness for the needs of his school and the students that walk it's hallways. His ambition and determination has inspired me. He's out there doing exactly what every person in a leadership role should be doing in their community. He's lit a flame in everyone around him, brought together the community with his students, faculty, and parents and given them all hope and a dream worth coming together for. Bottom line, it's always near and dear t

A few new illos done for a recent Time Out NY Kids feature on tips for getting your kid organized and back to school. Full article can be seen on the TONY Kids website here - LINK.

rawtoastdesign.com

I got invited by Scott over at Born Magazine to create the cover for the 2009 Issue #2 a little while back. The theme is alway loosely based around "birth". I had something similar to this in one of my sketchbooks that had been patiently waiting to be released on the world. After a little inking, careful planning of proportions, and strategic placement of hairs, this is what I ended up with. Check out Born here - http://www.bornmagazine.org/

Prints will be available in the RTD $TORE soon too, so sit tight and dream of all the lonely Mermen that will soon need homes.

rawtoastdesign.com

Three spot illos done for the July issue at St. Louis Magazine. The first was for a section highlighting St. Louis farmer's markets, the second for a Missouri based electric car company, and the third for a piece on a campus wide bottle ban at Washington University.

rawtoastdesign.com

Perfect timing :) New illo done for Time Out Chicago. Get the scoop on this tofu revolution here... LINK

rawtoastdesign.com

the perfect excuse to pull this guy out of the archives... limited edition prints available too Thundercloud Marionette

This was a cover that I just did last week for the lawrence.com Deadwood Edition. They let me do my own custom type for the headline too which was cool. Check out the "Hope Is the New Fear" story here - link.

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This was a piece recently done for Time Out Chicago's Eat Out section. The article was about a roundtable discussion with critics, chefs and bloggers discussing multiple issues. I was told that the chefs are now starting their own blogs in order to have a forum to respond to critics. Apparently these tend get heated, and people respond to specifics, and there's lots of trash talk and back and forth etc...

This was the final, a little mix of culinary guerilla warfare and critic-blogger droids caught up in the cyclical nature of these virtual discussions. I only had an overview of the article to work off of, but Mike Novak (TOC Art Director) did a great job of conveying what it was that they were looking for. The full article and illustration can be viewed here.

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A couple illos recently done for IndyKids. The first(above) was done for an article that discussed why books should or should not be banned in libraries.

The one below accompanied a student written article discussing The Story of Stuff (http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html). It raises questions and concerns about our continuous extraction of raw materials from the environment and the toxic nature that all the products we consume and discard have on the atmosphere around us.



rawtoastdesign
rawtoastdesign blog

Hey!

I submitted a tee shirt design called "i wish i could've hung out longer"... to Threadless.com to be voted on and hopefully printed.

If I get enough high scores the shirt will be printed and sold from the site and I will win some prizes. Take a look at it and if you like it, sign up and give it a score.

URL: http://www.werd.threadless.com/submission/184769/i_wish_i_could_ve_hung_out_longer

Thanks!



rawtoastdesign
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This weeks topic at Illustration Friday is "Detached". Just a little doodle on the gut wrenching and detached feeling of love lost...

rawtoastdesign blog, rawtoastdesign.com

We all know that ginger bread can take the heat. When summer rolls around they like to shake it out just as much as everyone else does. It's a summer of gingerbread love...

rawtoastdesign
rawtoastdesign blog

Man, I hate judging. Especially when there's so many talented people participating and doing such excellent work. Choices are never cut-and-dry and I know that not everyone will agree with me. But such is the nature of this site. A winner must be chosen. I do hope that everyone that participates does so for better reasons than the chance to win - to get your art seen, to learn, to be inspired...

The winner of the design a CD cover project is:

Rawtoastdesign

Congrats to rawtoastdesign for the cover design that I feel best represents what's looked for in today's CD covers - color, whimsey, an edge, and excellent composition.

This past weeks topic over at Illustration Friday was Electricity. I used to just have a blast licking batteries as a kid, thought it was the funniest thing in the world when they would zap my tongue. Perhaps this is why I turned out the way I am. Enjoy!

Medium:pen & ink / digital color

rawtoastdesign blog, rawtoastdesign.com

The Best American Comics 2007