Rory Kurtz Illustration Blog

The Strokes for Rolling Stone

2011-03-27T17:01:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone. I know it's been awhile, so I'm gonna drop some new work here to catch up. First off, I've got the new piece for Rolling Stone here. Really excited to work with them on this. The Strokes are freakin' awesome, and it's been too long since their last album, so I'm glad to see the new one, ANGLES, out now.

Bit challenging to fit five guys into such a tight vertical space. I was either going to go really small with them, or really big. Obviously I went big. This was produced before the album was released, so we (i.e. me and Steven Charny, art director at RS) didn't have much yet to go on. So we focused on their oh-so-cool rockstar vibe somewhere vague and abstract. A big thanks to Steven for his help, and the opportunity to give these guys the moody treatment.

Cheers!

Popshot Magazine

2011-03-26T17:46:00.000-05:00

So I was contacted by Popshot, this terrific poetry and illustration magazine in the UK to do a piece for their upcoming issue. They've featured to many great talents, and I knew it was going to be stellar issue, so I said "absolutely". Jacob Denno (the art director) had let me know that the poem I was to illustrate would be to me soon. So I waited with baited breath to see what I would get. The poem that arrived in my inbox, Witch Hazel Song, was a heartbreaking piece on the emotional devastation of child abuse. Graphic and honest, the poem is nothing if not powerful. I don't know if I've got permission to print it here, nor am I aware of the specific author yet, so I'll suggest that you pick this issue up if available to you. Here's the cover, and this is the link to their site.

The piece itself, is less than graphic. It's difficult to illustrate a concept like this. If I was too literal, it might feel exploitative. But if it was too conceptual, I think I'd feel I was shying away from the truth. So I did my best to come at it straightforward, yet let the colors and expression outline the heartbreak and conflict.

Runner's World

2011-03-26T15:29:00.000-05:00

New piece for Runner's World Magazine on the horror of muscle cramps, and the precautions you can take to avoid it. Thanks to Marc Kauffman at RW for his direction. I can feel the pain all over this guy!

The mock/thumbnail.

Final Pencils. I've kept the backdrop pretty loose, to keep the focus in the center.

Onto some rough paints to feel out the mood and tones.

And on to the final...

New Art for ESPN Magazine

2011-01-10T11:32:00.000-06:00

Here's a piece done for the latest issue of ESPN Magazine for a feature on the medical industry's scramble to receive the brain material of those that have died of concussion related injuries so that they may further study the effects of concussions and develop new treatments. ESPN's art director, Ed Mann, already had this concept laid out and ready to go, which is often a great help. Bit of a rush to get it complete, as the deadline was fairly tight.

More to come soon!

Communication Arts Feature

2010-12-27T16:54:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely time of it, and that that copious amounts of food and good company were enjoyed.

Woke up today excited about the "Fresh" feature Communication Arts would be posting to their site. If you have a moment, take a look there's a decent sized gallery and a bit of a Q & A.

Add caption

I'll be posting some new work soon for ESPN Magazine as well as Malibu Monthly Magazine as well. Until then, have a great New Years!

-Rory

Cover - M Magazine

2010-12-02T12:15:00.002-06:00

Hey Everyone,

Here's a new cover for M Magazine in my hometown of Milwaukee. The subject was simply "charity", which can be interpreted in countless ways. So this is what I came up with...

PENTAX features skins by Rory.

2010-12-02T11:31:00.001-06:00

I recently worked with PENTAX on a collection of skins they could feature to coincide with the release of their new RS1000 Digital Camera. There's ten in all, and they can be downloaded here for those who'd like to trick out their RS1000. One could either print it themselves, or upload it on skinit.com for them to print as it's already laid out for them. And I believe every camera comes with a skinit.com gift card to have one of these art skins made, or to design one of their own. Pentax sent one of these cameras to me recently, and it's just a great idea. There's this clear plate that can be popped off, then the art is slipped in, and you stick the plate back on. Bam, done! Not to mention the camera is a whopping 14 megapixels and films in HD quality.

Here's the link to check out the camera www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/RS1000

And here's the link to visit the skins gallery www.rs1000.pentaximaging.com

New REVISTA GOOO calendars!

2010-12-02T11:09:00.003-06:00

Visual art magazine REVISTA GOOO has released their annual limited edition 2011 illustration calendar, and you find my cover for New Bike Times featured as the month of January. They did an awesome job designing this calendar, with each month having it's own satin-finished diecut card. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that Revista's art magazine is produced more like a fine art volume that belongs on a dust-free book shelf.

Revista Gooo is based in South America, so finding their work in bookstores in the U.S. is rare. However, click here to visit them online where their books can be ordered directly.

Cheers!

Feature in CARNE MAGAZINE anniversary issue

2010-12-02T10:57:00.002-06:00

Hey Everyone,

I know it's been some time since I last posted to this blog. Been working with my nose to the grindstone, as they say, and haven't been to diligent about catching up here. I'm going to try and make up for it a bit this winter. And I'll start it out with a handful of posts regarding the last several weeks.

First up is a feature in CARNE Magazine's anniversary issue the was just released. Carne is a terrific visual arts magazine, and entirely downloadable featuring new talents and trends in art, photography, illustration, and music for your consumption. You'll find a sharply designed spread in this issue on yours truly as well. Here are some shots of the spread to check out

Click here to be taken to CARNE's site to download.

Migrate Magazine

2010-06-23T16:12:00.001-05:00

Here's a new piece finished recently for Migrate Magazine's "BIG" themed issue. It was created as a showcase piece, and their art direction team was incredibly generous in letting the artists run with the theme in any direction they saw fit. I've been wanting to do a little "hide n' seek" number with a giant robot for a while now. So this was the perfect opportunity to lay it on paper and put it out there. Hope you enjoy!

New Interview with EscapeIntoLife...

2010-06-23T15:52:00.008-05:00

Hi all,

I recently did an interview with Lara Cory over at EscapeIntoLife, which is an excellent website featuring the work of many talented writers, artists, photographers, and more. It's through the efforts of passionate individuals like Lara, that new creatives can gain the exposure needed to build a career in such exclusive fields. So a big thanks to her! Below is an excerpt, click on the link to view the entire interview...

LC: You have such different styles between your paintings, ink and line works. What explains this diversity?

Rory Kurtz: Different subjects require a different approach. If a client wants a painting of a girl on a bike in the clouds pedaling along blissfully, that can’t help but look and feel completely different than a client who wants a piece depicting a man who’s just been gunned down in the street by a hardened criminal. Each piece needs to have a mood, whether it’s soft and dreamy or dark and visceral, and I choose the assemblage based on this. A writer doesn’t want to keep writing the same novel over and over again. Likewise, I don’t want to keep producing the same kind of illustration for every client. I’d hope that my own deeper style is still evident under all those aesthetic choices.

http://www.escapeintolife.com/interviews/interview-with-rory-kurtz/

New Bicycle Times

2010-06-21T14:38:00.006-05:00

So here we have a piece for New Bicycle Times that should be on magazine shelves in a bookstore near you. This piece was art directed by the gracious Amanda Zimmerman with Dirt Rag Magazine. The feature involves a band that travels venue to venue on their trusty bikes. Amanda was willing to open up the concept so that direct likeness and instruments wouldn't be necessary, just the overall image. I think this more ambiguous approach let us create something a bit more iconic and immediately accessible. It was also an opportunity to paint yet another Electra bike, which I never tire of. They're such sweet looking bikes, built with extreme craftsmanship.

I hope you enjoy the new piece. I have several others to release soon, just waiting for them to go to print before posting.

Phoenix New Times

2010-03-14T13:15:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd offer up a look at the process behind my most recent project, for those interested. I got a call from Phoenix New Times looking for a cover piece illustrating a local crime wherein an antique store owner had shot and killed a transient who had been in his store, for rather inexplicable reasons. Because the story was just going public, and was being written while I was working on this, there weren't many details and descriptions for me to utilize. So I set about mocking up some thumbnails, that would be more vague and less dependent on likeness and environment. Here they are below...

I tend to color out my thumbnails, and toss title/design info on them as well, to help work out composition and layout. They ended up choosing the first piece, from the gun man's perspective, and had me make a series of adjustments to the hand holding the gun, to seem less reflective and more active...

Next I started laying out the finalized pencils and a palette colors to work with for the foreground elements...

Here's a little progress on the hands and gun...

Next I focus on the figure in the background. I had wanted him to be out of focus and ambiguous, leaving room for interpretation. So, with a little push and pull in photoshop, I'm able to bury him under a murky layer of waxy haze....

Now it's just a matter of merging these elements together, along with some finer detail work, to arrive at the final...

Gallows Humor No.1

2010-01-12T17:27:00.002-06:00

Here's a new piece for you all, Gallow's Humor No. 1.

This piece was brought on by a quip I made to my fiancee recently, that in the face of this recession, the only thing that can't be taken away, is a sense of humor. There are a lot of people in America right now who feel that they're being dissected and gutted by corporations, lending institutions, the government, utility providers, etc., etc. It's difficult to not feel vulnerable, exposed, and entirely at the mercy of "the larger machine" that is steamrolling so many hard working folk that have already given so much. I don't mean to get all preachy and what not. I just wanted to voice the sentiment, and shed a little light.

From Timbuktu to Kathmandu,

Rory

Britta and the Wolf

2010-01-06T13:38:00.014-06:00

Thought I'd share this piece for the previously mentioned show at Thinkspace Gallery this weekend. They had asked that all participating artists offer work that in some way expressed the fragility of endangered species from around the world. I ended up choosing the elusive white wolf as my subject, for it's deadly beauty. They are soft, graceful, lithe, and incredible predators. The woman in the painting, coincidentally, is a good friend of mine, and I had promised her more than once that I would drop her into a painting. I think it proves too challenging to paint from the mind, or with reference from tear sheets, etc. So I usually work with the people around me as models and subjects. I'd like to think it adds a little more humanity to the figures in the pieces.

Below is the rough sketch, which is done pretty rapidly to feel out the composition and tones.

Below are the final pencils that will be painted over. Sometimes the pencils are long and involved, and provide answers to questions I'll run into while painting. In this case, however, they're kept pretty simple and left sparse. For a piece like this, I wanted the naturalness of the fogged over woodland to be looser and more textural, so I didn't want to pencil the thing to death and get stuck painting in the lines.

And here's the finished piece, which measures roughly 13"x19".

THINKSPACE GALLERY "A Cry for Help"

2010-01-06T13:15:00.004-06:00

Hi Folks,

I'll be hanging in a group show with Thinkspace Gallery this weekend out in LA this weekend. The show "A Cry for Help" will be benefiting Born Free USA which is a non-profit organization supporting endangered species of the world. Opening reception this Friday, and exhibited through February 5th.

This is my first time showing with Thinkspace, or in LA for that matter. So if you're near by, come check it out. I'll be there, myself, and hopefully so will many of the hundred participating artists.

Ah the first post...

2009-12-29T16:23:00.000-06:00

Well, I've opened up a blog page. My hope is to share a little bit of my process and behind the scenes work with those of you who may be interested. Likewise, my New Year's resolution (er...one of them, at least) is to post once a week, if not more. As well as my own work, I'll be dropping info on the work of other stellar talents, both new and classic. I also see this as an opportunity to share inspirations from all different media that manage to influence my individual works, etc. And, of course, I'll be doing a bit of shameless self-promotion regarding soon to be released projects, coming gallery shows, and the like.

So stay tuned, and visit often.

Happy Holidays,

Rory