Facebook profile cartoons!

Look at me! I’m giving away cartoons to use on your Facebook profile!

These folks all got one:

Want one?

Friend me up on Facebook and I’ll just give  you one FREE!

http://www.facebook.com/george.berlin

and become a fan of my art here to see updates and cool stuff I’m working on:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Berlins-Art-Illustration-and-Animation/378907616728

Also, if anyone wants a portrait commissioned, I’m your guy! One of the couples in the cartoons above has

hired me to make a painting of their cartoon for over the sofa in their home!

100 paintings in one post!

So, I showed you a few pages of my awesome new art book right here…

I figured maybe it would be nice to see all 100 of the paintings at once!

This is the background for all the pages in the book, right here.

Just to recap, these are all 2 x 2 inches, painted in about a week for a give-away at a show opening Feb. 5th (I gave away about 20 of them-

I’ve sold maybe 10 more since then).

I could go through and tell you where the ideas all came from for each one but a) this post would be six thousand pages long and b) that was

sort of the point of making the book!

So hit me up to buy one (not available in stores, only through this TV offer!) and read all about it!

I might make posters soon, too. Wouldn’t that be fun?

My Art Book (a look inside…)

So, you’ve heard all the hype- let’s take a look inside!

The first and last pages, and a few random ones in the middle-

And there you have it!

Contact me with any questions about the book, or if you want to buy one!

Thanks!

My New Art Book (order now!)

Hey there!

So, I mentioned last time about 100 paintings I’m giving away…

Well, I’m having a book printed about them, too!

That’s the cover, of course. I should get the actual books (7 x 7, 24 pages long) by next Friday. They’re selling for $12! What a deal, right?

It’s not really an autobiography, per se. I just realized,  y’know here’s 100 paintings that I chose to paint off the top of

my head- what does the subject matter say about me when you put them all together?

So I give a little background with each painting (they’re all 2 x 2 so they’re a bit bigger in the book than in real life!)

Like on this page:

You can order them through me personally if you’re dying for a book- just email me your address and I’ll send one out to you and

you can mail me  some dough. Or come to my show next week and get one in person and see some art, too!

Feb 5th 1579 N Milwaukee 6-10 pm in Gallery 203. We gots murals and me playing music and my pal Alice’s art opening and manner of

great stuff.

On to more fun!

100 paintings (and a give-away!)

Last time, I mentioned 100 paintings I was working on…

Here they are! All done in about a week!!

I’ll go a bit more in-depth on a number of these in future posts (there’s a hundred- that’s a whole bunch to scan!)

but this is a project I’ve undertaken as a bit of a promo of sorts.

First off, I wanted to celebrate a few things- we have a special show opening Feb 5th at the Flat Iron Arts Building where I have

my work showing in Gallery 203. It’s this neat show called “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”.

In a nutshell- 45 artists from the building have painted an interconnected mural that runs the length of the hallways in the building.

8 feet each for about 350 feet! And each artist’s mural connects visually somehow with the ones next to it!

The best part, though, is that at 10 pm that night- we paint over the whole thing!

Crazy, right? Well it’s definitely a one-night only show, so come on out.

Also that night, come celebrate my expanded role in Gallery 203 (I now have twice the space as a full member!)

AND GET ONE OF THESE 100 PAINTINGS FREE by printing out this flier right here:

Seriously, just bring it in with your email address and I’ll give you one of these adorable little suckers. Really.

Here’s a link to that flyer if you want to email it around- and please do send it to anyone you know who likes funky, fun art!

www.eye-of-the-hurricane.com/free-art.htm

Also that night (big night, I know….) my pal Alice Brozofsky is the guest artist in Gallery 203! She’s also my studio mate and doesn’t have a website,

but here’s a painting of hers:

So come on down, see a huge mural, some cool realistic paintings by my buddy, and grab a free little tiny painting on me!

12 paintings- Done!

Okay, so way back heeeere….

I showed you 12 paintings I was working on at once.

Well- they’re done!

Okay, if you’re smart you noticed- there’s only 9!

3 of them were for an awesome client of mine who bought a whole bunch of paintings from me for the holidays,

so I sent him and his family some little tiny paintings as a thank you gift. I know, I’m such a nice guy, right?

I like the color on all of these- I’ll be sad to give them up. I had an artist friend tell me- when I showed a piece that’s really my favorite painting ever (which was sold) how much I missed it. She said basically- never sell the ones you love. I think the opposite is true- if I don’t love it, who else will!

Anyway, enough blabbing about my personal opinions. It’s starting to sound all ‘blogg-y’ up in here. Yuk.

How about that monkey, with the little peeled bananas running all along the sides, eh? I like it!

I’m kind of on a pig kick these days- I’ve redesigned my pigs a bit, as I was running out of posing options a bit before. See, used to be them little piggies only had a profile.

No front view to speak of. Okay, they still don’t, but I’ve designed a more frontal nose and some different feet that make them a bit more fun to do stuff with. So yeah pigs.

Elephants, too. I been mad for elephants ever since I drew some silly ‘White Elephant bags’ for my girlie’s Xmas party:

Yeah, he’s stuck in the chimney. Heeyuk. She gave these away with some (not nearly as) cool gifts inside at the office party.

Oh yeah, and I painted 100 little paintings for my art show while doing all these other ones, too!

More on that next time!

12 paintings in progress

I thought I’d show you all some of my PAINTINGS in progress…

I usually show things like “Here’s the sketch”  and then- tada!- “Now it’s done”

So here we go.

I know- it’s a big crazy mixed bag of various random paintings, right? Here’s how you all officially know the way my brain works. Stuff like this is all somehow connected to me.

You can even see, in the lower right, my super awesome expensive ink tray that I use when I’m outlining these. Yup, it’s the lid from a yogurt container.

Where to begin? Well, the dino, the unicorn and the stinky onion are for a fantastic patron of mine who bought three- count ‘em-THREE paintings from me this Xmas. They were

all commissions, and  he’s bought 2 or 3 others from me in the past so I told him, eh, I’ll give you a few little teeny ones to ‘cuz you’re such a great guy. He commissioned a painting of vegetables

for his wife, a unicorn and hearts and stars for his daughter and a dinosaur in a train for his son. So I’m making little versions of each for him.

The two opera ones I showed in a previous post. I actually also drew the doodle that became the pig in the skirt the same day, while I was sitting at Gallery 203 (where I show my work) the other weekend.

I dunno, I was bored and I drew a little pig in a motorcycle helmet (a hog riding a hog- get it?) and then I drew that cute li’l sow there.

That just inspired me to do more pigs. The one of the papa pig happily leading the two piglets is actually a variation of a kind of old idea I had that was similar- except they were 5 little triangular monsters.

The monkey talking on his banana cell phone and driving the banana (as well as the elephant driving the peanut) are from a series idea I have of animals using their food in funny ways.

I also have a monkey in a banana shaped boat (banana boat- get it? I’m just full of laughs today, aren’t I…) and a rabbit driving a carrot shaped car. I think there’s a dog driving a bone somewhere too. It’s just oddly funny to me somehow. I’ll get to those soon.

On to the (semi) colored versions-

Y’know, I never realize how much pink I use until I work on a whole mess of paintings at once. See, I sit down and paint all the stuff that’s the same color at once. Let’s me

just mix up a pile of color and use it all up and then move on.

I usually don’t like the way my art looks at this stage. I paint the outlines, then I paint the color and then I outline it again.

So at this stage, the outlines are sort of painted over so it looks all fuzzy and weird. That and without the full color it always looks kind of dull.

But the lines on top at the end always bring it back to life and I like it again.

I think my next stage on these is going to be purples and some browns and blues. I think the opera paintings will have lots of maroon in things like vests or pants.

A couple of these are almost done, except for final inking. And yeah, I’m painting on the desk where the Mac is.

More next time- hopefully finished work!

Holiday art commissions! (part 1)

So, I told ya last time…

…that we’d see some holiday art commissions after my lengthy absence due to insane work obligations.

And here they are!

This one was for my friend Cheri to give to her partner Amber for Xmas. Amber is apparently rather fond of chocolate chip cookies,

I’m told.

I’ve painted a number of pieces for the two of them, including the following painting of  cherry pie I made for them last year sometime

(since her name is Cheri):

These are both about 4 x 4 on gallery profile canvas, so they’ve got designs painted on the sides, as well.

The cookies have chocolate chips on the sides and the pie has stemmed cherries lining the sides.

I painted the cookie painting so it feels like a set with the pie painting. Same color plate, about the same framing and that same shiny

feel to the highlights, etc. That and the designs along the side made them feel pretty good together, I think.

I added the milk more to balance the composition than anything else. Unless the cookies were piled high, they’d be pretty wide or long

for a square canvas, so the milk added some nice height to go along with a wider row of cookies.

That and, dernit, I’m really proud of the color of those cookies! I worked pretty hard on getting them just the right shade for chocolate

chip cookies. I remember saying the same thing about the crust on that pie…

I’ve seen so many of those really bad food paintings on, say, the side of a hot dog/ hamburger place where the meat or bun is just such a

weird inedible color that it makes me not want to eat there. Blecch.

So I think paintings of food should look, well, tasty. Dontcha think?

They’ve also bought a number of my ‘veggie’ paintings that weren’t commissions, too. I don’t think I have pictures of all of them, but check

out some of the veg’ paintings here:

http://eye-of-the-hurricane.com/art.htm

Just click on the thumbnail of the carrot.

Next time, a pet portrait commission!

Pigs, Cows and Roosters, oh my! (part 4)

Adding to the many pigs and roosters and cows…

Some color!

Happy pigs!

I added the colored hooves and I think they work well, if I do say so myself. I don’t normally make the pigs this ‘dynamic’

so I’m really happy with how well this worked out.

I like the tail and the way the nostrils look. Nice!

One more:

A little surprised ham, if you will…

I’m diggin’ the downcurved nose and the stretched-out body. It’s like he’s saying ‘Whaddya mean get into the truck with a hundred

other pigs? Where we going?’

And last but not least, a cow:

She’d make some wacky steaks, wouldn’t she? I bet the milk squirts out her nose when she laughs, for sure…

I like the longer legs and nose combo. That and the gray hooves and nose make her feel like a cow, instead of a pig.

Whatcha think- would you buy some potholders with these on them?

Chicago Art on Track 2009!

Hey gang, look who’s back in action!

Me!

Been busy as heck but now we’re ready for some more blogging action!

Check out what I been up to….

Yup, that’s us playing on a real-live train rolling around the elevated tracks on the CTA. I hadda strap myself

to the handrail so I wouldn’t fall every time the train jerked all weird.

It was part of Art on Track Chicago 2009 and since we’re all part of the Flat Iron Arts building

here in Chicago which had a train full or art- we got invited to play some tunes!

Here’s another pic:

As you can see here, I’m kind of hiding the drummer behind me (Jeff, with the moustache) who just has a snare and a woodblock.

It was a great time! People kept popping in and doing a cartoon style double take like what? There’s a whole band playing on the train?!?

Great time! Come check us out:

Black Bottle Junction