Josh Webb Illustration

President Barack Obama

2008-11-05T06:35:50Z

Indeed, we could.

Upgrades

2008-06-03T14:27:27Z

Just a quick note: if you feel so inclined, you can now add my site (or this blog) to your iPhone or iPod Touch's home screen, complete with custom icon. Enjoy!

Blogg'd

2008-05-12T14:03:50Z

It appears that I'm the topic of the day over at newmediabuzz.com. Michael Leis, author of said blog, VP at Emerge Digital, and all-around man's man had this to say about Emerge Digital's latest acquisition (me):

A recent BFA graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, his portfolio and flickr collection are anything but collegiate. As our Creative Director Adam Stipanuk says, "His fantastic illustration and animation skills are what first caught my attention. His seemingly natural eye for design and attention to detail will make him very successful in the graphic and Web design community."

Go read the rest of the article.

Gallery Night

2008-05-04T21:09:30Z

I'm a little late in posting this (as I've been both ill and swamped with work), but I wanted to make a mention of the fine work I saw a few weeks ago in Milwaukee at MIAD's Senior Thesis Show. I was especially impressed with my former compatriot David Schuttenhelm's work from the Animation department: Sophie vs the Frog. Unfortunately it looks like the work of Jonathan Ralph (another compatriot and former co-worker) is unavailable, but I assure you it was great. I'm sure I'll wade through all of the promotional postcards and business cards and post some more links here in the near future, but for now go and watch David's piece.

Piracy Update

2008-04-20T07:17:00Z

A quick update to the unfolding discussion about the stolen illustrations: Luc Latulippe has posted an excellent recap of whats going on and why its wrong--and if you scroll down a bit past the ignorant comments early on, there is some really great discussion going on. Here is a gallery of photos of the book in question. If you're interested, my spread can be found here.

Say, man! Someone stole your illustrations!

2008-04-17T19:26:00Z

I have just been notified by illustrator and keeper of The Little Chimp Society, Darren Di Lieto that my work (along with a great many others) has been published in a book without our knowledge or consent. Quoth Darren:

Personally this has hurt me as I've spent the last three years building the archive of Artist interviews on the LCS. But what has really made me angry is that all that work included in the book has been stolen from the illustrators involved with some of them even being credited for work that is not their own. I am sure some of them won't care much, but others will and will want retribution. Someone has made a lot of money from this book and it wasn't me or the unknowing contributors. So please do not buy it!

Obviously this kind of "theft" won't make it into mainstream news. Heck, it seemed like some of the comments welcomed the publicity. The fact remains, however, that the publishers of this book violated the copyright on hundreds of images and opened the door for additional violation or theft. Its just wrong.

Visit Darren's blog and join in on the discussion.

Cycloptopus

2008-02-26T15:17:58Z

Just a quite note to, well, note that I've added another iPhone/iPod Touch wallpaper. I'm planning on doing a little "History of the Cycloptopus" post and go through some of the old sketches.

As a teaser of sorts, I've made a matching desktop wallpaper. Click the image above to view it full-size. Enjoy.

Dugg!

2008-02-23T17:02:52Z

So roughly 45 days ago, unbeknownst to me, my "How to hack a DIEBOLD Voting Machine" poster showed up on Digg and Reddit (at one point being #4 there.) I caught it a couple days after it happened, as my gmail inbox (which is associated to my flickr account) was flooded with messages. Since then the flickr page for said poster has seen just about 105,000 individual views. To put that into perspective for you, thats nearly 5,000 more than the entire population of Tonga!

But enough about my (extremely) minor internet stardom last month. I've just uploaded some new iPhone/iPod Touch wallpaper(s) for your perusal. If there's anything you'd like to see wallpaperized, leave a comment.

MIAD gallery and further updates

2008-02-23T16:37:48Z

Just a quick note to mention that I've spruced up the Very Short Stories page on the site, added some additional information and generally made things nicer. So go submit a story already! In gathering some links for the website, I came across the student galleries at MIAD where it looks like they took down a bunch of my older, outdated work and put up a some of my newer stuff. There isn't anything there that isn't already here, but its still nice to know they keep things up to date. P.S. Extra-perceptive blogaroos will take note at an altered color-scheme on the site. Red!

Site Maintenance Complete!

2008-02-22T17:07:31Z

Wow. I guess I wasn't kidding when I said the site would be down for a bit. (Technically it wasn't down, but it wasn't being updated either.) Well, for what its worth, I'm back and this battle-station is fully operational. The site has seen a complete overhaul, a great deal of tidying up, and the addition of a TON of new content. Be sure to check out the portfolio as well as the Very Short Stories pages. Speaking of Very Short Stories, I'm now accepting submissions for six word stories! Head over to the Very Short Stories page for details. In the coming days, weeks, months, etc. I'll be continuing to add content to the site and keep up with this blog. For the moment, however, I need some sleep. Until next time, intrepid blogonauts! (P.S. You'll notice all of the old blog posts have been moved over to the new system and been filed under the "vintage" label. Feel free to browse.)

Site Maintenance Underway!

2007-06-15T05:01:00Z

The site is going to be down for a bit while I update some things. Some links may not (and probably won't) work, but should be at the very least be in working order later today. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Tinkering

2007-05-09T16:17:20Z

Just a quick little message regarding the site. Being officially finished with school has afforded me some time to work on the site. If you've been to the site in the last 24-48 hours you have probably seen it in various levels of functionality. So if you happened upon the site in a state of disarray, I apologize. In the next few days parts may be taken down for tinkering, but I hope to have everything running smoothly and looking its very best by the weekend. With this update I'll be adding some new work, content, and the highly anticipated (by me, anyway) "Very Short Story" project. I've tried to remember how many forms this website has taken and to be honest I can't remember all of them. Perhaps one day I'll dig through my files and see how much of the old Joshimation and Josh Webb Illustration stuff I have backed up and share the less embarrassing parts.

While I work on this, I hereby invite you to take a look at my Flickr page where I've just put up some photos of the big Starlight Theatre banners (which now can be seen on Mulford Road in Rockford.) The photos were taken just at the end of sunset, so the lighting situation isn't ideal. I'll be taking some better pictures in the near future. I'll keep you posted when all the changes have been made and the new content is up. Until next time. Oh, and the blog should be loading a lot faster now. I did a little database housecleaning earlier today and it seems to have worked wonders.

Astrochimp Go!

2007-05-03T16:30:51Z

Today is my last day at MIAD. Its strange, I can still remember as a child thinking about what it would be like to graduate from college and its nothing like I imagined. Nevertheless, my graduation can only mean one thing: more time to work on the site! Its been a week or so since I posted last, and this post isn't going to be anything too heady, but I wanted to take a moment and put up my last academic assignment. I should have the Six Word Story section up by the end of the week and an updated portfolio to reflect a couple more things I've done since my last post. Until then, click through the image to learn more about it.

Success!

2007-04-27T12:39:16Z

Friday night's (official) opening was a huge success. There was a ridiculous number of people and the response to my work was really positive. If you haven't had a chance to see the work yet, you still have until May 12. If you can't make it to Milwaukee, I have some new photos of the show posted on Flickr.

There has been some questions regarding the sale of "Very Short Stories" in book form. Due to the nature of the project (namely I didn't write the stories) I cannot sell the book. I am, however, offering the book in PDF form on Lulu.com. Feel free to go download a copy for yourself.

In other news, I've making some changes to the site. The portfolio has been reworked to allow for easier browsing. I've also added a 6 word story section which is just the beginning of (hopefully) a larger project. There's still some work to be done and I'm still finishing up the last few weeks of school, but things should be up and running relatively soon.

The Story of "Very Short Stories"

2007-04-20T20:09:59Z

I've been talking a lot about this senior thesis project without really explaining what it is I was doing. As its now officially the 20th, the day of the big opening where my work will officially be open to the public (although it has technically been on display for about a week as its in the main foyer of the school) and as all of the work is up on the site, I think its rather appropriate to go into some detail for those who may be curious.

Back in November I was reading an issue of Wired magazine and in it was a feature that caught my attention. Sometime in the 1920's Ernest Hemingway made a wager of $10 that he could write a story in only six words. He wrote, "For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn." (winning the bet.) Wired magazine had asked 33 writers "sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves." The stories, as you may already know, were just fantastic and the fact that they were told in only six words just made the whole project all the more interesting. In the magazine they were arranged and presented by five different designers, each taking their own liberties with the presentation of the text. While I enjoyed the design work, I was disappointed that the stories didn't get the individual attention I thought they deserved. Right away I thought it would have been really interesting if the stories would have been illustrated in some way, this snowballed into the idea that a little illustrated story book would be a lot of fun to make and to read.

The idea of challenging myself in this way was really appealing. I received this great little storyboard notebook for Christmas and I decided to pick some of my favorite stories from the feature and fill my little sketchbook with ideas for images. It was my intent to illustrate as many of the stories as I possibly could in time for the senior exhibition.

For some stories the pictures came really easily, others were a challenge and required pages and pages of sketches to arrive at a place I was happy with. I found a printer for the book that was inexpensive and allowed me to print a small number of the finished books for the show and myself. Which, I might add, turned out really well.

So far the project has been really well received. I even mediated a minor dispute between a rather inebriated couple over what the project was about. If you've scrounged around the blog you may have noticed that one of the authors, James Patrick Kelly, found "his" illustration and commented on it. One professor here has even expressed an interest in turning it into an assignment for future students. The most gratifying response, however, has been observing people walk up to the work with a very serious look on their face and watching their faces slowly crack a smile as they "get it." For some it takes longer than others, but almost inevitably it happens.

The work is currently on display in the main foyer of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and on joshwebbillustration.com. As of this writing, the opening/reception for the 2007 MIAD Senior Exhibition show is tonight, from 5PM - 9PM. If you're in the area, stop by and say hello.