New Work / Cincinnati Magazine

I did this recently for an article in Cincinnati Magazine. It was about property values near bike trails. Homeowners near bike trails all across the country have complained that the trails would increase noise pollution and crime while decreasing property values. Turns out they were wrong...read the full article on cincinnatimagazine.com.

Happy Holidays from RAWTOASTDESIGN!

Things have been bustling around the factory here recently with several new illustration clients entrusting The Republic to add a little magic to their editorial spreads. Some new allies include; Time Out Chicago, Time Out NY Kids (4 illos due out in the Jan 09 issue), Cincinnati Magazine, Mainline Today, St. Louis Magazine, and 417 Magazine.

A couple album design projects are underway with two NY based bands - The Jon LaDeau Trio and The Foster McGinty Band. And as always The Quirkles are keepin' RTD plenty busy also. Two new products are in development/design stages and are slated for an early spring release date which can be read more about in this months newsletter over at http://www.quirkles.com/e-newsletter/000122008/index.htm.

In Spirit of the Holiday season we're offering up a couple print specials as well. All online print orders will receive a FREE 8"x10" print of their choice. Pretty simple...you place an order in the RTD $TORE and tell us in the Paypal comments section during checkout which print you would like us to include for FREE and we'll do just that.

We have also decided that in spirit of all the "Recession Specials" being plastered on store fronts throughout the city we would do our own Recession Web Special. We understand that times are less than great for a lot of our good friends out there right now and the last thing we want to see happen is your Christmas tree go neglected and sparse with gifts to your loved ones this year. If you've been wanting to get one of our art prints this year as a gift to a friend or even yourself and just haven't been able fit it in the ol' budget then this is definitely for you. No strings attached we'll send you a free signed 5"x7" print of your choice for bein' such a great friend to RTD. It's that simple for you...and our way of saying Merry Christmas as well. Shoot us an email at info@rawtoastdesign.com with your address and the title of the print you want and we'll ship one out to ya.

If you feel uncomfortable taking things from people for free then throw a couple bucks this way and then tell us what 5"x7" print you want. I've set up a donation link below. Any and all money contributed will be matched by RTD and then donated to planusa.org. They help kids, and we think that's great. They are a top rated organization within the charitywatch.org rankings and have met the standards of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. Donate through Paypal HERE.

Do act quickly though! All orders need to be in by midnight this Saturday (12/13/08) in order to get them to you before Christmas. Any orders received after that date may not ship until the 30th due to a scheduled sleigh ride for RTD over the holidays.

As always, thank you all for your support and constant encouragement! Stay safe, solid, pro pictures, and please keep stopping by and eyeballin' the work!

Best,

Jesse Kuhn

Emperor, Lover, Picture Maker
The Republic of Rawtoastdesign
www.rawtoastdesign.com
http://rawtoastdesign.blogspot.com

IF: Similar {3}

Cats all look the same too me... I'm sure they would say the same about us though too. This is a new illustration from my aluminum trash can series titled "Squatters". Prints available here.

IF: Similar {2}

I just finished this for 417 Magazine...The article is on a turkey processing plant that was recently closed down. I actually submitted it while it was still a work in progress last week for the IF: Balloons topic, but didn't get it in til late Thursday night. Anyways, I think it works for "Similar" as well so I'm posting the final version here for it too. Hope everyone is havin a great week!

Art prints available - link

Indypendent

This was an illustration done for the Indypendent that accompanied an article on tenant blacklisting. Apparently if you take your landlord to court for neglecting to maintain the property that you are renting you end up going on a list (even if you win the case and the judge rules in your favor) that makes it practically impossible to ever get a lease on another apartment/home again.

I also have a few friends who swear their keys run away from them after they set them down...so to all you key chasers out there I dedicate this one to you :) Prints available here.

IF: Similar

As always, I'm lookin forward to the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story this year and threw this together for fun/promo purposes last week. It seems to fit the bill for this weeks Illustration Friday topic as well. Prints available here.

IF: Balloon

This is actually a work in progress for an editorial piece I'm working on that's not due until next week so I thought I would post it here since it fit the Illustration Friday topic too. The article is on a turkey processing plant that was recently closed down. Feedback is welcomed!

*update*
Art prints are available now as well - All Turkeys Go To heaven

IF: Pretend

"Waiting For a Believer"

Prints available: STORE | ETSY

IF: Wise - Quirkles Science Experiments For Kids

Knowledge is power...these are a few of my Quirkle friends of whom I have the pleasure of illustrating on a regular basis. All 26 of them are very wise little scientists that help children each day all over the world learn about science. If you haven't heard of them check them out here: Quirkles science experiments for kids

Threadless Shirt

T shirt submission over at Threadless.com

Indypendent Book Review

This was an illustration for a book review of Derrick Jensen's "How Shall I Live My Life?: On Liberating The Earth From Civilization".

IndyKids - Story Of Stuff

This illustration for IndyKids 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.

IndyKids - Banned Book Week

This illustration was done for IndyKids and accompanied an article that discussed why books should or should not be banned in libraries.

Time Out Chicago

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. Read the full article over at timeout.com.

Happy Halloween!

Have a great weekend everyone!

IF: Repair {2}

Another one for this weeks Illustration Friday topic. This little robot pirate needs to have a few of the lights in his teeth repaired.
ET$Y

IF: Repair

PURCHA$E


Just finished this up for a mag a few days ago, seems to work for this weeks theme as well. Story was about a man's obsession with minivans. This one in particular was real lemon and he spent the majority of his days tinkering and repairing something that ultimately destroyed his relationship with his girlfriend. Hope everyone is havin a great weekend!

New limited edition prints available

Some new prints have been added to the $TORE at RAWTOASTDESIGN.COM
http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/store/index.htm

Edible Rawtoast

Couldn't resist on this rainy Saturday morning... M&M creator...http://www.mms.com/us/becomeanmm/

FFFFOUND!

Great image bookmarking site that has lots of beautiful illustration, design, and photography work featured on it.
http://ffffound.com/

Chronogram

These are some illos that I just finished up for Chronogram's November issue. They accompanied a great fiction piece by Mimi Lipson titled "The Minivan".

Indypendent

An illustration done for the Indypendent that accompanied an article on Thomas Frank's new best-seller, The Wrecking Crew.

Illustrophile*

The nice folks over at Illustrophile* featured me on their site today. Thanks guys!
http://www.illustrophile.com

Disappointing

The Graphic Artists Guild is an official disappointment, Brad Holland has posted his responses to their weak stance on the Orphan Works Act here.

Instead of standing up for the group that they so proudly claim to represent they've thrown in the towel and told all of their members just to accept their fate and get accustomed to having their worked ripped off...thanks GAG, real noble of ya.

IF: Strings

Illo I did awhile back titled "Fly Fishing"... seems to fit the bill for this weeks "strings" topic. Hopefully I'll have a chance to illustrate something new for this one too.

Prints available at my store and etsy.com

Rivet

Couple of recent illustrations done for Rivet Magazine. The first was for a light hearted and humorous article titled "Mr. Right" that pulled a little inspiration from the movie Say Anything. The second was a "Libra" themed illo for the horoscope page.

NO SPEC!!!

Really great article I came across on the net. I wish more illustrators and artists thought this way...LINK - the actual article is about six posts down...you'll need to scroll.

Pics from the show!

These are a few pictures from the show I was a part of a couple months ago. It took place in an old abandoned loft space that myself and a group of other artists reclaimed and used for the night. The entrance is about 3 feet tall which forces everyone to enter on their hands and knees...a unique and humbling experience. Many thanks to Karen and Jacob for hosting and organizing everything for the event!









Here's a really great slideshow that Karen put together from all the photos at the event too. Thanks Karen!

IF: Island

This is for the Illustration Friday "Island" topic. I actually used this for the "garden" topic a while back, but did a limited edition print series for it since then titled the GARDENER ON POTATO ISLAND. Here is the original message that accompanied the first one...
Funny how a word can transport you back in time when you really start thinking about it. My mom used to let me grow potato plants in jars on our window sills as a kid (bless her, cause they start to stink after awhile). They grow pretty quickly so I used to get really excited to look at them each day when I got home from school to see the progress. Then at night my mind would wander beyond the science of things and imagine the little people that showed up during the day to water the vines while I was away at school.

So this is the illustration I came up with after that thought...

Prints: signed and numbered (16x20 and 8x10) available through RAWTOASTDESIGN.



PURCHA$E

Indypendent

PURCHA$E


Illustration for a book review on "The Samaritan's Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor?"

IF: Memories

PURCHA$E


I think the trash can is an interesting concept for this topic. It probably temporarily holds more things that are linked to our own personal individual memories than any other device in the world. I also have many "memories" as a kid finding all kinds of magical things in and around alleys and trash cans, that with a sprinkle of imagination could be transformed and transport me to an entirely different world. It's a shame so many of us lose touch with this ability as we get older.

IndyKids

PURCHA$E


This illustration was done for an article in the upcoming issue of IndyKids. The article questioned why the newspapers continue to headline less important events when people are still dying everyday in a war that is now considered "yesterdays news".

IndyKids is a free newspaper and teaching tool that aims to inform children on current news and world events from a progressive perspective and to inspire a passion for social justice and learning.

IF: Routine

PURCHA$E


My submission for Illustration Friday's weekly topic - routine.

IF: Detached

PURCHA$E



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

Medium: pen & ink / digital color

IF: Sail

PURCHA$E


This weeks topic at Illustration Friday is "Sail". Had one of those warm and fuzzy illustration moments when you feel compelled to draw somethin' for mom. Thanks for lettin' me hang out in that old clawfoot tub and prune up for hours on end ma! Love ya!

Medium: pen & ink / digital color

New limited edition prints available

New limited edition signed and numbered prints have been added to the RAWTOASTDESIGN STORE! So head on over and decorate your walls with a little RAWTOAST!

IF: Poof!

Here's a little old circus magic that I did awhile back, I suppose the green smoke will suffice for a little abracadabra "poof" that this weeks Illustration Friday topic requests. Feels like I've been out of the loop at IF for awhile now, seems like the summers always have me runnin a bit short on time. Hope everyone else is havin a great one!

Medium: pen & ink / digital color