Wish I dunnit

Here is my new favorite ad that I wish I’d done.

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And here’s the original photograph the ad is based on.

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Better Than One

So, as you might’ve guessed, I’ve really been into these Two Heads illustrations. I just finished two more for the holidays featuring the theme “Christmas meets Hanukkah” which you can see below. [Click on an image to enlarge it.]



Since my blog is not the best way to showcase these illustrations, my lovely wife programmed a website for me called Better Than One featuring all the illustrations I’ve done to date.

And, just in time for the gift-giving season, I took some of the more popular illustrations and turned them into mugs which I’m selling on, you guessed it, Store of David. [Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the mugs.]

What do you get when you squeeze a synagogue?

JEWWWSSS!



After a 20 year hiatus, I finally stepped foot into a temple for Friday night services. Helen wanted to check out the worship side of Judaism and, after a lot of sighing on my part, I gave in. We’re not big on organized worship, but it was an opportunity for her to find out what Judaism’s all about and possibly connect with the surprisingly-large Jewish community in Durham.

In the tradition of Lenny, the first Jew we encountered told us ALL about the temple, the history of Durham tribesfolk and every “famous” Jew ever to live in North Carolina. Then he called us “young people,” which sounded good to me.

The service: It went down as most Friday night services do: Some bits from Gates of Prayer, some standing, some sitting, some more standing, Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew, etc. They had the phonetic spellings so Helen could sorta follow along. Most of the tunes came back to me, but they had some new remixes I wasn’t familiar with. All in all, it felt like Temple Sinai circa 1980, but without my dad having to separate me and Steven because we were laughing every time we heard the word "Toosh b'chata." (Heh heh...Toosh)

Then they read the torah, which Sinai never did/does on a Friday night. What was cool about the reading was that the rabbi translated as he went along, then put things into context. It was more of a story that way and, I gotta say, it was pretty cool. I did not know Abraham had a second wife. Did'jew?

They also did a thing where they asked the congregation if there were any new folks there that night. Kind of a New Jew Review (Anyone get that reference? Anyone?). New Jews would stand up, introduce themselves and give a bit of background. I went first. I thought when I said my name was Keith Greenstein, half the congregation would shout back, “Oh, Lenny’s son!” But no luck. It was the only room I’ve ever been in where Jews didn’t know Lenny. Spooky.

The oneg (the bit in the social hall after the service: brownies, cheese, Coke products) was nice. A lot of people introduced themselves to us and were very friendly. When they asked what we did for a living, I got an unimpressed, “Oh…” Helen, on the other hand, was deliriously happy with LARGE number of “Ooooo!” reactions she got. I was in Bizarro World. I was like, “Did I mention my father is LENNY GREENSTEIN?!” Nothing. Who WERE these people?

ANYway, it was a lovely evening. Helen felt as anyone encountering temple for the first time would: A bit out of place. But, overall, she liked it. They could use a cantor that can sing IN key and maybe a bit more liveliness in the singing (name a temple that COULDN’T use that), but it was a good experience. We may even go back.

Good vs Evel

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My apologies for the horrible pun. Actually, the reason I paired them was because their costumes go together so well.

I've decided that when I reach 12 illustrations, this first series will be complete. Look for 11 and 12 this holiday season.

Echo?

My poor, sad blog. It hasn't been visited in days and days. Maybe the last 9 days, each one with a new illustration posted, just weren't worthy of comments. Maybe people would rather enter Bill's awesome photo caption contest. Maybe people actually have work to do (almost got through that last sentence with a straight face). Anyway, I don't know why I'm posting this because no one will visit my blog to read it. Sigh.

I'm so sad, I didn't even go back to correct all my apostrophes. (This is an apostrophe: ’. This is a foot mark: '.)

Caesar vs Brutus

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Brother vs Sister

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Politically what-now?

Me vs Beaker

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This is based on my nickname in high school (pre-beard) that started the trend of people comparing me to muppets. I've yet to be compared to a real person.

Ike & Tina

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I knew drawing Tina Fey would be difficult but I had no idea Eisenhower would be so rough. Could be that their faces are so simple. Could also be that I drew these using only the trackpad. At least I'm learning what NOT to do.

Ed Norton vs Ed Norton

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Alright, so some will be harder to get than others, but I like this one so stick it.

Yeti vs Bigfoot

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Stewart vs Colbert

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Here’s the latest in the series.

Heard a great suggestion today: Starbuck vs Starbuck (the one from the original Battlestar Gallactica series and the one from the new series). I’ll get to it eventually but, for now, I’d like to do some that are not in the sci-fi genre as I’ve already done that twice.

Helen thinks I should sell these as prints or cards. Bill thinks t-shirts would be cool. Got any ideas for what I could do with these things?

While you’re thinking of that, keep the subject matter suggestions coming. Wee!

Spock vs Evil Spock

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VS

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Work has only been slow for a couple of days but I can’t shake the itch to do something creative with my time. So, of all things, I started illustrating. I discovered that my style is - and this should shock the crap out of you - very symmetrical and clean. No, really, it is.

Playing into that, I created this conjoined twin monster thing whose heads represent great rivalries. Well, maybe Sark vs Tron isn’t exactly a great rivalry, but I didn’t want to do something expected.

I want to do a series of these, so if you have any ideas of unusual rivalries, lemme know. I think the next one will be Spock vs Evil Spock or possibly Zorro vs Zorro The Gay Blade. Did I mention that they don’t HAVE to be rivalries? The heads can also represent two sides of something.

Anyway, gimme some cool ideas, why don’t you? THANKS!

Pass or fail?

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Say, whatchoothink of these ads? Dave and I created them back when we worked on the account and I’ve been debating whether or not to include them in my portfolio. On a scale of 1(Likey) to 5(Pukey), where do you think they fall?