Best Of The Best Of

So, I drew the front cover and internal section break covers for Cleveland Scene Magazine's BEST OF CLEVELAND issue. It came out about a month ago, October 8th, I think. The theme as "Cleveland Confidential", using the point of view of an anonymous old timey photographer. I had a lot of fun doing this work, and I think people really liked it. These images are slightly cleaner, remixed versions of the print images. I took about an extra hour with each, except the cover piece.

The Cover: The art director gave me a really solid rough of what he wanted. All I had to do was hammer it down an make it bang. Over at the Scene's website there's this awesome thing that allows you to page through the whole Best Of Section. Do yourself a favor and take a glance, at least. Firstly, from a design standpoint you can see the text elements of the print version of this cover, which are really well done. Also, you get to read the issue, find out what's "best". I love that thing.



Best of Arts & Entertainment: This is kind of clearly the Beachland Tavern, and the band is just some fictional band I guess I wish existed. I have really grown to love drawing crowd shots every now and then. There's something fun about the aspect of hiding people I know in the mix.



Best of Bars & Clubs: This is kind of Lava Lounge, but not really. It's a local I've used in the past, for the Rafeeq piece in Heart's Blood, and the bar from my story in Shiner #1, "On Down The Timeline". I drew the abstract art that's hanging on all the walls of the interior shots in these drawings on the actual illustrations. I kinda like them. I dunno, it's just splatter and white out. Not complicated, but yeah... abstracted.



Best of People & Places: I actually went out on the Hope Memorial Bridge to shoot references for this, but none of them really came out too great. i totally had to fake the perspective and the sculpture of the angel guy holding the covered wagon. Luckily it's close enough that nobody will ever look at this and know I did that. Anyway, I love that bridge. The idea of focusing on "places", and using a place so uniquely Cleveland... I'm real happy about how this one came out.



Best of Shops & Wares: This is maybe the one I cringe at the most of any of these. I like this version of it, but the print version wasn't my finest hour. I drew all seven of these over the course of a three day marathon in which I slept for ...maybe 3 hours. Cumulative. So, I was totally bonkers exhausted and strung really far out on coffee, by the pot, by the time I was coloring. Anyway, this is pretty much the corner of W. 65th and Detroit. There's a great shop called Room Service right on the South West corner. South East corner is a killer coffee spot, Gypsy.



Best of Food & Drink: This is obviously MELT Bar & Grilled. Seriously, my favorite restaurant that has ever existed. The bottle is a TALL IVAN, a fictional beer I made up for the CLEVELYN stories I've been doing in Shiner. Tall Ivan is a reference to Ivan Brandon, who is the tallest Cuban that has ever lived.



and finally, Best of Sports & Recreation: I had a shit ton of reference to draw a football scene with some bro-dawgs tackling each other and out heroic photographer about to get clobbered in a huge stadium full of people. Then I realized... this was my chance to get some BMX, alive and well, in the Scene Magazine. What the fuck, football? So this was drawn on the fly completely from memory and wonky perspectives. As a former BMX rider, I used to take my bike apart, clean it obsessively, and put in back together almost every night. I loved that shit, and I still harbor deep affection for some bicycle love. I can draw every part of the bike I had when I broke my back in '95. The last part I actually still have is the sprocket. A purple anodized 44 tooth Profile.

So, there ya have it. Sorry it's a month late. All I do is draw and then run around trying to get money for the shit I draw. And watch bands. Blogging has taken a deep backseat. BUT: I give you Andy MacDonald's Sketch Blog: Whiskey Mech.