For this month’s 5 Questions, 1 Drawing on Brooklyn Based I got to interview/draw illustrator extraordinaire Sophie Blackall.

You might know Sophie from any of the many books she’s illustrated, her blog/book of Craigslist Missed Connections painted, or just maybe from the fantastic bit of MTA subway art she’s had up in subway trains for the past year or so:

Her poster is SO GOOD people have literally tried to steal it.

See more of everything else Sophie Blackall does on her site.

All over Park Slope it’s looking like this right now.

I’ve been painting a lot of snakes recently. It seemed like the right thing to paint.

This month’s Five Questions, One Drawing for Brooklyn Based is of Brooklyn Net Tornike “Toko” Shenegelia. See the full interview here.

Of course, I do equally enjoy all of these I’ve done now, whether it is John Hodgman, Emma Straub, or the couple who run Mile End, but it was extra cool getting to go the Barclays Center to interview Toko.

How cool was it?

Well let’s begin with the press pass. (Yes, it was for an older game, but it was just to get me into the practice.)

The whole thing was kind of like being a pretend sports reporter. I got to wait in their reporter room before going in. Looks crazy right?? (Out of frame: a few reporters playing YouTube videos of an Israeli Rap group and laughing.)

And then I got to wait outside of the practice court. (This was back during the NHL lockout so I got to hear lot’s of gossip. Something about Kovalchuck, but I forget now.)

And then I got stand behind all the real reporters and watch some practice. (Free throws, still not a given if you’re in the NBA apparently…)

Besides talking with Toko, the other perks included seeing how monstrously tall Brook Lopez is in person. And then also pretending to dunk on a basketball hoop in the garage.

In short, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Knicks, Giants, Jets, Yankees, Mets, Cyclones, hit me up!

What is this book you ask? Well… Herman Q. Mildew– 826?s evil (fictional) editor who scares children into writing books during workshops– has been murdered! All of his authors are suspects who, for this anthology, write in their alibis. In our illustrated contribution, Casey and I claim we were out traveling while learning suspiciously murderous skills…

Yes… that is a gun to the head of a giraffee. I promise. Casey and I are NOT violent people. We would never murder that annoying (not to mention smelly) editor Herman Q. Mildew. Let alone hunt big game in Africa Teddy Roosevelt style.

Go buy the book soon at your local bookstore! Here it is on Indiebound.

See these at Colson Patissiere in the next week or so. (At a convenient 2″ x 3.5″ size.)

I heartily encourage you to try and have every one of these coffees in a sitting. Run the cycle!

Truly bruising puck-to-face hit on NY Ranger Marc Staal last night versus the Flyers. Hope he gets better.

Not to glamorize the more violent aspects of hockey or anything, but all the hits and contortions make for some great subject matter. And, all of this is even better when the Rangers also manage to win 4-2!

For a much more thurough update on all of this Staal/visor-related stuff Deadspin’s got you covered here.

(View this one at 1200px here.)

See get it?! That’s Eduard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère from 1882–or is it?

In one sense, this all sprung out of my love of sketching paintings I had to memorize as an art history student. All the original works (well except for the Duchamp) are brilliant paintings with colors and compositions I love to study and have already taught me a ton. Just repainting them for this series I saw new patterns of tone and line work that blew me away.

But on another level this is me grappling with the reality of having my work copy/pasted, reblogged, retweeted, etc, so easily via the web. I truly think I like it (and please if you’re reading this with a blog/tumblr/anything share away with a link back!) and recently having folks like Mashable and Serious Eats reblog my work has been a great boon for people seeing what I do. But there isn’t always something tangible that comes out of it for me as the creator, and I know it translates into ad dollars for the sites. So, I guess I just wanted to find some old images I love where the creators couldn’t mind if I ripped them off. Or maybe they would… but they’re dead. I’ll let you know if they start haunting me about copyrights.

Again, please do share these paintings around with the world and feel free to photoshop in your own baked goods. You can also buy the original watercolors for $80 a pop. Drop me a line if you’re interested. (By the way, that Manet is sold.)

The other fun aspect of this show is that it is part of a now continuing evolution of my work for the folks at Colson. I started out redrawing their mirror menu (which I then recopied into the Manet) and then did a big old mural for them at their Sunset Park location. You can see all that here. Through it all I’ve had a ton of AMAZING baked goods. If nothing else, go and try them some time.

Here’s the whole run of paintings. I’ve included links to the originals for your own art history lesson.

Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. (Plus a bunch of baguettes.) See it at 1200 px here. This one is sold.

Piero della Francesca’s Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino. (Plus a Duchess’ head made of almond croissant.)  See it at 1200 px here.

Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. (Plus a bunch of croissants.)

John Singer Sargent’s Portrait of Madam X. (Plus scones and almond pain du chocolat.)
This one is sold.

Pablo Picasso’s Three Women at the Spring. (Plus some bread and a french press.) This one is sold.

Jean Fouquet’s Madonna. (Plus a modestly placed rasin roll.)

Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait. (Plus Mr. Arnolfini in mid baguette chew.) This one is sold.

Hieronymus Bosch’s The Wayfarer. (Plus a waffles and some baguettes.)

Again, this was just too much fun to make. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like a piece.

The bulk of what they wanted was two different designs for t shirts that reflected how cool and old-timey the bar looks. These just came from the printers! They’ll be for sale shortly through the bar. (Definitely drop Dave and Tom a line if you’re interested in getting one from the first run.)

For one of the designs they wanted the bar on a typical looking SF block. (SF people–yes I know this is not the block on Shotwell st. where the bar actually lives. They kind of wanted a architectural pastiche of Mission styles.)

With the other one they wanted to just highlight the bar’s perfect Victorian looks:

They also wanted me to take that drawing and do a watercolor of it just for them.

By far the most fun thing I got to make for these guys was a surprise present for Dave, from Tom. Dave has now been surprised so I can now share this with the world. And yes, that’s the two owners looking pretty damn adorable behind their bar.

(And also yes, that is a certain Shitty Kitty trying to pour herself a draft. Such a rude cat.)

I had a great time teaching my weekend comics and illustration workshop over at 3rd Ward in Bushwick!

The next one I’ll be doing is the weekend of February 23-24. See the full class description here or hit me up with any questions.