Words and Drawings by Phil McAndrew
Hello, friends!
First thing: I’ll have a piece in an upcoming show at Gallery Nucleus, Oootopia: An Artgebraic Tribute to Adventure Time. More info on the show and when it opens can be found over here! You can click on my piece up above to get a closer look.
Second thing: My friends Nathaniel MacDonald and Danny Djeljosevic recently interviewed me for their awesome podcast, Comics You Can Dance To. You can give it a listen over at Comics Bulletin!
Another peek at something that will be in my upcoming book. I’m really having a lot of fun working on this book, if you can’t tell.
I recently answered some interview questions for ReadersVoice.com. The interview is now online and you can read it right over here. I talk about books and some other stuff.
Reminder: I’ll be reading at this big huge event next week in San Diego, California. Please come! I’ll probably read a couple old comics and a few new ones.
You may remember a couple months ago when I posted my first cover illustration for Ramen Music, I mentioned I’d already agreed to do another one for them. Well here it is! Click on the image to see a slightly larger version. Or you can just take a peek at some close up details down below…
Oh, also! My awesome friend Maré Odomo recently interviewed me for this great new project he’s launching, PENCIL BAG. It’s a cartoonist interview site. I talk about the tools I use to make stuff, my studio set up, the food I eat and the music I listen to. Good stuff. Here’s a little self-portrait I drew to go with my interview…
And just for kicks, here’s a peek at what my current drawing space looks like…
Okay! That’s all for now!
Hello friends!
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Zack Soto for the amazing Study Group blog. It’s one of the larger interviews I’ve done. Here’s the little introduction that Zack wrote:
I’ve been following Phil McAndrew’s career with interest for several years. I think he was still in art school in New York when I found his drawings on LiveJournal. His funny, comfortable illustrations were consistently one of the highlights of my LJ feed then. He’s only gotten better, adding a proficiency with watercolors to his artistic arsenal and refining his “voice.” I caught up with Phil to talk about drawing, pizza, the short story, Mad Magazine, the life of the freelance artist, and his upcoming comics collection. -ZS
Oh! Also! That Dr. Seuss tribute show I contributed to is opening this weekend at Gallery Nucleus. I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it up to LA for the opening, but I wish I could. It’s going to be pretty awesome. You should go and take a bunch of pictures for me.
And just so this blog post isn’t totally without images, here’s a peek at something I’m working on. My first animated GIF ever, and it’s for an actual job!
Two things!
First thing: Broken City Lab recently interviewed me for their HI, 5 interview series. Check it out over here.
Second thing: I had the honor of being asked to act as the juror for an upcoming comic and storyboard art exhibition that will be happening at Foundry Art Centre in Saint Charles, MO later this year. So I get to decide what pieces make it into the show and which ones will be awarded prizes (money!). That’s pretty neat. I hope some of you will enter the show. Make it really hard for me to pick the winners. You’ve got until June 18th to get stuff in!
Back when the awesome people over at Kickstarter asked me to put together that director’s commentary for Are You Man Enough, they also had me do a little Q&A session. I chose to answer the questions with a video! My director’s commentary ended up being enough material for a pretty lengthy blog post so they didn’t run the video, but here it is now!
Speaking of kickstarter, as of the moment I am writing this there are only 60 hours left to help fund my first book! Every little bit helps!
I should also mention that there’s a really nice little review of my mini comic Pearly Whites (which will be included in my upcoming book) over on the Forbidden Planet blog. Here’s a nice little bit:
McAndrew’s line work is spare but expressive. This allows him to create lively, playful people that are rich with character without feeling overdrawn. Where I would normally complain about a lack of backgrounds, McAndrew skillfully pares down his staging to only the most important elements. A chair, a picture, and maybe a rug for the cat; his technique is economy-of-line at its best.
Continue reading the review here.
Working on illustrations and commissions. Fun times!
When my dear pals Vicki Nerino and Britt Wilson were here visiting last month we were all interviewed by Brendan Ninness for his awesome illustration blog, Accordion Face. Check it out! But be warned, some of the images he used with the interview are definitely not for kids or safe for work.
And hey, in case you were in a coma the last few weeks and just woke up: I’m doing weekly comics over here!
I’ll be in Toronto this weekend to exhibit at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! It’s my first time attending and I’m really excited (and I just love Toronto). I’ve been scrambling the past couple weeks to get a new mini comic done in time for the show and I’m happy to report that I printed them up this morning. Up above is another little peek at the new mini, which I’m calling FERAL PIZZA.
I recently answered some TCAF related questions for The National Post. You can read the whole thing here!
Blast from the past! The first promo postcard I ever sent out to art directors. I drew it when I was still a student.
Over the last couple years I’ve gotten a lot of email from art students. Some of them just ask for advice on breaking into the illustration business, some of them ask if they can interview me for artist research assignments they’re doing in class. I myself have only actually been done with school for a few years now. I’m not super famous and I haven’t published any big books or anything (yet), so I’m always surprised when students want to do presentations on my work or think I might know all the secrets to success in the illustration world. I’m still struggling.
On the other hand, I remember writing to a lot of illustrators who were just a few years older than me for advice (I still do that), and I definitely remember having to do research and interview projects on working artists. If you dig far enough into my email inbox, you’ll probably find an interview with Kazu Kibuishi, who was nice enough to answer a bunch of questions and send me some books and posters to show off in class back when I was still a student. Talking to people who have been at it for a couple years longer than myself has been enormously beneficial to my career. The internet makes it really easy to communicate with and learn from other illustrators and cartoonists. It’s something I’ll always be thankful for! So I’m always happy to talk to students or illustrators who are just starting out, even if I still feel like I’m only half a step ahead of them.
Anyways, I was recently interviewed by an illustration student at SCAD, Liz Hallock, for a class assignment. She gave me permission to share the interview here. I hope others will find it interesting or helpful!
There’s a nice big interview with me in the most recent episode of The People You Don’t Know podcast. It was a lot of fun to do! Thanks to Eugene Ahn for asking me to be on the show!