Surviving the Recession

With tough times facing all of us, The Stranger offers its Economic Survival Guide 2010...suggesting, among other things, becoming a stripper, and saving cash by staying home and having sex!

Not-So-Mello Yello

Experiments in obnoxious color:

Adrift

The plight of American theater, from The Stranger:

Dr. Sketchy's - Escape from Arkham

Last night I went to the latest chapter of Richmond's Dr. Sketchy group at the Camel. Entitled "Escape from Arkham", it featured the lovely Deanna Danger and Hellcat Holly dressed as Harley Quinn and Catwoman, respectively.

I arrived about an hour into the program, and as a result, missed a chance to draw the ladies in full super-villian garb. However, as a glance at the sketches will illustrate, you shouldn't feel too sorry for me. Another effect of showing up late was that I had no chance to do any quick warm-up sketches, and my drawing chops were pretty ice-cold for the first half-hour or so.

Still, I managed to warm up and make some fun drawings, a few of which are shown here. Most (if not all) of these were 10-minute poses, and some of them were contests...in particular, the last one, where the challenge was to incorporate Batman in some way!

Anyway, it was a blast, as always...maybe not quite as educational/practical as traditional life-drawing with a nude model, but fun enough to more than make up for it...plus, there's beer! I'll definitely be back next month.

It's the Ink Panthers Show!

In my rush to complete all my illustration gigs in advance of my weekend in Pittsburgh, I neglected to post a link to Mike Dawson and Alex Robinson's hilarious Ink Panthers Podcast, where I was a guest last week! The official description:

Wrapping up our Olympic coverage, and coming to the conclusion that we should really be a sports show rather than a comedy one. We’re joined in the Lair by cartoonist and illustrator Robert Ullman, who schools us on Hockey, Curling, Jarts, and Fantasy Football Leagues. Comments Welcome!

Have a listen!

Baby Blues

Spent a fantastic weekend in Pittsburgh with a bunch of my pals, mainly to take in the Penguins game against the Stars Saturday afternoon. As great a guys' weekend as you could ask for. The Pens rallied from a two-goal deficit to score five straight goals and win 6-3, all the while wearing their classy blue throwback sweaters. Rumor has it the Pens will be ditching these togs next season for a new third jersey design...and the 30% off they're offering on much of the blue merchandise around Mellon Arena seems to bear out this plan. Kind of a shame, 'cause these are so nice!

Healitol

Free Freedom Candy

UPDATE: It turns out I have more of these than I thought I would...so I have more to give away! Instead of 10, it's about 35, so just follow the same instrux below!

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In honor of the USA's stirring victory over Canada and that damn crybaby Sid Crosby Sunday night, I've had a few li'l stickers made up of the girl in the Team USA sweater that I posted on the Games' first day. Because selling them would be a copyright can of worms I have no intention of opening, I have no choice but to give them away...which I will, to the first ten people who post an insightful, informative or otherwise witty comment below (basically, something more than "nice!")! So get crackin'...and should you decide on your own to buy something, I certainly won't stand in your way...it is a free country, after all!

Boardin'

One of the jobs I've been doing a good amount of in the last couple years is storyboarding. It's an odd task...the requirements vary drastically from client to client. For some, a pencil sketch composed of barely more than stick figures will suffice...others ask for nothing less than what looks like a completed comic page. At any rate, copyright and confidentiality issues, non-disclosure agreements and the like mean that very little of such work ever appears here on the blog...but here are a few panels from a job that never went through last summer, which I'm pretty sure I can share since I never got paid for 'em!

New Stickers!

Back last summer, I did an illo for my pal's Troy's band, The Malamondos, to be used on a poster. His art direction was simple: "Two girls having a pillowfight. Hips and tits." Kind of in my wheelhouse, no? I was pretty happy with how it came out, and I immediately thought it'd look great as a sticker. I finally went through with the idea, and the shipment arrived when I was on vacation last week...and here they are!

As for the smaller square design...if you've ever ordered anything from the site, you no doubt received a sticker with your order. This is my new "giveaway" model.

SO! If you'd like to get your hands on the PillowFight sticker, kindly use the PayPal button at the bottom of this post. If you'd like one of the square Atom-Bomb stickers, order anything at all, whether from the blog, my original art store or my webshop...and I'll be sure to drop a couple in the envelope!

Thanks!

The Teeming Types of Twitterers

From this month's issue of Richmond Magazine...a look at some of the many different types of Twitterers (in this case, the reporter, the comedian, the investigator, and the populist)!

Go Team USA!

The Winter Olympics begin tonight! I'm gonna be glued to the set for the next two weeks. As usual, I'll be following the hockey tournaments closest of all, but I definitely plan to take in a good deal of curling as well. Hell, I dig almost all the sports in the winter games.

This is the sweater the USA hockey teams will be sporting in Vancouver, this one specifically by the Penguins' Brooks "Free Candy" Orpik. While it's not my favorite design of all those in the tournament, it's a big improvement over what they've worn in recent years. I'm especially not a fan of that squarish collar...leave it to Nike to screw up a hockey jersey with extraneous bullshit details!

Train Stop

Weekly Sketch 1/27

Cougar Time!

I did this one for the Las Vegas Weekly last week...when they pitched me the idea, I knew it was right up my alley. It's about a "Cougar Convention" held over the weekend at the Tropicana in Vegas. Although it's bordering on obnoxious overexposure, I still find the term "cougar" hilarious...but I wonder if there should be a term for older men who are into women in their late teens and early 20s. Oh, I forgot, there is a term for them: Men.

Do Not Rescuisitate

A couple years back, in a move much-ballyhooed and made a big deal of by me, The Washington City Paper stopped using my illustrations with the Savage Love column. Though it was a blow to lose them (and their budget) as a weekly client, I continued to provide Savage Love illos (albeit not in color) to a couple other papers, Detroit's Metro Times and Philadelphia Weekly...that is, until last Monday, when I was notified by PW that their budgets had been cut, and that there was no cash left for my weekly spots. So,down to only one venue for my work, I know that this is the time to bow out for good.

I've been doing the spots for one paper or another for over ten years, and to be honest, I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself next Monday when it's time to send the art along and there's no one to send it to! Still, I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity...drawing the column every week for a decade was an invaluable experience, enabling me to hone and fine-tune my style, as well as challenging me to produce top-notch, funny work every week under a rigid deadline.

Thanks to Pete Humes for the initially hiring me to draw the spots for Punchline, and to Jandos, Pete M., Sean, Hawes and Tim for picking me up along the way! Here are a bunch of recent illos...thanks for the memories!

Duo Damsel

Continuing my Legion of Super-Heroes theme started last fall...here's Duo Damsel! Her power is to split into two identical bodies...it used to be three, when she used the name Triplicate Girl, but then one of her selves was killed by an evil computer. Oh, and she's married to this guy. Their story could be an early-2000s CBS sitcom.

Pens vs. Caps TONIGHT!

The Washington Capitals play the Penguins in Pittsburgh tonight, the two teams' first meeting since last May, when the Pens spanked the Caps 6-2 in Game 7 of their playoff series. I think the Pittsburgh is gonna pick up where they left off, and that Pens' center Evgeni Malkin is going to have a huge game...and she agrees with me!

Columbus Crew

A rare championship team from my home state of Ohio! And my first rendering of a soccer jersey!

Philly Flyers Winter Classic

(bites tongue)

Plastic

Could new taxes places on cosmetic surgery procedures force rich, aging housewives to seek out the black market for eyebrow lifts? Here's hoping they "forget" to sterilize their tools. From the Las Vegas Weekly.

Devils Girl

This one's for B.C.

Tampa Bay Rays Alternate

Illustrations with Benefits

Here's a nice little set of illos I did for Remodeling Magazine awhile back, on the important if not enthralling subject of employee benefits. I really like how they turned out!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

This illo is from a recent Virginia Living, the story of Bongo, an African hippo who lived at the National Zoo in Washington until his death at age 49 in 1959. His body was donated to science, and that's how the preposterous collection of items in the animal's stomach came to be discovered: hardware, including nuts, bolts, screws, wire and valve caps; ammo, such as shell casings and a 25-caliber bullet; and a pocketbook’s worth of everyday items, a billfold, a tube of lipstick, keys, streetcar tokens and $2.50 in coins. All thrown into Bongo's open mouth by cruel, careless zoo patrons. Oh, the humanity.

Commissions

I'm now taking orders for the custom sports pin-up commissions...and here's some handy-dandy info to get you on your way!

My standard rate for doing the single-figure sports commissions is $250...for that price you'll get both the original hand drawn art (size 11" x 13" or thereabouts) , plus a couple fancy color prints of the image with all the logos, uniform details, etc. in there. That may sound kinda steep, but keep in mind that it's a totally one of a kind item, and that you can be specific with details such as likeness, number for the jersey, and other fun stuff like that.

As far as how she'll look... It in no way has to be based on a real person...but if it is, few photos would help, as well as a few words of description, just so's I get everything right. As a cursory glance around my site will tell you, I'm not exactly a portrait painter, so what I go for with the drawings is a "cartoon" version of the girl...trust me, you'll dig it!

I'll do a quick sketch and send it to you, just to make sure you're okay with the pose and all that, and then get working on the final. I usually ask for about four to six weeks to complete a commission, but if I'm a little swamped, it might take as long as eight or ten. Still, if you're working toward a specific date, I'm sure I can work something out so that it gets to you on time!

So, that's my schpiel. If you are interested, or if you have any additional questions, please contact me via my email address, rob at robullman dot com, and we can discuss schedules and such! I truly look forward to working with you!

Thanks!
Rob

Winter Classic, Beantown-Style

Wow, is it New Year's Day already? Time for another NHL Winter Classic!

This year it's Flyers vs. Bruins, who'll play outdoors today in Boston's Fenway Park. It's a pretty awesome event, and must-watch viewing for a lazy January first. I would've loved to have done an illo for each team, but time just didn't allow it...so I had to settle for the home team, who I'll be rooting for...'cause let's face it, the Flyers are scum!

Happy 2010!