JOE LACEY
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Joe Lacey

BLOG
/bläɡ/ noun – a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style. Yep, that's my blog!

Come and See the Show!

7/9/2019

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Joe Lacey illustrator with
Joe Lacey with "Brain Salad Surgery" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Joe Lacey illustrator at his college drafting table.Joe Lacey at his college drafting table.
Time to step back in time...

I was playing Brain Salad Surgery by ELP the other day. I thought it would be fun to take a selfie with the cover over half my face. I posted it to social media and of course received many accolades, primarily in the form of  "ELP ROCKS!". But, it was really a lot more to me than just a fun selfie.

The cover art* with its gatefold opening is very famous and I don't need to go into any great detail about the amazing artist H.R. Giger, best known for his concept designs for the original Alien movie, nor am I in anyway comparing myself to him. He was and always will be in a class all his own.
 
Four months before starting college as a freshman, I had undergone major facial reconstructive surgery. My jaw was broken, my chin pretty much removed and reshaped. To this day, I am quite conscious of this experience and have some regrets about it. It all came out well, but it was not without issues that persist to this day. I used to cover my face with my hand a lot when I was young. Here's a photo of me at my college drafting table. Ahh... the days of hand inking.
 
One of the first assignments for an Introductory Illustration class was to do a self portrait. It's a typical assignment, one I see a lot of. I think it may be a way for the teacher to get a fast glimpse into the mind of the student. I don't recall the exact details of the assignment, we may have had to incorporate some sort of personal element into the portrait. I went out and found an old lawn mower engine and lugged it back to my room. That's where most of the shapes in my self portrait came from. It's a small 8" x 10" acrylic painting. All monochrome. It was one of my first paintings and, despite its naïve approach, it has held up over time and I don't mind seeing it (unlike a lot of other earlier works of mine).

Brain Salad Surgery by ELP"Brain Salad Surgery"
Throughout college I continued exploring mechanical and cubistic interpretations of faces and things for my fine art painting classes. Some of them quite large and typically of friends and other art students. Today, it's pretty obvious why I did this. But at the time I didn't really give it any more thought than "this would be an interesting thing to draw". I always thought I would continue this type of art, but the next thing you know, I'm illustrating for kids! That's another story.
 
Most of these paintings and drawings are gone now, a few sold, a couple commissioned, and most given away (if anyone reading this has one of my paintings, send me a photo, I'd love to see it! — and no, I don't want it back.), but most of them were destroyed. A couple that survived are more commercial illustrations — a pencil drawing of "Madona and Lizards" and "Good News" (an acrylic painting of George Harrison). I would have benefited from doing more research into mechanical parts, looking at Giger paintings, etc. — but, I tend to put my reference away and make things my own for good or for bad.
 
So, here they are. A few very old paintings from college days. I'm considering doing a new updated version of this self portrait. My painting has gotten a lot better since college. Maybe even the George Harrison painting? Quite a few of the ideas I had in college were good, I just had trouble pulling them off. I've always said and firmly believe that it's the idea that matters, not how slick something is rendered. Time to get painting. Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends!

* The ELP cover art by H.R. Giger was stolen at an exhibit in 2005 and is still missing.

Self Portrait of illustrator Joe Lacey. Acrylic on bristol board. ©1986
Self Portrait of illustrator Joe Lacey. Acrylic on bristol board. ©1986
"Madonna and Lizards" by illustrator Joe Lacey. Pencil on bristol board. ©1987
"Good News" acrylic painting of George Harrison by illustrator Joe Lacey. ©1988
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Unfinished Work-Spy Guy

9/30/2018

 
Spy Guy painting for toy packaging / pulp magazine cover by illustrator Joe Lacey.
Like every artist and illustrator, I have a wealth of unfinished work and unfulfilled visions of characters and worlds that might have been. Beyond commercial jobs that get "killed" mid stream or never make it into production, there's all the personal work that has sat in folders and boxes for years. I look back on some of this stuff and wonder why I abandoned them. So, here's a short-lived vision that only made it to the rough concept stages - Spy Guy.

About eighteen years ago, I had planned to do five toy boxes and two scene illustrations for a character called Spy Guy, but they never got past the preliminary tonal studies. I was watching a lot of Gerry Anderson puppet TV shows at the time (Captain Scarlet and Stingray). I was also collecting quite a few vintage 1970s G.I. JOE Adventure Team toys by Hasbro. The cool ones with the fuzzy hair and Kung-Fu Grip™! I was also thinking of them as science fiction book covers. But in any case, they were always meant to be concept work and a chance to try something different.

I posed myself and my brother John with trench coats and toy water guns. I worked out quite a few concepts, but only have one sketch and two tonal studies left. I think I threw the ones I didn't like away. I need to stop doing that! So, I get the art to this point but wasn't getting a lot of positive feedback on the idea and most people were confused as to why I wanted to even do this style of art. I was also busy with paid commercial work and, well, life gets in the way and my focus moved to something else.

The Spy Guy series is one of these personal projects I regret never completing. The lesson I learned is, stick to your vision no matter what anyone else says. I don't know if I will ever revisit this concept again as I have more than enough OTHER unfinished paintings to finish! I'll try to get them done soon.
Evil Spy Toy Box acrylic tonal study. Spy Guy painting for toy packaging / pulp magazine cover by illustrator Joe Lacey.
Evil Spy Toy Box acrylic tonal study.
Pencil sketch. Spy Guy painting for toy packaging / pulp magazine cover by illustrator Joe Lacey.
Evil Spy Toy Box pencil sketch.
Spy Guy Science Fiction Book Cover. Acrylic tonal study on illustration board. Painting for toy packaging / pulp magazine cover by illustrator Joe Lacey.
Spy Guy Science Fiction Book Cover. Acrylic tonal study on illustration board.
Spy Guy Science Fiction Book Cover. Acrylic tonal study on illustration board. Painting for toy packaging / pulp magazine cover by illustrator Joe Lacey.

Basic Beatles

5/29/2018

 
Basic Beatles, computer generated artwork of John Lennon and Paul McCartney by illustrator Joe Lacey.
BASIC:  Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code created in 1964.
BEATLES: English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960.

“You are wasting your time, my time and the class's time. I want you out of this class.”
Joe Lacey Illustrator, High School graduation yearbook photograph.
And so, my career as a digital artist was over and it hadn’t even begun! Now I have to tell my mom I got kicked out of my high school computer class for drawing pictures of the Beatles using advanced BASIC computer code. She wasn’t too happy about this, but she stuck up for me and went to see the principal the next day. Funny, how when a parent visits your school, things change. Seems, a student who is averaging an “A” in computer programming can’t be kicked out for “wasting his time”. In the teacher’s infinite wisdom, he made it very clear to me that computers are very serious machines that will never be used on frivolous endeavors such as art. I got back in class the next day, did only what I was supposed to do and and never drew any more pictures in the computer until many years later.

Pictured here is a young and optimistic Joe Lacey serving his time in high school as his dreams and ambitions are repressed and conformed to adapt to society's standards of acceptability.

To be honest, I first designed them by hand using pencils and graph paper. After all, it was a covert operation! I printed out a list of every number, letter and symbol that could be generated using BASIC code. I broke them up into a series of details and grey scales. Then, I filled in the graph paper blocks to make portraits of John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the Beatles' White Album.

I’ve kept the original printouts all these years. I no longer have the graph paper designs. I had George ready to go and Ringo was in the works, but, sadly, they never came to be. I think I’ll get back to work now and waste more of my time making art in the computer.
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Basic Beatles, computer generated artwork of John Lennon and Paul McCartney by illustrator Joe Lacey.
Basic Beatles, computer generated artwork of John Lennon and Paul McCartney by illustrator Joe Lacey.
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    Joe Lacey illustrator

    Joe Lacey

    I produce illustrations and creative idea solutions for toys, packaging, publishing and advertising.


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